Monfalcone to Florence

Having decided to fly to Trieste (price to Milan doubled within a couple of hours) ... the next decision is what train to get ...

The journey from Monfalcone (near Trieste airport) to Venice is on a regional train where there is no discount for advance booking ... with the flight arriving at 14:35 ... the 15:07 departure (arriving into Venice Mestre at 16:37 and S Lucia at 16:49) should be doable without flight delays, otherwise the 16:07 arrives into Venice Mestre at 17:37 and S Lucia at 17:49 - the price to go into S Lucia is 8.95 eur in economy or 13.50 eur first class

The decision is what to do on the Venice to Florence leg ... in case the flight is delayed it's probably too risky to make an advance booking on the 17:09 departure from Venice Mestre (which arrives into Florence S.M. Novella station at 19:35), in which case the walk-up fare is 43 eur in economy ...

But it would be safe to book the 18:27 departure from S Lucia (18:39 from Mestre) which would be 29 eur in economy or 39 eur first class, and arrives into Florence S.M. Novella station at 20:35 ... that would give either 1.5 hrs or half an hour (depending on whether the flight was on time) to get reacquainted with the Grand Canal ...

london to italy for the jubilee weekend

Looking to go to Florence from Sat 2nd June to Tuesday 5th June

Flights to the nearby airports (Florence / Pisa / Bologna) are either too late or too early ... so there seem to be two reasonable options:

STaNsted - Trieste
dep 11:35 and arrive 14:35 for 76 gbp, and then get the train from the nearby Monfalcone station (no need to go into Trieste itself) at 15:07 arriving into Florence (via Venice) at 19:00 for 38 eur (58 eur in first class) or the later 16:07 departure which arrives into Florence at 20:35 for 48 eur
LHR - Milan Linate
dep 9:25 and arrive 12:30 for 142 gbp, and the get the train from Milan at 14:20 (or an hour later) arriving into Florence at 16:05 for 49 eur

On the return journey, there are options from Rome to Luton (dep 19:35 arr 21:15 for 98 gbp), or Milan to Gatwick (dep 21:50 arr 22:40 for 109 gbp) ... but since it would be good to check out the leaning tower, the options from Pisa are:

Pisa to Luton departing at 16:25 and arriving at 17:45 for 131 gbp
Pisa to Leeds Bradford departing at 16:20 arriving at 17:45 for a ridiculous 33 gbp.  The 19:15 departure from Leeds arrives into Kings Cross at 21:28 and costs 60 gbp, or 89 gbp in first class

ski weekend from dublin ...

looking to do a long weekend skiing in january from dublin ...

first problem is flights - the lack of direct flights (let alone well timed flights) severely restricts options ...

the best choice seems to be to fly out on the Thursday to ZuRicH with Aer Lingus, departing DUB at 17:00 and arriving in ZRH at 20:05 for 52 EUR excluding baggage charge or ...
to fly to MUniCh with Aer Lingus, departing at 16:00 and arriving in MUC at 19:25 for 52 EUR excluding baggage.

the best return flight seems to be to fly out of MUniCh with Aer Lingus, departing at 20:05 and arriving into DUB at 21:45 for 82 EUR excluding baggage fee or ...

to fly out of Milan Malpensa with Aer Lingus, departing at 21:20 and arriving into DUB at 22:50 for 42 EUR excluding baggage.


As for where to go to actually ski ... trying to find a resort with reasonable access to the airports poses another challenge ... one option is Mayrhofen ...

a train from MUC to Jenbach (half an hour taxi ride from Mayrhofen) is available at 20:04 (arriving into Jenbach at 22:34) or at 21:04 (arriving into Jenbach at 23:39) ...

on the way back, a (rather slow) train from Mayrhofen itself departs at 15:48 and arrives at the airport at 18:55 leaving plenty of time for the 20:05 departure ...

looking at the town's tourist office search results, accommodation in Mayrhofen appears to be plentiful and reasonably priced ...

dublin to garmisch

Looking to spend time in Garmisch over the new year ...

Aer Lingus have direct flights to Munich with a departure at 16:00 arriving at 19:25 on Wed 28th Dec for 176 eur (plus baggage charges). Ryanair have flights 4 flights a week with a 09:30 departure time - the flight on Wed 28th Dec is currently 105 eur (plus baggage and toilet charges).

German Rail have a departure from Munich at 20:31 arriving into Garmisch at 22:58 (with well timed change in Munich Hauptbahnhof) for 21 eur (including free toilet use).

Accommodation in Garmisch is available from about 30 eur per night - the town's website has a good accommodation search function, and includes places like Gästehaus Alpenkranz which is close to the station.

The return flight choice is more complicated with lots of options (prices updated 10th Dec):

Depart Munich at 11:20 on Aer Lingus arriving into Dublin at 12:50 for 147 eur (now 188 eur), requiring a train leaving Garmisch at 07:28 (24.80 eur)

Depart 

Memmingen Allgäu

 at 13:10 on Ryanair arriving into Dublin at 14:25 for 87 eur (now 92 eur), requiring a train leaving Garmisch at 08:04 (32 eur with a short taxi fare from the town to the airport)

Depart Hahn airport at 21:45 on Ryanair arriving into Dublin at 22:45 for 55 eur, requiring a train leaving Garmisch at 12:06 to Koblenz (97 eur) and then a bus to the airport (9.80 eur)

Depart Zurich at 20:45 on Aer Lingus arriving into Dublin at 22:05 for 155 eur (now 211 eur), requiring a train leaving Garmisch at 13:08 (86 eur)

Depart Frankfurt at 20:40 on Aer Lingus arriving into Dublin at 21:50 for 106 eur (now 181 eur), requiring a train leaving Garmisch at 14:04 (89 eur)
Depart Frankfurt at 22:25 on Lufthansa arriving into Dublin at 23:30 for 170 eur, requiring a train leaving Garmisch at 16:04 (89 eur)

So the total price for flights, trains and accommodation (but excluding ski hire and ski pass) would be around 515 eur.

ischgl

i'm thinking of going to Ischgl for some skiing in January 2012 ...

the best value package holiday seems to be with Inghams for 602 gbp, which departs on a saturday, via Innsbruck ... or for 29 quid extra you could fly with BA, and with the evening departure on the way back, might get an extra morning's skiing (depending on the timing of the bus transfer to the airport) ...

alternatively, to be guaranteed an extra day's skiing, you could do your own package ...

accommodation

there isn't a great choice of accommodation that can be booked online through the town's website (unlike St Anton) ... but they do have a large number of B&Bs, it just seems that you have to contact them directly. their accommodation brochure lists Frühstückspensions from page 36 onwards (ÜF means Bed and Breakfast and HB is half board) and the map grid (planquadrat) helps to find the property - each street/house number combo is highlighted on the town map. to stay in the town itself, ignore all properties with a village name in brackets after the property name (Mathon, Versahl etc.)

one of the good options looks to be Bergfrieden which has 7 twin rooms and is located on the eastern side of town, about 10 mins walk from one of the gondolas, and a few minutes further to another gondola - which goes up to a different part of the ski area. prices start from about 35 euro per person per night ...

travel

the closest airport is INNsbruck, and Easyjet have return flights for around 191 gbp (including 1 piece of luggage). the resort isn't easy to access by train, but is possible with a bus into Innsbruck central station, a train to Landeck-Zams, and then a postbus up to Ischgl - total time would be about two and a half hours. the train part costs around 30 eur return, the postbus presumably another 10 eur each way, and the bus/taxi into Innsbruck station something similar ...

there doesn't seem to be any direct transfer buses, and the 100km journey by taxi for up to 4 people would be 300 eur or 320 eur return, or for up to 8 people it would be 382 eur return ...

another alternative is to fly to Allgäu airport (that well known hub) for 130 gbp (including the cost of a 15kg bag and the rip off credit card fee) from Stansted (dep just after midday) with Ryanair. the journey to Ischgl is about 200km - the 60 quid saving on the flight, could well be eaten up by the double distrance transfer ...

another option is to fly to ZuRicH - flights available from 98 gbp with Easyjet (a bit cheaper to fly back to LUTon) - the 3 hour train (approx 51 gbp) connection to Landeck-Zams (arr 19:21) would be too late for the last postbus up to Ischgl so would require a taxi 68 eur taxi. earlier flights with BA would be 150 gbp (cheaper available for horribly early departures) - so better to get the taxi up the valley ...

DIY price

so the total price (including an extra night's accommodation) via Zurich would be about 440 gbp (assuming the local taxi was shared between 3 pax) ...

flying via Innsbruck and got 4 people sharing a transfer the cost would be very similar to the long winded bus/train/bus option (even cheaper if there were up to eight in a minibus transfer) - and the total price including flights and accommodation would be around 500 gbp ...

Final Thoughts

if there were 4 or more people to share the transfer - Innsbruck seems like the best choice, or if there were just a couple of people, Zurich sounds fine !

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 ...