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easyJet bares all (taxes and charges, that is)
2007-07-26 18:27:00
Three cheers for easyJet’s announcement yesterday that they’ve updated their website to show ticket prices inclusive of all taxes and surcharges from the first page of search results. This has long been a frustration on both airline websites and airfare price comparison sites, where taxes and surcharges aren’t tacked on until subsequent pages. What’s the competition doing? A quick check on some of our favorite low-cost carriers reveals: easyJet displays taxes and surcharges on the first search results page, as promised in their press release.  In our test, a London Gatwick to Pisa (Aug 27) flight was immediately offered at 44.99 GBP. Ryanair doesn’t show taxes and charges on the results page, waiting to reveal the extra fees until after you’ve selected a flight. In our case, we found a flight from London Stansted to Pisa (same date as above) for “19.99 GBP.” However, on the next page it was revealed to actually cost 45.19 GBP, s...
More About: Taxes , Char , Ares

Amsterdam: Underground Instability
2007-07-24 19:39:00
It’s possible to get almost anywhere in Amsterdam by foot, tram, bus, and, of course, the trusty Dutch bicycle. Since 2003, the city, recognizing a need for speedier transit, has been digging for a subway. In a city lined with canals and soggy earth, a dig of this sort presents some unique challenges.   Yesterday’s Boston Globe had an interesting look at the logistics. Let’s just say that Amsterdam is a “city in motion”… Most of Amsterdam is supported by a system of underground wooden poles and pilings, and the land itself tends to shift and sink a couple millimeters a year. And if digging wasn’t a big enough problem, large, rumbling trains could affect this delicate balancing act once the subway’s up and running. Best of luck with your dig, Amsterdam. We’ll be checking in with you soon.
More About: Underground , Round , Under , Stability

Paris: What did 69 million tourists do in 2006?
2007-07-23 17:13:00
Last week, Paris ’ office of tourism announced that 69 million tourists visited the city’s attractions in 2006. Yowsa. And what were the most popular sights? First place: Notre Dame — 13.5 million visitors graced the cathedral, up from 13 million in 2005. Second place: Basilica de Sacre Coeur in Montmartre — 10 million visits, up from 8 million in 2005. Third place: The Louvre — 8.3 million visits, up 10.3 % from 2005. Honorable mention: Musee d’Orsey, the 20-year old museum of 19th and 20th Century art, placed seventh with 3 million visits, its highest number ever. But who are these visitors? The New York Times reports today that the country is aware of the foreign-born demographic packing its museums (occasionally turning the Louvre into a “crowded railroad station”). President Sarkozy’s government is considering ways to bring the French back into their own cultural institutions, including free admission for les francai...
More About: Tourists , Million , Tourist , On Tour

EuroWeepo: Dollar at record lows against the Euro
2007-07-19 18:14:00
The US dollar fell to record lows against the euro on Wednesday, hitting $1.3834, its lowest value since the introduction of the euro in 1999. Today it’s still down there — $1.3819 to the euro in mid-morning trading. Why? Industry analysts blame it on a lousy US housing market. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke’s speech yesterday, in which he cut back on 2007 projections for the US economy, didn’t help either. How does this affect US tourists in Euro pe? The New York Time’s ran a reality check yesterday that was kind of funny and kind of scary. After all, you can laugh off a $5 cups of coffee in London. But $500 for a hotel room? Come on, folks! You can easily find something more affordable.
More About: Dollar , Record , Doll , Cord

Ryanair’s Carbon Lie-oxide
2007-07-18 23:28:00
For the second time this year, Ryanair has been reprimanded for publishing misleading advertisements about its environmental record. The BBC reports that the Advertising Standards Agency in Great Britain has determined that the low-cost carrier was “likely to mislead” in recent ads claiming that the airline industry “accounts for just 2% of carbon dioxide emissions.” Ryanair apparently forgot to mention that the figure represented global rather than country-specific emissions. According to the UK government, the aviation industry in the UK accounts for about 5.5 % of the country’s CO2 emissions each year. Ryanair has been ordered not to repeat the ad. Better luck next time!
More About: Carbon , Carb

Paris: 10,600 bikes take to the streets
2007-07-17 23:48:00
Paris’ cool (and green) mayor, Bertrand Delanoë, just got even cooler (and greener) when he launched Vélib’, a massive public biking initiative on Sunday. Under the plan, bikers may borrow a bike from one of 750 pick-up spots around town and drop it off at any other center within 30 minutes. (If you need more time to get there, you’re charged by the half hour thereafter.) Joining the program is super cheap: €1 a day, € 5 a week, or €29 a year. The intention is to get more people biking, and do something about congestion in the city center. Bravo! We liked Katrin Bennhold’s piece in the International Herald Tribune. (It also appeared with a couple of edits in yesterday’s NY Times.)
More About: Paris , Bikes , Streets , The Streets

Blog note: Our wandering Cheapo…
2007-07-17 18:04:00
A note to EuroCheapo Blog readers: EuroCheapo’s Blogger-in-Chief, Alex Robertson Textor, is taking his long-anticipated trek through southern and Eastern Europe right now. Included in his whirlwind tour: Athens, Thessaloniki, Skopje (Macedonia), Belgrade, Ljubljana, Vienna, Barcelona, and Madrid. We miss you back in steamy NYC, Alex! Of course, we’ll share any dispatches that reach the office. Have fun! The EuroCheapo blog will continue to post travel news and deals in Alex’s absence.
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SkyEurope’s Summer Sale
2007-07-12 23:25:00
They might not be giving away free flights à la Ryanair, but Slovak low-cost carrier SkyEurope is at least trying to keep up in the cheap fares department. Through July 29, SkyEurope is offering €39 all-inclusive one-way fares. No word on which routes are included in the sale. We performed our industry-feared fare check and came up with fares close to the €39 all-inclusive base, but none right on point. In any case, promotional fares are good for travel between July 19 and October 27.
More About: Summer , Sale , Skye , Rope

Ryanair: 150 Million UK Passengers
2007-07-12 00:31:00
Ryanair announced today that their tally of passengers flown in or out of the UK has hit 150,000,000. It took the airline over 20 years to reach this milestone, and to celebrate it, they’re giving away a quarter million fares for “zilch, nada, zip, f**k all.” To which we say: terrifying and impressive, Ryanair. We’re in awe of the airline’s continued bravado, which befits an upstart boxer more than an entrenched and very successful airline. We wonder what sorts of attack dog qualities prospective pr hires have to demonstrate before being brought on board. The free fares can be purchased through tomorrow evening (Thursday, July 12). Note: we did a spot check on one route and found no free fares over the next six weeks, which suggests to us that these fares are being snapped up quickly.
More About: Ryanair , Million , Ryan , Passengers

Norwegian Air Shuttle Flies to the North Pole…
2007-07-10 00:21:00
…sort of. In late March, 2008, the Norwegian low-cost carrier will begin flying between Oslo and Longyearbyen, Svalbard’s main settlement. Svalbard, an archipelago roughly half-way between Norway and the North Pole , has emerged as a big, and very expensive, eco-destination over the last few decades. The cheapest Norwegian Air Shuttle round-trip we found was just NOK1542 (€195; $265), including taxes.
More About: Flies , North Pole

Friday List: Ch-Ch-Ch-Check It Out
2007-07-07 00:21:00
Apologies to Lil’ Chris for the steal. We’re sleepy. It’s the end of a long week, after all. On our radar screens… 1. Following leads in the German media (like this one we came across in the Rheinische Post) Airscoop tells us that Ryanair might just be interested in buying some Air Berlin shares—just under 11% of the German LCC’s shares, as matter of fact. 2. The Saxony Tourist Board tells us that one-fourth of the domestic “culture” tourism market ends up in the federal state home to Dresden, Leipzig, and Chemnitz. 3. We spied some very good weekly vacation home rates on Dutch travel bargain chain D-Reizen’s site. Look under “vakantiewoningen” (in Dutch). Over & out, Cheapos.
More About: List , Check , Friday , Frida

June: SkyEurope and Ryanair Battle On
2007-07-05 23:16:00
It’s the start of the month, which can mean only one thing: passenger totals and load factor comparison time! Yeehaw! In June 2007, Ryan air ’s load factor decreased by 2 percent (from 87% to 85%), while the number of passengers carried by the Irish low-cost carrier increased by 18%, both figures in comparison with June 2006 stats. By way of contrast, Slovak budget airline SkyEurope witnessed a 3.1 percent increase in load factor (from 77.7% to 80.1%) though managed a smaller increase in the number of passengers carried (at 16.4%) than did Ryanair. Load factor, for those unfamiliar with the increasingly bandied about term, refers to the aggregate number of seats purchased—though not necessarily the number of seats occupied. Will promotional fares nudge any of these numbers up in July? Stay tuned.
More About: Battle , Skye

JAT Ticket Adventure
2007-07-03 23:17:00
We purchased a Belgrade-Ljubljana one-way JAT ticket on Sunday night, for travel in late July. We were, as the Brits say, chuffed. The ticket came to just RSD5,942 (€74; $99). The JAT search engine worked fine, and we were approaching that magic, banal moment that drives all online air travel purchases: the invitation to print an e-ticket. But the moment didn’t arrive. Instead of seeing a screen confirming our purchase, we were greeted by a screen informing us that we’d merely reserved our ticket, and that we had just four days to drop by a JAT office to purchase it. Happily for us, there’s a JAT office here in New York. Yesterday morning we made our way to the JAT office on Madison Avenue to pick up our ticket. After a brief chat with two very friendly ladies, we were told that we’d need pay with cash or a money order. We ran down to an ATM to obtain cash to buy the ticket, and there it was: our handwritten, old school JAT ticket, for under $100. Its brigh...
More About: Adventure , Ticket , Vent , Advent , Tick

Neville Walker on Vienna
2007-07-02 22:04:00
Neville Walk er’s ode to Vienna in this past weekend’s Financial Times is gorgeous and plaintive. Writing about Vienna in the newspaper’s “What I Love About…” series, Walker compellingly nails Vienna’s eccentric character. Walker writes that Vienna was “once a cul-de-sac on the edge of the Eastern Bloc” now “learning to be hip and modern.” Yet what makes the city so interesting is not its uneven emergence into contemporary European cool but rather its vestigal otherworldliness. Walker knows this; by singling out the Kettenbrückengasse flea market and Peter’s Operncafé Hartauer as emblems of today’s Vienna, he gets at a city that is not so much resting on its laurels as much as it is holding the uncanny tight, as if it were a lifevest. Or, in Walker’s words: “Vienna is like an estranged relative grown eccentric by living alone, but suddenly seized with enthusiasm for a newly-expanded social ci...
More About: Neville , Ville

Thursday List: Jersey, SkyEurope, Maps, Garden Plots
2007-06-28 19:03:00
Photo by Something in between It’s Thursday . Read up. 1. Tourism is on the rise in Jersey . Bookings on the Channel Island in May, 2007 were up 25 percent over May, 2006 bookings. Clearly Jersey Tourism’s UK television campaign is paying off. 2. SkyEurope is hawking a bunch of €39 all inclusive one-way fares. The fare sale period stretches from July 2 through October 28. Promo fares can be booked until midnight (Central European timezone) on July 8. The 3. We’re very curious about BelleAir, the airline that flies to and from Tirana from 14 airports in Italy. We also wonder why their route map appears to refigure Europe politically, ignoring last year’s Serbia-Montenegro split and, more bizarrely, turning Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria into one massive new country. 4. When the weather heats up, as it is currently doing, our minds turn to those tiny garden-and-hut plots so often sighted from train windows zipping from city to city throughout German-speaking E...
More About: Garden , List , Maps

The Week of Failed Bids
2007-06-28 17:48:00
On Wednesday, Aeroflot abandoned their effort to purchase a significant stake in Alitalia. Also on Wednesday, Ryanair’s bid for Aer Lingus was blocked by the European Commission. Ryanair has already confirmed that they will contest the European Commission’s decision. Is it time for Ryanair and Aeroflot to reconsider bravado as a strategy? Perhaps, but we doubt the two carriers will take this caution to heart.
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Four for Wednesday
2007-06-27 16:55:00
Photo by Danner Gyde This and that. 1. Today’s Kazakhstan special report in the FT. Summary: oil, Nazarbayev, grand architecture, and, um, oil. 2. Ryanair extends its “lowest price guarantee” through September 30. The guarantee has 11 stipulations. Best of luck. 3. We like Guardian Unlimited’s Czech “beer experiences” top-ten list. At long last, lads and frat boys have been given a legitimate excuse to take a beer bath. 4. Starting August 16, Norwegian Air Shuttle will be flying between Oslo and Moscow three times a week. The cheapest roundtrip fares we’re seeing is NOK2485 (€312; $419). Norwegian’s Oslo-Moscow route ends on October 25.
More About: Wednesday

Tuesday List
2007-06-26 22:10:00
Here. There. And Elsewhere. 1. Europe A La Carte Blog warns of delays at UK airports. Partially to blame: Spain’s new security rules for air passengers, which seem to us to flirt with violating the spirit of Schengen. 2. Italian somewhat low-cost carrier Volare is hawking a €10 discount on all July flights, if booked by July 2. Worth checking out. 3. UK travel gourmand site Black Tomato tell us about Yotel.com, a new airport-based pod-like accommodation featuring tiny cabin-like rooms with en suite showers. A Yotel is about to open at Gatwick’s South Terminal, where rates will begin at £25 for a four-hour stay in a “standard” cabin. The earliest date taken by the Yotel booking engine is July 1.
More About: List , Tuesday

Monarch’s Confidence
2007-06-25 22:06:00
UK low-cost carrier Mona rch is bursting with confidence these days, trumpeting their dominance of the Manchester-Barcelona route to anyone who will listen—a group of people, we suppose, that includes us. After Monarch inaugurated a Manchester-Barcelona service in late 2003, BMIBaby and Iberia—two other players on the route—ceased flying the route. Now Jet2, which began flying between Barcelona and Manchester in March of this year, is also withdrawing its service. While we’ve found Monarch’s “Bargain Hunter” search tool to be more buzzy than useful, the airline deserves props for its free newspapers and hot towel service. Neither amenity tends to show up on the LCC menu all that often.
More About: Confidence , Narc

List: Wizz, Airplane Phones, Pink Night
2007-06-21 22:52:00
New, nasty, and noteworthy. 1. Polish wonder LCC WizzAir announced this week that they’ll open their 7th base in Poznan in January 2008 by launching new routes connecting the western Polish city to Doncaster, Glasgow Prestwick, Malmö, and Oslo. Hot on the heels of that press release, the Wizzers announced today that they’ll inaugurate a Dortmund-Sofia route on October 29. 2. It looks as though cellphone conversations will soon flavor the air in planes zipping across the European Union. We can’t friggin wait. 3. June 30 sees La Notte Rosa celebration sweeping through various towns along Italy’s Adriatic coast, from Lido di Volano north of Comacchio in the north to Cattolica in the south. “Pink Night ” also extends inland to the Republic of San Marino. La Notte Rosa literally turns everything pink. Pink balloons, pink candy, pink cakes, pink flowers, pink flags will all crop up. These towns will be awash in pink. There will also be a massive range o...
More About: Phones , List , Airplane

Budget Travel’s Carbon Offset Digest
2007-06-21 16:22:00
We just devoured the July/August issue of Budget Travel, noting happily Caitlin O’Neil’s story on carbon offset firms. O’Neil’s story points readers toward several different carbon offsetters, going so far as to profile four “recommended” outfits: Atmosfair.de, Carbon Counter.org, ClimateFriendly.com, and NativeEnergy.com. We liked O’Neil’s digest-like coverage of the issues surrounding carbon offsetting. She provides a very useful background for thinking through how to choose an offsetter best in line with your own values. There’s really no longer an available excuse to avoid carbon offsetting, now, is there?
More About: Carbon offset , Digest , Offset

Wednesday: Regional Tourist Sites, Cheap Digs, More
2007-06-20 22:00:00
Photo by Eriol It’s Wednesday , a.k.a. midweek madness freak out day. On our minds: 1. The Tirol tourist site. First of all, there’s no regional tourism logo as timeless as that white-on-red “Tirol, “the dot of the “i” safely lodged in the cross of the “t.” But beyond that, the Tirol tourism site is just so crisp and gorgeous that we’re suddenly, unexpectedly, ready to pack our bags for a summer wander through the Lienz Dolomites. (See Lienz, above. Pee-ritty, right?) 2. Doing research for our upcoming Balkan jaunt, we came across Hotel Park, a Ljubljana hotel that looks like a kick-ass place to rest our Cheap o heads. Hotel Park appears to be characterized by that simple central European modernist feel that makes us limitlessly happy. Plus we like the rates: €60 for a double in high season sounds awfully nice. 3. We’ve mentioned ace Euro budget flight finder flycheapo more than once. We realize that we’ve neglected ...
More About: Regional , Sites , Gion

Move Quickly on TUI’s Super Cheap Fares
2007-06-20 21:17:00
German low-cost carrier TUIfly is offering a bunch of cheap air fares for travel within Germany and from Germany to various points across Europe. Promo fares are good for flights in July and August. The catch? Tix must be purchased by midnight tonight. That’s midnight in Germany. In other words, time is of the essence. There are still many open flights listed at the €19.99 one-way fares. Note that promo fares include taxes.
More About: Super , Move , Cheap , Fare , Ares

Ryanair vs. EasyJet: Fight On
2007-06-19 18:24:00
Today, Ryan air fires off another salvo in its summer price war with easyJet by offering three million one-way flights for just £10 apiece, including all taxes and charges. The three million promotional fares are good for travel in July, August, and September. Meanwhile, through Wednesday, easyJet continues to hawk £14.99 one-way flights good for travel between June 27 and August 15. Ryanair provides a nice list of point-to-point promotional fares, along with various applicable restrictions. Because we like actually locating touted low promotional fares—versus merely knowing about their technical existence—we appreciate Ryanair’s route pricing lists. Easy Jet, note the utility of said front page fare lists.
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Monday List: Beer Fests, Cheap Fares, & More
2007-06-18 22:11:00
Photo by photovienna What’s coming up and closing out? 1. Flycheapo tells us that Spanish low-cost carrier Clickair is set to get rid of check-in altogether. Don’t tell the FAA. 2. The Czech Tourist Authority reminds us that a plethora of beer festivals pop up all over the Czech Republic every summer, most stretching from mid-August through October. For those looking for a beer fest break before August, the Rokytnice nad Jizerou beer festival runs July 20 to 22. 3. You’ve got just one more day to take advantage of Iceland Express’ summer Icebreaker fares. Good for travel through August 31, promotional fares are as inexpensive as €151 (or £102 or SEK1420 among other currencies) per roundtrip, including taxes. The fares are good for travel to Reykjavík from Copenhagen, Eindhoven, Frankfurt Hahn, Gothenberg, Oslo, Paris, and Stockholm. We just did our customary fare check and found many available fares just slightly more expensive than the Icebreaker promo f...
More About: Beer , List , Cheap , Monday , Onda

As of Today…
2007-06-18 16:36:00
…the EuroCheapo blog will take a summer holiday of sorts. We’ll be cutting back blog volume dramatically for the next few months. In the fall, we’ll kick back into high gear with an expanded roster of correspondents. But don’t fret. Even while we’re “on holiday,” we’ll continue to serve up in-house commentary, tips, and analysis. Stay cheap!

List: Friday Four
2007-06-15 18:24:00
Some stuff on our minds as this week draws to close. 1. Ryanair’s new routes in and out of Stockholm’s Skavsta. Ryanair is launching another 13 routes to and from Skavsta. Starting in October, routes between Skavsta and Alicante, Basel, Berlin, Bratislava, Eindhoven, Karlsruhe Baden, Liverpool, Malta, Pisa, Porto, Trapani, and Valencia will kick off. A Skavsta-Salzburg route will commence in December. 2. Melati Cottages, Ubud, Bali. Yes, we know that Bali is far away from Europe, but we returned last Thursday from an amazing week in Bali. Much of what made the week so amazing was our experience at Melati, a friendly guesthouse between Ubud and Penestanan. Located in an idyllic green setting, Melati boasts incredibly friendly and helpful staff, a remarkable in-house masseuse, and lovely breakfasts (we won’t forget that black rice anytime soon.) Double room rates booked online begin at US$29, including taxes. Highly recommended! 3. Check out this handy Ljubljana e...
More About: List , Friday , Frida

France: Fete De La Musique
2007-06-15 17:35:00
Photo by dapop Franc e ’s annual Fete de la Musique takes place on June 21. It’s one of our favourite festivals, a night-long feast of free live music and dance. This year, if you don’t feel like getting down with the crowds you can follow the whole thing from your computer at www.21juin2007.net, a special 24-hour internet radio broadcast from all over the world, complete with videos. For the first time, New York joins the roster of places (in more than 110 countries!) taking part. Practical details: A special “Forfait Fete de la Musique” public transportation ticket will be on sale for €2.50, allowing unlimited use of the Ile de France network from Thursday, June 21 at 5 p.m. until Friday, June 22 at 7 a.m. The program is available on the Fete’s site and it’s massive. In the Ile de France region alone there are 452 scheduled events. Here are a few suggestions for Paris: 1. M° Republique: Acid house DJ Ken Ishii will be at the helm for a hu...
More About: Ique

Better Burgers in Prague
2007-06-15 17:18:00
A few years ago, Mozaika’s burgers were named the best in Prague . Burgers outside of the U.S. are a sensitive subject: think of the role they play in the Whit Stillman film Barcelona, where the burger is symbol of what American can do right. The Mozaika burger may not be the best burger around, but it’s not an embarrassing attempt either. The pros: It’s American sized, if a little sloppy—especially with the creamy mayonnaise topping, which tends to funnel down the edges of the lettuce—and comes with mushrooms, a rather Czech addition to a ground beef patty. The cons: it’s never going to emerge from the kitchen anywhere near medium rare. Sorry. In short, Mozaika is still worth a visit for those hungering for a slab of beef in Prague—think of it as burger outsourcing.
More About: Bett , Urge

2007 Tourism Oscars Go To…Blackpool
2007-06-15 17:13:00
Two hotels in the northern English town of Blackpool were recently awarded two tourism Oscars at the Enjoy England Excellence Awards ceremony. The two Blackpool winners: the Number One Guesthouse (Bed and Breakfast category) and the more upmarket Stanley House (Best Small Hotel of the Year.) Blackpool is certainly worth a visit. Twelve miles of seafront, the famous “Pleasure beach” amusement park, waxworks second only to Madame Tussauds in London, a waterworld and its own zoo, model village, and sealife centre. Plus, the town is well-known for its lively gay and lesbian scene. In September, Blackpool ushers in its Blackpool Illuminations, with its many tableaux of moving pictures all made up of tiny lights. The city’s trams, the only ones still in operation in England, are also festooned with lights.
More About: Tourism , Lack