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Anarkii posted:I am going to Prague for a 4 days, of which the last 2 days is a conference I need to attend. I'm interested in Budapest or Vienna but my roundtrip flights are to/from Prague. Trying to take a train from Prague to either of those cities and coming back in time for the conference is too much or worth the hassle? You can certainly do that, but this sounds pretty awful unless you really hate Prague or really like sitting on a train. Have you spent a ton of time in Prague before or something? You're not going to see much of it for your two days there if you're at a conference. There are other places nearby that are reasonable daytrips too, like the Sedlec Ossuary or Pilzen (neither of which are amazing but both are reasonably fun and not nearly as far as Vienna). Vienna warrants more than two days, too.
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Sep 1, 2015 16:06
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CPH is actually really well connected to the city, both by train and metro and you can get to the central station in about 30 minutes. You're a bit early for most things, if you want to take the metro to Nørreport, walk over to Rosenborg castle and through Kogens Have, then wander down to Nyhavn, along the river to Christiansborg castle on Slotsholmen, down to Kongelige Bibliotek then either to København H (Central station) for the train to the airport, or down to Christianshavn to try to climb (the outside) of the spire at Church of Our Saviour before catching the metro back from Christianshavn. Google says that walk is 5k. The church spires opens at 9:30am. Something like this:  If you still have time, walk around the hippie "freetown" Christinia in the bottom right there. If you don't like walking that much, look at bycyklen rental bikes, which come with tablets with GPS and you can return them in more places. 25 dkk/hour.
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Sep 1, 2015 16:18
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Is Le Havre at all interesting? Otherwise I think I will book a tour to Mont St. Michel
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Sep 1, 2015 20:39
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actionjackson posted:Is Le Havre at all interesting? Otherwise I think I will book a tour to Mont St. Michel Le Havre might be interesting, but Mont Saint-Michel is a top 2-3 destination in all of France that shouldn't be passed on if you have an oppourtunity to visit.
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Sep 1, 2015 21:07
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actionjackson posted:Is Le Havre at all interesting? Otherwise I think I will book a tour to Mont St. Michel Le Havre is not particularly nice, it's just a big commercial port. The only thing very nearby that's super cool (and it is) is Etretat, but it's a hassle to get to without a car (there are local buses, I think direct from Le Havre, but no train). All the major WW2 sites are a little further as far as I know (>1 hour each way) with most of it being reasonably far west of Le Havre, if you're interested in that kind of thing. Not that I'm a history buff, so maybe I missed something up there. Also I think you'd want a car for that too. E: Jesus christ, this is what Le Havre looked like in the winter of 1944-5. No wonder literally the whole town is ugly 1950s cement structures. 
Saladman fucked around with this message at 22:33 on Sep 1, 2015 |
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Sep 1, 2015 22:28
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spoof posted:That's very interesting. I was under the impression that not using a flight coupon cancelled the rest of the segments on the ticket. Which airline was this? I bought the ticket through Google flights. I think it was a code sharing thing. I flew DFW to (some east coast city) to Sweden via Amsterdam on Delta, and then Sweden to DFW via Amsterdam on KLM. It was probably confusing enough that it didn't invalidate my ticket? KLM is fantastic, by the way. Best airline I've ever flown on. That's not saying much because I've only ever flown on American, United and Southwest, and Continental once.
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Sep 1, 2015 22:36
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As an American, I must agree that every European airline I have personally flown (Wizz!, Lufthansa, Air Berlin, SAS, even Easy Jet) kicks the poo poo out of the American counterparts that I know (American, United, US Airways, Southwest, Spirit). If you can book tickets well in advance (4-6+ months) and/or travel in late fall thru early spring, you can easily afford most any Euro carriers. I plan on returning to Stockholm for Christmas with my family there, $480 round-trip on SAS from O'Hare to Arlanda. Incredible. Ferdinand Bardamu fucked around with this message at 14:27 on Sep 3, 2015 |
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Sep 3, 2015 14:25
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American air carriers are so poo poo that Air Canada routinely gets voted best carrier in North America, and even they are absolutely loving atrocious on every level (yes, I've flown them overseas, and yes, I've flown in business class; it's all poo poo).
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Sep 3, 2015 14:56
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I got a 3+ ounce serving of brandy on my flight home from Amsterdam after my meal flying KLM. In economy. I'm used to getting free wine with my meals on international but that really made my day. The first and only time I felt like I was getting that true 1960's Pan-Am experience. That and House of Cards in the on demand video. And the in-flight networked 1v1 Tetris and networked group Texas holdem. Holy poo poo America, what is wrong with your in flight options?
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Sep 3, 2015 17:51
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Hadlock posted:I got a 3+ ounce serving of brandy on my flight home from Amsterdam after my meal flying KLM. In economy. I'm used to getting free wine with my meals on international but that really made my day. The first and only time I felt like I was getting that true 1960's Pan-Am experience. That and House of Cards in the on demand video. And the in-flight networked 1v1 Tetris and networked group Texas holdem. Holy poo poo America, what is wrong with your in flight options? Wow - that is an amazing idea. Now that would be a nice way to pass the time since I'm too tall to sleep on long flights.
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Sep 3, 2015 17:55
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I'm going to be going to France for a 12 day trip in two weeks. We're so excited! I do have a few questions going in however. 1: What is the fastest way to get access to a data network? I have an unlocked iPhone, and want to have access to data through the trip. I've seen that there Orange has a 30 Euro pack with 2GB of data which would be sufficient. Would I be able to get the SIM and pack at CDG? Any other suggestions? 2: Should I be worrying about reservations at restaurants? They seem to be recommended, but calling seems like a hassle and the hotel hasn't gotten back to me about making them.
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Sep 3, 2015 17:56
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Kinfolk Jones posted:I'm going to be going to France for a 12 day trip in two weeks. We're so excited! I do have a few questions going in however. (1) Not sure, but probably. Telecom stores are also pretty easy to find in town. Bring your passport when you buy a SIM (pretty easy if you're already at the airport!) as they'll need it. (2) Not unless it's like something super fancy on a Fri/Sat night, and even then if you like eating at North American hours (restaurant kitchens usually open at 7) you'll have no trouble finding a place almost anywhere as the locals won't mostly show up until 8. I've actually found lunches much more difficult to get into at nice restaurants since all the business people pack in, but also that's fine if you don't mind eating at 13:30 or 14:00; most places will still serve you if you sit before 14:00. TripAdvisor is probably the most reliable, as far as that goes, place for reviews unless you know someone personally to recommend places to you. Yelp is terrible in France, and most if not all of Europe. If you have specific cuisines you want to try out, people here can suggest things.. or you can try flipping through the archives.
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Sep 3, 2015 18:22
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So during my time in Munich in ~3 weeks I want to take a cab or public transit to a brewery outside the city (Weihenstephaner). Since its during Oktoberfest, do breweries do special events or should I just expect it to be insanely busy? Can I just show up or is it best to call ahead? Thanks.
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Sep 3, 2015 19:18
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Chinatown posted:So during my time in Munich in ~3 weeks I want to take a cab or public transit to a brewery outside the city (Weihenstephaner). During the Oktoberfest weeks the Biergärten, restaurants and breweries in and around the city tend to be really empty, at least until the Fest closes at 11:30 pm, so you don't need to worry about reservations. However, public transport will be insanely crowded and in the evening there will be puke everywhere, so watch out.
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Sep 3, 2015 20:26
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Honj Steak posted:During the Oktoberfest weeks the Biergärten, restaurants and breweries in and around the city tend to be really empty, at least until the Fest closes at 11:30 pm, so you don't need to worry about reservations. However, public transport will be insanely crowded and in the evening there will be puke everywhere, so watch out. Thanks!. I will be doing the Oktoberfest thing one of the days I'm there too as my hostel looks like its about a 10 minute walk to the fairgrounds. 
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Sep 3, 2015 23:11
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Hadlock posted:I got a 3+ ounce serving of brandy on my flight home from Amsterdam after my meal flying KLM. In economy. I'm used to getting free wine with my meals on international but that really made my day. The first and only time I felt like I was getting that true 1960's Pan-Am experience. That and House of Cards in the on demand video. And the in-flight networked 1v1 Tetris and networked group Texas holdem. Holy poo poo America, what is wrong with your in flight options? I've been flying internationally on united and occasionally delta for the past couple years and every flight has had this, up to and including the networked games, although nobody ever seems to play. At least in my experience you only have to deal with the pay-for-everything stuff and lack of entertainment options on domestic flights. Even in economy I could get free beer/whatever every time I asked - the problem is in economy they seem to purposefully avoid walking down the aisles except during the meal time(s) (probably to avoid people asking for more drinks) so if you want to drink you'll have to use the call button a lot. Maybe there's a point where they'll stop giving them to you for free, but I have yet to find what that limit is.
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Sep 4, 2015 10:32
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KLM is known as kind of a crappy airliner in Europe mostly because of the lovely leg room. Lufthansa is great though. Free unlimited Warsteiner tall boys.
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Sep 4, 2015 12:55
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Shibawanko posted:KLM is known as kind of a crappy airliner in Europe mostly because of the lovely leg room. Lufthansa is great though. Free unlimited Warsteiner tall boys. I have heard a number of complaints about Lufthansa for Trans-Atlantic flights from friends and family by now, which also seem to centre on legroom. Then again, it's hard not to beat the lovely last-minute replacement United plane we had last time, which meant I could not move up or down in my seat at all, and the "entertainment" was like it used to be, i.e. all movies started in parallel and stopped when they were finished, where you had to wait for the very last one to finish before all of them started again. The longest one was "The Lone Ranger", which was a lot longer than any of the other movies, and really rather bad.
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Sep 4, 2015 13:11
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I am 6'3" (190 cm) tall and also short-waisted. I flew home for Christmas from Munich to Chicago and back again on New Year's. I was in Economy class and didn't have any issues with my legroom. The flight to Chicago was dominated by old, fat 'Sconnies returning home from their vacations, only to stuff two cabin bags for each person into the overhead compartments. By the time I boarded, I had to stuff my very full laptop bag/backpack under the seat in front of me. Still more legroom than one of those ancient 767s American flies to Paris or Rome. Also, Munich's airport is the nicest I have been to in either the U.S. or the EU. It even has a Christmas market that you can chug brule at before your flight!
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Sep 4, 2015 13:45
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WaryWarren posted:I am 6'3" (190 cm) tall and also short-waisted. I flew home for Christmas from Munich to Chicago and back again on New Year's. I was in Economy class and didn't have any issues with my legroom. The flight to Chicago was dominated by old, fat 'Sconnies returning home from their vacations, only to stuff two cabin bags for each person into the overhead compartments. By the time I boarded, I had to stuff my very full laptop bag/backpack under the seat in front of me. Still more legroom than one of those ancient 767s American flies to Paris or Rome. Also, Munich's airport is the nicest I have been to in either the U.S. or the EU. It even has a Christmas market that you can chug brule at before your flight! The "ancient 767s" aren't the problem. Oftentimes, the legroom on older aircraft is better than new aircraft, just because they're trying to cram more and more people in every time they re-fit the interior. I flew an old BA 767 to London and it was way, way, way better than a brand new AC 777 that I flew the previous year. KLM isn't bad, but I thought BA was much better. Lufthansa and Iberia were both okay within Europe, but I haven't flown them long-haul. Air Canada is terrible, and WestJet is only slightly less terrible. I haven't flown economy in the States in ages, but I'm sure that must suck donkey nuts too.
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Sep 4, 2015 18:25
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PT6A posted:The "ancient 767s" aren't the problem. Oftentimes, the legroom on older aircraft is better than new aircraft, just because they're trying to cram more and more people in every time they re-fit the interior. I flew an old BA 767 to London and it was way, way, way better than a brand new AC 777 that I flew the previous year. I like Lufthansa inside Europe, my above complaints were about long-haul as well. In Europe, you still get something to eat and drinks from them, and their tea is actually really nice. And if you are nice, they even have pillows some days. Iberia is...alright, and I'm not a big fan of BA (who own Iberia nowadays). I also heard good things about Norwegian even for long-haul, and they are perfectly fine and cheap for travelling inside Europe.
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Sep 4, 2015 20:38
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Who the hell are you people flying non-budget airlines within Europe? 
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Sep 5, 2015 12:34
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freebooter posted:Who the hell are you people flying non-budget airlines within Europe?
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Sep 5, 2015 14:16
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I've lived in Europe for a year and have never once found that to be the case. Example? edit - I should mention that I live in London which is obviously a hub, and also means I'm super poor and must always take the cheapest option available.
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Sep 5, 2015 14:25
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Just some quick examples: Berlin-Istanbul. Your options are Pegasus (low cost carrier, flying from Schönefeld to Sabiha Gökcen), Lufthansa (from Tegel to Atatürk, possibly via Frankfurt or Munich), and Turkish (from Tegel, direct). Pegasus might be 50-100 EUR cheaper but flies at lovely hours (arrive at Sabiha Gökcen in the middle of the night) while both Lufthansa and Turkish fly several times a day at reasonable hours and serve Atatürk airport which is infinitely better located if you want to be on the European side. Berlin-Lisbon for the weekend 13-15 November. easyJet doesn't fly that route on 13 November, so you would have to do 12-15 November. Price for that is 140 EUR right now. TAP flies 13-15 November, cheapest price is 147 EUR. Berlin-Belgrade. No low cost carriers available, only options are Lufthansa/Austrian (via Frankfurt/Vienna/Munich) and Air Serbia (direct but not daily). etc. That's just a few examples from Berlin which is fairly well connected. If your airport is small or medium sized (the likes of say Nuremberg, Bologna, Krakow...) you don't have a lot of options unless you want to go to London exclusively. And even going to London I'll gladly pay a few EUR extra to fly into City airport instead of Stansted.
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Sep 5, 2015 14:52
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freebooter posted:I've lived in Europe for a year and have never once found that to be the case. Example? London->Frankfurt  You can decide between Lufthansa and BA. Also, either might be a good option (~130£ return) when you have luggage.
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Sep 5, 2015 15:38
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freebooter posted:Who the hell are you people flying non-budget airlines within Europe? Because, oddly, not every destination in Europe is served direct from Calgary. I've got to connect through London, Amsterdam or Frankfurt, and it's a giant hassle to collect my luggage and change airlines when I don't need to. If a flight gets delayed or cancelled, I'm out a whole hell of a lot more than the fare difference, too. Not to mention that the published fares are always complete fictions because you get charged up the rear end for basic things.
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Sep 5, 2015 17:42
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Also if you want to fly a low-cost carrier out of Paris enjoy your giant fuckoff travel to get there (ok Orly for easyJet isn't that bad, but it's still harder than CDG.)
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Sep 5, 2015 21:31
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schoenfelder posted:Just some quick examples: Maybe it's just me but I would take a 4 hr train (or 20 minute flight?) to frankfurt and call it a day. 3 hrs by train to save $600 sounds like a deal to me.
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Sep 5, 2015 23:46
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Hadlock posted:Maybe it's just me but I would take a 4 hr train (or 20 minute flight?) to frankfurt and call it a day. 3 hrs by train to save $600 sounds like a deal to me. And what are you going to take from Frankfurt? Because Easyjet do not fly from FRA, and neither do Ryanair.
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Sep 6, 2015 00:31
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Hadlock posted:Maybe it's just me but I would take a 4 hr train (or 20 minute flight?) to frankfurt and call it a day. 3 hrs by train to save $600 sounds like a deal to me.
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Sep 6, 2015 11:45
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Hadlock posted:Maybe it's just me but I would take a 4 hr train (or 20 minute flight?) to frankfurt and call it a day. 3 hrs by train to save $600 sounds like a deal to me. Where are you flying within Europe? I've never seen a published fare over $600, much less a $600 savings over a similar itinerary. Don't forget to add in the multitude of unavoidable fees when flying a LCC in Europe. A fee for booking with a credit card? How the gently caress else am I supposed to pay for it?
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Sep 6, 2015 22:34
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I'm pretty sure I've seen one of the airlines take bitcoin. Edit: it was LOT, which isn't even an LCC, and has no surcharge for credit cards
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Sep 7, 2015 01:25
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PT6A posted:Don't forget to add in the multitude of unavoidable fees when flying a LCC in Europe. A fee for booking with a credit card? How the gently caress else am I supposed to pay for it? Debit card? EasyJet is just passing along the credit card fees to the buyer. I'd prefer if the did it as a discount rather than a fee since that seems more honest, but overall I'd say EasyJet is a good low cost carrier. They seem to always run a little late, but I haven't run into any idiotic fees like Ryanair charges.
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Sep 7, 2015 08:04
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The fees on LCC's are easy to avoid though, they're mostly meant for suckers who forget to do a certain thing like check in online, or press the wrong button and buy superfluous travel insurance or a rental car or whatever. You can pay for extra baggage if you need it, and it'll still be far cheaper. I also prefer LCC airplanes because they tend to be bigger than the Cityhoppers used by KLM or Lufthansa, meaning less turbulence. I had some horrible flights in Cityhoppers.
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Sep 7, 2015 08:45
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asur posted:Debit card? EasyJet is just passing along the credit card fees to the buyer. I'd prefer if the did it as a discount rather than a fee since that seems more honest, but overall I'd say EasyJet is a good low cost carrier. They seem to always run a little late, but I haven't run into any idiotic fees like Ryanair charges. There's no option for an Interac EFT, though? I mean, maybe if you're a resident of the country the flight is leaving from, you have other options, but for the average person visiting Europe (i.e. the bulk of the people in this thread) it's basically impossible. Shibawanko posted:I also prefer LCC airplanes because they tend to be bigger than the Cityhoppers used by KLM or Lufthansa, meaning less turbulence. I had some horrible flights in Cityhoppers. Seat pitch on EasyJet (as an example): 29 inches Seat pitch on KLM CityHopper: 31 inches Two inches is worth a lot of turbulence.
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Sep 7, 2015 16:33
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freebooter posted:I've lived in Europe for a year and have never once found that to be the case. Example? Stockholm-Lisbon, a trip I try to make twice a year. TAP flies cheapest and the only ones who fly direct route from Stockholm, IF you book reasonably ahead of time. Very little in form of low cost airlines that fly there that are cheaper than regular airlines. Around 200 EUR best case, average price 300 EUR (I.e booking summer tickets in late spring). Worst case 500 EUR ( I.e booking for the Christmas holidays a month before). Only LCC for that route is Norwegian (only during summer, and not any cheaper than TAP/Lufthansa).
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Sep 7, 2015 16:42
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Heads up for the two goons heading to Rome after me: Trevi Fountain is shut down for repairs. You can still see it, but the water is not running, and there's scaffolding all over. The Colosseum also has some scaffolding on one side, but it's not the side you'll want to take pictures of, so it's not a big deal.
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Sep 7, 2015 20:28
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Erwin posted:Heads up for the two goons heading to Rome after me: Trevi Fountain is shut down for repairs. You can still see it, but the water is not running, and there's scaffolding all over. The Colosseum also has some scaffolding on one side, but it's not the side you'll want to take pictures of, so it's not a big deal. Trevi fountain is a bummer but it is what is. Leaving tomorrow morning but won't get to Rome until Thursday. We're stoked!
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Sep 8, 2015 01:26
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PT6A posted:There's no option for an Interac EFT, though? I mean, maybe if you're a resident of the country the flight is leaving from, you have other options, but for the average person visiting Europe (i.e. the bulk of the people in this thread) it's basically impossible. I'm so confused. How do the bulk of the people in this thread, who are presumably from a first world country, not have access to a debit card? I don't even think you can open a checking account in the US without receiving one.
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Sep 8, 2015 07:00
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