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Delirium is awesome, make sure you go there, ideally on the weekend if you can. It is nuts. Obviously in Brussels the Grand Place is really sweet, especially at night. If you have some time, you could head up to Ghent, it is like an hour northwest of Brussels. Wicked nice city, not touristy, beautiful. Have a nice drive, I trained it from Brussels to Bremen and caught some good old farmland along the way, nothing that seemed worthwhile to stop at, though.
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Nov 2, 2011 03:57
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I'm in the intial stages of planning a europe backpacking trip and could use some advice. I plan to go in late march/early april with a friend - doing flight searches it looks like the cheapest way into europe will be from JFK to London (about half the price of other airports) so I will want to land there, from there I'm not sure where to go. I have no particular places I want to see and I've never been overseas, I just want to backpack through a few countries, stay in some hostels, eat some street food and just take in whatever I can. I'm going to go for about 10 days and based on that I could use some guidance on what would be a good itiniary. My original plan was to hit UK/France/Switzerland and Italy but friends have been saying you need 10 days just to do Italy so I'm considering removing that from my list.
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Nov 2, 2011 14:31
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Sepist posted:I'm in the intial stages of planning a europe backpacking trip and could use some advice. I plan to go in late march/early april with a friend - doing flight searches it looks like the cheapest way into europe will be from JFK to London (about half the price of other airports) so I will want to land there, from there I'm not sure where to go. Think more in terms of cities rather than countries because then you approach something rational. Imagine if someone said you needed at least 2 weeks to do the US... wtf does "doing the US" even mean in that context? You can spend a fun 10 days just in Britain: London to Edinburgh with stops in between? I don't know... You can do London, Paris, Barcelona. London, Calais, Brittany, Paris, Strasbourg, Munich? The last one is probably a bit much. Give yourself one travel day between cities and probably 2 full days in a city and you shouldn't feel too rushed. And unless you want to spend insane amounts of money on everything, give Switzerland a miss.
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Nov 2, 2011 14:59
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Sepist posted:I'm in the intial stages of planning a europe backpacking trip and could use some advice. I plan to go in late march/early april with a friend - doing flight searches it looks like the cheapest way into europe will be from JFK to London (about half the price of other airports) so I will want to land there, from there I'm not sure where to go. I mean if you just want to eat street food and stay in some hostels, you could probably stay just in the UK doing that. What do you really want? Big cities? Beautiful scenery? Chances to practice new languages? Different cultures? You could EASILY spend 10 days in the UK between London, Cornwall and Scotland. It is really easy to travel anywhere in Europe from London via the air, you could end up doing 4 days in London and 3 in Paris and 3 in Belgium, then heading back. Or you could do 2 days in London, 4 days in Madrid and 3 days in Lisbon before leaving. You need to figure out what you want to do before you start to plan it. Beaches and party nightlife? Cafe culture? Some kick rear end mountains? When I did my 4-5 months over there, I wanted to see every beautiful natural scene I could find. I skipped a few major cities and spent more time in the Alps, the Highlands, Croatia, BiH...what do you REALLY want to see/do while you're there? Once you figure that out, it will be significantly easier to plan, I reckon.
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Nov 2, 2011 16:36
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Sepist posted:I'm in the intial stages of planning a europe backpacking trip and could use some advice. I plan to go in late march/early april with a friend - doing flight searches it looks like the cheapest way into europe will be from JFK to London (about half the price of other airports) so I will want to land there, from there I'm not sure where to go. 10 days isn't a lot, so you should think about minimising pointless travel time. Flying would complicate things, cos even if your flight only lasts an hour all the hassle will take half the day. By train you could do LDN, Paris, Brussels and Dam pretty easily. Or if you want to take it further out, I'd only pick Switzerland over Southern France or Berlin if you're really into, idk, lakes and cuckoo clocks. Alternatively, if you're not that interested in London, just get a cheap flight from there to Barcelona, Nizza, Rome, Milan, whatever. You can get a round trip for probably 60 quid on easyjet if you book now for March or April.
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Nov 2, 2011 17:27
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So I've got a trip planned~ Nov. 4-7 Italy Nov. 7-10 Munich Nov. 10-14 Athens My plane leaves in 34 hours and I haven't started packing yet, but I just got my eBags Weekender in the mail. Am I rightly hosed going to Athens during the political turmoil? Any crazy advice for the trip? I'm pretty much winging it - my sister lives in Italy and I'm with a marathon touring group in Athens, but I know next to nothing about Munich other than I like to drink beer.
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Nov 3, 2011 17:06
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^ not directed at you as you have reasons for going to each place (family etc). Why is everyone spending 3 days per country?  You can spend that amount of time in some cities and still not see enough. It should be in the OP in big letters that it's far better to spend more time in each place rather than going from city to city every couple of days.
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Nov 3, 2011 17:43
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Lady Gaza posted:^ not directed at you as you have reasons for going to each place (family etc). I did that on my first big backpacking trip to Europe (spent 2-3 days in a city and moved on) and didn't feel like I'd even seen the city, much less the country. But it's definitely because most Americans have very little vacation time and don't know when they'll get to go again, so they have to cram in as much as possible in one trip. Plus, it sounds a lot more impressive to say, "Yeah, I went to Germany, France, Spain, Italy, and Austria!" than it is to say, "I went to a bunch of places in Germany." I don't think it's necessarily a bad way to do Europe for the first time because you get a sense for what sorts of things you enjoy doing/seeing and where you'd like to return to, but it's not very fulfilling. After my second time backpacking, when I took it a lot slower, I can't imagine how you're supposed to get anything done on a two week vacation. But then why would you want to go anywhere if you live in the greatest country in the world?! 
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Nov 3, 2011 19:28
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Any advice on Prague? I leave in a week, and only just found out their currency isn't the euro. Do many people speak english? Just how cold is it going to be?
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Nov 3, 2011 23:49
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Any good, reliable websites for booking an apartment for a few nights in Rome?
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Nov 4, 2011 05:16
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sassassin posted:Any advice on Prague? Yep, czech crown is the local currency, you can get it at any ATM (Visa and Mastercard, as in most european countries), but you should check with your bank first for fees etc. Euros are sometimes accepted but the exchange rate is pretty bad, official one is 1€ for 25 CZK. Prague is quite a touristy place, so a lot of people will speak the basic international english, especially the younger. It's the countryside where it gets harder to speak english. People also sometimes know german, for what it's worth. Depends on what you mean by cold - temperatures are between 0 and 6°C in november, but it's a dry cold, so just pack some sweaters and a warm jacket and you're alright. Any additional layer of clothing will make you warmer basically.
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Nov 4, 2011 10:48
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I'm going to Finland, specifically Ylläs, over Christmas. I know it's going to be very cold, about -15C I think, so I've got lots of warm clothes. Has anyone been there or anywhere similar in the Arctic Circle? Any tips? Hopefully will be seeing the Northern Lights, I'm wondering if my camera will hold up in those temperatures.
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Nov 4, 2011 11:23
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Thanks guys for the information on Europe - based on your feedback I have a tentative itiniary of flying into London, taking the train to Paris and flying to Barcelona then flying back to London for the flight out. This seems to be the cheapest of my possibilities with the european flights only costing $45. I don't mind only being in each country for a few days as I will return one day and want to get a feel of where I want to go next for an extended vacation. I'm also looking to make this a 2 week vacation since the one friend who is really holding us back is most probably not able to make it.
Sepist fucked around with this message at 13:12 on Nov 4, 2011 |
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Nov 4, 2011 13:07
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Lady Gaza posted:I'm going to Finland, specifically Ylläs, over Christmas. I know it's going to be very cold, about -15C I think, so I've got lots of warm clothes. Has anyone been there or anywhere similar in the Arctic Circle? Any tips? Hopefully will be seeing the Northern Lights, I'm wondering if my camera will hold up in those temperatures. e: Re-reading you say that it is above the Arctic Circle, and a quick google seems to confirm it. While it has been a warm winter so far (still no snow here), preparing only for -15 is optimistic as the temperature will vary from day to day and by time of day. During a cold winter it can hit -30-35 here, and I'm situated a fair bit south and closer to the coast compared to Ylläs (Umeå, Sweden). kissekatt fucked around with this message at 13:32 on Nov 4, 2011 |
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Nov 4, 2011 13:25
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Yes I've just had another look and it can get to -30 or -40 even. Fun! I have decent clothes that I take skiing so hopefully I should be OK..
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Nov 4, 2011 13:36
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Lady Gaza posted:
I explained this earlier in the thread, perhaps even to you. Not everyone has the luxury to chill out in a city in Europe for weeks. I can't justify flying 20+ hours from Australia to spend my 4 weeks annual leave in just Rome and then do the same the year after, and the year after that. I'd love to, but I can't. Instead, lots of people do a hard and fast pace trip to see the sights, enjoy the food and move on. It's cheaper and easier. I'm currently doing 9 weeks in Europe, spending 4-5 days in each city and I've seen a lot. I don't expect to "know" a city or anything like that, but I've seen and experienced amazing things that I won't get to see again without another massive investment of time and money. After this, I'm doing 8 weeks in South America and 5 weeks in the USA. I don't expect to know them intimately either, but I'm staying with friends and couchsurfing mostly, so I'm getting to know some locals along the way.
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Nov 4, 2011 14:05
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Lady Gaza posted:I'm going to Finland, specifically Ylläs, over Christmas. I know it's going to be very cold, about -15C I think, so I've got lots of warm clothes. Has anyone been there or anywhere similar in the Arctic Circle? Any tips? Hopefully will be seeing the Northern Lights, I'm wondering if my camera will hold up in those temperatures. It's gonna be very dark  And yes, you will almost certainly see enough of aurora borealis to get bored with them.
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Nov 4, 2011 14:36
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Next May I'll be visiting Switzerland for 10 days on a school trip. Since we'll be staying in Zurich for several days and have one day free from tours/visits, is it worth a day trip to visit Liechtenstein and Austria, or are there more worthwhile things to do near or in Zurich? Also would like nightclub recommendations in Zurich. I hear it's mostly electronic music, which is probably what I'd go for.
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Nov 4, 2011 20:08
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Cacator posted:Next May I'll be visiting Switzerland for 10 days on a school trip. Since we'll be staying in Zurich for several days and have one day free from tours/visits, is it worth a day trip to visit Liechtenstein and Austria, or are there more worthwhile things to do near or in Zurich? I would strongly reccomend staying in Switzerland and for example day trip to Luzerne and take a boat on the lake or go up on mount Pilatus. Also just go anywhere in the Swiss Alps.
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Nov 4, 2011 20:56
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Istrian posted:I would strongly reccomend staying in Switzerland and for example day trip to Luzerne and take a boat on the lake or go up on mount Pilatus. Also just go anywhere in the Swiss Alps. You can probably get some kinda deal at the HBF travel center to get a ticket up to the Jungfrau for a day, you can have lots of fun seeing all the poo poo up there. Even though it's pretty drat touristy it's really beautiful (the whole Lauterbrunnen valley owns).
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Nov 4, 2011 21:06
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Istrian posted:I would strongly reccomend staying in Switzerland and for example day trip to Luzerne and take a boat on the lake or go up on mount Pilatus. Also just go anywhere in the Swiss Alps. Although adding to that, we'll probably go to Jungfrau but as a James Bond fan I'd love to see the Piz Gloria. Could probably do both, but what's better?
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Nov 4, 2011 21:17
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Cacator posted:Also would like nightclub recommendations in Zurich. I hear it's mostly electronic music, which is probably what I'd go for. Zukunft http://www.zukunft.cl/ Hive http://www.hiveclub.ch/ Alteboerse http://www.alteboerse.com/ There are others, you can check residentadvisor to see whats on. Zukunft isn't bad for Zürich.
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Nov 4, 2011 21:32
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I would personally go with Jungfrau because of the under-mountain? Railway which is just amazing and the whole trip through the valley before that, drat. Just making a remark that I'm not Swiss so maybe that why I found the whole "train station at 3400m under the peak" mind-blowing. A closer to Zurich suggestion for 3000m+ and eternal snow would be Titlis I guess. Also Schaffhausen waterfall or Chur and the resorts there are also a possibility. I must say I haven’t been disappointed in any of the places I have visited in Switzerland till now. some photos I took in Switzerland including for Jungfrau : http://www.flickr.com/photos/qbulka/
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Nov 4, 2011 21:33
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Istrian posted:I would personally go with Jungfrau because of the under-mountain? Railway which is just amazing and the whole trip through the valley before that, drat. Just making a remark that I'm not Swiss so maybe that why I found the whole "train station at 3400m under the peak" mind-blowing. I remember going up the pilatus rail and thinking "boy how on earth did they get a train all the way up here these swiss are something else" then I got to the top and there's a full blown luxury hotel that they somehow built up there
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Nov 4, 2011 21:49
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Cacator posted:I should've mentioned that we'll already have spent a couple days in the Interlakken/Luzerne area before heading to Zurich, including seeing the alps. It's called the Schilthorn now I think, you can take a gondola/series of gondolas up from Lauterbrunnen, it's on the other side of the valley from the Jungfrau. If you have the time I'd really recommend it too, but IMO the Jungfrau is better if you only have one to do.
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Nov 4, 2011 22:21
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You could do Jungfrau like people mentioned but be prepared that GOD drat it's expensive—like $200 for a round-trip train ticket per person. If you buy a half price card (you should) then it's half of ridiculously expensive, and if you take the very first train (~5am) it's a bit cheaper still, approaching a reasonable price of like $60. I've never been up Pilatus so I can't compare it, but regardless of which you do, do not bother if the weather is cloudy. May will probably be alright but you never know. Liechtenstein is only worth going to to cross it off your list of places to go, although it's not that far from Zurich it would be kind of a letdown for a day trip I think. There's also nowhere nearby in Austria that's particularly more noteworthy than closer, equivalent places in Switzerland. I guess my vote would be the mountain things people have voted if the weather's good, or Lucerne if the weather's not.
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Nov 5, 2011 03:19
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So what's considered the go-to website for searching for cheap inter-europe flights? It's hard to google because that poo poo's SEO'd all over the place, and keeps showing sites that are local to me, going TO europe, which isn't what I want.
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Nov 5, 2011 04:10
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NZAmoeba posted:So what's considered the go-to website for searching for cheap inter-europe flights? It's hard to google because that poo poo's SEO'd all over the place, and keeps showing sites that are local to me, going TO europe, which isn't what I want. EasyJet and Ryanair are the two big ones, then there are a bunch of smaller regional-ish ones like Wizzair. Also I think you mean "intra-Europe"? Otherwise this question doesn't really make sense.
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Nov 5, 2011 10:32
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I always use skyscanner for my flights, works everywhere.
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Nov 5, 2011 16:29
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From making an itiniary and other peoples references I found Kayak.com to be good for the flight to europe and easyjet as a good source of cheap intra-europe flights. Also as an update it looks like I'm going to be spending the first week traveling to London -> Paris -> Barcelona with a friend and taking a week by myself in London only so now I get the best of both worlds, should be fun I just hope I don't get robbed in a hostel  Can anyone recommend a good lockable backpack? My current one is quite poo poo.
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Nov 8, 2011 18:53
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SO, I currently live in Madrid with my wife, but I moved here from Venezuela just six months ago, and for my vacations we wanted to go someplace else, but our budget is pretty tight. We had an invitation to Denmark, but our friend lives in a very rural town. We are still thinking about it, but mostly just want to go to a cool city (specially after living in the hellhole that's Caracas) and have fun like dumb tourists. Do you guys think that a very low budget (500 € or so) would be enough for a week somewhere fun? Germany, Holland and France are the countries we'd like to visit, but I'm not sure if that's possible considering our modest funds. Any cool city, with cheap hotels and good music would be amazing, really. I guess I could always go to some town in Spain, or the middle of nowhere in Denmark.
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Nov 8, 2011 20:10
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Hugoon Chavez posted:SO, I currently live in Madrid with my wife, but I moved here from Venezuela just six months ago, and for my vacations we wanted to go someplace else, but our budget is pretty tight. €500 is really not enough for two people to go anywhere for a whole week unless you hitchhike your way there and sleep on the streets. Your flight to Denmark for 2 people would probably eat about half your budget immediately, then another €50 (at least) for transit to/from the airport. Save up and enjoy your time in Madrid and day trips from the area.
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Nov 8, 2011 20:36
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With that budget i doubt you can afford those countries you mentioned for a whole week. Your best bet is either another spanish city or a portuguese one.
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Nov 9, 2011 03:39
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What people are saying is generally true, unfortunately, but I know that specifically Copenhagen and all of Scandiavia is really expensive. However, but there are places in Spain, France, Germany and Holland are all cheap by my standards (as a brit). Although it won't be much better than Spain, you're better off staying on that belt of Europe than venturing into Denmark. Maybe go for a long weekend instead, and look into private hostel rooms instead of hotels? There's also the option of couchsurfing, but you might have to put some people up before you start looking to beef up your profile.
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Nov 9, 2011 09:48
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For these kind of situations a combination of hitchhiking and couchsurfing would be ideal. You can then spend the 500 euro's to do some fun stuff with or for your hosts and keep some emergency money. If you think you like hitchhiking and are social and up for adventure, or if you've hitchiked before you can also try to hitchhike to your friend in Denmark, take 2-3 days there and back, try to crash at people you meet during hitching (surprisingly easy if you're good with people) that gives you 1-3 days at his place
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Nov 9, 2011 10:23
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Just to play devil's advocate, you can stay on that budget (I pulled it off for almost two months in those countries on your weekly per-person budget). But I only did it by couchsurfing, not drinking much, walking almost everywhere and doing almost all of my own cooking, which might not be what you're hoping for from your first European vacation.
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Nov 10, 2011 11:26
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So I'm thinking of going on vacation in Northwest Europe for about 3 weeks. I'm aiming to hit Paris, Brussels, and Amsterdam, but I think I'll have some extra time to explore Benelux/NE France. I like museums and history and stuff, is there anywhere else in that region with a lot to see? Is there stuff to see at military history sites like Waterloo or Bastogne, or is it mostly just "that's the hill where X happened"?
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Nov 11, 2011 01:38
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esquilax posted:So I'm thinking of going on vacation in Northwest Europe for about 3 weeks. I'm aiming to hit Paris, Brussels, and Amsterdam, but I think I'll have some extra time to explore Benelux/NE France. I like museums and history and stuff, is there anywhere else in that region with a lot to see? You should really go to Berlin. The remnants of the wall are amazing, the checkpoint charlie museum, all of that is just awesome. Plus, great city, nightlife, and cheap! Otherwise I went to Normandy this year, Pointe Du Hoc in particular is full of bombed-to-gently caress bunkers and craters all over the hills - the whole area has quite a lot of beaches and memorials, plus museums, the American War Cemetary, loads of stuff. Saint Mere Eglise has an amazing museum in it, as well. And little quaint nice french towns like Mont St Michel and St Malo as well. 
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Nov 11, 2011 11:15
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esquilax posted:So I'm thinking of going on vacation in Northwest Europe for about 3 weeks. I'm aiming to hit Paris, Brussels, and Amsterdam, but I think I'll have some extra time to explore Benelux/NE France. I like museums and history and stuff, is there anywhere else in that region with a lot to see? I would suggest the Ypres region for military history: good musea and military cemeteries (Tyne Cott, Vladslo) and a beautiful region for biking.
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Nov 11, 2011 12:57
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esquilax posted:So I'm thinking of going on vacation in Northwest Europe for about 3 weeks. I'm aiming to hit Paris, Brussels, and Amsterdam, but I think I'll have some extra time to explore Benelux/NE France. I like museums and history and stuff, is there anywhere else in that region with a lot to see? I went to Brussels a few weeks ago and found it really underwhelming. Id spend more time in Amsterdam (my favourite so far), Paris, Bruges or as others have suggested, Berlin. It just really wasn't that interesting or amazing to me.
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Nov 12, 2011 11:16
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