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If you think you can find bargain flights to the Caribbean from the UK, then that is fine - as long as you only want to stay on the one island.

Try moving between them, and journey planning becomes a nightmare. Unfortunately, the story is one with which we are all too familiar - too little competition, inefficient airlines propped up by state subsidies, and an uncaring attitude amongst upper management when it comes to finding ways to make improvements.

Following February’s marger, the only airline offering a significant level of inter-island flights around the English speaking Caribbean is LIAT. Caribbean Airlines (formerly BWIA) connect some of the larger islands, but these services generally act as feeder flights onto their long haul services. Other connection are available with airlines such as Winair (often through St Martin), or American Eagle (usually though San Juan, Puerto Rico).

I’m looking for flights from Barbados to Nevis. This really shouldn’t be difficult, considering the distance, but I am trying to get back to Barbados on a Tuesday, the one day there are no flights to Antigua (from where the connections are made to Barbados), from Nevis.

It would be easy to say that Nevis has it quite good, considering that only around 11,000 people live on the island. But, as with any Caribbean island, when tourism is the mainstay of the economy, the levels of flights are always going to be significantly higher than the population alone might suggest - and the Four Seasons Nevis resort alone can always generate a steady flow of inbound visitors. Unfortunately, from a British perspective, most visitors to the Four Seasons are arriving on flights from the USA, meaning that Nevis always seems to maintain better connections with San Juan in Puerto Rico than it does with Antigua, even though flights to Antigua only take around 25 minutes.

So why not hop over from neighbouring St Kitts? There might be regular ferries from Nevis to St Kitts, but I still can’t find a flight connection which will get me to Barbados with enough time to spare to catch the 17:25 flight back to Gatwick. The best I can get is a boat which leaves Nevis at 7:00 am, with an expected sailing time of 45 minutes, and a 5 minute cab ride to the airport, that gets me there at 7:50, if all goes to plan. The time of the only flight connection from St Kitts to Barbados? Guess what - 8:20, check-in time 30 minutes, leeway zero.

I lilke to cut things fine, but not that fine.

If you have a question to ask about your flight, we’ll do our best to answer it.

Anything along the lines of - what can I take on board, can I use this device, what is this airport like for connections, etc.

If we can’t answer it, I’m sure we’ll find someone who can.

Please post any questions about flight routes you would like to see, or have brought back:

I’ve always enjoyed visiting Switzerland, and I guess it tops my list of places to head to to switch off, and get away from it all for a few days.

The only problem is that it is never quite as easy to get to as I’d like - especially with our “rules” about trying out as many different airlines and airports as possible, which make finding cheap flights to Switzerland a complete nightmare:

1. Trying to work out flight combinations.
2. Shall I get a Swiss Rail Pass before going?
3. Am I going to do any biking? If so, will I take my bike with me - certainly not this time!

When I travel, I usually like to as many visit different places as possible, but sometimes I just want to get away, and stay a few nights in the same place. Even before running Flightmapping, I would rarely stay in the same hotel twice, and would always try our a different airline / routing over a tried and tested one.

However, when I spend most of my time looking into flight routings, sometimes it is nice to get back to a bit of familiarity. So even though I am finally getting to test out flights from Berne, I will be staying again at Balmers in Interlaken, which is often rated as one of the best hostels in the world.

There are still very few hotels or hotels out there that I have stayed in more than once. Last month, I managed to notch up a third visit to the Radisson in Manchester, but I guess that hotel will always feel special because of its historical assocations with the Free Trade Hall. This will be my fourth visit to Balmers - so I guess that comes as quite a glowing testimonial from someone with very itchy feet.

This time, I must finally make it up to see the stunning views from Bachalpsee. And I’ll make sure I’ve got the right walking gear.

Flight reviews to follow shortly:

1. London Gatwick to Geneva (BA)
2. Berne to London City (Darwin Airlines)

We’ve recently returned from a few days on the move, with my colleague Lewis and I spending four nights in four very different locations. The main reason for the trip was the first-ever affiliates mini cruise, organised by DFDS Seaways and A4U Events. This was an opportunity for like-minded website owners to get together, have a mini-conference, and then enjoy a trip to Amsterdam.

Our journey involved getting from Coventry to Newcastle last Tuesday (March 27) evening, sailing with DFDS to Ijmuiden, near Amsterdam, on Wednesday evening (arriving Thursday morning), and then making it to Manchester on Friday evening, in time for the Versus Cancer event at the MEN Arena. Fellow Flightmapping colleagues Mark and Toby also joined us for the cruise, and made their own way back from Amsterdam - Mark will be adding his own blog about this shortly.

Coventry to Newcastle

Eastern Airways operates up to three daily flights from Birmingham to Newcastle, and I’d certainly like to give them a try, as they are one of the few UK based scheduled airlines I haven’t yet flown with. I’ve seen one-way flights on Eastern from around £75, but by the time we came round to booking, the cost would have been about £180 each, which is a ridiculous sum of money for such a short flight. Many of Eastern’s routes are between cities which cannot easily be joined by train routes, but this is not the case on the Birmingham to Newcastle journey.

Virgin Trains offer plenty trains between the Midlands and the North East, but there are only three direct services a day between Coventry and Newcastle. Typical journey times are around four and a half hours - very comparable with driving, and competitive with flying, considering the time taken with check-in procedures, and getting to and from the airport (our office is within easy walking distance of Coventry station).

There are two major annoyances with this particular route. Firstly, it crosses several other rail companies’ major routes, making the stretch between Birmingham and York more delay prone than many other cross-country routes. The other irritation is that passing through these different cities means that there often large numbers of people wanting to get on and off at each station, so it can be difficult to find a good seat for the whole journey.

This was one of those occasions when buying a first-class upgrade made sense. First-class train tickets from Coventry to Newcastle are available from just £39 each way, but when we booked, the fare was £50. This still works out extremely favourably, compared to the £71 standard open single in second-class, as a saver return would have only had limited use for us. The extra space first-class offers, not to mention the quiet and the free snacks and drinks, was well worth the extra cost.

The train was on time for both legs of the journey, and we arrived in Newcastle just in time to see the sun going down over the Tyne. The view over the river was spectacular, and the way that Newcastle United’s magnificent stadium, St James’ Park, sits proudly above the city is truly breathtaking.  

My only gripe would be the hassle that taxis have in getting out of Central Station - the meter was already on £5 by the time the driver had pulled out and driven round the block! If you are staying in a hotel in the centre of Newcastle, a taxi should not be necessary anyway, whereas other parts of the Toon can also be reached by the Newcastle Metro. We were staying on the Quayside, which is much less accessible.

Manchester to Amsterdam

Ideally, an early afternoon flight would have suited us well, but unfortunately Jet2 only operate two daily flights from Amsterdam to Manchester, morning and evening. Further details about this journey will be published shortly in our flight reviews section.