atillathehunn
Established Member
I wholeheartedly agree on Turin!
Also places like Sienna, Bologna, Lucca, which are not always on the tourist trail.
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I wholeheartedly agree on Turin!
Also places like Sienna, Bologna, Lucca, which are not always on the tourist trail.
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Techniquest
Veteran Member
Thanks for the tip on Italy, I'll try to bear it in mind for when I eventually get over there! Likewise for Tallinn, that sounds like an excellent idea.
It took me around two solid hours of looking at all my options in Spain, Italy, Denmark and Switzerland, but I finally got it all sorted. The trip I finally settled on is Prague!
It ticks all of the following boxes:
- Required airline (Jet2, not to mention the Stobart Air arm of Flybe)
- Required country (Czech Republic)
- Required airports (Prague and Southend Airport)
- 2 new air routes (Manchester to Prague, Prague to Southend)
- Required craft (one from Stobart Air, one from Jet2)
It'll also put me close to 2,000 air miles for the year from memory, if not slightly over it.
atillathehunn
Established Member
Prague is always a good shout. There's plenty of good bashing options around as well. There are some lovely cities further out from Prague which are worth a day trip if you're there for more than a weekend.
Though your return flight will be a Flybe plane (an E175 or E195 from Flybe), so I don't know if you can really call that a scratch?
I seem to be having a fairly earth-based year. I'm at around 13,000 miles, down from 23,000 for the previous 12 month period.
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WestCoast
Established Member
Just came back from a bargain break to Sofia. Wizzair outbound from Doncaster, easyJet back to Manchester, all for £42 return! Both operate from the socialist era relic of Terminal 1 at Sofia which is interesting - Ryanair operate from the new terminal strangely enough! easyJet doesn't have many routes to Eastern Europe and the fare was very low so I wonder if they'll keep this route, it was a bit weird seeing them in the very budget terminal!
Liked Sofia - nice mountain views from all around, not that many attractions per se but lots of (mainly Church-related) points of interest. The Metro is nice and modern, with interesting Russian-built rolling stock. One of the city centre stations (Sredika 2) has an open air museum of unearthed Roman ruins. Preferred it to Bucharest and Warsaw actually, city centre felt quite cosy. Very cheap too - £33 a night in a four star hotel and a metro day pass is £1.80.
Liked Sofia - nice mountain views from all around, not that many attractions per se but lots of (mainly Church-related) points of interest. The Metro is nice and modern, with interesting Russian-built rolling stock. One of the city centre stations (Sredika 2) has an open air museum of unearthed Roman ruins. Preferred it to Bucharest and Warsaw actually, city centre felt quite cosy. Very cheap too - £33 a night in a four star hotel and a metro day pass is £1.80.
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atillathehunn
Established Member
Just came back from a bargain break to Sofia. Wizzair outbound from Doncaster, easyJet back to Manchester, all for £42 return! Both operate from the socialist era relic of Terminal 1 at Sofia which is interesting - Ryanair operate from the new terminal strangely enough! easyJet doesn't have many routes to Eastern Europe and the fare was very low so I wonder if they'll keep this route, it was a bit weird seeing them in the very budget terminal!
Liked Sofia - nice mountain views from all around, not that many attractions per se but lots of (mainly Church-related) points of interest. The Metro is nice and modern, with interesting Russian-built rolling stock. One of the city centre stations (Sredika 2) has an open air museum of unearthed Roman ruins. Preferred it to Bucharest and Warsaw actually, city centre felt quite cosy. Very cheap too - £33 a night in a four star hotel and a metro day pass is £1.80.
I would think they make their money on the big holidays with movements of families back and forth. I've heard good things about it - those prices are also very convincing
WestCoast
Established Member
I think there is quite a lot of UK origin demand too for Bulgaria - got chatting to a couple who were buying property there and they mentioned the number of British there already. Don't really see that too much with Romania, Poland or the Baltic states I guess. But yeah, I'd say give Sofia a try before the stag parties take over.
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Techniquest
Veteran Member
Just came back from a bargain break to Sofia. Wizzair outbound from Doncaster, easyJet back to Manchester, all for £42 return! Both operate from the socialist era relic of Terminal 1 at Sofia which is interesting - Ryanair operate from the new terminal strangely enough! easyJet doesn't have many routes to Eastern Europe and the fare was very low so I wonder if they'll keep this route, it was a bit weird seeing them in the very budget terminal!
Liked Sofia - nice mountain views from all around, not that many attractions per se but lots of (mainly Church-related) points of interest. The Metro is nice and modern, with interesting Russian-built rolling stock. One of the city centre stations (Sredika 2) has an open air museum of unearthed Roman ruins. Preferred it to Bucharest and Warsaw actually, city centre felt quite cosy. Very cheap too - £33 a night in a four star hotel and a metro day pass is £1.80.
I actually looked at a possible trip to Sofia earlier, it sounds like a place I'd get bored of quickly so a day trip would do for me. Thanks for the insight, I'll be happy to book a trip over there now
Techniquest
Veteran Member
Oh that suits me fine if it's an E175 or E195, I like them. Flybe isn't a required airline no, but as it said it was operated by Stobart Air I got confused.
I arrive on a Monday and fly back on a Thursday, so definitely an option to try a Czech Pendolino to somewhere. I like the look of some of those CD locos though!
Prague is an amazing city mate and it is very easy to stay away from the stag parties. Such a beautiful place.
atillathehunn
Established Member
Looking into it, I appear to need to eat my words. While it's fully marketed as a Flybe flight and liveried as Flybe (it's a franchise) it appears the E195 at Southend is on Stobart Air's books - well according to the Wikipedia article.
Apparently Ostrava for locos is a pretty good shout.
Crawley Ben
Member
Copenhagen is boring and bloody expensive if you ask me (went last December)
Ben
atillathehunn
Established Member
I've heard the same from other people, but I've also heard glowing reviews from others. On either side of the aisle, though, everyone agrees a short weekend is enough to see the place.
Techniquest
Veteran Member
To be honest, if I went I'd only be doing a minor bit of sightseeing before looking for some of those hellfire trains they have over there! That's my main reason for going, quite honestly.
atillathehunn
Established Member
What are the hellfire trains? I haven't seen all of it, but most of Denmark's rail network appeared to be AM-96s or ICE units, intertwined with pretty average suburban stock. I wasn't gricing, though.
Just about to book Etihad first class from London to Tokyo via Abu Dhabi. LHR-AUH legs are on A380 in Apartments and the NRT legs are on the 787-9 in the First suites. Literally cannot wait...shame it's a year away...
Never flown with EY before.
Never flown with EY before.
Sounds amazing, very jealous. I still don't have any long haul trips in the pipeline, I will have to remedy that. My youngest brother is the next long haul traveller in the family on an Avianca 787 back from Bogota. My sister has eclipsed the rest of the family members air miles though working for Easyjet. Ha ha.
atillathehunn
Established Member
Well there are worse introductions to flying EY...
That's going to be one of those journeys where you hope for gate delays, ATC holds, anything that will keep you in the lap of luxury a little longer. Jealous!
Do feel free to write a trip report, and remind us plebs what it's like up front!
I have an EY flight coming up, but it's a ratty regional A320...
Lucky you!
I wish I could go on one of them, but none of them go to where I want them to go.
They are truly the hotel of the skies, and I do hope Airbus doesn't halt production.
What flight is it?
atillathehunn
Established Member
Nairobi - AUH.
Techniquest
Veteran Member
Phwoar that sounds absolutely amazing! I'm not sure I want to know what the ching is on such a trip mind. A year to wait for a trip would be tortuous for me, I've struggled waiting 6 months for my trip in June and am already waiting to leave for Prague despite it being just under 3 months away. I'm not sure I want to know what I'll be like next year when I have the biggest trip of my lifetime planned!
Certainly makes my forthcoming flights, Manchester to Prague and Prague to Southend, very dull in comparison! A trip report, even if just in the confines of this thread, would make excellent reading, so I hope you do a write-up when the time comes.
All this talk of flying has got me in the mood to book another trip, and if June's plans fall through another stage of my world exploration will definitely happen! I guess I'd best hurry up and get to work so I can pay for all these trips
Techniquest
Veteran Member
I can't remember exactly what locos they are right now, ME-something or other, but I was shown a video of one at full thrash earlier this year and the jaw hit the floor!
Indeed. I have managed to wangle a 7h stopover on the return to properly enjoy the ground service.
Now to find a convenient point just under 100 miles from Heathrow to position to the night before, so I can enjoy the private car service to the max.
Phwoar that sounds absolutely amazing! I'm not sure I want to know what the ching is on such a trip mind. A year to wait for a trip would be tortuous for me, I've struggled waiting 6 months for my trip in June and am already waiting to leave for Prague despite it being just under 3 months away. I'm not sure I want to know what I'll be like next year when I have the biggest trip of my lifetime planned!
Certainly makes my forthcoming flights, Manchester to Prague and Prague to Southend, very dull in comparison! A trip report, even if just in the confines of this thread, would make excellent reading, so I hope you do a write-up when the time comes.
All this talk of flying has got me in the mood to book another trip, and if June's plans fall through another stage of my world exploration will definitely happen! I guess I'd best hurry up and get to work so I can pay for all these trips
There will be a video
In fact I plan on making a lot of content from the trip, a separate video of each of the four legs, plus a lounge focus on Etihad's lounge in AUH.The bulk of my flights are quite mundane enthusiast's jollies. Next trip is Norwich to Exeter on FlyBe, partly because I've always wanted to use Norwich, and partly because they have the "Multiyork Executive Lounge" there for Priority Pass cardholders (Multiyork being a boring furniture company) which sounds so Alan Partridge it makes me weep with joy.
I can thoroughly recommend Priority Pass, by the way, for enthusiasts who do a lot of economy travel - and particularly if you're copping different airlines and not building status with any alliance. A few reasons - all lounges have a guaranteed charge point for your devices, great if you're going to be taking photos or video. You'll get a drink and maybe even lunch in there. Most of them are quiet and have wifi. Some lounges also have preferential views over the airport. Example use case - I flew LGW-BFS on Ryanair a couple of weeks back. So no onboard food, nothing. But my card got me into the No1 Lounge at LGW South, where I had a free breakfast, two coffees, good wifi to send some emails, and a commanding view over the runway. There are a lot of PP-accessible lounges at UK regional airports. Don't expect luxury or the land of milk and honey, but some people might find the card valuable.
The 787 is a great aircraft and probably my favourite airliner. I have wanted to try Avianca for a while.
atillathehunn
Established Member
There will be a video
The bulk of my flights are quite mundane enthusiast's jollies. Next trip is Norwich to Exeter on FlyBe, partly because I've always wanted to use Norwich, and partly because they have the "Multiyork Executive Lounge" there for Priority Pass cardholders (Multiyork being a boring furniture company) which sounds so Alan Partridge it makes me weep with joy.
I can thoroughly recommend Priority Pass, by the way, for enthusiasts who do a lot of economy travel - and particularly if you're copping different airlines and not building status with any alliance. A few reasons - all lounges have a guaranteed charge point for your devices, great if you're going to be taking photos or video. You'll get a drink and maybe even lunch in there. Most of them are quiet and have wifi. Some lounges also have preferential views over the airport. Example use case - I flew LGW-BFS on Ryanair a couple of weeks back. So no onboard food, nothing. But my card got me into the No1 Lounge at LGW South, where I had a free breakfast, two coffees, good wifi to send some emails, and a commanding view over the runway. There are a lot of PP-accessible lounges at UK regional airports. Don't expect luxury or the land of milk and honey, but some people might find the card valuable.
I've been debating priority pass, as my travels are never airline alliance specific enough to build status. Thanks for the feedback on whether it's worth it! Is the Alan Partridge factor enough to neutralise the feeling of getting stung by the £10 departure fee?
Do you get lounge guesting permission at AUH if any of us mere mortals happen to be passing AUH at the same time?!
atillathehunn
Established Member
Lovely aircraft, terrible seating. The 9 across is torture. The air is lovely though, and so quiet.
atillathehunn
Established Member
Indeed. I have managed to wangle a 7h stopover on the return to properly enjoy the ground service.
Now to find a convenient point just under 100 miles from Heathrow to position to the night before, so I can enjoy the private car service to the max.
Can you slip the driver a fiver to do a few laps of Heathrow or something, get some plane spotting in in style?
atillathehunn
Established Member
Shame I didn't see that. Good luck chasing them. I don't know if they still do it, but landing in Germany and taking the train up via the train ferry might be worth it?
£10 departure fee is neither here nor there to me as it's a jolly. But even so it's a bit galling.
I have no idea about AUH guesting policy! It's a long way to go for a massage and some champers though...
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