Europe Winter Deals

Fly to Europe through the side door this winter with these hot airfare deals.

 Winter is the experienced traveler’s favorite time to fly to Europe. Airfares and hotels offer the lowest rates of the year and most sites are free of large crowds, plus you get the added bonus of joining the locals in all their winter traditions and winter sports. Here are our favorite winter destinations in Europe and the discounted airfares to get there.

 Dublin: Take advantage of the lowest airfares of the year to explore Dublin’s pubs. Warm up with a visit to the Guinness factory. Follow  the route set up in James Joyce’s “Ulysses” to discover the quirky side of town.

Dublin's Winter Beauty

Fly from Boston to Dublin from $469

Zurich: Hurry to Zurich this winter, the nightlife is great and the best Swiss alpine resorts are easily accessible via train (get a Swiss rail pass and save). Take the world famous Jungfraujoch cog train trough the Eiger and admire the glaciers of the Jungfraujoch region. Quite aptly named “the top of Europe”.

Eiger for the Eiger? Take the cog-train to the glacier

Fly San Francisco to Zurich from $505

 London: London can be charming and cozy. Visit Camden town and warm up with a pub crawl. Take a boat from the Embankment to Greenwich to view The City from the Royal observatory, the best view in town. Take a train ride to Edinburg and York to explore England’s Viking past (Jorvik Viking Center) and try the best whiskey Scotland has to offer.

The City of London from the Royal Observatory

Fly New York to London from $595

Paris: The views of Paris’s snowy rooftops from the window of a cozy Montmartre Bed and Breakfast can be an overdose of romance. Paris in winter can be gorgeous, it’s wide boulevards romantically moody in the snow. Warm up with a Café au lait at a local Café accompanied with raw cheese on a toasted baguette.  Life doesn’t get much better than that, and that’s even before you hit the Louvre or the top of the Eiffel Tower.

Le Winter Kiss

Fly New York to Paris from $608

Discover the Wild Side of the Caribbean: Venezuela

Get ready to discover the best kept secret of the South American Caribbean.

 By Florin R. Ferrs

 Venezuela is a  South America in miniature; From tropical beaches and Caribbean islands to icy Andean Mountains, and from the steaming Amazon jungle, and the tallest waterfall in the world (Angel Falls) to the high-rises of Caracas.

Venezuela is a land of amazing coffee and chocolate and of great regional food; from fresh seafood on the coast to grilled meats inland. A land where salsa (the music, not the sauce) is king and where the people are always ready to party 24 hours a day 7 days a week.  Are you ready for Venezuela?

Since Budgetair is offering two free tickets from Miami to Caracas, I thought it would be a good idea to show you the best that Venezuela has to offer. Where would you start your Venezuelan explorations?

 

Venezuela’s Top 6

 

1-Margarita Island

 

If Venezuela is South America in Miniature. Margarita Island is the best of Venezuela in a small package. With wonderful stretches of Caribbean beaches to misty rain forest jungles, Margarita has it all. Party all night with the locals, which seem to always be hell bent on waiting for the dawn in a beach disco. Sleep on the beach and recover with some local catch of the day. Repeat. Oh, and margarita also has some cute colonial churches and great duty free shopping.

Margarita Island Beach

2- Angel Falls

 

Angel Falls are the tallest waterfalls in the world. They drop from a table top mountain that is over 1000 meters high, itself located on a massive plateau the size of the Benelux countries that rises above the Amazon Jungle (the Gran Savana). Sir Arthur Conan Doyle named this region “The Lost World” in his book of the same name.  There are no roads to Angel Falls, the only way in is to fly.  Book your Angel Falls trip on an air tour from Margarita Island and get ready to be amazed by the lost world’s waterfalls and Tepuis (table top mountains).

Angel Falls: 1000 meter waterfall

3-Los Roques

 Los  Roques is an archipelago in the Southern Caribbean sea. You would be forgiven if you though you just landed in the South Pacific.  Coral reefs and empty atolls stretch as far as the eye can see. Take a catamaran ride among the islets for a day of snorkeling and basking in the sun. Los Roques is the best kept secret of the Caribbean.

Los Roques Islands Venezuela

4- The Venezuelan Andes Mountains

The Andean mountain chain stretches along the entire length of the South American continent. Its tail end rests above the Venezuelan city of Merida. A number of snow peaked mountains crown the city, the tallest; Pico Bolivar, can be reached by cable car from Downtown.  Get ready to reach over 8000 meters above sea level on the longest cable car in the world.

Venezuelan Andes: Pico Bolivar

 

5-The Venezuela Amazon Jungle

 Venezuela has a slice of the Amazon Jungle, most of it virgin territory and only inhabited by isolated Amerindian tribes.  The best way to explore the jungle is by river. You can go Piranha fishing and spend some time with the local tribes, most living on stilt huts at the edge of the river, just as they have done since the beginning of time.

Welcome to the Jungle

6- The Big City

 

Caracas is a tough town (that is undeniable), but it can still be fascinating if you know what to expect. The ride in from the airport can be a culture shock; the highway climbs over 1500 meters from the beachside airport up and trough a favela encrusted mountain, bursting onto a valley congested with traffic and skyscrapers. The east side of the city can be very posh, with world class restaurants and shopping malls. Get a reliable local guide and explore the best that the big city has to offer, from Museums to music and always great nightlife.

The Big City: Caracas

How to Cope with Airline Baggage Fees

Airline Baggage Fees busting your budget?

Here are some tips from world travellers that might save you a few bucks the next time you travel.

By Max Milano (International travel expert) *

So you scored your cheap international airfare on BudgetAir. Now its time to pack.

Travel Light

Here’s a novel idea, pack light. Very light. International travellers have been avoiding baggage fees for years by travelling light. Entire cottage industries and websites have been created around this subject. Venerable tour guide Rick Steves has been known to wax poetically of the benefits of single bag travel. Unfortunately this concept seems to have caught on with mainstream travellers, to the point where now everyone seems to travel with only carryon luggage. This seems to have created a bit of an arms race among luggage manufacturers, who seem hell bent on supersizing the carryon bag and creating chaos at the boarding gate (who hasn’t seen entire families with babies trying to board the plane with what looks like the entire contents of their house as carryon, baby prams included?).

It’s Time to Stop the Madness

If you are disciplined enough to pack everything you need for your trip into a small carryon bag, then congratulations. But if your carryon bag is the size of a Volkswagen Jetta that is bursting at the seams. Maybe it’s time to check in that bag.

Is that carry-on or a Volkswagen on your back?

When to Check In Your Bag

When you buy your next international airline ticket, don’t just focus on the price of the airfare, also check if your checked bags will be free, this can save you from $35 to $50 bucks for your first piece of checked baggage. It also pays to weigh your bag before you leave the house. Over the limit bags are penalized heavily (hence Delta’s infamous $450 excess baggage fee). Some online travel websites offer links to every airline’s baggage rules page, so take a couple of extra minutes to examine your chosen airlines baggage rules and make sure that you fly on airlines that offer at least one free piece of checked in luggage.

Baggage Claim: To check or not to check your bag

Airlines that Offer Free Luggage Check In on International Flights

British Airways (one or two checked bags free based on destination), Virgin Atlantic (One free checked bag in economy, two in Premium Economy), Emirates (2 checked bags free), China Airlines (two pieces), Air Berlin (one checked bag), and many others. In general, Asian and South American carriers allow up to 2 free pieces of free checked in luggage on international flights, while most European and American carriers are offering at least one piece for free.

Travel Light, Travel Smart

If All Else Fails

Perhaps you’re travelling domestically, or perhaps you are the kind of international traveler who finds it challenging to keep within the 23 to 35 kilos weight limit for free check in bags. You may or may not have a genuine reason to pack your entire wardrobe for your week long vacation, we won’t judge. My best advice is to do what Hollywood stars have been doing for years: FedEx your luggage. Fedex ground, UPS and even the USPS offer cost effective solution to your excess baggage problems. All it takes is a bit of organization. Send your excess baggage ahead of you and have it all waiting by the time you check in to your hotel or apartment at the other end. It also works when buying oversized gifts abroad. UPS and Fedex take about a week. USPS a bit longer but it’s a lot cheaper.

*Max Milano is the author of “The Mechanicals of Recoleta”, available at Amazon.

Win 2 Free Tickets to India!

		Fly to India and beyond for less with Budgetair. We have the best international airfare deals to India, all the time. Whenever you want to go Bollywood, or stand before the Taj Mahal, Budgetair has India and the world covered with the cheapest international airfare deals on the web.

Thanks to all who signed up for our “Win 2 Free Tickets to India” contest.
You were all a very well dressed lot, vote for your best dresser on Budgetair’s Facebook Wall and whoever gets the most votes wins a surprise airfare!.
Best of luck!