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Studentuniverse.com is a really good flight booking site. You don't have to necessarily be a student, as long as you're under the age of 25. When you book, they ask you for confirmation, like a scanned copy of your passport or ID. I got a flight home to NY from Sofia for about $600 on British and American Airlines versus even skyscanner which was quoting me $800 for LOT and about $1200 for that same British/American route (and about $550 for Aerosvit but I read the Kiev-JFK flight is the least reliable route in the world in terms of being canceled and stuff, so $50 for peace of mind is fine). The extra little hassle with e-mailing a scanned passport page was no big deal.
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Apr 22, 2011 12:36
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Jedi Knight Luigi posted:Going to Prague on Monday, staying for two nights. There'll be about 7 of us altogether going, half are Americans, the other half Austrians. My boss at my internship told me that Czechs hate Germans and the German language, and proceeded to tell me a story of how he and his friend didn't get served at this restaurant in Prague one time. Here's a tip:
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Apr 22, 2011 18:04
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roer posted:I'm looking for a cheap way to get from London to Dublin next Friday/Saturday. Probably too late to help you, but present yourself at Euston rail station and ask for a 'sail and rail' ticket to Dublin. It's a fairly well-kept secret but 33 pounds will get you on the next train from London to Holyhead in Wales and a ferry ticket for the Holyhead-Dublin sailing. Only problem is jouney times vary massively: you might be lucky and get a 4 hours direct train to Holyhead and hop on one of the fast ferries in which case your journey will only take approx. 6 hours, or you could wind up making a bunch of changes on the train leg and having to get the night ferry over in which case it's more like 12 hours. The night ferry is for lorries and the handful of foot passengers are usually old drunk Irish emigrant dudes.
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Apr 23, 2011 00:27
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Would I be safe (in Berlin, in May) not booking a hostel and just showing up the day of expecting there to be free beds? It's a pretty large building. How necessary would you guys say reservations are?
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Apr 23, 2011 05:58
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Cometa Rossa posted:Would I be safe (in Berlin, in May) not booking a hostel and just showing up the day of expecting there to be free beds? It's a pretty large building. How necessary would you guys say reservations are? If you want to stay somewhere specific (it kinda sounds like you do) you should book in advance, otherwise you'll have no trouble finding somewhere to stay in berlin, it's a massive city with a lot of accommodation.
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Apr 23, 2011 09:25
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Generally I've found for bookings, the following rule of thumb works pretty well: If you're dead-set on staying in a particular hostel, book before you go on your trip. If you don't care about a particular hostel, but do want one of the higher-rated hostels in a city, book the day before you're going to arrive there. If you just want a place to sleep, you can find something the day of. The only real exception to this is really seasonal places, like the south of France in the summer or Ibiza or something. But for the most part, this has never really served me wrong.
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Apr 23, 2011 15:07
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I'm going to Europe for the second time in a little over 10 days to go to the Cannes Film Festival with a friend. I'm flying into Paris, spending a few days there and then I take the TGV down to Cannes. After Cannes, I'm going to Genoa and Venice (Where I'll be meeting my family), spending a week there, and then flying to Barcelona for 3 days. I have the following questions: 1.I'm planning on getting a world phone from Verizon. How common is public wi-fi in France? I'm thinking of saving some cash, and rather then forking out 30 Dollars for a measly 25 megabytes from Verizon I'm thinking of bringing my Droid X and trying to poach from public wi-fi to save some cash. I'm mostly getting the cell phone just to be on the safe side. 2.I've heard from a friend that Nice is no better than a Arabic ghetto. Is that really true? What is worth seeing there? 3.Coming from Cannes would it be worth to visit Monaco on a day trip? 4.In Venice I'll be staying on Lido. Is it generally ok to go to the beach in May there? Have any goons also been to the casino there? I think it will be interesting to stay on an island in a city that's known mostly for being carless. 5.Is it feasible to visit Croatia via ferry from Venice for a day trip? If that's not possible, I was thinking of going to Trieste instead for the day, and possibly sightseeing in the city. If that is the case, is it possible to do a short one hour jaunt into Slovenia from Trieste?
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Apr 26, 2011 02:19
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Senor Science posted:1.I'm planning on getting a world phone from Verizon. How common is public wi-fi in France? I'm thinking of saving some cash, and rather then forking out 30 Dollars for a measly 25 megabytes from Verizon I'm thinking of bringing my Droid X and trying to poach from public wi-fi to save some cash. I'm mostly getting the cell phone just to be on the safe side. You will basically never find free public wi-fi. You can literally walk for hours in Paris without finding an unsecured wi-fi spot (speaking from experience). OTOH you can go to McDonalds, order fries, and use their WiFi. Senor Science posted:2.I've heard from a friend that Nice is no better than a Arabic ghetto. Is that really true? What is worth seeing there? He must have confused Nice and Marseilles because Nice is nice, and Marseilles is a ghetto. Senor Science posted:3.Coming from Cannes would it be worth to visit Monaco on a day trip? If you want to be able tos say you've been to Monaco and/or if you want to see nice cars and/or boats. Otherwise you could just spend the time walking around Cannes. Senor Science posted:4.In Venice I'll be staying on Lido. Is it generally ok to go to the beach in May there? Have any goons also been to the casino there? I think it will be interesting to stay on an island in a city that's known mostly for being carless. It should be fine as long as it's not raining. I don't know about the rest.
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Apr 26, 2011 08:31
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Senor Science posted:5.Is it feasible to visit Croatia via ferry from Venice for a day trip? If that's not possible, I was thinking of going to Trieste instead for the day, and possibly sightseeing in the city. If that is the case, is it possible to do a short one hour jaunt into Slovenia from Trieste? Rovinj is about a 3 hour ferry ride from Venice and is a nice enough little town, though not significantly different from Italy. Venice to Ljubljana is about a 5 hour train ride; Trieste is about 2 hours from Ljubljana. You'd probably want to spend a night in whichever place you're going to, or else it's just going to be too much for one day.
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Apr 26, 2011 08:56
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Senor Science posted:5.Is it feasible to visit Croatia via ferry from Venice for a day trip? If that's not possible, I was thinking of going to Trieste instead for the day, and possibly sightseeing in the city. If that is the case, is it possible to do a short one hour jaunt into Slovenia from Trieste? It's a 2.5 hours trip from Venice to Croatia, and not by ferry. It's some sort of fast, closed boat which means no chilling on the deck, breathing the sea air. I wouldn't do it, especially if you have only 12 days or so for Paris, Cannes, Genoa, Venice and Barcelona.
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Apr 26, 2011 09:07
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Saladman posted:You will basically never find free public wi-fi. You can literally walk for hours in Paris without finding an unsecured wi-fi spot (speaking from experience). OTOH you can go to McDonalds, order fries, and use their WiFi. Its not that difficult (well I guess you're definition is finding an unsecured spot or something). And you don't exactly have to order something at maccas to use it. Either stand outside next to the store and use it or if its a big one then just walk in and sit down and most likely no one will even notice/give a gently caress. Or just order something for a dollar like you said. A lot of cafes have wifi in paris and the password is often on the menu somewhere or their phone number or name.
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Apr 26, 2011 09:20
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Fists Up posted:Its not that difficult (well I guess you're definition is finding an unsecured spot or something). And you don't exactly have to order something at maccas to use it. Either stand outside next to the store and use it or if its a big one then just walk in and sit down and most likely no one will even notice/give a gently caress. Or just order something for a dollar like you said. I did mean unsecured, since it's hard to tell if the "FREE PUBLIC WIFI" wifis are actually free (IME this is rarely the case) unless you spend 2 minutes dicking around on the redirect page to find out that you get a free 30 minute trial if you input your credit card and get a SMS sent to a French phone number. A lot of cafes have WiFi, you just have to order something, or be a dick and just ask for the menu then not order anything and hope the WiFi password is clearly printed. If you're in the same place for a few days it's fine (since the password is the same every day), but if you're constantly travelling it is more difficult/annoying. It's not -hard-, but it's a much bigger hassle than just turning on your WiFi and joining "linksys", which you will very rarely find, unlike in the US (or unlike in the US 4 years ago, anyway). OTOH your hostel or hotel will have Internet, so just unplug during the day and enjoy your vacation. E: Finished my last sentence. Saladman fucked around with this message at 10:06 on Apr 26, 2011 |
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Apr 26, 2011 09:35
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Literally unsecured is getting more and more rare I think just for security reasons I assume, but as one of the people above here said cafés and bars do have wireless networks that you can join with the password generally being in the menu or on a sign on the bar or something. Or just ask.
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Apr 26, 2011 09:41
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Yeah, I should have been more specific in what I meant by free public wifi. I was thinking more along the lines of using wifi at restaurants and cafes. Even if it turns out that I have to pay for it, that's still cool. I think I'm going to stick with Trieste after reading some of the things you guys said. Thanks!
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Apr 27, 2011 00:44
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This June/July I'll be traveling to the UK, Spain, Italy and France. My friend is going to morocco and wants to know if I wanted to go. If i go to Morocco I'll have to skip Italy or France is it worth it.Or should I Just go to Italy/France and not Morocco.
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Apr 27, 2011 09:36
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I'm currently itinerising my trip/planning to book things. I leave arrive in London on 28 June and leave London on 28 July. This is my current schedule: 4 nights London hire car, drive from London to Edinburgh over 3-4 days, stopping at a few places on the way fly to Dublin, spend 2 nights there fly to Berlin, spend 3 nights there fly to Rome, spend 4 nights there train/bus to Florence for 1 night train/bus to Venice for 2 nights train/bus to Marseilles for 2 nights train/bus to Paris for 6 nights train to London for the last night before flying home. 1. Am I spending too long in the England? I was planning to meet a friend in Banbury for 1 night and then from there travel slowly up to Edinburgh, but should I just get a train? 2. For Italy -> Paris, I was just starting at Rome and then heading North, stopping at places that sound interesting. Are there other/better options? I like art, history, musuems etc. but maybe a beachy place in southern France? 3. When booking flights should I just go with Ryanair if they are the cheapest? I heard there are hidden fees for checking bags etc and they can be kind of unreliable. I checked out some flights and there are some that are ~$30 more on other airlines. Is it worth going with another carrier for piece of mind?
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Apr 28, 2011 07:38
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I'd say skip Marseille, go to Milan instead and fly to Paris from there. Or goto somewhere around Nice if you want to hit the beach for a day. Ryanair has some hidden fees yeah (for paying with creditcards for instance), read the luggage rules carefully. I've never had any problems with them, but I never had to carry a months worth of bags with me either. If the next cheapest is Easyjet: They're basically the same with trying to squeeze some extra money out of you when they can. Just read the rules they've made up.
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Apr 28, 2011 08:44
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gregarious Ted posted:Am I spending too long in the England? No, but you're spending too long on a train. Add together traveling time, coming early to the station, carrying luggage around, going to and from hotels, packing and unpacking every other day, extra rest to compensate for that extra fatigue... You'll spend half of your awake time doing all that. In other words, reduce the number of destinations.
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Apr 28, 2011 09:24
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Can anyone tell me about Koninginnedag? Me and some friends are going to head over to Maastricht for the day tomorrow but we don't know what to expect. I think most of us are wearing orange shirts cause it seems like we're suppose to.
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Apr 29, 2011 18:40
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Ziir posted:Can anyone tell me about Koninginnedag? Me and some friends are going to head over to Maastricht for the day tomorrow but we don't know what to expect. I think most of us are wearing orange shirts cause it seems like we're suppose to. I don't really know about Limburg but in most of the country the parties start tonight. Tommorow is a mix of drinking/open air party, selling old poo poo on the street and children's games. Your plan seems best, just walk around town and take it all in.
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Apr 29, 2011 20:28
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Edit: doublepost
maskenfreiheit fucked around with this message at 02:00 on Mar 13, 2017 |
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Apr 29, 2011 20:37
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GregNorc posted:This sounds cool. But it doesn't address my main issue... I'll be flying in via london, and out via Zürich. What's the best way to arrange this? Right under your nose. Just about any booking site (including studentuniverse.com) has an option for multi-city trips, which is exactly what you describe. GregNorc posted:Also, is there a central site for booking rail trips in Europe? I'm hoping if I book the same company for say, London to Paris as I do from Paris to Zürich, I might be able to get a slightly lower rate. (Plus I just don't want to put my CC # into some random EU site without knowing it's reputable) http://www.eurail.com/home HeroOfTheRevolution fucked around with this message at 21:34 on Apr 29, 2011 |
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Apr 29, 2011 21:30
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GregNorc posted:Also, is there a way to get an open ended return ticket? My plan was to do London for a couple days, then Paris for a couple days, then just sort of bum around in Zürich as long as my money lasts. unless you have lots of money don't do this, zürich is pretty boring and very expensive
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Apr 30, 2011 10:06
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NihilismNow posted:I don't really know about Limburg but in most of the country the parties start tonight. Tommorow is a mix of drinking/open air party, selling old poo poo on the street and children's games. It was a fun way to spend the day at the park listening to music and everything. I'm really amazed at how well the Dutch speak English. I've always heard things like how proud the Dutch are at speaking multiple languages, but how old exactly do people usually start learning English? I was buying some things from someone at the fleamarket thing and one of the kids who looked like he couldn't have been more than 8 years old stood up really excitedly and told me the 2 inflatable crowns I wanted are his and that it'll be "10 cents each to me please  ."I wish secondary languages were made a huge deal in the USA  .
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May 1, 2011 17:57
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Ziir posted:It was a fun way to spend the day at the park listening to music and everything. I'm really amazed at how well the Dutch speak English. I've always heard things like how proud the Dutch are at speaking multiple languages, but how old exactly do people usually start learning English? English isn't formally part of the curriculum until kids are ~12 years old and enrolled in secondary education but most schools will start basic lessons when kids are 6/7 years old. Most TV is subbed so kids tend to pick up a lot from TV.
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May 1, 2011 18:48
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Ziir posted:
Why should they be, we already speak American, and if it was good enough for Jesus, it's good enough for me! Side note, on our recent trip we found that people in Austria and the Czech Republic spoke very good English while people in Poland, even the young people, spoke almost none, except those at our pension. We're single language dolts but we try to at least become familiar enough with a language when we travel that we can do basic greetings, thank you, and other stuff like that. People tend to appreciate it when you've put in the effort. Never morseso than in Hungary, where I guess almost no visitors try to learn the language. Maybe because it's from Mars.
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May 1, 2011 18:51
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Edit: doublepost
maskenfreiheit fucked around with this message at 02:00 on Mar 13, 2017 |
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May 1, 2011 19:14
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GregNorc posted:Yeah I am currently on the fence. Berlin, Prague, Barcelona, Madrid, Vienna, Rome... all miles more entertaining and tons cheaper than Zurich. Berlin will probably be the city with the cheapest flight connections. Unless you have friends in Zurich, or have a fascination with chocolate/watches/following rules I wouldn't really include it in a big "hurrah".
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May 1, 2011 20:14
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greazeball posted:Berlin, Prague, Barcelona, Madrid, Vienna, Rome... all miles more entertaining and tons cheaper than Zurich. Berlin will probably be the city with the cheapest flight connections. Vienna is waaay underrated as a European destination. It's like Paris at a fraction the cost. Of course, other places are cheaper than Vienna, like Prague or Krakow, but Vienna is a seriously top notch cultural destination and without the scam, muggings and pickpocketings of Rome or Paris. I'd bum around there over Zurich, for sure.
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May 1, 2011 20:21
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And you can still get dirty looks when you cross the street on red and they make great chocolate too!
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May 1, 2011 20:26
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Just keep away from the lower-class Turks. I got in a "rauferei" with a pair of them walking back from a club in the 6th district a couple weeks ago. Also saw a guy (a Turk) get stabbed at Westbahnhof last November.
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May 1, 2011 20:32
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Ziir posted:I wish secondary languages were made a huge deal in the USA Secondary languages are a 'huge deal' in not-USA because the world's pop culture (TV, movies, music, video games, books, magazines, etc.) is all in English - particularly American English. You don't need to learn Russian to play WOW, but a Russian needs to learn English. People pick up a lot more by osmosis than they do through formal classes, and Americans lack that opportunity simply because we're the country exporting much of the world's (pop) culture. I mention the WOW example because I teach English classes on my Fulbright here in Bulgaria, and of the most fluent high school students in my class about 75% of them attribute their speaking ability to video games and WOW in particular. HeroOfTheRevolution fucked around with this message at 20:57 on May 1, 2011 |
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May 1, 2011 20:53
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I spent a day in Marseilles last week and it didn't seem nearly as bad as it was portrayed here a few weeks ago. I guess it's not a proper tourist destination like many other cities and towns in France but I was getting the impression that OMG you should avoid it at all costs and I thought it was pretty normal. It's a big city and some of the bums/scumbags might be shocking I guess if you've never been to a big city but there weren't that many that I saw. Granted, we were mostly around the old port and in the shopping district but our hotel was near the stadium and we walked around there a little bit and didn't really see anything dodgy. If you are near Marseille, there is some stunning natural beauty just one town over around Cassis. The calanques hike is supposed to be amazing (it was pissing rain when we were there). The wife and I liked the two towns and we'll be back. The calanques: 
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May 1, 2011 21:50
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http://dustinland.com/archives/archives489.html Here's a neat comic about an American visiting Croatia and Slovenia. I think it's pretty good (as in, correct) except for one glaring mistake. Can you spot it? 
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May 1, 2011 22:54
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Doctor Malaver posted:http://dustinland.com/archives/archives489.html Horse meat is legal and easily available in Italy, as well as basically all of Europe except GB?
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May 1, 2011 23:08
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Doctor Malaver posted:http://dustinland.com/archives/archives489.html Chain smokers are easy to avoid in Slovenia?
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May 1, 2011 23:18
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You're right about the horse, that makes it two mistakes. You can eat horse meat in Croatia too, although it's very uncommon. I wouldn't know about evading chainsmokers... The mistake I was thinking of is "cafe by the ocean". There's no ocean here, only Adriatic sea. Maybe it's not much of a difference for an American, but nobody here would ever call our sea "ocean", in Croatian or in English.
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May 2, 2011 00:08
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I've been in Europe for two weeks now and couchsurfing is exhausting using only wifi, I spend half my time looking for hotspots. What's the most cost-effective way to get a cell phone that I can use all over Europe (or better yet, all over Eurasia)? I know there are prepay plans available but they all seem expensive and all I really actually need is SMS ability.
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May 3, 2011 01:55
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If I were to study abroad in Turkey next summer, would it be feasible to go visit Poland, Germany, Russia, SE Europe, etc over weekends? Would it be prohibitively expensive?
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May 5, 2011 22:17
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Econosaurus posted:If I were to study abroad in Turkey next summer, would it be feasible to go visit Poland, Germany, Russia, SE Europe, etc over weekends? Would it be prohibitively expensive? Depends on if you're in a Ryanair/Easyjet town or if you need to get connecting flights. If you have to change planes with Ryanair especially, you can get totally hosed if a flight is late or cancelled (they don't book you through and you have to go back through check in/security). Usually the flights are most expensive Friday and Sunday evening and the super early Monday morning. They'll have cheapish Tuesday-Thursday tickets but they usually have sales if you sign up to their email list.
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May 5, 2011 22:50
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