Fares & Booking
When short-haul fares actually move
The folklore about booking on a particular weekday is mostly wrong. What does move fares is more boring.
Fly Before Friday — Two nights, properly used
Timing
A weekend trip is measured in usable hours, not nights
Two nights can mean thirty usable hours or twelve. The difference is entirely in the flight times.
Latest
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Travelling Light
Hand luggage only, for two nights
Skipping the hold removes queueing, waiting and the risk of losing the trip's clothes. Two nights makes it easy.
Short-Break Cities
Cities that reward a weekend, and cities that punish one
Some places are readable in forty-eight hours. Others need a week to make any sense at all.
Short-Break Cities
Second cities are usually the better weekend
The capital has the flights and the crowds. The second city often has the better two days.
48 Hours
The forty-eight hour itinerary that actually works
Three fixed points and a lot of walking beats a schedule with ten entries and no slack.
48 Hours
Arriving late and leaving early without wasting the trip
The first and last hours of a short break are the ones most easily lost, and they are recoverable.
Fares & Booking
All fares & booking →Fares & Booking
When short-haul fares actually move
The folklore about booking on a particular weekday is mostly wrong. What does move fares is more boring.
Fares & Booking
Getting from the airport without overpaying
The transfer is where short-break budgets leak, and the options are usually clearer than they appear.
Fares & Booking
The cost per usable hour on the ground
A fare tells you what a trip cost. Dividing it by the hours you are actually there tells you whether it was worth taking.
48 Hours
All 48 hours →48 Hours
The forty-eight hour itinerary that actually works
Three fixed points and a lot of walking beats a schedule with ten entries and no slack.
48 Hours
Arriving late and leaving early without wasting the trip
The first and last hours of a short break are the ones most easily lost, and they are recoverable.
48 Hours
Weekend accommodation: what matters at this length
On two nights, location and sleep quality outrank everything a hotel advertises.
Short-Break Cities
All short-break cities →Short-Break Cities
Cities that reward a weekend, and cities that punish one
Some places are readable in forty-eight hours. Others need a week to make any sense at all.
Short-Break Cities
Second cities are usually the better weekend
The capital has the flights and the crowds. The second city often has the better two days.
Short-Break Cities
Walkability decides more of a short trip than anything else
Whether a place can be crossed on foot determines how much of two days you spend arriving somewhere rather than being there.
Timing
All timing →Timing
A weekend trip is measured in usable hours, not nights
Two nights can mean thirty usable hours or twelve. The difference is entirely in the flight times.
Timing
What to do when the flight is cancelled
Passenger rights in several regions are stronger than airlines volunteer, and short breaks are where they bite hardest.
Timing
The arithmetic of a two-day break
Two nights sounds like two days. Subtracting sleep, travel and transitions gives a much smaller and more useful number.
Travelling Light
All travelling light →Travelling Light
Hand luggage only, for two nights
Skipping the hold removes queueing, waiting and the risk of losing the trip's clothes. Two nights makes it easy.
Travelling Light
One bag because there is no time for a carousel
On a short trip the reason for travelling with one bag is not weight or cost. It is the twenty to sixty minutes at each end.
Travelling Light
What you carry decides how you move through the day
The bag is not just storage. It sets how far you will walk, whether you will detour and how the first and last days work.
Near-Home Escapes
All near-home escapes →
Near-Home Escapes
The near-home break that beats flying
Under about four hours door to door, rail and road usually win on time, cost and pleasantness.
Near-Home Escapes
The near escape: two nights without a plane
Coast, countryside and small towns within a couple of hours give most of the benefit with none of the airport.
Near-Home Escapes
The two-hour radius nobody explores
Most people have seen far less of the area within two hours of home than of places a thousand kilometres away.