The view from here...photo by Alex Robertson Textor

By Alex Robertson Textor—Two weeks in the Nordic countries visiting friends in familiar cities and discovering new territory required me to rely heavily on airplanes as well as trains to get around.

I took five flights during my trip: Stockholm to Helsinki; Helsinki to Copenhagen; Copenhagen to the Faroe Islands; Faroe Islands to Copenhagen; and Copenhagen to Stockholm. All but the final of these flights was unavoidable, scheduling-wise. During the last stretch I badly wanted to take the train, but logistics and pricing got in the way.

All in all, the packed itinerary yielded four airlines I’d never encountered before—one regional airline, two legacy airlines, and one low-cost airline. Here are my reviews.

Flight #1: Stockholm to Helsinki
Airline: Blue1

SAS subsidiary Blue1 is a regional airline with a dense route map covering Finland. The total experience is pretty humdrum. Notable dimensions of the experience included the offer of little candies from a basket at the close of the flight and a good in-flight magazine, which featured interesting articles on Helsinki allotment gardens and a  unique lighthouse accommodation along the Finnish coast. There was a free drink service but no snack is served on board.

Cost of one-way ticket: 739 SEK (about $95) purchased on the Swedish version of the SAS site.

On-time? No. 45-minute delay.

Flight rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Flight #2: Helsinki to Copenhagen
Airline: Finnair

This Finnish legacy carrier runs a seriously well-designed ship, which has earned kudos for its routes to Asia and its overall brand. Of note was the rack of free newspapers on offer to guests—I plumped for Helsinki’s Swedish-language Hufvudstadsbladet—and the plush blue seats. Snack service consisted of a cheese and cucumber sandwich, a small cup of concentrated orange juice, and a tiny Mars candy. The in-flight magazine contained thoughtful stories on the Finnish town of Rauma, the Japanese lust for vintage Finnish design, and Finland’s Valamo Monastery, the only Orthodox monastery in the Nordic countries.

Cost of one-way ticket: $111, purchased through Orbitz.com.

On-time? Yes.

Flight rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Flight #3: Copenhagen to the Faroe Islands (roundtrip)
Airline: Atlantic Airways

This air carrier faces no competition on its routes, which in high season connect the Faroe Islands’ Vagar international airport with Denmark, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, and the UK. The airline, sadly, lacked personality. A snack was served in a big paper bag. It consisted of a bland ciabatta sandwich and a single wrapped Fazer mint. The in-flight magazine is very glossy. Perks of note: Danish and Faroese newspapers draped over seats and the drinks cart, which materializes with unexpected regularity and dispenses hard liquor free of charge. Bummer of note:  A stopped-up toilet on the Copenhagen-Faroes route.

Cost of roundtrip ticket: $404, purchased on the Atlantic Airways Web site.

On-time? Yes.

Flight rating: 2 out of 5 stars

Flight #4: Copenhagen to Stockholm
Airline: Norwegian Air

Norwegian Air Shuttle—these days more often referred to as “Norwegian”—is a quietly successful airline. Branded as a budget airline, Norwegian indeed offers some very reasonable advance fares. Norwegian doesn’t destroy passengers with arbitrary charges, either. With other European low-cost airlines charging for all sorts of things like checking in at the airport and checked baggage, Norwegian’s free 20 kg baggage allotment felt like a gift. Nothing on board is free, of course. The in-flight magazine is written in uneven English, though it contained a few items of note: a short article suggesting that passengers use their mobile telephones to check in for flights, DJ Rune Lindbaek’s tips for Oslo visits, and an overview of Swedish landscape architect Ulf Nordfjell’s oeuvre.

Cost of one-way ticket: €44 (about $62), purchased on wegolo.

On-time? Yes.

Flight rating: 3 out of 5 stars

About the author: Alex Robertson Textor is Editor-at-Large at EuroCheapo. He has written travel stories for the New York Post, New York Times, and Rough Guides, among other publications, and he also maintains Spendthrift Shoestring, a blog on budget travel and culture.

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The Museum of Contemporary Art (Kiasma)'s imposing entrance.

By Alex Robertson Textor—Helsinki, Finland, is home to high design, price tags to match, and lots of heavy metal fans. The city’s atmosphere combines the obvious Swedish and Russian influences yet also feels, with its gray mid-century apartment blocks, cafés, and Jugendstil beauties, somewhat reminiscent of Mitteleuropa.

How to keep costs manageable in such a pricey Nordic capital? We’ve got a few suggestions.

1. Find a cheap bed. The well-scrubbed Eurohostel, located on Katajanokka, is a cheap spot to lay your head. Rooms are small but spic-and-span, with Ikea-like blond wood bed frames and gray and green room accents. Doubles begin at €53 in the summer, which is pretty darn cheap for the pricey Finnish capital.

Central Helsinki by day...

2. Grab a cheap lunch. Grub is expensive in central Helsinki. One good value can be found at the Hietalahti Flea Market café, where the lunch buffet is just €7 per person. Just don’t go assuming that you’ll be able to find such good deals in the flea market hall itself, which is packed to the rafters with spectacular Finnish modernist pieces (as well as some inarguably uninteresting fluff). A trip to the nearby Design Museum (Korkeavuorenkatu 23) will confirm your suspicions that many of the Flea Market’s cast-offs are in fact Grade A modernist beauties.

3. Visit a free museum. The splendid Kiasma (Museum of Contemporary Art) is worth the €7 admission fee for the exploration of its curved passageways and awesome scale alone. But on the first Wednesday of every month, admission is free. Several other museums occasionally offer free admission as well.  Helsinki City Art Museum is free on Fridays, for example.

Helsinki's main cathedral, the Tuomiokirkko

4. Free furniture? Well, not really. All those expensive shops full of incredibly dear and well made Finnish furniture can be visited and viewed by any Cheapo with an appetite for good, high-end design. Check out Vepsäläinen and the adjacent Solid Furniture on Annankatu 25, and Amfora Shop on Bulevardi 11 for some particularly inspiring selections.

5. Take a cheap day trip. It’s all relative, of course, but a boat trip to the beautiful island of Suomenlinna—where one of the largest historic maritime monuments in the world holds court—is just €3.80 roundtrip for adults and €1.90 roundtrip for children aged 7 to 16.  Once there, guided walking tours of the island are available most every day in the summer, less frequently in the down season. They are free for Helsinki Card carriers.

About the author: Alex Robertson Textor is Editor-at-Large at EuroCheapo. He has written travel stories for the New York Post, New York Times, and Rough Guides, among other publications, and he also maintains Spendthrift Shoestring, a blog on budget travel and culture.

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The Guggenheim Bilbao. Photos by Alex Robertson Textor.

By Alex Robertson Textor—

The unveiling of Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim Museum in 1997 may have inserted Bilbao into international hipster consciousness, but the Basque city on the river clearly knew it was cool long before Gehry’s agenda was realized.

Bilbao is an immediately attractive city with green parks and a pleasingly well-heeled atmosphere. There are so many exciting things going on in Bilbao that it’s hard to know if the focus should be on the new or on the old.

Architectural draw

Santiago Calatrava's Campo Volantin Footbridge.

The city has become a magnet for those thrilled by contemporary architecture. Gehry’s museum is a masterpiece, and Santiago Calatrava’s imprint on the city is also undeniable. His Campo Volantin Footbridge is a marvel, and Bilbao’s Sondika Airport, also designed by Calatrava, is dramatic and grand.

But lovers of older styles shouldn’t sit Bilbao out. The city’s Casco Viejo (Old Town) is dripping with old world charm. The Gothic Catedral de Santiago, at the center of the Old Town, is gorgeous; elsewhere, there are plenty of Neoclassical and hybrid eclecticism buildings to admire.

A touch of tension

Yet despite Bilbao’s palpable prosperity and many charms, there’s tension in the air. Upon observing a protest adjacent to the Arriaga Theatre led by men and women in their sixties and seventies, many holding signs written in Basque, I asked a local what the protests were about. I assumed that the protesters were holding a vigil for those murdered by separatist terrorists.

Bilbao's Casco Viejo (Old City).

In fact, the man on the street told me, the silent protest was not for the victims of Basque terrorism at all. Those holding signs were the parents of convicted terrorists demonstrating for the transfer of their children to prisons inside the Basque Country—away from the prisons, elsewhere in Spain, where they are currently housed.

All of this, while very interesting, no doubt gives a misleading impression of the placid and quite wealthy city. In fact, Bilbao is very safe. The various skirmishes over language, culture, and politics in the Basque Country are mostly invisible to visitors.

What tourists see is an omnipresent Basque language, as well as tourist shops selling Basque flags and t-shirts.

Bilbao on a budget

Here are five tips for saving money in Bilbao.

1. Cheap savories.

One word: pintxos (pronounced “pinchos”), or: the Basque version of tapas. Pintxos come in all sorts of forms. There is a lot of cod, shrimp, and mayonnaise involved. All good, and all pretty cheap. Three pintxos and a glass of wine shouldn’t set you back more than €7. Stroll the Casco Viejo (Old Town) to find a pintxos popping perch.

2. Cheap sweets.

Refuel with cheap and filling pastries. Try the local rice tart with coffee. We like the old school feel of New York Café, at Calle Buenos Aires 12.

Take the Bilbobus!

3. Hubbing it.

Bilbao makes a great hub for exploring other cities in the Basque Country and beyond. The exquisite city of San Sebastián is about 90 minutes away by bus (roundtrip around €18), while Santander in the neighboring region of Cantabria is roughly the same distance to the west (roundtrip beginning at €13).

4. Museum switch.

We can’t seriously recommend that you not visit the Guggenheim. But if innovative interiors are less important to you than broad permanent art collections, restrict your explorations of the Guggenheim (admission €13) to the remarkable building’s exterior and check out the Museo de Bellas Artes (admission €5.50) instead.

5. Cheap sleeps.

Bilbao has a good range of affordable beds. We like Hotel Sirimiri, right next to the Atxuri tram station, where a double room runs just €60. The word “sirimiri” means a faint yet continuous mist, a type of precipitation common to Bilbao throughout much of the year.

About the author: Alex Robertson Textor is Editor-at-Large at EuroCheapo. He writes travel stories for the New York Post, New York Times, and Rough Guides, among other publications, and he also maintains Spendthrift Shoestring, a blog on budget travel and culture.

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Andorra La Vella's Old Town. Photos by Alex Robertson Textor.

By Alex Robertson Textor—

Andorra La Vella, the capital of Andorra, may be Western Europe’s most maligned capital. A huge duty-free shopping hub, it tends to be written off as an outdoor mall only good for short shopping adventures.

Its commercial bluster may indeed shock those emerging from a weeklong mountain journey through the Pyrenees. And in fact, some of its commercial business is a bit depressing. Shops selling discounted tobacco, perfume, and jewelry are everywhere. There are also sinister militia shops hawking surveillance devices, riot gear, bb guns, and odd objects expressly designed to hide things—like dummy soup cans that screw apart to reveal a hidden chamber. Are these things even legal?

Let’s table that question for a minute and fight the conventional wisdom regarding the Andorran capital by focusing on its downright interesting attributes.

Looking at Andorra

Andorra's pleasingly dated bar decor.

The language on the streets is the gorgeous hybrid tongue of Catalan. It’s framed dramatically by stunning jagged peaks that appear to sprout behind every building. It’s got a romantic if very tiny old town and loads of interesting, modern stone architecture. In many ways, it is reminiscent of a medium-sized Swiss city. This is the case even aesthetically, down to the faded, pleasingly dated store signage and bar interiors that pop up here and there.

Beyond shopping, true tourism draws in the capital itself are few. Just outside of Andorra La Vella in the town of Escaldes-Engordany is the enormous Caldea thermal baths complex. Our Cheapo tip: obtain a discounted nighttime admission for €25, a savings of €8 off the standard admission price.

One standout site in the city is the Casa de la Vall, the 16th-century stone house that serves as the seat of government. It’s delightful to consider that such a beautiful small house could serve as a national parliament.

Andorra's cute Casa de la Vall.

Andorra’s governmental balancing act

Andorra is, truth by told, a bit of an anomaly. It’s in charge of its own affairs but maintains some vestigial attachments to France and Spain. Officially, it is a co-principality, and its two “co-princes” are the French head of state and the Bishop of Urgell, who represents Spain.

(Lest you imagine that France and Spain run the show, know that executive power is the domain of the Andorran government, not the co-princes.) The postage system is operated by its two much larger neighbors, who dutifully produce Andorran stamps; defense, also, is delegated to the giants on either side.

Andorra is not a part of the European Union. It also remains outside of Schengen, the EU’s customs union that de facto blankets most of the other European microstates. On the main road through Andorra there are large mountainside immigration stations—a downright rarity in today’s Western Europe. (Many bus shuttles, however, including the one occupied by your loyal correspondent, are dismissed with a wave at the border crossings. What a disappointment!)

French and Spanish mailboxes side by side.

With neither an airport nor a railway network, Andorra certainly sits off the beaten path. Unlike the other Western European microstates, it isn’t quick to get to by road, either. Andorra is a three to three-and-a-half hour bus journey from both Barcelona and Toulouse.

By way of contrast, Monaco is smack dab in the middle of the Côte d’Azur, Liechtenstein is as close as an hour and a quarter from Zurich, San Marino is a stone’s throw from Rimini, and the Vatican is encircled by Rome. Andorra’s sheer distance makes actually touching down on the ground feel a little bit more like an accomplishment.

Andorra La Vella Hotel Tip

Budget bed fans should check out the clean, quiet, and very affordable Hotel Sant Jordi in Andorra La Vella, where double rooms booked online can be nabbed for as little as €40.

About the author: Alex Robertson Textor is Editor-at-Large at EuroCheapo. He writes travel stories for the New York Post, New York Times, and Rough Guides, among other publications, and he also maintains Spendthrift Shoestring, a blog on budget travel and culture.

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Plage de Pompierre, Terre-de-Haut.

By Alex Robertson Textor—

The island of Terre-de-Haut in the tiny Les Saintes archipelago just south of Guadeloupe is a little slice of Francophone heaven in the midst of the Caribbean. But unlike St. Barts, another tiny French Caribbean isle, Terre-de-Haut isn’t so French that it doesn’t also feel as if it’s part of the region. Terre-de-Haut marries its Frenchness and its Caribbeanness in a hybrid that can only imperfectly be described as idyllic.

Terre-de-Haut, you see, gives new meaning to the word “lovely.”

Welcome to Terre-de-Haut.

Its one village is quaint, full of tourist shops, bakeries, markets, and restaurants. The buildings are mostly diminutive. There’s a distinctly rural French fishing village feel to the place, which no doubt has something to do with the island’s settlement history. Fishermen from Brittany and Normandy were among the island’s first settlers, and today fishing remains a big part of the local economy. In the late evening, fishermen gather on their porches to mend their nets.

Terre-de-Haut is not a shoestring destination, but it provides very good value. More developed Caribbean islands—we prefer not to name names—offer much less in terms of charm, physical beauty, and grub, yet charge much more for beds and meals. Terre-de-Haut, while not dirt cheap, is a wonderful mid-range option for travelers who want great cuisine and astounding physical beauty, yet balk at the Caribbean’s price index.

Getting There

Here’s the rub: It’s not easy to get to Terre-de-Haut.

From North America, there are two main routes: air travel via St. Maarten or San Juan to Guadeloupe’s Pointe-à-Pitre, followed by a very pricey plane to Terre-de-Haut or a less expensive ferry ride (€22 roundtrip.) We recommend the latter, of course, and we recommend leaving for Terre-de-Haut from Trois-Rivières, not Pointe-à-Pitre, in order to shorten the journey and limit the risk of terrible sea turbulence.

(Trois-Rivières is also a far more charming spot for an overnight than Pointe-à-Pitre. We recommend a fab little gîte called An Tikaz La, where a rustic double room runs €49 per night. You’ll fall asleep under a mosquito net to the scent of ylang-ylang. Proprietor Mi-Marie, originally from the Jura, will make you feel right at home.)

The beaches of Terre-de-Haut

What to Do 

In crude shorthand: 1. Go to the beach. 2. Eat.

First, beach. The beaches on Terre-de-Haut are beautiful. There’s Pain de Sucre, a miniature version of Rio’s Sugar Loaf, a perfect arc of a beach best in the early morning and late afternoon when the day-trippers from Guadeloupe aren’t around and the water is stunningly clear.

The island’s most popular beach, Plage de Pompierre, is studded with coconut trees. It is typically full of people (and goats!) but is so expansive that neither really disturbs. It’s also blessed with a one-woman baguette machine, an entrepreneur at the beach’s entrance who assembles delicious sandwiches. If you’re lucky, she’ll have fish in vinaigrette on hand.

Which brings us to food. Terre-de-Haut is a place to eat well.

At Le Triangle, a reasonable beachfront restaurant, the three-course menu is €17. The fish is fresh and delightfully seasoned, and it comes with a dreamy plantain mash. If you’re polite, your meal will close with a digestif. Up the price chain at La Téranga, Auberge des Petits Saintes, or La Saladerie, one can eat extraordinary meals starting around €40 per person for dinner. The island’s cuisine is hybrid French/Creole, and there are lots of good fresh fish dishes on offer.

Where to Stay

We love Hôtel LôBleu, a stylish, mid-range charmer run well by Maxime Naffah and his friendly staff. Doubles with a view of the village begin at €68 in low season (late May through the end of July; October) and top out at €110 in high season (mid-December through late May).

The Upshot

We’ll repeat our earlier dictum: Terre-de-Haut is not a backpackers’ destination, but it is a good midrange Caribbean holiday destination. Hotels are reasonably priced, with most offering double rooms for €80 in high season and €60 in low season. There are also a handful of gîtes on hand with even cheaper nightly rates. Restaurants are not exactly full of bargains, but nothing is outrageous or dramatically overpriced.

About the author: Alex Robertson Textor is Editor-at-Large at EuroCheapo. He writes travel stories for the New York Post, New York Times, and Rough Guides, among other publications, and he also maintains Spendthrift Shoestring, a blog on budget travel and culture.

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Terre-de-Haut, Guadeloupe, a part of the French Caribbean.

By Alex Robertson Textor—

Three European countries have territories in the Caribbean today: France, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. If one measures things in terms of citizenship rights, then all of these three countries’ Caribbean territories are part of Europe. If one measures them instead in terms of full territorial integration with their European “mother countries,” then only the French territories can be said to be fully a part of Europe today.

The French territories include the overseas departments of French Guiana (well to the east of the Caribbean sea on the northern coast of South America, though often grouped with the Caribbean), Guadeloupe, and Martinique, as well as the smaller “overseas collectivities” of Saint Barthélemy (or Saint Barts) and Saint Martin.

Click for an island map.

French Caribbean

Guadeloupe has three “offshore island” groups—the picture-perfect Les Saintes archipelago, with just two inhabited islands, Terre-de-Bas and Terre-de-Haut; the rural rum-producing island of Marie-Galante; and the small fishing isle of La Désirade.

The French territories are interesting for their complete integration into the French state, just as Hawaii and Alaska are integrated into the United States. Every citizen of these overseas territories is represented in Paris by an elected politician. The French territories consequently feel far more European than their Dutch and British counterparts.

Dutch Caribbean

Aruba and the Netherlands Antilles are the Dutch Caribbean territories. The latter is a federation of five islands, Bonaire, Curaçao, Saba, Sint Eustatius, and Sint Maarten. Aruba, the former, broke apart from the Netherlands Antilles in 1986. The Dutch territories are semi-autonomous parts of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The islands are not part of the European Union, though their citizens are all Dutch citizens, and by extension also EU citizens.

Incidentally, the Netherlands Antilles will cease to exist sometime in the next few years. The two larger islands in the current federation, Curaçao and St. Maarten, will run their own affairs, as Aruba has been doing for over two decades now, while Bonaire, Saba, and St. Eustatius will become Dutch overseas municipalities. These three tiny islands—with a combined population of around 20,000—will be integrated by and large into the Netherlands’ legal framework. Once the switch takes place, the citizens of these three tiny islands will also vote in Dutch and EU elections.

British Caribbean

The United Kingdom’s Caribbean territories consist of Anguilla, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Montserrat, and the Turks and Caicos Islands. The final of these, though not technically a part of the Caribbean at the southeastern flank of the Bahamas, is usually associated with the region. In 2002, these islands’ residents obtained British citizenship—and with it, EU citizenship.

The British territories are a real hodgepodge, and feel least tied to the mother country of the three. The variation in living standards and culture is great. It includes the massive per capita incomes of the Cayman Islands, the hardscrabble survivor spirit of Montserrat and the bucolic, backwater feel of many of the Caicos and British Virgin Islands.

Where are we?

Your Wandering Cheapo is currently holed up on one of the exquisite islands catalogued above. Which one, you wonder? Stay tuned–he’ll spill the beans and fill in the blanks on Friday.

Alex Robertson Textor is Editor-at-Large at EuroCheapo. He writes travel stories for the New York Post, New York Times, and Rough Guides, among other publications, and he also maintains Spendthrift Shoestring, a blog on budget travel and culture.

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Forgive the temporary release of the standard editorial “we” in the following post.

My final day as editor of the EuroCheapo Blog is today. I have loved editing (and writing for) this blog, scouring sources obscure and mainstream alike for budget-friendly travel tidbits. For those who have started reading the blog only recently, we have run an in-house endeavor with occasional guest posts since the summer; prior to that, the blog collected the musings and tips of a stable of amazing correspondents across Europe. I can say without a shred of hyperbole that editing their writing was one of the best professional experiences of my life.

I will miss editing the blog, though knowing that it will continue to thrive and excite travel budgeteers of all persuasions makes leavetaking easier. I’ll continue to be a part of the wider EuroCheapo sphere, and hope to be posting occasionally.

Please check out my unaffiliated, newish travel blog, Spendthrift Shoestring.

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Nothing like a midweek digest of recently noteworthy posts and stories. Right?

1. Christopher Elliott’s list of strange travel surcharges is both hilarious and on target. Though it refers more to a business traveler demographic than a Cheapo one, Elliott does touch on the European budget airline habit of imposing extreme and varied surcharges.

2. Trippist spreads the word about extended shopping hours in Amsterdam. Shops in central Amsterdam districts will be open until 10 p.m. on December 20, 21, and 23.

3. Which song will be the UK’s top-selling single the week of Christmas? The Brits take the Xmas Number One v. seriously. Caroline Briggs checks out the top contenders for the BBC.

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Today Ryanair announced 50 new routes around Europe for 2008; among these, there will be three entirely new destinations in the bunch: Angoulême in France and Arad and Constan?a in Romania.

The expansion to Romania is welcome; frankly, we expected it to happen months ago. Arad is currently served by Romanian low-cost airline BlueAir, which flies to Stuttgart, Valencia, and Verona from the far western Romanian city. Constan?a, at the opposite end of Romania, in the country’s southeast on the Black Sea, is a big regional beach resort. Ryanair will be the first budget airline to serve it.

The airline will also be the first budget airline to serve Angoulême, a department capital in southwestern France, thereby increasing Ryanair’s already notable presence in the southwestern quarter of the country.

Ryanair will fly one route apiece to each of these new destinations: Arad-Orio al Serio (Milan), Angoulême-London Stansted, and Constan?a-Pisa.

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On our radar screens today:

1. Yesterday, Ryanair announced four new routes connecting Ireland and France. Connections between Dublin and Brest, Rodez, and Tours will kick off in April, and a seasonal Cork-Carcassonne link will fly from late May through early September.

2. Vardzia, Georgia is Gadling’s “Where on Earth?” spot.

3. Andy Martin blogs entertainingly on very English Bournemouth.

4. Over the last few months, Volareweb has added a bunch of destinations. Volareweb now flies to Helsinki, Lodz, and Rotterdam, among other destinations. We’d be more excited if Volareweb weren’t one of the least reliable low-cost carriers we’ve come across.

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