“When I was a lad, there must have been more than a dozen folk on Stóra Dímun,” explains a Faroese man who, like us, is watching from the deck of the boat. “But they’ve gone. Just as they are leaving Mykines. And Fugloy too.” And then the man was silent, and the last Dímun was swallowed up in the mist.

The harbour of Nólsoy, a village located half an hour by boat from Tórshavn. Photo © hidden europe

Life beyond Tórshavn

If you want to get to the heart of what it means to be Faroese, you have to get out of Tórshavn. The capital is a pretty enough place, to be sure. Indeed, there is probably no other European capital that comes close to matching Tórshavn for its homespun village-like charm. Unpretentious and sleepy Tórshavn with its lovely jumble of black-tarred cottages on rocky Tinganes, the promontory that juts out into the harbour, is a wonderful introduction to the Faroes.

But the soul of these islands lies elsewhere. Ask the men working on the dockside in Tórshavn where they come from, and they will tell you they are from Funningur or Kirkja, from Saksun or Sumba, all wee slips of places where grass grows on the roofs of long-abandoned barns, where the church is more often locked than open, and where each winter the snow drifts deep.

“I’ve not been back to Kirkja for over twenty years,” admitted one man from the remote northern island of Fugloy, evidently oblivious to the fact that the remote bygd where he was born and lived the first fifteen years of his life is only half an hour from Tórshavn by helicopter.

Faroese connections

Go to the Faroes. They are so easy to reach and it’s well worth it. At this time of year Smyril Line sails on Saturdays and Tuesdays from Hirtshals (Denmark) to Tórshavn. The crossing takes about 32 hours. Winter sailings are just once weekly and take up to 40 hours.

The Faroese airline Atlantic Airways flies year round from Copenhagen to Vágar (usually twice daily). This summer the airline is also offering twice-weekly flights from Bergen and London Gatwick to Vágar. The seasonal link from Norway operates until the end of August. The service from Britain runs till mid-September.

Once in the Faroes, make time to visit the smaller islands in the archipelago. The islands have well-integrated bus and ferry services that make it very easy to get around. For those in a rush, there is also the inter-island helicopter service run by Atlantic Airways.

The post Faroe Islands: Exploring beyond Torshavn appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

Air travel in Europe has taken a hard knock these past days. Media reports of all Europe being utterly paralyzed have a dash of hyperbole. Less than one percent of intra-European international journeys rely on air travel, and European bus companies, ferry and rail operators have jumped at the chance to remind the traveling public that they have seats to spare.

Rediscovering the train

True, there have been some pinch points where train capacity was stretched—for example, Eurostar services through the Channel Tunnel to London were very full. That said, all those who wanted to book were able to secure places, and even when the prospects for air travel were at their worst (last Saturday and Sunday), we noted that travelers prepared to book three days in advance could still secure rail tickets from Cologne to London for €59.

Reopening the skies

Chances are that today over half of all scheduled flights in Europe will operate. This will be the first time in a week that the flight success rate has topped the 50 percent threshold. On the three most dismal days for travelers—April 17, 18 and 19—less than a third of all scheduled flights operated.

Small is beautiful

Media attention focused on the chaos at major hub airports where travelers waited in vain for flights. Few folk noticed the little airlines that often managed to operate from minor airports while big jets were grounded. For example, Widerøe used its fleet of Dash-8 turboprops to offer flights to two dozen remote airports in Norway.

The Faroese factor

The Faroe Islands were less fortunate. That evil cloud hung directly overhead. The sole weekly ship to continental Europe left last Thursday as normal—before the full extent of flight disruption was really evident. Since then the islands have been effectively cut off from the wider world.

Now Europe’s skies are opening up again, and the Faroes are being reconnected, ironically just as the Smyril Line ship is due back in the islands for that weekly voyage to Denmark.

Rethinking travel options

For remote island communities, flights are a lifeline. But for much of Europe they are a luxury—at least for short hops across the continent of less than 1,000 miles. Many Europeans are now rethinking their travel choices for the future. There may yet be a silver lining in volcanic clouds.

The post The Sky is the Limit: Rethinking travel in Europe, post-volcano appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.