Trevelling in Europe: train vs plane

An extensive network of railroads and in some extent buses were once the only affordable option for the ones willing to travel around the continent, but lately the rails and buses have lost their supremacy. Discount airlines like Ryanair or EasyJet have made jetting around the continent quicker and cheaper. In fact, Ryanair often offers sales with fares as low as 20€.

With fares this cheap, does it really make sense even to consider traveling by train anymore? The answer: It depends! For one thing, the discount airlines aren't actually quite as cheap as they appear. Even if you do net an incredibly affordable flight, government taxes, fees and a bunch of extra costs bump the price up to at least 60€.

Then come the airlines' own fees. On Ryanair, for example, there are so many that the airline has put together a handy table so you can see at a glance what you'll be charged for checked bags (with higher rates during the summertime and December holiday "peak" periods), online check-in, priority boarding, even purchasing a flight, and… and...

Is that all? Unfortunately no. Discount airlines tend to fly into secondary airports that are an hour or more outside of the city you're trying to visit. Trains, on the other hand, typically arrive in or near the centre of town, and usually link up easily with the city's mass transportation system.

The benefits of low-cost airlines are however quite appealing: fast, cheap and everywhere. And these are an important justification why more and more tourists keep using them. Because in terms of comfort, train is still the best solution in long-distance trips. Also important: in Europe rail companies offer several discounts on fares (e.g. Interrail).

Travel apps for the Euro 2012

The European football championship offers many new ways of dicovering the cities hosting the tournment, either in Poland or Ukraine. One of interesting app I have found was Farol Warsaw. This seems to be a different approach and an easy way to visit a city when we know nothing at all about it.
you can try it here. The small price worth the money spent.

Other apps are also interesting to follow, such as tripadvisor for different cities, with recommendations from other users about restaurants, or booking.com for looking for a hotel.

Enjoy the Euro 2012

travel guides for mobile phones

The great number of smartphones available enable new sources of guidance. Travel apps for iPhone and Android can be found on the market. However, not all have the desirable quality for substitute the traditional travel guidebooks.
One interesting app that has the hability to genereate personalised tours is Farol City Guides. I have tried the app I am mus say it is quite promissing. You can try it at www.farolworld.com.

Somo other good apps include tripwolf, lonelly planet (although quite poor performance) and Rough Guides.

New era for travellers!

Best travel guidebooks

Bookstores shelves are piled with guidebooks for all tastes and pocket sizes. Although the increasing use of mobile travel guides, paper books are still the preferred choice to guide on a city tour. Here is a small overview of the five leading travel guidebooks available (1-very negative to 5-very positive):

Lonely Planet (4.5)
Popularity: 5
Quality of the content: 5
Content detail level: 4
Languages available: 5
Price: 2

Rough Guides (4.5)
Popularity: 4.5
Quality of the content: 5
Content detail level: 4
Languages available: 3
Price: 4

DK (4)
Popularity: 4
Quality of the content: 4
Content detail level: 3
Languages available: 5
Price: 3

Marco Polo (4)
Popularity: 3.5
Quality of the content: 4
Content detail level: 4
Languages available: 4
Price: 3

Michelin guides (4)
Popularity: 4
Quality of the content: 4
Content detail level: 3
Languages available: 4
Price: 2

Are travel guidebooks really good?

Travel guidebooks are the most common used mean for supporting travellers. They gather key information of cities and the places you may not miss. However, you should not stick to their suggestions religiously, as many travellers do. They are not the bibles that they are made out to be, and are often out of date even before they are published.

To get the most out of guidebooks, use them mostly for basic orientation at your destination, then discover the cities on your own.

The information on museums and places of interest are great when all other signs look foreign. But when it comes to restaurants and hotels, each person has its personal taste and budget.

Wandering around on your own is the most pleasant way to discover reasonably-priced gourmet restaurants dishing up a local ambience; without the need for reservations. For hotels, booking online is the best choice when it comes the time to decide where to overnight.

Always look to the publication date of the guidebook before buying it. (It should be printed on the inside page of the book). If you are going to spend many Euros for a book, at least it should be updated. Most of guides’ publishers such as Lonely Planet or Rough Guides usually give the first publication date, the date of publication of the copy in your hands, and when reprinted with travellers' updates.

In what concerns the recommendations given by guidebooks, always look to them with a pinch of salt.

In order to really absorb the best of each city, try to create your own travel guide using the most current travel information available on the internet. They are very helpful as a complement to the information that traditional travel guides include, providing experience from many other tourists that were already at that place.

In conclusion, travel guidebooks are a good source of information. But many other tools can be used to support or even replace this bible for tourists.

How to avoid missing your luggage

Tag your luggage properly:  Ensure that you tag your luggage with correct information. Include information such as your address and phone number.

Focus on packing just the basic items: This is the best way you to ensure that your belongings will always be with you if you do not wish to check in your luggage. The best solution especially if you are going for a short trip of 2 or 3 days.

Reduce the number of connecting flights: This is the most common reason for lost luggage for most of the airline companies. Connecting flights share codes, but they do not have accreditation for luggage service. Hence, it is better if you can simply avoid them and stick to booking direct flights.

Going East...

Travellers seeking the best value city breaks should head to Eastern Europe, and avoid Stockholm, according to a survey from Post Office Travel Money. The study compares 17 European cities and two American cities (New York and Boston).

The study was based on typical short-break holidays costs, including one night's accommodation, transport fares and other items. Riga in Latvia offered the best value, with the "basket" of items totalling around 130 EUR, while the next best value was Prague with 150 EUR.

The rest of the top five in the costs table were Budapest, Tallinn in Estonia and Warsaw.

London places 12^th in the list, with costs of 265 EUR and Stockholm was ranked as the most expensive city, with 350 EUR.

While a return bus or train transfer from the airport to the city centre cost €1,6 in Riga, it would set visitors back €21 in Stockholm. Similarly, while one night for two adults in a three-star hotel in Riga cost €58, the equivalent in Stockholm cost €127, while in New York it was as much as €188.

The survey found Dublin costs were 12.3% lower now than a year ago, while Rome was nearly 10% cheaper than last year while Berlin was down 6%.

Post Office Travel Money head Sarah Munro said: "These price falls are good news for people planning city breaks this spring. However, wide variations in costs between competing cities mean that tourists really do need to do their homework before booking.