This is part of a series of blog entries on how to get to countries and places. Here is a link to the index. I plan to eventually cover every country and some other places. If you have a request for a particular country or place please use the contact me link at top right, or leave a comment.

Iceland

source: Roger McLassus

Almost everyone arrives at Iceland by air at Keflavik airport, outside Reykjavik. A number of services are seasonal, and from year to year there is some variation in the airlines serving Iceland depending on tourist numbers. Thus the following information is only a rough guide. Except where noted, flights are to and from Keflavik:

• Star Alliance – Lufthansa (summer only), SAS
• Oneworld – none at time of writing
• Sky Team – none at time of writing
• Other – Icelandair flies to several places in Europe and USA (from Keflavik) plus Greenland and Faroe Islands (from Reykjavik city airport), several low cost European airlines

TIP Icelandair has reasonable fares (especially in low season) between USA and Europe which allow for a stopover. This is the simplest, and cheapest way to get to Iceland other than flying low cost airlines.

TIP Iceland is difficult to work into around the world fares, and award availability is patchy. Look for when new or seasonal routes are opened and book quickly as an award.

TIP If your flight is dropped (eg as with British Airways) between date ticketed and date of travel, you will likely be rebooked onto Icelandair due to the lack of alternatives.

Musings of the Global Traveller
Thoughts, advice and travel news from around the world by a seasoned frequent flyer.

I’ve had some requests to explain some of the most important things I’ve learnt from FlyerTalk. These are tips, tricks, tools and information that I use almost daily to travel better, in more comfort, more often, and at lower cost. There is no big secret (all information is freely available if you know where to look), but it is hard to find summaries and explanations of why these are so useful.

It is far too much to cover in a single blog post, or even a couple of blog posts. So, I’m currently working on a series of posts. They’ll cover such things as basic airline revenue management (and why it is good for flyers to know about it), tools to check availability, how to find good seats, etc.

If you have any specific topic that you’d like me to cover please drop me a line (using the email link top right or by comment).

Musings of the Global Traveller
Thoughts, advice and travel news from around the world by a seasoned frequent flyer.

This is part of a series of blog entries on how to get to countries and places. Here is a link to the index. I plan to eventually cover every country and some other places. If you have a request for a particular country or place please use the contact me link at top right, or leave a comment.

Finland

source: Matti K Sinisalo
There are lots of Baltic Sea ferries plying between Sweden, Estonia, Russia and Finland. In the middle of winter the ferries operate depending on ice conditions. Roads and trains connect with St Petersburg. There are also road crossings further north to Norway, Sweden and Russia. However, the main way to get to Finland is by air via Helsinki Vantaa airport. Airlines flying to Finland include:

• Star Alliance – Blue1 (based in Finland), Austrian, LOT, Lufthansa, SAS, TAP, Turkish
• Oneworld – Finnair (unsuprisingly based in Finland), British Airways, Malev
• Sky Team – Aeroflot (from Moscow but not St Petersburg), Czech, KLM

TIP Helsinki is a convenient place to start from (or connect at) for travel to most of the westernmost former USSR republics (ie Baltic countries plus Ukraine, Hungary, Czech Republic, Romania) and also Russia at St Petersburg.

TIP awards between Europe and Asian hubs (Bangkok, Hong Kong and Tokyo) seem to be easier to get on Finnair than on the other Oneworld airlines.

Musings of the Global Traveller
Thoughts, advice and travel news from around the world by a seasoned frequent flyer.

Some readers have requested more information on getting everywhere. Eventually all countries will be covered by my “how to get to” series, but in the meantime here is some information on where the 3 main airline alliances fly.

The global airline alliances reach into many corners of the globe. The following maps illustrate, based on countries served as at February 2009. Home countries of airlines for each alliance are shown in light red, and other destination countries in dark red. Maps courtesy of World Map Maker.

From the maps you can see every alliance has areas of network weakness/limited coverage:

• Star Alliance – Central America & Caribbean, South America, Africa
• Oneworld – Africa, Asia, Pacific
• Sky Team – Middle East, west Asia, Pacific

Plus some large countries with significant domestic flying are not well covered by some alliances:

• Canada – all except Star Alliance
• Brazil – all
• Russia – all except Sky Team
• India – all
• China – Oneworld
• Australia – all except Oneworld

Star Alliance

Oneworld

Sky Team

PS Oneworld does serve Venezuela but for some reason wouldn’t come through on the Oneworld map.

Musings of the Global Traveller
Thoughts, advice and travel news from around the world by a seasoned frequent flyer.

This is part of a series of blog entries on how to get to countries and places. Here is a link to the index. I plan to eventually cover every country and some other places. If you have a request for a particular country or place please use the contact me link at top right, or leave a comment.

Namibia

source: Olivier Peyre

Arrival by land is easiest from South Africa, but slow given the distances involved. By air there are fairly limited options, with the only longhaul flights on Air Namibia from London & Frankfurt, and Air Berlin from Munich (both to Windhoek). The other shorthaul flight options are:

• Star Alliance – South African from Johannesburg to Windhoek and Walvis Bay
• Oneworld – British Airways from Johannesburg to Windhoek
• Sky Team – none
• other – various regional airlines only

Note airline schedules on British Airways and South African may require an overnight at Johannesburg.

TIP if stopping in Johannesburg, fares from Johannesburg to Windhoek are relatively low so consider buying as a separate ticket. If visiting multiple southern Africa countries (in addition to South Africa) there are other more expensive routes to include as part of a longhaul ticket, whether paid or award.

Musings of the Global Traveller
Thoughts, advice and travel news from around the world by a seasoned frequent flyer.

Many readers know that one of my goals is to visit every country and travel everywhere. My reason why is, I guess, like most travellers – I want to see and experience all the world has to offer. Different people have different perspectives on life and information & attitudes to share. I love it.

Many other people have the same goal and indeed there are various clubs and websites with lists and where you can share tips and information to achieve the “travel everywhere” goal. These have varying degrees of usefulness, but for the most part I use the nifty maps to reinforce just how much more I have yet to see and experience. Here are just three examples:

World66

Passport Stamp

(map includes some of my future destinations)

Trip Advisor

Unlike Chris Guillebeau I haven’t set myself a time limit to achieve this goal (his goal is April 7, 2013), but every year I aim to visit at least 10 new places and usually manage to visit at least 20.

I use a lot of different tools to work out how to get to and from various places. Some are simple to get to and have easy low-cost travel options. Other places are more difficult and/or more expensive. A desire to share this information and encourage others to travel far and widely has lead me to start the “how to get to” series of posts. Since I am planning on ultimately getting everywhere I intend to post on every country in the series. The order is random – unless I get requests to cover particular places sooner (please drop a comment, or email using the link top left).

Musings of the Global Traveller
Thoughts, advice and travel news from around the world by a seasoned frequent flyer.

In just a few days the Twitchhiker will set off trying to travel as far as from Newcastle (in UK) as possible within a month using only the help of people on twitter, with nothing pre-planned. He’s raising money for charity along the way. Good luck.

Musings of the Global Traveller
Thoughts, advice and travel news from around the world by a seasoned frequent flyer.

This is part of a series of blog entries on how to get to countries and places. Here is a link to the index. I plan to eventually cover every country and some other places. If you have a request for a particular country or place please use the contact me link at top right, or leave a comment.

Mauritius

While a few visit by ship, most arrive via Plaisance airport. Options are not too bad for an island a long way from most hub airports:

• Star Alliance – South African from Johannesburg
• Oneworld – British Airways from London and Johannesburg
• Sky Team – Air France from Paris
• other – Air Mauritius from various places on rim of Indian ocean plus Europe, Air Austral from Reunion, Air Madagascar from Antananrivo, Air Seychelles from Mahe, Emirates from Dubai

TIP Mauritius makes a convenient base to visit the other western Indian Ocean islands on local airlines.

TIP First class to Mauritius may not be around much longer, so book soon.

TIP Depending on exchange rates, some fares (both around the world and normal round trip) ex-Mauritius are (very) good value. To take advantage travel one-way on an award, or nest tickets.

TIP Due to a lack of connections, on Sky Team Mauritius is not a good destination on a round the world ticket, or on award ticket unless it is the sole destination.

Musings of the Global Traveller
Thoughts, advice and travel news from around the world by a seasoned frequent flyer.

This is part of a series of blog entries on how to get to countries and places. Here is a link to the index. I plan to eventually cover every country and some other places. If you have a request for a particular country or place please use the contact me link at top right, or leave a comment.
Brunei

This small country is accessible by land from east Malaysia, or by air from neighbouring countries. The easiest way is on the national carrier Royal Brunei Airlines (from Australia, New Zealand, Dubai, UK and neighbouring countries). The cheapest way is on low cost carrier Air Asia from Kuala Lumpur. As far as alliance airlines there is only one, Singapore Airlines (watch for codeshares with Royal Brunei Airlines or substitutions for Silk Air if wanting to earn or redeem miles).

TIP for those with Sky Team frequent flyer programs it may be worth flying partner airline Malaysian Airlines – fares are less steep from Kuala Lumpur.

TIP if flying to Brunei from further afield than southeast Asia on Malaysian Airlines or Singapore Airlines it may cost little more than flights to their hubs.

Musings of the Global Traveller
Thoughts, advice and travel news from around the world by a seasoned frequent flyer.

Due to some odd travel requirements I had an awkward travel schedule, with late evening arrival and flying out again early next morning. Factoring in travel time to and from the airport and it was worthy of some consideration as to whether I should just try to sleep at the airport instead of heading home for the night.

A significant delay for my flight in sealed the deal. Going home I was bound to get no more than 3 hours sleep, and risk missing my flight, versus staying at the airport where I might get up to 4 hours sleep and low chance of missing flight (due to noise from all the travellers on lots of early flights it would be unlikely I’d oversleep).

The domestic terminal was locked overnight as always, but there are places to sleep inside the international terminal landside portion. Unfortunately the late arrival meant the comfiest couches were already taken. Further there was a decent crowd of overnighters and so it was a bit noiser than normal.

Last time I’d spent the night here I’d discovered a corridor tucked away from all traffic except perhaps a cleaner, with some bench seats. So I encamped and settled in for the night. Unfortunately since then there was some kind of nightworker office opened in the corridor and all night there was a steady stream of people coming and going every 10 minutes.

Arrghh. No sleep for me. Around 4am I gave up and wandered around some to kill time before domestic terminal opened. As a result I now have another tucked away place I can try out next time, if there is a next time.

Musings of the Global Traveller
Thoughts, advice and travel news from around the world by a seasoned frequent flyer.