accommodation in oslo ...

looking for a twin room in central oslo for one night midweek in July ...

octopustravel have the 2 star Comfort Hotel Express for 66 gbp

venere also have the same hotel for the same price, and also have 3 star Anker Hotel for 97 gbp

laterooms have the Anker for the same price

opodo have the Comfort and the Anker for similar prices, and they also had a good price on a centrally located Radisson Blu - but it turned out that they had the wrong location, it's 5km from the centre - close escape !

expedia (which owns tripadvisor, hotels.com and other sites) had the Comfort and Anker Hotels, and also has the Anker Hostel, but the poor reviews (dirty) put me off the Hostel. They also had Thon Astoria, another 3 star for the same price as Anker but closer to the station - but some reviews about the bed & noise put me off

otels had the Comfort for the same price

travelocity (which owns lastminute.com) had the Comfort for the same price, and the Anker for what appeared to be 74 gbp but was actually a single room - the price for a twin was the same 97 gbp. they also had a 4 star "top secret" hotel near the station for 95 gbp. after some painful investigations, i worked out this was probably the Scandic Byporten (both had 2pm check in times, where as other 4 stars in similar location had 3pm check in times). The list price for the Byporten is 113 gbp and the reviews aren't great, so not really worth it

ebookers prices started at 97 gbp (for Anker) and went rapidly upwards

travelrepublic annoyingly don't let you filter by area, so you have to click through their (nice) map - they didn't have anything useful

I ended up booking the Comfort Xpress through their own website, as it allowed me to just guarantee the booking (instead of being charged immediately) and I always hope that the hotel will look on you more favourably if you have booked directly !

oslo to bodo ...

trying to get from Oslo to Bodo on Sat 16th July ... there aren't any direct trains or flights available which connect with flight arrival times ...

one option is to fly from OSLo to TRonDheim in the afternoon for about 80 gbp, and then take the overnight sleeper train to Bodo for an extra 93 gbp ...

flights on the sunday or the monday both cost about 95 gbp (plus an extra night's accommodation) ...

another option would be to take the famous Flam railway towards Bergen (departing Honefoss 17:37), overnight in Flam, arriving at 21:45 (well before sunset at 23:11) for about 62 gbp ... then take the 11:00 train on Sunday to Bergen arr 14:22 for about 51 gbp ... and then fly from Bergen 17:25 to TRD on sunday for about 55 gbp ... and then the overnight railway to Bodo for 93 gbp (45 gbp without a bed) ...

easter in the baltics ?

looking at options to go the baltics for easter ...

best outbound option on Friday 22nd April is with Ryanair to Kaunus dep London Gatwick 14:50 and arrive in Lithuania at 19:25 for 89 gbp (excluding extras/normals)

best inbound option on Monday 2nd May is again with Ryanair departing Tallin at 14:55 and arriving into London Gatwick at 15:40 for 67 gbp

activity holiday over easter

looking for somewhere to go for easter and to avoid flag waving royal jollity, i've been trawling the websites ...

Saddle Skeddadle have a couple of interesting trips - one to Spain, and a couple of different trips to Sardinia

Adventure Travel have a very well hidden search engine, but when you finally find it, they have an interesting trip to Iran/Persia

Exodus also has a decent search engine - they have a few self guided cycling trips, including one to Corsica

Tucan have an interesting calendar based search ... and an interesting trip to Lombok

Explore has a fairly rubbish search function, which returns lots of trips outside the dates that you enter ... and of those that do meet the dates, quite a few are to parts of the Middle East currently in turmoil ...

KE have a decent search engine - but don't have anything very useful

Dragoman have a really rubbish search engine ... and no useful trips

Intrepid Travel has a not very impressive search function ... but does have a couple of useful trips, but they're all full !

Kumuka has a seriously rubbish search engine, that returns a pile of trips which are full !

Cycle Active don't seem to have any search function at all !

Imaginative Traveller have a reasonable search engine, but don't seem to like bookings within less than a week to go ...

Nature Trek have a decent search function, but no availability !

Peregrine has a nice looking search engine ... but it doesn't work !

Sherpa don't have anything particularly inspiring.

Walks Worldwide don't have any sort of useful search options whatsoever !

GAP adventures have a decent search, but unhelpfully it brings up trips that are full.

Neilson Adventures act as an agent for a range of other companies ... their search function starts off being quite good, but it returns fully booked trips, grrr !

Page & Moy allow you to search by departure date - but don't have anything useful.

Hiking in Norway ...

Looking at a hiking trip in Norway in the Summer ...

For inspiration and ideas, Exodus has a trip, as do Explore and also a company I've never heard of called Sherpa Walking Holidays ...

Cycling in the Lofoten Islands ...

looking for a cycling holiday in the Lofoten Islands in Norway ... quite restricted on timings each month !

Found a departure from Bodø with Skedaddle on Saturday 23rd July that looks good ...

To get to BOdØ there is a reasonably priced Norwegian flight from LGW to OSLo departing on Friday 22nd July at 20:00 ... could then stay overnight at the airport before getting another flight on to BOdØ the next morning ...

On the return journey, there are a few different options to get back to London.

more flights to barcelona ...

now looking for flights from london to barcelona ...

thu 30th dec

dep Luton 08:45 to Barcelona for 79 gbp with Easyjet

dep Luton 17:40 to Gerona for 83 gbp with Ryanair or

wed 29th dec

dep Gatwick 17:20 to Gerona for 72 gbp with Ryanair or

dep Stansted 16:05 to Barcelona for 83 gbp with Easyjet or

dep Gatwick 13:50 or 18:15 to Barcelona for 87 gbp with Easyjet or
dep Luton 08:45 to Barcelona for 95 gbp with Easyjet or

dep Stansted 17:40 to Gerona for 105 gbp with Ryanair

on the way back, looking to depart from Alicante on 3rd Jan, the best option is at 19:50 for 95 gbp

england to spain for new year ...

looking to go to spain for new year ...

one of the options is to depart on wednesday 29th december from bristol at 09:10 to gerona for 80 gbp ...

on the way back, one of the options is to depart from alicante on monday 3rd january at 19:30 to gatwick for 96 gbp

dublin to spain for new year ...

looking to go to spain for new year ...

the best prices are all to barcelona, with the options:

mon 27th
dep 06:40 for 107 eur or dep 17:50 for 127 eur
tue 28th
dep 06:40 for 127 eur
wed 29th
dep 06:40 for 149 eur or dep 10:05 for 170 eur
thu 30th
dep 06:40 for 107 eur or dep 17:50 for 127 eur


the options for flights back to dublin on mon 3rd jan are:

dep barcelona 08:10 for 92 eur or
dep alicante 20:35 for 76 eur

Gibraltar to Morocco ...

Looking to travel from Gibraltar to Morocco on Fridday 15th October ... there is a departure at 19:00, arriving into Tanger Med at 18:00 for 42 EUR per foot passenger with FRS ... the new port of Tanger Med is about 40km from the city and there is apparently a free bus service as part of the ferry ticket ...

Alternatively, there are ferries from Algeciras to Tanger Med departing at 07:30, 11:00, 15:00 and 18:00 (all arriving one hour before departure!) for 37 EUR per foot passenger ...