Europe a la Carte Blog

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Easyjet is offering free carriage of skis on flights if you book by 14 October 2008 and enter the discount code SKIEASY0809 when you are in the 2nd stage of online booking at the sports equipment section.

Sounds like a pretty good offer if you find a cheap flight from and to your preferred airports with Easjet. At present some airlines like British Airways don’t charge extra for ski carriage but that could change soon as BA is looking at following the low cost airlines lead and making additional charges for carriage of sports equipment.

Ryanair are offering £1 flights from the UK to destinations all over Europe. I’ve checked and there is some availability of the £1 flights. I found flights from Edinburgh to Pisa and Newcastle to Girona during the second half of November for £1 total charge if:

1 You pay by Visa Electron there is no card handling fee, there’s a £4 charge for other debit and credit cards

2 You only take hand luggage and check in online

3 You travel Monday - Thursday

4 You book 14 days in advance

Leaning Tower of Pisa

The £1 flights are on sale until Sunday 5 October 2008 for flights from 15 October - 16 December 2008 with blackout during the October school holidays.

Good - reasonable rates (£35 for a single room on Saturday in September 2008), friendly staff, spacious, comfortable rooms, good breakfast, free upgrade to twin room.

Bad - my bedroom appeared to have boxed in plumbing pipes which meant every time water was used in my room and an adjacent room that it was quite noisy. Breakfast was a a bit chaotic.

Score out of 10 - 7

Glenfarg Hotel

I stayed Glenfarg Hotel, near Perth, for one night on Saturday 20 September 2008. I wanted to stay in that area so searched for accommodation in that area on the HotelsCombined price comparison site. The best rate I found was at the Glenfarg Hotel on the Skoosh site for £35, I had to pay the full amount on booking. I checked on the hotel’s own website and the price quoted was £47.

The Glenfarg Hotel is situated in the village of Glenfarg, close to the M90 motorway, around 10 miles south of Perth. It’s a good location to explore Perthshire, Fife and Dundee.

I was upgraded to a twin room with a window to the side of the hotel. The room was large, with new matching curtains and bedspreads. The bathroom was a bit old fashioned. The main problem I had with the room was the noise from plumbing as pipes appeared to be boxed in down the wall at the side of the room.

It was very busy at breakfast and the buffet wasn’t fully stocked there was no milk for the cereal, orange juice or coffee in the flask at one point. I can’t understand why some hotels have their tea and coffee in flasks bringing a tea or coffee pot to your table. However the cooked breakfast was good quality and freshly cooked.

The reception staff were extremely helpful when I asked for local directions on departure.

Overall I enjoyed my stay at the Glenfarg Hotel, it was comfortable and clean with a relaxed friendly atmosphere at a good price. Fortunately the noisy plumbing didn’t disturb my sleep. The hotel needs to be better organised for breakfast.

Photo by Andrew Hayes

When travelling, it can be so difficult to find an inexpensive place to eat without suffering quality. That’s why I would like to recommend a ‘best cheap eats award’ (that is just a technical term for ‘one of my favourite restaurants’) to the Tempting Tattie in Edinburgh. Located just off the Royal Mile on Jeffreys Street, the central location makes for a quick and easy stop in on the way home to your hotel or hostel or just before you go out for a night on the town. The folk inside this ‘wee’ shop serve up baked potatoes with enough toppings to feed a family of four! The largest potato is just around £5, which is excellent value for the amount of food – and indeed, all of the toppings are fresh and tasty. Go traditional and order the haggis and cheese; if that seems too much for you, try the lighter options such as tuna salad or pineapple. The service is extremely friendly and sociable; you will find many a local in here stopping for a chat or just to say hello.

There are only a couple of barstools in the window, but this is a great place to sit and watch the world go by. It is also a great place for those travelling alone to dine and not feel uncomfortable. Otherwise, if the weather is suitable, grab yours takeaway and head down the Royal Mile to Dunbar’s Close (just past the Tolbooth Tavern and the church on your left-hand side) and enjoy some alfresco dining on one of the lovely benches.

For recommendations of what to do and see in Edinburgh, be sure to check out the Europe A La Carte Edinburgh guide.

Good - great value at the Saver rate of £29 per room if you book at least 7 days in advance. Five minutes walk from Haymarket rail station and 2 minutes from bus stop, a ten minute walk from Princes Street.

Bad - very difficult to find parking nearby as it’s mainly residents parking bays. The large bedrooms and bathrooms may be rather chilly in Winter.

Rating out of 10 - 9 (at £29 Saver rate)

I stayed on a night at the Edinburgh Haymarket Travelodge on Sunday 31 August 2008. I booked online on the 13 August at the Saver rate of £29, non refundable and payable up front. This rate was for a family room which could sleep up to 2 adults and 2 kids.

I was allocated a room on the lower ground floor facing the back of the hotel. I was happy with the location of my room as it was very quiet. There are major diversions in Haymarket at present due to the construction of the new Edinburgh tram lines and the traffic currently passes in front to the hotel. My room was very spacious and did look pretty spartan with the basic furniture. As it’s an older building the rooms are of varying sizes and layouts. I’m not convinced that the small electric heater would suffice during a cold spell, especially as there is no heating in the bathroom.

It was impossible to find a metered parking place close to the hotel as the vast majority of parking is set aside for residents. I drove down the main road toward Murrayfield and turned first left into Stanhope Place where there are several metered parking spaces at a charge of 70 pence per hour charged from 8.30 until 17.30. It took around 10 minutes to walk back to the hotel from here. However unless your hotel offers free on site parking, parking is always going to be a issue with a city centre hotel in Edinburgh.

This Travelodge does offer a cooked breakfast. If you book online in advance the price is £6.75, otherwise it’s £7.50. Kids eat free with paying adults, so it’s a good deal for a family if 4 can have breakfast for £13.50. You can also book a two course dinner online in advance for £8.

In summary if you want to stay in central Edinburgh at a very low price, the Edinburgh Haymarket is a good bet if you book in advance outside peak season. Travelodge have 2 other hotels in the city centre Edinburgh Central, just off the Royal Mile and Edinburgh West End close to the Gallery of Modern Art and the Water of Leith Walkway.

Skyways, a Swedish budget airline operating out of Arlanda airport in Stockholm, is rumoured to be shutting down its Arlanda-based operations and cutting down routes. It’s believed that the airline will still fly out of Stockholm-Arlanda to Karlstad, Visby, Halmstad, Jönköping, Växjö and Kristianstad (domestic routes), as well as continue the connection between Karlstad and Copenhagen (Denmark).

photo: Skyways.se

According to the info from Arlanda (from the horse’s mouth so to speak, someone just texted it to me after talking to a Skyways employee) 70 pilots and about 30 cabin staff are expected to lose their jobs.

The future of Skyways routes to northern Sweden is uncertain, which is a pity as the airline serves some truly unique and hard to reach destinations, including several ski resorts. So if you plan to go skiing in Sweden this season, you should perhaps be cautious and book your flight on a different carrier. Better to be safe and pay more than be stuck at the airport later on.

Bizarrely, I can’t find any new press releases on the airline’s website regarding this new development. The information I have comes from a Skyways pilot at Arlanda airport in Stockholm and a local Swedish newspaper. Are things over at Skyways really THAT bad they don’t have anyone left on staff to update their website?

So it looks like Skyways has become yet another casualty of high fuel prices.

Who’s next?

Iceland Express will offer 3,000 tickets from London Stansted to the Icelandic capitall Reykjavik for only £60 including taxes for one day only, Monday 1 September 2008. Tickets will be available on selected flights and dates. You must book online on 1 September and complete your travel between 15 September 2008 and 31 March 2009.

Sunset in Iceland

There’s no mention of £60 flights for your return flight but evidently prices start from £90 so looks like the cheapest possible return flight would cost £150.

One thing I liked about Iceland Express is that they offer a 50% reduction for children under 12 years of age travelling with an adult. The site also has an interesting blog.

Take to the Skies - Copyright Andrew Hayes

Sometimes, I tend to over-analyse things. This is usually the case when I am searching for cheap airfare! I previously reported my thoughts on Dutch website cheaptickets.nl but I do have another trick up my sleeve. Kayak is a slick and easy-to-use website that allows endless amounts of manipulation to your search results to help you find endless possibilities of flight combinations. I have yet to figure out why they called it Kayak, though. Maybe because it glides easily through the airline reservation systems? Or because it is a tool that is simple, easy, and does exactly what you expect?

Good

- Multilingual service (English, German, French, Spanish, Italian)

- Easy to use controls allow you to select flights within certain timeframes or airline alliances

- Has ‘weekend’ getaway search option

- Flight Buzz section with up-to-the-minute deals

Bad

- Depending on which flight you choose, you might have to register at a new site to actually book (Kayak does not do any of the bookings, they are merely a screening tool.)

Rating out of 10: 9.5

You start but simply defining your search criteria, and then you will quickly be presented with a large amount of results. Then you can use the Filters on the left side of the screen to easily narrow down your choices by Number of Stops, Airline Alliance, Flight Times, Aircraft Type, Trip Duration, or Price Band. It may sound like a lot of choice but really it is easy! Each result has all the necessary details on-screen but by clicking the ‘details’ link, additional information is displayed. You can even click on a flight that you definitely want and it will reconfigure to show all the flights that will pair up with the one you chose. When you are done, click the airfare link and you will be taken to the corresponding website for booking.

Before you buy, be sure to check out our other air travel tips on Europe A La Carte.

SAS have flights from London to Stockholm from £56 and if you arrive during August you qualify for a free 5 day Island Hopper tickets which allows unlimited travel on the ferries of the Stockholm Archipelago. The Hopper Ticket usually costs 340 SEK around £28.

I did a search for availability of the offer price flights departing London on 20 August 2008 and returning on Monday 25 August. The price was £125 for the return flight. However I looked on the Ryanair site for flights on these dates and found a Ryanair flight to Stockholm for around £50 but you have to consider the airports used and the time and expense getting too and from the airport.

It just highlights that you shouldn’t be too impressed when you see a special offer, it’s always worth spending some time looking at alternatives but do weigh up factors such as convenience too.

Having just booked some of my autumn holidays and enjoying Karen’s review on holiday.co.uk, I just realised that my preferred airline ticketing website is probably a bit obscure to many of our readers. Having lived in the Netherlands for many years, I have picked up a trick or two from the locals about getting a deal, and the website Cheaptickets.nl was probably one of the best tips I took with me to Edinburgh. Lucky for you, the website is now available in English but with the same great fares as before. Keep in mind, fares are quoted in Euros so be mind full of the ever-fluctuating currency rates, as noted in Karen’s recent post about the drop in the value of sterling against the Euro encouraging more Eurolanders to visit the UK

Rome Awaits - Copyright Andrew Hayes

Good

• Seamless displays of traditional airlines as well as low cost carriers, excellent for those localised services that you might not even be aware of
• Consistently competitive fares (although it wouldn’t be on here otherwise, right?)

Bad

• Not able to select individual flights and recalculate fare
• ‘Deals’ section highlighting destinations with super-low fares that are actually available don’t always apply to your home airport

Rating out of 10: 9

If you are worried about the Euros, you can at at least use the site to get a feeling for the flight schedules and airlines available for your journey. I have found flight options here that did not readily appear on other sites.

I tried a search for an Edinburgh-Rome return ticket for the first week of October. As fares rise and fall on a constant basis, you might have different results, but mine included:

- eBookers.com: from £219

- Expedia.co.uk: from £204

- Cheaptickets.nl: from £197 (1 GBP = 1.25 EUR)

So, not saving a huge amount in this instance, but if you really need to squeeze your pennies, it is always good to have another option. Do you know of other country-specific travel portals with great fares or good travel information that are translated in English?

Roman Vines - Copyright Andrew Hayes