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Articles: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

Wizz Goes to Town in Gdansk
2007-09-21 01:43:00
Today, Polish-Hungarian low-cost carrier Wizz Air announced route expansions in and out of its Gdansk base. From mid-March, frequency on routes to Dortmund, Liverpool, London Luton, Lübeck, and Stockholm Skavsta will increase, and three brand-new routes will commence: Gdansk-Bournemouth, Gdansk-Coventry, and Gdansk-Gothenburg. Wizz Air operates six bases in Central and Eastern Europe, and is the leading low-cost carrier in Eastern Europe.
More About: Town , Dansk , Goes

Today’s Ryanair Mini-Expansion
2007-09-20 02:03:00
Today Ryanair announced three new routes. Two (Cork-East Midlands and Cork-Glasgow) will kick off on December 13. The third will run between Malta and Treviso near Venice. The airline doesn’t offer an official starting date for the Malta-Treviso route, though we found a €.01 fare in early January. The kicker? That eurocent balloons to €47.13 once taxes are taken into account.
More About: Mini , Expansion

Iceland Express: Autumn Fare Sale
2007-09-19 01:23:00
Iceland Express , our favorite Icelandic low-cost carrier—ok, the only low-cost carrier in Iceland—is running a quick low fare promotional sale right now. From Wednesday, September 19 through Friday, September 21 (noon GMT in both instances), Iceland Express is hawking one-way fares between Reykjavík and its menu of low season destinations. These include London, Barcelona, Alicante, Luxembourg, Friedrichshafen, Berlin, Copenhagen, and Billund. Travel period is October 1 through November 30. Fares begin at £45, €65, DKK 485, SEK 605, and NOK 510, and include taxes and charges.
More About: Sale , Iceland , Autumn , Autum

MAP: New Madrid Publication
2007-09-18 00:55:00
Recently launched: MAPMagazine, an online publication that devotes itself to Madrid ’s Anglophone expats and visitors. The magazine, which feels to us like a cross between the NYT and Facebook, is a useful compendium of news and calendar items. There are lists of free (and cheap) things to do, restaurant reviews, and coverage of the capital’s nightlife scene. We’re impressed by the breadth of material covered and by the absence of snarky expat snivel. You know what we’re talking about. So if you’re hankering for it, go elsewhere.
More About: Publication

Air Snippets
2007-09-14 00:07:00
1. Ryanair has put together something it’s calling the “Malpensa Manifesto,” a plan to increase investment in Milan-area airports and launch 50 international and ten domestic routes from Milan Malpensa. 2. We’ve been mesmerized by the launch of Porter, the superstylish new Canadian airline. With just four routes in eastern Canada—and a Newark-Toronto link in the works—Porter makes small scale look very, very appealing. It’s got a clean and crisp brand, a fab in-flight magazine, and a base at the very central Toronto City Centre Airport. OK, so Canada is a fair jump from Europe (and Porter isn’t exactly a low-cost carrier) but still. Check it out. 3. Jet2’s in expansion mode. In May 2008 the UK low-cost carrier will launch routes between Leeds Bradford and Avingon, Heraklion, Jersey, La Rochelle, Lübeck, Madrid, Olbia, and Paphos.

hidden europe: Eurostar’s New London Terminal
2007-09-12 18:06:00
You cannot have missed the hype surrounding Eurostar’s imminent move from its existing London terminal at Waterloo to St Pancras. For those anxious to get from Paris or Brussels to London in a rush, the Eurostar train is certainly the way to go, offering city-centre-to-city-centre journey times with which the plane simply cannot compete. Fares start at €38.50 one way. Eurostar old hands have often moaned at the painfully slow approach into the old Waterloo terminal—an approach that will soon become a thing of the past. But we always rather liked it. The train creaked round curves and crawled over Victorian viaducts that afforded delicious perspectives on south London life. There were glimpses of Caribbean street life in Brixton, the brooding hulk of an old power station at Battersea, and the washing hung out to dry on the balconies of apartment blocks at Nine Elms. When the new route comes into public service on 14 November 2007, trains will dive under the Thames in...
More About: Europe , Terminal , Hidden , New London

Lessons of Fandom
2007-09-12 17:05:00
A few weeks ago, we stumbled upon hidden europe, an amazing publication devoted to the lost corners and secret terrains of Europe. We blogged about the magazine, ordered six back issues, delighted in the unexpected arrival of the current issue in the mail, and then blogged about it some more. This sort of fan activity doesn’t usually happen in a vacuum. Naturally, we sent the editorial board effusive, gushing emails. Happily, they weren’t put off by our enthusiasm, and today the editors of hidden europe write the first in their fortnightly series of posts for the EuroCheapo Blog. We’re pleased as punch.
More About: Lessons

Accommodation Alternative: Motorhome Exchange
2007-09-12 00:58:00
Recently we learned about the existence of UK site Motorhomeholidayswap.com. Site founder Chris Farrow, who hails from the north of England, emailed us to tell us about his business. Just six months old, Motorhomeholidayswap has already facilitated motorhome/campervan exchanges among people across Europe, North America, and Australasia. Members need to cough up the annual fee of £45 (€66; $91) to exchange motorhomes, though registration itself is free. Motorhome exchange—much like house exchange and other cheap exchange-oriented strategies—looks like a great way to cut down on costs and assemble a budget-friendly itinerary. We say right-o.
More About: Alternative , Accommodation , Exchange , Alter , Chang

Off the Beaten Path: Northern Cyprus
2007-09-08 01:22:00
As low-cost airlines extend and strengthen their route maps, it’s become increasingly difficult to find truly exotic, untouched places to visit. Even given our expansive definition of Europe, which extends to the Urals, includes the Caucasus, and then swoops down to envelop Turkey, it’s ever more difficult to find places where tourist traffic is light. That said, we can think of a lot of places firmly off the tourist track, like Northern Cyprus . (And, yes, geography purists, we know that Cyprus is not part of geographical Europe.) While the southern part of Cyprus is thriving—it’s a part of the EU, will begin using the euro as its currency in January, and is booming economically—the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus remains politically isolated and on the physical periphery of Europe. That said, we’re beginning to pick up on an as yet faint buzz about Northern Cyprus. It would appear that decades of isolation translates into undertouristed ruins and unc...
More About: Hern , Path

On Our Minds: Ilulissat, Finnish Trains
2007-09-06 17:47:00
For over a week now we’ve been staring at a postcard sent to us by Miranda Siegel. Postmarked Kangerlussuaq, it bears an image of snow-covered houses in the Greenlandic town of Ilulissat. Miranda reports having eaten caribou, muskox, and arctic bilberries, among other exotic delicacies during her recent Greenland adventure. She also reports that capital Nuuk needs a budget hotel. In news from another arctic land, we learned today that Karelian Trains —a partnership between Finnish and Russian Railways—have ordered four high-speed trains for the company’s Helsinki-St. Petersburg route. In 2006, the passenger tally on this route jumped 26 per cent over the previous year’s numbers. The company clearly hopes to maintain this momentum.
More About: Minds , TRAI , Luli , Nish

LCC Buzz
2007-09-06 00:51:00
A range of European low-cost carriers are experiencing difficulties. Air Berlin’s recent profit warning and Vueling’s halted forward momentum are just two examples of this season’s troubles. Now comes the news that SkyEurope will close its Krakow and Budapest bases in late October. The airline is spinning this shift as a reinforcement of “its position in Prague and Vienna”—a brave face, certainly, but contracting its bases from five to three hardly hints at financial strength. We hope that the contraction works for them, as SkyEurope has been one of our favorite European LCCs for some time now, in large part due to their Bratislava base and their routes to Croatia and Bulgaria.
More About: Buzz

Tuesday Trio: hidden europe, Visegrad, Ryanair Sale
2007-09-04 18:34:00
1. We’re still working our way through some back issues of the remarkable hidden europe. On our commute this morning we had our nose in issue 12, which came out in January of this year. The long feature on night trains made us wistful; the shorter article on Flemish béguinages and their contemporary inheritance (in which we learned that the Brugge béguinage accommodates four dozen single women today) was fabulously suggestive. The piece that almost made us miss our stop, however, was a short, enticing little “snippet” on the diverse and lively Brussels ‘hood of les Marolles. 2. The EU is full of smaller regional groupings; our favorite among these is the Visegrád Four, which encompasses Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary. The Czech Republic took over the Visegrád presidency in June, and will hold it through mid-2008. Among other things, the Visegrád group has the potential to serve as a bridge between Ukraine and the EU, should that direct...
More About: Europe , Sale , Ryanair , Hidden , Tuesday

Friday Fun: MSG and Jet2
2007-09-01 00:59:00
It’s been a fine day, though our massive Ukrainian lunch was loaded with MSG, and we’ve spent the afternoon nursing headaches and queasiness with water, coffee, and aspirin. We’re exhausted. Sue us. We did just come across some exciting, if press release-driven information, though. Plucky UK low-cost carrier Jet2 celebrated their 10 millionth passenger today. Good on you, Jet2.
More About: Friday

Thursday List: Monocle, NL, CH, Andy Hide
2007-08-30 17:53:00
1. The September Monocle has a bit of a state-within-a-state theme going on. The issue includes features on Finland’s autonomous Åland Islands, Bolzano, the capital of Italy’s Süd Tirol/Alto Adige region, and an especially fetching multipage feature on Georgia’s Russia-supported breakaway region of Abkhazia. A Monocle dossier on European microstates would be the perfect follow-up. 2. The Netherlands Tourist Board is the world’s first national tourist authority to launch a Second Life tourist board. May they be the last. 3. We recently discovered the Swiss Tourist Board’s rather more useful handy map guide to inexpensive hotels across Switzerland. The guide lists 154 hotels with rates at CHF160 (€97; $133) or under for a double en suite room, including breakfast. 4. We are in love with this brilliant song by Andy Hide . We’ll be petitioning ARIA to invent a new award category for musical adaptations of shocking moments in popular culture shortly.
More About: List , Thursday

Ryanair Flash: Bremen Route Reshuffle
2007-08-29 17:21:00
Like a hard-bargaining player happy to have gotten his way and thus prepared to reward his subjects—yesterday, the airline came to an apparently mutually agreeable decision with the Brussels Charleroi airport administration—Ryanair today announced two new routes from Bremen. From late October onwards, Ryanair will kick off Bremen-Alicante and Bremen-Palma de Mallorca routes. Of course, no Ryanair route expansion materializes without a route contraction these days. The airline will be withdrawing its Bremen-Murcia service in late October. Our calculus: 2 - 1 = 1.
More About: Flash , Route , En Route

Over: The Ryanair/Charleroi Stand-Off
2007-08-29 00:28:00
Ryanair announced today that the airline has reached an agreement with Brussels Char leroi airport. The Irish low-cost carrier had threatened to withdraw from the secondary Brussels airport from November 12 onwards. All ticket sales for travel after November 12 have been released. A desire to avoid the future sudden strikes at Charleroi provided Ryanair’s purported rationale for freezing sales on flights in and out of the airport. Since the airline operates 18 routes to and from Charleroi (compared to four operated by Wizz Air and one each by BlueAir, Jet4you, and OnAir) we’d guess that the airport’s administration was quite eager to hold onto the Ryanair routes.
More About: Ryanair , Stand

Flash: Brussels Airlines Steps Up
2007-08-23 20:39:00
In an attempt to capitalize on Ryanair’s threat to junk flights in and out of their Brussels Charleroi base from mid-November on, Brussels Airlines has announced a slate of inexpensive fares from Brussels. The airline is currently promoting €49.99 all-inclusive evening flights from Brussels to 13 destinations across Europe. With b.places, the airline ensnares Second Life residents, in the name of customer outreach. Quirky!
More About: Flash , Brussels Airlines , Steps

Wed Alerts: New SkyEurope Site, Sloppy Ryanair Claims
2007-08-23 01:10:00
What’s new this afternoon? 1. SkyEurope has gone and revamped their site. Very nice, especially the faint gray of the destination map. We just noticed for the first time that our favorite Central European LCC doesn’t fly to a single airport in Germany. Points to us for being observant. 2. Ryanair is in trouble with the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority for making sloppy claims regarding speed and price of their London-Brussels connection against Eurostar’s London-Brussels shuttle.
More About: Site , Claims , Skye , Rope

Two for Tuesday: More easyJet, DK Coffee Table Book
2007-08-21 16:56:00
Tuesday. Rainy. Feels like fall. To brighten the mood: 1. EasyJet continues this season’s route expansion extravaganza with today’s announcement of two new routes. From November, the Orange and White will fly between London Luton and Hamburg; beginning in February, they’ll kick off an East Midlands-Palma route. Luton-Hamburg roundtrip fares will start at £33.98. The East Midlands-Palma route will begin at £35.98. 2. DK’s Where to Go When, out shortly, is a bulky tome stuffed with pretty pictures, useful itinerary suggestions, seasonal travel recommendations, and even pithy little destination-calibrated dos and don’ts. Much too big to take along on a trip, Where to Go When is nonetheless awfully useful for a book of the coffee table ilk.
More About: Coffee , Book , Table , Tuesday

Flash: Supercheap Deal Alert
2007-08-17 23:54:00
D-Reizen, the Dutch holiday shop chain that regularly turns in some of the cheapest deals around, currently lists a seven-night house rental in Tuscany for €24 per person, based on double occupancy. The rental, in Marina di Bibbona, actually costs €85.50 once reservations charge, booking fee, and insurance charge are taken into account. But considering the duration of the rental (we repeat: seven nights!) and location (we repeat: in Tuscany!) we think that under €90 is a pretty damn good deal. This rate is good for the week beginning September 8.
More About: Flash , Deal , Alert

Our Latest Discovery: hidden europe
2007-08-16 21:56:00
We just discovered hidden europe, a treasure of a publication devoted to out-of-the-way corners of Europe , cultural (and geographical) enclaves, and thoughtful, leisurely examinations of destinations. Hidden europe commenced publication in early 2005 and comes out six times a year. Quite frankly, we’re blown away. We love the publication’s very mission, its attention to detail, and its complete insouciance regarding trends and buzz. Take a look at these sample article subjects: Prague’s African community, the Georgian Military Highway, obscure airports, Vojvodina, Brussels’ les Marolles/De Marollen ‘hood, “people’s palaces” of socialist Europe, and Franz Josef Land. Yowza, in other words.
More About: Discovery , Discover , Disc

Midweek Notables: TUIfly, Ryanair, Montenegro
2007-08-15 18:20:00
What’s notable at midweek? 1. TUIfly may be in a financially shaky place, but they’re pulling out all the stops to get more people on board. They’ve just announced an “All you can fly” promotion, which runs €199. For your euros, you get unlimited travel between selected TUIfly destinations. These include 14 destinations in Germany, Paris, Valencia, Bilbao, Rome, Stockholm, Dubrovnik, and Basel—among 44 destinations in total. The catch? You’ve got to be between 16 and 26 years of age—with valid student identification—to take advantage. We scoured the fine print for evidence that non-EU students might not be eligible and came up with nothing, though the deal is only promoted on the German-language version of the TUIfly site. The “All” ticket can be booked through August 31, and is good for flights through October 31. 2. Is Ryanair back in expansion mode? The Irish low-cost carrier announced six new routes from Dublin today. In Oc...
More About: Notables , Mont

List: Dutch Treats
2007-08-10 22:40:00
It’s overcast and rainy where we are. So we’re thinking of the Netherlands. Sue us. Here’s a little list of current Dutch gems. 1. Ahead of the game, Dutch budget holiday boutique VakantieXperts has published their Winter Guide. Those in NL might want to stop by a shop and start dreaming of snow. 2. A frighteningly enormous Lego Man has appeared in Zandvoort. Thanks for freaking us out, Amherstdam. 3. Our guiltiest pleasure right now is Monique Smit’s “Wild,” a fluffy bit of Nederpop, currently at Number 18 in the Dutch Mega Top 50. 4. Leafe Sawntjin, a restaurant located in the fields of Friesland, looks like a great place to blow a weekly travel budget.
More About: List , Treats

Two for Thursday: TUIfly’s Sale; Ryanair in Spain
2007-08-09 19:50:00
1. TUI AG (the parent company of low-cost airline TUIfly) announced second-quarter earings today that seriously bummed investors out. Among other issues, TUIfly’s load factor is down a startling 12 percent, to 79.5%. But as if without a care in the world, TUIfly today released 555,000 €5 fares for travel through October 31. Taxes and surcharges will jack these fares up by between €18.16 and €52.80, and are on sale through midnight on Sunday (German time). 2. As we reported the other day, Ryanair announced two new bases today: Valencia (21 routes, up from 10) and Alicante (17 routes, up from six.) The new Valencia routes will kick off in October, with the new Alicante routes following in November and December. Our favorites among the new routes: Valencia-Santiago and Valencia-Malta.
More About: Spain , Sale , Thursday

EasyJet, We’ve Been Ignoring You
2007-08-08 20:06:00
Exciting: EasyJet recently announced that they’ll soon be flying to Romania. Today’s new route annoucement goes one better: From November 3, the UK low-cost carrier will be flying between London Gatwick and Sofia three times a week. With one-way journeys starting at £27.99 (€41.30; $57), the airline is directly challenging Wizz Air on the London-Sofia route. Currently, Wizz Air flies from London Luton to Sofia. The cheapest one-way fare we found for that route from mid-November on: £30.29, slightly more expensive than easyJet’s starting fare of £27.99. We had a bad experience with easyJet last summer when they cancelled a flight and gave us no workable option to obtain a refund. That acknowledged, easyJet’s routes into eastern Europe (especially at a time when Ryanair’s route expansion appears to have more or less stalled) are pushing us to reconsider the orange and white.
More About: Been

July Air Stats: The Ryanair/SkyEurope Face-Off
2007-08-08 01:24:00
In July , Ryanair filled their planes impressively, managing a load factor of 90%. This number is identical to the Irish low-cost carrier’s July 2006 load factor numbers. Even more impressive is Ryanair’s 21% increase in passengers carried in July of this year against July 2006 numbers. Clearly, this summer’s fare war helped to fill planes in July. Earlier this year, SkyEurope had a clear advantage over Ryanair in these monthly face-offs. This advantage appears to have vaporized. While the Slovak low-cost carrier’s load factors are improving—July’s 87.6% load factor is up 3.4% over July 2006’s 84.2% load factor—they now lag behind Ryanair on this measure. And their percentage increase in passengers flown in July against July 2006 is also less impressive, at just 11.8%. Also of note, yesterday’s FT reports that Ryanair has entered the race to control the Spanish low-cost market with all guns blazing. Shortly, we can expect an announcement ...
More About: Face , Stats , Skye

Lucca: Open-air Altos
2007-08-03 17:33:00
Calling all Puccini lovers. It’s time to make a pilgrimage to Lucca to experience the 53rd annual Puccini Opera Festival, to experience opera as the master himself wanted to hear it. Started in 1930, following a 1924 letter from Puccini exclaiming his wish to hear his opera in the “open-”air,” the Puccini Opera Festival attracts 40,000 opera lovers a year to hear the music they lave in Lucca’s open-air theater just steps from where Puccini lived, worked and is buried. This year’s festival is going on now, through August 16, with shows of Puccini’s greats, from Tosca to La Boheme. Puccini and beautiful Lucca. It doesn’t get much better than that.
More About: Open

Barcelona: Woody Allen troubles and city bikes!
2007-08-01 19:02:00
Visiting Barcelona ? Watch out for Woody : The BBC reported Monday that the city of Barcelona is coughing up € 1,000,000 to Woody Allen , covering 10% of the budget of his upcoming film, which is set in the city and currently filming around town. In addition, the regional Catalonian government is chipping in another € 500,000. Residents are annoyed with the amount of public funds going to the project (75% polled found the contribution “excessive”). Locals and tourists are annoyed by some shut-downs around town: the Ramblas was recently closed for filming. And Barcelona filmmakers are annoyed that the government isn’t willing to donate the same amount to cash to local directors. But there’s an upside: Who wouldn’t want to sneak a peak at the lovely Scarlett Johansson, and Spanish stars Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem. And the film is likely to be good for the city’s tourism industry, as Allen promises the movie to be a “love letter to Barce...
More About: Bikes , City

Rome: City will party all night on Sept 8th
2007-07-31 20:56:00
We’re big fans of the city-wide all-night party trend in Europe. Paris seems to have come to the party first in October 2002 with its “Nuit Blanche” of performances, gallery openings, monument tours, and late-night shenanigans. Rome followed the next year, launching “Notte Bianca” with great success. Indeed, according to party planners, the party has become an event the Italian capital “can no longer do without!” Rome has just announced that ”Notte Bianca 2007″ will take place the night of Saturday, Sept ember 8th (with some events happening the day before). This year’s show will promote a message of cultural difference and understanding, and will feature hundreds of acts performed by artists all night long throughout the city. Which kind of events? According to the event’s website: For Saturday September 8th the programme includes performances, concerts, plays, dance shows, magic and circus arts, contemporar...
More About: Party , Night , City

Paris: New bike program pedals past US tourists
2007-07-27 19:34:00
There’s been a lot of buzz about Paris ’ new city-wide bike push that put over 10,000 bikes on the street for rent (read our earlier post). According to the plan, anyone with a credit card can join the program, which lends bikes for 30-minute treks for almost nothing (membership in the program costs as low as $44 a year). Budget Travel’s blog on Wednesday pointed out a serious problem for Americans ready to hop on a bike: The rental kiosks, it turns out, only take European micro-chipped enhanced credit cards. Those @#!$@ EC cards! As US tourists in France usually find out early in their trip, American credit cards are not equipped with the little microchip that makes EC cards tick.  This sometimes, but not always, causes trouble when swiping at a restaurant, in a store, or even (our personal favorite) in a Metro station. Now it’s at it again, jamming the bike rental process. ARGH! We are hopeful that Mayor Delanoë will remedy this ”chip” ...
More About: Bike , Tourists , Past , Program