For Cheapos racking their brains over holiday gifts for dedicated European travelers, our regular guest contributors Nicky and Susanne from hidden europe magazine have a few good ideas:

#1: Coffee-table Europe

Did you know that local law demands that all businesses in Monaco must display a portrait of the reigning prince? Or that the average height of Montenegrins is the second highest in the world. (Only the Dutch are taller.) And how could you have survived until adulthood without knowing that one third of the planet’s raspberries come from Serbia?
 
Our friends at Lonely Planet have come up with a superb Christmas gift. Just released this fall, The Europe Book: A Journey through every Country on the Continent, is not your regular LP publication. True, it will encourage you to bone up on European trivia of the kind mentioned above, but it is much more besides. This is a stunningly beautiful coffee-table book with a wealth of lavish photography that will stimulate a feast of imaginative journeys during the winter months.

#2: Rail timetables for incessant planners!

Winter is a time for travel planning, a season when we ponder over maps and timetables. The Winter 2008/9 edition of the Independent Travellers Edition of Thomas Cook’s European Rail Timetable was just published this week; it is packed full with the new 2009 train schedules which come into effect next Sunday. It teams up nicely with the accompanying Rail Map of Europe.

#3: Maps, and more maps!

If recession bites and plans for European travel for 2009 are faltering, or if your eco-friendly friends are telling you that your flying habit just has to be curbed, then why not splash out on the Comprehensive Edition of The Times Atlas of World, which has much better coverage of Europe than any atlas published in North America, and winter nights will never again be boring.

#4: A magazine from Berlin…

And if your budget does not quite run to that magnificent atlas (a mere $189.21 from Amazon), then the ultimate surrogate travel partner is surely a subscription to hidden europe magazine (a fine piece of shameless self-promotion!), which in every issue brings the very best of European travel, culture, and society - shipped directly to you by airmail from Berlin.

Happy holidays from Nicky and Susanne!

Tell us: Do you have any travel gift ideas?

Popularity: 26% [?]

The colorful town square of Poznan, Poland. Photo by giannisl

The main square of Poznan, Poland always has a buzz on weekend nights as the Lizard King competes with Bee Jay’s and the DV Club to transmit the loudest vibes. But the university city of Poznan, exactly half way between Berlin and Warsaw, is more than just a pizza and party town.

Poznan’s main square: a place to be

Yes, Poz is cool, cool, cool, but not just a city for electric nights out. It happens to boast a fabulous city square. Not as picture perfect as that in Zamosc perhaps, and not sacrificed to tourism like Kraków’s celebrated Rynek.

Poz does better than Kraków by saving its star attraction for the locals, though how long that will last is another matter. The big brand names have arrived in town, but for now at least their chic retail outlets are tucked away in side streets. The square is a place for fun, not for exclusive commerce. Each time we go to Poz we fear we’ll find Bulgari or Burberry boasting window space on that square. Not yet, though. The Lizard King reigns supreme.

And freebies too!

Poz is full of lively night life and free entertainment. This is a throwback to the Poland of a dozen years back. Summer nights see free alfresco screenings of classic movies out on the shores of Lake Malta. And the Lech brewery on the edge of town offers free tours all year round – a good place to bone up on brewing subtleties before a night out at the Lizard King.

And for those wanting respite from the club scene, the Brovaria hotel on Poznan’s main square is a hint of what’s to come: a stylish bar, all mirrors and restrained minimalism, with its own boutique brewery.

About the authors: Nicky Gardner and Susanne Kries, the authors of this post, are the editors of hidden europe magazine. You can preview the contents of the upcoming November issue of hidden europe here.

Popularity: 16% [?]

The Scilly Isles. Photo © hidden europe

Okay Cheapos! Indulge us for two minutes. We’ve just been taking a break on an island full of surprises, a place so beguilingly beautiful that we think it’s worth a mention. There must a thousand candidates for the accolade of “Europe’s most beautiful island.”

One of our favorites is Gozo in the Med. Gozo is at its best in midwinter when the crowds have gone and the grigal winds bear down fiercely on the rocky island that Calypso once called home.

Azores, Hebrides and Lofoten Islands

Then there’s Moskenesøya, the most rugged of the Lofoten island group in northern Norway. It is a place where fierce black peaks tower out of the sea.

Lovely Colonsay in Scotland’s Inner Hebrides surely stakes a claim, as does remote Corvo in the Azores.

Nor should we neglect tiny Fugloy, the Faroese outpost that is draped in mist for half the year and yet still the most delectable spot in the North Atlantic archipelago.

And what of Brändö in the Åland Islands?

Or tiny San Lazzaro degli Armeni in the Venetian lagoon with its cypress trees, peacocks and the Armenian monastery where Byron once studied the Armenian language.

The Scilly Isles. Photo © hidden europe

Our pick: Tresco and the Scilly Isles

That’s seven of the best already, but these past few days of Indian summer on Tresco push this remote outpost of England right up into the premier league of European islands. The Scilly Isles, of which Tresco is the second largest, are on the same latitude as Winnipeg and Newfoundland. But warm Gulf Stream waters bathe the islands, so frost-free Tresco has an almost Caribbean demeanor.

Palm trees and cacti, eucalyptus and strelitzia rub shoulders in the lush gardens that surround Tresco Abbey. Canny Brits have always had a soft spot for the Scillies, but the islands are not well known among other travelers.

Routes to Tresco

A half hour helicopter flight from Penzance (on the UK mainland) will bring you straight to Tresco, but, better still, take the boat as we did. The three-hour crossing from Penzance to St Mary’s (from where there is an onward ferry to Tresco) on the Scillonian III affords views of fabulous Cornish coastal scenery, basking sharks, dolphins, and porpoises.

Try Tresco! It might well get our vote to be Europe’s most beautiful island.

About the authors: Nicky Gardner and Susanne Kries, the authors of this post, are the editors of hidden europe magazine.

Popularity: 16% [?]

Blink and you can easily miss a thousand changes to European rail schedules. We’ve been taking a look ahead to next year’s timetables, just to see what Cheapos can look forward to in 2009. All the new services mentioned here come into effect on December 14, 2008.

Prague routes

Prague, which just this year benefited from a new night train from Amsterdam (which stays in the 2009 schedules), gets a further upgrade in the 2009 timetables with a new daily night train to Zürich (like many other central European night trains named after a heavenly constellation, in this case Canopus). And Prague gets a new direct daytime train to Belgrade, the EuroCity Avala service.

Paris to Berlin; Berlin to Bratislava/Budapest

The long-standing Paris to Berlin night sleeper service run by Deutsche Bahn is entirely recast in the 2009 schedules, departing from Paris Est (rather than Paris Nord, as at present) and no longer serving Brussels. No great loss, we might add, for the train’s Brussels stops were in both directions at such inconvenient hours that no sane traveller made use of them. Berlin secures new direct night services to both Bratislava and Budapest, as well as a revised service with improved capacity to Warsaw.

Across the Alps; Austria; Budapest to Munich; Amsterdam to Berlin

New Cisalpino trains bring great improvements to cross-Alps services in 2009 with reduced travel times on routes from Geneva and Zürich to Milan, Florence and Venice. And new trains across Austria too, where Railjet will introduce a new premium service linking Budapest with Munich via Vienna.

International train services from Amsterdam Schiphol Airport (great for travellers arriving off long-haul flights) get more prominence with a doubling of frequency of trains heading east towards Hanover and Berlin.

British routes

In Britain, services on the route out of London Euston get a boost with increased frequencies to both Birmingham and Manchester and a new hourly service to Chester. But it’s not all gain, for direct services from Gatwick Airport to the West Midlands and Manchester are axed after December 13, 2008. Thereafter, red-eyed passengers arriving early at Gatwick off overnight flights will need to change trains at Watford Junction or Reading for connections on to Birmingham and northwest England.

Eurostar service from London

In the winter 2008-09 timetables some thirty Eurostar trains each day will link London with Brussels, Paris, Lille, the Marne valley and the French Alps. With fares starting from €77 from Paris return and €80 return from any station in Belgium to London, we wonder why anyone still bothers to fly for short hops across the English Channel.

Fuller details of 2009 rail schedules for Europe will be available in mid-November 2008. To keep abreast of developments, just get hold of the latest issue of the Thomas Cook European Rail Timetable.

About the authors

Nicky Gardner and Susanne Kries, the authors of this post, are the editors of hidden europe magazine. The current issue of the magazine, published on September 4, has a feature on the Eurostar rail route linking France and England.

Popularity: 20% [?]

Photos courtesy hidden europe magazine

At ten o’clock this morning, as on most days during the summer, one of the sleek white Ålandstrafiken ships edges out of Galtby harbour in southwest Finland for an eleven hour cruise around the Åland Islands. This is one of Europe’s most deliciously beautiful boat journeys, as the ship picks a route through the dense island archipelago that lies between Finland and Sweden, stopping off along the way at some of Europe’s remotest communities. Places like wild and windswept Kökar.

Free ferries for all!

Scandinavia may be famously pricey, but Cheapos who stray off the well-trodden tourist trails will still find some bargain deals. Take the Åland Islands where passengers using the local inter-island ferry services travel entirely for free. You can put together multiple-stop itineraries that cruise from southwest Finland out through the islands and back again. That eleven-hour cruise from Galtby is free. Not a cent!

Of course, canny travellers stop off in the Ålands. If you ask us, the two best islands are Brändö and Kökar, both worth a day or two for their quiet beauty.

Photos courtesy hidden europe magazine

Cheap snuff too!

The Åland Islands are Swedish-speaking, politically linked to Finland, but have a high level of local autonomy. Once nominally part of Russia, the islanders resisted being fully assimilated into the Tsarist Empire.

Today it is that same spirit of independence that guides their relationship with Finland and the European Union. Åland plays the great game of integration but on its own terms. So the canny islanders have negotiated a smart series of tax breaks, which means that Swedes flock to the islands for cheap spirits, ciggies, and snuff. Yes, snuff (locally called snus), for which Swedes have a particular affection.

The Ålands are a place to linger. The archipelago is beguilingly beautiful, and a quirky geo-political oddity. The Ålands have their own postage stamps and many other marks of autonomy. Plus those free ferries. A rare combination! You can read more about the Åland Islands on the hidden europe website.

This is the fourth in a summer series of postings by Nicky Gardner and Susanne Kries. The Berlin-based duo are the editors of hidden europe magazine. Cheapos can see the contents of the July 2008 issue of hidden europe by clicking here.

Popularity: 19% [?]

Nicky Gardner and Susanne Kries of hidden europe magazine report for EuroCheapo on the pleasures and value of European night trains:

Do you know Tczew? Perhaps not. It’s an unexciting sort of spot. Poland, top right, more or less. We had never imagined that we might enjoy a leisurely breakfast of caviar, crackers, and coffee at Tczew. Sitting in a Russian railway carriage, which lingered for an hour or two in Tczew. Waiting for a connection perhaps? Who knows. Night trains are like that.

The pleasures of the night train

Night trains are extraordinary. They rattle past factories and canals, disturb the deer that graze at the forest edge in the evening. In the wee small hours of the night, they screech round sharp curves in some foreign town. A listless child stirs in her sleep in a house next to the railway tracks, while last night’s unwashed crockery trembles on the scullery table. And then the train is gone, an emissary from another world, and silence returns to the unnamed town. Night trains get to places that other trains never reach.

Night trains are the stuff of poetry, but they can also be extraordinarily good value. There is something undeniably civilized about being able to sip a good malt whisky in the evening, as the night train from London to the Scottish Highlands weaves its way out through the northern suburbs of the metropolis. Supper on the train and then to bed in crisp clean linen to awake in the morning as the train climbs up onto Rannoch Moor. Book well in advance, choose the right day, and you can even travel from London to the Scottish Highlands for £l9 (yes, that’s less than $40).

Germany’s new night trains

The Deutsche Bahn, Germany’s national rail network, capitalizes on its location bang in the middle of Europe to run the continent’s most extensive network of night train services. Revamped for the 2008 season, the trains are quiet, comfortable and often a great value. Trains head from Copenhagen or Prague to Basel in Switzerland, from Amsterdam to Milan or Vienna, and dozens of other connections across Europe.

The comfort of the night train is a quiet retort to the frenzy of modern air travel. They’re also an antidote to the breakneck speed of the fastest daytime express trains. Why not try one next time you visit Europe?

Booking a night train

“Special fares apply” says the admonition in the Thomas Cook European Rail Timetable, a monthly publication that is the bible for all savvy rail travelers in Europe. That might imply hefty surcharges. But no, night trains are often cheaper than daytime services. From Switzerland to Denmark overnight in a couchette from just €49 cannot be matched by any discount airline or day train. Choose carefully, and you can travel overnight between European cities in a comfortable sleeping berth for €69.

Most European night trains use a global price system with one all-in charge covering both the train fare and the fee for on-board accommodation. Holders of Eurail and other passes don’t often secure great advantage. The best value all-in fares that Europeans buy locally may cost little more than the supplements that pass holders must pay to secure a couchette or bed. It’s a market which rewards travelers who book well in advance, committing them to traveling on a specific day. Find out more about German night trains, now marketed under the “City Night Line” banner, at www.nachtzugreise.de.

This article is the second of a guest series of summer postings by the editors of hidden europe magazine. Check out the magazine for regular features on European rail travel.

Popularity: 38% [?]

It is always worth pondering quite where is the best place to change trains. Many journeys across Europe offer multiple options. No sane Brit ever chooses to change trains at Birmingham New Street—a sort of subterranean Hades somewhere in the English Midlands—and few are ever really forced to do so. For many rail itineraries across England give a plethora of possible points for an hour’s leisure time, to enjoy a coffee and a bit of fresh air while waiting for the next train connection.

This is the case in many other European countries as well. Surely no rational human being ever decided that Warsaw’s eastern station (Warszawa Wschodnia) was the ideal place to mull over the affairs of the world for an hour or two between trains. Generous-hearted souls we may be, but it is difficult to find a good word for Wschodnia – unless you want to catch the pulse of what life was like in much of eastern and central Europe two decades ago. Take a look at this architectural gem and the surrounding cityscape.

And then there are the railway stations where it is an absolute delight to linger between trains, the sort of places where changing trains is a blessing. Dresden Hauptbahnhof is emerging from a protracted reconstruction to become one of those. Cologne’s Hauptbahnhof already is. Ignore the frenzied bustle of its shopping mall (a tribute to poor taste and greasy food) and head instead for the cathedral, a mere thirty-second walk from the station’s main entrance.

It doesn’t take a lot to transform an enforced layover into a memorable travel moment. Brussels Midi is the largest of the rail stations in the Belgian capital, and the area of town in which it is located is nothing to write home about. But we change trains there often and La Table du Midi, an unpretentious café just a stone’s throw from the railway platforms, makes it all worthwhile.

There are some stations which are just fabulous places to arrive and linger, unquestionably good spots to change trains. Among our favourites are Zürich Hauptbahnhof (so well placed for the city centre) and Berlin’s new Hauptbahnhof (a crystal cathedral for transport.)

So check those schedules carefully. You simply don’t want to change trains at Warszawa Wschodnia or Birmingham New Street.

This is the seventh in a series of fortnightly blog posts by the editors of hidden europe.

Popularity: 5% [?]

Even the most seasoned European traveller can be caught unawares by rail schedules changes. Most European rail companies introduce major timetable changes over the second weekend in December, and this year there are some big alterations in the offing.

There is no more civilised way of making a big hop across Europe than on a night train, and the new schedules see a whole raft of new night train services. Take Amsterdam for example. The Dutch city has always featured on Europe’s night train schedules, but for 2008 Amsterdam secures new daily services to Copenhagen, Dresden, Milan, Minsk, Moscow, Prague, and Warsaw.

For the first time for many years Switzerland and Bavaria will benefit from direct overnight trains to Poland and points east, with new direct night sleeper services from Basel SBB and Munich to Warsaw and Moscow. Fixed fares apply for travel on most European night train routes, often with little advantage for railpass holders. A one-way journey in a shared sleeper costs from €69. For those on a budget, couchettes are priced from €49 and a one-way overnight in a reclining seat begins at €29.

The changes are of course not limited to night train services. New for 2008 are a daily direct train from both Vienna and Prague to Stralsund on Germany’s Baltic coast, a very handy new daytime train from Kraków to Budapest (less than nine hours on a beautiful route through the mountains that straddle the Polish-Slovakian border), a new fast direct daytime service from Paris to Munich (just over six hours) to supplement the long-standing Paris-Munich night train, a new direct Berlin to Copenhagen link (where the entire train gets shipped on a ferry between Denmark and Germany), and a new direct once daily train from Geneva Airport to Venice.

Rail travel in Europe can challenge even the most competent travel planner. Web sites like those of the Deutsche Bahn can help. But there is really no substitute for the Thomas Cook European Rail Timetable, a gem of a book updated each month. For many savvy European travellers, it is required bedtime reading.

This is the fifth in a series of fortnightly blog posts by the editors of hidden europe.

Popularity: 15% [?]