European budget travel news

Accorhotels, the hotel company with hotel chains catering for all budgets and tastes are having a sale for the next 4 days. The discount applies to over 700 of their hotels worldwide. Hotels in the accor group include Formule 1, Etap, Ibis, Mercure, Grand Mercure, All Seasons, Suitehotel, Orbis, Sofitel and Pullman Hotels. The deals apply mainly to the mid range hotels like Mercure.
Accorhotels sale

Labels: 50%, accorhotels, cheap, early booking offers, sale

Etap Hotels, have some really great offers on at the moment. You can stay at their Newport Hotel from only £18 per room. Rooms are compact, but have a specification that includes en-suite toilet, shower and wash basin, flat screen TV and WiFi in public areas.
The hotel is best suited to person's travelling by car.

It allows easy access to the National Roman Legion Museum at nearby Carleon, part of the Museum of Wales (Free Entry) and Carleon Amphitheatre and Roman Barracks.

If you enjoy golf why not try a round at Celtic Manor Resort, host to the 2010 Golf Ryder Cup.

Cardiff, Wales' Capital City is only 17 km away with its famous Cardiff Bay including the Millennium Centre, Welsh Parliament and Norwegian Church. Go shopping in Victorian or 21st Century Shopping Arcades. or visit Cardiff Castle or some of the city's World Class Museums.

Finally, why not go underground at Big Pit National Coal Museum (Free Entry) at Blaenavon a UNESCO World Heritage Site, about 30 minutes from Newport.

Look up Etap Hotel, Newport on the web.

Labels: Big Pit, Etap, Etap Hote, Hotel, Newport, South Wales

Manchester, the city in the North West of England might not jump out as an obvious choice for a short break, but think again! There are numerous leisure attractions in the city.
My Top 10 Manchester attractions:

10. John Rylands Library. Superb Victorian Architecture
9. Whitworth Art Gallery
8. People's History Museum
7. Manchester Cathedral
6. Old Trafford, Manchester United's Football ground
5. Manchester Town Hall
4. Imperial War Museum North
3. Manchester Museum. Excellent Egyptology section plus T Rex skeleton.
2. Manchester Art Gallery
1. Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI). See the history of the textile industry and the Industrial Revolution.

Budget Hotel:
If you are looking for excellent budget hotel to stay at, then how about the Etap Hotel at Salford Quays. Rooms start at £18 and it is located just 100m from the Metro.
Or how about checking out LateRooms.com for offers from other hotels in and around Manchester.
Getting there:
Virgin Trains run London to Manchester services starting at £11. Look up train prices.
You can also get there by National Express Coach or Megabus. Of course Manchester has its own International Airport, but flying there generates the largest carbon footprint.

Labels: attractions, budget, bus, early booking offers, Football, Manchester, museums, train

Ask someone about the visitor attractions in their home town and they might well tell you that they have never visited that place. It seems many of us take the place we grew up in for granted. Why the rush to visit somewhere? We have the rest of our lives to call in and pay a visit.
In a worldwide global recession and with our carbon footprints becoming ever more noticeable, it makes sense to check out what your local environs have to offer.
I enjoy looking at my home town through different eyes. Take a look up at the roof-lines, visit that museum you have skipped until now. You may be surprised. Take your camera and try and capture the essence of the area without taking the shots published by most of the picture postcards. The photos in this post are just a few I took on my last visit.

Labels: home town, photograhy, photos, visitor

Snow in France has allowed many resorts to open early. If you can get away in the next week or so, then there are some very cheap deals to be had.

Lift Passes

Many resorts are offering reduced price lift passes to reflect the fact that not all of the pistes are likely to be open. However the good snow has meant that there are a lot more open than you would expect at this time of year. Discounts include cheap lift passes or 2 days for the price of one.

Interhome Holiday Homes

Interhome has apartments and chalets all over Europe with a considerable number in the Alps and Pyrenees. If properties aren't let within 2 weeks of start of rental, they reduce the price by 33%. Some apartments on offer for occupation commencing between 7 and 12 December 2009.

An Apartment for 4 at Val Thorens, the snowsure resort in the French Alps can be rented for £244, reduced from £367. Or an apartment for 2 can be found for £205. Both apartments are within 50 metres of the lifts.

www.interhome.co.uk

Snowtrex

I like this company because it quotes prices including lift passes. They have a last minute offers page on their Website.

£200 buys a week at an apartment sleeping 6 at snowsure Les 2 Alpes and includes your lift pass. Cheaper resorts include Chamrouse and La Norma where a week's accommodation and lift pass can be purchased from £128 and £95 respectively.

www.snowtrex.co.uk

Labels: apartments, cheap, late booking, lift passes, packages, ski, snow, snowboard, winter sports

PV Holidays has over 100 residences in over 40 Winter Sports Resorts. The apartment chain has over 50,000 apartments, located across the whole of France. An earlier post pointed out that the economic recession had lead to some great deals being made available.
What does this mean in practice? Well, PV Holidays have 20% discount on apartments booked before 19 December 2009. As an added incentive to UK Winter Sports enthusiasts hit by a weak pound / strong euro they are offering an additional 15% off their bookings. You will need to use the offer code "8258" when booking.
Other offers include an extra free night on weeks booked for Christmas 2009 and 4 nights for the price of 3 on short breaks. It means that a week at PV Group apartment at a ski resort start at just €155.98 for a week in a studio. As good a reason as any, to get your snowboard or skis serviced and book an apartment before the 19th of December. Before the UK announces it's coming out of the recession and demand picks up.

Labels: apartment, discount, PV-Holidays, resort, ski, snowboard, sports, studio, winter

I have rented an apartment in Chamonix. It should be my home for 5 months, from December 2009. Hopefully, I will be able to spend some time snowboarding around Chamonix. The mountains must be made of some sort of rock that acts a magnet and I am being irresistibly pulled there.
My eldest son would like to come out at February Half Term, but has found that the transport options are not cheap. My searches have found train and bus services that run directly to the middle of Chamonix and allow free transport of bags and snowboards / skis. I will concentrate on bus travel now and publish the train options in another post.

Travelling by coach;, prices are very competitive starting at £79 one way and £99 return. This mode of transport also has the advantage of having a lower carbon footprint than air or car travel.
Eurolines runs services directly to Chamonix and the following ski resorts:

• Cluses
• Chamonix
• Argentiere
• Moutiers
• Aime
• Bourg-St-Maurice
• Tignes Le Lac
• Tignes Val Claret
  
• Val d'Isere

Special Offers
Currently, there is an additional offer of £10 off your trip, just you use the Voucher Code:

SKITEN

This is valid until 15 November 2009. Terms and conditions apply including an exclusion period of February Half Term! However they also offer a reduced fare for anyone travelling by National Express / Eurolines to London of only £15 (not available with the voucher code offer), so I was able to find a fare of £114 return (Chester - Chamonix) for February Half Term travel, which I think is a very good deal indeed.

Labels: Coach, Eurolines, Offer code, ski, snowboard