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hidden europe: Hasta la victoria siempre!
2007-10-09 17:26:00
The cult of Che Guevara gets a boost this week as special events across Europe commemorate the fortieth anniversary of the revolutionary’s untimely death in Bolivia on October 9, 1957. In Derry in Ireland, a week of celebrations will include the unveiling on Saturday of a new mural of Che – complementing the long standing Che Guevara mural a little further up the Foyle valley in Strabane. Che Guevara stock remains as high as ever among European socialists, not least in Andalucía (southern Spain) where knotty issues surrounding land tenure are still a popular grievance in some agricultural communities. Stop off in Marinaleda, just forty miles southwest of Córdoba, to catch the feel of a small town that has a passion for combative action against absentee landlords. A spark of revolutionary zeal permeates the town and is reflected in graffiti, street names and murals. Other European socialist thinkers and politicians still mould the travel plans of more politically engaged trav...
More About: Victoria , Hidden , Rope

Sunday Travel Section: Off to Europe
2007-10-09 00:59:00
We do love the annual “Europe travel” edition of the New York Time’s travel section, which appeared in yesterday’s paper. Here are a few highlights: Fall Travel : Cheap? No. Cheaper? Yes. Natch, we were into this article in the Practical Traveler series. It’s chock full of helpful budget travel tips (think south, flight strategies, consider packages, etc.).  But it also makes it clear that traveling to Europe is still possible for Americans, even during a period of dismal exchange rates. (And yes, we also loved it because it gave us a very nice shout-out!)  Season to Savor: As Weather Cools, Europe Heats Up Articles on cities like Rome, Berlin and Prague showcase how, as temps go down, Europe’s cultural scene stays on the up-and-up. Worshiping Paris As if we needed another reason to genuflect before Paris, this beautiful recap of one journalist’s spiritual journey, through Parisian churches and the like, has us packing.
More About: Sunday , Section , Rope

Ryanair’s Free Seat Promotion
2007-10-05 00:47:00
Ryanair again offers what appears, at first blush, to be impossible: one million completely free fares. Good for travel between November 5 and January 31, they can be purchased through Monday, October 8. While strictly speaking not too good to be true, this promotion comes with more exceptions that most. To wit: the free fares only extend to flights on Monday afternoon, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday before noon, and Saturday afternoon. In addition, the entire period from December 18 through January 8 is blacked out. We’re also having a hell of a time finding these free fares on the Ryanair site, though it’s easy to find €.01 and £.01 fares with nothing but taxes to pay. Say what you will about Ryanair’s no-frills cattle-call experience and advertising bluster. If you’ve got the time to find the right fare, Ryanair’s an incredibly cheap way to fly.
More About: Promotion , Free , Seat , Romo

Near-Europe’s Latest LCC Destination: Aqaba
2007-10-04 01:14:00
European charter airlines and low-cost carriers are slowly but steadily adding destinations in countries just outside of Europe. While Ryanair and most charter airlines—the latter feeding into holiday packages—fly to a range of destinations in Morocco, these are but one demonstration of the latest frontier. Among other routes of note, the Russian low-cost carrier SkyExpress flies east of the Urals to Tyumen, several charter airline fly to destinations in Tunisia, Transavia among other airlines flies to Egypt, and tuifly and Thomsonfly jet to Tel Aviv. As of November, Aqaba (on Jordan’s Red Sea coast) will be added to the slate of midhaul Europe-adjacent destinations reachable by a low-cost carrier. JetairFly, the Belgian wing of TUI, will be flying to Aqaba from November. The Red Sea resort town draws divers and sunlovers and is a stone’s throw from Eilat, Israel. It’s also got a popular Turkish bath on hand, and is about two hours south of Petra by car. We fou...
More About: Destination , Rope

Noteworthy Mentions: SkyEurope, Isle of Man, Vueling
2007-10-03 00:55:00
Today SkyEurope announced the release of 99,000 promotional all-inclusive €29 fares. “All-inclusive” here means that taxes and fees won’t pounce out at the final step of your online transaction. This promotion is good for travel between November 1 and December 15. Tickets can be purchased through October 7. In the past, we’ve struggled to find very many good fares during these SkyEurope promotional sales; nonetheless, this one is certainly worth a look. Isle of Man Travel Services is trying to drum up off-season interest in the Irish Sea island with some holiday packages. Noteworthy: a £135 per person package for two nights at the Sefton Hotel, including sea transportation from either Heysham or Liverpool and all additional taxes, or £170 for an identical package but with an extra night thrown in. Ultracheap? No, but not bad for a longish weekend in the pricey British Isles. Meanwhile, Spanish low-cost carrier Vueling is having some serious troubles. Last...
More About: Wort , Rope

Friday Coffee Table Book Suggestion
2007-09-29 00:46:00
We just got a look at Rough Guides’ tome of a coffee table book Make the Most of Your Time on Earth. In addition to sporting a bit of a foreboding title, Make the Most is bursting at the seams with event and activity suggestions around the world. Looking at the compendium’s European offerings, we were pleased to see, in no particular order, the following trip suggestions: Pembrokeshire hikes; Scottish Highland Games; surfing in Tarifa; mountain walks in Madeira; taking the Lake Mývatn waters; overeating in Bologna; and bunker spotting in Durrës. You get the picture. Make the Most is glossy and packed with trip suggestions as well as listings-driven “Miscellany” section at the close of each chapter. Just don’t plan to take it with you when you travel. It weighs approximately three tons.
More About: Coffee , Book , Friday , Suggestion , Table

KLM: Break Away Fares
2007-09-28 00:13:00
We suggest taking a look at KLM’s current “Brea k Away” fare promotion. It offers decent roundtrip fares between Amsterdam and several European cities: Birmingham, Edinburgh, Geneva, Helsinki, London, Madrid, Manchester, Marseille, Milan, and Paris. The cheapest listed Break Away fare is Amsterdam-Paris, which begins at €147. Afraid of fare creep via undisclosed fees and taxes? Don’t be. These fares include all additional charges. In most cases, Break Away promotional fares last through November.
More About: Fare , Ares

Click4Sky: An Alternative to Low-Cost Carriers
2007-09-26 18:37:00
CSA Czech Airlines has just launched Click4Sky, a new, independently branded initiative designed to fill empty seats on Czech Airlines flights. The upfront basics look promising. The site itself is clean and light and direct, as all low-cost airline sites should be. (A heavy, busy low-cost carrier site, after all, screams Hidden Cost s! Scams! Fear!) Aesthetics and others dangers aside, Click4Sky charges CZK 1990 (€72; $102) for a one-way journey, taxes and fees included. In actuality, the CZK 1990 assertion is a bit slippery, as only roundtrip tickets can be purchased. So figure CZK 3980 (€144; $204) per ticket. There’s something pleasing about a set fare, as it completely eliminates guesswork, fare hunting, and, well, all attempts to divine future fares. Also pleasing is the fact that all Click4Sky seats are on regular Czech Airlines airplanes, with free drinks and gratis newspapers. Downside? Despite a wide-ranging destination map, which includes decent Central and Easte...
More About: Alternative , Carriers , Low cost , Alter

hidden europe: European Day of Languages
2007-09-25 16:52:00
Cultural assets are things to cherish. Scan the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites and it will be clear that Europe bristles with treasures: from the cultural landscapes of the high valleys of Andorra to the wooden churches of northern Romania. Michelangelo paintings and Gothic cathedrals are self-evidently worth hanging onto. Yet some of Europe’s most important cultural assets are utterly intangible. Take language, an asset we too often take for granted. Most European s somehow learn to get by in one or two other languages beyond their mother tongue. And occasionally we run across folk on our travels who have not had the chance to practice, still less to perfect, another language and remain sadly monolingual. Plus of course a fair number of diehards who elect to remain assertively and stubbornly monolingual for one reason or another. Europe’s rich diversity of languages captures the media spotlight this week with the European Day of Languages (EDL). Officially slated fo...
More About: Hidden , Rope

Friday List: Air Berlin, Amsterdam, Ryanair, Roasts
2007-09-21 23:14:00
We didn’t really think we’d make it through this week. Here’s our Friday list. 1. The most significant event we’ve come across in Europe’s low-cost air world this week is today’s news that Air Berlin is set to purchase Condor. Thomas Cook, which currently owns most of Condor, will be selling the airline to Air Berlin in return for an almost 30 percent stake in the expanded airline, plus €120 million. It still might not happen if Condor minority stakeholder Lufthansa decides to oppose the purchase. 2. We will be visiting Amsterdam in a few weeks and we’re already excited about frites with peanut sauce, Surinamese spicy chicken, and pisang goreng. Our advance research just turned up D’Vijff Vlieghen, which looks like a splurgeworthy place to sample “New Dutch” cuisine. 3. We have it on good authority that Ryanair is trying to muscle its way into Schiphol, and furthermore is considering route expansions to destinations in T...
More About: List

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