Posted by admin on August 13, 2008 under Europe Accommodation | 
Welcome to my blog, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
Haus der Musik, Vienna
While a lot of travellers seem to be shying away from museums these days - someone seems to have told them you don’t “have to” visit museums to see a city - one that I highly recommend in Vienna is the Haus der Musik (House of Music), also known as the Sound Museum.
It’s the kind of place with something for everyone - rock and pop music lovers, classical music afficionados, and anyone who likes playing with stuff that makes noise. Since I’m interested in pretty much everything, then the more educational side with displays about Austrian composers was great, but I also liked the hands-on floor - if you’ve ever wondered what a cow mooing in a cathedral would sound like, this is the place to find out. There’s also a great exhibit where you can try your hand at being a “virtual conductor” of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, which I discovered is a whole lot harder than it looks.
Haus der Musik is right in the centre and it’s unusual for a museum in that it stays open until 10pm each day, so it’s something you can fit in after an early dinner. Entry fees are a pretty reasonable 10 Euro per adult. They sometimes hold concerts there too, so check the website in advance of your visit.
Photo: manicato via Creative Commons
Share and Enjoy:
Copyright © Europe A La Carte
Posted by admin on August 3, 2008 under Europe Accommodation |
Gourmet Glasgow launches tomorrow Monday 4 August 2008 and runs until 31 August. During this period you can enjoy ВЈ15 per head dining deals at some of Glasgow’s best restaurants. If you book online you’ll also receive a free dram of Auchentoshan Single Malt Scotch Whisky. There are also event nights such as the Buccleuch Beef Night, Shellfish Evening and Dine around France.
Deep fried Mars Bar
Glasgow is keen to ditch the image of fish suppers and deep fried Mars Bars washed down with Irn Bru to project a more sophisticated culinary image.
Share and Enjoy:
Copyright © Europe A La Carte
Posted by admin on under Europe Accommodation |
Welcome to my blog, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
A new travel video site, Tripfilms.com is offering you the opportunity to be awarded a $500 travel stipend, free accommodation and $25 for each video you upload in their TripVlogger scheme. There’s also the possibility to progress to being a Tripfilms Pro Filmmaker.
Sounds very tempting but I reckon that you’ll have to show quite a bit of potential in the videos that you initially upload before you’ll be considered as a TripVlogger. I’d also check the small print to check when the expenses are paid.
I noticed that when I watched videos on the site that relevant travel deals ads appear at the bottom of the video, so obviously Tripfilms want great videos which will be watched by many would be travellers who will be interested in booking the travel deals. Film makers can earn a $25 Amazon or iTunes voucher for 1,000 views of their video up to a maximum of five vouchers.
Share and Enjoy:
Sounds very tempting but I reckon that you’ll have to show quite a bit of potential in the videos that you initially upload before you’ll be considered as a TripVlogger. I’d also check the small print to check when the expenses are paid.
I noticed that when I watched videos on the site that relevant travel deals ads appear at the bottom of the video, so obviously Tripfilms want great videos which will be watched by many would be travellers who will be interested in booking the travel deals. Film makers can earn a $25 Amazon or iTunes voucher for 1,000 views of their video up to a maximum of five vouchers.
Share and Enjoy:
Copyright © Europe A La Carte
Posted by admin on July 18, 2008 under Europe Accommodation |
Welcome to my blog, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
Could this be a crowd pulling addition to Cologne’s reputation as an art city? The Ford factory in Cologne has metamorphosised into the Love Factory with a colourful paint job to celebrate the launch of the new Fiesta.
The Love Factory, Cologne
Well visitors are always looking for something different to do, so why not an art tour of an industrial estate? The adjacent factories and their employees will be feeling very dowdy and forlorn and demanding that their premises be loved up too.
Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.
The Love Factory, Cologne
Well visitors are always looking for something different to do, so why not an art tour of an industrial estate? The adjacent factories and their employees will be feeling very dowdy and forlorn and demanding that their premises be loved up too.
Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.
Copyright © Europe A La Carte
Posted by admin on under Europe Accommodation |
Welcome to my blog, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
I’ve eaten lunch many times over the last few years at The Grange Restaurant, 35 High St, North Berwick tel 01820 893344. The three course lunch menu costs ВЈ9.95. The dishes are freshly prepared using local produce. It’s a delicious lunch at a very reasonable price.
There’s always a good choice on the lunch menu with at least four dishes for each course. Last time I was there I had the broccoli and Stilton soup as a starter, monk fish as a main course and chocolate torte to finish. The food is beautifully presented and the staff are charming.
North Berwick with the Bass Rock in the background
North Berwick makes a great day out from Edinburgh. It lies on the coast of East Lothian, around 25 miles east of Edinburgh. There is a frequent rail service from Edinburgh to North Berwick.
Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.
North Berwick with the Bass Rock in the background
North Berwick makes a great day out from Edinburgh. It lies on the coast of East Lothian, around 25 miles east of Edinburgh. There is a frequent rail service from Edinburgh to North Berwick.
Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.
Copyright © Europe A La Carte
Posted by admin on under Europe Accommodation |
Welcome to my blog, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
Very popular with local tourists, but yet to make it onto the wider tourist radar, Bojnice Castle in western Slovakia is the kind of place where you just have to take dozens of photographs.
Some people have told me that Bojnice Castle inspired the Cinderella Castle in Disneyland - I’ve got no idea if it’s true, and there are certainly some similarities, but Bojnice is even better because it’s real. It also has a fascinating history, starting out as a Bendectine monastery in the 12th century, and then belonging to the Palffy family for several hundred years - Count Palffy’s life was the inspiration for a few of the many ghost stories that get told about the castle.
To get inside you have to go on a tour but it’s reasonably priced at 160 Koruna, and you can usually get on an English tour (they said you should book ahead, but you can also turn up and be lucky!). If the inside furnishings of a castle don’t thrill you, then just head out to Bojnice to admire the outside and make sure you walk right the way round to get all the great views. You can reach Bojnice in less than two hours from Bratislava.
Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.
Very popular with local tourists, but yet to make it onto the wider tourist radar, Bojnice Castle in western Slovakia is the kind of place where you just have to take dozens of photographs.
Some people have told me that Bojnice Castle inspired the Cinderella Castle in Disneyland - I’ve got no idea if it’s true, and there are certainly some similarities, but Bojnice is even better because it’s real. It also has a fascinating history, starting out as a Bendectine monastery in the 12th century, and then belonging to the Palffy family for several hundred years - Count Palffy’s life was the inspiration for a few of the many ghost stories that get told about the castle.
To get inside you have to go on a tour but it’s reasonably priced at 160 Koruna, and you can usually get on an English tour (they said you should book ahead, but you can also turn up and be lucky!). If the inside furnishings of a castle don’t thrill you, then just head out to Bojnice to admire the outside and make sure you walk right the way round to get all the great views. You can reach Bojnice in less than two hours from Bratislava.
Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.
Copyright © Europe A La Carte
Posted by admin on under Europe Accommodation |
Welcome to my blog, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
Has travel insurances gone bananas? Well Quotebanana.co.uk appear to think that a zany name is going to attract buyers of travel insurance with a strapline of “Don’t monkey around, pick the best of the bunch”. I hesitate to call Quotebanana a price comparison site as it predominately features insurance companies which are part of the AA group of companies. However I decided to give it a go for annual travel insurance in Europe for a couple. The cheapest quote of ВЈ59.10 was with Only Insurance.
I did a search with Direct-Travel.co.uk, from whom I purchased our European annual policy and it was priced at ВЈ46. The morale of the story - it’s always worth shopping around on more than one site and checking exactly what is covered by a policy, payout limits and excesses.
photo by Darren Hester
Posted by admin on under Europe Accommodation |
Welcome to my blog, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
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 ВЈ219
- Expedia.co.uk: from ВЈ204
- Cheaptickets.nl: from ВЈ197 (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?
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 ВЈ219
- Expedia.co.uk: from ВЈ204
- Cheaptickets.nl: from ВЈ197 (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
Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.
Posted by admin on July 17, 2008 under Europe Accommodation |
Welcome to my blog, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
If you’re taking your own car to mainland Europe this Summer you may be asking yourself if you should purchase European car breakdown cover. It’s hard to decide if you should buy breakdown cover but you have to weigh up the reliability of the your car, against the cost of the cover and what it might cost if you did break down on holiday.
In order to evaluate whether I’d buy European breakdown cover I though that I’d get prices from the two best known breakdown companies, the AA and the RAC.
Firstly I got a quote for cover for a two week period from 16 - 30 July 2008 based on my car a 2004 Skoda Fabia.
AA ВЈ62.73
RAC ВЈ59.30
Then I got a quote for the 12 month cover where you’d be covered for trips of up to 90 days duration, If you plan to take a trip of more than 3 weeks or motor to Europe on more than one occasion during a twelve month period then an annual policy would be a good buy.
AA ВЈ103.90
RAC ВЈ103.50
So there’s not a lot of difference in the price between the two. Both offer an additional 10% discount to existing members.
Would I buy cover? I’m not sure, if I was only going to make one trip for a couple of weeks as my car has been totally reliable over the last four years I would be tempted to risk going without breakdown cover. However if I was going to make a long trip of more than 4 weeks or multiple trips to Europe during the twelve month period then I’d consider it good value.
photo by andrijbulba
Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.
Copyright © Europe A La Carte
Posted by admin on under Europe Accommodation |
Welcome to my blog, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
I did a double take today when I was writing about the current Ryanir ВЈ2 flights to Ireland promotion, I was checking in the price and availability of these flights when I noticed that Ryanair are now charging a ВЈ4 handling charge per flight for both credit and debit cards. I thought that it sounded pretty steep, especially the debit card fee, as I was sure it was usually significantly lower than the debit card charge. I referred back to a post I’d written on June 7 2008 about Ryanair’s free flights and sure enough on that date the debit card fee was ВЈ1.20 and the credit card fee ВЈ3.20. That’s a whopping increase of ВЈ2.80. or more than tripling, per flight if you pay by debit card.
There is a way around this as currently you pay no Ryanair card handling charges if you pay by Visa Electron card. I decided that I should open an bank account which offers a Visa Electron card. I discovered that the Halifax offer an Easy Cash account with a Visa Electron, so I’ve applied. However be aware that this no handling charge for VIsa Electron is supposedly for a limited time only.
photo by glass on the shelf
Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.
Copyright © Europe A La Carte
