Traveling Europe on a Budget March 10, 2010
Posted by Chris in : Travel Tips , 2commentsThere are so many ways to travel around Europe, and despite the differing price range, it comes down to what your specific needs and wants are. Your primary methods of travel would be renting a car, hiring a taxi, by bus, train, or airplane. For traveling around a town, another option you may want to consider would be to rent a bicycle.
There are varying levels of comfort, price, and length of trip between these options so be sure to consider before choosing which you’d prefer.
Rent a Car
Renting a car can be your best option when you will need to travel around your destination as well, but only if you can return the car near to where you will be instead of having to return to the rental location. There are great prices by the day so if you are going to be traveling around a lot and already have your own insurance, the last thing to consider would be gas.
Gas is expensive throughout Europe so expect to be paying more than you do at home and you won’t be disappointed. Also, if you aren’t carrying insurance that covers rental cars, you will be required to pay for insurance on the rental car as well.
Taxi
If, on the other hand, you are traveling shorter distances, say from the bus or train station, or maybe the airport, taxis can be a great option. Make sure you understand the pricing before you head off or you might get shocked about what you’re expected to pay on arrival. Returning to stations can often have set rates so ask if they are available in the taxi you’re taking.
While taxis can be a great option, they can also be quite expensive; however, attempting to drive around in a city you don’t know can get you terribly lost.
While taxis may not be your best option for getting to a destination, there are many different options with cabs! Many taxi companies have hourly rates for tours so be sure to ask about pricing. Who better to show you around the town than somebody who drives around it all day! Taxi drivers may know the best things to see, the best places to go, and more!
Bus
Traveling from cities near to each other, cities that are around 3-4 hours apart, often have bus as the best option, as long as you remember to book online. The buses often have stops in between the stations where passengers can get on or off so they are often great options for inter-city travels.
Traveling around a city by bus can also be a quite affordable way to get around. Usually you can ask the people where you are staying for help with the bus schedule so don’t be afraid to ask. Traveling by bus can be less than 5 pounds per day for unlimited travel that day so is often a good option.
When traveling by bus and returning to your departure location later that day, be sure to verify that you will have a return bus running on the day that you are riding or you could easily end up stranded overnight in a distant town. While this can be a fun adventure, it can also cost you a decent amount of money to handle, either renting a bed for the night or getting a taxi (expensive) back to your location.
In Scotland, Citylink often has prices of less than 10 quid to travel between cities but only when booked one-way, online.
Train
While I debated with myself about including the train in the traveling Europe on a budget, I decided to put a few notes about it in here.
Trains can often be the most comfortable option of those listed to get from city to city; however, they are not the cheapest or even always the fastest so depending on what your goals are, think long and hard about using trains.
Traveling between cities can also be a great time to use trains if you need to get there quickly. With trains, you can avoid timely security checkpoints and get to your destination much more quickly. Train stations are also usually located more centrally than airports and so can even make it easier for your later travel.
If you will be doing a lot of travel by train, I advise checking into Britt Rail or EurRail passes but don’t forget that both of these options can be costly.
Airplane
When traveling longer distances than a 4 hour bus ride would take you, check out air prices. RyanAir has great prices, as low as 19 quid to go from Glasgow to Paris. The short plane trips are often more cramped and often have limited features and can include limitations like only 1 bag, and they mean only one bag. One carry on, no checked items, and no additional personal bag (no purse, laptop bag, or backpack).
If you are taking a plane, be sure to give time to account for clearing security. While a plane will occasionally be held for you, don’t count on it, you will be left behind. While you may or may not have to clear customs heading into different countries while traveling through Europe, don’t forget that you might have to and plan accordingly.
Bicycle
While a bicycle may not be as efficient for traveling long distances, a bicycle can be a great asset to have when staying in one city or town. At around 20 pounds per day, a bicycle can be an afordable way to travel around.
Be careful though to not get ahead of yourself, make sure to observe the local area, are the streets cobblestone? Are there sidewalks? Is the traffic really heavy? These are some of the questions you should ask yourself before deciding on a bicycle as your primary mode of transportation or you could find yourself in a bad situation.
Traveling around Europe is an adventure but there are many different options that are available to the budget traveler.
Have fun and Good Luck!
Stranded In Portree March 9, 2010
Posted by tiffany in : Isle of Skye , add a commentMonday was the day my computer was getting fixed. We saw a computer repair shop in Kyle, so we hopped on a bus and when we got there, he confirmed it had to be the monitor. So, knowing there was not much he could do for us that Chris couldn’t do, he sold us a small screw driver and sent us on our way. Chris pulled it apart (with some locals staring) in a coffee shoppe. Chris didn’t find anything wrong with it (I personally think the thing wanted Chris’ full attention), so he put it back together and it works like I just bought it! Thank god for the computer whisperer!
So then we took the bus to Skye’s capital; Portree (Population: 2,491) to see if we could get a connection to Staffin ( it apparently has a very beautiful view
of the mountians). Well no such luck, so we headed to the Tourist Information center and was told to take a bus that follows the shore all along the north of the isle. Perfect! We already had day passes so the big tour was free!
We had a great time looking out the windows, joking, and snapping pictures at the opportune time. When we returned to Portree, however, we had a sorry surprise, all the buses going anywhere were gone. We decided that staying the night in Portree would be cheaper than hiring a taxi to drive the hour and a half back to Kyleakin (about 50 pounds or more).
Depressing? Well, it became another adventure in itself and the last time we listen to a tourist information person on the topic of buses. Great learning experience.
The hostel we stayed the night in was oddly colored..a green door here, a red hallway there, and random purple walls through out the building. It was an interesting, but quiet hostel. We shared a room with two Germans who run a French camp ground in the summer time. They were both very nice people and one of them went out and bought us a toothbrush after hearing we had left all of our stuff in Kyleakin.
The next morning we went on a hike in Portree, which was wonderful! the sun was out, it was a whopping seventy degrees(the British tourists complain “I’m out here in just a jumper, unbelievable.” ), and the wildlife and sheep were out enjoying the sun (defrosting perhaps). We borrowed binoculars from a fellow 
hiker and spotted a seal bobbing in the water. They said they saw several swimming and sometimes they jump out of the water. Too bad we didn’t see that, since I’ve had my eye out for them for four days now.
Week in Pictures, 9 March March 9, 2010
Posted by Chris in : Week in Pictures , add a commentThis week in pictures we have pictures taken from the Isle of Skye for your viewing pleasure!
Saturday in Kyleakin March 7, 2010
Posted by Chris in : Isle of Skye , 1 comment so farThe Isle of Skye is invaded on Saturday nights by 2 different tour groups so the main pub, Saucy Mary’s, gets flooded with people, islanders, main-landers, and Americans.
With the infusion of about 40 Americans, the population of Kyleakin almost hit 200! Of course, after you include the people driving up to 40 miles to be here on Saturday night, you get well over 200 people in the town.
Saucy Mary’s is the place to be on Saturday nights for miles, there’s live music, a festive atmosphere, and happy patrons! Around 10 PM staff at some local attraction came in dressed up as pirates and faeries.
This photo was one of the last clear shots we could get as the dance floor quickly filled up to the guy playing live music on his guitar, primarily great oldies, such gems as ‘Brown Eyed Girl’ or ‘Stuck in the Middle’.
Most of the people who got off of the tour buses were Americans studying at the University of London who had been given the opportunity to tour Scotland. We found a table of people playing cards and convinced them to try to learn Shithead; about 2 hours later we were still playing despite being the front row for the music (we were also the most vocal fans!).
Portree, Isle of Skye March 6, 2010
Posted by Chris in : Isle of Skye , add a comment
After breakfast this morning, we decided to walk down the beach in front of Kyleakin (pronounced Kyle-a-kin, hard a), and found a lot of rocks that were great for skipping so we spent our time waiting for the bus to Portree skipping rocks, sometimes as many as 7 or 8 skips!
We spent our day today in Portree, the largest town on the Isle of Skye. While the town itself was a wee bit bigger than Kyleakin, it was still small and sleepy.
We had lunch around noon, talked to one of the guys who lives here who was working the bar, and learned that the language we want to learn, Scottich Gaelic (pronounced Ga-lik, soft a), is supposedly the third hardest language to learn after Chinese Mandarin and Japanese.
The bartender at the place we had lunch loves to hike and had several pictures he showed us including one of where he found a seal, his friend and he wouldn’t have seen the seal except that it barked at them while they were walking by, causing them both to jump. They managed to corner it a bit to get a couple of pictures; we thought about trying to find a seal but apparently they are really well camouflaged in the rocks.
While in Portree, we stopped in what is apparently the only ice-cream parlour on the island, their banana ice-cream was fantastic, and was what I ate, while Tiff had their toffee, also good but not as delicious as yesterday.
The beach around Portree wasn’t great looking right near the shore but once you look a bit father away, the water was gorgeous and had a breathtaking backdrop of mountains. All-in-all, today was a fun day but a slow and relaxed one as well.
Kyleakin and Kyle March 5, 2010
Posted by Chris in : Isle of Skye , add a commentToday, the first full day on/around the Isle of Skye was a cloudy one, just clearing up in the late afternoon, with a wee bit of rain.
Despite the weather, we enjoyed a continental breakfast before taking the bus over to Kyle, just across the water from Kyleakin.
We walked around the town, stepped into a couple of shoppes, and even had a great lunch at a small restaurant, toasted sandwich with ham, mushrooms, and brie.
After lunch and some more browsing, we stopped in The Cooperative, a local grocery, to do some shopping. about 23 quid (pounds) should hold us for a few days, saving us a bundle on restaurant eating! We found a package of braised beef at about 1.5 lb for 4 quid; we’ll be adding it to our spaghetti we bought, to something for breakfast, and who knows what else!
After we finished up in Kyle, we went back to the bus stop and realized that we’d be waiting for 2 hours for the next bus so we decided to walk across the tall bridge back to Skye. We were afraid that the walk would be more than we wanted to do but were glad to have walked once we were done. 
The views from the bridge were stunning and unobtainable riding on a bus. Several of the views of Skye seemed to be picturesque Scottish Highlands.
About halfway through our walk from Kyle back to Saucy Mary’s in Kyleakin the sky started to clear up, showing a bit of sun for the first time today and letting us warm up a bit. While the top of the bridge was windy, it wasn’t too cold to not feel great!
In response to Tiff’s computer issues, we saw a shoppe in Kyle that does computer repair so we’re planning to head back there tomorrow morning to see about getting her computer looked at, hopefully they can help (I don’t have any tools that can open a computer-_-).
No matter what you’re looking for, I doubt that you expect to see Sheep Droppings in a shoppe in a small town like Kyle. We saw these and had to take a picture because it was too funny to see in a small shoppe selling woolens.
Isle of Skye: Home of The Sleepy Little Town March 4, 2010
Posted by tiffany in : Isle of Skye , add a commentWe arrived in the Isle of Skye today after a pleasant bus ride (there we four people on the bus including me and Chris and we were given an excellent view of the mountains).
The town (village actually) that we are staying in is called Kyleakin and it is so small that: the grocery store, the Post Office, and the gift shoppe are one building. You blink and it’s gone, but it’s not alone; there are many more along the route the bus took to get us there.
The up side is that the locals are very willing to help you. Everyone was happy to see outsiders come in. For the record, we are the only guests in the
hostel for the night. Needless to say, they are very willing to help and give discounts (I think they’re just happy to see new faces and new business). Even a cat that we dubbed “George Boots” greeted us in the road!
There are amazing views of the mountains that we will probably do some exploring of later this week. There is a bike rental in the village across t
he bridge to the main land which we will probably take advantage of.
Computer Troubles and Loch Ness March 3, 2010
Posted by Chris in : Inverness , 1 comment so farSo, despite Tiff’s computer deciding not to start, we made it to Loch Ness today and spent about 5 hours walking around, taking pictures, seeing old abandoned castles, and more.
After we got to Loch Ness around 11:20 this morning, we had some food in a small Deli in Drumnadrochit before we started walking the 2 miles to Urquhart Castle.
In the deli we ate in in Drumnadrochit, there were several different maps covering the walls that displayed the different continents; 
each map was covered in local currencies, allowing us to check out the large display!
We saw many sheep on the way there, walking past perhaps 5 different groups.
Also on our trek by Loch Ness, we encountered a clump of Clydesdales that were available for riding; however, we decided to walk the rest of the way as we were about a mile away from the castle, our goal.
At the end of this part of our trek, we found the Urquhart Castle, a castle from around 1300 AD that is still partially standing!This castle was gorgeous, full of plaques that told us about what different parts of the castle used to be. The castle has been help by several different major families, including 4 different kings.
Despite our best efforts, we didn’t actually see the Loch Ness Monster, Nessie. We saw several large models but not the real thing. We even saw clips of video and photos that claimed to be of Nessie but even from the key vantage point at Urquhart, we didn’t see a thing!
Loch Ness, Attempt 1 March 2, 2010
Posted by Chris in : Inverness , add a commentSo while we were trying to go to Loch Ness today, the guy at reception at our hostel didn’t seem to have a clue, he suggested that we take the bus to Fort Williams. If you are looking to spend some time in a quaint little village on the Loch, you want a ticket to Drumnadrochit. While Fort Williams was a really beautiful area, it was in front of another loch, not Loch Ness. Despite the bad directions, we did get to drive along Loch Ness for in a bus for about an hour and a half.
After driving along this most beautiful Loch, we drove through Fort Augusta, a gorgeous little gem of a town on the tip of Loch Ness. Full of B&Bs, Port Augusta is a gorgeous place to relax your tired, sore feet. We passed quickly through Fort Augusta and onto Fort Williams.
Cute little town with a nice loch in front of it, nicely displayed with a walk in front of the loch just one block off the Main Street. Walking down it, Tiff and I (Chris) found a nice hotel/restaurant called the Lime Tree where we shared a pot of tea. How Scottish of us.
Well, tomorrow we’re going to be going to Drumnadrochit to spend the day on Loch Ness actually this time!
