Opens Skies to Amsetrdam for $1000

 

OK, I admit that Amsterdam isn’t in Britain. So you may be wondering why I’m writing a post about the city. Well, if you want to get to Britain and you are not travelling to London it’s a great place to connect with flights to regional British airports. Even if you are travelling to London it can be worth considering if you want to avoid Heathrow.

The reason i bring it up now is because The new British Airways subsidiary airline “Open Skies” is offering a great fare to Amsterdam from New York in their ”Prem +” cabin. Just $1000 round trip, and that includes taxes and fees. The actual fare is advertised at $417 each way (based on round trip) plus taxes and fees. It must be booked by Jan 26th, but you can travel up until May 31st 2009. The fare is non refundable and fees apply if you make any changes. More information can be found here

Once you arrive in Amsterdam you can get flights to Belfast with Easyjet , Birmingham with BMIBaby, Bristol with Easyjet, Cardiff with BMIbaby, East Midlands with BMIBaby, Edinburgh with Easyjet, Exeter with flyBE, Leeds Bradford with Jet 2, Liverpool with Easyjet, Gatwick with EasyJet, Lutonwith Easyjet, Stansted with Easyjet, Manchester with BMIBaby and Southampton with FlyBE.

Remember to allow plenty of time to connect since you’ll not be able to check-in for both flights or check your baggage through to the U.K. from the U.S. using these airlines and you’ll need to collect your bags at Amsterdam and check-in again for the second leg of your flight (in both directions) but Amsterdam is a great airport to connect through. You’ll be purchasing your flights from Amsterdam to Britain in Euros, so you’ll need to remember the currency conversion and check what your credit card company charges for that. 

Since your going to be there anyway, you might want to spend a couple of nights in Amsterdam. It’s a beautiful city and Springtime is arguably one of the best times to visit since the world famous bulb fields are in full bloom. There is a quick and easy and frequent train service from the Airport to the City Center.

Even if you don’t fly through Amsterdam to get to Britain, with so many low cost airline routes it makes a great destination for a side trip during your stay. You don’t even need to fly. If you want to see a little bit of the countryside the “man in seat 61” (an excellent resource for all your European train travel) has the details of the Train and Ferry option.

Conveniently, Over on Karen Bryan’s Europe Al La Carte Blog, Andy Hayes has just written about “Where to take your bike in Amsterdam” . As he correctly points out “Bike is the only way to travel in Amsterdam” .  Britain’s Telegraph Newspaper has an Amsterdam travel guide and this article from the New York Times (even though it is a year old) will tell you a little bit more about the Bulb fields and Amsterdam.

But that’s enough about Holland. Next time we are back where we belong in good old Blighty!