2011
20
January
How to get to the south of Spain for $649 roundtrip after tax
20
January
So, Air Transat has dropped the price of their late January and early February flights to London, UK down to $560 roundtrip after tax. I could write another blog post about that, but writing about cheap flights to London all the time can get monotonous.
Instead, I'll turn this into somewhat of a tutorial on how to use cheap fares to London as a gateway to get to other places in Europe, cheaply.
First, you would line up a cheap flight to London. Taking a look on AirTransat.ca, we can see that there's date combinations in late January/early February that are showing for $560 roundtrip after tax.
Try January 29 to February 9th for example:
Screenshot:
This is pretty much the bottom for flights from Calgary to Europe these days. Ok, maybe on rare occasion I've seen it down to $520. I think there were some around that price in November on Thomas Cook.
So, now we're off to London on January 29th. Our flight is direct, but gets in on January 30th at 7AM London time, due to the time difference.
Now we need a cheap flight to somewhere in Europe. There are plenty of them, to pretty much anywhere, but I want a really cheap one, preferably to somewhere that's not as cold as everywhere else in Europe in January.
Greece & Turkey would be logical places to start, with the highest average temperatures in January and plenty of flights for around $200 roundtrip after tax.
But I want cheaper, so I set focus on Malaga, Spain. Located in the very south part of Spain, it has some of the warmest winter temperatures in Europe. It's not exactly hot in January mind you, with an average January high of 16.6C, but I'll take that over -10C or colder in Calgary.
To get there, I take a look at http://www.Easyjet.com - one of Europe's largest budget airlines. There's a flight from January 31 to February 8 for 66 Euros, roundtrip after tax. That works out to $88 CDN roundtrip, after tax.
For comparison, London to Malaga is about 1600km and costs $88 roundtrip. Calgary to Las Vegas is nearly exactly the same distance and costs us $300 on a very good day. Try not to cringe.
However, it should be noted that while super cheap fares can be had in Europe, they also nickle and dime you for everything. There's always an additional fee for bags, and in this case on Easyjet, it costs 14 Euros ($18 CDN) each way to bring checked luggage.
The flight from London to Malaga departs early the next morning, so I would have nearly 24 hours to check out London in the meantime.
I would need somewhere to stay in London and I notice that the 245th highest ranked TripAdvisor accommodation in London is going for $50/night...
245th best may not sound great, but with 1,054 hotels in London at least it's in the top 30%. And that price in London for a 1 bedroom apartment is a steal. It's also close to the Tube (London Subway). And really, I'm just using it as a place to crash before my flight to Spain in the morning.
cM
2011
18
January
So, I'm now blogging for a large Canadian media conglomerate
18
January
Last month, a kind soul and devoted reader took the time to point out to me that Sympatico.ca was looking to fill the position of 'Travel deal blogger' for the Travel section of their giant web portal.
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2011
14
January
Calgary to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic - $269 roundtrip after tax
14
January
Another super cheap price from Air Canada Vacations, this time to the Dominican Republic.
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2011
13
January
Calgary to Frankfurt, Germany - $740 roundtrip after tax
13
January
It's nice to see Air Transat offering a cheap price to somewhere in Europe that isn't named London or Manchester .
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2011
13
January
Calgary to Montego Bay, Jamaica - $246 roundtrip after tax!
13
January
Looks like Air Canada Vacations just dropped the price of their January 24-31 flight to Montego Bay, Jamaica down to $246 roundtrip after tax.
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2011
3
January
Last minute: Flight + Hotel to Jamaica - $430/person after tax
3
January
It's not all inclusive (no meals or drinks, except breakfast), just flight and hotel (7 nights), staying at the Rooms Ocho Rios.
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2010
31
December
January all inclusive packages to Panama are cheap at the moment
31
December
Thanks mostly to some cheap flights to Panama
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2010
29
December
Calgary to Zurich, Switzerland in late June 2011 - $719 roundtrip after tax
29
December
Condor's return to YYC this summer could be very good news indeed for Calgarians. We've all seen the cheap flights to London or Manchester that come up every now and then, thanks to Air Transat, but it's nice to see another no-frills player in the mix to shake things up a bit to other cities. It could open up the possibility of some decent July/August prices to Europe as well.
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2010
29
December
Calgary to Athens, Greece - $916 roundtrip after tax
29
December
Similar to the flights to Cairo that I posted recently, it looks like KLM has also dropped the price of their flights to Athens, Greece.
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2010
23
December
Calgary to Panama (the country) in January - $529 roundtrip after tax
23
December
UPDATE 01/04 - This flight just dropped to $389 roundtrip after tax!
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