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Yeah I've stayed at tons of AirBNBs and similar where the hosts spoke virtually no English and I spoke none of their language and everything was still fine. As long as the reviews are good, it's fine.
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Apr 18, 2019 03:31
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Going on a short trip to Budapest this Easter weekend, visiting some friends of us. Will be my first time there, so aside from the main draws (Baths, Parliament, Ruin bars, etc.), what are some of the cool things to do for a first timer? Thanks! 
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Apr 19, 2019 09:52
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Chikimiki posted:Going on a short trip to Budapest this Easter weekend, visiting some friends of us. Will be my first time there, so aside from the main draws (Baths, Parliament, Ruin bars, etc.), what are some of the cool things to do for a first timer? Thanks! Budapest is amazing! We enjoyed visiting Buda Castle, and if I recall correctly, there's a little beer bar down the hill from the castle that had an amazing assortment of really cheap beers.
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Apr 19, 2019 17:25
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Chikimiki posted:Going on a short trip to Budapest this Easter weekend, visiting some friends of us. Will be my first time there, so aside from the main draws (Baths, Parliament, Ruin bars, etc.), what are some of the cool things to do for a first timer? Thanks! The citadel is very pretty, there's a few sad museums too that are very worth visiting, the topography of terror and the synagogue. On the Buda side you can walk up the hill to the last soviet statue in the city, which gives a really amazing view of everything
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Apr 20, 2019 01:47
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If you're into photography, head out to Momento Park on the western outskirts of the city. It's where they dumped all the old Communist-era statues in 1991 and there's some great photo spots there. And I mean in a genuine photography sort of way, not a #hashtag #instalove way
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Apr 20, 2019 06:34
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Pinball Museum A huge number of escape rooms (I believe the biggest anywhere in the world) Sir Lancelot restaurant if you're a medieval/fantasy fan Museum of Fine Arts for a nice ancient Egypt collection
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Apr 20, 2019 18:17
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I'm heading to Europe for 10 days and I am starting in Paris and ending in Venice. We wanted to hit Vienna somewhere in the middle there. Can I hit one more city? I was thinking Amsterdam or Budapest? Also I was looking at rail passes but I'm not sure that's my best option.
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Apr 21, 2019 17:59
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I wouldn't recommend hitting a fourth city nor getting a rail pass. Paris -> Vienna by plane, Vienna -> Venice by night train (ÖBB Nightjet).
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Apr 21, 2019 18:33
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How is Corfu in the summer? I'm assuming there'll be plenty of tourists but my image of Corfu is that it's not really a party island like Ibiza or something and is still relaxing, is this more or less right?
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Apr 21, 2019 18:54
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Scratch that, looks like we're doing Paris >> Amsterdam>>Venice Flights between those areas?
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Apr 21, 2019 20:08
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Train Paris > Amsterdam is about 3ish hours, so do that. Fly from Amsterdam to Venice.
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Apr 21, 2019 20:23
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There are a million cheap flights from Amsterdam to Venice, check skyscanner. Paris-Amsterdam is a high-speed train line, though you should book the Thalys well in advance because the price goes up. Even if it's more expensive than flying it's worth it though - saves the hassle of going through airport theatre and being there 2 hours early and all that, and you arrive right in the center, and you save the environment.
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Apr 21, 2019 21:38
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I’m late but in Budapest there’s a great museum Hospital in the Rock. It’s in the caves under Buda Castle where a hospital was created in WW2. It’s very well done (although not recommended for the claustrophobic).
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Apr 21, 2019 22:22
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Entropist posted:There are a million cheap flights from Amsterdam to Venice, check skyscanner. Paris-Amsterdam is a high-speed train line, though you should book the Thalys well in advance because the price goes up. Even if it's more expensive than flying it's worth it though - saves the hassle of going through airport theatre and being there 2 hours early and all that, and you arrive right in the center, and you save the environment. Awesome info...Thalys was reasonable actually. What about from Barcelona to Paris, flight?
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Apr 21, 2019 22:42
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Shibawanko posted:How is Corfu in the summer? I'm assuming there'll be plenty of tourists but my image of Corfu is that it's not really a party island like Ibiza or something and is still relaxing, is this more or less right? Yeah I think so, it’s a package holiday destination rather than a partier destination. There’s an interesting old town there and some good beaches, but honestly Corfu was my least favourite place in Greece, mainly because of the garbage situation. At least when I was there in September last year, there were huge piles of garbage everywhere. Apparently the main landfill on Corfu has been full for years, so the island’s garbage collectors have been on strike for years since there’s nowhere to put the new garbage. The Greek government built a new landfill elsewhere, but being Greece they built it on top of an aquifer and right next to a town, so they got sued by the EU for breaking laws and aren’t allowed to use the new landfill. Meanwhile the garbage just keeps piling up!
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Apr 21, 2019 23:16
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Travel from Barcelona to Paris seems quite expensive
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Apr 22, 2019 01:07
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Jaxyon posted:Travel from Barcelona to Paris seems quite expensive Dude you're only going for ten days and already have three cities in there. Travelling to Europe isn't an achievement hunt, and spending three days in each of three cities is almost already too little time. Dont add a fourth stop.
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Apr 22, 2019 07:58
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Jaxyon posted:Travel from Barcelona to Paris seems quite expensive dont go to paris then
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Apr 22, 2019 08:36
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Hey guys, I'm going to the US for ten days and am staying in NYC and DC. Should I visit Miami?
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Apr 22, 2019 11:53
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Nevermind about Miami! We're considering Chicago now!
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Apr 22, 2019 11:53
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You should definitely visit the Grand Canyon if you go the the USA!
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Apr 22, 2019 12:11
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Jeoh posted:Nevermind about Miami! We're considering Chicago now! Deffo look for cheap train tickets to San Francisco while you're there!
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Apr 22, 2019 14:03
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Hawaii seems like a nice day trip to put in there, how are the flights? Everything from not-too-far cities to Barcelona seems to be expensive - trains Madrid-Barcelona seem even worse than trains Paris-Barcelona. Not sure about flights Paris-Barcelona. but sometimes there are just no cheap flights between major Western-European cities if there was no chance for cheap airlines to get in on it or not many holiday flights between the places. Paris has a bunch of auxiliary airports that are cheap though, perhaps check those. Or don't, because going to 2 or 3 places is plenty on such a short trip unless you especially enjoy public transportation, carrying suitcases, being stressed, checking in and out of hotels / airbnbs, and waking up and sleeping at weird times while being jetlagged and would like to make your trip to be all about that.
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Apr 22, 2019 14:56
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the best part of europe is that if somewhere sounds lame or its too expensive to get to then there are literally dozens of better options from literally all cities, east or west
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Apr 22, 2019 15:14
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seriously can we call this thread "don't try to visit 5 cities in 10 days" yet or at least put it in the OP e: my bad it's already in the OP, which apparently people just aren't loving reading
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Apr 22, 2019 15:23
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Two of my American family visited Europe for their honeymoon. They came to see us in England, went up to Scotland, then onto Amsterdam, Paris and Rome. All in 2 weeks.
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Apr 22, 2019 15:30
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Lady Gaza posted:Two of my American family visited Europe for their honeymoon. They came to see us in England, went up to Scotland, then onto Amsterdam, Paris and Rome. All in 2 weeks. I did this with a high school group when I was 18. Package/guided tour: London (3 nights), Paris (3 nights), Lucerne (2 nights), Florence (2 nights), Rome (3 nights). It was totally mental and all I remember was being in the bus or literally running through museums. For an 18yo American though, I was stoked for the opportunity and overall I thought it was a cool thing to have done. I think more people would like package tours if they were really honest about what they wanted. I feel like there are a lot of people who have insanely tightly planned itineraries but prefer to micromanage it all themselves to save some money so they get stressed the gently caress out because the amazing guided walking tour of the highlights of London is actually a 45 minute tube ride from the hotel and you've got to get people up and fed and out the door and then find the meeting point by 8am so you can get to your show that you booked at 5 (saving 20%!) but now you have to figure out the bus service and and and... The nicest thing about the package tour was that I got to see all the stuff I did and had absolutely nothing to keep organised except where my camera was and have I spent all my money yet.
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Apr 22, 2019 16:18
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We're gonna have 2.5 days in Vienna + 1 morning before flight out. Given the low amount of time is it crazy to book a full day Wachau Valley excursion? Leaning towards yes doing it anyway.
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Apr 22, 2019 16:29
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Booked and finalized my itinerary for the European part of my around-the-world trip. The intent is to do a "train journey" from western Europe to Istanbul, before heading out to Asia and beyond. 3-Days: Gengenbach (Black Forest) 2-Days: Heidelberg 3-Days: Munich 3-Days: Salzburg 3-Days: Vienna 1-Day: Sighisoara 3-Days: Brasov 3-Days: Bucharest 3-Days: Veliko Tarnovo 5-Days: Istanbul After that it is off to China. I have been to Munich, Vienna and Istanbul before, but looking for tips on the other places. Also, any ideas for day trips from Istanbul? I am thinking of going over to the Princes Islands.
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Apr 22, 2019 16:54
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Sighisoara is a small fortified town, nice for just walking around the old center for a day. Do take some time to appreciate the covered walkway to the church and the church itself. There are many towers around for a nice view. There are various nice little shops run by a single person with local productss/beer/wine etc. which I can't find back now because they're not on Google Maps. From Brasov a typical thing to do is of course to go to Bran's castle - "Dracula's castle". While it's nice, it's also quite touristic and there are probably more interesting castles in the area that can be visited as well. I didn't do this but you can also go up the Mt. Tampa hiking or by cable car, which is directly adjacent to the center. The center here is also very nice, with narrow streets and nice houses and all that. You can see quite a bit of history like the German influence. There's also the Weavers bastion with a little museum inside which is nice. Or you can walk up to the Cetatuia fortress for a nice view of the center. For food you really should go to Sergiana here, which is great and has lots of traditional Romanian things to try. Bucharest: Big place, I can't summarize everything, but a few things: If you're coming down from Brasov, Sinaia is a nice stopover for a few hours. Lovely place full of rich people's houses in the mountains, you can go up too. You can do an afternoon trip to Mogoșoaia Palace which is on the edge of the city along the river. It's quite nice and lets you see some stuff outside the center. Buses go there. Have a look at the megalomatiac Parliaments Palace. The Parcul Izvor next to it often has free festivals and such during summer. There's the Roman Arenas, an amphitheatre where they do shows and concerts. See if there will be something typical there. The King Michael I park has a rather bizarre setup where they took houses from villages in various Romanian regions in their entirety and set them up there as an exhibition: the National Village Museum. Interesting to see some peasant culture. In general this park is quite lovely. It has a big lake in the middle that you can take boat tours on, it has garden-like areas, you can eat there, and it's huge. There's a bunch of museums near Piata Victoriei, including the National Museum of the Romanian farmer (yeah, you can see the communist influence on the themes they have museums on) which was quite interesting for me. Also a natural history museum and geology museum. There are many nice places to eat and drink, one for typical stuff is Caru' cu Bere, though it is also huge and crowded, reminding of a German Brauhaus. A popular thing here seems to be sky bars built on top of buildings, some of which are quite nice. Entropist fucked around with this message at 17:51 on Apr 22, 2019 |
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Apr 22, 2019 17:38
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Drone posted:Dude you're only going for ten days and already have three cities in there. Travelling to Europe isn't an achievement hunt, and spending three days in each of three cities is almost already too little time. Dont add a fourth stop. I'm only doing 3 cities now. Yes I wish I had more time, vacation time and money aren't infinite. That's why people do poo poo like this. underage at the vape shop posted:dont go to paris then Yeah so that's not really an option here.
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Apr 22, 2019 18:11
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Entropist posted:Sighisoara is a small fortified town, nice for just walking around the old center for a day. Do take some time to appreciate the covered walkway to the church and the church itself. There are many towers around for a nice view. There are various nice little shops run by a single person with local productss/beer/wine etc. which I can't find back now because they're not on Google Maps. This is great, thanks! Looking to do 4 hours in Sinaia as a train stopover. Doesn't seem like a fun place to stay the night, but the castles seem impressive.
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Apr 22, 2019 18:15
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Jaxyon posted:I'm only doing 3 cities now. Yes I wish I had more time, vacation time and money aren't infinite. That's why people do poo poo like this. General rule of thumb: Train is always better than plane for train rides up to 5 hours. Plane and train are roughly equal for 5-8 hour train distances. Plane is almost always better for distances that are > 8 hours by train. Due to high speed trains, using the driving time on google maps is not always a great estimate. Trains are nice in that you have space and it takes you from city center to city center, but they are often also far nore expensive than flying even including getting to and from airports. Yeah we all understand the initial thought to try to do it all — after all you might only go to Europe a couple times in your life — but for nearly everyone it’s better to go to fewer places and enjoy it more, rather than going to Paris and running between the Eiffe Tower and Louvre and husk of Notre Dame and in the end not seeing or experiencing anything that you haven’t seen a million times before on TV and in the news. YMMV of course, but for a first euro trip 3 geographically distant places in 10 days is probably more stress than fun, but it’s borderline and might be ok. Still, for three cities I’d pick one that’s not on the stereotypical set of Every Songlr Person Goes Here And Has Identical Experiences list of Paris, Amsterdam, Venice, Rome, Berlin, and London. Like I dunno, spend 3 days going around Lake Garda and Verona, or the Dolomites. There’s so much more to Europe than it’s megacity capitals.
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Apr 22, 2019 19:03
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Thank you for the transportation advice. The Thalys actually turned out to be a good deal for me from Paris to Amsterdam, but otherwise yeah I'm seeing plane being the better choice elsewhere. My partner has actually lived in Europe at several points in her life, and outside the main cities, this trip is to see as many Big Cities as we comfortably can. And 3 is pushing it. I get that it's going to be tight for us.
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Apr 22, 2019 19:31
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Saladman posted:Still, for three cities I’d pick one that’s not on the stereotypical set of Every Songlr Person Goes Here And Has Identical Experiences list of Paris, Amsterdam, Venice, Rome, Berlin, and London. Like I dunno, spend 3 days going around Lake Garda and Verona, or the Dolomites. There’s so much more to Europe than it’s megacity capitals. If Paris and Venice are both Musts, they could take the train and pick a city on the route, like say Turin. That would also be more logical, whereas both Barcelona-Paris-Venice and Paris-Amsterdam-Venice are unwieldy and require flying
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Apr 22, 2019 19:35
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Cheesemaster200 posted:Looking to do 4 hours in Sinaia as a train stopover. Doesn't seem like a fun place to stay the night, but the castles seem impressive. Oh yeah, restaurant Hanu' lui Manuc in Bucharest is another very nice historical looking spot for eating. You can sit outside in a courtyard of a historical wooden building that looks like it was once a market or something? Entropist fucked around with this message at 20:12 on Apr 22, 2019 |
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Apr 22, 2019 20:07
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Jaxyon posted:Thank you for the transportation advice. The Thalys actually turned out to be a good deal for me from Paris to Amsterdam, but otherwise yeah I'm seeing plane being the better choice elsewhere. Three days per city + a cumulative day in travel between them = your ten days. Three days is the bare minimum that I would spend in any of those places, but it really all depends on what your goals are while you're there. Seeing landmarks and getting your If the answers to any of those first three questions are "yes" (and if the fourth question doesn't interest you at all), then you'll be fine with three days in each place. But I'd be willing to bet anything that one of those cities is going to grab you in such a way as to make you go, "gently caress, I wish we had spent all ten days here." Which is fine if you use it as a basis to plan a future vacation a few years down the road, but maybe not so great if this is your one and only trip to Europe.
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Apr 22, 2019 20:13
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Drone posted:Three days per city + a cumulative day in travel between them = your ten days. Three days is the bare minimum that I would spend in any of those places, but it really all depends on what your goals are while you're there. Seeing landmarks and getting your I get it. I just have limited money and vacation right now. I do plan on longer trips later on in life.
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Apr 22, 2019 21:03
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Having limited money right now is no reason to do a rushed trip to mark off a checklist when the alternative is actually enjoying the limited time you do have. Do a week in Paris, fly to Venice, do three days there. Sure, you won't get to brag to people at home that you technically saw Amsterdam or Barcelona or whatever, but you will have lasting memories of two cool European cities as opposed to lasting memories of being stressed out and sitting in airports or train platforms for your whole trip.
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Apr 22, 2019 21:19
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Jaxyon posted:I get it. I just have limited money and vacation right now. I do plan on longer trips later on in life. You're going to spend hundreds extra on sitting in a train / plane instead of actually enjoying your trip.
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Apr 22, 2019 21:36
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