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dms666 posted:I'm going to Germany for a week but have to fly out of Paris, so I'm going to spend 2-3 days there at the end of my trip. I'm looking for some advice on dinner, since I'd like to have at least once nice dinner with my girlfriend. I saw that you can get 3 course meals for around $35 a person. I also didn't know if I'd be fine just wearing a dress shirt and pants, wasn't planning packing a jacket, can bring a tie if necessary. Just looking for some recommendations for a nicer affordable dining experience, doesn't have to be a Michelin Star restaurant, since that is probably way out of my price range. Maybe a nice lunch is a better option? Nowhere* in Paris (or Europe) requires anything fancier than slacks and a dress shirt. Jeans are sometimes banned and shorts/sandals are frequently banned from nicer restaurants. Also, drat, I've spent a bunch of time in Paris for work and for vacation and can't think of a single memorable dining experience. Eating in the Latin Quarter is fun (it's lively) but the foodquality-to-price ratio is pretty bad. Hmm.. Ladurée would be a nice place for lunch. It's right next to la Madeleine -- the big Greek temple church north of the Louvre. Get dessert if you go there since that's the main point. They're a chain store for their desserts, but I've never seen them serve food at any location except that one, not that I've exhaustively been to Ladurées across Europe. *though maybe there's some gimmick "Tuxedo only" restaurant somewhere.
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Dec 5, 2014 09:28
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There are plenty of places on tripadvisor to choose from: http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurants-g187147-Paris_Ile_de_France.html I had a really nice Moroccan meal here but that was about 6-7 years ago and it seems to be getting mediocre reviews these days: http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g187147-d950926-Reviews-La_Maison_de_Charly-Paris_Ile_de_France.html My friend is a travel writer in Paris and she's got a list of restaurants here: http://www.sleep-eat-paris.com/paris-dining-reviews/ She also has quick reviews in her newsletters sometimes.
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Dec 5, 2014 10:19
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Saladman posted:Nowhere* in Paris (or Europe) requires anything fancier than slacks and a dress shirt. Requiring a jacket for dinner isn't unusual or gimmicky, in Europe or elsewhere. It's worth double-checking in advance for a nicer restaurant.
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Dec 5, 2014 16:33
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AreWeDrunkYet posted:Requiring a jacket for dinner isn't unusual or gimmicky, in Europe or elsewhere. It's worth double-checking in advance for a nicer restaurant. Yes it is. I eat out all the time including in quite nice restaurants with dress codes and I've literally never heard of a jacket being required. Esquire even has an article about it. Looks like a few gimmick restaurants in NYC still require it. http://www.esquire.com/blogs/mens-fashion/jacket-required-restaurant-dress-code-0813
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Dec 5, 2014 17:02
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Thanks for the info.
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Dec 5, 2014 19:28
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Just booked a flight to AMS, leaving 3/11 coming back 3/23. Only paid $507 since I used my rewards points from my credit card to cover the rest. I'm going to pick up the Rick Steves' book and a Copenhagen guide - I'm thinking something like 7 days in Amsterdam (with day trips), 4 days in Copenhagen. While I'm still considering Belgium as my second trip, I don't want to split my trip up into TOO many cities.
actionjackson fucked around with this message at 21:13 on Dec 5, 2014 |
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Dec 5, 2014 21:11
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Hey would you guys recommend using airbnb at all? It would definitely save me a decent amount. I found a bunch of private rooms in various people's homes for <75 USD/night. example: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/442350?checkin=03%2F12%2F2015&checkout=03%2F19%2F2015
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Dec 6, 2014 04:02
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actionjackson posted:Hey would you guys recommend using airbnb at all? It would definitely save me a decent amount. I found a bunch of private rooms in various people's homes for <75 USD/night. Realize you're going to be missing some amenities and try to research the neighborhood you will be staying in.
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Dec 6, 2014 04:22
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Yeah for sure. Honestly I really care about is a private bed, bathroom and wi-fi. It does seem like a cool way to get to know a local(s).
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Dec 6, 2014 04:26
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I stayed in Vienna for like €30/night that way. It was a small room in some guy's apartment and I only saw the guy when I arrived and when I returned the key, but that was fine by me. There's no guarantee of getting to know a local, that's more of a Couchsurfing thing. There are lots of airbnb apartments in Amsterdam, there are a lot of people who own many places with automatic access systems and make lots of money off it so you might not even see anyone. It's a big thing here so you should be able to find something.
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Dec 6, 2014 15:07
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I've been looking at https://www.homeaway.com which, at least from cursory searches so far, seems to run cheaper than stuff on AirBNB. The stuff seems less rent-a-room-from-a-guy and more people with spare apartments they're trying to make some money off of.
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Dec 6, 2014 16:40
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I am posting from Istanbul and staying in an AirBnB apartment right now. Definitely research the area first - we're near Taksim Square which I assumed would be good for eating, drinking etc but the Old City is better for that plus it has the major tourist attractions. Still it's good for shopping and the food places stay open late so it's all good. We met the guy who owns the apartment once when we arrived and haven't seen him since, although he said to give us a call if we had any problems or needed help. I think most of the places on airbnb are actually private landlords not just people going away for a week or whatever, so it's really just like a cheap hotel with no amenities (plenty of shops around though). This may not be the same for house-share bookings obviously. Still I recommend it - we wouldn't get our own apartment and kitchen for anywhere near the same price if we were in a hotel. I'm looking into using it when we go to Ankara on Monday, although when we go onto Izmir we'll probably get a hotel so at least the desk guy can tell us how the buses work etc. For a major city though you can do that all online so it's all good. The owner doesn't get your money until you leave either (AirBnB hold it until you tell them you checked in alright and it was all fine) so the chances of extra charges for hot water, WiFi etc are slim to none.
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Dec 6, 2014 19:16
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actionjackson posted:For the Netherlands, what cities would your recommend for day train trips? I'll already go to The Hague, but the only other major cities I know of are Rotterdam and Utrecht. Also for Denmark, I'm wondering about checking out Malmo, Sweden since it's just across the water. Are there any other interesting cities within a <1 hour train ride from Copenhagen? The Hague is boring. Rotterdam has great nightlife, but the Huns leveled the center in one air raid in 1940, and it's not pretty. Groningen is a lively town with a huge student population. Delft and Leiden are pretty. Schevenigen has awesome beach parties in the summer, but not by April yet. Antwerp is over in Belgium, traditional capital of Flanders, and my favorite city in the area. I'm also a big fan of Haarlem, which is practically a suburb of Amsterdam. Same architecture, but hardly any tourists. Amsterdam is a total tourist trap, and can get wearysome for it. Malmo is a dump with really tense race relations. Go to Roskilde instead, a half-hour from Copenhagen. Copenhagen is a super nice city, way better than Stockholm. It's expensive, but has good backpacker infrastructure. Hamburg is a lot of fun, if Amsterdam isn't raunchy enough for you. TheImmigrant fucked around with this message at 19:28 on Dec 6, 2014 |
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Dec 6, 2014 19:25
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Well The Hague has the MC Escher museum so I'm going there no matter what  Thanks for the suggestions on Roskilde and Haarlem.
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Dec 6, 2014 21:23
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Utrecht is pretty cool too. Rotterdam is nice if you're into architecture or just getting bored with the canals, but Den Haag has that partially covered too. Den Bosch, Tilburg and Maastricht are also cool but far. Good food, too.
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Dec 7, 2014 03:53
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duckmaster posted:We met the guy who owns the apartment once when we arrived and haven't seen him since, although he said to give us a call if we had any problems or needed help. I think most of the places on airbnb are actually private landlords not just people going away for a week or whatever, so it's really just like a cheap hotel with no amenities (plenty of shops around though). This may not be the same for house-share bookings obviously. Eh.. it might be like that sometimes, but I've probably booked 20 places AirBNB, and usually I find out it's the person's old apartment/house and they want to keep it for sentimental reasons/to give to their children/whatever. Maybe this is what you meant though. I've never stayed in a 'full apartment' that the person was actually living in at any point in the last many months. But yeah a lot of the time they've moved all their nice stuff into their new house/apartment and just buy the cheapest Ikea everything to put in the apartment you're staying in. E: In retrospect this might be exactly what you meant. Saladman fucked around with this message at 11:15 on Dec 7, 2014 |
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Dec 7, 2014 11:12
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actionjackson posted:For the Netherlands, what cities would your recommend for day train trips? I'll already go to The Hague, but the only other major cities I know of are Rotterdam and Utrecht. Also for Denmark, I'm wondering about checking out Malmo, Sweden since it's just across the water. Are there any other interesting cities within a <1 hour train ride from Copenhagen? My shortlist that I would advice to tourists in my country: The Hague (boring as a city itself IMO, but a lot of various things are situated there depending on your interests. Amsterdam, pretty cool city and gets better depending on what people want to see. Utrecht: Just a nice city with plenty of things to do. Rotterdam to a lesser degree, very dependent on time/interests. Breda, nothing too special really but it's a cool city with some nice history and it's my hometown.  Places to avoid: Leiden: I just hate Leiden, bunch of high-horsed elitist prick students ruin an otherwise pretty cool town.
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Dec 7, 2014 14:36
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I used to make shopping trips to Breda while living in Brussels, since Roosendaal has no coffeeshops.
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Dec 7, 2014 16:18
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Thanks, anywhere in the northern part of the country that is particularly scenic? Historic Triangle?
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Dec 8, 2014 08:09
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In the Netherlands? If you like lakes and islands and swamps, sure! Cities and towns, not as much. You could check out the historic but small Frisian cities (Sneek, Franeker, or something on the southwest coast), or there is Groningen. The Bourtange border fort is also nice, or Giethoorn, a village with canals instead of streets. I mean, the towns and villages can be really nice there, but they're small. For natural stuff (though all our nature is fake) check out the national parks in the area, they are pretty much the highlights of places where not many people live. Entropist fucked around with this message at 17:40 on Dec 8, 2014 |
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Dec 8, 2014 17:36
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Groningen sounds cool, but might be a longer train ride than I really want (2.5 hours each way). What about Hoorn or Enkhuizen? Something on the coast. Actually the latter sounds pretty neat from what I've checked out so far. Any other cities in Denmark besides Roskilde worth checking out (leaving from Copenhagen of course). Right now I'm going to buy a planet ticket on SAS, but I want to decide how to split up my time between Netherlands and Denmark. I could do 8/3, 7/4, or 6/5 days. actionjackson fucked around with this message at 20:09 on Dec 8, 2014 |
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Dec 8, 2014 19:42
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actionjackson posted:Groningen sounds cool, but might be a longer train ride than I really want (2.5 hours each way). I'd just use Copenhagen as a base and do daytrips. Getting to Roskilde from København H (the main station) takes about half an hour. If you do want to check out Helsingør or Louisana, I'd do so from Copenhagen, as well. No other cities immediately come to mind that I think are an absolute must (Aarhus is nice, but also two islands over and not really on the way to anywhere, unless you are on the way down to Hamburg via Train).
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Dec 8, 2014 20:09
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Yeah that was my plan, just any cities that aren't too far by train from Copenhagen that are interesting. I did consider Aarhus as it was the only other city I had heard of before, but way too far (almost three hours by train) for a daytrip.
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Dec 8, 2014 20:48
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actionjackson posted:Yeah that was my plan, just any cities that aren't too far by train from Copenhagen that are interesting. I did consider Aarhus as it was the only other city I had heard of before, but way too far (almost three hours by train) for a daytrip. Skip the flight, take the train and hit Hamburg. Nothing in Denmark is that interesting outside of summer, and Sweden is just Sweden. Hamburg is really cool.
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Dec 8, 2014 22:14
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Eh, Denmark is always a country I wanted to visit, and the flight is only 1.5 hours (and cheaper than taking the train round trip).
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Dec 8, 2014 22:54
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Saladman posted:Eh.. it might be like that sometimes, but I've probably booked 20 places AirBNB, and usually I find out it's the person's old apartment/house and they want to keep it for sentimental reasons/to give to their children/whatever. Maybe this is what you meant though. I've never stayed in a 'full apartment' that the person was actually living in at any point in the last many months. Yep that's what I meant - there's no personal items, clutter, ornaments etc, just functional stuff like you'd expect in a hotel room plus maybe some potted plants and cheap artwork for colour. This might be what some people want and some don't - I think couchsurfing sites are different in this way to AirBnB. Again, unless it's a houseshare with the host.
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Dec 12, 2014 16:59
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I'm flying on tuesday to Lisbon, then i need to catch a train at around either 20:05 or at 21:30 from Oriente, and my flight arrives at Lisbon airport at 19:00. Barring any delays, do you guys think i make it in time for the 20:05 train, if i take the subway to Oriente from the airport? edit: Maybe a bad question, it's all contingent on how long the baggage claim takes, and possible delays. I'll just have to find out while i'm there. Falukorv fucked around with this message at 23:57 on Dec 14, 2014 |
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Dec 14, 2014 23:00
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Falukorv posted:I'm flying on tuesday to Lisbon, then i need to catch a train at around either 20:05 or at 21:30 from Oriente, and my flight arrives at Lisbon airport at 19:00. schoenfelder fucked around with this message at 09:20 on Dec 15, 2014 |
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Dec 15, 2014 08:59
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Planning a trip away with my girlfriend for a Christmas present in January. We've both been to the usual suspects, Rome, Paris, Milan etc. Looking into Spain and trying to decide between Barcelona and Madrid. It'll only be for a weekend. Any recommendations on which city would be best for a couples weekend? Would mainly be sight seeing, nightlife matters a little but not going to be out till 4am.
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Dec 18, 2014 00:58
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schoenfelder posted:A few weeks ago it took me about 30 minutes from the moment of touchdown to getting out of the subway at Oriente but that was on an inner-Schengen flight so no passport control and only with hand luggage so YMMV as you said. Thanks. It became moot anyway as i stayed a couple of days in Lisbon in my aunts place before heading up north. But the flight was 10 minutes early, and grabbing my baggage and reaching the metro took 30 minutes, so i would have made it (i had 40 minutes to get to the train in Oriente when i was at the airport metro).
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Dec 20, 2014 02:26
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I haven't been to Spain in almost 15 years, but my vote would be for Madrid. Barcelona was a dirty tourist trap beach town in comparison.
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Dec 20, 2014 03:19
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Girlfriend is spending a week (including New Year's) in Milan. What should I tell her to do/see that isn't obvious? The cheaper, the better.
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Dec 26, 2014 04:05
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Is Jordaan a cool place to hang out in Amsterdam? I found a airbnb listing for $63/night there. It says it's right by the Anne Frank house, which I could just walk to from the train station (it's about 0.9 miles).
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Dec 27, 2014 01:29
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Yeah. It´s a nice area with lots of restaurants, and still within walking distance from the center. It´s a maze of small streets and pretty nice to walk around in, too. You can try the Dutch food at Winkel 43, or the pancake bakery near the Anne Frank house. The Jordaan is a bit less touristy than the actual center, locals hang out there a lot too.
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Dec 27, 2014 02:07
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Alright we've been in Oslo for a few days now and I can't decide if the public transportation here is particularly confusing or if I'm just profoundly stupid. We've had to ask for directions a few times, and more often than not the directions aren't at all right (or I'm completely misunderstanding them). It doesn't really matter in the end, we did eventually manage to do what we came here to do, I just can't decide if I'm really this rusty on the travel thing. Also, poo poo's unbelievably expensive, but we knew that coming in. If anyone's wondering what the new Norwegian Air Dreamliner experience is like, I will say it's definitely one of the most comfortable flights I've had in a very long time.
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Dec 27, 2014 09:24
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actionjackson posted:Is Jordaan a cool place to hang out in Amsterdam? I found a airbnb listing for $63/night there. It says it's right by the Anne Frank house, which I could just walk to from the train station (it's about 0.9 miles). The Jordaan is one of my favorite areas of Amsterdam. The city can be pretty sleazy and touristy in the area around Centraal Station and Dam Square, with lots of sex tourists, druggies, pickpockets, and chavs. The Jordaan is close to the center, but quieter and not scuzzy. There are lots of brown cafes where you can sip jenever and beer and read a book quietly, or chat with locals. One of my favorite restaurants in the world - Morlang - is a short walk south on Keisersgracht. TheImmigrant fucked around with this message at 15:20 on Dec 27, 2014 |
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Dec 27, 2014 14:36
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actionjackson posted:Is Jordaan a cool place to hang out in Amsterdam? I found a airbnb listing for $63/night there. It says it's right by the Anne Frank house, which I could just walk to from the train station (it's about 0.9 miles). If you want to go to the Anne Frank House, buy a ticket online in advance. On some days, there is a line all the way around the square and to the next bridge. You can join a shorter line if you have an online ticket. They're limited to a certain number, though.
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Dec 27, 2014 14:54
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Cool thanks dudes
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Dec 27, 2014 18:41
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The place is on Anjeliersstraat, right by a restaurant called De Bolhoed, which appeals to me since I'm a vegetarian. There's also a place nearby called "Pancakes!" Also I found out about a falafel chain called Maoz. Any other vegetarian recommendations welcome.
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Dec 27, 2014 21:18
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actionjackson posted:The place is on Anjeliersstraat, right by a restaurant called De Bolhoed, which appeals to me since I'm a vegetarian. There's also a place nearby called "Pancakes!" Also I found out about a falafel chain called Maoz. Any other vegetarian recommendations welcome. Dutch food tends to be stodgy, but the Netherlands is probably the best place in the world for Indonesian food (good for vegetarians) outside of Indonesia. There's a multicourse deal called rijstafel that's an excellent sampler. Sama Sebo, on Museumsplein near Rijksmuseum and Van Gogh Museum, is outstanding, and has a vegetarian rijstafel. If you're going to splurge on a meal, this should be it. You have to try frikandel, preferably from a Febo and late at night while wasted, at least once. It's an Amsterdam experience, mystery food from a vending window.
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Dec 27, 2014 21:33
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