If you’re planning your vacation getaway, there’s an often-overlooked aspect of traveling that you’ll certainly want to take care of in advance of your departure.  Many travelers book their air transportation to an international destination, ensure their resort reservations are booked and prepaid, and even remember to open a holiday insurance policy, but forget to work out how they’re going to get from the airport to their eventual destination.

This frequently forgotten aspect of your holiday experience is called an “A2B transfer,” and may contain more than one mode of transportation between your airport or port of arrival (if you’re traveling via ocean liner) and your eventual in-country destination.  If you don’t plan this leg of your journey in advance of your arrival, you could be in for a nasty surprise when you arrive, exhausted from your international flight, only to find that making on-sight transportation arrangements is restrictive, exorbitant, inconvenient, and stressful.

There are companies whose specialty is providing A2B transfers in foreign airports.  Often international go-between travel agencies, such transfer specialists have the expertise to provide the best possible arrangements for the price you’re willing to pay, but it’s helpful to arm yourself with a set of questions to be answered before you book:

1. What is the mode of transportation to be used? This sounds like an obvious question, but there is a big difference in both price and satisfaction between a small limousine and a large tourist bus full of weary travelers.
2. How frequently do shuttles depart the airport? If you have to wait for an entire bus to fill up before departing for your resort, you might be spending a good portion of your hard-earned vacation time waiting for enough passengers to arrive to justify a trip.  If this is the transportation mode you can afford, understand that the lower price includes a time sacrifice.
3. How many stops between the airport and my resort? Depending on  the distance to your resort location, you may experience a number of stops along the way.  This can add hours to your journey if you’re not careful.
4. What are the return options from my resort to the airport? It’s critical to work out your return journey details before you depart.  That way, you’ll reduce your risk of missing your return flight.  Your A2B transfer may leave your resort early in the morning for an afternoon flight, so it’s best to understand the schedule well in advance of your resort departure day.
5. What are the competition’s prices? Any respectable A2B transfer specialist will have more than one transportation company on its books, so you should be able to comparison shop before purchasing an A2B transfer package.

In general, if you hope to pay less money, you can expect a larger crowd of passengers, longer wait times, more delivery stops, and a more tedious A2B transfer experience.  If you’d rather expedite your transfer, you can expect to pay a bit more money for a more exclusive mode of transportation.