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underage at the vape shop
May 11, 2011

by Cyrano4747
Salzburg is kinda eh tbqh apart from the castle on the hill, which is super cool, bur can be had elsewhere. Was pretty unimpressed with salzburg overall and I spent all my time doing stuff outside of it.

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Julio Cruz
May 19, 2006
Salzburg's nice enough, the castle is worth a visit as is Hellbrunn, and it's also got a couple of breweries which do good tours. Probably not worth more than a few days though since it tends to get overrun with Sound of Music tourists in the summer.

Saladman
Jan 12, 2010
TBH basically any famous smaller city in Europe is overwhelmed with tourists in July and August. Even worse: any famous city that also has a port for cruise ships in Europe is hopelessly and uselessly overwhelmed with tourists in July and August. July and August are best spent in places that are not in the Top 10 of any guidebook. Country Top 10's are usually great in May/June and September though.

HookShot
Dec 26, 2005
That's why you should go to Slovenia instead, it's actually not crowded at all. I was there in late June and saw like maybe 50 tourists while just walking the 5km path around the lake. Ljubljana was a bit more touristy, but still nothing at all compared to basically everywhere else in Europe.

Walh Hara
May 11, 2012
Thanks for the help! I'll be traveling in the middle of August so getting swamped by tourists is certainly a worry. You guys have convinced me to spend more time in Slovenia compared to Austria. I'll check out the recommendations mentioned for Bled and Salzburg.

spoof
Jul 8, 2004

webmeister posted:

I'm just going to note as well that some of the transport links between former Eastern bloc countries aren't as good as you might think. Basically all of the infrastructure there was designed post-war to get troops and tanks from Moscow to Germany and not really anywhere else. So travelling east-west (eg Warsaw-Gdansk) is fairly easy, but north-south eg Warsaw-Krakow, not so much.

Warsaw-Gdańsk is east-west?? The core high-speed train route in Poland is Gdynia-Gdańsk-Warsaw-Kraków (or -Katowice) which is pretty much north-south. You can also get to Wrocław (via Częstochowa and Opole) from Warsaw by high-speed train, but not, for example to Łódz, Poznań, Szczecin, Białystok or Lublin which are all east-west. They're all accessible by regular train.

asur
Dec 28, 2012

Ras Het posted:

Oh BTW if anyone has tips to Eastern Poland and/or Lithuania, I'm all ears. We've only got accommodation in Vilnius so far, but we're probably doing Warsaw - Krakow -Lublin - ? (maybe Kazimierz Dolny) - ? (maybe Bialystok) - ? (maybe Kaunas) - back to Helsinki.

I wouldn't go to Lublin unless you really want to see the concentration camp or you have a specific reason to visit. I was there for work and the town and surrounding were nice but nothing to write home about. It has a museum, castle, and chapel if you do decide to go and I can give some food reccomendations.

Ras Het
May 23, 2007

when I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child - but now I am a man.
Well the main reason is that because of time constraints we want to stick to the eastern half of the country, and there doesn't seem to be much else, ha. And we thought we'd maybe try to get a feel of the countryside or nature

spoof
Jul 8, 2004
You're probably better off going up to Gdańsk than Lublin. Malbork is just south of Gdańsk and probably the most impressive castle in Poland and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Walh Hara
May 11, 2012
Currently I'm thinking:
- 1 day Salzburg
- 2 days Bled
- 3 days Ljubljana
- 3 days Vienna (of which the first day is 6 hours on the train)

Does this make sense? Or is there some city in between Ljubljana and Vienna that's worth visiting (city centre or nature around it) which I could use to split up the 6 hour trip? Villach? Klagenfurt? Graz?

webmeister
Jan 31, 2007

The answer is, mate, because I want to do you slowly. There has to be a bit of sport in this for all of us. In the psychological battle stakes, we are stripped down and ready to go. I want to see those ashen-faced performances; I want more of them. I want to be encouraged. I want to see you squirm.
I'd take out two of the nights in Ljubljana and use them elsewhere in Slovenia. Hire a car and drive around a bit, it's a gorgeous country and everything is pretty accessible with a car. Ljubljana is cool enough but it's definitely not worth three nights.

HookShot
Dec 26, 2005
Ehhh I'm going to disagree; Slovenia is such a small country that basically everything is within a day trip, and Ljubljana is a great base to see that countryside. We did five days in Ljubljana with a car and didn't feel it was too much at all, we'd just head out early in the morning, come back in the late afternoon and enjoy the old town in the evening.

Honj Steak
May 31, 2013

Hi there.
I was on a business trip in different places in Slovenia just last week and I agree that it's no problem to stay in Ljubljana even if you want to visit other parts of the country. I recommend visiting the seaside and witnessing how the climate zone changes within a few minutes from temperate to subtropical. I had time to visit the caves in Postojna and even if it is very touristy and the entrance is fee is pretty high for Slovenian standards it was absolutely breathtaking. There is also tons of smaller caves to visit in the Karst region that are not as crowded if you want to avoid that, but they won't be as accessible and probably also not always as spectacular.

HookShot
Dec 26, 2005
Also if you go to the caves drive a few minutes past and go see the castle built into a hill! We didn't go in but just looking at it from outside was pretty cool.

mrhotdogvendor
May 28, 2006
very tired hispanic

caberham posted:

If you never been to Europe and won’t be going to Europe for a while, yeah you can stop in London but both cities really have a poo poo load to see.

If you like to try some English food then yeah go to London. But the surrounding areas of Paris like Rouen, Reims, the natural parks are also good.

Really depends on who you are with, how much money you want to spend, how fast you travel, how you plan

I basically got a call from my father last week and he asked me if i wanted to go to Paris, France with him and the family for 7 days. at no expensive of my own. I play eve online and was hoping to at least 1 euro goon I had played with while in Europe. since i dont plan on being there again for a long time i figured that this is it.

Pollyanna
Mar 5, 2005

Milk's on them.


I guess this is technically Europe - anybody got ideas for stuff to do in Dublin, Kinsale, and Dingle? This trip doesn’t have a whole lot planned, unfortunately. Pub crawls and faffing about the city is a given, but I want to find cool ruins and sights and cute little villages and other crazy poo poo.

My Lovely Horse
Aug 21, 2010

The aquarium in Dingle is great, the dolphin tour is fun even if you don't see him, and the ice cream place is good too. And taking a drive around the peninsula is worth it. Good seafood too, obviously.

Bollock Monkey
Jan 21, 2007

The Almighty

Pollyanna posted:

I guess this is technically Europe - anybody got ideas for stuff to do in Dublin, Kinsale, and Dingle? This trip doesn’t have a whole lot planned, unfortunately. Pub crawls and faffing about the city is a given, but I want to find cool ruins and sights and cute little villages and other crazy poo poo.

Nothing really crazy, but I made this for a Dublin trip earlier this year. Against the Grain was cool and did a good bucket of chicken wings, and it was at the end of a pub crawl that included most of the places on that map. The Little Museum is definitely worth it, especially if you don't know a huge amount about Irish history. The archaeology museum has lots of viking stuff in, and again teaches you lots that you just don't hear about as a (presumably) English person. Had a coddle at The Hairy Lemon, which was tasty but not a summer dish. The Guinness Storehouse was not actually terrible and I would genuinely recommend going if you fancy it.

waffy
Oct 31, 2010
Definitely do the Slea Head Drive around the Dingle Peninsula, which will give you some great views of the coast and has several places you can stop to see historical sites/ruins, scenic walks, and things like that. That alone could eat up a decent chunk of a day depending on how many times you stop. I haven't done the boat tours in Dingle, but there are also ones in Kinsale that are worthwhile if the weather is good.

Also seconding the seafood. My wife and I ate at Out of the Blue in Dingle and it was amazingly good. Dingle also has a great pub/music culture for being such a small town, so make sure you hit some pubs there in the evening - my favorite was O'Flaherty's (honestly though, go to pubs wherever you go in Ireland).

Aggro
Apr 24, 2003

STRONG as an OX and TWICE as SMART
My wife and I are going to Amsterdam for 3 days in September before we head to Munich for Oktoberfest. We scored some outrageously cheap flights and managed to get a great deal on a hotel near Dam Square, so we're excited to actually have some spending money.

I've spent way too much time planning, but this is the itinerary that I've come up with. Have I overplanned? Is there anything that we're missing out on?

code:
Sunday 9/23 -- first day in Amsterdam
Van Stapele Cookies (opens at 11)
Museum Ons’ Lieve Heer op Solder (only open 1-5)
Begijnhof (closes at 5)
Lunch
Bloemenmarkt  (open from 11-5:30)
Walk around Jordaan district
Check out a bar or distillery or coffeseshop
Grab a drink at a brown cafe
Canal tour
Dinner: Indonesian food
Check out Red Light District
Brouwerij de Prael or In ‘t Aepjen

Monday 9/24 -- second day in Amsterdam
Albert Cuypmarkt
Walk around De Pijp
Museumplein
Rijksmuseum (and/or Van Gogh Museum)
Walk around Vondelpark
Dinner in De Pijp
Drinking/dancing etc

Tuesday 9/25 -- third day in Amsterdam
Rent a bike
Breakfast in Haarlemmerstraat
Bike to Westelijke Eilanden
Ferry to NDSM → Pilek or Noorderlicht for lunch, find a coffeeshop
Ferry to Amsterdam Centraal
Brouwerij ‘t IJ (only open from 2-8)
Fancy dinner at Hoofdstad Brasserie
Drinks at dancing at Roest (open til 1AM)
Last question -- is the iAmsterdam city card worth it? We would probably just get it for the first two days and spend the third day traveling by bike.

Thanks goons!

Coco13
Jun 6, 2004

My advice to you is to start drinking heavily.

waffy posted:

Definitely do the Slea Head Drive around the Dingle Peninsula, which will give you some great views of the coast and has several places you can stop to see historical sites/ruins, scenic walks, and things like that. That alone could eat up a decent chunk of a day depending on how many times you stop. I haven't done the boat tours in Dingle, but there are also ones in Kinsale that are worthwhile if the weather is good.

I biked Slea Head Drive, and it was most of the entire day. Makes it a lot easier to stop and take pictures. No really intense hills - although I had done Conner's Pass the day before so my memory may be heavily skewed.

Carbon dioxide
Oct 9, 2012

Aggro posted:

My wife and I are going to Amsterdam for 3 days in September before we head to Munich for Oktoberfest. We scored some outrageously cheap flights and managed to get a great deal on a hotel near Dam Square, so we're excited to actually have some spending money.

I've spent way too much time planning, but this is the itinerary that I've come up with. Have I overplanned? Is there anything that we're missing out on?

code:
Sunday 9/23 -- first day in Amsterdam
Van Stapele Cookies (opens at 11)
Museum Ons’ Lieve Heer op Solder (only open 1-5)
Begijnhof (closes at 5)
Lunch
Bloemenmarkt  (open from 11-5:30)
Walk around Jordaan district
Check out a bar or distillery or coffeseshop
Grab a drink at a brown cafe
Canal tour
Dinner: Indonesian food
Check out Red Light District
Brouwerij de Prael or In ‘t Aepjen

Monday 9/24 -- second day in Amsterdam
Albert Cuypmarkt
Walk around De Pijp
Museumplein
Rijksmuseum (and/or Van Gogh Museum)
Walk around Vondelpark
Dinner in De Pijp
Drinking/dancing etc

Tuesday 9/25 -- third day in Amsterdam
Rent a bike
Breakfast in Haarlemmerstraat
Bike to Westelijke Eilanden
Ferry to NDSM → Pilek or Noorderlicht for lunch, find a coffeeshop
Ferry to Amsterdam Centraal
Brouwerij ‘t IJ (only open from 2-8)
Fancy dinner at Hoofdstad Brasserie
Drinks at dancing at Roest (open til 1AM)
Last question -- is the iAmsterdam city card worth it? We would probably just get it for the first two days and spend the third day traveling by bike.

Thanks goons!

I don't think you'll be able to do all of that. You could spend a day and a half in the Rijksmuseum alone. That said, you seem to have a quite diverse planning, I'd say keep it as more of a list of options and expect to drop a couple activities as you go. At least you're not wasting your time by standing in line for 5 hours at the Anne Frank house.
See if you can get Rijksmuseum tickets ahead of time online. If it turns out to be crowded that day, the line for people who already have tickets usually goes a lot faster.

"Finding a coffeeshop" doesn't really need to be a 'thing'. You've already walked past dozens of weed shops on your first two days.

One thing you don't have in your itinerary is the A'dam tower, which is a decent place to view the city from above, that opened a year ago or so. It's just a short ferry ride across the water from Central Station, so you can see if you can fit that in somewhere if you like.

Drone
Aug 22, 2003

Incredible machine
:smug:


Carbon dioxide posted:

"Finding a coffeeshop" doesn't really need to be a 'thing'. You've already walked past dozens of weed shops on your first two days.

I took "find a coffeeshop" to mean "find that perfect coffeeshop to suit my tastes like in that Patton Oswalt sketch", not "where o where do I find the weed"

vanity slug
Jul 20, 2010

Aggro posted:

My wife and I are going to Amsterdam for 3 days in September before we head to Munich for Oktoberfest. We scored some outrageously cheap flights and managed to get a great deal on a hotel near Dam Square, so we're excited to actually have some spending money.

I've spent way too much time planning, but this is the itinerary that I've come up with. Have I overplanned? Is there anything that we're missing out on?

code:
Sunday 9/23 -- first day in Amsterdam
Van Stapele Cookies (opens at 11)
Museum Ons’ Lieve Heer op Solder (only open 1-5)
Begijnhof (closes at 5)
Lunch
Bloemenmarkt  (open from 11-5:30)
Walk around Jordaan district
Check out a bar or distillery or coffeseshop
Grab a drink at a brown cafe
Canal tour
Dinner: Indonesian food
Check out Red Light District
Brouwerij de Prael or In ‘t Aepjen

Monday 9/24 -- second day in Amsterdam
Albert Cuypmarkt
Walk around De Pijp
Museumplein
Rijksmuseum (and/or Van Gogh Museum)
Walk around Vondelpark
Dinner in De Pijp
Drinking/dancing etc

Tuesday 9/25 -- third day in Amsterdam
Rent a bike
Breakfast in Haarlemmerstraat
Bike to Westelijke Eilanden
Ferry to NDSM → Pilek or Noorderlicht for lunch, find a coffeeshop
Ferry to Amsterdam Centraal
Brouwerij ‘t IJ (only open from 2-8)
Fancy dinner at Hoofdstad Brasserie
Drinks at dancing at Roest (open til 1AM)
Last question -- is the iAmsterdam city card worth it? We would probably just get it for the first two days and spend the third day traveling by bike.

Thanks goons!

That's a shitload of stuff, dude. Keep in mind Mondays are usually the days museums/restaurants are closed, so you might want to switch up Tuesday and Monday.

I like Barney's Lounge to smoke, if you're looking for a coffeeshop.

Pippencino
May 14, 2018
Currently in Naples for 4 days and need some advice. With my partner and it’s all about day trips and pizza nights. Tomorrow we have an Amalfi cruise booked, taking in the coastline with stops in Positano and Amalfi.
Looking at making our own way to Capri for Blue Grotto. Are we best to catch a ferry from Naples or Sorrento? Bus around the island?
For a Vesuvius fix should we be visiting Pompeii or Herculaneum?
Are all the famous pizzerias going to be the same? Matteo and Attilio are on our list already.
We are strong walkers, no journey too far!

caberham
Mar 18, 2009

by Smythe
Grimey Drawer
Holy poo poo the London V and A is great and not crowded with group tourists at all

Saladman
Jan 12, 2010

Pippencino posted:

Currently in Naples for 4 days and need some advice. With my partner and it’s all about day trips and pizza nights. Tomorrow we have an Amalfi cruise booked, taking in the coastline with stops in Positano and Amalfi.
Looking at making our own way to Capri for Blue Grotto. Are we best to catch a ferry from Naples or Sorrento? Bus around the island?
For a Vesuvius fix should we be visiting Pompeii or Herculaneum?
Are all the famous pizzerias going to be the same? Matteo and Attilio are on our list already.
We are strong walkers, no journey too far!

Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Villa Oplontis are all quite different and almost as different to each other as comparing Angkor Wat to Machu Picchu. Villa Oplontis is in perfect condition and looks almost exactly like it would have looked 2000 years ago, down to paint on the walls and everything. It was covered in I guess relatively cool ash and perfectly preserved. Heculaneum is in pretty decent condition as it was covered in hot ash and is pretty drat intact. Pompeii was completely rocked and utterly destroyed, although it is much larger than the villa and Herculaneum. TBH I thought Villa Oplontis was the most unique of the three, but very small, while Herculaneum had a more interesting mix of size-vs-quality of ruins, but I would try to combine them all if you are at the slightest interested in Roman history. It's feasible to do all 3 of these sites in the same day so you don't have to choose if you're actually genuinely interested in that type of thing. I mean, honestly all 3 sites are pretty unique. I've seen ruins like Pompeii elsewhere like Rome's old coastal port of Ostia but Pompeii is really massive compared to any similar ruins. It's just not in that much better shape than cities lost to the ravages of time, since pyroclastic flows do a pretty good job of loving poo poo up. IIRC each of the three sites I mentioned were destroyed by different ways so the types of damage (and thus the variety of the current-state of the ruins) are distinctly different even to someone who's not a geologist.

If you're staying in Naples it seems like it'd make more sense to take a ferry direct to<->from Capri from Naples rather than dealing with the train to Sorrento (quite slow) and then taking a ferry from there, unless you're trying to somehow combine it with the Amalfi coast tour, which sounds like an exhaustingly long day. But, I haven't looked at schedules or anything in years.

webmeister
Jan 31, 2007

The answer is, mate, because I want to do you slowly. There has to be a bit of sport in this for all of us. In the psychological battle stakes, we are stripped down and ready to go. I want to see those ashen-faced performances; I want more of them. I want to be encouraged. I want to see you squirm.
Some friends of mine are food/travel bloggers who spent a month in Naples, they put together some suggestions here:
https://www.2foodtrippers.com/naples-pizza-guide/

dennyk
Jan 2, 2005

Cheese-Buyer's Remorse

Pollyanna posted:

I guess this is technically Europe - anybody got ideas for stuff to do in Dublin, Kinsale, and Dingle? This trip doesn’t have a whole lot planned, unfortunately. Pub crawls and faffing about the city is a given, but I want to find cool ruins and sights and cute little villages and other crazy poo poo.

Renting a car, I assume, if you're hitting those spots? Plenty to see and do then, for sure.

- From Dublin, you've got Newgrange to the north, and you could also stop by Trim to see the castle. To the south you've got the Wicklow mountains with some nice scenery (Lough Tay, Powerscourt), and the lake and monastic sites at Glendalough.

- Between Dublin and Kinsale, definitely stop and see the Rock of Cashel. You can also pop down to Cahir a few minutes away to check out the castle there.

- Kinsale's a lovely town itself and well worth some time. Dermot Ryan's walking tour is quite good. Plenty of great restaurants there. Have a look at the old forts as well; Charles Fort is huge and better preserved, James Fort is smaller and more ruined but still worth a look, and has some lovely views of the town as well. You're also not far from Cork, which is a lovely city, and Cobh, a pretty little seaside town, and the Fota house and gardens and wildlife park between 'em.

- Dingle is a beautiful spot. Definitely do the Slea Head Drive and eat at Out of the Blue, as waffy suggested. The drive could easily take up much of the day if you make a lot of stops, especially if you head up to Conor Pass as well. Lots of cool stuff to see along that route; the beehive huts and Dun Beag fort are fascinating (though I'm not certain how accessible the latter is these days; a chunk of it fell into the sea during a gale a few years back and they closed much of the site off afterwards due to safety concerns...). Even if you're not taking a ferry, the Dunquin Harbour is a scenic spot (I'm sure you've seen this photo before...). If the weather is good, you can take a ferry from there to Great Blasket Island to explore the abandoned village. Even if you don't make it out there, it's worth stopping by The Blasket Centre to learn the history of the place. The Gallarus Oratory (and a tower house just up the road from it) and Kilmalkedar Church are also cool sites.

If you want to track down some more obscure old ruins, definitely check out Megalithic Ireland. This guy has visited hundreds of sites all around the country; some famous ones of course, but also many fascinating random ruins that you'd never hear of otherwise. I use that site to plan road trips all the time, and have seen some really cool places.

My Lovely Horse
Aug 21, 2010

Seconding Trim Castle, it's very nice, and the guided tour is interesting.

Comb Your Beard
Sep 28, 2007

Chillin' like a villian.
Is this a reasonable itinerary for Spring 2019?

1 travel day/jet lag day
3 days Prague
3 days Vienna
3 days Munich
Fly back.

Been to Spain, Portugal, France, England, Scotland, Netherlands before. Interested in Berlin though too. Would I miss out on cooler stuff nearby doing just those 3 cities?

Also Italy is an option.

webmeister
Jan 31, 2007

The answer is, mate, because I want to do you slowly. There has to be a bit of sport in this for all of us. In the psychological battle stakes, we are stripped down and ready to go. I want to see those ashen-faced performances; I want more of them. I want to be encouraged. I want to see you squirm.
That's pretty reasonable for a 10 day trip, assuming you manage decent transport connections between them (ie don't fly). You could definitely spend longer in each (particularly in Vienna if you're a museums and galleries type person), but three days is enough to see the highlights.

underage at the vape shop
May 11, 2011

by Cyrano4747
How visitable is Normandy via public transport and how dumb is it to potentially cross to England right there afterwards? The ferry docks near the bovington tank museum. Planning a more structured trip for next year, any suggestions for things to do and see in France and England to get us to and from those areas? Focusing on history and nature. Currently there will be 3 of us, staying in dorms and trying to be cheap. My friend wants to go up through to Scotland to see the mountains and hike, I want to do that and see skye, though I hear it’s impossible without a car?

underage at the vape shop fucked around with this message at 15:04 on Aug 1, 2018

Galewolf
Jan 9, 2007

The human gallbladder is indeed a puzzle!

Comb Your Beard posted:

Is this a reasonable itinerary for Spring 2019?

1 travel day/jet lag day
3 days Prague
3 days Vienna
3 days Munich
Fly back.

Been to Spain, Portugal, France, England, Scotland, Netherlands before. Interested in Berlin though too. Would I miss out on cooler stuff nearby doing just those 3 cities?

Also Italy is an option.

It's a personal thing but I absolutely loved Berlin when I went there this June. If you like art, history and "old school rave" kinda nightlife you'll enjoy it immensely.

The city is really easy to get around, the public transportation is impeccable, prices are relatively cheaper compared to any other major Western European city and there is always something fun happening with thousands of people in attendance.

Almost everyone speaks decent English, kebabs are the greasiest and messiest ones ever and the riverside is just beautiful during the night.

Prague to Berlin trains are like 4 hours and cost around 50-60 Euros so definitely worth considering.

webmeister
Jan 31, 2007

The answer is, mate, because I want to do you slowly. There has to be a bit of sport in this for all of us. In the psychological battle stakes, we are stripped down and ready to go. I want to see those ashen-faced performances; I want more of them. I want to be encouraged. I want to see you squirm.

underage at the vape shop posted:

How visitable is Normandy via public transport and how dumb is it to potentially cross to England right there afterwards? The ferry docks near the bovington tank museum. Planning a more structured trip for next year, any suggestions for things to do and see in France and England to get us to and from those areas? Focusing on history and nature. Currently there will be 3 of us, staying in dorms and trying to be cheap. My friend wants to go up through to Scotland to see the mountains and hike, I want to do that and see skye, though I hear it’s impossible without a car?

I've only been through Normandy with a car so I don't know for sure, but I don't think there's great public transport in that area. It's aimed at locals getting around the area, not shuttling tourists back and forth.

Mont-Saint-Michel is very touristed but it's worth a visit, just go early in the morning. Nearby St Malo is a nice town as well, grab some oysters there and watch the sun set over the Channel.

The D-Day landing beaches are there as well so I'd guess there's some interesting museums and war memorials there. We only stopped there for an afternoon but it seemed a bit kitsch and tacky, aimed at the sort of tourist who wears a US Navy cap. Our visit was semi-unplanned though, so if you're more organised you'll do better.

Nearby you've also got Bayeux which is a nice little town, and home to the eponymous Bayeux Tapestry. I'd highly recommend this, the audio guide is included and fantastic. It keeps everyone moving along at the same pace so viewing it becomes a pleasure rather than a chore (the Tapestry is several hundred metres long if you hadn't realised).

Further along in Upper Normandy we visited Etretat cliffs which are much like the White Cliffs of Dover, just less well known. Plenty of French tourists though.

Crossing the Channel via ferry is fine, we did the Dieppe -> Newhaven route and it took maybe 90 minutes I think? It was a super long day since we needed two trains from Paris to Dieppe, then two trains from Newhaven to London and then another two Underground trains before we got to our Airbnb - about 12 hours all up.

Skye is beautiful, along with much of the Scottish highlands, but yes you definitely need a car. Pick your time of year as well, Skye has been discovered by pensioners and tour buses so at the height of summer it gets horrendously crowded and accommodation will be hilariously expensive.

Betazoid
Aug 3, 2010

Hallo. Ik ben een leeuw.

Comb Your Beard posted:

Is this a reasonable itinerary for Spring 2019?

1 travel day/jet lag day
3 days Prague
3 days Vienna
3 days Munich
Fly back.

Been to Spain, Portugal, France, England, Scotland, Netherlands before. Interested in Berlin though too. Would I miss out on cooler stuff nearby doing just those 3 cities?

Also Italy is an option.

This itinerary looks good, but I personally preferred Berlin over Munich. The historical sites are very cool, there's a good music scene (I went to two jazz clubs), the feeling is very gritty and authentic... Berlin is just very cool. I liked Munich as well, but I went in December, so I didn't get to do the fun outdoors stuff that I liked because it was bitingly cold.

Definitely stick with 3 days each in Prague and Vienna though. There's tons to do in both and they're terrific.

Saladman
Jan 12, 2010

underage at the vape shop posted:

How visitable is Normandy via public transport and how dumb is it to potentially cross to England right there afterwards? The ferry docks near the bovington tank museum. Planning a more structured trip for next year, any suggestions for things to do and see in France and England to get us to and from those areas? Focusing on history and nature. Currently there will be 3 of us, staying in dorms and trying to be cheap. My friend wants to go up through to Scotland to see the mountains and hike, I want to do that and see skye, though I hear it’s impossible without a car?

Pretty bad. I shipped my car to Le Havre several years ago and went to pick it up and had three days to get around before my car got there. Such a pain in the rear end. I was poor too then and I even sucked it up and paid for a taxi to get to Etretat (which was awesome) because I think the last daily bus was something dumb like 4pm. Also if there are 3 if you splitting the cost of a rental car and gas is probably cheaper or about the same price as taking trains and buses. Anywhere in France that’s not on a rail line is not worth visiting by public transit imo since it’s such a hassle. Many of the small regional rail lines suck too. When the object of my trip to France is a big city like Marseille or Lyon i usually take the train, but then I regret not having a car every time i do a day trip. Paris/île de France is the only area where a car is objectively worse than public transit.

Julio Cruz
May 19, 2006

underage at the vape shop posted:

How visitable is Normandy via public transport and how dumb is it to potentially cross to England right there afterwards? The ferry docks near the bovington tank museum. Planning a more structured trip for next year, any suggestions for things to do and see in France and England to get us to and from those areas? Focusing on history and nature. Currently there will be 3 of us, staying in dorms and trying to be cheap. My friend wants to go up through to Scotland to see the mountains and hike, I want to do that and see skye, though I hear it’s impossible without a car?

Like others have said, both Normandy and the Scottish highlands really require a car, the local buses are more structured around going village to village rather than to any of the tourist sites/hiking routes, and (especially in France) they're not likely to be all that reliable. Also bear in mind that UK long-distance public transport is incredibly expensive unless you sort it well in advance, if you turn up at a station in the south of England and want a ticket to Scotland leaving that day it'll cost you three figures easily.

Julio Cruz fucked around with this message at 01:21 on Aug 2, 2018

PT6A
Jan 5, 2006

Public school teachers are callous dictators who won't lift a finger to stop children from peeing in my plane

Betazoid posted:

This itinerary looks good, but I personally preferred Berlin over Munich. The historical sites are very cool, there's a good music scene (I went to two jazz clubs), the feeling is very gritty and authentic... Berlin is just very cool. I liked Munich as well, but I went in December, so I didn't get to do the fun outdoors stuff that I liked because it was bitingly cold.

Definitely stick with 3 days each in Prague and Vienna though. There's tons to do in both and they're terrific.

Berlin is extremely good, I agree it's a good idea to go there.

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mojo1701a
Oct 9, 2008

Oh, yeah. Loud and clear. Emphasis on LOUD!
~ David Lee Roth

I've finally booked my vacation, and I'll be arriving in Dublin on September 12, and leaving September 27. So far, I'll be in Dublin until the 19th (a day or two more than I need, I know, but I like to build in a day or two just for nothing), and from there, 2 nights in Cork (from which to visit Blarney castle), 2 nights in Galway (and visit the Cliffs of Moher), a night in Derry, then the Giant's Causeway and two nights in Belfast, before I return to Dublin for a night and take off.

This is all tentative, and I'm hoping I'm not too late in renting a car for the second week outside of Dublin. I just had a few questions:

1. Should I make my one whole day in Cork include a trip to Killarney, and visit Blarney Castle on my way out?
2. Can I visit the Cliffs of Moher on my way to Galway afterward?
3. Is there anything else major around Derry? I was just going to stop there for a night on my way to the Giant's Causeway and Belfast.
4. Someone in the whisky thread recommended Kilbeggan as the best distillery to visit. Is there any way I can visit that on my tour? Or should I just take a bus there during my week in Dublin and stick to the outside of the island while I have the car?

And speaking of renting a car, is there a good aggregator site I can use to get a decent deal?

webmeister posted:

The D-Day landing beaches are there as well so I'd guess there's some interesting museums and war memorials there. We only stopped there for an afternoon but it seemed a bit kitsch and tacky, aimed at the sort of tourist who wears a US Navy cap. Our visit was semi-unplanned though, so if you're more organised you'll do better.

Nearby you've also got Bayeux which is a nice little town, and home to the eponymous Bayeux Tapestry. I'd highly recommend this, the audio guide is included and fantastic. It keeps everyone moving along at the same pace so viewing it becomes a pleasure rather than a chore (the Tapestry is several hundred metres long if you hadn't realised).

Public transportation got me to Bayeux, but that's it. Good thing I found a good tour of Juno beach that took us around in a van for 9 hours and showed us a lot that I didn't know (the examination of the German bunkers* was especially interesting).

My one regret being in Normandy is that I didn't actually take time to visit the Bayeux tapestry. By the time I got there, it was closed, the next day was the D-Day tour, and then I had to leave the next morning. On the plus side, local oysters were fantastic and I can't recommend the local cider enough. Only wish I could find it at home.

*Comparing early-war bunkers with just-before-D-Day bunkers, ones made by Germans vs. conscripted local French that didn't give a poo poo about quality, etc.

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