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I will be in Europe for about 3 weeks (4 countries). What is my best SIM bet? To get a SIM card in each country, get a WorldSIM or some unknown quantity I yet do not know?
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Jul 24, 2012 02:00
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What should we see in Iceland? We have a 10 hour layover in Reykjavik from 6AM to 4PM on a Sunday. I have absolutely no idea what there is to do in Reykjavik, let alone what is open on Sundays. We both enjoy museums and zoos, and this isn't actually a vacation for us, so cheaper is better than pricier.
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Jul 24, 2012 18:28
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AKA Pseudonym posted:How are the roads in Hungary? I'm thinking of driving to Budapest from Switzerland in a month or two. Yeah, stop at the first possible place and pay the 40CHF. It's not worth the fines. Alternatively, you can get anywhere in Switzerland without taking the highway if you need to.
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Jul 24, 2012 20:24
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Saladman posted:They're fine? Also keep in mind you also need vignettes for your car in Austria and Switzerland. The roads are fine, it's the drivers to be careful with.
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Jul 25, 2012 11:24
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If anyone here is going to be in Berlin for August 25th to the 28th we could meet up for a beer or something. cheers
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Jul 25, 2012 12:14
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Arnold of Soissons posted:What should we see in Iceland? How are you getting around? Reykjavik is about an hour from KEF and you'll burn probably another couple hours in airport time so you have maybe six? Standard answer would be to go to the blue lagoon. It's closer, relaxing, has decent food. If you really want to go into the city, grab a hot dog and maybe wander along the water and then up to the cathedral. Some guy told me the dick museum has moved to Reykjavik. Didn't have a chance to find out but it's been mentioned a couple times in the Iceland thread. If you'll have a car there are some really pretty areas west of the airport on the coast.
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Jul 26, 2012 15:46
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transient posted:How are you getting around? Reykjavik is about an hour from KEF and you'll burn probably another couple hours in airport time so you have maybe six? Standard answer would be to go to the blue lagoon. It's closer, relaxing, has decent food. If you really want to go into the city, grab a hot dog and maybe wander along the water and then up to the cathedral. Some guy told me the dick museum has moved to Reykjavik. Didn't have a chance to find out but it's been mentioned a couple times in the Iceland thread. We won't be renting a car. We also won't be there on Sunday, I screwed up my dates, we'll be there on Monday. Same time though. Apart from Bjork and geothermal power and heating and the glacier, I don't know much about Iceland or Reykjavik, honestly. We booked the flight because the price was right, and the tiny amount we do know about Iceland makes it sound like a really interesting place. Near the airport is great, but I don't mind spending some time getting to downtown if it means getting to see more. I've been browsing the Reykjavik related wiki pages, and it looks like we would need to take a bus into the city, if we want to do that, but so far I haven't been able to find a schedule for the bus. If there is a day's worth of stuff to do in Keflavík, that would be awesome, too, but lots of the time that just isn't the case in the areas around airports. e: how expensive are cabs in Iceland?
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Jul 26, 2012 22:07
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Arnold of Soissons posted:We won't be renting a car. We also won't be there on Sunday, I screwed up my dates, we'll be there on Monday. Same time though. http://flybus.is/ for the bus schedule. Cabs are really expensive apparently, we never took one. I'd personally go downtown and just wander around. There's not a huuuuuge amount to do in Reykjavik itself, but the city is beautiful and definitely worth a look. I didn't go to the Blue Lagoon but that's not a bad suggestion either, everyone says it's pretty awesome.
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Jul 26, 2012 22:48
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HookShot posted:http://flybus.is/ for the bus schedule. My wife is pretty excited by this Blue Lagoon stuff, now that I've googled it up. It looks like we'll be getting there on like the second day of the Blue Lagoon's off season rates, does that mean it will be packed? Wiki says that the average daily high there is around 50F for September, but I guess the whole point is being in the hot water, right? I'm not going to like freeze and die? 
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Jul 26, 2012 23:56
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Nevermind
cancelope fucked around with this message at 22:59 on Jul 29, 2012 |
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Jul 28, 2012 23:51
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I'm about to travel through 3 cities 4 times in the next week, first outbound flight today. As an added bonus I discovered yesterday night that my passport is expired. So let's see if this Schengen thing is as good as the ads made it out to be.
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Jul 30, 2012 03:27
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Thinking about a trip this coming (2013) summer and looking for feedback on whether this is pushing too far. Booking with reward points so I get an open jaw plus one layover. How does SFO-IST open jaw Dubrovnik-AMS stopover AMS-SFO sound? Idea would be to spend roughly a week in Istanbul, travel to Dubrovnik via Sarajevo, after Dubrovnik stop in Amsterdam just for a fun night or two (I've been there before)? This would probably be over 14-16 days. Is it too much? My main concern is that travel is not too efficient in that part of Europe so we'd burn a lot of time in aluminum tubes. edit: Things I really want to see: Ukraine, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Turkey, Croatia, Prague, Hungary, maybe Austria and Slovenia. I know I can't get them all in on such a short trip but thought I'd mention them if anyone has opinions on what might be better time spent. Amsterdam is really just to burn my stopover to maximize getting my points worth, plus it was an awesome town last time and I assume it still is. Not looking for a "Hey kids, Big Ben!" style trip but probably won't care about hitting every museum in town either. transient fucked around with this message at 05:50 on Jul 31, 2012 |
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Jul 31, 2012 05:35
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OhYeah posted:I'm about to travel through 3 cities 4 times in the next week, first outbound flight today. As an added bonus I discovered yesterday night that my passport is expired. So let's see if this Schengen thing is as good as the ads made it out to be. You need valid ID to get on the plane, and it also happens to be everything you need to travel on Schengen countries, so I can't see the problem.
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Jul 31, 2012 09:47
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Cpt Thorne posted:You need valid ID to get on the plane, and it also happens to be everything you need to travel on Schengen countries, so I can't see the problem. Except that an expired passport is not valid ID. It's very possible that the desk clerk will not look or notice the expiration date; I guess since he already has the ticket he might as well try. Also you're not even supposed to be able to get into Schengen if your visa expires less then 3 months from the date of entry, so his initial check entering Schengen was screwed up too.
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Jul 31, 2012 09:52
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Saladman posted:Except that an expired passport is not valid ID. It's very possible that the desk clerk will not look or notice the expiration date; I guess since he already has the ticket he might as well try. I'm pretty sure OhYeah lives in the Schengen so I doubt that it will be a problem. I'd say bring the passport just in case but also bring whatever form of national ID, drivers license or whatever you have that is currently valid.
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Jul 31, 2012 10:11
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Saladman posted:Except that an expired passport is not valid ID. It's very possible that the desk clerk will not look or notice the expiration date; I guess since he already has the ticket he might as well try. I presumed OhYeah has valid id, I know expired passport isn't one.
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Jul 31, 2012 11:13
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Yoda posted:I'm pretty sure OhYeah lives in the Schengen so I doubt that it will be a problem. I'd say bring the passport just in case but also bring whatever form of national ID, drivers license or whatever you have that is currently valid. This is only true if he has permanent residency in Schengen; if he just has a working permit (e.g. B permit) then it is not an accepted form of ID for flying within Schengen and he'll need his passport and hope they don't check. Anyway I don't know what his legal situation is, maybe he's a permanent resident. Also unlike the US, a driver's license is not a valid form of ID for flying in Europe, for anyone.
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Jul 31, 2012 12:12
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transient posted:Thinking about a trip this coming (2013) summer and looking for feedback on whether this is pushing too far. Booking with reward points so I get an open jaw plus one layover. What do you want to do?..listing countries doesn't help that much. If you want to lie on the beach and look at turquoise water and drink beer then head for Turkey and Croatia. If you want to look at massive steel factories and see what communism does to a country, head to the Ukraine. Over all though, a long weekend is enough for Istanbul but you could easily spend 15 days just in Turkey and not run out of things to do.
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Jul 31, 2012 13:54
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PlantHead posted:What do you want to do?..listing countries doesn't help that much. Sorry, I don't think I was very clear. I'm more concerned about timing. Turkey is probably the only solid part of my trip and I'd like to add something else in while I'm already in that part of the world (and the plane tickets are free). I've looked into all of those places and would like to go to them all. Mostly I'm curious about the open jaw part. I've heard that it is difficult to get around over there (by land) so would something like taking trains between Istanbul to Dubrovnik leave me spending a ton of time in the train and less for exploring? Easier to get to Ukraine? etc. If anyone has traveled out of Istanbul towards the rest of Europe I'm interested in things like how they found it and what they did so I can determine how best to use my time.
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Jul 31, 2012 17:36
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transient posted:Sorry, I don't think I was very clear. I'm more concerned about timing. Turkey is probably the only solid part of my trip and I'd like to add something else in while I'm already in that part of the world (and the plane tickets are free). I've looked into all of those places and would like to go to them all. I don't know what's an 'open jaw' but I know that there's a) no railway reaching Dubrovnik and b) nobody from here (Croatia) ever goes to Istanbul by any means other than plane. Turkey > Greece > Albania > Montenegro > Croatia ... yes that would be a ton of time on train.
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Jul 31, 2012 19:40
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transient posted:Sorry, I don't think I was very clear. I'm more concerned about timing. Turkey is probably the only solid part of my trip and I'd like to add something else in while I'm already in that part of the world (and the plane tickets are free). I've looked into all of those places and would like to go to them all. Heard from an ex that took a train from Istanbul to Sofia (or maybe Plovdiv I don't remember) that the Turkish border was a total shitshow. Waking people up in the middle of the night, stopped in the middle of nowhere, no platforms or anything, and made people de-board, shaking down their luggage, and generally being total pricks to everyone they were checking in. They had ONE GUY stamping/checking passports at this particular stop for a fairly full international train. So maybe consider taking the daytime trains, if there are any. From what I just read on seat61 though, it looks like the Istanbul - (Bulgaria) train connection is all hosed up right now anyway and is partially serviced by bus. So that might be a huge pain in the rear end. __________________________________________________________ For myself, I'll be heading to Munich for 4 days (Sep 24-28) during Oktoberfest, then renting a car and driving to Salzburg (dad really wants to see it I guess) then on to Vienna perhaps, and I suggested we take the car and toodle on up to Prague. We're planning on having the car the whole time, so going to out of the way places is no issue. We have to have the car back and be ready to depart again from Munich on the morning of 4 October, but aside from the drive from Munich to Salzburg, nothing else is an absolute. Chilling, visiting breweries/monasteries, awesome drives/scenery, eating local and a bit of good walking around cities is what we're in it for. Dad doesn't do clubs, but loves some good beer and good places to sit and people watch. Insider tips on Munich? Hanging out in the tents will be fun for the first two days maybe, but then my liver and my tolerance for drunks will probably have disappeared. Suggestions for Austria/Czech? Drives/routes? I'm not asking all this to give nothing in return, as I've got a bunch of tips here and there from each potential stop that I'll share, but I don't have access to it at the moment.
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Jul 31, 2012 19:50
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FaceEater posted:Suggestions for Austria/Czech? Drives/routes? I'm not asking all this to give nothing in return, as I've got a bunch of tips here and there from each potential stop that I'll share, but I don't have access to it at the moment. I just drove around Austria, Salzburg was my favorite city by far, beautiful beautiful old town. Easy to walk, and not too "touristy". From Salzburg you can go the northern route via Linz (I took it) to Vienna and visit Mauthausen concentration camp memorial if you are interested in that sort of thing. I'd suggest it strongly. There is pretty much a non stop highway from Salzburg to Vienna and very little traffic. Or you can check out Salzkammergut, swerve a little south from the highway and check out the scenery there. Lot's of little towns, beer, mountains, mountain lakes, beer. Never been there but some say it's the best part of Austria. Remember to get a vignette to your car before heading into Austrian highways. You can get one at German border and (I think) every petrol station sells them.
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Aug 1, 2012 07:29
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Ok so I'm going to change flights in Istanbul Turkey this september and the flight change time is about 18 hours or so so I have like from 8-9 in the morning to 2-3 in the evening to explore Istanbul and about the same on my way home. Now this is way too little time to actually enjoy Istanbul seeing as I've never been there before so I probably will only have time to see one thing each time. So do anyone have any good tips for things to see. I tried checking out wiki travel but there's so much stuff to parse through it's hard to pinpoint one or two things I should do. All the scam warnings also scare me and I don't want to be too scared when I'm going there although it's a good idea to know about it.
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Aug 1, 2012 12:47
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Nyagato posted:Ok so I'm going to change flights in Istanbul Turkey this september and the flight change time is about 18 hours or so so I have like from 8-9 in the morning to 2-3 in the evening to explore Istanbul and about the same on my way home. I found the Istanbul airport to be very busy, and a bit overwhelming initially. Every person who works at car rental/hotel kiosks and tour guide kiosks are completely stereotypical snake-oil salesman. Even though this is the case, I found they can be very helpful, and they make stuff happen quick if you want. Realistically, I would probably recommend setting up a day tour or half day tour through this travel agency: http://www.backpackerstravel.net/Istanbul-Guided-Walking-Tour-backpackersmenu6876435897436-kod5-tid2-turid8 If you don't want a guided tour, I would definitely recommend you at least book an airport transfer from them to where you want to go. I'd go to the Old City (specifically the Hippodrome) from where you can easily walk to the Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia and Topkapi Palace. I would just walk around the area, there are lots of interesting things.
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Aug 1, 2012 15:42
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Kashwashwa posted:I found the Istanbul airport to be very busy, and a bit overwhelming initially. Thanks! The link to the travel agency actually helped a lot with what I want to see and such. I'm still not sure if I actually want a guided tour because I usualy don't like that sort of thing but it might be nice to do that once in a while as well I guess. I didn't know much when I ordered the hotel for the first night I'm there sĺ it ended up being far away from everything it seems, but I still haven't booked a hotel for the second time so I guess I can find a hotel that I can get a pickup for a guided tour the next time and use the first to just explore. Is it hard to get to places from the airport without the airport shuttle? It costs 25€ to my hotel which seems like a lot. I'm just pasing by Istanbul so this isn't really where I want to use my money. Also I want to find a nice gift for my girlfriend when I'm pasing by Istanbul, is there something that's recomended to buy here?
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Aug 1, 2012 16:02
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Nyagato posted:Thanks! The link to the travel agency actually helped a lot with what I want to see and such. I'm still not sure if I actually want a guided tour because I usualy don't like that sort of thing but it might be nice to do that once in a while as well I guess. Where is your hotel located? I found that the travel agency was as cheap or cheaper than a taxi, and they treat you like a boss. If you were planning on using public transit (the bus) - just keep in mind that logistically it is a bit more complicated and you may have to walk a decent bit to get to your hotel, which could be a huge pain if you have much luggage.
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Aug 1, 2012 16:28
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I'm going to be spending a week in Florence (Firenze?), Italy on a school trip and will have lots of free time, including a free weekend. I've been told Florence is a pretty small city, but does anyone have any suggestions on what's good to do there? Is it worth taking a day trip to a neighboring city as well? This will be my first time in Italy, so any pointers on Italian culture, foods, or do's-and-dont's would be very appreciated. Thanks!
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Aug 1, 2012 22:38
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cementsocks posted:I'm going to be spending a week in Florence (Firenze?), Italy on a school trip and will have lots of free time, including a free weekend. I've been told Florence is a pretty small city, but does anyone have any suggestions on what's good to do there? Is it worth taking a day trip to a neighboring city as well? This will be my first time in Italy, so any pointers on Italian culture, foods, or do's-and-dont's would be very appreciated. Even if you aren't particularly fond of art, go to the Galleria dell'Accademia and see Michelangelo's David. It's breathtakingly impressive to see and definately worth checking out. If you're not claustrophobic or severely unfit, climb to the top of the Duomo for an amazing view of the city. Go to Pizzeria O'Vesuvio and eat some truly radical pizza. There are gelato shops everywhere, eat as much of this as possible because they are all fabulous! There's a place near the Galleria dell'Accademia where you can hire a segway and explore the city that way, but it's not a big place and you'll find it pretty easy to navigate by foot. We took a day trip from Florence to Venice, but I can't say I would recommend this to other people unless you have money to burn. Yes, it's Venice and it's romantic and St Mark's is huge and full of loot... but IMO it's a ridiculously expensive tourist trap and I was glad we were only there for a day. As for pointers on culture... all I can think of is don't handle any food you see in supermarkets unless you are picking it up to put it in your shopping basket, and in a trattoria don't order an entree plus a main as unless you're a hambeast because you won't be able to eat it all on your own.
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Aug 2, 2012 08:32
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bee posted:We took a day trip from Florence to Venice, but I can't say I would recommend this to other people unless you have money to burn. Yes, it's Venice and it's romantic and St Mark's is huge and full of loot... but IMO it's a ridiculously expensive tourist trap and I was glad we were only there for a day. I was going to suggest Pisa also. It's relatively close, only 95% as much of a tourist trap as Venice, and then you can go up the Leaning Tower. Florence is one of the biggest tourist trap cities in Italy, just after Venice, so it shouldn't be too jarring unless getting yelled at by Africans who want you to buy "real" Prada gear on the street sends you into conniptions.
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Aug 2, 2012 09:06
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I have four days booked in a hostel in Dublin and am looking at spending another week after that in Ireland. Any suggestions about places to go and things to do would be great. I am pretty happy to just explore cities by walking around, stopping at places for a bite as I do, that sort of thing.
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Aug 2, 2012 10:54
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FaceEater posted:
Just outside Munich on the S-bahn is a monastery called Andechs, they sell beer and good food and you can look at the lake, it is a nice afternoon out. King Ludwig's castles are all worth visiting...but if you drive to Salzburg you will go past the Cheimsee which has Herrenchiemsee on an island in the middle of the lake. Well worth a visit. The Deutsche Museum in Munich on the river is brilliant if you like engineering and even if you don't it is a fun place. Something to bear in mind is that if you drive to Vienna and also to Prague you will be spending a lot of time in the car. Vienna is a good 7-8 hours from Munich.
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Aug 2, 2012 11:04
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transient posted:Sorry, I don't think I was very clear. I'm more concerned about timing. Turkey is probably the only solid part of my trip and I'd like to add something else in while I'm already in that part of the world (and the plane tickets are free). I've looked into all of those places and would like to go to them all. http://www.seat61.com/ Will tell you everything you need to know about taking trains. Generally though you will probably be looking at using buses a lot if you don't want to fly. If you wanted to just go up the coast towards Croatia from Turkey you could do that by ferry and it would a pretty cool trip, stopping at the coastal cities on the way up.
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Aug 2, 2012 11:20
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bee posted:Even if you aren't particularly fond of art, go to the Galleria dell'Accademia and see Michelangelo's David. It's breathtakingly impressive to see and definately worth checking out. If you're not claustrophobic or severely unfit, climb to the top of the Duomo for an amazing view of the city. Go to Pizzeria O'Vesuvio and eat some truly radical pizza. There are gelato shops everywhere, eat as much of this as possible because they are all fabulous! There's a place near the Galleria dell'Accademia where you can hire a segway and explore the city that way, but it's not a big place and you'll find it pretty easy to navigate by foot. Thanks a ton! This is exactly the kind of reply I'd hoped for. I'm 21 and in great shape so I'll probably do all of this except for the Segway.
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Aug 2, 2012 22:10
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Saladman posted:I was going to suggest Pisa also. It's relatively close, only 95% as much of a tourist trap as Venice, and then you can go up the Leaning Tower. Florence might be a bit of a tourist trap (for a good reason) but Pisa is a dump and I would never suggest going there to begin with, let alone throwing away a whole day. Stick to Florence when in doubt.
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Aug 3, 2012 00:41
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Dj Vulvio posted:Florence might be a bit of a tourist trap (for a good reason) but Pisa is a dump and I would never suggest going there to begin with, let alone throwing away a whole day. Stick to Florence when in doubt. Yeah, everything outside the Leaning Tower-Duomo-Area-whatever-it's-called is a total pit. Florence is nice. I guess if you're only in Florence for one week it's not worth the day trip, but I thought going up the leaning tower was pretty cool.
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Aug 3, 2012 09:00
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Saladman posted:This is only true if he has permanent residency in Schengen; if he just has a working permit (e.g. B permit) then it is not an accepted form of ID for flying within Schengen and he'll need his passport and hope they don't check. Anyway I don't know what his legal situation is, maybe he's a permanent resident. If anyone cares, I already live in the schengen zone and I made it through to france. No one took a close look at my id card.
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Aug 3, 2012 11:37
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OhYeah posted:If anyone cares, I already live in the schengen zone and I made it through to france. No one took a close look at my id card. What type of ID card was it? I was refused flying using a Schengen "B" permit, them saying I needed another form of ID if using a residence permit, and they did not accept a country-matching driver's license as a valid form of ID nor a scanned copy of my passport. Maybe EasyJet is just run by assholes, since airport security seemed fine with it.
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Aug 3, 2012 12:19
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PlantHead posted:Something to bear in mind is that if you drive to Vienna and also to Prague you will be spending a lot of time in the car. Vienna is a good 7-8 hours from Munich. Hell driving is half the fun of what we're after. Top Gear's forays around the continent have given us huge delusions of grandeur about that area's scenery/roads so we'll be loving every minute of the drives, too.
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Aug 3, 2012 19:44
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FaceEater posted:Hell driving is half the fun of what we're after. Top Gear's forays around the continent have given us huge delusions of grandeur about that area's scenery/roads so we'll be loving every minute of the drives, too. Then make sure you don't take the autoroutes the whole time; regional highways are infinitely prettier than the unremarkable freeways. This will also increase your trip time a lot too, but it's worth doing it at least some of the time. And you'll need a GPS.
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Aug 3, 2012 21:48
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Saladman posted:What type of ID card was it? I was refused flying using a Schengen "B" permit, them saying I needed another form of ID if using a residence permit, and they did not accept a country-matching driver's license as a valid form of ID nor a scanned copy of my passport. Maybe EasyJet is just run by assholes, since airport security seemed fine with it. I have a national id card. Getting in and out of the UK can be a bother since they are not a member of the schengen agreement. I would not have dared to try this outside of the schengen zone.
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Aug 3, 2012 22:31
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