Bulgaira’s government is putting some money into its ski resorts in the hopes of attracting more tourists. Right now, beginners and less advanced skiers will probably find the area more to their liking. There are three resorts: Borovets, Pamporovo and Bansko with Borovets being the largest. There are good ski schools and the lifts are modern, so this might be a good location if you are looking to try your feet at skiing, or have a large group of mixed-ability skiers. Directline Skiing has 7 night packages to Borovets, including return flights from the UK starting at 329 GBP. Bulgaria Ski offers a ton of country ski info. You can book a package through them, or get information in order to arrange your own.

Austria will please all snow sport enthusiasts. Both advanced and beginner skiers, as well as all levels in between will find the slopes and support they need. Many of the resorts have joined with their neighbors to create massive skiing sites, like the 430 kilometer Zillertal. While there are plenty of first class, big budget resorts and amenities, there are bargains to be found, especially in places like Finkenberg. Ski Austria offers more information than you could possibly need on skiing in Austria, including accommodation suggestions so you can plan your own trip. Inghams arranges package deals to Austrian resorts. They have packages to Igls which include 7 nights accommodation with half-board, ski and boot rental, plus flights from the UK, starting at 334 GBP.

Thompson Ski is another package company to investigate. They arrange trips to all the budget destinations mentioned here (except Slovakia,) as well as to Finland, Spain, Italy and France.

Have you had a cheap, but good skiing holiday in Europe? Please share your tips!

Photo Credit: Graham Chastney@Flickr

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The Tatras in eastern Slovakia are an excellent example of undiscovered slopes with good amenities. Snow can usually be found as early as November, and the slopes cater to all skill levels. Beginners and intermediate skiers should hit the High Tatras, while those looking to snowboard, or for freestyle or off-piste opportunities should head to the Low Tatras. Sledging, night skiing and cross-country skiing are also available in the High Tatras. Mountain Paradise arranges ski trips to Slovakia. Prices start at 395 GBP for return UK flights, 7-nights accommodation, weekly ski pass and weekly train ticket to access a variety of area resorts. Travel Slovakia offers packages to the Jasna Ski Resort. You can find additional resources to plan your own trip at Ski Slovakia.

Slovenia may be another country to explore – however their resorts are often plagued by a lack of snow. Mount Kanin is the country’s highest peak, and two of the best resorts are Kranjska Gora and Maribor Pohorje. Slovenia’s official tourist pages have information if you want to plan your own trip or check out Directline Skiing. They are offering packages at Kranjska Gora starting at 383 GBP for roundtrip airfare out of London and seven nights accommodation with half-board. This company is a good one to use for a variety of skiing trips – they search a number of tour operators in a bunch of European countries including Italy, France and Switzerland.

Tune in tomorrow when we hit the slopes in Bulgaria and Austria!

Photo Credit: Andrew Charland@Flickr

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The Old Town is a beautiful square surrounded by shops and restaurants. Carefully reconstructed following WWII, it is now a UNESCO protected site. It’s especially lively in the summer when street performers appear and all the cafes move their tables outdoors. The Royal Palace is a huge red can’t miss structure; there’s an art museum inside. Nowy Swiat is the area for bars and restaurants. A wander through the large and beautiful Lizienki Park and Palace is great for a sunny day and some “fresh” air. During the summer many free concerts and other events are held in the park.

The Monument to the Warsaw Uprising Fighters is a moving, life-size memorial. Located outside, it is free to see. Prior to WWII, Warsaw had a very large Jewish population. A portion of the ghetto wall the German’s built to house the Jews can still be seen. The Palace of Culture and Science can not be missed – the huge wedding cake shaped building towers over the center of the city. You can go inside for a bird’s eye view of Warsaw and the surrounding countryside. And if you ever get lost, just look up and start walking towards it. It can be seen from nearly all areas of the city and you’ll soon find yourself “found” again.

If you are looking for a cheap, authentic meal, order the pirogis. If you are looking for an interesting experience with your cheap meal, find a milk bar. These are holdover restaurants from communist days when they served cheap, filling meals based on milk products. After the fall of communism, many of these shut down, so it is worth searching out one of the few remaining. And quite often, the food is edible, and even enjoyable.

It’s the gritty, but cosmopolitan; reconstructed history combined with 1950’s built hipness and a ton of skyscrapers and new development that makes Warsaw such a fascinating city. For more information visit the City of Warsaw or the Warsaw Tourist Office.

Photo Credit: Monument to the Warsaw Uprising Fighters, Warsaw, Jacy Meyer

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Dates and events vary, but most are held sometime in September. In the Czech Republic for example, the theme is Monuments in the Landscape and the Landscape as a Monument and the dates are September 13-21. In Denmark, they are showcasing Buildings of the Welfare Society 1950-1980 on September 13-14. Austria is celebrating on September 28 and is offering Imported Culture: Chinese Chambers, English Landscape and Italian Frescoes. Bulgaria’s theme is Together in Diversity and they’ll be holding events September 26-28. Germany will celebrate one day only, September 14. Uncovering the Past – Archeology and Building Research is their focus. Even smaller countries are happy to be involved. Lithuania will promote Historical Organs in Lithuania from September 19-28.

The great thing about European Heritage Days is everything is free, or the sites ask for a symbolic donation. If you will be in Europe in September, or live here, be sure to find out what “your” country is doing and when. Last year we had randomly taken a day trip to a small town south of Prague during the Czech Republic’s European Heritage weekend. You could visit all the city’s museums for free, and they had opened a church that wasn’t normally open to the public. The city had also sent up an exhibit of paintings form local artists, so all in all, it was an unexpected bonus to our day out.

For more information visit the European Heritage Days website. Here you’ll find more information on the history of the program, its goals as well as links to the websites from individual countries participating in the events.

Photo Credit: Jule_Berlin@Flickr

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When budgeting for your trip to Europe, food is often the most difficult item to factor in. Airfare and hotel prices are set and web searches will reveal the prices of many attractions you may want to visit. But food? Unless you are an uber-planner, who knows where you’ll be eating every meal and what you’ll be in the mood for? Enter the Economist magazine and their Big Mac Index.

Stick with me for a moment; this is information straight from the Economist’s  website on what the Big Mac Index is and seeks to do: Burgernomics is based on the theory of purchasing-power parity, the notion that a dollar should buy the same amount in all countries. Thus in the long run, the exchange rate between two countries should move towards the rate that equalises the prices of an identical basket of goods and services in each country. Our “basket” is a McDonald’s Big Mac, which is produced in about 120 countries. The Big Mac PPP is the exchange rate that would mean hamburgers cost the same in America as abroad. Comparing actual exchange rates with PPPs indicates whether a currency is under- or overvalued.

Fascinating – but what does it mean to you? Results from the 2008 survey reveal you won’t be getting much burger for your buck in Europe. The Euro, Swedish krona, British pound and Swiss franc are all overvalued when compared to the dollar. The best bargain places to get your two all beef patties are Poland, Lithuania and Latvia. You can use this as a tool when planning your meal budget by seeing how the local currency is valued towards the dollar. For example, the index values the Euro at 50% to the USD, so if you are going to France, add about 50% to what you would spend on meals on a domestic holiday. Check out the full results here.

Photo Credit: Phil Dragash@Flickr

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While not as cheap as it was in the ‘90’s, Prague can still be an affordable destination. The city is compact and if you are staying in a centrally located hotel and like to walk, you could avoid city transportation costs. From the airport, get to the city center by taking bus #119 to the metro station Dejvická. Either the Muzeum. Můstek or Staroměstká metro stops will put you in the center.

A number of museums and galleries have a monthly free admission day. Check out the National Museum which has free entry the first Monday of the month, while the Prague Castle Picture Gallery is free EVERY Monday from 4-6pm. The Prague Castle grounds are free to wander as is entry to St. Vitus Cathedral. Vyšehrad, one of the most overlooked attractions in the city is free – explore the beautiful park, photograph the gorgeous view and pay your respects to Prague’s cultural elite in the cemetery. The first Wednesday of the month is a good day to be in Prague; Lobkowicz Palace at Prague Castle has free entry from 4-6pm, the Kampa Museum is free on this day as is entry to all eight sites of the National Gallery, from 3-8pm. Tuesdays see no charge at the Museum of Decorative Arts from 5-7pm. And for a true taste of the city, don’t forget about the Free Prague Tours we wrote about here.

For cheaper food and lodging, check out the neighborhoods of Holešovice and Karlín in Prague 7 and 8 respectively. Still walking distance to the center, you’ll find much less tourists and more local prices. As is true in most cities, even in the tourists zones you will have a slight drop in prices by slipping off the main route onto side streets. For more information on Prague and the Czech Republic visit CzechTourism or the Prague Information Service.

Please share your thoughts on this new feature, suggestions for upcoming cities and additional tips! Next week join us in Vienna.

Photo Credit: The Tyn Church in Old Town Square, Prague by Jacy Meyer

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Eurolines is probably the most well-known inter-Europe bus company. They have 500 European destinations, and are especially good if you are looking to travel further east or in countries where the inter-country rail links aren’t as good. They offer online booking, however it is through the local Eurolines operators and the websites aren’t always in English. They also have a Eurolines Pass which gives you the option of 15 or 30 day unlimited travel between 40 destinations. You can book as you go (2-day advanced notice,) so it’s pretty easy to be flexible, and prices start at 199 EUR for the 15-day and 299 EUR for the 30-day for an adult pass in the low season.

Busabout is another option. They are a bit more tour-like and cater to a younger set. They run May-October and have 30 destinations in 10 countries. You can design your own trip or they have loops covering a certain region of Europe.

And don’t forget about in-country travel. Often the bus is easier, cheaper and has better options than the train. In the Czech Republic, you’ll find more direct routes and shorter travel times for most cities if you take the bus. The bus system in Spain is also excellent – nice buses and quite inexpensive.

BUG is an excellent resource for overview information about bus lines throughout Europe.

Photo Credit: srqpix@Flickr

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The study covers the year 2006 and looked at what percentage of the population went away for four days or more. They also spilt the information between domestic and foreign trips. On average, about four out of 10 Europeans travelled abroad that year. For the most part though, more trips were made in-country than out. Exceptions include Luxembourg, where only 1 percent took a domestic trip, while a whopping 99 percent left for countries elsewhere. I guess there’s not a whole lot more to see in the tiny country if you already live there. Other countries where significantly more people went abroad than stayed home include Belgium, Ireland and Slovenia. And who are happy to explore their own countries? The Romanians, Greeks, Spanish and French top that list – with more than 80% in each country content to take a trip domestically.

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TravelMuse is a family travel orientated website that offers many of the typical travel site goodies of destination guides, articles, theme travel tips, etc. but they also have a “Find Inspiration” feature that lets you input your vacation desires and it outputs a selection of trip ideas.

From the home page, it seemed much of what they do and recommend is US-based travel, so I wasn’t sure if inputting my European home base would work. It did. The finder asks for your home airport, how long you are willing to fly, the season you want to travel, length of trip, themes and activities you’d like to do, and the all important budget. I said I wanted a 4-day trip, with a 2-hour max flying time and a budget of 500 USD per person. My travel themes were historical vacations, arts and museums and ecotourism. My activities included parks & playgrounds; sightseeing; hiking and pubs and bars. The Inspirer offered me 4 trips – Dublin, Ireland; Oslo, Norway; Paris, France and Lausanne, Switzerland. None of them hit my budget of 500 USD per person (cheapest was Dublin at 595 USD) but all of them hit nearly all of my chosen themes and activities. On this page is also a date setter so you can choose your travel dates for more exact pricing.

In the suggestion chart they also have links to information on the cities they recommended, as well as a list of packages that include flight, hotel, taxes and fees. If they have properly inspired you, you can book a package straight away.

So this was kind of fun! Dublin has been on our list of places to go for a while; and while I don’t consider Norway or Switzerland budget destinations it’s fun to look at photos and read a bit more about them. Even if you aren’t in a position to actually go away, stop by TravelMuse and let them remotely inspire you for a while

Photo Credit: Vidiot@Flickr

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Here’s a jumbled round-up of recent airline/airfare news:

Ryanair. We wrote about them in our Airfare Alerts 2 post. They’ve always been a bit persnickety but have now announced they won’t be honoring any tickets booked through third-party websites. That means if you’ve booked a flight on Ryanair through BravoFly, V-tours, Opodo, Atrapalo or OTBeach, you’d better contact them, or Ryan Air directly, to find out the status of your ticket. And apparently, Ryanair won’t be an option anymore or these, or other multiple booking sites.

Best Fares has a cool consolidator sale running. Offered deals are pretty good, especially if you are flexible. One example is roundtrip airfare to over 30 destinations starting at 529 USD. They have this for both fall travel (September 1 through October 29) and winter getaways which stretches all the way to March 31, 2009. If you do get a whim to pop over to Europe last minute, you should check Best Fares first. They are currently showing roundtrip airfares, all taxes and fees included for destinations like Phoenix to Madrid (879 USD) Los Angeles to Paris (1,056 USD) and Chicago to London (913 USD.) The kicker? You have to travel between August 18 and 31, this year.

And last up is some package deals from Sherman’s Travel. This is for late fall trips – you must travel between November 1 and December 11. Offerings include flight and hotel to Prague from 799 USD; Rome from 949 USD and Amsterdam and Brussels from 1,219 USD. All trips are for 6 nights, and departures are from the East coast, most likely Newark or New York.

Photo Credit: kevbo1983@Flickr

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