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The EU set maximum roaming rates aren't too bad anymore, so it's more like "how do people manage without watching Netflix/pornography outside wifi range"
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Feb 22, 2019 18:08
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My wife and I are finally taking our honeymoon, and we have 3 days in between our time in the Amalfi Coast and Tuscany -- any recommendations? We were considering doing a few nights in Sorrento, or maybe trying to do 1 night in Rome to see the Vatican. We'll be traveling by train, and since we have to go through Rome anyway to get to Florence, we figured it would be silly to ignore it completely.
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Feb 22, 2019 20:06
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Entropist posted:I'm not sure how people who travel a lot survive without a dual-sim phone. I keep my normal SIM active and pop the SIM of whatever country I'm visiting into the other slot (and can then use it to give wifi to my other stuff). I'm moving to Spain next week, and we're going to use Tossable Digits to save our US numbers (and still be able to use them on a single-SIM phone). The other option was Google Voice but Tossable Digits looks more convenient.
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Feb 22, 2019 20:16
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railroad terror posted:My wife and I are finally taking our honeymoon, and we have 3 days in between our time in the Amalfi Coast and Tuscany -- any recommendations? We were considering doing a few nights in Sorrento, or maybe trying to do 1 night in Rome to see the Vatican. We'll be traveling by train, and since we have to go through Rome anyway to get to Florence, we figured it would be silly to ignore it completely. Depends on what you like to do. Rome might be nice but it is a rush of "must sees" that will exhaust most people who like seeing historic monuments and stuff and if you’re on your honeymoon you might want to take it a bit easier. If you do go then don’t try to do all the most famous stuff in 3 days. It’s possible but it is way better if you do, say, the forum and colosseo one day and plan nothing else that day. Italy is by far best seen at a smell the roses pace Naples is great too since you’re already there and it’s quite different and less famous touristy must-sees. Alternately you could rent a car and mosey up to Tuscany stopping at stuff like Caserta palace and Tivoli ans Castel Gandolfo or whatever.
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Feb 22, 2019 20:41
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So this week in Italian class this week we're studying Liguria, I had to give a 10 minute presentation on Giuseppe Mazzini, and we also covered Cinque Terre - tl;dr I'm wondering if we can't shave a couple nights off our six in Rome/save Florence for our next trip to see some of the places I've learned about in class. Saladman, you mentioned that Genoa is super ugly in the winter, but I'm debating a day or two there, just to see some of the stuff I've been studying. It also doesn't help that my I've also learned about San Gimignano in Tuscany and its super well preserved medieval structures. I'm debating if, instead of Florence, we leave Asti and make our way to Rome (well, Mugnano then Rome) by car over a couple days. We'd have to deal with finding a place to return said car outside the ZTLs, but I think that can be managed with a bit of planning. My partner is open to whatever the heck I want to do, so it's pretty much down to what I think sounds fun, and whether I can find us a place to stay on any particular night.
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Feb 28, 2019 16:07
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Long time friend/occasional FWB flaked at the 11th hour and - rather than say "ok, gently caress I'm not going after all" or that something was wrong - has instead taken the very mature option of just completely going to ground and ghosting on the day we were supposed to go to the airport. Its only a weekend in Prague holiday and I'm in Northern Ireland so I'm not ridiculously out of pocket or anything. Anyway, here's the rub, I'd have just been fine going by myself except that I booked everything through her travel agency account. So on my card and everything, I could technically go, tell the airline she's not coming, give my booking number and print off my ticket. But worst case scenario, its some malicious crap (a history of being a bit twisted and flaky) and they cancel my hotel or flight back. Because I can't get in contact with them other than go dramatically pound on their door (which is a retarded idea if they're making a point of blocking and hanging up on me) I have to just assume it for my own safety. Probably not some masterstroke of vindictiveness at work here, but I'll err on the side of caution. I guessed because it goes travel agent > airline, hotel and I didn't have access to the travel agent side I would be able to blag my way onto the plane, sure, but if something happened to the hotel reservation, It'd be impossible to smooth out. I'm putting it down to both experience and Lol, owned, but has anyone encountered being stuck in airports or without a hotel due to some screwup vaguely similar? Is there a protocol?
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Feb 28, 2019 18:47
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morcant posted:So this week in Italian class this week we're studying Liguria, I had to give a 10 minute presentation on Giuseppe Mazzini, and we also covered Cinque Terre - tl;dr I'm wondering if we can't shave a couple nights off our six in Rome/save Florence for our next trip to see some of the places I've learned about in class. Cinque Terre is gorgeous and I've been there a few times in both the off season and high season, and it's crazy busy in high season during the day, but essentially empties out around 4-5pm as all the daytrippers leave. The "off" season is still pretty busy but at least you'll have space to walk through town even between 10-3. In any case, 90% of the daytrippers just go to Vernazza, Monterosso, and Rio Maggiore. There are also more than 5 towns there, and the towns of Cinque Terre that are not "the five" are almost devoid of daytrippers. Vernazza is strikingly beautiful even among Cinque Terre so it's worth a go but try waiting for later in the afternoon. If you're really interested in history, which it sounds like you are, you might like Genoa and it's on your way anyway. It's just relatively dirty and has tons of low-quality graffiti tags even by European standards, plus there this massive elevated highway that passes directly over a large part of downtown that makes it dark and noisy, but it's not quite dark/noisy/dirty enough to be interesting as in visiting a city from the steampunk dystopian future-past. The massive elevated highway also has the tendency to collapse and kill dozens of people which didn't help its rep. ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hs3nvzt5qY8&t=3s ). I bet traffic is still super hosed during the day due to that bridge collapse, so keep your eye on Google Map's traffic, as Genoa had garbage traffic even by Italian standards and even when that bridge wasn't rubble. On the plus side, I've talked so much poo poo about Genoa in all likelihood you'll get there and be like "it's pretty much fine? wtf was Saladman talking about." San Gimignano is awesome, as is Volterra which is 100% worth a stop since it's on your way to or from San Gimignano. If you ever played Assassin's Creed 2 then the main character's home is the town of Monteriggioni which is a neat little micro walled city. I can't imagine spending more than 2 or 3 hours* in San Gimignano or Volterra, or more than about 45 minutes in Monteriggioni. They're all quite small, but driving to them is pleasant and the views can be pretty stunning. *unless you take time to sit and eat a gelato or have a pizza or whatever, which you totally should. But they're really small if you just want to walk through the old parts of town and admire the views. E: Speaking of Italian highways, the one in Bologna also exploded last year in a fireball worthy of a Michael Bay film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPthZO0fCLg Saladman fucked around with this message at 19:52 on Feb 28, 2019 |
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Feb 28, 2019 19:48
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wit posted:Long time friend/occasional FWB flaked at the 11th hour and - rather than say "ok, gently caress I'm not going after all" or that something was wrong - has instead taken the very mature option of just completely going to ground and ghosting on the day we were supposed to go to the airport. Its only a weekend in Prague holiday and I'm in Northern Ireland so I'm not ridiculously out of pocket or anything. I'm kind of struggling to follow this, tbh. Are you saying you booked something on your card through an account (??) of hers? And that it might have been cancelled but it might not have been? If you want to go, just print out your confirmations and head to the airport. Worst case you can probably find a Ryanair or Easyjet flight to Prague. There are hundreds of hotels in Prague, if you're seriously worried then just book something while you're at the airport that has a 100% cancellation policy. Just be aware as well that you'll need an extra flight back - if you don't show up for the outbound leg of a flight, all subsequent legs will be automatically cancelled by the airline.
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Mar 1, 2019 01:27
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We stayed in Vernazza (Cinque Terre) in January and that was fairly quiet, though ironically the restaurants were all crowded because only a couple were open. I was fine with going there in winter because Italian pebble beaches don't appeal to me as an Australian (beaches should have white sand dammit!), and it was fairly easy to just wander around and enjoy the view. Plus our accommodation was dirt cheap. Genoa is definitely dodgy, particularly in the old port town area. We stayed in the middle of the port town and that was one of the few places in all of Europe that I felt genuinely a bit concerned for safety. During the day it's fine unless you go down narrow laneways where guys are openly selling drugs, but night-time was a bit more iffy. I still enjoyed it, because it genuinely feels like an old port town, but I definitely felt a bit on edge the whole time we were there. San Gimignano is worth it for a half day trip, definitely. Unfortunately you could only climb one of the old tower houses, but it was a fantastic view. Blows my mind that there were originally hundreds of them - it must have genuinely looked like a stone Manhattan back in the day.
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Mar 1, 2019 01:34
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I've been thinking of taking a trip to Italy or France (or mayyybe Catalonia) from Helsinki in June by land & sea. Realistically we would have about two weeks there, so we have a week to travel each way (the practical route options being the Helsinki-Lübeck ferry or Helsinki-Stockholm-Copenhagen-Hamburg and then trains through Germany/France). So does anyone have any specific recommendations if my interests are: - small, quiet, green towns; I'm completely tired of noisy and dirty big cities so I'd rather not spend all of my holiday dodging Vespas in Naples or something like that, but then again we'll also want to visit a major city for a few days for the museums and vegan restaurants and stuff - reasonable access to nature; the Pyrenees would probably be the best for this, but it's also a bit far away; then there's Camargue, but in terms of culture Italy is more interesting to me than France so idk - old churches, castles, palaces, ruins, I love all of that poo poo a lot - reasonable public transport access (I don't drive and my gf won't want to do it either, and I hear this might be an Issue in Italy particularly) - if we're going that far we might as well see the Mediterranean too, so I'll want to get in a few days in a seaside town, but beaches and that aren't important - we've got a decent budget but I don't want to spend insane amounts of money on hotels in the super popular tourist towns We're not going to set anything in stone, and what we usually do is only book accommodation for the next place we're going to and sort out things on the fly. Basically I've just been looking at a map like "oh that's next to a railroad, there's a Parc naturel, I remember that place from a book". Names on my mental list: Varese, Besancon, the Ligurian coast, Carcassonne (because my gf loves that dumb game), Grenoble??? but I have no specific attachment to any of these. All recommendations very welcome (and I do read everything posted in this thread so I've got ideas already from you guys).
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Mar 1, 2019 12:58
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Saladman posted:Cinque Terre is gorgeous and I've been there a few times in both the off season and high season, and it's crazy busy in high season during the day, but essentially empties out around 4-5pm as all the daytrippers leave. The "off" season is still pretty busy but at least you'll have space to walk through town even between 10-3. In any case, 90% of the daytrippers just go to Vernazza, Monterosso, and Rio Maggiore. There are also more than 5 towns there, and the towns of Cinque Terre that are not "the five" are almost devoid of daytrippers. Vernazza is strikingly beautiful even among Cinque Terre so it's worth a go but try waiting for later in the afternoon. webmeister posted:We stayed in Vernazza (Cinque Terre) in January and that was fairly quiet, though ironically the restaurants were all crowded because only a couple were open. I was fine with going there in winter because Italian pebble beaches don't appeal to me as an Australian (beaches should have white sand dammit!), and it was fairly easy to just wander around and enjoy the view. Plus our accommodation was dirt cheap. Genoa sounds like a good stop for us, then! And yeah, we don't mind a bit of dirt and graffiti, when there's a bunch of historical stuff to see. We're also not much for lounging on beaches anyway, with the exception of, as webmeister said, the occasional sandy beach. But that's not our goal on this trip, so we should be good. Going to one of towns in/near Cinque Terre, on the other hand, sounds lovely. Especially since we're both in much better shape now to be able to walk just about anywhere. I've been googling pictures, and strolling next to the ocean on a cliffside sounds amazing as hell. I'll look at Vernazza since it comes so well recommended, but we'd be fine with one of the not-Cinque ones, we're not picky. Especially if it means where we end up won't be as crowded. Also Saladman, I played the everliving hell out of Assassin's Creed 2 back when, and completely forgot about Monteriggioni! And I didn't realize it was so close to Sam Gimignano either, dang. It'd be real cool to just stop there for a bit - Google Maps tells me it has at least one pizzeria and one winery, so we'd be set. Right now, I'm looking at 2 nights in Genoa after we leave Asti, and then a meandering route down to Bomarzo/Mugnano, and Rome from there, seeing as many of the aforementioned places as we're interested in seeing. I like the idea of having a bit of time free, to drive about and check out these places at our own pace, especially around Tuscany, the hills of which a friend was just raving about to us last weekend. He disagrees with us skipping Florence, but it's not his honeymoon, lol. Saladman posted:E: Speaking of Italian highways, the one in Bologna also exploded last year in a fireball worthy of a Michael Bay film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPthZO0fCLg  That's...quite the fireball. My professor, being from Bologna, was encouraging us to visit but... I think that's one that's on a "next trip" list, or maybe a "I need to figure out what I'd want to see there in the first place" list.
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Mar 1, 2019 16:13
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Ras Het posted:I've been thinking of taking a trip to Italy or France (or mayyybe Catalonia) from Helsinki in June by land & sea. Realistically we would have about two weeks there, so we have a week to travel each way (the practical route options being the Helsinki-Lübeck ferry or Helsinki-Stockholm-Copenhagen-Hamburg and then trains through Germany/France). So does anyone have any specific recommendations if my interests are: Thinking about small, quaint green towns, and seeing Catalonia already on the "mayyyybe" list, my immediate thought was the Basque Country or perhaps even further west into northern Spain. Bus service should be decent enough and there are trains between major centres, you don't get Mediterranean seaside, but you do get seaside (and without spending a whole bunch).
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Mar 1, 2019 21:07
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Ras Het posted:I've been thinking of taking a trip to Italy or France (or mayyybe Catalonia) from Helsinki in June by land & sea. Realistically we would have about two weeks there, so we have a week to travel each way (the practical route options being the Helsinki-Lübeck ferry or Helsinki-Stockholm-Copenhagen-Hamburg and then trains through Germany/France). So does anyone have any specific recommendations if my interests are: You're going to need to make some sort of tradeoff between "small towns" and "public transport access" because in Europe generally, and Italy specifically, you're going to find it difficult to achieve both.
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Mar 1, 2019 21:59
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morcant posted:Genoa sounds like a good stop for us, then! Sounds like you'll have a lot of fun. Your itinerary now sounds super good to me for a first trip to Italy for someone interested in both history and scenery, and it's a nice mix of tourist hotspots, historical interest, and countryside. Definitely agree with skipping Florence since you already have Rome for "major city tourist hotspot". Also Ras Het: The Pyrenees is terrible for public transport if you want to go anywhere and not just homebase in one spot, especially since you're on an ultra tight time budget to get there and back within 2 weeks by train from Helsinki. Camargue is not so interesting and I doubt you can get anywhere there by public transport except the couple small towns. Aigues-Mortes is neat but I'm almost positive it's not worth the disaster it will be to get there by public transport although I've only been around there by car. It's a lovely marsh delta though, it's not scenic nor particularly interesting unless you're super into birding. Northern Spain might be OK too, I've been around the Bilbao area pretty OK by public transit. Pyrenees and Italy definitely not. One option that could work: Cote d'Azur is gorgeous, well-connected by train, and satisfies most of your criteria except I don't think they have any castles. Eze is a nice little fortified hillside town, and there are a bunch of little towns in the Apt/Lacoste area that are awesome although may not be reasonably-reachable by public transport. Otherwise if you want actually good rural public transport, Switzerland is a good option and has castles and etc. Saladman fucked around with this message at 23:21 on Mar 1, 2019 |
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Mar 1, 2019 23:16
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Oh sorry I phrased that bad: I meant a week to travel there, two weeks there, a week to travel back. Also, I am super into birds. Thanks for the tips, will look into stuff
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Mar 2, 2019 00:19
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If I'm going to Vienna for three nights, are there week days that are better or worse for whatever reason?
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Mar 3, 2019 19:21
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Shy posted:If I'm going to Vienna for three nights, are there week days that are better or worse for whatever reason? It’s a big international city so don’t imagine it’ll make much difference when you go. Sunday hours might be shorter for some shops, and also check that any museums you want to go to aren’t closed (some may do on a Monday for example).
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Mar 4, 2019 06:15
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I am looking to do a month or so backpacking through Europe with my wife this summer, starting around mid-July. Our tentative itinerary is Paris->Freiburg->Heidelberg->Munich->Budapest->Brasov->Bucharest->Veliko Tarnovo->Istanbul. Not so much concerned about the tentative plan, but am wondering what train/hostel/hotel prices are like when you do things last minute during the summer. I would prefer to be flexible, but at the same time I don't want to get completely hosed with waiting to the last minute. How much different are last minute costs versus booking months in advance?
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Mar 7, 2019 22:18
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Cheesemaster200 posted:I am looking to do a month or so backpacking through Europe with my wife this summer, starting around mid-July. Train prices are way cheaper if you book in advance, like half price is pretty standard compared to last-minute purchases. You can already get a kind of rough idea by looking at whatever country's train website, let's say DB (bahn.de) for the price from Mannheim->Munich today, vs. the price in two weeks. This appears to be €100 last-minute, but €50 if a few days in advance. There are never seasonal fluctuations in prices for trains as far as I'm aware. For hostels, those should already have the prices up online for summer so you can already check for yourself in the cities and regions where you want to stay. These will typically not have last-minute price increases, IME most places are the same price if you book a month in advance or a day in advance. Very rarely there are places with last-minute discounts and last-minute "gently caress you for walking in" prices. I've never personally encountered that but I know both exist. Hotel chains like Hilton or whatever often have sales, but I don't think that usually extends to smaller hotels. But... if you're spending more than 2 days in a place, AirBnB will be cheaper than hostels let alone hotels, and far more comfortable. Hostels have an ever-shrinking market in Western Europe, since its only remaining market is: (1) 19 year olds who want to get tanked with strangers, (2) solo travelers on shoestring budgets but who don't want to couch surf, (3) couples on shoestring budgets doing single-night stays a city, and (4) people who aren't aware that AirBnB has completely changed the lodging landscape. In everywhere in Western Europe that I have ever looked -- and this is a lot of places -- full apartment rentals on AirBnB almost always come out cheaper than a private hostel room for 2 people if you're staying for 3 days or more. Most AirBnB hosts/owners have substantial "cleaning" fees on AirBnB to discourage super short-term (i.e. 1-2 night) stays since it's a hassle for them to have to clean the sheets and towels and take out trash etc. Also I know you're not asking about your itinerary, but why Freiburg? It's OK but it's basically a less-pretty version of Heidelberg. They're both student towns in hilly forested countryside, but Heidelberg is much more unique. Colmar & Kayserberg > Freiburg, unless you're going to Freiburg to visit a friend... in which case make sure to get to Colmar and Kayserberg for a daytrip, and much better if you have a car for Kayserberg. Saladman fucked around with this message at 22:55 on Mar 7, 2019 |
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Mar 7, 2019 22:46
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My wife and I just book a trip to Paris for a week in early May. My first time there, she's been there in college. Should we just stick to Paris for the entire week or also try to hit up, say, Amsterdam?
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Mar 8, 2019 03:02
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Stay in Paris, a week will feel like nothing, especially if it’s your first time there.
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Mar 8, 2019 03:19
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Saladman posted:Also I know you're not asking about your itinerary, but why Freiburg? It's OK but it's basically a less-pretty version of Heidelberg. They're both student towns in hilly forested countryside, but Heidelberg is much more unique. Colmar & Kayserberg > Freiburg, unless you're going to Freiburg to visit a friend... in which case make sure to get to Colmar and Kayserberg for a daytrip, and much better if you have a car for Kayserberg. We are billing this as a "grand journey" from Paris or London (haven't figured out the start yet) to Istanbul, and Freiburg appeared to be a good stop from a rail connection perspective. My wife specifically wants to spend time in the black forest and it also seemed like a good base for doing that. Colmar looks very nice; is there a train from Freiburg? We are also planning to spend a minimum of 3-days in each location we visit. If we book trains when we arrive in each place for our next destination, would that be considered "last minute"? Also, how do train changes generally work, specifically with D-Bahn?
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Mar 8, 2019 03:36
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Cheesemaster200 posted:If we book trains when we arrive in each place for our next destination, would that be considered "last minute"? Also, how do train changes generally work, specifically with D-Bahn? Keep in mind if you get a Sparpreis it'll be cheaper, but you'll need to stick to your specific itinerary and the trains listed. You'd also need to book it probably more than three days in advance, so it might not even suit your plans. The regular price is called Flexpreis, and with that you can take any connection on the same route that day. There are also two main classes of train, regional (RE, RB) and long distance (IC, ICE). If your ticket doesn't include IC/ICE, you can take regional trains only. If it does you can use any train. Obviously regional only is cheaper but slower and less comfortable. Looking at Freiburg/Heidelberg specifically we're talking about half the price, but an extra hour of travel and two vs. one changes. I'd spring for the long distance tickets.
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Mar 8, 2019 08:24
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My Lovely Horse posted:Not really, you can book for a train that leaves in ten minutes, three days is comfortably in advance. He means for getting the discounted tickets. I think three days in advance will generally only get you the 'mild' discounts, like maybe €70-80 on a €100-last-minute ticket, whereas two weeks in advance will get you that €50. I'm not 100% sure on this though as I don't buy tickets in Germany that much. In Switzerland, the discount tickets are purchased > 25 hours in advance, with 26 hours in advance being the same as 200 hours in advance. I went to Cologne a couple weeks ago from Zurich and, a week in advance when I bought the ticket, the train ticket was about 50% more expensive than the flight ticket. It sounds like doing the Orient Express is one of the main appeals for this trip for you, so I guess you'll stick to trains, but this is a large reason for why night trains specifically and long distance trains more generally have been dying off in droves in Europe in the past 10 years. But yeah regular trains essentially never sell out, it's so rare that it might as well not exist. Sleeper trains do sell out, so if you do take any sleepers, make sure to book those at least a few days in advance. The black forest is IMO much better appreciated with a car although you can get around it by train -- it just means you always stay in the relatively populated areas, you have to know in advance specifically where you want to go instead of winging it, and it's half the speed of driving. I went to Titisee some years ago and it's the only time I've ever rowed a rowboat (no kayaks??) and I've been driving through the black forest recently to go to the source of the Danube (Donauquelle; literally "Danube source" in German") which is also right near Freiburg, and it's nice but not super remarkable. But I've lived in Switzerland for 10 years and go to the Alps pretty regularly, so my standards for countryside beauty of hilly farming areas is pretty high. E: There's probably a direct from Colmar to Freiburg. I can't remember but I did it by public transit so it's definitely reasonable. Google Maps does a really good job of finding the best public transit routes between A to B in almost all of Western Europe. Saladman fucked around with this message at 10:08 on Mar 8, 2019 |
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Mar 8, 2019 09:57
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Thinking of going to Crete with my wife for a few weeks this spring, what are some good places to go on the island that aren't touristy but still have a beach nearby? We want to see some history, eat a lot of food and drive around maybe on a moped or with a rental car and have a good time.
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Mar 8, 2019 11:04
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I’m in Rome right now and I have a question about the dudes roaming around selling stuff at the sights... why do they keep trying to make me look at my feet? They always open up by pointing at my very normal looking shoes, or by shining bright lights on the ground trying to get me to look down. I know in Brussels the Roma will move their coin cans into the sidewalk to try and get you to kick them over so you feel sorry for them, but I can’t figure out the scam here.
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Mar 11, 2019 19:34
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Cheesemaster200 posted:My wife specifically wants to spend time in the black forest and it also seemed like a good base for doing that. You should also consider staying in the middle of it then, like Triberg. It's quite nice and it's on the west-east railway line from Freiburg to the other side of the forest, so fairly easy to get to. It has a nice "holiday with your German grandparents" feeling, don't expect anything too exciting, but that's how it is there. The waterfalls are lovely and there are many walking routes and really kitschy places with wooden stuff around. Colmar is nice too, I went there from Nancy and it was easy by train. Bigger and more touristic than Triberg, and a nice mix of French and Elsass things.
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Mar 12, 2019 00:14
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I have a super broad question for you all that boils down to "where should I, a 31 year old solo male traveler, go for a few days given relative carte blanche?" I'm going to be in the Netherlands for a week for business, ending on a Friday (March 29th). Originally, my wife was going to join me on 3/29, and we were going to explore Amsterdam and Belgium, leaving from Brussels four days later on Tuesday (April 2nd). However, my wife has gotten sick, and won't be able to take the time off, so now I essentially have from Saturday Morning to Monday Night free by myself in Europe. I'll be in Amsterdam, though I was just there in the fall, so I'm not particularly interested in exploring there or Belgium. (I did a very similar solo trip in the fall of Amsterdam + Brussels for work, and the intent of this trip was to have my wife join me to experience the cool things I saw on that trip) Because of work and international per diem, I'll have a decent budget for taking trains/short-ish flights to wherever I can get to from Amsterdam, so it doesn't need to necessarily be limited to where I can get a quick train. Places I've already been somewhat recently and am not 100% interested in going to - Paris - Croatia (Zagreb + Dubrovnik) - Amsterdam - Brussels - Budapest I can give my interests to help narrow things down (for example, I like wine, so maybe somewhere in German wine country?), but my broad question is: If you had a few spare days and a solid budget for lodging and transportation in Europe, are there any places that would be super amazing to go to, particularly for someone who only speaks English and a tiny tiny bit of French?
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Mar 14, 2019 16:20
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SgtScruffy posted:I have a super broad question for you all that boils down to "where should I, a 31 year old solo male traveler, go for a few days given relative carte blanche?" I'm the broken record here, so I'm going to say Spain. Madrid or Sevilla would each be great for short stays and pretty easy to get to and from, and the climate should be great this time of year.
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Mar 14, 2019 16:54
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SgtScruffy posted:I can give my interests to help narrow things down (for example, I like wine, so maybe somewhere in German wine country?) German wine country (the Rhine river valley specifically) is absolutely beautiful and is definitely worth the trip... when the weather is nice and you can take a nice, relaxing booze cruise down the river and see the sights. I'm not sure how it's going to be at the end of this month, particularly if the weather doesn't get much better than it currently is. It would help to know where you're coming from... are you just hopping over from the UK, or are you from across an ocean? Other than that it's rough without having a list of interests and ways that you might spend your time.
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Mar 14, 2019 17:13
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SgtScruffy posted:However, my wife has gotten sick, and won't be able to take the time off, so now I essentially have from Saturday Morning to Monday Night free by myself in Europe. I'll be in Amsterdam, though I was just there in the fall, so I'm not particularly interested in exploring there or Belgium. One thing I wasn't sure about : do you have to get back to Brussels to fly home? Or are you free after Amsterdam? I'd definitely also strongly suggest going south to wherever you can get directly from Amsterdam ( see: https://www.flightradar24.com/data/airports/ams/routes ) and that also gets you back home to wherever you need to go pretty easily. That time of year could be nice around the Eifel area in Germany, but you'd want to really play it by ear. If the weather at the end of the month is like it is today (i.e. cold, rainy, windy), it'd be a huge bust and you'd want to just sit in your room all day and read. Looking at those flights from Amsterdam, Seville, Lisbon, Marseille, Nice, Naples, Izmir, and Marrakech all look like great destinations for a weekend getaway, pending how much of a hassle it is to get back from those cities to your home. The parts of the German wine country that are beautiful IMO, like Aachen towards Saarbrucken, are going to take as long to get to by train as it will take to fly to any of those other places and it's really hit or miss right now. Right now there are only tiny bits of budding on the plants, so who knows if it will be nice in two weeks or if everything will still look dead. YMMV but I have a pretty hard time enjoying the countryside in March in that part of Europe.
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Mar 14, 2019 17:29
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First of all, thanks for the quick responses - I know I didn't provide much information or details, so I appreciate bearing with me.PT6A posted:I'm the broken record here, so I'm going to say Spain. Madrid or Sevilla would each be great for short stays and pretty easy to get to and from, and the climate should be great this time of year. Spain and Portugal have been mentioned by friends, particularly Lisbon! Are these at all challenging for someone who doesn't know much Spanish or Portuguese to get around public transportation etc? Drone posted:German wine country (the Rhine river valley specifically) is absolutely beautiful and is definitely worth the trip... when the weather is nice and you can take a nice, relaxing booze cruise down the river and see the sights. I'm not sure how it's going to be at the end of this month, particularly if the weather doesn't get much better than it currently is. I'm coming from the East Coast of America - thus why I'd like to take advantage of the "well, I'm in the area thanks to my company paying for the flights to and from America, so I might as well go to X somewhat off the beaten path" situation rather than do a trip to one of the sort of "standard places" that American tourists often do a Big Trip for. Saladman posted:One thing I wasn't sure about : do you have to get back to Brussels to fly home? Or are you free after Amsterdam? I'd definitely also strongly suggest going south to wherever you can get directly from Amsterdam ( see: https://www.flightradar24.com/data/airports/ams/routes ) and that also gets you back home to wherever you need to go pretty easily. I do. I booked my flights in advance thinking that I'd be able to fly back with my wife from Brussels, so I have a ~noon flight from BRU airport on Tuesday. I could theoretically change it to another airport, though I'm not sure if that's going to cost a huge arm and a leg or be Not That Bad, so I can look into changing it but I kinda want to go under the assumption that it would be like $700 just to switch. I'm also not averse to spending a lot of effort to get to a really special place for only a little bit. One sort of "bucket list" example of this would be like a 6 hour flight to Amann Jordan, and then do a day (or two?) trip to Petra, and then fly from Jordan to Brussels and back home.
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Mar 14, 2019 17:44
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SgtScruffy posted:I'm also not averse to spending a lot of effort to get to a really special place for only a little bit. One sort of "bucket list" example of this would be like a 6 hour flight to Amann Jordan, and then do a day (or two?) trip to Petra, and then fly from Jordan to Brussels and back home. I'd almost say do this, as long as you're willing and you've got the budget. That much travel would exhaust the gently caress out of me, but I'm kindof a picky traveler. Also make sure your wife isn't gonna get extremely pissed off that you did it without her... that's the kind of thing I'd never do without my spouse if I could help it. Note: I've never been to the Middle East so I have no idea if what essentially amounts to a long weekend in Jordan is possible/enough time to see what you wanna see, but yeah.
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Mar 14, 2019 17:49
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Drone posted:I'd almost say do this, as long as you're willing and you've got the budget. That much travel would exhaust the gently caress out of me, but I'm kindof a picky traveler. Right - I'd imagine that I could get roundtrip flights and some sort of "all inclusive tour package" for <$1000, which is within my price range. I think my wife's main concern would be on the safety side of things more than the "you did WHAT without me?" side of things, but I'd definitely clear anything with her. In terms of interests, I'm someone who would go into a big city with something like a Rick Steves book and just hit all of the must see sites but then do some of the more Atlas Obscura-type "weird stuff that is unique to that city". I'm hesitant to say "off the beaten path" because that is kinda eyerolly, but that. I like outdoorsy stuff and hiking and the lot, but like said about German wine country, I understand the weather could either be "perfect and everything is amazing" or "crappy and it'll be a waste", so I didn't want to focus too much on needing to be outside.
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Mar 14, 2019 18:10
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SgtScruffy posted:Spain and Portugal have been mentioned by friends, particularly Lisbon! Are these at all challenging for someone who doesn't know much Spanish or Portuguese to get around public transportation etc? If you're in a major city in Spain, you will have very little problem operating entirely in English with a few words of Spanish. Smaller towns, etc. might be more challenging but if you're in Madrid or Sevilla I think you'd be quite okay for a few days. I expect Lisbon is the same way. Maybe grab a phrasebook if you're nervous, but I think you'll be fine. The level of English everywhere I went in Spain was better than the level of English I encountered in Germany, for example. If you want to do a bucket-list thing, you could always go see the Alhambra in Granada. It's a bit of an asspain to get to since there's no direct flight from AMS, but I mean it's probably easier than going to Petra.
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Mar 14, 2019 18:19
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If you wanted to do Granada, fly into Malaga and it's just a couple hours via bus. I did run into some people in Seville who didn't speak much if any English myself, but there were also plenty who spoke it fluently, and even with those who didn't I managed to get by fine with the 20+ year old dregs of high school Spanish that are still sloshing around in my head somehow, so I'd say you'd be fine. Just learn the days of the week so you can read bus schedules and opening hours and all, and a few common phrases to be polite and you'll be grand. If you want to go to Portugal I'd also suggest Porto; been there myself and it's a great city, lots of interesting stuff to see (and port wine to drink of course) and you could certainly spend a few days there, especially if you take a day trip up to Guimarães or Braga or a tour up the Douro Valley or something. Again, while there might be some folks who don't speak English very well, you shouldn't have any trouble getting by; just smile apologetically and gesture and point at stuff if it comes down to it (and there's always Google Translate in an emergency...). I've been to quite a few different European countries where I don't speak more than a few words of the local language and I've never run into any real problems.
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Mar 14, 2019 19:37
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If you're going to do Petra (FWIW I don't think you should do it, there's a lot of other stuff in Jordan that's worth seeing and making an actual trip out of it in the future and I think you'd get more out of it if you kept it for another time) keep in mind that Petra is actually still a 3h drive from Amman. You might get lucky with flights on the way back to Europe, I know my flight to Frankfurt from Amman leaves at 3am and arrives in Frankfurt at 6am, so if there was a connection there that works for you it could just work out. It would be a lot of trouble (and expense) for basically a one-day trip. Personally, I'd fly to Milan and go hang out in northern Italy in the Como area, hanging out with lakes and mountains and getting fat on Italian food for a day.
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Mar 14, 2019 20:36
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For Alhambra, book your tickets TODAY, that place is a right pain to get into. Use the official website https://tickets.alhambra-patronato.es/en/ or be ready to pay a lot for a tour. It is well worth it, the Nezrin Palace is stunning. Malaga is a huge airport too so flights shouldn't be a problem, just getting to and from Granada. Ed: there's also some way to get leftover/next day tickets if you have your credit card ready and mash f5 at midnight or something like that, but when I did it there were only 3-5 tickets that showed up on a couple of days and then nothing on the others, but we did get something (and then paid for a tour to get in the palace). greazeball fucked around with this message at 23:42 on Mar 14, 2019 |
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Mar 14, 2019 23:39
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Whats up dudes, I've been living in Prague for almost 2 years now. Anyone else out here?
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Mar 15, 2019 12:09
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Same question but I just moved to Barcelona. I've looked but we don't really have an expat thread anywhere do we?
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Mar 15, 2019 13:30
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