Port Kestrel on a budget

Port Kestrel is where most journeys in the Reach begin, and it is perfectly possible to spend more on two nights there than on a week almost anywhere else. It is just as possible not to. I used to run a hostel beside the launch pads, and these are the things my guests learned, usually the expensive way, until I started telling them on arrival.

Where to sleep: the Old Docks

Forget the towers along the shuttle halls. The bargains are in the Old Docks quarter, a grid of former cargo warehouses a short walk from the pads, where most buildings now hold hostels on the upper floors and something to eat at street level. A bed in a shared dorm costs 30 to 45 marks a night; a private capsule with a fan, a lock and a shelf for your bag runs from 70 to 90. Book direct: the hostels pay a cut to the booking boards, and many will knock a few marks off if you simply message them or turn up.

Ask three things before you pay. Is there a fan or cooling? The Kestrel is on the equator, and the old warehouses hold the day's heat well into the night. Which side faces the pads? Launches are loud, and a pad-side room means a rattle in the window at odd hours, which some people love and some very much do not. And will they keep your bag on the day you fly? Most Old Docks hostels store luggage free until your shuttle, which saves you the fee at the halls.

Where to eat: night markets and noodle counters

Port Kestrel eats late, after the heat breaks. The night markets set up in the old loading yards at dusk and run until the small hours: grilled skewers, flatbreads off a hot plate, cut fruit from the coast, sweet fried dough in paper cones. Most plates cost 4 to 10 marks, and the stalls with the longest queues are the right ones.

By day, look for the noodle counters along the dock road, where the pad crews eat at shift change. A bowl of broth noodles costs 6 to 9 marks and will carry you to evening; a pot of tea at the counter is 2. The crews know which counters are good and which are merely close to the halls, and they eat at the good ones.

The Upper Terraces: the best free show in the Reach

The Upper Terraces are public viewing decks stepped up the side of the pad complex, free and open day and night. From the top tier you look straight down onto the pads, and when a shuttle goes you see the light first, then feel the sound arrive a few seconds later through the soles of your feet. I have watched hundreds of launches from up there, and I still go whenever I am back.

Timing is everything. The launch boards in the Old Docks and at the foot of the Terraces list the day's departures. Evening and night launches are the most spectacular and the most crowded, so arrive 45 minutes early for a place at the rail. Midday launches are quieter, but the equatorial sun on the upper tiers is fierce and there is little shade, so bring a hat. And remember that a launch time is a hope, not a promise. Holds happen. Bring something to sit on and someone to talk to.

Getting to the shuttle halls

From the Old Docks, the halls are a twenty-minute walk along the dock road, or four stops on the dock tram, which costs 2 marks a ride. Leave earlier than you think you need to: check-in closes well before boarding, and the queue for baggage weighing on a busy morning is long. The limits are strict and enforced to the gram, so weigh your bag at the hostel (most have scales by the door) and wear your heaviest shoes rather than packing them.

Food inside the halls costs about three times what it does outside, so eat before you go. Keep it light: plain bread and tea a couple of hours before boarding is what I told every guest, and nobody ever came back to complain.

More ways to keep the marks in your pocket

• Arrive the day before. A missed shuttle costs far more than a night in a dorm.
• Eat your main meal at noon. Many noodle counters do a set lunch, a bowl and a side, for less than the evening price.
• Skip the observation bars. The bars in the hall towers charge for the same view the Terraces give away.
• Walk at night. The Old Docks are busy and cooler after dark, and the tram stops running long before the markets close.
• Pack light for the climb. Every extra kilo is something you will carry six hours up to Halcyon and, eventually, back down again.

And when, a few minutes after launch, the night side of Calder curves away beneath your window under the pale band of the galaxy, you will find that the best view of the whole trip costs nothing extra at all.