European budget travel news

This is the time of year when the ferry companies offer some really cheap channel crossing deals. It is the turn of Condor Ferries to offer some cheap crossings from Weymouth to St Malo (crossing time 5hr 15 mins) and Poole to St Malo (crossing time 4hr 35 min). Prices on these routes start at £98 each way for a car plus 2 adults. A trip this Winter will set you back a mere £69.

Condor Lines also offer a services from Weymouth and Pole to Guernsey from £181.96 each way for a car plus 2 adults and 2 children. Weymouth and Poole to Jersey is available from £141 each way for a car and 2 adults.

Ibis Hotels have regular cheap room deals. Here are a few for next weekend:

Belgium, Antwerp
Ibis Antwerpen Centrum € 59
Belgium, Brussels
Ibis Brussels Off Grand Place € 79
Denmark, Copenhaguen
Ibis Copenhagen Star Hotel € 82
Luxembourg, Livange
Ibis Luxembourg Sud € 59
Spain, Barcelona
Ibis Barcelona Meridiana € 59
Spain, Valencia
Ibis Valencia Palacio de Congresos € 42
Sweden Malmö,
Ibis Malmö € 62
Sweden, Stockholm,
Ibis Stockholm Hägersten € 68
Sweden, Sundsvall
Ibis Sundsvall-City € 60

Stena Line have cancelled some sailings from Holyhead to Dun Loaire (Dun Laoghaire) due to essential maintenance on Saturday 17 December 2005 and Sunday 18 December 2005.
The following sailings have been cancelled:

Saturday 17th December
Holyhead to Dun Loaire 18h30

Sunday 18th December
Holyhead to Dun Loaire 08h55
Holyhead to Dun Loaire 13h45
Holyhead to Dun Loaire 18h30

Thomson and Thomsonfly are merging their web sites so that all flight bookings can be undertaken from www.thomsonfly.com . Soon the one website will offer flights to 87 destinations worldwide from 27 UK airports.
When you look up the Thomsonfly.com site at present all of the routes from both parts of the company are available but the Thomson Flights routes cause the booking to be re-directed to that site.

The strike by Irish Ferries employees over the ferry company's proposals to employ cheaper labour from Eastern Europe has ended. The Jonathan Swift fast ferry and the Ulysees, superferry have resumed sailings between Holyhead and Dublin and the Isle of Inishmore has sailed from Pembroke bound for Rosslare.
Concessions secured by Siptu the union involved mean that all workers will have to be paid at least the minimum wage of €7.65 per hour.

Express by Holiday Inn have New Year promotion with hotels throughout the UK and Europe from £39 per night. You can stay New Years Eve at the following hotels for:

London from £49 per room
Cardiff from £39 per room
Manchester from £49 per room
Leeds from £39 per room
Barcelona from €55 (£40) per room
Brussels from €59 (£43) per room
Rome from €85 (£61) per room

The price includes complimentary continental breakfast.

The Stena Line HHS service will cease for a month for the annual refit. It is timed to coincide with the times of least demand and possible stormy conditions on the Irish Sea.
Stena's conventional Ferries will continue to run.
The Irish Sea crossings by the HSS Services on Friday 6th January to Wednesday 8th February will not operate, the services affected are:





0855 Holyhead to Dun Laoghaire
1345 Holyhead to Dun Laoghaire
1830 Holyhead to Dun Laoghaire
1110 Dun Laoghaire to Holyhead
1605 Dun Laoghaire to Holyhead
2135 Dun Laoghaire to Holyhead

Virgin Trains' high speed tilting train is now operating at 125 miles per hour on Scottish tracks. The West Coast Mainline upgrade has meant that the journey from Glasgow Central to London Euston can be timetabled at a best time of 4 hours 24 minutes. This is an improvement of 15 minutes over the last upgrade bringing the total shaved off the journey since the start of the West Coast Mainline upgrading to 49 minutes.

First ScotRail is thinking of introducing the no frills airline cost model and offering tickets from £1 on its less popular services next Summer according to the Scotsman Newspaper. Gordon Dewar, ScotRail's commercial director, told The Scotsman: "I think we can be quite aggressive, with some of the headline figures very low indeed to get people's attention.

South West Trains in England, cut off-peak fares to £1 in its "megatrain" carriages. Virgin is seriously considering doing the same.
The proposals will need to be agreed with the Scottish Executive, but may well stimulate rail usage outside of peak times.