The caraway-flavored liqueur Allasch is too sweet for our taste, but it has become over the years the signature drink of Leipzig—even though its origins go back to Latvia. There is plenty of Allasch in Leipzig shops, but we do wonder if these days it is purchased mainly by tourists.

The Finnish liquor Minttu is a minty spirit that pairs well with hot chocolate. Photo: trontnort

Baltic favorites in Latvia, Estonia and Finland

Latvians may have lost their taste for Allasch, but Riga Black Balsam is still going strong. It has been made in Riga for over 250 years. Its distinctive ceramic flagons are a Latvian icon, but you will also run across Black Balsam in maritime communities across the Baltic region.

Vana Tallinn cannot claim the heritage of Black Balsam, as it is a child of the sixties, when Estonians realized that cheap Caribbean rum could be improved through the addition of a cocktail of spices. It comes in a medley of styles, some verging on the bizarre. Vana Tallinn Chocolate Cream is one to ponder.

Moving north from Tallinn across the Gulf of Finland, you might run across Minttu, which is as minty as the name implies. We think it is made only slightly more palatable by mixing it with hot chocolate, just as Finns often do in winter. Another Finnish favorite is Lakka, made out of cloudberries. Take it straight, on ice or mixed in with coffee.

Patxaran is a traditional Spanish spirit made from sloe berries. Photo: Pablo Arroyo

Further flavors

Here’s a handful of other local drinks to tickle your taste buds as you travel around Europe:

1. Patxaran – Spain

Made from sloe berries, this drink comes from Navarre in northern Spain, but it’s also a firm favorite in the Basque region just to the north.

2. Cantueso – Spain

Brimming with thyme flavors, a bottle of this is hard to find once you get beyond the Alicante region of Spain.

3. Noyau de Poissy – France

Crafted from apricots, this regional drink is a specialty of Poissy, a community on the bank of the River Seine just downstream from Paris.

4. Becherovka – Czech Republic

This spirit comes in distinctive green bottles which are found everywhere in Karlovy Vary in the Czech Republic. The town even has a museum devoted to the history of its signature drink.

5. Danziger Goldwasser – Poland

Intimately associated with the Polish city of Gdansk, we suspect that nowadays it is mainly German visitors to the city who splash out on a bottle. It is a herbal liqueur which has wafer-thin flakes of real gold floating in it. Devotees of this oddball drink debate how far the gold inflects the taste.

The post Sipping your way through Europe: The geography of regional drinks appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

The Eurolines network

The most convenient network of services for travelers looking to travel around Europe by coach is coordinated by Eurolines. This is not one company but a strong alliance of coach operators who coordinates their timetables and provide integrated ticketing for international journeys across Europe. This gives a continent-wide brand for marketing purposes and allows passengers to plan complicated itineraries that criss-cross Europe.

There are of course many long distance coach services in Europe that are not part of the Eurolines network. For example the Czech company Student Agency runs some two dozen routes from their hub in Prague. PolskiBus has a network of eight routes from Warsaw, the fledglng company’s growing network now also serving Vienna, Berlin, Bratislava and Prague. There are many itineraries where these non-Eurolines operators precisely fill a gap, but for its Europe-wide reach to over 500 cities, Eurolines has no serious rival.

Useful long-distance links

Eurolines does offer some intriguingly long routes. For example, service 350 operates thrice weekly direct from Amsterdam to Lisbon (“Lisboa” in Portuguese), a 36-hour journey that connects two cities some 1,500 miles apart. Even longer direct routes link cities in western Germany with provincial centers in the Russian Federation.

Good for shorter hops too

The Eurolines network thus often steps in with a convenient direct link on a routing that would require several changes of train. With Eurolines, you can board a bus in Switzerland and travel directly to Macedonia or Moldova.

But such long hauls may not be for everyone. And we find that Eurolines-affiliated services are also perfect for shorter hops, particularly in those parts of Europe where rail services are sparse. For example, comfortable long-distance coaches, most of them operating under the Eurolines umbrella, are far better than trains for journeys between the capitals of the Baltic States: Tallinn, Riga and Vilnius.

And there are times where it is just fun to travel by road for a change. There are several Eurolines coaches each day from London to Paris and other French cities. While most Eurolines schedules from London to France use the Eurotunel vehicle shuttle service, some are routed via the P&O Ferries link from Dover to Calais – always a great way to cross the Channel. And with return fares for the London to Paris run starting at just £39, the coach option can make good sense for budget travelers.

Book online

Bookings can be made online for most journeys, usually on the website of the Eurolines affiliate in your country of departure. But that does NOT mean that you need to know which particular company flies the Eurolines flag in each country. The organization maintains an excellent web portal, where you can click on the country of departure to be redirected to the relevant national site.

Here are some sample travel times (with the travel time of the fastest direct train shown for comparison):

• Brussels to Zürich: 9h 45m by Eurolines (train 8h 19m)
• Berlin to Prague: 4h 30m by Eurolines (train 4h 30m)
• Zagreb to Munich: 8h by Eurolines (train 8h 25m)
• Copenhagen to Stockholm: 9h 45m by Eurolines (train 4h 20m)
• Paris to Amsterdam: 8h by Eurolines (train 3h 19m)
• Vienna to Budapest: 2h 55m by Eurolines (train 2h 55m)

National partners

Although Eurolines coach services are principally intended for international journeys, in many countries you can also use Eurolines services for domestic journeys that cross no international borders. And many of the participating companies in the Eurolines family also have comprehensive national networks which allow you to switch seamlessly from international to national services.

For example the UK participant in Eurolines is National Express. And you can use the National Express website to book a through journey from many provincial spots around Britain to the continent. A single ticket (for example Manchester to Paris) covers travel on a National Express coach to London where you connect onto an onward Eurolines service for the continent.

More on Eurolines

Now that we’ve introduced Eurolines coach journeys, it’s time to take a little closer at their fares. Read our next post on Eurolines passes, with some tips on getting the best deals, and see how a coach pass can allow you to roam at will across Europe on Eurolines services.

Rail pass options

Interested in seeing a full list of rail pass options? Visit our booking partner, Rail Europe, to compare rates, destinations covered and see their latest promotions.

The post Eurolines: International coach journeys in Europe appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

Several coaches each day speed from Riga to Tallinn in less than five hours. Just once a day there is the option of doing the journey by train. You change trains at the Estonia / Latvia border and the whole rail journey takes over eight hours. You can see why coaches have cornered the market in traffic between the two Baltic capitals.

“Bus” versus “coach”

Yet we stumble already. Bus or coach? In American English, the word “bus” tends to prevail and may refer to any form of public transport by road, be it a short ride through New York City or a coast-to-coast marathon with Greyhound Lines.

Things are a little different in European English. A “bus route” is essentially a local service, geared to local traffic. You cannot normally reserve seats in advance. A “coach service,” by contrast, is usually a longer-distance service, often one where advance booking is recommended (even if often not absolutely necessary) and usually operated by a vehicle that has more comfortable seating than you would find on a local bus service.

Buses stop often, express coaches less so

Buses stop frequently: usually at every bus stop along their route. But coaches stop infrequently, often only once in any particular city and then more commonly at the central coach station (or near the train station). Note that in some European cities the “central coach station” may not be particularly central.

This distinction between buses and coaches (as defined above) must be something in English genes. When an Englishman says “I took the Oxford to Cambridge bus” he means he took the X5 Stagecoach which is not a whole lot faster than the horse-drawn carriages that once plied between the two university cities. Okay, slightly faster, but the X5 still takes 3 hours 20 minutes for the 80-mile ride.

And he means a bus, not a coach, even though the vehicles used by Stagecoach on their X5 service are pretty comfortable single-deckers with leather seats, free Wi-Fi and air conditioning. This is luxury stuff for what is essentially a limited-stop local bus service, albeit one that plies a longish route – and, a little improbably for a “bus,” it does not actually stop at every stop along the way. So, yes, the X5 is a little unusual. It’s frequent (half-hourly, every day of the week), you don’t need to pre-book, but it has coach-like qualities with its propensity to skip stops.

Linguistic subtleties

Shift to other European languages and the fine distinction made by Brits between bus and coach may not be sustained. Germans refer to a bus to allude to the short ride to the shops or the 24-hour journey from the Rhineland to a Mediterranean sunspot.

Horses for courses

Local bus services come into their own for shortish journeys within cities or into the rural hinterland of a city. They serve small villages and rural areas that are often well beyond the nerve ends of the rail network. Many routes are done and dusted in just an hour or two. That Oxford to Cambridge run is unusually long for a bus service.

Many buses are short on creature comforts. Don’t hop on a London omnibus and ask the way to the rest room. There isn’t one. Yet these local bus services fill a niche in the market, and there is even a new travel guide for Britain that celebrates the merits of such local journeys. (Yes, yes, we have to come clean here and admit that we edited the book. It is published by Bradt Travel Guides).

By contrast, long-distance coaches can be very comfortable indeed. Reclining seats are the norm. Some offer the chance to buy coffee or snacks. On some premium services, such as the new Eurolines Business Class network, you’ll find a level of comfort that begins to match first class on a train. But of course you just don’t have quite the chance to move around. That’s the big plus of rail.

We shall return to the question of long-distance coach travel in Europe in further posts over the winter. Sometimes it’s a credible alternative to rail travel and it is often great value. In the next post on this theme (in December), we’ll look at those areas of Europe where canny travelers know that the express coach is the top choice.

The post Bus and Coach Travel in Europe: Understanding the difference appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

This is a minor single track railway, and the unstaffed station at Retretti is as small as they come. On the platform stands an oversized sculpture, an apt welcome to a community, hidden away amid the lakes and forests, that is utterly devoted to art.

Matti Kalkamo’s "Silent Dialogue" sculpture (2006) being installed at the Retretti Arts Centre

The Art Centre

The Retretti Art Centre is in the premier league of European galleries. And it is unique in that the majority of its display space is underground in a series of caves.

It is a chance to immerse oneself in art in a space that is distanced from the here-and-now. Over the years the Retretti summer exhibitions have featured such celebrated artists as Ilya Repin and Marc Chagall.

The 2011 season

Retretti’s 2011 season kicked off last week with a summer program featuring artist-couples from the mid-19th to the early-20th century, so covering the heyday of Finnish Romanticism through to early Modernism. “Masters and their spouses,” you might say for in most cases it was the husband who enjoyed the premier reputation of the two.

Also at Retretti this summer are lithographs of Carl Barks’ Donald Duck comic strip, a children’s art workshop with African flavors and many other displays and installations. In a sneak preview last month, we were especially impressed by glassware from the avant-garde Kyösti Kakkosen collection and the striking photographic installations of Maija Pirilä and Petri Nuutinen.

Art apart

Retretti stays open until August 28. Art apart, the surrounding lake and forest landscape is magnificent. If you are bound for Savonlinna, famous for its summer opera festival, then definitely make a stop at Retretti. It is four hours by train from Helsinki to Retretti, and from there just a further half hour on to Savonlinna. There is also a useful boat connection from Retretti to Savonlinna that operates when the arts center is open.

Where to stay

As to accommodation, you will find more choice in Savonlinna than immediately around Retretti. When we were in the area last month, we stayed at the Hotel Hospitz on the shore of the lake in Savonlinna. Get one of the lake-view rooms with a balcony if you can (they only have two). It is a first-class location, just a short walk to Savonlinna’s imposing castle.

Savonlinna in summer is Finland at its very best. Throw in Retretti too, and you have a first-class destination.

Air links

The train journey from Helsinki to Retretti and Savonlinna is a very fine introduction to Finland. At one point it skirts the Russian border. But if it sounds too remote, Savonlinna does have its own airport, with Finncomm Airlines offering twice daily direct air service from Helsinki in just 85 minutes.

The post Art in the Finnish Forest: Retretti appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

In our 29 city guides, you’ll find more than 1,200 reviews of budget-friendly hotels, each one inspected and photographed by one of our editors. Some are listed simply because they’re cheap and clean. Others, however, boast something else. They might be blessed with an incredible locatieron. Or perhaps they have a surprising theme or impressive style.

These hotels offer travelers something unique and yet they still manage to be affordable. We believe they deserve a little special attention.

Choosing the “Cheapo 100”

Thus, this year we created the “Cheapo 100,” a ranking of our five favorite properties in 20 cities. In each city, we chose one winning hotel for the following five categories: “Super Cheapo,” Best Location, Most Unique, Best Budget Style, and Best B&B or Guesthouse.

Selecting the winning hotels was not easy and resulted in lively debate here at EuroCheapo headquarters. In certain circumstances, we had three or four great contenders for one award.

And then there was the question of preference. After all, how do you define the “best location” in a city like Paris? Is it facing Notre Dame (Hotel Esmeralda) or steps from the Place des Vosges (Hotel Jeanne d’Arc)? Oh, wait – what about next to the Eiffel Tower (Eber Mars)?

You might say we suffered an embarrassment of Cheapos. But fear not, all hotels will have another shot for next year’s awards.

Without further ado, EuroCheapo proudly presents the 2010 “Cheapo 100”:

Amsterdam

Hotel Museumzicht

The following hotels were selected from our Amsterdam guide:

Best Location
Hotel Museumzicht
Doubles: $70 – $149
When the museums are this close, you need not limit yourself to admiring them from your hotel windows.

Barcelona

Hostal Goya

The following hotels were selected from our Barcelona guide:

Super Cheapo
Hostal Centric
Doubles: $56 – $133
This hostal is simple and appeals to the young backpacker as much as it does the more conservative traveler.

Best Location
Hosteria Grau
Doubles: $84 – $125
Located at the intersection of two bustling pedestrian streets in the center of the city, the Grau is an island of tranquility surrounded by constant action.

Most Unique
Hotel Peninsular
Doubles: $78
This former monastery features an interesting web of twisting balconies, zigzagging stairwells, and full-on sensory stimulation.

Best Budget Style
Hostal Goya
Doubles: $107 – $125
All rooms at the Hostal Goya follow the same contemporary-meets-opulence style imperative.

Best B&B, Pension or Guesthouse
Hostal Fernando
Doubles: $72 – $90
An easy central location? Check! Roomy, clean space, and helpful staff? Check and check!

Berlin

Hotel-Pension Dittberner

The following hotels were selected from our Berlin guide:

Super Cheapo
Circus Hostels Weinbergsweg and Rosa-Luxemburgstrasse
Doubles: $51 – $63
If Mitte’s long-running Circus Hostel had a tagline, it would be: “budget-friendly and stylish aren’t strange bedfellows.”

Best Location
Hotel Taunus
Doubles: $90 – $118
Sitting pretty in the bulls-eye of Mitte, the Hotel Taunus offers surprise-free rooms that won’t break the bank.

Most Unique
Michelberger
Doubles: $90
“Kitschy-cool,” “flea market-chic,” and “gritty-glam” are the top contenders for describing this 2009 addition to the city’s design hotel scene.

Best Budget Style
ackselhaus & bluehome
$179 – $203
The ackselhaus and bluehome are exotic escapes in the heart of Berlin.

Best B&B, Pension or Guesthouse
Hotel-Pension Dittberner
Doubles: $116 – $159
The 21-room Pension Dittberner stands out from the pension crowd with its museum-like breakfast room, old-fashioned library and and art-filled rooms.

Next Page: Bruges, Brussels and Copenhagen

The post The Cheapo 100: Our favorite budget hotels in Europe appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

The following two museums, however, are completely free and should make your must-visit list:

Latvian War Museum
Located inside Gunpowder Tower at Smilsu iela, 20

For a quick-hit history of Latvia’s military past, and to catch an illuminating exhibit on the Soviet occupation, check out Latvia’s War Museum. The museum describes its mission as “to save collective, historical memory of the nation about political and military history of Latvia, the influence of the military conflicts… on the destiny of the nation, and the reflection of these conflicts’ consequences…”

Current offerings include a detailed exposition on the Latvian army’s role in Russia’s Civil War (1918-1921).

The museum is open year-round and is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.

The Museum of the Occupation of Latvia
Strelnieku laukums, 1, Old Town

Latvia was occupied by German and Soviet forces three times from 1940 to 1991. These included the first Soviet occupation (1940-1941), the Nazi occupation (1941-1944/45), and the long, devastating second Soviet occupation (1944/45-1991).

The Museum of the Occupation of Latvia provides exhibits and a permanent collection focused on these three occupations, their victims (including business and farm owners, Jews, political opponents, and artists), and the crimes committed by the foreign powers.

The museum is centrally located in Old Town, next to Town Hall Square (Ratslaukums). The museum is open daily May through September, 11 AM to 6 PM; October through April 11 AM to 5 PM, closed Mondays during this off-season. (The Museum of the Occupation of Latvia was also the answer to our previous “Name this Museum” post.)

Tell us: Have you ever been to either of these museums? Do you have a favorite free or budget sight in Riga?

The post Riga Free Museums to explore on your trip appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

Edward Lucas, of The Economist magazine, pointed out that Latvia’s situation is pretty dire: a bank recently collapsed, the nation’s debt is swelling, and the country’s economy shrank by more than 10% in 2008. Furthermore, violent protests this year led to the collapse of the coalition government in February.

Difficult times

I noticed this myself last month, when I spent six days visiting Riga.

Of course, I mostly concerned myself with inspecting hotels and visiting the city’s historic sights. However, one couldn’t escape the signs of economic strain: I saw very few tourists (granted, it was early February), restaurants were empty (or closed), and prices were cheap.

Here was a city that poured millions of euros into reinventing itself as a magical, tourist-friendly destination–and hardly anyone was there. That wouldn’t normally be a major cause for concern in February. But this year was different. There seemed to be an uncertainty about whether or not tourists would return.

Across town, I visited beautiful hotels, freshly renovated (or newly constructed), often with sizable rooms and lovely bathrooms. Many sported eclectic, “boutique” decor. In almost any of the other cities we cover, these hotels would have been out of our Cheapo price range.

Yet, they were quite affordable in Riga. When I asked hotel owners for rates, they often frowned. Should they give me last summer’s rates? The off-season rates? What are this year’s rates? The prevailing attitude seemed to be, “we’ll see.” There was, after all, a big difference between the posted hotel rates and the bargain rates being offered online by the same hotels.

A great time to travel?

I found it all a bit unnerving. To encourage budget travelers to visit Latvia because of ever-discounted prices exploits a nation grappling with an economic crisis. Yet, tourism plays an incredibly important role in the nation’s economy, and it would follow that Latvia would benefit from an influx of tourists, eager to pump their euros (and lats) into the nation’s struggling economy.

Hotel owners, waitresses, the cashier at the opera… people were very friendly to me and seemed hopeful that more tourists would return to the city as the weather heats up.

Upon my return, I’ve raved about Riga. I had a great experience and found it fun, educational, delicious, and, yes, a bargain. Despite my sensitivities, I find myself bragging about what a good deal the city is for visitors.

And yet, I’m cautious when describing the budgetary benefits of visiting Riga.

Something strikes me as distasteful about choosing a destination based solely upon what you can “get” for your money. That may be a great way to purchase a beach resort getaway or a family cruise, but it strikes me as an un-thoughtful way to choose a travel destination.

Isn’t traveling about learning and experiencing? Doesn’t it call for a little more compassion and a little less consumption?

What do you think?

I’m eager to hear from our readers on this issue. Have you every traveled to a foreign country while they were experiencing difficulties? Did that affect your decision to go there? Would you consider going to a country with a shaky economy in order to stretch your travel budget?

Let us know in the comments section below.

For more information about Latvia’s financial troubles, also see an article in this week’s Der Spiegel (in English).

The post Riga: Thoughtful travels during uncertain (economic) times appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

Be the first to guess its identity below! Make sure you give us the city and country, too. (Bonus points for the name of the church in the background.)

Hint: While the museum is dedicated to a rather somber subject, you’ll ultimately leave the building feeling moved and (hopefully) optimistic.

The post Mystery photo: Name this museum! appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

February 2, 2009–Greetings from Riga, Latvia, where I’ve spent the last four days exploring the town, getting acquainted with its history, and, of course, checking out budget hotels.

Riga has a wonderful and picturesque “Old Town” neighborhood. This section of town dates back to the city’s Medieval beginnings, and has been preserved (and rebuilt) over the centuries. Fires, wars, occupations… you name it, the city has perservered, rebuilt, and clung to its cultural identity.

The Old Town is where I’ve focused my hotel search, and where most of the super-charming lodgings are situated. And what a selection! So far I’ve seen a handful of budget-friendly “boutique” hotels (with funky artwork and eclectic decor), a convent-turned-hotel complex, a super-old no-star with style, and several completely new hotels that were built to look old.

Today I’ll check out some ultra-cheap hostels (with private rooms), as well as some two and three-star hotels located in the “Center,” which is the neighborhood just outside the Old Town.

A street in Riga’s Old Town.

Hotel owners and managers have been very friendly, and for the most part have spoken flawless English. In Riga, tourism makes up an extremely important part of the town’s economy, so most in the business speak at least Russian and English, in addition to Latvian.

Right now, the Latvian economy is hurting. Money is tight, banks are on the verge of failing, and budgets are being slashed all around. (For example, when checking out performances during my stay, I found that the ballet had slashed its performance schedule.) Everyone’s talking about the crisis, and it’s only made worse by the tourism calendar–the tourist season doesn’t begin until April, when the weather finally warms up.

The financial mess has spawned a political crisis, as well, as protestors took to the streets two weeks ago in an effort to overthrow the current government. These protests, which ended in a handful of injuries, occured in a square just blocks from my current hotel. It seems so hard to believe, walking the cobbled streets today.

And so it goes. I’m off to hunt down some more hotels and treat myself to one more Latvian blow-out lunch. Here’s an idea of what I’m talking about, snapped yesterday at 1 PM at the “Lido” cafeteria-style restaurant in Old Town:

The plate features chicken stroganoff (a dish I was delighted to hear existed!) with stewed vegetables over rice, with a side salad (lettuce, shredded carrots, and pickled red onions), grape juice, and a beer. The meal, including juice, cost 3.90 lats, about $7.00. The beer cost 1.50 lats, or about $2.50.

Bon appetite!

The post Riga: Postcard from Latvia appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

In Paris, I’ll be visiting as many hotels as I can fit into five days, and I’m hoping that I won’t experience any conflicts with Fashion Week, which kicks off at the end of the week. (When there’s a big event in town, it’s harder to inspect hotel rooms. However, I don’t know how much crossover there is in the two camps

I’m also looking forward to watching/celebrating Obama’s inauguration in Paris. Thanks to Meredith for putting together today’s excellent post on where to watch the inauguration in Europe!

St. Petersburg will not be work, although I’m sure I won’t be able to avoid jotting down budget travel notes. (It’s a hard habit to break!) I plan to spend the week visiting the Hermitage, a few palaces, attending a ballet, and basically strolling about town.

Regarding Moscow: Thanks to all the Cheapos who suggested ways to visit Moscow a la cheapo. In the end, spending two nights in the city was too expensive for my inexperienced self, so I’ve dropped it from the itinerary. I’m still toying with the possibility of taking the train down for a day, and then returning to St. Petersburg, however. Stay tuned.

Moscow was dropped, but Riga was gained. I mentioned Tallinn in an earlier post as a possibility, but it didn’t work for my friend Carl who will be traveling with me. We found a €100 one-way flight on airBaltic from St. Petersburg to Riga on Friday, January 30th. We’ll spend the weekend exploring the town, and then I’ll stay on for a few days of hotel hunting.

Again, thanks for all the advice and well-wishes. I hope you’ll join me on this trip by checking in with the blog. I look forward to comments, questions, and tips from you.

And now–onto Paris!

The post Cheapos at Work: Off to Paris, St. Petersburg, and… appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.