accommodation in Lindau or Bregenz

in order to catch the Ryanair 10:05 flight from Friedrichshafen (FDH) on sun 21st jan - the bus leaves St Anton at 5am ... an alternative would be to get the train towards Friedrichshafen on the saturday afternoon / eve, so that there is a much shorter journey on the sunday morning, and so we wouldn't need to start so early ... Lindau is approx 25km, and Bregenz is 53km from FDH ...

there are direct trains from St Anton to Lindau [dep 16:56 arr 18:26] for 21 eur, stopping at Bregenz [18:15] ... and loads of direct trains to Bregenz itself [dep 17:51 arr 19:15, dep 19:51 arr 21:06, dep 21:51 arr 23:06 etc.] ...

Lindau's accommodation options seem to be rather limited ...

Expedia.co.uk only has one hotel available for the night - Hotel Vis a Vis - costing 65 gbp for a double room for the night ... it's other hotel in Lindau - Hotel Bayerischer Hof - is not showing any availability ...

Octopustravel.co.uk only has a twin or double in the Bayerischer Hof for 124 gpb, or the Reutemann And Seegarten hotel for the same price ...

Venere.com has a double in the Hotel Garni Seerose [9 minute walk from the train station - according to deutsche bahn journey planner] available for a more reasonable 93 eur, and a triple room for 129 eur ...

laterooms.com does not have any hotels available for the night in either city

lastminute.com does not have any hotels available that night in Lindau ...

the tourism office for Lindau doesn't really have any more suggestions ...


the accommodation options in Bregenz appear to be a bit better ...

Expedia.co.uk has a bedroom for 2 persons in the Mercure for 49 gbp, a twin in the Ibis for 45 gbp, Hotel Bodensee for 63 gbp, a twin in Hotel Schwarzler for 77 gbp ... with no availability in Bw Hotel Weisses Kreuz, or Hotel Germania !

Octopustravel.co.uk [also used by ebookers.com] has a twin at the Mercure for 70 gpb, or the Schwarzler for 77 gbp ...

Venere.com doesn't have anything available that night ...

lastminute.com [owned by travelocity] has the Mercure for 45 gbp and the Ibis for 46 gbp ...

opodo.co.uk has a twin in the Hotel Bodensee for 62 gbp, a twin in the Ibis is 45 gbp, and a double/twin in the Mercure is 44 gpb ...

mercure.com has a bedroom for 2 persons for 65 eur [excl breakfast], and a single for the same price ...

ibishotel.com has a bedroom for 2 persons for 66 eur [excl breakfast], and a single for 51 eur ...


to get to FDH from Bregenz for the 10:05 ryanair flight, there is a train from Bregenz to Lindau [dep 07:48 arr 07:59], connecting to a train directly to the airport [dep 08:06 arr 08:36] costing 8.60 eur ...

dublin - friedrichshafen - london - dublin ...

dep DUB Sat 13 Jan 06:10 [arr FDH 09:25] - 14.99 eur

dep FDH Sun 21 Jan 10:05 [arr STN 10:45] - 26.84 eur

dep STN Sun 21 Jan 15:45 [arr DUB 17:00] - 6.49 gbp [approx 10 eur]

plus 4.5 eur x 3 for luggage ...

total cost 65.50 plus credit/debit card charges - approx 70 eur ...

Tenerife accommodation ... casa rurale ...

after looking for a 6 person Casa Rurale style accommodation over christmas and new year in Tenerife ... we eventually went for Antón Piche [cool location graphic - if a little noisy] ... which is close to the southern airport ...

toprural.com only have a single review - which is in spanish, and seems complimentary ... although it could be written by the owners ... you never know !

niumba.com don't have any comments at all on Anton Piche ...

annual travel insurance - 4th attempt ...

i heard an advert for PeoplesChampion as a place to find cheap travel insurance ... and it does actually seem like a proper new comparison website - most sites promising cheap travel insurance just seem to link to MoneySupermarket - this one seems to use the same display software, but is somewhat different ...

PeoplesChampion also has a very useful feature of showing Personal Accident Cover in the main comparison screen [instead of burying it in the policy detail like Money Supermarket and others - making it very time consuming to select based on this criteria] ...

the maximum Personal Accident Cover appears to be 50k gbp - with Marks and Spencers and Norwich Union providing this level ...

car hire - tenerife - 9 days ...

changed the dates - now looking for a car from 10:30 on fri 24th dec ... to 18:00 on mon 1st jan ... preferrably from TFN ...

Alamo does not have any vehicles at TFN or TFS ...

Budget does not have any locations in tenerife ...

NationalCar does not have any cars available from TFN or TFS ...

Thrifty does not have any locations in tenerife ...

Carjet.com has an Opel Corsa sized vehicle for 139 gbp - all extra drivers are free, and there is a zero insurance excess ... this company won the Best Car Hire company in the 2006 Guardian newspaper Travel Awards ...

CarHire3000 has an Opel Corsa sized vehicle for 137 gbp - it is unclear what the excess would be, or how much they charge for extra drivers ...

TravelSupermarket has CarHire3000 as its cheapest ...

HolidayAutos europe [owned by lastminute.com] has a Fiesta size vehicle available for 110 gbp - with 1 free additional drivers [further drivers costing 10 eur per day], and damage excess waiver [unclear what the excess would change from or to] costing 23 gbp, totalling 133 gbp ... this company has had some bad press recently ...

SIXT holiday cars has a Polo sized vehicle available for 240 eur [approx 160 gbp] - apparently including one free additional driver, but unclear what the excess is ...

Hertz has a Peugot 107 sized vehicle for 164 gbp - each additional drive 60 eur [40 gbp] ...

Avis has a Polo sized vehicle for 180 gbp plus 66 eur [approx 44 gbp] ...

Europcar has a Fiat Punto sized vehicle for 197 gbp ...

Easycar doesn't have any of their cheaper cars left - they have a Ford Focus sized vehicle for 214 gbp ...

car hire - tenerife - 11 days ...

looking for a car from 10:30 on fri 22nd dec ... to 18:00 on mon 1st jan ... preferrably from TFN ...

Carjet.com does not have any cars at TFN or TFS ...

Budget does not have any locations in tenerife ...

NationalCar does not have any cars available from TFN or TFS ...

HolidayAutos [owned by lastminute.com] has a Fiesta size vehicle available for 132 gbp - with 1 free additional drivers [further drivers costing 10 eur per day], and damage excess waiver [unclear what the excess would change from or to] costing 27.50 gbp ...

SIXT has a Polo sized vehicle available for 294 eur [approx 199 gbp] - apparently including one free additional driver, but unclear what the excess is ...

Hertz has a Peugot 107 sized vehicle for 200 gbp - each additional drive 60 eur [40 gbp] ...

Avis has a Polo sized vehicle for 220 gbp plus 66 eur [approx 44 gbp] ...

Europcar has a compact car for the bargain price of 350 gbp ...

london - tenerife ... charter flights ...

looking for flights departing around sat 23rd dec, and returning around mon 1st jan ... charterflights.co.uk lists the following flights ...


Gatwick to Tenerife, Spain
219 gbp
Sun 24 Dec 2006 LGW to TFS 0925 1340
Sun 31 Dec 2006 TFS to LGW 1440 1855


Gatwick to Tenerife, Spain
239 gbp
Sun 24 Dec 2006 LGW to TFS 1430 1850
Sun 31 Dec 2006 TFS to LGW 1700 2115

ski week in january ...

looking for a week's skiing in january - departing sat 13 jan, returning sun 21 jan ... considering St Anton am Arlberg since it is easy to get to and has lots of self bookable B&B accommodation - so don't need to take a package ...

flights with Ryanair (FR) from London Stansted (STN) to Friedrichshafen (FDH) departing at 14:40 [arr 17:15] is 19.99 gbp [07:05 departure is an extra 10 quid] ... and return flight departing at 10:05 [arr 10:45] is 1 penny [21:40 departure is an extra 70 quid] ... giving a total price of around 50 quid ...

there is a weekend airport bus transfer to St Anton (stopping at Bludenz, Zurs and Lech) which departs FDH at 17:45 [or 10:15 for the early flight] and the return connection departs St Anton at an eye-watering 05:50 [or 17:30 for the late flight] for the price of 57 eur ...

St Anton ski pass - this week falls into the low season ... so a 7 day pass would cost 204 eur, or an 8 day pass [if taking the late flight on sunday] would cost 226 eur ...

using Intersport equipment hire prices - 7 days for VIP skis costs 151 eur and boot hire costs 57 eur ...

B&B accommodation should cost around 30 eur per night ... slightly cheaper if it's a bit away from the centre ... totalling approx 240 eur ...

all of which comes to 50 gpb plus 710 eur [approx 475 gbp] = 525 gbp ...

Dublin - Tenerife

Aer Lingus (EI) flies to Tenerife South (TFS) ... whilst Ryanair (FR) flies to Tenerife North (TFN) ...

EI's departure on sat 23rd dec is showing as full ... leaving their fri 22nd dec as available - for a mere 309 eur single excluding taxes and charges, or mon 18th dec for 80 eur ...

for the return, EI have mon 1st jan for 245 eur excluding taxes and charges, fri 5th jan [dep 12:50 arr 17:10] and sat 6th jan [dep 18:10 arr 22:30], both for 309 eur ...

so a return flight departing on fri 22nd dec and returning on fri 5th jan comes to 662 eur including taxes ...


FR's prices look much better, although their flights depart at a sleep-depriving 06:00 [arr 10:20], they fly on mon, wed, fri and sun ... with mon 18th dec costing 1 cent, wed 20th dec 14.99 eur, and fri 22nd dec 59.99 eur - all excluding taxes and charges ...

for the return [dep 10:45 arr 15:05] mon 1st jan would be 69.99 eur, wed 3rd or fri 5th or sun 7th jan would each be 109.99, whilst mon 8th jan is 69.99 eur, and each flight after that drops to 1 cent - all excluding taxes and charges ...

so a return flight departing on wed 20th dec and returning on wed 3rd jan comes to 161.50 eur including taxes ...

Belfast to Tenerife

looking to depart between wed 20th and fri 22nd December ... for two weeks ...

Belfast International airport website shows a departure on tuesdays with Airtours [tue 19th appears to be available, but not the return 2 weeks later] ... and on fridays with Falcon Holidays [flight only redirects to First Choice - which doesn't have availability], Airtours [which doesn't have availability on this date either], or Direct Holidays - which looks suspiciously similar to the Airtours website, which does have availability for departure on fri 22nd Dec at 08:00 [arr TFS 12:30], and returning on fri 5th Jan at 13:30 [arr BFS 18:05] ... for a whopping 429 gbp per person !

Belfast International also has scheduled flights with Jet.com on thursdays and sundays to TFS ... and they have availability departing Thu 21st Dec at 13:45 [arr 18:00] and returning on thu 4th Jan at 08:00 [arr 12:15] ... for a painful 403 gbp ...