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.

Photo by Simon_K

The good people at The Foundation for Tourism in Geneva and Unireso have given Cheapos another reason to visit their fair canton (as if lounging about Place du Bourg-de-Four wasn’t reason enough.) As of January, tourists staying in one of Geneva’s hotels, youth hostels, or camp sites are entitled to a free Geneva Transport Card.

The personal, credit card-style Transport Cards cover fares on all trams, buses, local CFF trains, and yellow taxi boats. The cards can only be picked up at your lodging’s check-in desk and are valid for the length of your stay.

We’d file this dispatch under “Budget Deals,” but the Foundation and Unireso plan to offer this “deal” indefinitely.

Photo by phanikishore

Those Swiss really know how to send winter out in style—or, as it were, in effigy! We think the folks in Zurich have the right idea with their spring Sechseläuten festival, which takes place on Sunday, April 15 and Monday, April 16.

Sunday’s festivities will include a children’s parade, followed by Monday’s procession of the guilds to the bonfire. Yes, bonfire. At 6 p.m. sharp, the noble folks of Zurich will burn “Böögg,” an effigy representing “Old Man Winter.” There will be music, horses, and over 7,000 participants in historic costumes. Böögg is filled with firecrackers. The faster his head catches fire, the better the summer is supposed to be.

Why, you ask, in a country known for its skiing and snow, would winter be sent away so violently? We haven’t the faintest idea, but we don’t care. We find Böögg and his bonfire to be just dandy. And we hope that fire goes straight to his head!

Photo by sunny&wilson

Tango and Easter were never two things we put together before. Tango and Easter and Switzerland—well, now that’s crazy talk!

Crazy yes, but also true. Through Monday, April 9, Easter and Tango enthusiasts alike will flock to Basel for the EasterTango Festival. Attendees will enjoy powerful performances by Tango masters, workshops for Tango-ers of all levels, and a “glittering” ball with live music by Orquestra Tipica Silencio.

Where does the Easter part come in? Well, we’re not quite sure, but we’ll take a hot man in tight tango pants over a funny bunny any day.

Photograph by coyanis64

We love the Swiss capital, and not just for its beautiful streets and quaint tile-roofed buildings.

Here are some of the reasons we adore Bern:

1. Physics Lessons. Where was Einstein when he created that famous E=MC2 formula? Bern, of course. And that’s where the first Einstein Museum is too. Maybe you’ll learn what sort of physics gave him that great hair. The Einstein Museum is located at Helvetiaplatz 5.

2. Animal Talk. Now through July, visitors to the Museum of Communication can get a glimpse at the phenomena of communication between humans and animals at a special “Animal Talk” exhibit. Find the Museum of Communication at Helvetiastrasse 16.

3. Jazz Out. The Bern Jazz Festival is back for its 32nd year, now through May 20, with a spectacular line-up of jazz greats and newcomers.

Photograph by Monkey Hugger

Today, Swiss sorta-low-cost carrier helvetic announced that their planned weekly Zurich-Split and Geneva-Split summer flights will not be going forward. Croatia fans up and down Switzerland are no doubt crying into their spätzle.

Tied to this decision is the airline’s announcement that they’ll be ramping up service to Lamezia-Terme (Calabria) and Brindisi (Puglia) in July and August, with service from Zurich three times per week.

We just discovered rooms.ch, a network of over 200 Swiss budget hotels in over 140 localities throughout Switzerland. Given Switzerland’s Cheapo-hostile price index, a resource like this one is indispensible.

We weren’t able to find any available rooms on the site for some random dates in July, however. We’re not sure if this inability reflects technical problems or a prior run on Switzerland’s few cheap hotel rooms.

In any case, rooms.ch is a key addition to the Cheapo bookmark archive.

Photograph by Alon A

Last night we scaled the north face of the rocky, icy Eiger. From the safety of our chairs, of course. Though we didn’t accomplish any death-defying feats we sure felt we did at a special screening of The Alps, MacGillivray Freeman’s new IMAX film.

It was breathtaking. It was exhilarating. We loved it. We got amazing views of Grindelwald’s storied Eiger, notorious for deadly showers of falling rock, unpredictable weather changes, and slick ice that make it difficult and exhilarating for climbers.

The movie chronicles the climb John Harlin III made in honor of his father, a famed alpinist who met his tragic demise 40 years ago when his rope broke during a climb of the mountain. With overwhelming views of the mountain face, stops in enchanting mountain villages, and various other surprises, the film shows just why John Harlin II loved the Alps, and why we do too.

It almost made us want to climb the mountain ourselves.

photograph courtesy of snow_rice

Wasn’t Candyland a great place? Sure, it was just awful when you were just spaces away from winning and then got stuck and couldn’t move, but that rainbow slide? Man, that was cool. Sometimes we still wish we could live in that world, where swamps are muddy with thick, rich chocolate.

If you’re like us and pine for chocolate swamps, Saturday may just be our lucky day. The third annual Chocolate Festival is back and bigger than ever, complete with a massive chocolate fountain and a “chococinema” devoted to chocolate related films.

The Chocolate Festival will take place in Versoix, just outside of Geneva, with buses (chocolate buses?!) transporting chocofans to and from the temporary chocotown.

So if you’re like us and find green beer just a little bit gross, take a dive in a chocolate swamp. It may not be any more glamorous, but it’ll be a whole lot sweeter.

When we think Hostelling International, we think ping-pong tables and bunk beds. But during a recent research jam session, we also found a range of HI hostels with adultish, cheap double rooms. The best of these deserve a plug or two, so keep readin’.

South of the Wista River on Grochowa Street—a bit of a (beautiful) walk from the sights pictured above—Krakow’s Hostel Szkolne Schronisko Młodzieżowe has 20 basic private doubles for PLN80 (€20.50, $27). The hostel boasts a spacious guest kitchen, and on-site laundry facilities make living out of your suitcase a fresh affair.

Långholmen Hostel, located on a small island in the middle of Stockholm, has a jaw-dropping 79 private doubles for SEK520 (€60, $74). Housed within a stately 19th-century building, Långholmen is also easier on the eyes than some of HI’s big box hostels. Also on the premises: a boutique, beach, garden, and museum that chronicles the building’s unromantic past—it was once a prison.

The Zurich City Hostel in Wollishofen has 16 private doubles starting at CHF116 (€72, $95). Wollishofen is a quiet suburb—15 minutes by tram to the city center—and there’s on-site cycle rental, perfect for a short ride to the banks of Lake Zurich.

Proof positive that HI hostels aren’t just for whipper snappers with nothing but a rucksack and a dream.