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What is "hubbed" travel?
A "hubbed" holiday involves a shift in the way that many travelers think about travel. Instead of traveling point to point by train or car, a hubbed vacation sets up one or another city as a traveler's base. From this chosen destination, trips of varying destinations can be planned. There are two keys to a perfect Cheapo hub.
The first is a nearby airport served well by low-fare airlines.
The second is proximity to a range of nearby cities and other destinations which, in turn, allow visitors access to different sorts of experiences that involve no more than day trip levels of exertion.
Though hubbed travel won't make sense for all travelers, it has the potential to lower costs and allow for different perspectives on a given country or region within Europe. For travelers who intend to spend a two-week (or longer) period on holiday, hubbed travel is an especially attractive option.
Here we discuss the irresistable "hubbability" of Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, and one of our favorite cities to boot.
Bratislava's Air Connections
The emergence of Sky Europe in 2002 solidified Bratislava's status as a top travel hub. The Slovak low-fare airline's main hub is in Bratislava. Sky Europe currently flies to 24 destinations across Europe from Bratislava. These routes span much of Europe, from Dublin in the west to Varna in the east, and Malaga in the south to Copenhagen in the north.
Destinations Sky Europe reaches from Bratislava include some of Europe's most popular destinations like Paris, London, and Amsterdam. Sky Europe also flies to Košice, Slovakia's second city, as well as three destinations apiece in Bulgaria (Sofia, Burgas, and Varna) and Italy (Rome, Naples, and the Sicilian city of Catania).
Sky Europe also runs a bus shuttle service between the Bratislava airport and Vienna, which means that you can fly in and out of Bratislava and make it quickly and cheaply to Vienna.
Not wanting to miss out on a piece of the action, Ryanair also flies between Bratislava and London Stansted, Dublin, East Midlands, Frankfurt Hahn, and Milan Orio Al Serio.
In all, budget airlines serve 27 destinations across Europe from Bratislava. Each of these destinations is short-haul, and can be reached within a few hours by air.
Bratislava's Location
Located about 50 minutes by bus from Vienna, Bratislava is the distance of an easy commute from the Austrian capital. Bratislava is also under a half-day's journey from Brno and Prague in the Czech Republic, Budapest and Balaton in Hungary, and Burgenland, Austria's easternmost province.
Then there's Slovakia itself. Slovakia is a physically gorgeous, compact country. There are plenty of easy day trip destinations within an hour or so from Bratislava. One magnet of a destination is Trenčín, a castle town full of Renaissance buildings, under two hours from Bratislava by train. Farther afield are the beguiling High Tatras, the city of Poprad, and Košice, Slovakia's second city.
Bratislava's Hubbing Upshot
Hubbed travel based in Bratislava is also desirable because most of the city's general costs are very low. Restaurants, tours, city transportation, and train transportation to other parts of Slovakia are all priced nicely for Cheapos on the move. Due to a general lack of competition, hotels aren't quite as great a general deal, though our Bratislava hotel listings should turn up some good deals for you.
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