Europe a la Carte BlogEurope a la Carte BlogIf you would like to find out more about the real Europe, read and comment at this blog. We can help you get a better flavour of your European destination. Visit less well know destinations and avoid the tourist traps. Articles
Review of Pontins holidays in the UK
2008-01-07 14:31:00 Pontins have been offering seaside family holidays in the UK since the company was founded by Fred Pontin in 1946. They have seven holiday centres in the UK. Blackpool and Pakefield in Suffolk offer half board holidays. The five other centres, Prestatyn Sands in North Wales, Brean Sands in Somerset, Southport, Helmsley ... More About: Holidays , Children , United Kingdom , Review
Carnival of Cities 7 January 2008
2008-01-07 10:34:00 I’m delighted to be the host for the first Carnival of Cities of 2008 . I only had one submission in my chosen theme of cities “off the beaten track”. Berkley and Oakland in California are highlighted as Local Favorites for Kids in the East Bay by Patricia Jenkins of the Kango Blog who believes that ... More About: January , January 2008
April 2008 trip to Bremen and Hamburg
2008-01-05 20:34:00 I’ve booked my flight from Edinburgh to Bremen in north western Germany , one of the new Spring routes with Ryanair. The flight cost £42 return including taxes and fees for cabin baggage only, with online check in. There are only 2 flights per week on Sundays and Wednesdays so I decided to go for 4 ... More About: April , Trip , Hamburg , 2008
Belgians cast off boring image with sky dining
2008-01-04 12:06:00 If you fancy eating while suspended 5o metres above ground and have deep pockets, with rental excluding catering starting at 7900 euros, then the Belgian firm Dinner in the Sky can provide you with a unit suspended mid air by an industrial crane which seats 22 diners around a table and 3 service staff in ... More About: Belgium , Cast , Image , Dining , Boring
Guest interview - Nate of YourDailyVacation.com
2008-01-03 20:48:00 I met Nate of YourDailyVacation when I featured one of his posts in the first Travel Blog Carnival. 1 What is the aim of your blog? NP - There are two main aims to my blog, the first is to provide the sites guest with information on travel tips and tricks as well as give them a ... More About: Interview , Guest
Touraveller - let?s ditch the tourist versus traveller
2008-01-01 12:28:00 In the 15 months that I”ve been researching and writing for my travel blog I’ve become increasingly bemused by the tourist versus traveller debate and the ensuing guidance of how to avoid the horror of being classified as a tourist. Or even, in hilarious perversity, From Traveler to Tourist in 5 Easy Steps. Of course the ... More About: Versus , Traveller
Special Holiday Edition of Carnival of Cities 31 December 2007
2007-12-31 17:16:00 If you’d like to read some interesting blog posts about cities all over the world, including my post about my revaluation of my birthplace of Dundee then take a look at the Special Holiday Edition of the Carnival of Cities . I’ll be hosting the next Carnival of Cities on the theme of “off the beaten track” ...
Welcome to the first Travel Blog Carnival
2007-12-29 23:45:00 Let’s get the New Year off to a great start with the first Travel Blog Carnival . The organiser, Darren of Travel Rants, wants to showcase posts about travel that are inspiring, interesting and informational. Bearing this in mind I was also influenced by my desire to highlight the benefits of getting off ... More About: Blog Carnival
?Off the beaten track? Carnival of Cities on 7 January 2008
2007-12-28 16:57:00 I’ve gone into blog carnival overdrive and will be hosting the Carnival of Cities on Monday 7 January 2008. My theme is “off the beaten track” cities, less well known cities that still have a lot to offer but are overlooked in favour of the tourist magnets. So if you’d like to let us ... More About: Track , January 2008
£9 room Summer sale at Travelodge UK
2007-12-28 14:28:00 Travelodge launch their lowest ever room rate of £9 per night today. You do have to book at least 6 months in advance, by 31 January 2008, on the non refundable rate but I still think it’s a great deal considering their rooms can sleep up to 2 adults and 2 kids. Not all Travelodges are ... More About: Summer , Sale , Accommodation , Room , Travelodge
Airtours following my lead for authentic travel?
2007-12-27 20:28:00 Have Airtours been looking at the Europe a la Carte website and decided to follow my line of offering their customers the opportunity to “get a more authentic travel experience during their visit to Europe”? Airtours are now offering “Local Flavours” holidays so you can have an authentic package holiday. There is emphasis on strong ... More About: Travel , Lead , Then
Guest interview - Laurence Monclard of Meeting the French
2007-12-27 13:40:00 I read about Meeting the French and thought that arranging contact between local residents and visitors sounded such a good way to make a visit to Paris more authentic that I wanted to find out more. So here’s the background to Meeting the French in founder Laurence Monclard’s own words. 1 What is the ... More About: Culture , France , Interview , Guest
Travel blog search widget on Kango
2007-12-21 22:44:00 Kango have launched a travel blog search widget to make it easier to find and search travel blogs. If there are any travel blogs that you’d like to see added to the search engine you can make suggestions. [Your user agent does not support frames or is currently configured not to display frames. However, you may ... More About: Technology , Travel , Widget , Search , Blog
Review of Direct Line Cruises
2007-12-21 15:44:00 Direct Line Cruises offer discounted rates on cruises with major cruise lines such as Royal Caribbean, Celebrity Cruises, Norwegian Cruise Line and Carnival Cruises. Direct Line Cruises has grown to be a leading cruise line specialist agency from humble beginnings in 1995. The company was started in 1995 as a part time home business by ... More About: Review , Direct , Rect
Fantastic weekend offers at Ibis European hotels
2007-12-20 20:39:00 When I was doing research for my post about the Best UK Budget Hotel Chain, I found some great weekend offers with Ibis hotels. Prices like 120 euros on the 3 nights weekend deal in Lyon at a fairly central hotel and 95 euros in Viseu in Portugal. Visue - Portugal by Portugese_eyes Amazingly this is ... More About: Hotels , European , Weekend , Offers , Rope
The best UK budget hotel chain
2007-12-20 19:42:00 The UK budget hotel sector is forecast to grow from its current market share of 12% to 26% over the next 2o years. At present the largest 4 players are Travel Inn, Travelodge, Holiday Inn Express and Ibis hotels. I decided to look at each of these budget hotel chains to judge which ... More About: Hotel , Budget , Chain
Don?t diss your hometown from memory
2007-12-20 13:44:00 I think when you’re young it’s all too easy to catergorise your home town as a dump and you can’t wait to get out of it. I was born in the city of Dundee but only lived there until I was five years old. When I spoke of my place of birth it was ... More About: Memory , Diss
New short break destinations with Ryanair
2007-12-20 00:17:00 Budget carrier Ryanair has introduced 50 new routes for 2008. From my perspective there’s nothing of great interest at my 2 nearest airports, Newcastle and Edinburgh. No new flights from Newcastle. There are 5 new Ryanair destinations from Edinburgh but only 2 that aren’t already served by other carriers, Bremen in Germany ... More About: Air Travel , Break , Destinations , Short
UK budget travel tips
2007-12-18 13:04:00 Everyone wants to get value for money when they travel but you have to ask yourself how low you are willing to go. What is budget travel? To some people, others budget travel may appear pretty upmarket. Personally I’m an in-betweenie, I’ve never been into backpacking and camping or staying in hostel dorms but ... More About: Travel , Travel Tips , Tips , Accommodation , Budget
Review of Flybe.com
2007-12-17 20:24:00 I don’t know much about Flybe.com so I decided to have a look at their site. I concentrated on the flights that were of most interest to me i.e flights from Edinburgh or Newcastle as I live between these 2 cities. The majority of their flights are to UK destinations, which are not of interest ... More About: France , Air Travel , Review
Guest interview - Erica of Blissful Travel
2007-12-17 20:05:00 I discovered Erica’s blog on Travel Rants where Darren had named Blissful Travel as his favourite “Travellers Blog”. 1 What is the aim of your blog?The aim of Blissful Travel is to provide travel tips, information and news from the travel business for people interested in travelling. I have a preference for writing about cities, ... More About: Interview , Guest
London voted greatest holiday destination
2007-12-17 17:04:00 London has been voted the best holiday destination in the world in by travel agents. There are several cities in Europe that I would rate more highly than London such as Rome and Madrid. I have to say that London was looking better than for many years when I visited last month. The London ... More About: Holiday , United Kingdom , London , Destination , Greatest
Win a luxury city break for 2
2007-12-16 10:56:00 The Times Style Magazine and Nescafe Dolce Gusto have teamed up to offer a first prize of a luxury city break for 2, including spending money, in an online prize draw for UK residents. Ten runners up will win a coffee machine and a luxury crockery set. Rome and his churches by Giampaolo Macorig More About: Luxury , Break , City
Free promotion for your travel blog
2007-12-15 22:02:00 Would you like some free publicity for your travel blog? Darren at Travel -Rants.com is organising a Travel Blog Carnival. If you’ve written a great post about travel that you’ve published on your blog in the last 7 days, email the post to travelblog.carnival(at)gmail.com. Every week one the member of the Travel Blog Carnival Group will choose their favourite post and will write about this post on their own blog. Daren will also create an archive of all these posts on Travel-Rants.com So here’s your chance to let the world know about your riveting, entertaining and informative travel blog. More About: Promotion , Free
Guest interview - Olivia Giovetti of High Culture on a Low Budget
2007-12-15 21:06:00 I think that Olivia ’s blog High Culture on a Low Budget is fantastic. The blog highlights that you don’t have to break the bank to soak up culture in Europe. Of course, being Scottish, I like to get value for money. 1 What is the aim of your blog? High Culture on a Low Budget was created in the spirit of art, wanderlust, and traveling on a tight budget. Its aim is to give tips from the insider’s perspective (culled from my own years of living in Europe and wanting to get into every theatre/concert hall/opera house/gallery/museum possible) on where to go for the best deals on opera tickets, how to get into a museum for free, and how to do a night at the theatre for under $10.00. I’d like to think of it as the sort of blog Anthony Bourdain would run if he were a culture vulture rather than a foodie. And in that spirit, each post also includes extra background to answer that big question: Why? Why you should care about seeing an opera or ballet or spend... More About: Interview
Eurostar voted best rail company
2007-12-13 12:23:00 Eurostar has been voted the best rail network in the world in the 2007 World Travel Awards. Paris and Brussels can now be reached in 2 hours from the new St Pancras terminal in London. St Pan Station by chakchouka Eurostar’s Tread Lightly campaign has offered carbon neutral journeys at no additional cost to passengers ... More About: Environment , Company , Carbon offset , Eurostar , Rail
Scottish Parliament, Edinburgh
2007-12-12 12:58:00 I finally visited the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh this week. There’s been so much controversy and negativity about the building. The building won the 2005 Stirling Prize for Architecture . I had mixed feelings about the building, I like the exterior, apart from the strange twisted cane effects around the windows and extended from ... More About: Scotland
Disneyland Paris - 4th most visited theme park
2007-12-12 11:22:00 Disneyland Paris is the 4th most visited theme park in the world with over 10 million visitors a year. Not bad for a a theme park that got off to a pretty shaky start on the verge of bankruptcy in 1994 before a change a name from Euro Disney to Disneyland Paris and a debt ... More About: Children , France , Disneyland , Park
Most iconic image in Scotland
2007-12-12 09:54:00 Believe it or not, Scotland ’s most iconic image is a disused coalmine, the Lady Victoria Colliery. The Colliery, which polled 20,000 votes, was voted top from a short list of ten archive images including Rosslyn Chapel and the Rennie Mackintosh School of Art in Glasgow. Lady Victoria Colliery is now home to the Scottish Mining Museum. Lady ... More About: Culture , Architecture , Image , Opinion Poll
Europe a la Carte TV?
More articles from this author:2007-12-11 20:39:00 I read an article today about the future of TV travel programmes. I came to the conclusion that I should make a “Europe a la Carte” TV travel series showcasing some of less well known destinations in Europe about which I’ve written. There appears to be demand for niche, specialised programmes which avoid the over ... More About: Rope 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 |
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