Europe a la Carte

I started Europe a la Carte in July 2002. I've always loved travelling in Europe, the Internet was really catching on and I thought that it would allow me to gain some market exposure, even as a small fish. I also thought it would be wonderful to work in a field in which I had a great personal interest.

I soon realised that I would have to find a niche market as I could not compete with the large travel companies in selling airline tickets or accommodation in popular destinations such as Paris or Venice. I knew that a significant minority of travellers were starting to put together their own holidays especially with the growth of the low cost airlines. I started to specialise in less well known destinations in Europe. My rationale was that if you venture, even slightly, off the well worn tourist track, you can get a more authentic flavour of your destination. I discovered that the best way to promote the business was to write destination guides and then have these published on as many other relevant sites as possible.

I started a blog in the Autumn of 2006 in which I feature European travel deals, accommodation, reviews, tips and news. The blog has been a great way of marketting the bsuiness.

The site had a makeover for the start of 2008 with the installation of a content managment system making it much easier to navigate around the site.