Europe a la Carte Blog

Welcome to my blog, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

I’d like to introduce you to the new Europe a la Carte bloggers. I asked the bloggers to email me a biography and a photograph. The first posts from the new bloggers will be published next week.

Anna Etmanska is a writer based in Arctic Sweden. She has lived in 8 different countries, visited 57 others and counting. Anna has a black-belt in travelling on a budget and is happy to share her tips with Europe a la Carte. For more info about her, visit her website at www.budgettrouble.com.

Caught up in the moment and the cobblestones, Suchi Rudra Vasquez writes and teaches in Prague, Czech Republic.

I’m Amanda Kendle, I’ve been writing about my travels for some years now, and after living in Germany, Slovakia and Japan, and travelling to almost 40 other countries, I’ve had plenty of fuel. Although I’m now based again in my homeland, Australia, I still pine for Europe and write about it every chance I get it.

Two of my favourite journeys took place in Europe. My most memorable Christmas was in Finnish Lapland, when I got to drive a reindeer sleigh on Christmas Day. And probably the best trip I’ve ever taken was across Russia and down through the Baltic countries, starting on the Trans-Siberian train and then backpacking my way through Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland before settling for a while in Bratislava.

To pay my bills these days, I teach English to foreigners part-time, and write part-time for a collection of blogs, including travel blogs like Jaunted, Vagabondish and Travel Rants. I also edit musings about travel, people and cultural differences at SameSkyMagazine.com and am trying to get some novels completed and published, a struggle I’m documenting at BecomingAFictionWriter.com, especially like seeking out hidden corners of cities and towns and look forward to highlighting some of my favourites on the Europe A La Carte blog.

Jacinta Lodge is an Australian expat located in Berlin, Germany. She is a freelance writer, freelance scientist, freelance embroiderer and freelance tourist, and thinks that life probably couldn’t get much better. When not kicking back in the world’s coolest city, she jaunts around Europe in a thirty year old VW bus in the company of a sarcasm-challenged German and a mongrel dog. You can contact her on jacintalodge at yahoo.com

I’ve decided to take the plunge and feature content from other travel bloggers on a regular basis on the Europe a la Carte blog. It’s a difficult step for me to take as I written my own content for my European travel site for the last 6 years. However I believe to take the blog to the next level, I can’t realistically write all the content myself.

I advertised for Europe travel bloggers on the Performancing site and have had a good response. It’s really important that the relationship between the Europe a la Carte blog and the contributing authors is mutually beneficial. I’m looking for quality content for the blog and the authors are looking for exposure for their writing and some financial reward. The contributing authors’ posts need to fit in with the Europe a la Carte blog strap line of “authentic travel in Europe on a modest budget” but also reflect the personality and talents of the various authors.

So look forward to some great new content on the Europe a la Carte blog to inform, inspire and entertain you if you want to see more of the real Europe beyond the usual tourist attractions.

photo by dullhunk

You may have heard of Ruinair an ever expanding low cost Irish airline renowned for its customer service. Well the Irish author Paul Kilfuff had such a memorable taste of this customer service with a ten hour delay on a not so low cost 300 euro flight to Malaga that he hatched a cunning plan to exact his revenge on RuinAir by flying to as many RuinAir destinations as possible for the same total outlay of 300 euros.

The Europe a la Carte blog is one of Paul’s stops on his virtual book tour.

1 On balance would you say that the growth of RuinAir has been a positive or negative thing for travellers?

i would say it is a very positive thing for travellers, since we now have lower fares, more choice of destinations, more choice of departure times and more choice with new airlines springing up all the time to join the new low fares air travel industry. the downsides are on the environment, falling standards of passenger service on many airlines and the loss of jobs as the flag carriers downsize or go bust eg Sabena, Alitalia.

2 Do you agree that all publicity is good publicity as you are giving RuinAir a lot of (I assume) free publicity?

Yes I agree and so does the Ruinair CEO Micheal O’Leary who said that; ‘There is no such thing as bad publicity, as long as it is not safety related.’ I do think there must be some readers who finish my book and then go off to book a flight on Ruinair. It’s well known that bookings on easyJet spike up immediately after the ‘Airline’ programme is shown on ITV, often just minutes after the programme ends on the TV at 8.30 pm!

3 When I started reading the book I laughed so much that I couldn’t read but as I progressed I became slightly tired of the constant haranguing of RuinAir and thought that it was really too much of thesame to sustain a whole book. Did you consider this issue when planning the book?

Thank you for the positve feedback! some people ask me if the anecdotes and quotations are real and i say yes they all are. I dont think there can ever be too much constant haranguing of Ruinair ever, since they are the most miserable airline I have travelled on. also about 1/3rd of the book is about flying on other airlines such as easyJet, Air Belrin, Clickair, Vueling, Myair so i hope this gives some variety. I think also that when i travelled first on Ruinair i was neutral, but after 25 return trips on 2 years I was almost suicidal. I get emails from readers and to date 95% of them agree with my views on the airline and very few say i went over the top in the book. if you travel more on Ruinair, you may share my view!

4 Did you believe that your book would sell well at airports, especially popular to pass the time for delayed RuinAir passengers? Perhaps you could give some complimentary copies for RuinAir to distribute to delayed passengers, good publicity for Ruinair and for your book?

Yes i always thought it would sell very well in airports. the book was the no. 1 non fiction bestseller in ireland for 9 weeks and books sales in Irish airport shops like Hughes & Hughes were a huge factor in this success. i think many people now buy their books in airports, not on the high street or online. I though about a sort of PR stunt with free copies in airports but airports have strict rules on PR work on their sites. i do always carry a copy to give to other passengers if we get chatting about Ruinair the airline. So if you see on my travels, do stop me and ask.

5 Are you concerned about the environmental impact of encouraging passengers “to get even by buying a one cent ticket” i.e taking trips for the sake of it? I think it would be better to add don’t book your hotels, car hire, travel insurance etc through the RuinAir site as I’ve
always found hotels and car hire cheaper using price comparison sites and/or other websites.

i do have some concerns about the environmental impact of flying often but as Micheal O’Leary says: ‘The eco-nutbags blame us for melting the icecaps, war, pestilence and the Sars epidemic when, in reality, the factual information from the EU Environment Agency is that aviation accounts for 2% of greenhouse gas emissions and of CO2 emissions in the EU. If everybody stopped flying for the next 12 months and CO2 levels fell by 2%, it would represent less than the oil and coal-fired stations to be opened by the Chinese in the next 12 months.’ I think you are 100% correct about finding better value other than using the Ruinair web site and I might cover this in the sequel book about travels in Eastern Europe ‘Ruinairski’. I think i tried to avoid ‘Which’ style consumer affairs type topics in the book.

6 Why are you so anti French? I’ve travelled to France many times and found all the French people I encountered to be charming and helpful but then I do attempt to speak some French.

I am sorry that i came across as anti-French. In fact i tried to have a go at most nations in Europe so I am sorry if France came off worse, and this type of behaviour has never done Jeremy Clarkson’s books sales any damage in the past! Its just that I never had a good time in Paris. Aussi, je parle un peu Francais.

7 Have your ever encountered a friendly, smiling, helpful member of cabin crew on a RuinAir flight?

Yes, I have encountered a maximum of one per flight but never all 4 of the cabin crew. It’s an awful job with huge stress so i dont blame them. They must be all saints to work for an airline like that for a salary like that with those hours. If i was them I would go get a job with easyJet.

My comments - Thanks very much for answering my questions, Paul. I have flown with RuinAir on at least eight return flights.. I’ve only had one flight delay from Stansted to Glasgow Prestwick, all the other flights have arrived early. As I generally travel mid week off peak the planes haven’t been to full. I just don’t join in the scrum to get onboard I bring up the rear and take an aisle seat.

I think that Michael O’Leary would probably be willing to distribute some copies of RuinAir onboard, perhaps as prizes for the passengers who manage to push and trample their way onto the plane first and one for the surliest crew member during the flight.

I flew with Easyjet for the first time recently and I did find that the cabin crew more amiable than those I’ve encountered on RuinAir flights.

Have you read the book, does it accurately describe your experience of RuinAir?

I saw a well known travel site asking for submissions on travel in Europe on a budget of around $100 a day per person so I pitched an article I’d written for my travel site giving advice and a costing breakdown for a stay in Edinburgh on a daily budget of £50 sterling (approx $100) per person based on two travellers sharing a room. I received a reply from the editor saying that although my article offered good advice, it’s wasn’t written with search engines in mind and didn’t have a unique, fresh or zany angle which would be tagged on social media sites.

Now I can take rejection and I don’t think I’m a fantastic writer and any site I approach should be desperate to publish my material. I can see it from the editor’s perspective, he runs a site with high traffic and knows what he’s talking about. So basically I should write material which is key word stuffed and written for a search engine more than for a human or something quirky to get attention in social media sites. Or if I’m very clever combine the two.

Well there’s no point is trying to peddle boring good advice intended for humans versus machines, I’d better read up on search engine optimisation and keywords and try something a bit wacky to get noticed.

Now I’m not so sure when I’ve seen spikes in my traffic when an article or blog post is featured on a social network site such as Stumbleupon but although traffic increased there was no corresponding increase in revenue either through clicking on ads or affiliate links. An increase in traffic may be of value to a site which sells advertising on a CPM (fee for 1000 page views) basis but for me it’s pointless if it leads to no increase in revenue.

Maybe websites are so busy trying to grab readers attention and get highly ranked on social media sites that they are forgetting what the readers want, which in some cases may be good advice?

I’ve often thought it would be great to have a social news site solely for travel and here it is Travel off the Cuff. On a social news network like Digg or Stumbleupon readers can submit articles that they like and members of the social news site can vote on the articles that they like.  Articles with a lot of votes are listed near the top of the page.  Travel off the Cuff’s founder, Mark writes a blog about his travel experiences for the site.

I like the ethos of the site that you can have a “great trip without having to plan every minute of the day”. Of course there is planning involved in putting together your trip. I believe that you should leave time for spontaneity and wandering around, not have an itinerary that is so crammed that you end not seeing anything properly as you dash around. I hope that the articles on the site will encourage this attitude to travelling.

I’ll be visiting Travel off the Cuff over the next few weeks to vote and comment on stories that appeal to me and submitting stories which I think deserve some publicity.

I’ve been the editor of the Wandalust UK travel blog for around one month now. I have to say it seems a lot longer. In an earlier post I reasoned that, “writing for another travel related blog would be a good way to enhance my profile and reputation and increase visitor numbers to my site and blog.” It certainly isn’t for the money at $140 a month for 5 posts a week.

It’s been quite a commitment to write 5 posts a week for Wandalust in addition to running my own travel site and blog. Although I’m only required to write posts of 70 words with one link and one image, I don’t generally word count. If I write for Wandalust to raise my profile I have to write quality posts.

The problem with my aim is that it’s pretty difficult to measure the impact of writing for Wandalust on my profile or to a directly attributable increase in visitors. I’m coming to the conclusion that “Karen Bryan” is as viable a brand as a travel blogger and writer as “Europe a la Carte” is as a brand for a website and blog about travel in Europe. This just makes any evaluation even more complex.

So far here are my thoughts:

Postives:

1 The ability to write about any travel related topic and destination not being limited to travel in Europe on modest budget, greatly increasing my knowledge and experience as a travel blogger.

2 Making useful contacts with other bloggers who may take me more seriously if I’m the editor of two travel blogs. Being taken on as an editor of another travel blog is rather different to blogging for your own travel business.

3 Visitor numbers to my blog have increased by more than 30 % over the last month but I can’t quantify exactly how much of this is attributable to Wandalust. Yes I can see direct referrals from Wandalust in my stats but there may be more disguised traffic.

Negatives:

1 The awful Movable Type blogging software is cumbersome to use and unreliable.

2 The flashing, irrelevant banner ads in the sidebar detract from my posts. One day there was a large cigarette in an flashing banner ad for smoking cessation aids a major distraction from the photos in my posts.

3 Time spent researching and composing posts and grappling with Moveable Type that I could spent on my own travel business and blog.

I’d welcome any feedback or observations you may have.

Travel Rants has been award Best UK Travel Blog in the Travolution Awards 2008. It’s a well deserved accolade for Travel Rants editor, Darren Cronian. Travel Rants is the UK’s only independent travel consumer blog. There are a multitude of concerns for UK travel consumers with recent posts about airlines thinking of charging extra for window and aisle seats, the hazards of travelling without adequate insurance and road testing of travel booking websites. Darren has intervened to assist some consumers by contacting the holiday companies concerned on behalf of the consumer.

Congratulations Darren and keep up the good work.

I was hoping to gain some insight into “What readers want from a travel blog?” from last night live blog. However although the live blog was a really interesting and informative discussion between travel bloggers, there was no input from travel blog readers. Maybe the event didn’t get enough publicity. There were 20 viewers at the event and the couple of viewers who made comments were bloggers. Perhaps a few of the other viewers were travel blog readers who didn’t wish to make comments.

The majority of visitors to my Europe a la Carte blog come through search engines and appear to be interested in reading about the specific topic about which they are searching. I’m not sure if readers want to subscribe to blogs and receive every post leading to being b(l)ogged down by information overload. I also think that many readers aren’t aware of blog subscription.

There’s also the misconception that blogs are the online outpourings of teenage geeks rather than a type of online magazine. Travel blogs can also be interpreted as travelogues i.e. a personal trip diary of a travellers. Would we travel bloggers be better christening our blogs “online travel magazines” rather than “travel blogs”? |t could be that readers will be more willing to subscribe to a magazine that to a blog.

My blog is an extension of my online travel business, a way of promoting the business. Personally I’m not too obsessed by the number of subscribers to my blog or even the number of page views. It’s how many visitors are converted into buyers of accommodation, car hire etc and/or click on the ads, whether than be on the blog itself or on the main site. generating income for me, that is of importance to me.

In conclusion to answer my question “What do readers want from a travel blog?” - useful, relevant and entertaining posts to fulfill the readers current desire, whether that be armchair travelling, information about a destination, insightful commentary, inspiration, beautiful photos, travel trips or offers. So no easy answers for travel bloggers.

You could argue it’s wise to write a niche blog eg concentrating on luxury travel, a specific destination but then some readers may prefer a blog, sorry should I say online magazine, which covers various aspects of travel. I suppose I fall into both camps, my Europe a la Carte blog focuses on authentic travel in Europe on a modest budget, although that still gives me an awful lot ot cover. The other blog for which I write, Wandalust aims to inspire people to develop the irresistibly strong desire to travel, well that could be anything and anywhere.

You’re invited to tonight’s live blog featuring 5 travel blogger panelists discussing “What readers want from a travel blog”. You just need to come to this post at 8pm British Summer Time, which is one hour in advance of Greenwich Mean Time (here’s a link to check the time in your time zone). The console below will go live and you can follow the discussion and make comments or pose questions to the panelist. You can read about the panelists below.

I’m Karen Bryan, creator of the Europe a la Carte blog, hosting tonight’s event. I’ll be moderating tonight’s live blog. My travel business Europe a la Carte features authentic travel in Europe on a modest budget. I started a blog for my travel business in October 2006. I try to make my posts useful, informative and entertaining for readers who want to see more of the real Europe, beyond the well worn tourist track. I recently started as the editor of Wandalust a UK travel blog.

I’ve listed the panelist in alphabetical order of their first names. I asked the panelists to email my their own introduction.

David Stanley is the author of Moon Handbooks South Pacific, Moon Fiji, and Moon Tahiti, published by Avalon Travel Publishing of Berkeley, California. His South Pacific travel blog is intended to provide updates to his printed guidebooks and to discuss issues of interest to Pacific travelers.

Gil Zeimer is an accomplished travel writer, advertising wordsmith and globetrotter. His true passion is his role as lead editor/writer of www.Vagablond.com, a luxury travel blog focusing on travel, food, wine and shopping. Since the site’s launch in April 2005, Gil has crafted over 1,325 stories and acted as catalyst for Vagablond’s position as the online resource for luxury travel with highly entertaining content.

Hi, my name is Jeanne from Soultravelers3. We are 20 months into an open ended, multi-year trip around the world as a family on a tight budget & we blog/vlog about our adventures and collaborate with other readers, travelers, teachers, schools, and homeschoolers around the world. We retired early and also share how-to information about that, mobile global living, e-education & homeschooling while traveling, budget family travel and RVing in Europe and world wide. This year we are excited about bringing a few classrooms of disadvantaged children in NYC and Chicago along with us virtually!

I’m Sebastien Tobler, I believe that my blog Colliding Continents offers a true travelers perspective that strays from the beaten path. I think that my experiences around the world can help people find a more qualitative approach to traveling. Having lived in a significant amount of countries throughout my life I find that there are ways to better assimilate with the cultures you live in/are visiting instead of maintaining an outsider’s perspective.

Tom Meyers is the founder and the Editor-in-Chief of EuroCheapo.com. EuroCheapo’s mission is to make travelers’ time in Europe affordable and memorable. EuroCheapo’s editors have scoured Europe’s most popular cities to find hotels that are both welcoming and wallet-friendly. The hotels EuroCheapo recommends are perfect places to settle in for a few days while exploring cities, interacting with locals and learning about the places you’re visiting. EuroCheapo’s budget travel blog includes daily posts containing advice and insider information for saving money while traveling. The EuroCheapo blog focuses on areas that are most likely to impact travel budgets, including hotels, budget airlines and alternative transportation options, and the occasional restaurant recommendation.

If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like running your own web based business, you can read my everyday agonies and ecstasies running my travel website and blog on Twiiter. Share in my daily frustrations with IT, my joy when I get publicity or positive feedback. Have a laugh with me when things go array, like when I misspelled budget travel as “bodget” travel on a live blog. Perhaps I could diversify into writing a sit-com entitled “Bodget Travel”. Read about the moment when divine inspiration strikes and I try a new ploy to develop the business or I suddenly work out how to master the latest IT gizmo like blog widgets.

Divine Inspiration by azrainman

I started my travel business Europe a la Carte in 2002 to promote authentic travel in Europe on a modest budget. I believe that if you venture, even slightly, off the beaten track, you’ll see more of the real Europe. My site features guides to less well known European destinations. I started the Europe a la Carte blog in October 2006 and write about travel news, tips and advice, travel deals, accommodation and restaurant reviews.

Things recently moved up a gear for me when I started the editor of the Wandalust UK travel blog, where I’ve to write five posts a week. It’s getting even harder trying to fit everything in - my travel business and blog, my part time day job as a social research interviewer and having some time for family and friends.

Well certainly life is never dull as an internet entrepreneur and blogger, so if you are already a Twitterer you can follow me or you can sign up to Twitter and start receiving my “Everyday agony & ecstasy of a non techie Scot running a travel website and blog” updates.

PS I’ve been trying to add my Twitter badge to this post but in keeping with being a non techie, I can’t get the code to work in a blog post. The code works fine the margin of the home of Europe a la Carte but apparently not in a blog post.