Travel News - Backpackers.com

BNT’s ‘Travel Stories’: Your Weekly Fix Of The Best Travel Writing On The Web

June 21st, 2007 by Pia Taylor

The folks over at Brave New Traveler have just started a new weekly column featuring ‘the best inspirational travel writing on the web’.

As Tim Patterson comments, ‘We all love a great travel story, but the truth is that truly inspiring and entertaining reads are few and far between. And who has the time to search out the diamonds in the rough?’

Who indeed.

Certainly not backpackers who’re off on the road, saving their internet hours for keeping in touch with friends, foes and family and making travel arrangements…

But with BNT’s travel stories column even the busiest backpackers can get a quick fix of great travel writing, without having to spend too much time finding it. Nice.

Travel resources backpackers might find useful:
Book hostels – find and book your hostel online at special discounted rates
Travel Insurance – instant, cheap travel insurance for backpackers
Travel newsletter – sign up for our free monthly travel newsletter ‘From The Road’

Posted in General Travel, Travel News, Travel Writing | No Comments »

Scandinavian Routes On Sale: Cheap One-Way Fares For Backpackers

June 19th, 2007 by Pia Taylor

Scandinavian airline, Sterling Air is having a sale. On offer: 100,000 flights to Scandinavia for as little as 27 Euro one way (including taxes and fees).

Check out their route map before you try to find fares, though – we spent rather a long time trying to find flights from London to Oslo (the drop-down allows this combination), only to discover that this route doesn’t exist at all.

Now, these aren’t necessarily the cheapest flights on offer – a quick search on Skyscanner.net will reveal that there are cheaper flights, but not by much.

For example, in August, you can fly from London Stansted to Copenhagen for £25 – including approximate fees and taxes – on EasyJet. Interestingly, a flight in the other direction (from Copenhagen to London Stansted) can be had for only £16.25 (on EasyJet), so you could mix-and-match, choosing Sterling on the way over to Copenhagen, and EasyJet on your way back.

But, often with budget airlines like EasyJet and RyanAir, the reason you’re getting a bargain price is that the flight arrives or departs at an awkward hour, when public transport is either unavailable, or more expensive than at other times.

So, choose carefully – Sterling’s airfares might be slightly more expensive, but once you’ve tallied up transport costs to and from the airports at premium rates (sometimes a taxi is necessary), their flight timing might end up saving you money.

Sterling’s Scandinavian route sale ends today, and is valid for travel until 31 October 2007.

Travel resources backpackers might find useful:
SkyScanner – compares prices of low-cost airlines in Europe.
Low Cost Airline Guide – Low cost airline guide, primarily European airlines.
Cheap Hostels – find and book your hostels online, choose from over 12,000 worldwide!

Travel Insurance – instant, cheap travel insurance for backpackers
Travel newsletter – sign up for our free monthly travel newsletter ‘From The Road’

Posted in Destinations, General Travel, Transport, Travel News | No Comments »

Budget Airline News: New Routes and Eco-Offensives

June 15th, 2007 by Pia Taylor

Here’s a little airlines news to keep you in the travel know…

RyanAir has announced that it will extend its lowest fare guarantee until the 30th of June -means more good deals for cash-strapped backpackers.

The airline also plans to introduce thirteen new routes from Stockholm to Alicante, Basel, Bratislava, Eindhoven, Baden Baden, Liverpool, Malta, Pisa, Porto, Salzburg, Trapani and Valencia (starting October 2007).

Those of you backpackers out there who’re concerned about global warming (as we all should be) will be glad to hear that one of Europe’s major budget airlines, EasyJet, has announced an environmental offensive. Their aim: to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 50% as early as 2015 (via).

Let’s hope they can do it. Meanwhile, though, you can always do your bit for the environment by choosing less eco-unfriendly transport options like trains.

Travel resources backpackers might find useful:
SkyScanner – compares prices of low-cost airlines in Europe.
Low Cost Airline Guide – Low cost airline guide, primarily European airlines.
Cheap Hostels – find and book your hostels online, at special discounted rates

Travel Insurance – instant, cheap travel insurance for backpackers
Travel newsletter – sign up for our free monthly travel newsletter ‘From The Road’

Posted in General Travel, Transport, Travel News | 1 Comment »

Run With The Nudes in Pamplona (They’re Recruiting!)

June 8th, 2007 by Pia Taylor

Are you someone who’s happy to run around in the buff for a good cause? If so, you’re in luck: the folks at Running of the Nudes are recruiting for this year’s anti-bullfighting protest in Pamplona, Spain.

These are the guys who are so passionate about their cause (abolishing bullfights) that every year on the day before Pamplona’s famous Running of the Bulls gets started (early July), they gather in the town to protest – in a rather unusual (and somewhat attention-grabbing) manner.

This year will be the sixth annual Running of the Nudes, so if you feel strongly about bullfighting (and feel like stripping off to little red horns and not much else), it’s time to sign up and show the world what you’re made of (ahem).

Travel resources backpackers might find useful:
Hostels in Pamplona – find and book cheap hostels in Pamplona (if there are any left!)
San Fermin Guide – great guide to the Running of the Bulls
Travel Insurance – instant, cheap travel insurance for backpackers
Travel newsletter – sign up for our free monthly travel newsletter ‘From The Road’

(Photo: Arrizurieta)

Posted in Destinations, Festivals, Travel News | 1 Comment »

Gearing Up For Ski Season: bmiBaby’s Winter Flights Sale

June 6th, 2007 by The Backpackers Team

Well, you might say that winter is a long way away – after all, it’s barely even summer yet! – but if you’re a skiing fanatic, or plan to become one, it’s never too early to start planning.

If so, you might be among those who’ll take advantage of UK-based budget airline bmiBaby’s winter flights sale.

Flights from Cardiff and Manchester go on sale today, with flights from Birmingham and East Midlands on sale from tomorrow Thursday 7th June.

Fares start from just £18.99 one way, including taxes and charges, and you can choose from over 50 flights to and from the UK to Geneva, the ski capital of Europe as well as from more than 160 flights to and from the UK to nine top winter sun destinations.

Travel resources backpackers might find useful:
SkyScanner – compares prices of low-cost airlines in Europe.
Cheap Hostels – find and book your hostels online, choose from over 12,000 worldwide!

Travel Insurance – instant, cheap travel insurance for backpackers
Travel newsletter – sign up for our free monthly travel newsletter ‘From The Road’

Posted in Destinations, General Travel, Transport, Travel News, Travel Tips & Planning | 1 Comment »

RyanAir: Website Down? And Beware Possible Web Check-In Security Breach

June 5th, 2007 by The Backpackers Team

RyanAir Plane

We’ve been having trouble accessing RyanAir’s website for several days now, and it looks like we’re not the only ones.

So, we thought we’d poke around and see if there was any news about it.

There wasn’t any – all we could find were articles like this one about an imminent summer price war (so what’s new?), and this piece about how all of the airline’s fares were to be quoted on its website inclusive of taxes with immediate effect (which they hadn’t done when we were last able to check).

Then there was a rather interesting blog entry by someone who ended up paying a penalty for NOT having checked in baggage (and his frustrating attempt at complaining to the airline).

Add this to the airline’s announcement that their check-in baggage fee (not included in the basic far, you add it on later) has upped profits, and one can see why they’re not the most popular airline around.

Still, some might say that’s the price you pay for choosing the very lowest of bargain-basement airfares, and perhaps that’s so. But even the most unfazed of traveller should pay attention to a recent warning of a security breach in Ryanair’s web check-in service.

According to the report –

Ryanair’s online check-in service fails to ensure users submit confidential details across a secure connection. As a result, travellers are invited to send confidential data across an unencrypted link.

Here’s hoping they get that fixed up very very soon.

Travel resources backpackers might find useful:
SkyScanner – compares prices of low-cost airlines in Europe.
Cheap Hostels – find and book your hostels online, choose from over 12,000 worldwide!

Travel Insurance – instant, cheap travel insurance for backpackers
Travel newsletter – sign up for our free monthly travel newsletter ‘From The Road’

Posted in Transport, Travel News | 1 Comment »

Another Budget Airline Skirmish: BmiBaby Slashes Its Fares (Again)

June 1st, 2007 by The Backpackers Team

So, Europe’s budget airlines are still at it, fighting to lower their prices on airfare for quite a variety of European destinations.

EasyJet still has summer sale prices on millions of its seats (for travel up to end July) as does Wizzair (30% off selected routes. Book until 3 June).

And now BmiBaby has slashed its fares to Spain, Italy, Portugal or France by up to 40%. Book from now until midnight Tuesday 5th June for travel in June, July and August 2007. Flights are from Birmingham, Cardiff, East Midlands and Manchester.

Plus, for a limited time, you can snap up a flight for only £10 one way from Cardiff to Jersey, Manchester to Belfast Intl and Birmingham to Edinburgh (including taxes and charges for travel before the end of July 2007. Offer ends midnight Friday 1st June 2007 – that’s tonight!).

Travel resources backpackers might find useful:
SkyScanner – compares prices of low-cost airlines in Europe.
Low Cost Airline Guide – Low cost airline guide, primarily European airlines.
Cheap Hostels in Italy – find and book your hostels online, at special online prices

Travel Insurance – instant, cheap travel insurance for backpackers
Travel newsletter – sign up for our free monthly travel newsletter ‘From The Road’

Posted in Destinations, Transport, Travel News | No Comments »

Become a Global Roamer - You Might Even Make Money Doing It!

May 31st, 2007 by Pia Taylor

Whilst ambling through our rather abundant and sometimes overwhelming RSS feeds, this post on TheLostGlobe.com caught my travel-obsessed eye.

It’s about Globe Roamer TV, an exciting new concept that aims to see six backpackers roaming the globe for 212 days, each day documented on camera and the Globe Roamer blog.

What’s most interesting is the collaborative nature of the project:

ALL travelers take ownership of the project. This means you help plan, promote, market, contact prospect sponsors, and put together the master plan. And guess what? If a mack daddy corporation decides to PAY for our show when we’re all finished, you get an EQUAL share of the profit. That’s right, EVERYONE, including ME, gets an equal share.

Nice.

So, the question is:

If you could circle the globe for 7 months and only have to pay for your own spending money, would you do it? If your flight, ground transport, and hostels were paid for would you pack up and go?

If you’re saying ‘hell-yeah’ and you happen to have light-coloured hair (!), and 7 months to spare (starting September 2008) you might just be in luck – they’re still looking to fill two of the six places on the trip.

Travel resources backpackers might find useful:
Cheap Hostels – find and book your hostels online, choose from over 12,000 worldwide!

Travel Insurance – instant, cheap travel insurance for backpackers
Travel newsletter – sign up for our free monthly travel newsletter ‘From The Road’

Posted in Cool Travel Blogs, Destinations, General Travel, Travel Community, Travel News | 2 Comments »

Borat Brings Out A Travel Guide

May 29th, 2007 by Pia Taylor

It’s been a year since the crazy and somewhat controversial movie, Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan came out on the big screen.

In case you’ve had your head in the sand, the movie features the travels of Borat, a fictional Kazakh TV reporter, around the United States, offending and amusing as he goes.

It’s irreverant, and hilarious, and now creator Sascha Baron Cohen is bringing out what’s likely to be an equally entertaining travel guide book.

Gotta love the dual title: ‘Borat: Touristic Guidings to Minor Nation of U.S. and A.’ and ‘Borat: Touristic Guidings to Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.’

Brilliant!

(via)

Travel resources backpackers might find useful:
Cheap Hostel – find and book cheap hostels online at special discounted rates

Travel Insurance – instant, cheap travel insurance for backpackers
Travel newsletter – sign up for our free monthly travel newsletter ‘From The Road’

Posted in Destinations, General Travel, Travel Guides, Travel News | 2 Comments »

TGV East Launches: Up To 85% Off Train Tickets for France, Germany, Switzerland And More

May 28th, 2007 by The Backpackers Team

To celebrate the opening of the new high speed line running east from Paris, TGV Est Européen is offering 390,000 tickets at the kind of bargain basement prices that budget-strapped backpackers love so very much.

Savings of up to 85% are available on TGV Est Européen routes in France, Germany and Luxembourg. Prices start at as little as £7.50 one way.

These incredibly cheap tickets are on sale until Sunday 12th August 2007, valid for travel between Sunday 10th June and Sunday 26th August 2007.

You might have to poke around a little for the price you want, but if you start now, you should be able to get some fantastic fares like these ones:

* Paris to Reims from £7.50 – saving over 70% * Champagne Ardennes to Charles de Gaulle Airport from £7.50 – saving over 70% * Paris to Nancy from £11.50 – saving over 75% * Strasbourg to Bordeaux from £11.50 – saving over 85% * Paris to Luxembourg from £11.50 – saving over 70% * Paris to Metz from £11.50 – saving over 75% * Paris to Saarbrucken from £15.00 – saving over 75% * Paris to Frankfurt from £22.00 – saving over 70% * Paris to Stuttgart from £22.00 – saving over 65%

And, in case you were wondering, the new TGV Est Européen line runs throughout the east of France to the west of Germany, as well as to destinations in Switzerland and Luxembourg.

Find those tickets now!

Travel resources backpackers might find useful:
RailEurope – buy your European railpass.
Low Cost Airline Guide – Low cost airline guide, primarily European airlines.
Cheap Hostels – find and book your hostels online, choose from over 12,000 worldwide!

Travel Insurance – instant, cheap travel insurance for backpackers
Travel newsletter – sign up for our free monthly travel newsletter ‘From The Road’

Posted in Destinations, Transport, Travel News, Travel Tips & Planning | No Comments »

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