the canDIshhh tales

Whenever I travel with a group, I make sure that everyone travels with convenience.  So I search and look for private car services that does pick up.  Mind you, I look for the most reasonably priced ones.  I email and inquire and when I've picked my choices - I haggle.  Two years ago, we went to Tokyo with my brother in law and my nieces.  Since we had 3 kids in tow - I thought it was just but right to have a car pick us up from the airport.  It takes away the hassle of pacifying 3 kids with matching luggages to take care of.  This year, when we went to London - I made sure to have a car pick us up because I had my in laws with me.  My Panget has a bad back so, you can't rely on him to lug around heavy bags. Most friends think of this service as a waste of money.  Well, I beg to differ.  When you choose the standard route - you can take a bus, that will have so many stops.  You can take a train with a lot of station transfer...

This is my first time to travel with kids thus, I thought to myself - that I didn't want to go through the hassles of airport transfers with kids in tow.  Plus, we were arriving mid evening, and I thought - I didn't want to wait a 120 minutes to get to the hotel. In Tokyo - the usual mode of transport to and from the airport is via their limousine bus - but since we had kids in tow, and the fact that my Panget has a recurring back problem - I decided to try my luck in looking for a car for hire that can take us to the hotel privately. I searched the web and found a lot of sites.  I think I made about a dozen of more inquiries on the rates for a van that can carry 5 adults and 3 kids.  The first replies I got were frustrating because they said that they can only accommodate 4 adults and 3 kids, they then offered me a much higher rate for a vehicle that can carry up to 9 people.  I argued that I have a two year old toddler that can just sit on my lap, but they stil...