STA Travel agents

I called into STA last year to price a ticket to Australia — I tend to do this in a wistful sort of fashion every six months or so (hi, Trailfinders), and normally shop online in the hopes of getting the staggering £199 one way to Sydney I got in a London bucket shop way back in 1999. And yes, I did spend that year partying like it was 1999, hence my long-​lasting love for the land down under. Strewth.
I waited a few minutes to be seen, but the shop was very busy and the assistant called me as soon as she could. She spent a good twenty minutes finding me a fare to Melbourne, and once I asked her to hold it for me until I was able to rob the fare, rang me back ten minutes later to say she’d just found a better deal with a free one night stopover in Singapore. Book it! I shouted in joy, I’ll drop off £100 deposit now and pay the rest off in instalments.
Turns out STA don’t work like that. I can hardly fault them for it though, given that most travel agents don’t work like that either. I was clearly spoilt as a teenager with my experiences with Skelton Travel in Lurgan, who also sold concert tickets and who would let us grubby teenagers come in once a week to pay another £2 off our Metallica tickets.
As a travel agent specialising in the further flung destinations STA is well thought of, and they have plenty of packages and tours you can book alongside your ticket. Saying that, I’m not sure they’re much better than booking online as I got the same fare some time later from an online company instead — although the notice in their window says they guarantee to beat any fare. But if you want to talk face to face with a knowledgeable sales assistant, and don’t mind not getting that £50 discount you might by booking online, STA could work well for you.

I went into this place, purely to have a nosey. The deals on the windows seem incredible and I really would like to take a round the world trip for next to nothing.
Sadly when I got in I realised it was far from the case. First off, I just wanted to have a word with someone and they all just kind of ignored me for the best part of eternity before some soppy early 20s (going 80s) man looked up and drolly asked ‘yeh?’. They were so unhelpful with what I was asking and kept insisting on other, more expensive trips as ‘something I’d rather do’. As if they know?! Anyway I left annoyed and still very much in Belfast.

At the start of this year, I spent an awesome few weeks visiting family in parts of Australia’s east coast. Brisbane was my base, but I saw a few other places and would happily recommend spending a couple of days in a cheap hotel in Sydney’s Chinatown district, near the incredible harbour, to anyone.
This kind of endeavour is a big deal. I spent a long time saving my hard earned pennies for it, and a long time shopping around to get the cheapest deals. I think I took up the time of most of Belfast’s travel agents.
I had heard very good things about STA, and indeed have read the other glowingly popular reviews. It was the opposite in my experience. Made to wait about twenty minutes to even speak to the sniffy, couldn’t-be-bothered lady at the counter, I was talked into staying a few times over by by Mrs M. I didn’t know for a fact that she was sniffy and couldn’t-be-bothered then, but I could see that was very little reason to keep me waiting for so long. Staring at the PC screen, immobile hand on the mouse.
I sat though a lot of boring questions, and was offered a deal that was about £300 more expensive than an outlet of a large chain of travel agents that I’d been to previously.
We said no thank you and left. The STA experience achieved nothing except wasting my time and putting me in a bad mood.

«Planning a trip? Pop in and see us! With nearly 30 years experience in the travel industry, our friendly branch staff have first hand knowledge of hundreds of far flung places across the globe. They’ll give you advice and inspiration, tell you about amazing sights off the beaten track, and show you the best ways to get around — without needing to pick up a guide book! «
This is what they say on the website and this is everyting that you need to know about this excellent, and incredibly well respected travel agents. This is the go-​to place for students to get info and book gap year holidays. My friends girlfriend recently went on a massive trip to South Asia — China, Vietnam and the like and she got all she needed from in here.
You will get a friendly, reliable and polite service in this place. It really is the tops, especially for students.

STA travel should be called STAr travel because the service it provides in invaluable to travelling young people.
The shop on Botanic is the friendliest around and as the other reviewers have said they really do go the extra mile. I was considering a bit of time out of the real world and popped in to STAr (im calling it that now) travel. They were really helpful and although I didn’t end up going away I was provided with all the information I would have needed.
I still have the brochures that they kindly gave to me and sometimes I have a flick through to dream of a year in the sun. So even if you haven’t made your mind up about a gap year or travelling the world at least pop in to see the guys in STAr travel, they will be only to happy to help.

This is the only branch of STA in Northern Ireland, and is cleverly located in Belfast in Botanic, closest to students who are likely to be the target market for this travel agent.
STA specialise in providing flights and trips to far out destinations like South America, Australia and Africa. They provide a wide range of options for those wanting to take a gap year, and will help you plan big trips like Inter-​railing!
The staff are what sets this place apart from most travel agents. The staffs are super friendly, very knowledgeable and go out of their way to give the best possible advice. I recently went in to consider options for next summer as I will have finished approximately 17 years of full time education dating back to primary school, and I feel I deserve a big trip to round it off!
Without being bombarded, I was brought to a wide range of options, ranging to going to Mexico, Bangkok and Austrailia. The STA agency operates worldwide so they have a huge range of contacts and trips that they will have something for everyone. All I need to do now is pick somewhere to go, which I am still in the middle of doing!

My friend was planning a gap year so we (I was the moral support) called in to STA on Botanic Avenue to see what the options were. He wanted to do a year in Germany and having previously taken a gap year on his own back, he wanted to see if STA offered him anything that he couldn’t get himself.
Turned out they offered more than he could ever dream of.
STA have an «experience» in which you pay your money and you are given the chance to travel to a variety of locations and do everything from look after lions to preserve the rainforest. The best one I seen was looking after turtles in Costa Rica where they also put some of your fee towards the turtle sanctuary as a donation.
He took home so much information because the lady working there was so incredibly polite and full of things he could do. I even started asking questions which in hindsight was not the reason why I was there but they even started selling it to me.
Although I didn’t buy anything myself, it is a fascinating place and offers a whole range of fascinating things for people to do. I will definitely come here in the future if I want an experience because you feel like you are in safe hands when you are here.
Excellent.

Located centrally on Botanic Avenue and also within Queen’s Student Union STA travel is a must visit location for anyone contemplating a gap year. This business has been established for more than 15 years and only seems to go from strength to strength. The team sit down with you and talk you through all the options for gap year students, they run up an itinerary and they are very reasonably priced. There are STA travel agents based in many countries so they are literally with you every step of the way. I booked my gap year through STA and had absolutely no problems or issues and, they were on hand when I wanted to change travel dates and flights whilst in faraway countries. Like all travel agents one may be able to beat their prices if one tries to concoct an itinerary online. Remember that these people are professionals and they will take the stress and worry out of booking and you know you can safely hand over your big wad of cash without worrying about the shops legitimacy.