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Pookah posted:Like what? I'm not from there, but I'm pretty sure most things will be open; things generally don't start closing for Christmas until midday Christmas Eve. I was thinking shops, restaurants, etc. Not sure exactly. Thanks for the answer.
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Dec 18, 2013 19:57
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Next April I'm going on my honeymoon - well time is ticking down and haven't yet decided what to do. The primary idea was seattle and the west coast of America, but merely flying to the west coast is mega expensive, so maybe something closer to home (We're from the UK). One idea that I did have, and I think we'd both like, is the old romantic idea of the fancy train ride across europe...now, I've checked out those companies and the real rear end fancy trains are well out of our price range, (which would be...£2500 max combined? and I mean max. Well, maybe £3000 max if it's something REALLY fancy and worth not having any other holidays anytime soon) but I reckon we could make our own journey just using normal national rail. I understand there are some nice train journey's across Europe, sleeper trains etc. Now my idea would be to start in Paris, and end in Istanbul, and we'd have 10-14 days to do this. So pretty limited, probably only time to visit one or two places in between. Has anyone done anything like this? Would you recommend this based on our time limit and circumstances? Any particular places people would recommend or particular train journeys? mediadave fucked around with this message at 01:17 on Dec 19, 2013 |
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Dec 19, 2013 01:01
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Mortley posted:Well, thanks for the info; I understand better now and don't feel as ripped off. Possibly my favorite restaurant in the world is in Lisbon. It's called Estrella da Bica and it's right next to the Bica funicular. It's low-midrange priced (E5-10 per item) and the place itself has the atmosphere of a student place, but the food tastes and looks like something out of an ultra-high-end restaurant. You should definitely go there. Also it's worth the short commuter train rides out to get some of the pastel de nata (it's a custard mini-pie thing) from the famous bakery in Belem, and to see the Sintra palace, although Sintra is kind of overpriced. Don't bother paying to go in the Castle of St. George (the one in the middle of Lisbon itself), there's literally nothing inside the walls and you can see it just fine from the park and streets around it. And finally Lisbon has some particularly good hostel-based free walking tours. quote:Now my idea would be to start in Paris, and end in Istanbul, and we'd have 10-14 days to do this. So pretty limited, probably only time to visit one or two places in between. Don't do this, it will be miserable and pointlessly expensive. I'd recommend just going to Istanbul and Cappadoccia, that's a pretty great idea for a honeymoon. Or if you're attached to the train, just pick a smaller area to do it in. Also there ARE cheap ways to cross the US, you just have to know where to look. Check the Jet Blue and Virgin America sites for cross-country flights, you can often get them down to about $100-150 if you just pick the right airports (SFO-BOS in particular can often be found for under about $150/person). duralict fucked around with this message at 12:39 on Dec 19, 2013 |
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Dec 19, 2013 03:32
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mediadave posted:Next April I'm going on my honeymoon - well time is ticking down and haven't yet decided what to do. The primary idea was seattle and the west coast of America, but merely flying to the west coast is mega expensive, so maybe something closer to home (We're from the UK). It's expensive but not mega expensive. If you shop around and are a bit flexible, flights from europe to SFA or LA can sometimes be found for around £400. Your best bets are often Air France or KLM. Check holidaypirates.com, they usually link to the best deals.
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Dec 19, 2013 11:18
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mediadave posted:Next April I'm going on my honeymoon - well time is ticking down and haven't yet decided what to do. The primary idea was seattle and the west coast of America, but merely flying to the west coast is mega expensive, so maybe something closer to home (We're from the UK). If you only have <14 days keep in mind flying a big distance costs a lot of money AND time. I would recommend going somewhere near the mediterranean. Southern France is super nice, or maybe you'd prefer one of the Greek islands? Travelling via train isn't really that romantic outside of some touristy scenic rides, I'd advise against that. But what about going on a cruise ship?
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Dec 19, 2013 12:45
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Edit: doublepost
maskenfreiheit fucked around with this message at 02:03 on Mar 13, 2017 |
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Dec 19, 2013 17:37
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GregNorc posted:If I'm actually planning on doing cultural stuff (museums, Anne Frank house) and not just getting trashed 24/7, etc which location would be better - uptown or downtown? We stayed at the Downtown Flying Pig a few years ago. It was walking distance to Anne Frank house. We didn't hit any other museums that trip but there is a tram that will get you anywhere you need to go. Plus, the city isn't that big. You can walk pretty much anywhere.
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Dec 19, 2013 19:25
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Edit: doublepost
maskenfreiheit fucked around with this message at 02:03 on Mar 13, 2017 |
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Dec 19, 2013 21:48
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I'm looking to see if a trip like this is even doable. Me and my husband are going to have a good chunk of time (~6 months) between when he gets out of the Army and when we both start school. We will have a budget of hopefully about $10,000 and we wanted to go on a pretty lengthy Europe trip (obviously, we'd stay within the 3 month Schenegen limit since we're from the U.S.). It seems like flights are going to eat up a huge chunk of the budget though. Like, from Charlotte to Rome we were looking at $1,700 per ticket. Which is $3,400 for two which is like over 1/3 of our budget. That is if we left over the summer, which is obviously peak season, but even in like September/October it doesn't seem much cheaper. However, we're open to round trip from another city/country, so can anyone give me tips of where it's cheaper to fly into? It's much cheaper to fly to Heathrow in the UK--maybe we could do that, and then book a flight to Rome on Ryanair if it would shave several hundred dollars off? We don't have any airline miles, but maybe another option could be signing up for a credit card with miles and using the miles given for signup to book our trip, or at least knock some money off the fare. Other info: -We are totally fine with hostels since we're both in our 20's. -We have family in Rome and Sicily with whom we can stay--they'd actually probably insist we stay there. So thankfully, accomodation for the Italy leg of our trip is covered. -We were thinking about doing a HelpX in France or Germany for part of the trip as well, so free room and board in exchange for work. -I'm not so sure about CouchSurfing because of the fact that we are a couple, but maybe someone here can tell me differently? Anyways, I just wasn't sure if it can be done. We're good with living backpacker style though, eating street food, buying cheese, wine, and bread to eat rather than going to restaurants, etc. We would like private rooms in hostels every so often since we're married, but otherwise co-ed dorms should suffice. But we also want to be able to "live" a little too, a few nice dinners out, admission to some museums and whatever. Am I being realistic with a $10,000 budget? Also we can be flexible with how long we're over there too, 3 months might not be viable but 6 weeks might.
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Dec 19, 2013 22:56
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Definitely try other airports, Frankfurt or London, maybe also Paris. I think flights from NYC or Miami to London/Frankfurt can be had for <500€ if you get a good deal. Since you are travelling around anyway, it doesn't matter much where you start, right? For a cheap budget I would calculate with minimum 50€ per day. This means staying at hostels, eating mostly at cheap places or cooking yourself, not traveling too far/often and a pretty limited amount of money for sightseeing and going out.
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Dec 19, 2013 23:51
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Oh my god yes. 10k for three months? You won't be able to do luxury travel the entire time but with that budget you should be able to manage regular restaurant trips and stay in B&Bs most of the time, if you want to. And yes you can absolutely couchsurf as a couple, just make sure you both make profiles and send links to both when you send requests. Boston is almost always the cheapest airport in America for European connections, if you can get up there cheaply. I really advise booking your international and domestic flights separately, you're very likely to save hundreds of dollars that way. e: keep in mind that there's two of you and B&Bs price by room while hostels price by bed.
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Dec 20, 2013 00:11
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Yeah, it definitely doesn't matter where we arrive or depart from. I also don't mind nightmare flight itineraries; one I spotted on Expedia was like Charlotte --> Iceland --> London or something like that and took over 24 hours but for $600 or so per ticket, I'd say that's worth it. I'm open to all options, honestly. And Miami could be a good place to start from since we have family in Miami where we could crash before catching an outbound flight. e: mostly I just don't want a huge chunk of our money to go toward international flights. Once in Europe I would rather travel between countries by rail or bus. Hip Hoptimus Prime fucked around with this message at 00:15 on Dec 20, 2013 |
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Dec 20, 2013 00:13
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If you found a good deal involving an Iceland stopover, check the Iceland Air website too. They'll let you schedule up to a week as a layover on the same ticket, which translates to basically a free extra stop on your trip. I haven't done it yet because I haven't seen an IA ticket turn out within ~$200 of the British Airways or Portuguese carriers' prices but if you saw a good deal from them, it might actually be an even better deal than you realized.
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Dec 20, 2013 00:16
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London, Amsterdam, Paris and Frankfurt always seem to be the cheapest airports to fly into. Use Skyscanner.com to look for flights.
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Dec 20, 2013 00:20
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duralict posted:If you found a good deal involving an Iceland stopover, check the Iceland Air website too. They'll let you schedule up to a week as a layover on the same ticket, which translates to basically a free extra stop on your trip. I haven't done it yet because I haven't seen an IA ticket turn out within ~$200 of the British Airways or Portuguese carriers' prices but if you saw a good deal from them, it might actually be an even better deal than you realized. Wow, this is awesome to know. Thanks! Omits-Bagels posted:London, Amsterdam, Paris and Frankfurt always seem to be the cheapest airports to fly into. Use Skyscanner.com to look for flights. Paris was still pretty expensive, about $1,400 US per person, but I will check Amsterdam & Frankfurt. But, Paris is still like $600 cheaper total than Rome for two people. On a separate note, have any of you used Busabout while actually in Europe? I was looking at that too, as we want to meet people as part of our adventure too. We don't want to be an anti-social couple so long as every so often we have a private room to go back to at the end of the day. e: Direct flights Miami to Berlin were ~$1,000 per person. That's a little bit more doable than $1,700 to Rome. Actually, a lot more doable. It gives us $1,400 back in our budget. Hip Hoptimus Prime fucked around with this message at 00:51 on Dec 20, 2013 |
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Dec 20, 2013 00:26
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duralict posted:Oh my god yes. 10k for three months? You won't be able to do luxury travel the entire time but with that budget you should be able to manage regular restaurant trips and stay in B&Bs most of the time, if you want to. Uhm, that's about 40€ per day and person, without even taking the flight into account. Don't think you'll be able to afford a lot of restaurant visits on that kind of budget.
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Dec 20, 2013 01:33
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elbkaida posted:Uhm, that's about 40€ per day and person, without even taking the flight into account. Don't think you'll be able to afford a lot of restaurant visits on that kind of budget. I did it solo on about €30/day, and a couple can travel cheaper than two solo travelers. It's not luxury money but it's not knife-edge budget travel either.
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Dec 20, 2013 02:31
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Yeah, my husband and I did three months in Europe last year, stayed in apartments and not hostels, mostly cooked for ourselves but not entirely, and just stayed in the more expensive Western Europe (including three weeks in Finland and ten days in Iceland). I think we spent about 12k total, something along those lines.
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Dec 20, 2013 03:32
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Wow, you guys are good. I only manage to stay that low-budget when I'm out hiking or something. As soon as I hit cities the money just drains away.  I mean just paying for like two museums or other attractions per day can easily run you 10-15€ which is basically half a daily budget for you. Maybe my problem is that I move too often between cities, which runs up travel costs and makes me see to many expensive sights. 
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Dec 20, 2013 10:36
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duralict posted:And yes you can absolutely couchsurf as a couple, just make sure you both make profiles and send links to both when you send requests. You can also make a single account for you as a couple. That's what I did and it worked well.
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Dec 20, 2013 10:47
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Hip Hoptimus Prime posted:
Flying is almost always cheaper than taking the trains in Europe if the distance is longer than about 4 hours by train. EasyJet is worth paying a small premium on rather than taking Ryanair. Also with Ryanair watch out, they are incredible liars and they misrepresent where their airports are. For example, Ryanair has two "Paris" airports, one is 100 km from Paris, the other a whopping loving 160 kilometers away. This particularly bad, but also not an exception, their "Dusseldorf" airport is 80 km away, etc. Many of their flights do actually go to the city they say they do, but just check carefully. Buses are cheap but miserably long. Personally I've never favored saving €50 over taking a 18 hour bus ride vs. a 90 minute flight, but YMMV. Saladman fucked around with this message at 10:51 on Dec 20, 2013 |
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Dec 20, 2013 10:48
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After hitchhiking busses are definitely the cheapest way to get around for trips to neighbouring countries. I don't recommend it, but if you're on a really tight budget it's definitely the way to go. Check Eurolines and megabus. It sometimes saves you a night in a hostel as well. With just about any local flight, make sure to check how much it is to get from the airport to the city. It ranges from really cheap (Amsterdam for example) to really expensive. I've flown Amsterdam to Oslo and back for under a hundred euro, but a single for the train from the airport to the city tags on another 20something twice.
Rojkir fucked around with this message at 12:19 on Dec 20, 2013 |
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Dec 20, 2013 12:13
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Omits-Bagels posted:London, Amsterdam, Paris and Frankfurt always seem to be the cheapest airports to fly into. Use Skyscanner.com to look for flights. Coincidentally these are the airports with the largest volume. Higher volume is almost always cheaper (not counting regional airports).
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Dec 20, 2013 17:03
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Sooo... I'm a Canadian, and I just got confirmation that my Youth Mobility visa was approved. Looks like I'll be living in the UK for the next two years! Starting in Kent (Maidstone in particular), and maybe from there moving a little closer to London depending on job situation. What do I need to know?
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Dec 20, 2013 17:09
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Say goodbye to proper winters and hello to depressing grey.
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Dec 20, 2013 19:56
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Edit: doublepost
maskenfreiheit fucked around with this message at 02:03 on Mar 13, 2017 |
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Dec 20, 2013 21:20
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GregNorc posted:But does this mean more delays? I often have to fly through ORD in Chicago, and it feels like a gamble every time I have a connection there. Someplace like say, San Jose or Pittsburgh seems to be more reliable. Only if there's a volcano or a snowstorm. I fly pretty often and have never been delayed more than an hour. Knock on wood.
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Dec 21, 2013 01:00
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Pablo Bluth posted:Say goodbye to proper winters and hello to depressing grey. Man, I'll take that over the freezing rain storms.
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Dec 21, 2013 16:33
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Forearm posted:Go with JetPak Alternative in Berlin and Flying Pig (either Uptown or Downtown) in Amsterdam. Hey, I just booked Jetpak Alternative yesterday and then read this. Cool, it looked like the type of place I was looking for. Settled on my trip and I've booked everything (I usually like to keep things open ended but it keeps costs down a lot and I don't want to spend time researching hostels and trains while i'm there) Prague Dec24-Dec29 Budapest Dec30-Jan6 Bratislava/Vienna Jan6-Jan8 Krakow Jan8-Jan13 (with a side trip to Katowice and Auschwitz) Berlin Jan14-Jan20 Istanbul Jan21-Jan27 I wanted to squeeze in Sofia and or Bucharest but decided it wasn't worth 1-2 more huge train rides when neither had anything must see to me and it was getting to close to filling up the passport territory for me. One question I do have, any recommendations on possible daytrips from Berlin or Istanbul? I know both have plenty to do, but particularly in Turkey I wouldn't mind seeing something else too. Is Edirne or Bursa worth checking out? I'm guessing the beach based towns nearby will be dead in January? Any other ideas?
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Dec 21, 2013 16:58
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Edit: doublepost
maskenfreiheit fucked around with this message at 02:03 on Mar 13, 2017 |
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Dec 21, 2013 17:20
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GregNorc posted:Isn't Jetpak kind of of in the midddle of nowhere? The reviews I read said it was far from transit. Jetpak is in kreuzberg which is closer to a lot of the night life and in the more "hip" area of Berlin but farther from most of the typical tourist stuff. I personally don't mind having a bit of a journey to get to the big sights during the day and then being able to stumble home at night, and being outside the city center tourist bubble is nice. Wombats was the other hostel I was looking at but I don't usually like giant hostels and traveling solo, the social environment of a hostel matters a lot to me and jetpak alt sounded more like what I was looking for.
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Dec 21, 2013 17:27
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Cobalt Chloride posted:Sooo... I'm a Canadian, and I just got confirmation that my Youth Mobility visa was approved. Looks like I'll be living in the UK for the next two years! Starting in Kent (Maidstone in particular), and maybe from there moving a little closer to London depending on job situation. Why Maidstone? Its a pretty unremarkable place.
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Dec 21, 2013 17:43
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G-Hawk posted:Jetpak is in kreuzberg which is closer to a lot of the night life and in the more "hip" area of Berlin but farther from most of the typical tourist stuff. I personally don't mind having a bit of a journey to get to the big sights during the day and then being able to stumble home at night, and being outside the city center tourist bubble is nice. Wombats was the other hostel I was looking at but I don't usually like giant hostels and traveling solo, the social environment of a hostel matters a lot to me and jetpak alt sounded more like what I was looking for. Yeah, this is exactly right, I've stayed at Wombats in other cities and it's hit or miss depending on who you meet. One of the reasons I like Jetpak is it is a communal travel experience with people you meet. You go to breakfast and talk to people and mention what you are doing that day and invite them to join and they do as well. At bigger hostels its harder to do that and has bigger groups traveling together who are anti-social. To Mitte it is about 20 minutes or so which isn't a big deal and Kruezburg is where a lot of cool stuff happens at night, the staff will give a lot of tips too. Ask Julian what night Edelwies goes off, that's not to be missed.
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Dec 22, 2013 02:02
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maskenfreiheit fucked around with this message at 20:58 on Apr 28, 2019 |
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Dec 22, 2013 21:15
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GregNorc posted:Isn't Jetpak kind of of in the midddle of nowhere? The reviews I read said it was far from transit. I stayed at Wombats this summer and it was a pleasant experience. The rooftop bar is pretty cool but unfortunately the patio closes at sundown. Having a washer and dryer downstairs was convenient. The wifi kinda sucks though. Honestly I didn't even take the metro since everything we did was within walking distance. IIRC, the TV tower was about a 10 minute walk (which is where the Fat Tire bike tour starts-highly recommended).
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Dec 23, 2013 09:47
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Seconding the Fat Tire bike tour in Berlin!
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Dec 23, 2013 12:00
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Neris posted:Seconding the Fat Tire bike tour in Berlin! Third. We are very seasoned travelers, but found the maze of information and sights in Berlin pretty overwhelming. This tour was a nice primer to the city and gave us ideas on what we wanted to come back to. Berlin is pretty cool. We stayed on the hotel wing of Plus Hotel and Hostel Berlin that was suggested by another goon. We, as a young (27 and 33) married couple liked it.
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Dec 23, 2013 14:47
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GregNorc posted:I'm mostly looking into historical stuff from East Berlin. Checkpoint charlie, Stasi museum, etc. And techno at night. Check out the Deutsches-Russisches Museum near S-Karlshorst on the S3. It's incidentally also the building where the final surrender was signed. Edit: for nigthclubs, my friends raved about Tresor and Berghein (in Friedrichshain I think), but I never went there. Jerry Manderbilt fucked around with this message at 04:22 on Dec 24, 2013 |
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Dec 23, 2013 22:05
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Jerry Manderbilt posted:Check out the Deutsches-Russisches Museum near S-Karlshorst on the S3. It's incidentally also the building where the final surrender was signed. I thought the DDR museum was kind of interesting. It basically shows what it was like living in the 70s and 80s in Eastern Germany.
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Dec 23, 2013 23:14
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Omits-Bagels posted:I thought the DDR museum was kind of interesting. It basically shows what it was like living in the 70s and 80s in Eastern Germany. Yes. Definitely do this one. I thought it was really well done.
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Dec 23, 2013 23:18
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