Photograph by SkyEurope

To promote their recent addition of Vienna as a new base airport, SkyEurope is hawking €19 airfares (taxes and charges included!) to and from Vienna.

These low fares will apply to flights to and from all sixteen destinations served by SkyEurope from Vienna. Among the highlights, in our view: Amsterdam, Barcelona, Bucharest, Larnaca, Paris, Thessaloniki, and Zadar.

The €19 fares are on sale through Sunday.

We’re still waiting for Kiev and Istanbul to show up on the SkyEurope map, but these low fares will do for now.

Popularity: 7% [?]

Photograph by Kari Hoerchler

For Cheapos who oppose hostels for whatever reason—perhaps they promised their Mom they’d never stay in one or they have a crushing fear of Australians—finding a hotel in a expensive city like Amsterdam can be a miserable experience, especially given that many recommendations for cheap hotels are made by travel writers who never so much as glance at a room.

A classic example is the Hotel van Onna in the zippy Jordaan neighborhood. The prices are fair, considering the ‘hood (a double is €90.) The van Onna is recommended by everyone from Time Out to Frommer’s. Despite the charming owner and the fact that the rooms overlook the canal, don’t you think the blurbs could have mentioned that if you hold your arms out from your sides you can touch both walls of a double room at the same time? Or is it just that we’re too tall?

Popularity: 6% [?]

 
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.

Popularity: 6% [?]

Today Ryanair announces four brand-new destinations, 16 new routes, and an official “base” designation for Dusseldorf Weeze.

Gulp. Even by Ryanair’s quasi-colonialist standards, this is a big day.

We’re most excited about the airline’s new destinations: Zadar, Maastricht, Alicante, and Palma. Ryanair will fly to Zadar from Stansted, adding to current low-cost routes to the Adriatic destination from central Europe on SkyEurope and Germanwings. Ryanair will fly between the pleasant southern Dutch city of Maastricht and Barcelona Girona.

The Irish low-cost carrier will enter into direct competition with other low-cost carriers on routes to two other new destinations. Ryanair will compete with Air Berlin on Dusseldorf-Alicante, easyJet on Liverpool-Alicante, and multiple carriers on London-Alicante routes. They’ll compete with Air Berlin on Dusseldorf-Palma and Frankfurt-Palma, easyJet on Liverpool-Palma, and multiple carriers on London-Palma routes.

Popularity: 3% [?]