Changing sterling for Euros is easily done everywhere, however, getting [...]]]> Unless you’re fortunate enough to be booking a luxury villa in Cannes for your next European holiday, the chances are that you’ll be looking for every opportunity to save a few pennies wherever possible. Here a five top tips to trim back on your holiday spending:

Currency

Changing sterling for Euros is easily done everywhere, however, getting a good rate isn’t, so getting a good deal on currency exchange should be the first thing you look for. Check out specialist providers like Currencies Direct for cash, or look for debit and credit cards that let you withdraw money (or buy things) with no commission for money when you’re out there.

Book Locally

Depending on where you’re going, if you need to use public transport, book ahead just as you would in the UK. SNCF in France, for example, has an English language website, so if you’re booking tickets, do it early and make the most of advance deals.

Toll Roads

Large swathes of Europe make you pay to use their motorways, thankfully there’s always another (less direct) route that is free. If you’re looking to save cash, and see a bit more of the countryside than miles and miles of hard shoulder, avoid the blue routes (unless you’re in Switzerland, in which case, motorways are green).

Research Your Route

Especially if you’re visiting some of the big cities, make sure you do a little research before you get there. For example, in most parts of Western Europe, the big museums and public attractions are free for under 25s, however, they’re not always keen to signpost the fact, so check ahead before you go. You can also usually get special deals on Metros and city buses which will save cash, and many cities operate Oyster-style systems, so keep an eye on that as a way of saving money.

Market Mayhem

Head to nearly any town and you’ll find a street market of some variety. In more touristy places you’ll probably pay just as much in the market as you would anywhere else, but there are always markets that are almost exclusively used by the locals, these are a great way of picking up high quality produce at low cost, and will give you a chance to practise your language skills and stall holders are almost always really friendly.

As the UK nights draw in and it remains wet and miserable, my thoughts have started to turn to a warmer winter getaway for early 2012 [...]]]>

As the UK nights draw in and it remains wet and miserable, my thoughts have started to turn to a warmer winter getaway for early 2012 – to dream and have something to look forward to, if anything else.

As I won’t be able to stretch to a long-haul flight I’d be looking at somewhere in Europe or Africa. Obviously it’d need to be somewhere distinctively southwards for the warmth, and eyeing up the all inclusive holidays Lanzarote, Tenerife, Gran Canaria et al in the travel agent’s window the other day, there seem to be some great deals about.

Partly it’s the recession biting that’s bringing the deals to the fore; and partly that the formerly golden boys of cheap getaways have been ravaged by revolution and upheaval. Egypt, once a haven, is looking decidedly shaky nowadays; North Africa, too, has its Arab Spring making tourists consider safer options. Seeing as a light kidnapping is not my idea of an exciting holiday activity, I was drawn to a more European option: a tempting week of Lanzarote holidays in the Canary Islands.

It might raise images of beer-bellies, bright red Brits and sun loungers occupied by German towels, but it’s actually a perfect shoestring destination in terms of cost. Currently a return flight out in mid-January, staying for a week, will set you back only 60 euros with RyanAir. All-inclusive deals run at several hundred pounds – there is a nice four-star option I have seen that checks in at about 600 pounds, but I think this is beyond my scope as a shoestring traveller. Although an independent traveller at heart, I have been tempted by such holidays before, although never taken the plunge. But once again I am seriously considering it.

Especially when looking at the weather. I could trade a week of damp, cold darkness for a minimum of 20 degrees Centigrade, even in the lows of January.

Lanzarote is a volcanic island, with little really to see apart from rugged volcanic landscapes, a few half-hearted museums and other piffling attractions. But I wouldn’t be going for that. I’d be going for the beaches, the sea (19 degrees at its coldest), the sand (not bad, but remember it is a volcanic place so the sand is darker than the usual white sand paradise image) and the odd cold beer.

Meeting people my own age is a bit of a concern, though. Although I’ve been an old fart since birth, on my nights out preferring a comfy leather armchair, fire and a warm ale to a slick, loud club and cocktail, and manage to get on with fellow old farts and wrinklies with no worries, it is nice to have people around that look vaguely your age. If I do go I will need to pick a package/resort that is popular with those under 40 too rather than Essex bricklayers and their wives.

Do I go with my urge to escape to somwhere warmer and book up something cheap (but potentially unsatisfying?), or do I save my pennies for a tropical holiday further afield, like Thailand?

Decisions, decisions…

It’s a strange fact that the countries you are closest to are the ones you end up exploring last. My own country aside, of [...]]]>

It’s a strange fact that the countries you are closest to are the ones you end up exploring last. My own country aside, of which I have seen precious little, France is the nearest foreign country for an Englishman to explore, and yet precious few do, save for those who rent vans for their pre-Christmas “booze cruises” to stock up on cheap red wine and fine continental beer. Even such events are increasingly rare, as the Euro reaches wincingly strong against the pound, meaning it is cheaper to buy in the UK, even with the high taxes on alcohol.

The painful Euro has eaten into my travels, too; Europe is no longer the bargain it used to be, and sadly I have a good memory for the prices I used to pay just a few years previous. Still, I put that to the back of my mind when I planned a jaunt to Paris, city of love… er, on my own.

I grabbed a cheap train ticket to London and then made my way to St. Pancras for the early morning Eurostar. The terminal was unlike most of the rest of London, being new, modern and clean. Bleary eyed, I boarded the train, which was soon rattling out of London, into the lovely countryside of south east England and moving to Paris.

You hardly notice the tunnel when you enter it – save for the dark, of course. And then within not too long you’re up and out the other side, in another country, that looks… well, similar to the one you just left. On first glance, anyway.

I reached Paris just over two hours from leaving London; not bad going at all. I was keen to check out the citywide bike scheme first and foremost, for my hostel, way out in the sticks, had a bike terminal outside it, so I was reliably informed. I paid less than €10 for a week’s “pass” to use the bikes anywhere in the (huge) area of Paris they covered, and it was shoestring money well spent. Not only did I get a whole lot of exercise and saved on metro tickets, but you get to see so much more above ground. And travelling is about seeing and experiencing more than a dark metro carriage.

As for sights, I took in the usual tourist traps: the Arc de Triomphe, the Seine, the Louvre, Notre Dame, and of course the Eiffel Tower, which brought my vertigo back with a vengeance. There is something about mesh wire structures that do me in, no matter how sturdy they look.

I drank a small amount of French beer; the Kronenbourg 1664 was marvellous, served in a proper “bowl” glass with a long stem, and tasted far superior to the brewed in England pap we get at home. In terms of cheap eats, I struggled a bit more, and went with the odd street kebab more than once. I can’t say I experienced fine wine and haute couture Parisian food, but I was well fed for the little money I had.

I came away from my five nights in Paris very much won-over by the city; it has a life, a vibrance, a charm that is compelling, even addictive. I do hope to come back soon… hopefully with a fair maiden in hand to enjoy this beautiful city of romance.

After my few days in Eindhoven, I decided to book a train eastwards to experience some Germanic flavour. in Cologne. I’d been to Cologne before, but many, many years ago, and had [...]]]>

After my few days in Eindhoven, I decided to book a train eastwards to experience some Germanic flavour. in Cologne. I’d been to Cologne before, but many, many years ago, and had only then spent a day there, so I was interested to see what it had turned into as a city.

The train set me back €30 or so which I had booked in advance (through hispeed.nl if you’re interested). If you book really early you can get dirt cheap farea; I’d left it a little bit late and so my fare was middling. Regardless, it was far cheaper – and a lot cheaper – than the UK trains. I love the German ICEs; they’re amongst the best trains in Europe.

My accommodation was far from shoestring, but I felt like splashing out. I’d found a deal with a 4-star hotel, managing to bag three nights for just €40 per night. The luxury felt justified to me; a hostel dorm bed would’ve been €18 or so, so for just a bit over double per night I had given myself a private room with tea/coffee facilities, fridge, TV with satellite/cable and my own bathroom.

Cologne was a beer town. It’s famed for its bitter-but-nice-tasting Koelsch, which is served up in long, thin glasses that are difficult to get my oversized schnoz into. Still, I managed to do so quite a bit in my time there, and it bumped up my food and drink bill quite a bit for the long weekend.

If it’s too good to be true, it probably is. That’s my rule of thumb, anyway, so when I saw the Irish airline RyanAir offering European flights for £5 one way, I [...]]]>

If it’s too good to be true, it probably is.

That’s my rule of thumb, anyway, so when I saw the Irish airline RyanAir offering European flights for £5 one way, I was extremely skeptical. The airline taxes would be much more than that; what’s the catch? Nevertheless, I went through the motions of booking a flight to Eindhoven to see a old Dutch friend of mine, who had just moved there. And I did indeed manage to find an outbound flight and a return for £10 total.

I soon realised the catch comes with the “optional extras”, like, er, checking a suitcase into the hold. RyanAir charge you £20 for that luxury. Luckily, I travel light, and so could get by with cabin baggage. Additionally, if you fail to check in online, print your boarding pass and bring it to the airport with you, they sting you with a £40 fee. Each way. And the final attempt at hiking the ticket price is charging you £10 for the “luxury” of paying a credit card. Luckily there is a way round this as well: you can pay with a prepaid VISA card for free. So by avoiding all of these sneaky loopholes, I did indeed manage to grab a return flight to Eindhoven for £10, all in.

Transport around town was cheap: a hop-on, hop-off bus ticket for Eindhoven and the whole surrounding area was a mere €3. As I was staying with my friend, accommodation was free; I thanked her by treating her to a meal one evening in the best buffet restaurant I had ever visited, a joint called “Wok Paradise”. Tucked away near the church at the end of a rank of shops, an unassuming doorway that looks to lead to a small takeaway shop actually houses an expansive Asian fusion restaurant upstairs. For €18 apiece, we could eat as much food as we could stomach. It was decent stuff, too: fresh lambchops, huge fresh shrimps, chicken, beef and more, all brazed on a Japanese teppanyaki grill in front of your eyes.

That was just the starter.

Sushi was next; not a great selection, but reasonable, and fairly tasty too. Then a plate of noodles with freshly steamed veg, chicken and grilled salmon, again from the patient Asian chef who we kept busy with our orders. Then sweet and sour, noodles, a bit more sushi, and ice cream to polish it off: all for eighteen euros. For a mere €26 you can have all you can eat and drink as well, although we didn’t go for it as we were concerned that the gaseous beer would stop us from eating as much of the delicious food as we would like.

I will be coming back to Eindhoven to see my friend… and we’ll definitely be starving outselves one of the days and heading down to Wok Paradise.

This is a forthcoming trip – I’ll write it up the week after I come back…

When I first visited Berlin nearly ten years ago as a student it had made a huge impression on me. Having expected to find a congested, overpopulated European capital, I [...]]]>

When I first visited Berlin nearly ten years ago as a student it had made a huge impression on me. Having expected to find a congested, overpopulated European capital, I was pleasantly surprised to find it was a spacious city of wide roads named after dead Communists linked by its ubiquitous public transport system to zip you around the sights. Even more intriguing than viewing its recent history, however, was simply experiencing the vibe of the city. Relaxed, friendly, sociable and avant-garde, modern Berlin was a treat to roam around, day or night, and safe too.

So when my friend suggested we round up a troop of Brits to invade Berlin to celebrate his 30th birthday, I was looking forward to returning to the German capital to see how it had changed. Would the Mitte area still be the cutting edge district it was back in the late nineties? Could you still grab the best kebab in the world ever for just a few Euros (or Deutschmarks, as it was back then)? Would the looming socialist monstrosity of the Alexanderplatz TV Tower ever grow on me?

This outing, the first of my Shoestring Trips into Europe from the UK, did not start out as shoestring as I would’ve liked it to be. A true shoestring traveller allows him- or herself reams of flexibility when booking their trips in order to get the cheapest prices. As the trip was planned to celebrate a friend’s birthday, and planned at the last minute, we were limited to a narrow window of time (the two weekends around his birthday) and therefore had a limited choice of flights. With no British Airways Club Europe or Priority Pass discount members among us, we were unsurprisingly consigned to the cheapo airports/airlines and the communal lounges. Suited me fine; I hate it when you have wealth disparities in a group… we were all as poor as each other thankfully. We ended up paying €99 each for the flights with the budget airline Easyjet, which whilst hardly breaking the bank, was not as good as some of the deals you could get if you booked in advance. We balanced out the outlay on the flight by booking up a huge, cheap dorm for us all in a hostel in Friedrichshain, one of the more cutting edge areas of Berlin and containing the up-and-coming Simon-Dach Strasse, a growing strip of pubs, bars, cafes, music shops, restaurants and other hangouts.

Coming as it did towards the end of the month, I was not the only budget-conscious member of the group; many hadn’t received their salaries yet and so were running off the vapours from their wallets or purses. We were therefore glad to discover on arrival that Berlin was a budget traveller’s paradise. Cheap eats – from the expected kebabs and Frankfurters to wonderful Vietnamese noodle soup and bargain-basement pizzerias – were to be found all over the city, but particularly situated outside the main tourist areas in the East. Roaming Friedrichshain, Prenzlauer Berg and Kreuzberg with our week travel pass we discovered lots of dingy, characterful joints serving up hearty food in cellars or the like for dirt cheap.

We started each day on an all-you-eat brekkie offered by the hostel – €3 is not a lot of cash for as much nutella on toast, yoghurt, ham, cheese, bread, kiwi fruit, bananas, coffee and tea you can get down you – and set us up for the rest of the day’s sightseeing, keeping hunger at bay until late into the afternoon. Whilst simply wandering around Alexanderplatz and soaking up the buzz of modern-day living in Berlin was a lot of fun, we also checked out some of its free sights. Despite the huge queue, the Reichstag was worth it, to see the German Suits arguing it out through a little window and then stroll up Norman Foster’s glorious glass and mirror addition on top of the building for a great view of the surrounding area. We also walked from the Siegesaeule column along Unter den Linden to see the infamous Brandenburg Gate ahead of us, a piece of architecture that has seen so much history. Passing beneath the famous gate we walked and walked until the glorious buildings subsided and more functional East-German concrete blocks started to appear, like going back in time.

As it was some of the group’s first visit to Germany, some of the others of us felt it was important to drum into them some of the horrors that were planned here some 70 years ago. The Holocaust Memorial was a free outdoor sculpture consisting of plain pillars which you could walk around. It was a stark and striking reminder of the faceless murders of that time. We coupled the visit of the monument together with a ride into the northern suburbs at Sachsenhausen, where beside a few unassuming houses lies the preserved hulking monstrosity of a concentration camp. We walked through the “Arbeit macht frei”-enscribed gates and paced out the perimeter, taking in the cramped quarters and “drainage troughs” where Jews were worked to death – or simply slaughtered like animals. It was a chilling experience, but for me a vital one that everyone must see with their own eyes, so as to not forget how evil the human race can be if given half a chance.

Returning to the hostel in a sobering frame of mind, we thought it best to get on the booze as quick as possible. The hostel offered up cheap beer at its bar, and whilst those on a budget (like me) kept an eye on their intake, it was hard to spend the amount you would on a night out back home in the UK. It’s a double bonus drinking beer in Germany, as the country takes its hoppy beverages seriously, producing some of the finest pilsner in the world. The German Purity Law of 1516, proudly stated on many of the beer bottles, ensures that hangovers, whilst still existing, are not the thumping chemical-laden affairs you get back in Blighty.

We headed out briefly for a few beers down Simon-Dach Strasse as well, a few blocks from the hostel and the current “hotbed” for Berlin drinking. It had a great selection of joints to drink in, from elegant bars to dingy, grimy cellars lined with album sleeves, the latter of which were more our kind of vibe. The street was great for food optioins too, with cheapy Italian, Thai and many more cuisines offered up for the peckish.

The return to Berlin for me ten years on had been a great success. The place not only lived up to the memories I had of it back then, but exceeded them; millions of Euros have been poured into the capital in investment, and it shows in the main areas – and yet the Mitte areas still retained their edgy vibe. Above all else, as a destination for a shoestring traveller, it was still right up there with the best of them.