Flying Regulations in Russia

In order to fly a private plane while on vacation in Russia, visitors need to first file a request for flight authorization with the Russian aviation authorities. This flight authorization needs to include the purpose of the trip, the pilot and aircraft information, passport numbers and names of all passengers, flight computer information and the flight plan for the trip, including dates and times for all arrivals and departures. A flight plan must be filed with Russian aviation authorities at least 24 hours prior to takeoff.

If flying to small airports in Russia, keep in mind that most of the smaller airport control towers are only open from 8 AM to 5 PM. It is illegal to land at an airport when the tower is unstaffed. Most of the smaller airports do not have English-speaking staff, so it will be necessary to hire a navigator that speaks English and Russian. These navigators cost a couple hundred dollars a day, but they make it much easier to deal with the Russian bureaucracy.

Fun Places to Go

There are so many great places to explore in Russia that it is tough to fit everything into one trip. Moscow is the obvious place to start. The Russian capital has centuries of history and is the cultural, economic and political center of the country. Visitors will find that Russia has an amazing culinary scene with some of the best restaurants in the world. There is also a vibrant nightlife with lots of shows, clubs and attractions to choose from. Of course, no visit to Moscow is complete without visiting the mighty Kremlin.

Though Moscow is a great city, St. Petersburg is the better tourist town. Formed around a number of canals, the city has a rich history as the former home of the Russian tsars. There are lots of great historical attractions to visit, including the fabulous former home of the tsars, Winter Palace. There are a number of beautiful cathedrals to visit. The nightlife and cuisine in St. Petersburg is some of the best in Asia.

Vladimir was the first capital of Russia. It has a number of historical attractions to visit, most notably the Golden Gates that once protected the city from invaders. There are also a couple of stunningly beautiful cathedrals, St. Dmitry Cathedral and Assumption Cathedral.

Those looking for a break from Russian city life should visit the town of Suzdal in the Vladimir region. This town of 12,000 people is protected by law from development. The buildings in the town are some of the oldest in Russia as some of them date back to the early part of the 11th century. The town is surrounded by lovely meadows and farms and is a very popular Russian pastoral getaway.

Lifecruiser Love Private Planes
 

I’ll try to translate the postcard correctly for you below, since it’s so hilarious in some parts, especially if you recognize some of your own travel experiences too!

Saluti da Firenze 21th of April

Buongiorno at you!

We’re now in the west worlds cultural center! Here are so much culture that we now are giving our feet some air at the hotel room. Even the hotel room is smelling culture, as an example: the heat is not working, light bulbs are missing and the fridge – the minibar – provides warm beer. To see some light in the room, we have to climb up at a shelf in the wall where we with a certain experience can manage to open two windows shutters and then we can see the sky! Otherwise everything is peace and joy.
Greetings A and G…

I can’t help laughing, even though it shouldn’t be like that. When will it ever change, the cheating charter agencies or hotel owners, with the announced standard when buying the trip…?

And even if you buy it to a discounted rate, it still should not be like that. Period.

©Lifecruiser Love Postcards
 

Travel sites and agencies tips

Besides the three largest travel agencies in Sweden, Ving.se, Apollo.se and Fritidsresor.se, there are many other sites to search for cheap travel trips, like the combined charter.se or ticket.se, solresor.se, dtf-travel.se, sembo.se, airtours.se, resia.se, resfeber.se, travellink.se, seat24.se, travelpartner.se, travelstart.se, mrjet.se, supersavertravel.se and bigtravel.se.

They have last minute (listed under ‘sista minuten’) or other deals to offer at their booking sites. For youths under 26 there is travel.kilroys.se and for general cheap coupon travel deals there is groupon.se/deals/travel to keep an eye on.

Flight sites and tips

There are better price levels now at the Scandinavian Airlines SAS.se sometimes, even though not always as low as the lowbudget companies like Ryanair.com/se, but Norwegian.com/se might be a better choice since they departure from Stockholm Arlanda Airport (arlanda.se) and not from Skavsta Nyköping (1,5 hours from Stockholm) as Ryanair does.

Also have a look at the flight comparison sites flygresor.se or skyscanner.se and don’t forget that there is a second airport in Stockholm with mostly domestic flights, Bromma (brommaairport.se).

If you want to go to Croatia and Bosnia, Scandjet.se have flights there. Croatia travel have increased a lot since they started this route. No wonder, Croatia has a wonderful climate, fabulous beaches and offer cheap holidays. I wanna go there too…

Train sites and tips

Travel by train is possible within Sweden or to Norway or Denmark and beyond, but is generally not considering to be especially cheap and takes longer time than flying, but is a more environmental friendly way of travel. The main Swedish train ticket sites are sj.se (only last minute to retires or youngsters under 26, but also sells at Tradera.se auctions) or veolia.se.

Swedish bus sites and tips

By bus: swebus.se, gobybus.se, bus4you.se (with free internet) or ybuss.se (northern Sweden). There are also scandorama.se and eurolines.se – mostly to destinations within Europe and perhaps not always so very cheap, but of course they also have special deals occasionally. Sign up for their newsletters to get them.

Cheap cruise sites and tips

Going on a short cruise from Stockholm can be a real cheap bargain, since there are extremely cheap deals sometimes – especially during the low winter season. Check up tallinksilja.se which cruise to Finland or Estonia and birka.se (favorite: artificial sundeck!) which has 22h cruises to Åland, or vikingline.se. Another very cheap is eckerolinjen.se with their 2h cruises to Åland with departure from Grisslehamn – right now 80 SEK/pp(!) with bus from Stockholm City.

Budget cottage rentals, hostels and camping

If you are more than 2 persons it might become cheaper to rent a cottage somewhere rather than staying in a hotel. There are lots of sites advertising, like stugknuten.com – direct from the owners without middlehand fees, smaland-strandhaus.com, stuga.nu, novasol.com/holiday-rentals/sweden.html, stugnet.com, fritiden.se, sverigesemester.com, southern Sweden mostly: stugbo.se (german translation), stugsommar.se (Swedish only).

The Swedish hostels are called Vandrarhem in Swedish, which means literally wandererhomes and most of them are managed by the Swedish Tourist Organisation. They have a great website which also have some inspiration of what to do: svenskaturistforeningen.se/en/Inspiration/.

There are Swedish Farmstay’s and Bed & Breakfast too, not as much as in certain other countries, but I have no favorite site. I would first search right out on the internet with the words Bed & Breakfast and the place where you want to go and do my own selection from there. Or contact the local tourist office.

You can also check the ad-sites blocket.se or allaannonser.se – or you could go camping, but make sure it’s the right season (July-August) because we do have a rather cold and damp climate over here. Great Swedish camping sites are: camping.se or campingkartan.se – a more personal created one with real reviews from other camping guests.

The nature in Sweden is excellent for walkers and other outdoorsy people and there is countless of small lakes everywhere with small local beaches to explore. All for free and really recreational.

Conclusion how to find cheap holiday deals

Now you’ve got lots of useful travel sites tips to go through, some of the tips here you would not have found if you can’t understand Swedish, so it’s authentic Swedish insider tips.

Too many sites? Well, if you want to have the cheapest holidays deals, it’s unfortunately necessary to make an effort and search widely. There are different deals at different sites at different times, making it rather impossible to recommend just one or two sites.

Nothing comes for free. It takes time, so if your time is money – go ahead and pay much more for your holidays. Your choice. I look at the trip planning as a part of the pleasure, so for me it can take many hours of searching before I finally book something.

I might even just save the research trip info for later without booking any trip at all. It’s still worth it, as I learn things during the process which may come in handy at another trip planning occasion.

Do you have any other cheap holidays suggestions? Throw it in – even if it’s not about travel in Sweden, everything is useful.

©Lifecruiser Love Cheap Holidays
 

Earlier posts about how to find cheap holidays:

Planning a holiday – search and compare prices
How to find the cheapest flights – the ultimate flights guide
How to get cheap holiday deals
Where to find late holiday deals
Why getting organised for your holiday will save you money
How to travel a lot without being a millionaire
Bargain Cruise Ships Tips

Photo by wildxplorer

I’ve not been there myself, but have been looking at a lot of very beautiful and tempting photos today and this one above is just one of them. I love how colorful it is, that it shows the local people and not the tourists.

Two of the main reason why the Swedes choose to go to Goa on a holiday, is that it’s very different from Sweden so there is much to explore, but also the climate. Swedes try to escape the winter in Sweden and Goa is one of the places where they can get sun and beach life during October-April.

Why Goa? I think that Swedes think that it’s the easiest place in Indien to be a tourist, there has been charter trips with Swedish travel agencies since the end of the eighties. Lately more Swedes choose to book regular flights via London and Mumbai too.

If I were going there, it would be many things that I want to explore: markets, national parks with tigers and birds, Shanti elephant camp (to bath with them!), visiting a hindu temple, the old Goa capital city and the Braganza House in Chandor.

I would also go to the south part of Goa, to the not so crowded paradise beaches with very fine sand quality that reminds me of our Swedish summer paradise island Gotland. Except that we don’t have any palm trees…

I would probably go both to the most well known beaches like Palolem Beach where the most of the hotels are, as well as far away from the normal tourist places as possible without ending up totally rural. Cola Beach is budget enough, to sleep in tents on the beach.

Most charter tourists from Europe end up up in the north of Goa in Calangute, Baga and Candolim, where there also are a lot of hotels and shops. The tourists that just want to relax and have a bit peace and quiet goes to Anjuna and Vagator – old hippie resorts.

If you’re going there: try to also book local family-own hotels to support the locals and not only feed the big companies. And remember: it’s forbidden to sunbath topless, look out for underwater currents and fallling cocos nuts…!

©Lifecruiser Love Goa Holidays
 

The jeep we hired were a smaller one with just an open canvas top, not much to protect you from anything if needed, but at the time we hired the car we only thought about of how cool it was and how nice it would be with the wind blowing in my hair.

And it was cool. In the beginning. Soon we should become aware of that it is not only cool advantages with an open jeep…

One of the occasions when we got to experience the disadvantages with an open jeep was when we were driving high up in the (very!) narrow mountain roads at Crete island in the very dark night alone with the stars – and occasionally some kri-kri goats passing your way or laying in the middle of the road.

To not run them over – or to not run over the edge of the mountain roads – we had to drive verrrry slowly… I actually had nightmares every night about falling from the often very loose edges of the Cretan roads…

This also meant that it was taking forever and ever to reach our end destination. We thought we never would reach our end destination – our honeymoon hotel. It really felt like we never would see any civilization again or any houses or humans at all.

It was then the disturbing thoughts came: what if the old open jeep we had hired would break down…? We were definitely not dressed for chilly nights in the mountain.

Which is the reason why it is great with a car hire company that offer you road assistance too with an emergency number to call just in case those kind of things should happen!

If the jeep should break down and stop, we would not have had any lights either. Total darkness high up with sharp road edges so close is not what I want. Ever.

When finally seeing some lights and coming closer to more inhabited areas there were suddenly a big roar right into our ears very close to us – like wild tigers, but it was extremely angry and guarding dogs, jumping to attack us – and they were almost up in the jeep with us!

Phew! What a fright! Normally we really love dogs, but those ones were vicious ones I tell you!

We had another frightening moment once when we came around a mountain at the height of 1600 m (5250 ft) and the wind grabbed the roof (made of of canvas) of the jeep and almost swept us away down the mountain side!

A fast, firm step on the accelerator did avoid it, but we was a little bit too close of being blown away for me to like it! I had no intention to start a new trend of Jeep surfing…

Not to mention all the numerous occasions when you came close to a curve at a narrow mountain road and you could hear an eager honking from the cliff you were on the way to round – and there comes a Cretan driver in a very high speed around the corner!

They used to do that: just honk and drive, totally fearless of the heights they were up at and how bad the roads were – with no fences and very damaged edges.

Next time we will not choose an open car to hire if driving in the mountains or even the countryside, I want to be able to close the car doors around me – and I will definitely take some extra clothes with me, just in case of any road incidents.

Probably we will even take a flashlight with us – even though it is very romantic to be alone in the darkness with only the star brighten up your way…

Lifecruiser ♥ Crete

Some other car hire experiences by Lifecruiser:

Car rentals experience and tips
Cool routes for a driving holiday in Florida
Start Fart of France Trip

Next time before going to Tenerife, we will do more research and planning what we would want to see and do at the island. Last time we did go on a last minute trip, not planning anything at all.

There is a very long beach promenade that begins at Los Cristianos in the east and continues for miles to Playa de las Americas and on to the resort of La Caleta in the west.

It was very difficult to spot where one place ended and another one did begin. Take Torviscas, San Eugenio and Fanabe as an example, they had no visable borders, very confusing. There were clearly places that were more luxury than others and we’ve heard afterward that San Eugenio represents the less fancy, Fanabe posh, Torviscas in between with both budget and chic places.

Spending part of our holiday at Costa Adeje, we could not miss the two top attractions of 1) Las Americas Beach – spending time at the more lively beach promenade, eating and drinking watching the sunset – or doing some shopping in the nice little town of 2) Los Cristianos.

Costa Adeje has very high quality Blue Flag beaches which we loved, it’s a pity though that we totally missed doing a whale watching tour there. I would have loved to spot some whales – or at least dolphins.

Another thing we missed were to do a trip to the nearby island of La Gomera. We did intend to take the ferry for a daytrip over there, perhaps staying over for 1 night only, but somehow our time were not enough. Too much to explore!

An absolute must is to visit the Mount Teide National Park, which has the highest peak of Spain – 3.718 meters above sea level. Try to visit a day when there is clear weather, to be sure to really see the peak and the surroundings. It felt like being on the moon!

Don’t miss that now you can obtain the permission to climb the peak of Teide online.

From Costa Adeje, you can reach Teide by the roads of Vilaflor or Chio. It was quite a nice roadtrip and we actually did it twice. Different days, different roads. Day two we saw a couple in an open sport car – and it started to snow, so be aware that you may need extra clothes…

Further away from the coast is the old town of Adeje and nearby is the impressive Barranco del Infierno – Hell’s Gorge, the deepest ravine in the Canary Islands. It’s 16 km and takes around 4 hours to walk – if it’s open. It might be closed because of rain damage.

Adeje is also home to Siam Park, the largest water park in Europe, which claim to have the largest man made wave in the world: about 3 meter or 9.8 ft. You will find it through the TF1 highway.

Lifecruiser ♥ Costa Adeje

Lifecruiser’s other posts about Tenerife:

Las Americas Beach Tenerife
Swedes Los Cristianos Tenerife
Playa de la Arena Tenerife
Playa de la Arena Surfer
Los Gigantes Tenerife Island
Tenereffic Romantic Sunset
Green anaga Mountains – The Hidden Tenerife
Las Galletas Cool Shop Colors
The Virgin of Calendaria
El Medano Blow Away Sway
Tenerife Stop at Top Beach
Tenerife Horse Power
Tenerife Island Triptease
Mountain Roadtrips at Tenerife Island
Different Roadtrip Experiences Tenerife

Sometimes spelled as Agia Napa and called the Cypriot Riviera by others – not surprising at all since it has gorgeous sandy beaches with crystal clear water. A perfect beach travel or snorkeling destination.

Photo by Claire Taylor

As so many other travel destinations around the Mediterranean even this place was from the beginning a small fishing village – with a few monasteries and fishermen families. Later on it has developed to a big tourist destination.

When traveling to Ayia Napa, we will land at the Larnaca airport, so I would like to spend at least a couple of days exploring Larnaca too before heading to Ayia Napa, the part of the island which is suitable for the younger generation (uhum!).

Most often the tourist office’s has a kiosk in the baggage reclaim area at the airport, where we use to get free maps of the destination and other attraction information worth having. Often as good as the tourist guide books!

Nissi Beach (blue flag awarded) is perhaps the most popular beach in Ayia Napa and has restaurant & shop and offers a lively nightlife – when there in high season I presume. Beach parties are mostly there or at the Makronisos Beach.

Grecian Bay seem to be claimed to be closest beach to the city center, a quiet beach ideal for families with young kids, but Nissi beach seem to be equally close to me.

Another beach I want to visit is Agia Thekla Beach – another blue flag beach which is located about 3 kilometers west of Agia Napa. It is a small beach, only 300 meters long and about 25 meters wide, but it has fine golden sand and calm sea with crystal clear water.

We will probably even visit Fig Tree Bay (also blue flag awarded) in Protoras too, which is claimed to be more calm, perhaps for others than the youngest party-animals.

The main cultural attraction would be the monastery of Ayia Napa which dates back to the Venetian era – for us architecture admirers for sure. At least it will be a big contrast to all the clubs and bars…

We want to make excursions to the walled city of Famagusta, go hillwalking to the Kaledonia Falls in Troodos mountain range and to see The Neolithic settlement of Choirokoitia – a World Heritage Site. There are also a lot of churches which is Unesco world heritage list monument’s.

Also check our other post about another World Heritage Site: In Aphrodites footsteps – Paphos Holidays.

May-October is the warmest weather periods to go there, so we will aim for May or September-October when going there I think, since we don’t want it to be too hot and crowded. Perhaps heading to one of the golf courses too.

Lifecruiser ♥ Beaches

Her name is Valborg, a 36 meters two-masted wooden galleass. She is from Helsinki, Finland, built in Porvoo, Finland 1948.

Today the ships purpose is sail training and teaching ship building skills, participating in Tall Ship’s Race and other events as well as offering charter trips.

Lifecruiser ♥ Wooden Ships

Saint Thomas is an island in the Caribbean Sea in The United States Virgin Islands, a travel destination that sounds very exotic and appealing to us, especially when knowing that Christopher Columbus sighted the island in 1493 on his second voyage to the New World.

Travel En Vogue presents two special Ritz Carlton St. Thomas deals. Use the promo code CRUISER and choose from one of two options to be included with a 7 night rental at the Ritz Carlton St. Thomas Residence Club:

• 2 complimentary Beach-side Cabana Massages ($260 value)
• Sunset Sangria & Tapas for 4 adults aboard the Ritz Carlton’s private catamaran, the Lady Lynsey ($280 value)

The Ritz Carlton St. Thomas is the only 5 star resort on the island and is situated along the gorgeous Great Bay, so it is a top choice without doubt!

The resort offers lots of luxurious amenities, of which my favorites are the heated beachfront pools, hot tubs and the wonderful Spa with oceanside treatment cabana.

Of course, the fitness center and tennis facility is very much needed too, we must keep fit for the bikini season…

More romantic: how about a Dinner on the Beach with your loved one – alone in the sunset or with the starlight gazing over the Sea. A dream, ain’t it?

Do I have to even mention The Lady Lynsey private charter…?

I would just LOVE to go out with that catamaran to explore the surrounding Sea and maybe make a stop somewhere secluded…

The Ritz Carlton St. Thomas Residence Club condos are available in 2 bedroom condo, 2 bedroom suite (smaller but include daily food service), and 3 bedroom condo units.

Some of the features: spacious bedrooms, gourmet kitchen, formal dining room and balcony. Located at the Ritz Carlton St. Thomas resort with full use of the resort receiving maid and room service just as in the hotel.

*Offer valid with a 7-night rental only
*Offer expires 30 days after post is published
* Offer subject to availability

Have you tried Residence Club Vacation Rentals before? We have not, but there seem to be some great advantages with it making us curious to test it in the future.

I think it can be more socializing between the guests since it will be another feeling than staying in a hotel room, yet enjoying the same services that in a hotel with maids and room service. I just love that luxury.

I also love the idea of still having my own kitchen but away from home, making our own meals is so much more fun and probably healthier (not only to the wallet!) than eating out all the time.

Not to mention the amenities like the pool and fitness center, I could really use them to get more fit, it’s very much needed unfortunately. Golf is another one too, because golf makes me forget that it is exercise.

There is also the preferred real estate with private beach, how about that? That is a luxury I would enjoy tremendously even when not on a honeymoon trip!

Don’t it sounds like a very tempting offer? I thought so and that’s why I decided to promote it. I do wish I could book it too.

So when are you we going…? (lol)

Oh, and don’t forget to use the promo code CRUISER to get your deal. Tell me what option you did choose, the massage or the Sunset Sangria & Tapas?

Lifecruiser ♥ Resort Deals

First of all, there are travel agency sites and there are comparisons sites. We use comparisons sites (like momondo, travelsupermarket or similar) as our first search tools instead of going to each of every travel site separately and search.

When we find something that look interesting to us, we check the source travel site directly too. If they have a late deal or last minute choice on their site we start checking their last minute listings (as earliest 8 weeks before departure and forward).

Sometimes you get more correct answers directly on the source site which could save you some search time too.

Some of the comparisons sites also has a notification service where you can set which destinations you are interested in and get email with interesting offers. We have used kayak.com searching for flights before and lots of travel agencies notification services.

When it comes to finding late hotel deals, we have often just checked the hotel booking sites (like Easytobook & Marriot in our sidebar) for hotels and dates and compared the prices for their late offers. If you are very late: check directly with the hotel!

Lately we have been staying in hostels rather than hotels since their standard has become so great. You can find late deals in the same way as with the hotels: on the hostel booking sites like hihostels, local hostel chains or via the hostel itself.

There are other travel sites that has a lot of great package offers (holidayhypermarket.co.uk, travelsupermarket, thomson, lastminute or similar) that also is worth checking out for your wished destination.

If you are willing to spend some time in phone: make calls to different travel agencies and ask them for late holiday deals. They usually have something to offer that might not even be on their online site!

Register a special email address you can use for signing up for different email newsletters and notifications from travel sites to get special offers sent out to you. This way you can look at them only when you’re interested and not have your normal address bothered with those.

Another more modern method is to ask all your friends or followers in social networks like Twitter, Facebook or in forums if they know of any good deals. Work like a charm sometimes!

If you want to go on excursions at your travel destination: wait until you get there to book (if it’s not included in a great package deal), it’s easier to find all available options when there.

Ask the hotel staff if they know any good deals, but don’t just take their word for it: always ask around & compare!

Type in Where to find late holiday deals? at Google.com and you will get even more sites to check up than you expected!

We have found our best budget flights with Ryanair, our “most worth it stay” (both cheap & luxury) at Hotel Vanity Golf, Alcudia and best package with excursions at Iceland – so far!

Where and how have you found your best travel deals…?

Lifecruiser ♥ Holiday Deals