west of ireland for a long weekend ...

at slightly short notice, i decided to take a trip to the west of ireland for what was a bank holiday in the UK ...

my preferred routing was LGW - NOC with XL ... but the price was exhorbitant, at well over a hundred quid - i guess lots of people are scrambling to use the route before it is withdrawn in a few weeks time. flights from LUT or STD to NOC with Ryanair were also very expensive ... so it was back to skyscanner.net to find the best priced flight to DUB ...

i did even consider taking the train to Holyhead, and the ferry over to Dublin, but the timings were dreadful ... the latest afternoon sailing with Irish Ferries departs Holyhead at 17:15 and with Stena an even poorer 15:00 ... and the train connections don't help - there is a 12:45 departure from London Euston that frustratingly arrives into Holyhead at 17:20 ... so to catch the last afternoon ferry, it would be the 11:46 train from Euston ... which would mean taking a full day off work rather than just the afternoon.

on the return journey, i again considered taking the ferry option, but with engingeering works on the direct train routes, it would have meant a 7 hour journey with 3 changes ... and a 7am departure from the west of ireland ...

so it was back to the airlines, and again both XL and Ryanair were charging over 100 quid for the monday flights from NOC to London ... but I was prompted to look at flights from NOC to BRiStol ... and unbelievably, they were selling for just 24 euro [plus the 3rd world style 10 euro departure fee charged at the airport] which is a huge saving over a direct flight to London ... and luckily there aren't any engineering works on the line from Bristol to London.

thetrainline.com have singles from Bristol Temple Meads to London Paddington for 21 gbp, charging 1 gbp for ticket delivery, or 0.50 gbp to collect the ticket from a machine at the station ... however First Great Western have the same priced tickets, but don't charge for collecting your ticket from the station ...

last week of May at a beach club ...

i'm looking for a week in the sun departing london at the end of May to do some windsurfing, dinghy sailing and waterskiing ... preferably with some tennis and mountain biking thrown in !

i've enjoyed a couple of different Mark Warner resorts before ... and their best option for this week seems to be Abamar in Sardinia for 745 gbp per person ...

Sunsail's website is annoying, and it seems that their best price for the week is a whopping 940 gbp !

the best option with Club Med appears to be Kemer in Turkey, with the week costing 745 gbp ...

Neilson seems to have the best offer with a week at their Halkidiki resort in Greece costing around 600 gbp - which includes waterskiing, a try dive in the swimming pool, and group tennis lessons ...

if anybody knows of other companies providing beachclub type holidays - please post a comment and let me know !

dublin to seefeld ...

looking to depart 27th december, and return 1st january ...


best departure is 07:00 with EI to MUNich, arriving at 10:45 for approx 125 eur ... with the train leaving the airport at 11:42 taking 3 hours, with 1 change required - costing 31 eur ... or a shared transfer using http://www.a-t-s.net/ for 45 eur taking just 2 hours !

there is also an EI flight departing at 12:30 to Zurich, arriving at 15:35 for 315 eur ...

or an EI flight departing at 15:30 to MUNich, arriving at 19:00 for 250 eur ...

an indirect option would depart at 12:50 via MANchester, arriving into Salzburg at 19:10 for 180 eur ...

there is a 15:45 EI flight to VIEnna, arriving at 19:30 for 150 eur ... but the train connection would be overnight - even the daytime train takes 7 hours.
there is also a cheap flight to Friedrichshafen departing 06:10, arriving 09:30 costing 55 eur, but the train connection is approx 5 hours !


best return flight is a 21:30 FR departure from Salzburg, arriving into Dublin at 23:00 for 80 eur ... the train connection leaves Seefeld at 15:46 arriving into the airport at 20:32 ... however, if we had a car, it is only about 2 hours drive ...

a week away in july / august ...

i'm looking for a week away - departing the weekend of sunday 29th july, and returning friday 3rd august ...

the best priced flights seem to be to Glasgow Prestwick departing Stansted at 08:40 on the Sunday with Ryanair ... and departing Prestwick at 17:35 on the Friday ... costing 55 gbp

the best price for car hire seems to be with SixT who have Ford Fiesta size vehicle for 136 eur ...

a week in ireland - july / august ...

i'm looking for flights from london to ireland ... departing the weekend of sunday 29th july, and returning friday 3rd august ...

the best priced flights seem to be to Kerry departing Stansted at 06:20 on the Sunday with Ryanair ... and departing Faranfore at 19:45 on the Friday ... costing 63 gbp

car hire for the week isn't cheap - the best price seems to be with Irish Car Rentals who have Ford Fiesta size vehicle for 204 eur ... with the next best being Avis with 285 eur ...

london to glasgow - august bank holiday weekend ...

as an alternative to travelling directly to edinburgh, travel [or at least the outbound leg] to Glasgow is a possibility, preferably departing london on the evening of friday 24th august ...

GNER has Saver Returns from 98.20 gbp ... but a friday 17:15 departure, arriving into Glasgow at 21:54, costs 17.50 gbp ... with a saturday 07:00 departure, arriving at 12:50, being 22.70 gbp ... a return train arriving into London at 01:30 [which would require a cab journey home] costs 17.50 gbp ... but a more sensible 00:15 London arrival is 42 gbp, and a more civilised 23:14 arrival into London costs 59 gbp - and most trips require a change !

thetrainline.com also has Saver Returns from 98.20 gbp ... and has the same 17:15 on the friday for 17.50 gbp ... with the Saturday 07:00 departure for 25.50 gbp, and with the 01:30 arrival back into London for 43 gbp, the 00:15 arrival for 67.50 gbp, and the 23:14 arrival for 84.50 gbp - all suggesting that the GNER site is the way to go ...

skyscanner show an Easyjet departure from Luton on Friday at 20:55, arriving at 22:10 for 33 gbp ... and another Luton departure at 08:40 on Saturday for 35 gbp ... with the best return flight being a bmi departure at 21:30 for 33 gbp ...


Update 4th July 2007
bmi have the Friday 21:35 and the Saturday 08:40 departures available with frequent flyer points - the cost of taxes and charges is 28.90 gbp ...

Update 15th August 2007
the cheapest single for the friday evening on either GNER or thetrainline is 42 gbp for the 18:00 departure [the 17:15 departure is now 97 gbp single], arriving into Glasgow at 23:30 ... with returns costing 98 gbp ...
the first train on saturday morning is at 06:19 and the single fare is 38.50 gbp ...
skyscanner has a Luton departure at 08:40 arriving into GLA at 09:55 for 58 gbp ...
airberlin [which doesn't show up on skyscanner] has a Stansted departure at 07:50 for 52 gbp ...

london to edinburgh - august bank holiday weekend ...

looking for train or plane travel departing london on saturday 25th in the morning, and returning late afternoon on monday 27th ...

the cheapest Saver Return on GNER [which looks remarkably like thetrainline.com] is 98 gbp ... but they have singles on the same trains which add up to 65 gbp - but the return arrives in after midnight, so a more sensible 22:19 arrival back into london puts the price up to 89 gbp ...

thetrainline.com has Saver Returns for 98.20 gbp and same singles for 67.50 gbp or 100 gbp ... showing that it's worth booking through the GNER website !

Skyscanner shows an 08:10 departure from Luton on Easyjet for 50 gbp ... with an Easyjet flight to Gatwick departing at 21:10, arriving into London at 22:40 for 44 gbp ... or perhaps a better option would be their 19:15 departure for Luton, arriving at 20:30 for 48 gbp ...

unfortunately Skyscanner has stopped listing BMI flights ... but they don't have any sensibly priced flights for the weekend - the cheapest being 162 gbp !

ScotAirways fly from London City, but they don't have any flights on the Saturday, and have just a single flight on the Monday evening ... the total price of a return, with a departure on the Friday evening is 189 gbp ...


Update 4th July 2007
bmi have the Saturday 06:50 [and ones from 15:00 onwards] departure, arriving at 08:10, available with frequent flyer points - the cost of taxes and charges is 28.90 gbp ... for the return to London, the 18:35 departure is available for 28.60 gbp, or 48.60 gbp and half the points ...

both thetrainline and First Scot Rail have an overnight Sleeper returning to London on the Monday night for 66 gbp ... it is not clear from either website what the cost of a return is ...

London - Tamworth ... for the Snowdome - again ...

thinking of travelling to Tamworth to try out the Snowdome on Sunday 25th March ...

thetrainline.com gives the price of singles at 33.30 gbp for most of the trains that day - apart from the 08.30 departure, arriving in Birmingham at 10:55, with the connecting bus arriving in Tamworth at 12:05 ...

sometimes singles to a major town are cheaper than connecting journeys or those to smaller towns, but singles to birmingham are all 34 gbp, apart from the same 08:30 departure which is 13.50 gbp ...

virgintrains.co.uk has the same prices for these journeys ...

countries visited map ...

PassportStamp.com is a useful way of recording which countries you've visited, and listing all your trips ... for posterity ...

it also produces a useful map showing where you've been ... and where's left !

easter ski trip to Flims ?

looking for somewhere within a reasonable distance of Zurich airport [already found reasonable priced flights] ...

Flims looks like a good location - it is about 90 minutes drive, has a reasonably snow record, and there are other resorts within a short drive, in case of poor conditions on the local mountains ... and it even has "backpacker" accommodation ...

the price of flights would be approximately 170 gbp

the price of car hire would be approximately 35 gbp per person

the price of accommodation and breakfast could be as little as 84 gbp

the price of the top ski and boot hire would approximately 100 gbp

and the price of the lift pass would be approximately 82 gbp

so the total price, before petrol, dinner and alcohol would be 470 gbp