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This isn't geared at anybody specific, but especially if you are going to do a fair bit of walking in a bigger city, consider using OpenStreetMap. There exist offline clients for Android (not sure about iOS, but I presume the same is the case), and since OSM gets its data from volunteers who usually live in the places they cartograph, you get an incredible amount of detail and fidelity, including pedestrian-only paths, shops, supermarkets (this has been very useful in the past), sights, pubic transport stops etc. The information density is much better than what you can get from Google Maps or similar, at the price of a slightly clunkier map format. Also, this works best in bigger places, simply because you are more likely to have more active people; that said, sometimes you will get much better information on smaller places as well, if somebody decided to improve the contributed data.
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May 31, 2016 15:37
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sleepy gary posted:I disagree and recommend city-specific (usually official) apps for public transport information/maps/routing. Google's best for figuring out a basic route in the first place, but city-specific apps and websites are better for schedule information and such. Saladman posted:Also PT6A you should really check out Italy. Next trip, probably. A friend of mine has been talking up Italy to me, and I've been talking up Spain to him, so next year we may go over together and split our time between Italy and Spain.
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May 31, 2016 15:47
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Yeah nthing the idea that renting a car to go between Florence and Venice is basically the stupidest idea ever. edited for actual content: Ljubljana is the most underrated city in Europe. Just throwing that out there. HookShot fucked around with this message at 19:29 on May 31, 2016 |
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May 31, 2016 19:27
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My guess is she's horrifically afraid of not being able to depend on the car while traveling? If you were staying at some cozy bed and breakfast out in the mountains somewhere far far away from trains it makes sense, but I would try and work on her to skip the car rental. Maybe get a car reservation for day 3 with the option to cancel at no cost, and then once you get there just cancel the reservation once her carless anxiety subsides. Renting a car in europe when just visiting major cities served by trains is a loving dumb idea. The only time going trains only hosed me, was when I had a flight from Malaga (costal spain) in the morning, and I was in Sevilla (3 hours inland spain), and the first train didn't leave Sevilla until 1 hour before my flight, even then I ended up having to take the 11:45pm bus to Malaga and managed to catch my flight the next morning. Something like 4 in ten Europeans own a car, it's pretty well laid out so that you never have to use one unless you get in a taxi or something.
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May 31, 2016 20:13
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Hadlock posted:The only time going trains only hosed me, was when I had a flight from Malaga (costal spain) in the morning, and I was in Sevilla (3 hours inland spain), and the first train didn't leave Sevilla until 1 hour before my flight, even then I ended up having to take the 11:45pm bus to Malaga and managed to catch my flight the next morning. That's almost exactly the same problem I had, in the only time I've ever had such a problem. The train connections from Grenada to Malaga are garbage, and they have like 1 bus every 2 hours, which for us sold out more than an hour in advance at 8am on a weekday in the middle of April. Southern Spain has phenomenally bad interconnected rail services for some reason — I think it's faster to go to Madrid and then back to Seville than it is to get directly from Grenada to Seville directly. We found two other people—both Spanish and from the area—with the same problem and split a €160 taxi ride with them which made it palatable. Also 2nd'ing Ljubljana. Definitely the most surprised I've been visiting a mid/large-sized European city. Came with no expectations and loved it. First time we went, we spent 2 more days than we initially planned for and ended up skipping some other stuff we had planned on (no regrets!). That said I see why it's not on like a "first trip to Europe" itinerary for Americans and Canadians, as it doesn't have anything particularly spectacular except its atmosphere and everyone's needs to have a photo of the Colosseum / Colossus of Rhodes / Pyramids / whatever.
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May 31, 2016 20:43
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Saladman posted:That's almost exactly the same problem I had, in the only time I've ever had such a problem. The train connections from Grenada to Malaga are garbage, and they have like 1 bus every 2 hours, which for us sold out more than an hour in advance at 8am on a weekday in the middle of April. Southern Spain has phenomenally bad interconnected rail services for some reason — I think it's faster to go to Madrid and then back to Seville than it is to get directly from Grenada to Seville directly. We found two other people—both Spanish and from the area—with the same problem and split a €160 taxi ride with them which made it palatable. Granada is the most hilariously inaccessible city, considering it relies on tourism in many respects. It's almost like a signal you shouldn't go. The Alhambra is definitely a bucket list thing, but it's not on my list of Spanish cities I would like to see again.
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May 31, 2016 22:27
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well I'm glad you aren't being rude or aggressive about it or presume I'm actually in favour of renting a car in the first place (i explicitly said I'm gonna dissuade it in favour of public transport).Hadlock posted:My guess is she's horrifically afraid of not being able to depend on the car while traveling? it was a simple idea early in the process and based off of where she's been before where a rental has been practical, but thanks for the psycho analysis. nothing has been paid for yet, and we're still early in the planning bit.
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May 31, 2016 23:19
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Anyone here got any recommendations for decently prized hotels (or other accomdations) in Krakow? Similar information would be appreciated for Györ in Hungary. Each will be for about 5 days I think. We are about 8 people going on a car trip through east-central Europe this summer and it seems I've been given the task of finding accomodations for the major stopping points on our way towards (and back home from) Romania where we will be spending most of our time. So yeah if anyone had anything to suggest it would be appreciated before I just go prowling the internet finding something cheap and decently central. I can probably get the exact dates here as well, but I have to get in touch with the guys who were originally going to take care of this and its still quite early in the day. Randarkman fucked around with this message at 09:35 on Jun 1, 2016 |
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Jun 1, 2016 09:32
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Randarkman posted:Anyone here got any recommendations for decently prized hotels (or other accomdations) in Krakow? Similar information would be appreciated for Györ in Hungary. As an aside, I'd definitely recommend going to the Wieliczka Salt Mines, it's some Mines of Moria type poo poo. An amazing and unusual place to see. For added adventure (there are organized tours, I believe, and I'm assuming you're on a budget), take a regular train to Wieliczka and start guessing where you need to get off, as the stations have no signs! As it happens, we went to Györ on the same trip, but stayed only one night in a basic hotel. I don't think there's many hostels in town. I'm pretty sure the hotel was called Famulus. We had a 4-person "apartment" with a kitchen type deal, it was alright, thoroughly bland, and not very expensive.
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Jun 1, 2016 11:13
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ulvir posted:well I'm glad you aren't being rude or aggressive about it or presume I'm actually in favour of renting a car in the first place (i explicitly said I'm gonna dissuade it in favour of public transport). I probably wouldn't rent a car just to go from Florence to Venice but it could still be massively more convenient (and possibly cheaper!) than public transport depending on what you want to do and where, so don't dismiss the possibility completely.
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Jun 2, 2016 16:24
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I've been using Hopper to watch flights from LAX to LHR and tickets are 700 round-trip, on a good airline (virgin) too! I think I'm ready to do it. I'm planning a two week trip. The only thing I want to do for sure is see a Liverpool FC match and the lake district. I don't intend to be around southern England the whole time. I was considering going to Ireland or even France, but this would require going back to London eventually. However, I'm going alone and consider moving around in transit like that to be enjoyable , I'll need to keep busy in order to stave off loneliness anyway. So my question for the more experienced, is a London - Liverpool - Scotland - Ireland/France - London itinerary too ambitious? Would flying from France/Ireland be a must?
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Jun 3, 2016 14:35
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skooma512 posted:I've been using Hopper to watch flights from LAX to LHR and tickets are 700 round-trip, on a good airline (virgin) too! I would definitely plan on flying if you go to Ireland or France, but that doesn't mean you have to backtrack to London. You can fly from Scotland to either Ireland or somewhere in France pretty easily, and then either take the train back to London or do another one-way flight back to London to catch your return flight to the US. I think your current itinerary is maybe a bit on the rushed side -- I like to have four days in any new city I go to in general, even travelling alone -- but not unreasonably so.
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Jun 3, 2016 17:09
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I think in two weeks that schedule is a bit optimistic. I'd probably do either 5D London/2D Liverpool/7D Paris or 7D London/2D Liverpool/5D Scotland if I were you. Whether or not you choose to fly or train from Paris to wherever really depends on the order you do your days in, the Eurostar only takes like 2-something hours and is wayyyyyyy easier than flying, but if you're going from Edinburgh to Paris well yeah flying will be better in that case.
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Jun 3, 2016 17:11
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Also I'm going to be in Paris on June 10th with the following: - Football fans from all over Europe, which is always hilarious (I was in Paris when they won the cup in 98) - A flooded Seine river - A transit strike - High threats of terrorist attacks I'm pretty sure I've hit the perfect Paris quadfecta! As long as they don't close the RER A and E, since I need to go visit my grandad and my aunts.
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Jun 3, 2016 17:13
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I was trying to Google to see when the transit strike is supposed to end, and I love Google's autocomplete. I was like "what happened to 2014???" but it turns out there was a 2014 transportation strike too (phew).
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Jun 3, 2016 17:27
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HookShot posted:Also I'm going to be in Paris on June 10th with the following: Yup I'll be there at the same time (arrive on the 11th). Whatever. I look forward to sipping wine while knee deep in the seine and surrounded by crazy football fans / labor strikers.
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Jun 3, 2016 17:59
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It's not a real tournament this year because the Netherlands didn't make it 
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Jun 3, 2016 18:06
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Solaris 2.0 posted:Yup I'll be there at the same time (arrive on the 11th). Whatever. I look forward to sipping wine while knee deep in the seine and surrounded by crazy football fans / labor strikers. Yeah, honestly, none of the things on that list except the flood are anything exceptional in France (I remember my mom freaking out about people leaving packages alone on buses in Canada back in the early 90s because "oh no what if it's a bomb??" and my dad reassuring her that no it is not a bomb we're in Canada you can leave your poo poo on the bus while you go out to pee and it will not only not explode but also no one will take it) and you'll have lots of fun if you take in stride things like the fact that there might be delays on a few metro lines and the Louvre might still be closed (my bet is they'll have it back open by then though). Sucks if it's your first time in France and it's closed though (I can be more glib about it since I've been there like 2 dozen times so it doesn't really affect me) but that's why they call nature a mother...
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Jun 3, 2016 19:19
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Also my aunt took me downtown in 98 when France won the world cup and ten year old me saw like four streakers it was hilarious.
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Jun 3, 2016 19:20
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skooma512 posted:I've been using Hopper to watch flights from LAX to LHR and tickets are 700 round-trip, on a good airline (virgin) too! I think adding France would be a bit undoable if Scotland is a must. London - Liverpool - Ireland - London would be a decent itinerary. There are ferries from Liverpool to Belfast (8 hours, potentially overnight thus combining room and transportation) and to Dublin (5 hours). Flying to and from Ireland is not necessary, but could definitely convenient to get back to London at the end of your trip if you're tight on time. As a suggestion if you take the ferry back from Dublin to Holyhead, North Wales is beautiful and has some really amazing castles. MagicCube fucked around with this message at 21:52 on Jun 3, 2016 |
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Jun 3, 2016 21:50
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Thanks guys! I'll definitely keep all that in mind. I'll probably nail down the exact plan as I start booking accommodations but a round trip plane ticket will probably be easier. I'm leaning toward France as a stretch destination as Ireland seems a bit too similar to the UK to justify it over France, though the idea of going through Wales and hitting for the cycle is tempting
skooma512 fucked around with this message at 23:01 on Jun 3, 2016 |
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Jun 3, 2016 22:58
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skooma512 posted:Thanks guys! I'll definitely keep all that in mind. I'll probably nail down the exact plan as I start booking accommodations but a round trip plane ticket will probably be easier. I'm leaning toward France as a stretch destination as Ireland seems a bit too similar to the UK to justify it over France, though the idea of going through Wales and hitting for the cycle is tempting I think it also depends on how much you want to see in London. If you're only using that as a transit point (understandable) and spending two days there or something, your itinerary is fine. If you really want to see London, you could easily do the whole two weeks there. London-Liverpool-Scotland-France-London would be doable. I wouldn't necessarily recommend trying to do Paris as your stop in France, since it's another big city with too much to see in a short period of time, but if you wanted to do Nice, for example, there are direct flights to both London and Edinburgh so you could fit that in very easily.
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Jun 4, 2016 02:18
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PT6A posted:I think it also depends on how much you want to see in London. If you're only using that as a transit point (understandable) and spending two days there or something, your itinerary is fine. If you really want to see London, you could easily do the whole two weeks there. London-Liverpool-Scotland-France-London would be doable. I wouldn't necessarily recommend trying to do Paris as your stop in France, since it's another big city with too much to see in a short period of time, but if you wanted to do Nice, for example, there are direct flights to both London and Edinburgh so you could fit that in very easily. Yeah, when I was first planning this trip London wasn't really a priority, I was intending to see just the obligatory stuff and move on up north. As time has gone on, I'm not entirely sure. Then again I am traveling by myself which affords me the privilege of doing whatever I please in the moment. That's a good point about Paris. I'd want to see the usual stuff but I think I may come to regret just touching base and little else rather than just saving it for later. On the other hand, since going over there at all is an undertaking I'm tempted to just run around like crazy and put my boots on as many people's ground as possible. I'm still working out how it's going to play out in my head Booking my flight now. I think I understand the true meaning of the word "analysis paralysis"
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Jun 4, 2016 04:38
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skooma512 posted:Yeah, when I was first planning this trip London wasn't really a priority, I was intending to see just the obligatory stuff and move on up north. As time has gone on, I'm not entirely sure. Then again I am traveling by myself which affords me the privilege of doing whatever I please in the moment. The problem with doing just the "usual stuff" is that it really doesn't scratch the surface of actually getting to know a big city like London or Paris. You're run off your feet, and if you're trying to see a major museum in either city, you're going to be exhausted by the end of the day you'd set aside for it (a lot of these places really demand a two- or three-day visit on their own if you want to appreciate the exhibits). If you want to see more different places, and experience more different cultures, you might as well focus on smaller cities. It's no less culturally enriching, in my opinion, and you can actually see a reasonable fraction of what there is to see. You also tend to have fewer expectations, which can lead to a better overall experience -- but that's just my experience, I know some people disagree with this entire paragraph vehemently. Honestly: it's your vacation, so do it the way you want. If you want to go to London and Liverpool and Scotland and someplace in France, then do that. People told me my itinerary was dumb on my last vacation, and it was in a lot of ways (significant backtracking), but it ended up being the best vacation I've ever been on. If you want to see a specific place, it doesn't really matter why; just go ahead and jam it in somewhere. You might wish you could've spent more time somewhere, but you'll never go "this was a terrible place to visit, because I didn't stay long enough."
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Jun 4, 2016 05:14
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CLAM DOWN posted:It's not a real tournament this year because the Netherlands didn't make it
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Jun 4, 2016 06:23
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Heading to Ireland for 10 days or so. I was gonna spend a few days in Dublin and then head south/west. I'm not sure if I have time, but I do want to see Giant's Causeway, but Northern Ireland hasn't been part of the plan. My question is would it be worth it to carve out a day to go there when I'm in Dublin or is it a thing that's ok to skip?
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Jun 5, 2016 06:27
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I think it's worth it as a day trip. There are lots of tour companies running the trip from Dublin. Some will give you a bit of time in Belfast, some go to Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge which was cool and scary, some stop at Bushmills, and they all drive along the coast which was a spectacular sight on its own. I'll be honest and say there's not much to do at the Causeway and the visitor centre was not very good 2 years ago, but the Causeway itself was spectacular and the other things attached to the day trip made it worth it for me. Plus there's a great little pub nearby that made the best Irish stew I've ever had. MagicCube fucked around with this message at 14:25 on Jun 5, 2016 |
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Jun 5, 2016 14:23
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I'm planning a trip with my girlfriend to Belgium, probably Gent, Brügge and maybe a bit of Bruxelles, totaling ten days in July. What general things do we want to see, and specifically which beers do we want to try at which breweries and monasteries? We're thinking of renting bikes to get around, is that feasible? We're also looking for cheap-ish places to stay or basically anything worth knowing about the area.
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Jun 5, 2016 18:38
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Throwing this out there just in case: can anyone recommend a safe (guarded) parking lot/garage in Mostar by any chance?
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Jun 5, 2016 20:07
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Belgium is very bike-able, as long as you actually like cycling. If you're under 26 you can also get intercity train tickets for like nothing. IIRC it's something like €50 for a packet of 10, and you can use them for any distance within Belgium. I did a 10 day roadtrip of Flanders and Brussels a couple years ago, and now I can remember basically nothing about the trip, so I can't help much on specifics :o. I didn't even drink much. Brugge is really cute. I didn't care much for Oostend or any of the coast -- it's nice enough and I'd be happy if I was a local, but it's not worth it for anyone traveling from far away. That said it's pretty close to Brugge and probably nice to cycle, although there're enormous dunes blocking a really wide stretch of their coast, so you can't see it from the road and you can't bike on the beach unless you're getting a mountain bike. E: I was visiting people for 4 of those 10 days though, so my lack of particularly-memorable experiences might reflect more on the concrete wasteland of Louvain-la-Neuve than Belgium in general.
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Jun 5, 2016 20:16
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So I'm planning a trip of a couple of months to Europe over Christmas. For about 1 month of that, I plan to rent a car, drive around (France, Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, and Italy are countries I'm really considering, but the beauty of the plan is that I can go wherever whenever), and camp at night. My plan is to find an interesting city, leave the car at a parking lot, and catch public transport into the city to explore. Is leaving all my belongings in a car in a car park the worst idea of all time ? What is the likelihood of all of my poo poo getting stolen ?
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Jun 7, 2016 00:53
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vaginadeathgrip posted:Heading to Ireland for 10 days or so. I was gonna spend a few days in Dublin and then head south/west. I'm not sure if I have time, but I do want to see Giant's Causeway, but Northern Ireland hasn't been part of the plan. My question is would it be worth it to carve out a day to go there when I'm in Dublin or is it a thing that's ok to skip? If you're considering it at all, Giant's Causeway is worth the day trip from Dublin. It may be a long day spent on a bus, but it was one of the highlights for me.
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Jun 7, 2016 01:05
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Istari posted:So I'm planning a trip of a couple of months to Europe over Christmas. For about 1 month of that, I plan to rent a car, drive around (France, Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, and Italy are countries I'm really considering, but the beauty of the plan is that I can go wherever whenever), and camp at night. Like pretty much anywhere else in the world it will depend both on the city and where you park your car. FWIW camping in mid-northern Europe in the middle of winter sounds like a terrible idea, and also I wouldn't be surprised if pretty much all the campsites there are closed anyway.
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Jun 7, 2016 06:41
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Istari posted:So I'm planning a trip of a couple of months to Europe over Christmas...but the beauty of the plan is that I can go wherever whenever), and camp at night. There's nothing beautiful about being homeless.
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Jun 7, 2016 07:06
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I wonder if Europeans ever come into the USA travel thread saying "I'm going to San Antonio, Houston, Dallas and Oklahoma City and I'm only going to take public buses and greyhounds. The beauty of the plan is that I don't have to drive anywhere." Edit: I'm sure you will have a fine time driving and camping, just seems like such a foreign idea to me. Like going on a motorcycle tour of Saudi Arabia or something. Hashtag Banterzone fucked around with this message at 13:12 on Jun 7, 2016 |
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Jun 7, 2016 13:09
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HookShot posted:Like pretty much anywhere else in the world it will depend both on the city and where you park your car. I assumed as much, thanks. Winter camping is something I've done before, so I know what I'm getting myself into. And I found this site that lists campsites in Europe that are open during winter. Pickings are slim, but there are options.
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Jun 7, 2016 14:37
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Istari posted:So I'm planning a trip of a couple of months to Europe over Christmas. For about 1 month of that, I plan to rent a car, drive around (France, Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, and Italy are countries I'm really considering, but the beauty of the plan is that I can go wherever whenever), and camp at night. I don't want to be a killjoy, but this sounds like it could go wrong in so many ways. My main issue is that in winter you'll only have about 9 hours of daylight, and taking public transport out of a city to a random car park, then driving to a random campsite (or probably just a field since all the campsites will be shut) in the dark seems like a tailor-made recipe for getting incredibly lost.
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Jun 7, 2016 14:46
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Hashtag Banterzone posted:I wonder if Europeans ever come into the USA travel thread saying "I'm going to San Antonio, Houston, Dallas and Oklahoma City and I'm only going to take public buses and greyhounds. The beauty of the plan is that I don't have to drive anywhere." My mom basically did this in the 80s in Canada. Went across the whole country by bus and ended up getting stranded somewhere on Vancouver Island where luckily the bus driver ended up feeling bad for the lady with the French accent whose debit card stopped working and let her ride to Victoria for free. Even today she steadfastly refuses to rent a car whenever she's in Europe even if she's going somewhere where renting a car is easier than using public transport (I'm looking at you, Balkans) because "oh it worked fine when I did it in '84"
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Jun 7, 2016 16:27
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Istari posted:I assumed as much, thanks. Also be prepared for some tourist things to be closed during winter.
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Jun 7, 2016 21:13
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Julio Cruz posted:I don't want to be a killjoy, but this sounds like it could go wrong in so many ways. My main issue is that in winter you'll only have about 9 hours of daylight, and taking public transport out of a city to a random car park, then driving to a random campsite (or probably just a field since all the campsites will be shut) in the dark seems like a tailor-made recipe for getting incredibly lost. I'm not worried about getting lost, since I don't really have destinations in mind. So wherever I end up is fine. Per posted:Also be prepared for some tourist things to be closed during winter. I've done Europe in winter before, but thanks.
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Jun 8, 2016 09:56
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