Spendthrift Shoestring

Ryanair Gets More Domestic

Today Ryanair announced that from November on, they'll be flying four domestic routes between Madrid and Alicante, Palma, Santiago de Compostela, and Valencia. Ryanair has been amping up domestic flights within larger countries over the last several months. With these routes, I'm counting 18 domestic routes running or planned to run within Spain, including routes to the Canary Islands.

That's nothing compared to the 22 routes Ryanair runs or plans to run within Italy. Ryanair also flies 16 domestic routes within the UK, most of them to and from Derry or Belfast in Northern Ireland. The airline also maintains three domestic routes apiece in France and Germany.

I'm ready to say that this domestic route approach is turning into the key route map development of 2008 for Ryanair. I expected the airline to slowly but consistently open up additional destinations in places like Bulgaria, Ukraine, Israel, and Turkey over the course of the year. None of that has happened, at least not yet. Instead, we've got more and more domestic routes. In some markets, this approach to route development is clearly designed to provide an alternative to flailing local carriers; in France and Germany, the goal seems to be to simply mark territory, subtly hinting at what might happen if the airline decided to expand domestic routes more fully.

A French Half-Secret: Gîtes

For almost a decade now I've traveled as often as possible. This has meant, in most circumstances, that I've traveled on a serious budget, becoming a connoisseur of many varieties of cheap bed along the way.

I'm always marveling at the existence of cheap accommodations that tend to fly under the international radar—types of accommodation used by locals that don't manage to attract a lot of press. I've written about the Dutch bungalow park phenomenon several times, a few years ago here. Bungalow parks can be an extremely inexpensive way to have a rural or beach holiday in the Netherlands, yet they receive very little coverage outside of the Netherlands, and virtually none in North America.

I've known about France's gîtes for years, but it took my recent trek through Martinique and Guadeloupe to really hit home how amazingly budget-friendly they are. Gîtes take many forms. Some are simple rooms with kitchen facilities. Many function more or less as bed and breakfasts. Some gîtes are spare rooms in apartments and others are free-standing structures. Gîte owners are required to live on the premises or near-by. There are pricey gîtes as well as inexpensive ones, though what stands out is the great value offered by so many gîtes. Even in otherwise expensive regions, gîtes tend to be much cheaper than hotels.

Country road. Marie-Galante, Guadeloupe.

It was on Marie-Galante that the money-saving value of gîtes really jumped out at me. Gîtes dramatically outnumber traditional hotels on Marie-Galante, where there are scores of gîtes with nightly rates in the €40-€50 range. The island's embarrassment of gîtes is fitting. With its uncrowded beaches and relaxed, bucolic vibe, Marie-Galante is an independent traveler's dream.

Check out Gîtes de France as well as Simply Gîtes and Gite.com for listings and information.