So, a ringing endorsement of RyanAir then Al ?



I envy you... and, needless to say, you've inspired me enormously.



I have to say when you first announced your 'grand plan' to tour Europe for 6 weeks on free RyanAir flights I was sceptical, thinking that at least 50% of the money you had saved on flights would inevitably catch up with you in transport from the airports to the big cities and back. It never occurred to me that not all the big cities necessarily had to be featured on your itinerary.



Next time RyanAir have a similar 'free tickets' promotion and I have the time, I'll certainly look into doing soemthing similar. Can you estimate how much all the taxes and airport transport costs might have cost you in total (ie. to give a figure which might easily be compared to the price of an Interrail / Eurail ticket)?



Also, could you list your October-December itinerary for the benefit of the other readers ?



Thanks.

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Yes, back in the UK after an exciting and exhausting six weeks’ sampling the delights of Europe’s more obscure airports. So what was it like? Fantastic. No complaints. Contrary to the impression given by a current ad promoting a certain well-known airline, the flights were not like travelling in a pigsty and the service was really quite fine. Two of the twelve flights were delayed (and it has to be said that the information given out for one of these, from Shannon to Charleroi, was really poor), but overall the flights made up time on the schedule. Yes, on some occasions it was a bit like a rugby scrum boarding, but if I tell you that, being on my own, I managed to get a window seat every single time, you’ll see that there weren’t too many problems. (In fact, more often than not, I had the group of three seats to myself, something about which I became rather paranoid later in the trip.) For some flights those who book in earliest get to board the plane before the latecomers, but this is not always the case. It is also undeniably true that the airports to which these cheap airlines fly tend to be further out from the cities they are advertised as serving than the main airports. If you’re pressed for time, you’d be better flying to somewhere closer, or even taking the train. But if you’ve got time, it doesn’t matter too much. And in many cases there are interesting cities nearer to the airport than the major ones, and these are also worth a visit. For instance, when I went to Frankfurt-Hahn, I went to Mainz rather than Frankfurt, and preferred it. So that’s that about the airline. I’m sure the other no-frills ones are just as good. More to come on the destinations.

The rather bizarre itinerary was: Mainz; Pisa/Florence/Siena; Liege/Aywailles; Treviso/Padua/Venice; London; Oslo/Andelsnes/Bodo/Trondheim/Bergen/Flam; Glasgow; Paris; Limerick/Ennis/Lahinch/Ennistymon; Brussels/Charleroi; Dublin.

The cost of the flights (i.e., the taxes) worked out at just over 90 quid for 12 flights. Getting to and from the airport cost an average of something like 10 Euros a time, but that's hard to estimate as sometimes I travelled around a bit. Doing this sort of thing has some advantages over Interrailing or something similar, but there are also several disadvantages. In terms of the cost of travel, I think it works out cheaper; if you stay in the one city for each leg, it almost certainly does. It is also, for all but the shortest journeys, quicker. I know you have to add on the time to get to the airport, check in, pick up your baggage when you arrive and then get to your destination city, but usually it still works out quicker. And it certainly does if you have to cross a body of water (with the possible exception of some journeys using the Channel Tunnel). On the other hand, you are limited as to where you can go, and when, using the plane. Travelling by train gives you the chance to visit almost any city in the countries for which your ticket is valid, and if you miss a train you can either get another, usually on the same day, or simply go somewhere else. You can also save a lot on accommodation by sleeping on the train. That was the biggest expense, actually; even if you only stay in youth hostels the cost still mounts up if you're travelling for any substantial length of time.

If anyone is thinking of doing something similar, it does require forward planning, something of which I did not do nearly enough. This was because I foolishly expected that there would be information centres in, or at least within a reasonable distance of, the airports and train stations at which I would arrive in the various cities. I don't know whether it was because it was off-season or not, but I was amazed by the number of places that offer no information services at all to the arriving traveller, particularly after 6 or so in the evening. And, given the cost of maps and guidebooks to individual attractions, it is worth getting a guidebook to the city before you go, even you're only going to be there three or four days.

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The rather bizarre itinerary was: Mainz; Pisa/Florence/Siena; Liege/Aywailles; Treviso/Padua/Venice; London; Oslo/Andelsnes/Bodo/Trondheim/Bergen/Flam; Glasgow; Paris; Limerick/Ennis/Lahinch/Ennistymon; Brussels/Charleroi; Dublin.

The cost of the flights (i.e., the taxes) worked out at just over 90 quid for 12 flights. Getting to and from the airport cost an average of something like 10 Euros a time, but that's hard to estimate as sometimes I travelled around a bit. Doing this sort of thing has some advantages over Interrailing or something similar, but there are also several disadvantages. In terms of the cost of travel, I think it works out cheaper; if you stay in the one city for each leg, it almost certainly does. It is also, for all but the shortest journeys, quicker. I know you have to add on the time to get to the airport, check in, pick up your baggage when you arrive and then get to your destination city, but usually it still works out quicker. And it certainly does if you have to cross a body of water (with the possible exception of some journeys using the Channel Tunnel). On the other hand, you are limited as to where you can go, and when, using the plane. Travelling by train gives you the chance to visit almost any city in the countries for which your ticket is valid, and if you miss a train you can either get another, usually on the same day, or simply go somewhere else. You can also save a lot on accommodation by sleeping on the train. That was the biggest expense, actually; even if you only stay in youth hostels the cost still mounts up if you're travelling for any substantial length of time.