Help Needed With Cat

January 7, 2007 5:15 PM

Need ideas for last minute travel out of Edinburgh for this forthcoming weekend.

And before you all start, we tried that last minute site and its utter, utter rubbish and i genuinely have no idea where to find actual last minute travel deals on the internet - if only i had the skills of Marquis, who can find 10 quid trips to Norway rather easily - these things are a complete mystery to me and i ask you , the good citizens of metafilter to help me out - me and a bonnie lassie want to go somewhere this friday and come back either sunday or monday - please dont suggest Glasgow as a destination - i mean like, flying, on planes and things.

posted by sgt.serenity to travel & transportation (5 comments total)

When I lived in Glasgow some friends and I rented a car and drove up to the Isle of Skye. You don't have to take a plane to get there, but it is frikkin' beautiful and everyone is really, really nice.
posted by travosaurus at 10:43 PM on January 7, 2007

Fife and St Andrews
posted by A189Nut at 11:43 PM on January 7, 2007

You don't mention a budget but I assume you are after something relatively inexpensive. Personally I would start with Edinburgh Airport's list of destinations and plug them into Expedia to see what came up (I have similar negative experiences with LastMinute). I might also try Kayak which now has a UK site. I would look for Expedia's combined flight and accommodation deals. If you have about £600 to spare then you can go pretty much anywhere - for less money you will be more constrained.

You might also consider taking the Ferry from Rosyth to Zebrugge staying a night in - say - Brugges. The ferry does get booked up and does not go every day so it could be a tricky one to pull off. I have been booked with these guys before.

Of course this assumes that you want to spend a significant proportion of your weekend in airports, etc. If you do not then pick up something like "Scotland the Best" and choose from a wealth of more local options.
posted by rongorongo at 4:51 AM on January 8, 2007

Fly with Ryanair from Edinburgh to Dublin for a weekend. A flight departing at 8am on Friday and returning late afternoon on Monday will cost you a mere £65 for two people. Or fly Easyjet from the capital to Belfast for £52 each. The tickets are actually only about a tenner each but airport tax etc makes up the difference. Hotels tend to be expensive though averaging £80-100 per night but that gets you, say, a great room with a city view at the Raddisson Belfast for example (£85 per night). Search www.tripadvisor.co.uk for deals and advice.

If you can get to Glasgow Prestwick in time you have a whole heap of nice places to fly to for a tenner + taxes with Ryanair (Oslo / Pisa / Paris / Krakow / Rome etc). Check their website www.ryanair.com and get busy!
posted by brautigan at 5:10 AM on January 8, 2007

Yeah, sorry Sarge - I can't find any really cheap flights for this weekend, departing Friday, except Edinburgh-Dublin.

Usually the best bargains are if you're willing to travel midweek (eg: Thurs-Mon or Thurs-Tues), and indeed if you book ahead.

The best websites are:

Martin's Flightchecker, which lets you set search parameters like: "From Edinburgh, to anywhere, on these dates, for less than £5 before tax".

and

Momondo, for which you have to specify the to- and from- destination, but which has significantly more airlines in its database than Flightchecker does.

Dublin's a lovely weekend getaway, though; consider it. (Go to the modern art museum; nice photos to be had.)
posted by Marquis at 6:58 AM on January 8, 2007