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Jedi Knight Luigi posted:Hi all, I have a 20-hour layover in Helsinki on April 13. Could I get a hostel recommendation within walking distance of obvious things to see in Helsinki? I'll be landing at like 11 at night, and plane leaves at around 7 p.m. the next day. Enlightenment on "obvious things to see" also appreciated. The obvious things are probably the cathedral and the area around and to the south of it, and the Suomenlinna fortress a 15min ferry trip away out to the sea. So a hostel between the central railway station and Kauppatori would be good for you, but I don't know about them.
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Feb 25, 2017 19:38
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I've heard positive things about The Yard and Diana Park, both of which are very in the middle of everything.
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Feb 25, 2017 19:47
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Ras Het posted:The obvious things are probably the cathedral and the area around and to the south of it, and the Suomenlinna fortress a 15min ferry trip away out to the sea. So a hostel between the central railway station and Kauppatori would be good for you, but I don't know about them. Waci posted:I've heard positive things about The Yard and Diana Park, both of which are very in the middle of everything. Thanks to both of you.
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Feb 25, 2017 22:35
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I've seen a couple people here post that they really like Lago d'Iseo a lot. Anything in particular? I have ~10 days in the general Iseo-Como-Garda area (with a car) next month before I head down to Tuscany for another ~10 days. I've been all around Lake Como, but I've never been to much else around in that area besides Milan and a day in Sirmione. For you Lago d'Iseo fans, any suggestions more specific than eating a bunch of gelato and risotto?
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Feb 28, 2017 21:04
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hackbunny fucked around with this message at 03:50 on Jul 2, 2020 |
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Mar 1, 2017 23:54
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Quick question for those familiar with Switzerland/Northern Italy: I will have a free day on my trip to Zurich and want to see about the possibility of visiting a town my great great grandparents emigrated from near Turin. I'll have a car, and according to Google maps it's roughly a 4 hour drive, but it takes me pretty close to Milan. I've worried about traffic. Looks like there is also a customs area near Como, since Switzerland is non EU but Schengen Zone country and I am a non EU citizen, will I have to stop and clear customs, adding time to an already long trip. I will only have one day to do this from Zurich and back. Is this feasable, or should I just leave it for another trip when I will have more time?
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Mar 2, 2017 00:27
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Is your car a rental? Because some companies won't allow you to take rental cars into Italy. Also while it may be feasable it sounds like that would suck and I would definitely do it on a different trip.
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Mar 2, 2017 00:34
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I'm trying to bring in liquor from the US to the UK as a gift to my hosts (who are putting me up for free) and trying to figure out the VAT. I know is 20% the cost, but I bought my stuff in a liquor store stateside and have no clue if they're basing the cost off 20% USD or the price of the item converted then added to 20%. I plan on bringing my receipt to show the price. I've already figured out the excise duty. This last one is bugging me.
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Mar 2, 2017 01:39
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HookShot posted:Is your car a rental? Because some companies won't allow you to take rental cars into Italy. Its a rental. Didn't realize about the possibility of not being able to take the rental into Italy. Guess I'll just do it on a future trip.
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Mar 2, 2017 01:58
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cheese eats mouse posted:I'm trying to bring in liquor from the US to the UK as a gift to my hosts (who are putting me up for free) and trying to figure out the VAT. I know is 20% the cost, but I bought my stuff in a liquor store stateside and have no clue if they're basing the cost off 20% USD or the price of the item converted then added to 20%. I plan on bringing my receipt to show the price. I've already figured out the excise duty. This last one is bugging me. It's their job to figure that out, just show them the receipt. I'd say they will convert the price to GBP, then calculate 20% of that, and that's what you will pay. Also: how much liquor are you bringing? You can bring in 1L of spirits, 4L of wine, or 16L of beer under your duty-free exemption.
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Mar 2, 2017 03:46
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PT6A posted:It's their job to figure that out, just show them the receipt. I'd say they will convert the price to GBP, then calculate 20% of that, and that's what you will pay. I'm already over my limit. I'm bringing a bunch of bourbon because I'm coming from KY and wanted to bring some samples from home plus mezcal. I'm about 1.5L over. It's only about £60 worth so it's looking like it's still cheaper than shipping separate. They are hosting a dinner party and I wanted to set up a tasting flight for people 
cheese eats mouse fucked around with this message at 05:59 on Mar 2, 2017 |
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Mar 2, 2017 05:56
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uli2000 posted:Quick question for those familiar with Switzerland/Northern Italy: I will have a free day on my trip to Zurich and want to see about the possibility of visiting a town my great great grandparents emigrated from near Turin. I'll have a car, and according to Google maps it's roughly a 4 hour drive, but it takes me pretty close to Milan. I've worried about traffic. Looks like there is also a customs area near Como, since Switzerland is non EU but Schengen Zone country and I am a non EU citizen, will I have to stop and clear customs, adding time to an already long trip. I will only have one day to do this from Zurich and back. Is this feasable, or should I just leave it for another trip when I will have more time? You will not have to stop and clear customs, except in the quite unlikely case they stop you, in which case it will take about 30 seconds as they look at your passport and ask you if you purchased anything in Switzerland you're taking to Italy / vice-versa that they can tax you on. I've never had a border crossing take more than a minute, across hundreds of road crossings. That said, Zurich to Turin is way too far for a day trip. It'll be 5 hours each way, factoring in time to stop and get gas, time to pay for the autostrada tolls, time finding parking, etc. I've never heard of an Italy restriction on rentals in Switzerland and I've lived here for years and rented a couple cars to go to Italy and back. If you sure of that limitation, Hookshot, I'd be interested in what company says that as I have to arrange a rental car from Zurich to Italy (and back) again for my family soon. The only limitation I know of is that you can't drive inside the ZTLs in Italy with them (the centers of many cities)... but that's true of a personal car too, and also for rentals done in Italy.
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Mar 2, 2017 09:12
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Saladman posted:I've never heard of an Italy restriction on rentals in Switzerland and I've lived here for years and rented a couple cars to go to Italy and back. If you sure of that limitation, Hookshot, I'd be interested in what company says that as I have to arrange a rental car from Zurich to Italy (and back) again for my family soon. The only limitation I know of is that you can't drive inside the ZTLs in Italy with them (the centers of many cities)... but that's true of a personal car too, and also for rentals done in Italy.
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Mar 2, 2017 14:34
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cheese eats mouse posted:I'm already over my limit. I'm bringing a bunch of bourbon because I'm coming from KY and wanted to bring some samples from home plus mezcal. I'm about 1.5L over. It's only about £60 worth so it's looking like it's still cheaper than shipping separate. Customs will still have its way with you if you ship separately, if the UK is anything like Canada. So, yeah, just bring them with you. They may wave you through -- at least in Canada, I've got through with double my allowance without having to pay a cent.
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Mar 2, 2017 14:47
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HookShot posted:I can't remember what companies it was exactly, but I remember when I was organizing my trip to the Balkans I had to look at all the country restrictions since we were driving into Bosnia-Herzegovina which is often on the banned list as well, and Italy was included on a number of the lists. Just look up the terms of the companies you're looking at, they don't usually make it that hard to find the list of countries you're not allowed driving the car into. Huh, sure enough. Sixt lets you take any car into Italy (http://car-rental.sixt.com/php/terms/view%3Fliso%3DDE%26rtar%3D000%26view%3DEPP%26language%3Den%26styl ) but Hertz restricts you from going from Switzerland to Italy with its top class or its "prestige" or "fun" cars to "Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia". I stopped looking after that, so no idea how prevalent that is.
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Mar 2, 2017 14:50
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Saladman posted:Huh, sure enough. Sixt lets you take any car into Italy (http://car-rental.sixt.com/php/terms/view%3Fliso%3DDE%26rtar%3D000%26view%3DEPP%26language%3Den%26styl ) but Hertz restricts you from going from Switzerland to Italy with its top class or its "prestige" or "fun" cars to "Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia". I stopped looking after that, so no idea how prevalent that is. It's basically car rental companies saying "please don't get our Audi/BMW/Mercedes/+ stolen in ~Eastern Europe~". This often depends a bit on their standard cars within a class as well. Certain mainstream models are good value when you steal them, since you can either sell them as-is or use them for parts for a car that is widely used, which is why some might also have restrictions for smaller "groups", if they, for example, are Golf-heavy etc.
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Mar 2, 2017 18:15
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I'm looking at flights to fly to Rome from Indianapolis for August. I was looking at staying in Chicago and flying out of O'hare, because it seems to be cheaper. I have found flights from O'Hare to Rome with a layover in Turkey flying with Turkish Airlines. It has a 1 hour layover in Turkey and is around $680. What are people's experience flying with Turkish Airlines and having a layover in Turkey? It would add an extra 3 hours, flying past Italy then back tracking also. The next cheapest flight is through Dublin with Aer Lingus with another hour layover, for about $900. I'm also a bit nervous with a 1 hour layover on an international flight, its for my honeymoon, so, I would like to avoid missing any connecting flights!
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Mar 3, 2017 17:59
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Turkish Airlines is fine, certainly no worse than any major American airline I've ever been on. 1-hour layover is the part I would be concerned about, with both options. If everything goes well, it's fine. If anything whatsoever doesn't go well and you land even 15 minutes late, on an intercontinental flight from O'hare? Of course the airline would try to get you on the next flight, but it's an extra hassle and multiple hours delay.
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Mar 3, 2017 18:14
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And you may need a visa to transit through Turkey -- I know you do if you're planning to stay there any length of time.
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Mar 3, 2017 20:15
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Waci posted:Turkish Airlines is fine, certainly no worse than any major American airline I've ever been on. It's been about 50/50 for me, which is pretty bad, but at least half the time I have to make a short connection internationally (~60 minutes) I miss it due to exceptionally long lines at some point in the transit airport for whatever reason. I only do carry-on and it still happens regularly. Try and find a longer layover, even if only 30 minutes more.
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Mar 3, 2017 20:40
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Turkish is perfectly fine. I have flown with them (within Europe) twice and had no issues. I believe they are the highest rated Euro airline but don't know the source of these subjective rankings. Ataturk is a clusterfuck though, they're actually building a very large airport well outside of the city that will open in the next few years. I printed out the visa for travel to Turkey ($20? fee) and presented it to the customs agent. Don't know if you would need one just for transferring flights there. There was an American woman (from NYC) who was ignorant of the visa policy and was yelling and screaming at the custom agent in the next lane because he wouldn't let her into the country for her layover. I would normally be leery about layover time frames in the best of airports... Ataturk is not one of those. Also, they had a terrorist attack there recently, so don't know how that effects travelers now. I understand your reticence to fly direct into Rome from ORD. I have flown one-way from O'Hare and one-way from Fiumicino. Alitalia is at the other end of Euro air carrier rankings than Turkish. However, I flew American both times in what they called their "retro/vintage" aircraft. It was a 26 year old 767. Nice that they announce that as you're pushing back from the gate. Also, the separate "international terminal" strictly for American and Israeli flights.  There's a cheap airfare thread stickied to the top of this subforum; Mackieman is on-point with his advice. He has helped me in the past with queries. Perhaps ask him? Ferdinand Bardamu fucked around with this message at 00:21 on Mar 4, 2017 |
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Mar 4, 2017 00:14
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Turkish Airlines regional flights are nothing special. I don't have any idea why they'd be highly rated in Europe but it's not Ryanair at least. I would be rate your chances of missing the connecting flight at "reasonably high" so I hope that (1) your ist-fco flight is early in the day (so you can easily catch the next one) and (2) make sure your seats are as far front as possible in the flight to IST so you can save time during the deplaneing. I'd be surprised if the terrorist attack had any effect on airport transfers, since the attack was outside the secure area. Turkey visa you might need is a pretty trivial online form you fill out beforehand that takes about 5 minutes and $20. That said, i doubt you need one since they likely follow the European norm, but don't take my word for it! I would personally pay a couple hundred extra bucks on that flight to get a direct, but depends on your budget and how much time you've got. Alitalia is fine; the differences between major carriers in Europe ate pretty trivial. I've never flown Alitalia long haul, but sometimes the old planes can give you more legroom at the cost of no flight entertainment.
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Mar 4, 2017 01:07
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Not a ton to add here. Turkish Airlines is solid, and when I took their economy+ a few years ago LAX-IST, it was on par with domestic business class. The visa process should be easy and definitely don't take off without it if one is required. IST is absolutely a cluster and an hour is not enough time to get through customs, let alone make a transfer. I had 2.5 hours from scheduled landing (8 pm local) to my flight leaving for Ankara (10:30 local), and between the LA flight landing about an hour late, the "guide" taking all of us past the place where we were supposed to get our visas (back when you got them in the airport), and having to go through a second passport control and security check, I wasn't even close to making that time. You probably won't have all of those problems, but you'll still want more than an hour because something will go weird. I would personally rank Turkish just ahead of Alitalia/Delta for both inter and intracontinental flights, but in economy they're all more or less the same. For intercontinental flights Alitalia is just basically Delta, but there's a dropoff from Delta quality once you're on the continent. If it were me I'd try to fly direct if at all possible (any airline) and second choice would be Turkish airlines with a longer layover in Istanbul.
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Mar 4, 2017 09:27
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cheese eats mouse posted:I'm already over my limit. I'm bringing a bunch of bourbon because I'm coming from KY and wanted to bring some samples from home plus mezcal. I'm about 1.5L over. It's only about £60 worth so it's looking like it's still cheaper than shipping separate. When I went from Dublin back home through Chicago I had declared my 5 liters of liquor, and didn't pay anything even though the limit is 1.5. It'll depend on the country and if customs wants to screw around with paperwork for minimal gain over someone clearly not running booze.
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Mar 5, 2017 04:19
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Hey guys I got a flight from Florida to London for $270, so it looks like I'm going to London. When I travel I find its much more fun to just wing it but my loose plan is to travel all around Europe for 3+ months (will definitely come back before euro-winter, though). I land in London March 28th. I'm guessing the weather will suck and I probably wont end up spending much time in the UK at all (unless I get lucky and its nice). I'm kinda thinking I'll swing down into Spain/Portugal for a while and hug the coast until summer starts happening. I havnt thought about it too much but I think ill stay south and work my way west, then do the northern bits when its nice and warm. I'll probably spend the bulk of my time in western Europe due to budget concerns. I'm absolutely going to hit up Italy and The Czech Republic since I'm Irish/Italian/Czeck (will do Ireland another time. probably). Anyways, I have some questions.... Hows the weather in April? (in London,Spain,etc) I hitchhiked across the US and was generally ok just sleeping on the ground, even in dangerous areas like St Louis. How is sleeping outdoors viewed across Europe? If I don't look super homeless what are the chances of me getting robbed? or harassed by police? is it generally legal to sleep on the ground in most countries? I will be staying in hostels so don't worry. I just enjoy roughing it occasionally, or if I get lost and cant find a reasonably priced place to sleep (very likely) I'll just hobo it. Will I die? If you were leaving for a trip to Europe March 28th for x months, where would you go? and what would you absolutely have to do? since I'm guessing most people in the Europe travel thread have traveled to Europe, What country/area/city is the best, and why? and lastly, hows the cheap beer? I LIKE COOKIE fucked around with this message at 14:10 on Mar 5, 2017 |
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Mar 5, 2017 14:07
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Homelessness is a lot less common in Europe, in all but the biggest cities it is generally known how many homeless people there are and who they are. So I'd say there is a high probability of being hassled, even more so if you look like a refugee. The most socially acceptable form of this is sleeping in a train station or on a beach. In the Netherlands sleeping on the street is forbidden by vagrancy laws as far as I know, so it would be safest to do it on private property. Don't know about other countries. I don't think the odds of being robbed are particularly high, but who knows!
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Mar 5, 2017 15:19
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I don't know if you're actually a citizen of Ireland or the Czech Republic, but keep in mind that if you aren't you can't just bum around Europe forever, you're limited to three months.
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Mar 5, 2017 16:20
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No I'm not a citizen, I'm American. those countries are where my ancestors emigrated from. but drat I didnt know the EU had a 3 month travel limit. If I hop down to africa does the timer reset? how does that work lol
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Mar 5, 2017 16:41
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I think it's 90 days in every 180 for the Schengen area.
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Mar 5, 2017 16:55
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The Schwa posted:I think it's 90 days in every 180 for the Schengen area. This is correct. Going to Serbia or Morocco doesn't reset your timer, but it does suspend it. (e.g. if you go to Europe March 28, then go to Morocco for all of April, then you can spend another 2 months in Europe). Vagrancy is fine in Iceland (and probably Norway) if you really want to camp. No idea about Spain/Italy/etc. Definitely not -in- the cities anywhere, but you could probably camp in the countryside without too much trouble. Even in Zurich I know a bunch of places where you could easily pitch a tent. Just find a forest, and not someone's farm. If you are male and black, middle eastern, or sketchy-looking, I would strongly recommend against doing it unless you like visiting police stations.
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Mar 5, 2017 17:57
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I LIKE COOKIE posted:Hey guys I got a flight from Florida to London for $270, so it looks like I'm going to London. When I travel I find its much more fun to just wing it but my loose plan is to travel all around Europe for 3+ months (will definitely come back before euro-winter, though). I land in London March 28th. I'm guessing the weather will suck and I probably wont end up spending much time in the UK at all (unless I get lucky and its nice). I'm kinda thinking I'll swing down into Spain/Portugal for a while and hug the coast until summer starts happening. Had a similar idea fellow florida buddy except land in paris and get a car from peugeot for 3 months and camp/live/travel around in that for 3 months. I know other long term rental companies have good rates but peugeot has good rate plus insurance. From what I gathered online, I would like to know what goons think of the peugeot long term rental/leasing they offer.
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Mar 6, 2017 03:57
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I've been doing some research on this whole visa thing and I come to find that the EU parliament has voted to change their visa policy and soon Americans will need to apply for a visa to enter the EU. Apparently it's happening as soon as may. I'll be good since I'll already be there, but you might wanna take this into consideration if your trip is starting after may. I guess we're trying to settle it diplomatically which could delay the change, but drat yo. Nobody likes us anymore From what I gather it has something to do with EU visa reciprocity laws, and how America treats some of the poorer EU countries when it comes to visas.
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Mar 6, 2017 06:26
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I honestly can't imagine them implementing anything more than like an ESTA or visa on arrival type thing. If they require an in person interview for a visa that will a) kill tourism and business travel and b) completely destroy their embassies with a massive workload. E: Also this whole thing was in progress since way before Trump was even a sparkle in the GOP primary's eyes. Saladman fucked around with this message at 11:52 on Mar 6, 2017 |
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Mar 6, 2017 09:59
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Saladman posted:I honestly can't imagine them implementing anything more than like an ESTA or visa on arrival type thing. If they require an in person interview for a visa that will a) kill tourism and business travel and b) completely destroy their embassies with a massive workload. They're already working on this and it's going to be called ETIAS and be pretty much like ESTA.
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Mar 6, 2017 12:07
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I LIKE COOKIE posted:I've been doing some research on this whole visa thing and I come to find that the EU parliament has voted to change their visa policy and soon Americans will need to apply for a visa to enter the EU. Apparently it's happening as soon as may. I'll be good since I'll already be there, but you might wanna take this into consideration if your trip is starting after may. Quotnig from the European politics thread. System Metternich posted:The Commission isn't exactly keen on acting on it, so this will probably die in some commitee. And even then every single EU member state would have to formally approve of the ban which I don't see happening.
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Mar 6, 2017 13:17
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I LIKE COOKIE posted:I'll probably spend the bulk of my time in western Europe due to budget concerns. Erm, what? Your budget will go much further in Central or Eastern Europe than it will in Spain or Portugal.
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Mar 6, 2017 15:24
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yeah I meant to say eastern. oops
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Mar 6, 2017 15:30
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So I'm off to Europe this Friday visiting Manchester, Paris, and Prague. I'm a little confused about getting around Paris via the metro though. Is the Navigo Pass worth buying if I'm only there for 3 days? And what's the point of the ParisVisite? That seems way more expensive than the Navigo. Also one more question about Paris, how much can one expect to spend on steak tartare and steak frites? Any restaurant recommendations for these dishes?
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Mar 7, 2017 15:57
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birds posted:And what's the point of the ParisVisite? That seems way more expensive than the Navigo. You need a passport photo for the Navigo, so it's already a bit more effort than the tourist ticket. We stuck with the single tickets when we were there for a week, we might have lost a few euros on that, but it's a simple and convenient system.
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Mar 7, 2017 16:08
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birds posted:So I'm off to Europe this Friday visiting Manchester, Paris, and Prague. I'm a little confused about getting around Paris via the metro though. Is the Navigo Pass worth buying if I'm only there for 3 days? And what's the point of the ParisVisite? That seems way more expensive than the Navigo. Just buy the carnets of 10 tickets if you want to save money. I think they're like 20 centimes less (like €14.40 for 10 instead of €16.80 for 1x10). You're not going to do that much time in the metro in 3 days, most of a tourist's Paris is very walkable except getting to Sacre Coeur or moving between two distant places (e.g. Arc de Triomphe to Pompidou). Around €25 for that in a typical restaurant. Under €20 and it probably comes with complementary food poisoning. Just go to whatever restaurant in the Latin Quarter seems the most fun IMO.
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Mar 7, 2017 16:36
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