1. The September Monocle has a bit of a state-within-a-state theme going on. The issue includes features on Finland’s autonomous Åland Islands, Bolzano, the capital of Italy’s Süd Tirol/Alto Adige region, and an especially fetching multipage feature on Georgia’s Russia-supported breakaway region of Abkhazia. A Monocle dossier on European microstates would be the perfect follow-up.

2. The Netherlands Tourist Board is the world’s first national tourist authority to launch a Second Life tourist board. May they be the last.

3. We recently discovered the Swiss Tourist Board’s rather more useful handy map guide to inexpensive hotels across Switzerland. The guide lists 154 hotels with rates at CHF160 (€97; $133) or under for a double en suite room, including breakfast.

4. We are in love with this brilliant song by Andy Hide. We’ll be petitioning ARIA to invent a new award category for musical adaptations of shocking moments in popular culture shortly.

It’s overcast and rainy where we are. So we’re thinking of the Netherlands. Sue us.

Here’s a little list of current Dutch gems.

1. Ahead of the game, Dutch budget holiday boutique VakantieXperts has published their Winter Guide. Those in NL might want to stop by a shop and start dreaming of snow.

2. A frighteningly enormous Lego Man has appeared in Zandvoort. Thanks for freaking us out, Amherstdam.

3. Our guiltiest pleasure right now is Monique Smit’s “Wild,” a fluffy bit of Nederpop, currently at Number 18 in the Dutch Mega Top 50.

4. Leafe Sawntjin, a restaurant located in the fields of Friesland, looks like a great place to blow a weekly travel budget.

We chanced upon the Unusual Hotels of the World site the other day. As astute Internets Detectives might assume, the site showcases odd accommodations throughout the world.

Taking a look at their European offerings, we were especially taken by several of their accommodation categories: “underground/cave,” “ice/igloo,” and “prison” were among our favorites, though we think that “treehouse” trumps all categories. Call us overgrown children. We don’t mind.

The site divides accommodations into several rate categories, beginning under $100. Our favorite individual hotel? The Controversy Tram Hotel in the Dutch town of Hoogwoud (see above). Named after the Prince song and album, the Controversy Tram Hotel consists of four bedrooms in converted trams. Nightly rates begin at €60 and drop for extended stays.

Now you’ve got another reason to explore the province of North Holland…

We advise Cheapos in the Netherlands to check out the May “camping” breaks currently being promoted on the VakantieXperts site.

We put “camping” in quotes because most of the camping parks in question are actually quite well outfitted, with swimming pools and other facilities. See the range of camping park locations here. You can expect to find a week at a park in France, Italy, or Spain for as little as €154, though more typical weeks come in at over €200.

We were unable to book at our chosen “camping” site online. With this in mind, we’d advise interested Cheapos to head to an actual store to book. Search the full range of VakantieXperts store locations here. Note that the VakantieXperts site is in Dutch.

Photograph by Stuart’s Photos

We’ve long been fans of Dutch bargain holiday boutique chains like D-Reizen, which regularly put together deals that amaze us.

A quick look today at D-Reizen’s “Last Minute TOP-10″ list turned up three particularly interesting deals. These range from the unremarkable (€87.50 for a double room at an Ibis in Ghent, Belgium) to the downright intriguing (€420.50 for a seven nights in a two-person apartment in Alanya on the Turkish Riviera, including airfare from Amsterdam.)

Our favorite of the bunch: a double room for seven nights in Mayrhofen, Austria (see above) for just €182.50. That’s not per person, either—€182.50 is the total price for a week’s stay for two.

When will travel chains outside of Europe finally begin to coordinate holiday package offerings with their European equivalents?

 
photograph courtesy of unwary

We spend a lot of time looking through European budget holiday boutique offerings. Among our favorites are the Dutch chains. Outfits like VakantieDiscounter and D-Reizen regularly put together amazingly cheap packages that knock the socks off most budget-friendly package holiday packages on offer elsewhere in Europe.

On VakantieDiscounter yesterday we came across an incredible €86 deal for three nights at the Hotel Ersu in Istanbul’s Hocapaşi district. By the looks of it, Hotel Ersu draws much of its clientele base from the Netherlands, presumably from Dutch package tourists.

The price is a per person charge that assumes two people traveling together. It includes air, bed, and breakfast. As we write, packages priced at €86 are still available for departure on several days in March.

What’s the catch? Well, there is none, strictly speaking, although the package does comes to €176 once airport taxes are taken into account. Flights are on Turkish carrier Corendon Airlines; those wanting to fly on a Dutch carrier will have to shell out an additional €35 per person.

 
photograph courtesy of ll-ll

OK, so here’s the plan.

1. Get to the Netherlands.

2. Find the missing dog.

3. Pick up the €20,000 reward.

4. Blow a lot of money in Amsterdam.

What are we talking about? Tilburg dogowner Ramazan Gundes‘ astounding reward offer, of course.

Veel Geluk!