Travelers come in many varieties. 

There are the I-don’t-want-to-sweat-the-plans folks who lean toward cruises and group travel.

There are the money-is-no-object types who whimsically decide to visit an exotic location, book first-class tickets and off they go.

Not judging. You do you!

But then there are um, thrifty travelers. Like a mother, daughter (whose husband is active duty military) and granddaughter. 

When we plan one of our girls’ trip, we try to score savings while having fun.

As you read this we are either in London or not in London. It all depends on whether the newish discount airline we booked actually got us there. 

That’s Play Airlines.

What? You’ve never heard of them? Neither had I until I went on the internet looking for cheap airline tickets for the first week in March, my granddaughter’s spring break. 

Over and over again, Play undercut everyone else. To everywhere!

This is the Icelandic start-up airline that bought WOW when that little airline went belly up in 2019. Play flies new Airbuses (a plus) but without frills. No food, except what they sell on a food cart that apparently rolls down the aisle. No WiFi, screens, blankets and definitely no pillows.

Most worrisome: No traditional customer service. You send any concerns to the airline through WhatsApp.

What could possibly go wrong?

I’ll let you know!

If you regard traveling as an adventure - and I do - boarding a discount airline that no one you know has used is a good way to start.

I will say this, the online reviews of Play are positive, their website is, well, playful, and everything is done online.

Flights stop at Keflavik Airport and for no extra cost you can break up your trip to include a couple of extra days in the land of volcanos and ice. As luck would have it, volcanos are very active right now and since this is still winter in Iceland, there should be plenty of ice.

Ideally, we landed safely in Iceland early Sunday morning and flew on to London about two hours later.

If we’re not stranded somewhere in the North Atlantic, we plan to spend four days exploring London and on Thursday we’ll head back to Iceland, leaving for home Sunday. We hope to see the Northern Lights which have been extravagant this year, due to intense solar storms. Of course, snow, rain or heavy cloud cover could conceal the aurora borealis. 

Yep, we packed our mittens and long underwear.

We have rather loose plans, mostly geared to the interests of an 8-year-old who’s read all of the Harry Potter books and has an absolute passion for them. We will go to afternoon tea in London one day, see a play on the West End one evening and take a walking Harry Potter tour that starts on Platform 9 3/4 at King’s Cross.

It’s been decades since I’ve been in London and my companions have only been there in books, so we’ll need most of Monday to get our bearings and figure out the Underground. We scored what appears to be a fabulous hotel on the Thames at Red Roof Inn prices due to a promotion by my credit card company.

Since London is an expensive city - second only to Reykjavik - we needed to be creative with our accommodations, while avoiding places that look like they might harbor bed bugs.

As I promised when we began the website in 2017 there will be no days off and when we travel we’ll take you with us. We’ll sprinkle in tips for penny-pinching travelers, which you can just ignore if money is no object or you prefer to vacation from the quarterdeck deck of a cruise ship!

So buckle up and get ready for Great Britain and then Iceland. 

Or just the view from Dulles Airport if our travel plans fall apart.

Update: Flights were smooth and on time. (Fly Play Airlines!) We arrived in London and walked 6.4 miles according to my Fitbit before collapsing in our room minutes ago. About to shower and wishing I could just burn the clothes I’ve been wearing for almost 40 hours.

More tomorrow…