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Professor of Cats posted:Hey everyone! First time poster in the A/T forum; Ireland is awesome and you'll love it, I'm sure. (Hell, I loved it so much that I up and moved here...  )Weather-wise, February will be chilly and wet, but not usually freezing cold. The climate here is relatively mild; it gets a degree or two below freezing at night sometimes, but basically never stays that way during the day. Probably you'll see highs in the 40s F every day. It will most likely be rainy, though, so be prepared for that. Often the weather is changeable, so even if it is pouring rain now, it might be clear and sunny in fifteen minutes, but if we get a big weather system blowing in from the sea, it could rain for hours. Even when it's not rainy, the weather here is always, always, always damp. Like, really really damp. Hell, I'm a Florida boy and even I find the winters here really drat humid (not that I'm complaining, mind; can't stand dry air myself). That means you're gonna feel that cold air a lot more than you will in your desert. Dress in a couple layers with a waterproof outer layer; something more durable than a cheap poncho, because that'll get snagged on something and tear or just be blown away before you know it. A waterproof windbreaker or a proper raincoat would be better. Water-resistant shoes are a good idea; your feet will get soggy otherwise (and definitely don't bring anything that would be damaged by water; leave the suede shoes at home). An umbrella will often be rather useless, as it'll either be too windy to use it or it'll be that stereotypical "Irish" rain that doesn't really fall so much as it just...exists. You don't really need hiking boots unless you actually plan on hiking, but if you're comfortable enough with yours, they'll do well enough. Folks here are definitely friendly enough, though as Pookah noted, they aren't going to be particularly intimate with some random stranger. Don't expect to be invited into people's houses for tea or something, but if you pop into the pub, you'll usually have no problem striking up some conversations with the locals. As for "Americanisms", Americans are liked well enough here. Just don't be an rear end in a top hat, don't go spouting off about politics or whatnot, and don't refer to yourself as "Irish" because your great-great-great granny knew someone named O'Brien back in the day (no one's going to take offense or anything, but they will probably roll their eyes at the silly American tourist). Also, many Irish folks do like a bit of banter, so don't take offense if someone says something to you that seems a bit rude; most likely they're just taking the piss. (They also tend to curse like sailors and use expletives as punctuation, so try not to let the foul language bother you...and the "c-word" does pop up from time to time, but it doesn't really have the same offensive misogynistic connotation for most folks here as it does in the US, so try not to look too scandalized if you happen to hear it.) For tipping, it's not mandatory like in the US, but it's appreciated; you won't offend anyone (except you shouldn't generally tip at B&Bs; usually the hosts are the ones cleaning the rooms and that makes it weird). At restaurants, 10% would be considered a good tip, 15% an excellent one. If you want to use your credit card to tip, you have to tell them before they enter your total in the card reader; unlike in the US, they can't add a tip after the transaction's been processed. Just tell 'em "Could you make that 20, please?" if you wanted to leave a €2 tip on a €18 bill, for instance. Also, sometimes you'll find a place who won't do tips on cards at all, so try to have some larger coins on you just in case. At pubs and bars, you don't generally tip the bartenders, but if you're in a posh place with table service, you can tip your server. Taxis, rounding up to the next euro is fine, maybe the next €5 on a long trip (and saves everyone the hassle of making change as well). As for things to do, are you staying at Knocktopher (I assume) all week, or just for one night? It wouldn't really be the best base for your entire trip, as it's rather far from many of the prettiest parts of the country and wouldn't really be convenient for day trips (especially in February when you don't have a lot of daylight to work with). If you can, I'd suggest staying in at least one other place, maybe two if you really are just doing an overnight there. The most "traditional" would probably be a few nights in Killarney (or Kenmare, if you'd prefer something a bit less touristy) and a few nights in Galway; both locations have plenty to see and do in the surrounding area, and tons of beautiful scenery, green rolling hills (even in February), dramatic mountains, seascapes, cliffs, and all that jazz. From Killarney/Kenmare, you can drive the Ring of Kerry, head up to Dingle and drive around Slea Head, or around the Beara Peninsula in west Cork. Killarney National Park is also a lovely spot to explore. From Galway, you can easily check out west Clare (the Cliffs of Moher, the Burren, etc.) and Connemara. If you are stuck in Knocktopher for the duration, you'll realistically be limited to the east and the Midlands. Cork is maybe doable, but even Cork City is a couple hours' drive each way, and the nice towns on the coast like Kinsale even further. Bit of a long drive when you've got less than ten hours of daylight to work with (and driving at night can be a bit tricky here; the roads generally aren't lit outside of towns, and even the N roads can be full of sharp bends and unexpected narrow spots, so you can't go very fast in the dark...). There's still stuff to see around there, though, even if you'll miss out on the scenery in the west. Kilkenny town itself is a nice spot; the castle is impressive, as is St. Canice's cathedral, and there are several more historic churches throughout the town. Waterford, to the south, isn't the prettiest city, but it has an interesting history and an excellent history museum, as well as some bits of the old city fortifications still standing. Cashel and Cahir are about an hour's drive to the west, where you'll find the famous Rock of Cashel and Cahir Castle respectively. Cashel also has a few other sights, such as the Swiss Cottage, an interesting restored cottage orné. To the east, there's Wexford, and...well, I don't actually know what's in Wexford, but there's probably something interesting to see, and at least you can say you've been to Wexford on purpose, which I don't think a lot of people can claim. And if you want to see some mountains, head up to Wicklow; definitely don't miss Glendalough. Wherever you end up, check out this site, Megalithic Ireland, for a bunch of cool little ruins and monuments and Neolithic and Iron Age archaeological sites to visit in your area. It's an awesome resource, constantly being updated, and I refer to it every time I take a road trip. Also, if you're driving or walking around and wonder what some particular ruin or building might be, you can probably find it on the Historic Environment Viewer, which pulls data from the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage (blue dots, for buildings of significant historic or architectural interest) and the National Monuments Service (red dots, for literally every archaeological site cataloged in the country, from burnt mounds to towering fortresses).
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Jan 21, 2020 23:52
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dennyk posted:Ireland is awesome and you'll love it, I'm sure. (Hell, I loved it so much that I up and moved here... Holy cow, thanks for all of this.  You are spot on with Knocktopher. And yes, we are stuck there; so we will probably wake up fairly early to go visit other places. And since we are stuck-ish, I guess that will give us some more intimate time for the places we can drive to and back. I know for sure we will take advantage of a train/bus to go to Dublin once or twice. We are probably going to hop on one of those tour buses and just see what the city has to offer. I also want do the super touristy thing of going a whiskey tour. Speaking of which, after dinner, I like to find the nearest pub and and put on a bit of a nightcap. So hopefully I have access to that? I'm also a bit of an extrovert so obviously I'm looking forward to meeting folks (if willing, I might be out going but I hate to overstay my welcome, even if it is for the first 2 seconds)Thanks for the raincoat suggestion; I'm just gonna bit the bullet and bring up a proper raincoat. Preparing what clothes to bring to a place I've never been is always my least favorite part; so everyone's suggestion is extremely helpful. And another big thanks on the site links; especially that first one.
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Jan 22, 2020 04:24
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Professor of Cats posted:Holy cow, thanks for all of this. I wouldn't try to take transit from Knocktopher itself to Dublin; there's like one bus that runs once or twice a day and you'll probably have to transfer two or three times. If you want to avoid the hassle of city centre driving/parking, you can use one of the Luas Red Line Park & Ride lots on the outskirts; any of the three are easily accessible from the M7/N7 without having to go inside the M50. Knocktopher itself is a really, really tiny village, but I think there's a couple pubs there, including one that serves food. Any other evening excursions will require driving, I'm afraid, or a fairly expensive cab ride (again, there's a bus at like 10AM and one at 2PM and that's it...), so I wouldn't plan on knocking back multiple pints or drams of whiskey after dinner (unless someone else is driving). On the plus side, you might end up getting to know the locals a bit better than most tourists do (or at least the barman, anyway).
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Jan 22, 2020 15:03
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pointsofdata posted:Is the audio-guide to the Vatican museums good? Are there better options? I've downloaded Rick Steve's app, the audio guided walking tours seem quite slick so will try one but the Vatican museums one is just an hour and I remember them being large. when i went large parts of the museum were locked down to guide the masses down a set route, it was rather hellish, even at night
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Jan 22, 2020 16:53
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Professor of Cats posted:Thank you very much! You all helped me feel a lot more confident about my upcoming trip. I'd say you'll have a great time  Apart from the big 'destination' type castles and things, there are a good few Norman towerhouse-type castles just standing in fields by the sides of roads throughout the south/southeast. I remember noticing a load of them the last time we drove across that part of the country. Also Wexford is a really nice town, all the streets follow the original medieval layout so its got a nice, old-fashioned feel. If you like trains, the trip from Wexford to Dublin or even to Bray is really nice - probably the best train views in the country. It's a 2-3 hours trip one way, depending on how far you go.
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Jan 22, 2020 17:02
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Davincie posted:when i went large parts of the museum were locked down to guide the masses down a set route, it was rather hellish, even at night The Vatican museum is one of the most impressive collections of ill-gotten antiquities that you'll never get to actually look at because you're too busy trying not to die while involuntarily crowd-surfing the never-ending flood of tour groups (and if you do somehow manage to find some spot to momentarily escape the crush, you'll be immediately shoved out of the way by a gaggle of Instragrammers, and beaten to death with selfie sticks if you resist...).
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Jan 22, 2020 18:42
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We're going at 9am, I was hoping it would be better then. Last time I went with a private guide and I don't remember it being too busy, maybe we went at a weird time or did a special route though.
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Jan 22, 2020 19:02
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pointsofdata posted:Is the audio-guide to the Vatican museums good? Are there better options? I've downloaded Rick Steve's app, the audio guided walking tours seem quite slick so will try one but the Vatican museums one is just an hour and I remember them being large. So me and my wife went to Rome, a ton of museums, and just got the audio guide to the Vatican museum, and I gotta say it was the best money we spend on that trip, cause there's sooooo much poo poo in the Vatican museum it's worth it if just for the amount of info you'll get. You'll probably get different opinions but imo either buy that or a tour (which we didn't get, so I don't know about that)
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Jan 23, 2020 02:34
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I found out my family is mostly from the Midlothian area of Scotland and I Want To Go To There. Anyone know anything about tourist stuff in the area? Because it doesn't seem like there's much. Which is fine too.
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Jan 24, 2020 00:16
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My wife and I are considering going to the Netherlands and Belgium in early May. I'm going to dive into some of the relevant posts in recent pages/the first page, but a couple initial questions: - We like to be active on vacation (though not in a rush), and usually mostly do touristy things, with a dash of other recommendations mixed in. We won't be sitting around drinking or smoking at all. If we go for ~11 days, should we think about adding one other destination, or is that about the right amount of time for the two countries? - My wife really wants to see the tulip fields in all their glory. If we can get there on May 6th at the earliest, is that still a good time, or is it slightly late? Thanks guys.
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Jan 24, 2020 06:56
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runawayturtles posted:My wife and I are considering going to the Netherlands and Belgium in early May. I'm going to dive into some of the relevant posts in recent pages/the first page, but a couple initial questions: You can easily spend 11 days in the Netherlands and Belgium. Pick the cities you want to see, spend some time there, then rent a car or bicycles and go to the Belgian Ardennes or Dutch Veluwe National Park or one of the other nature areas. Or go to any others of the tiny towns way outside of the main city conglomerates. Almost all of them have a historic town center and every province has its own specific stuff that you can't really find anywhere else. If there's specific kinds of stuff you're looking for, just ask in this thread, we can give you plenty of pointers. May in NL and BE has very decent spring weather: 10-15C, mostly sunny with some clouds, although always with a chance of a rainy day. As for tulips, the main touristy tulip park is the Keukenhof, and it's opened from March 21 to May 10. So based on the opening times, you should just barely be able to manage it. Having said that, I heard the director of Keukenhof complain on radio the other week that because of the exceptionally warm winter, tulip bulbs are already sprouting now, way too early, which is a problem. I kinda expect them to plant new bulbs so that at least the touristy park will have full fields until closing day. If you don't want to go the touristy way and be swarmed by tourists another option is just ride or drive around the tulip farming areas and see the fields from the road. If you go that way just please be careful about parking your car unsafely on the shoulder of narrow farm access roads, and don't walk into the fields. Usually they aren't really fenced off but they're still private property and the farmers make their living from selling these flowers, and walking through them damages them. Tourists walking into the fields are a big annoyance for the locals.
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Jan 24, 2020 07:44
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runawayturtles posted:My wife and I are considering going to the Netherlands and Belgium in early May. I'm going to dive into some of the relevant posts in recent pages/the first page, but a couple initial questions: You can easily spend that time touring either country just going to the big museums.
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Jan 24, 2020 08:13
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While we're on the subject of the Netherlands: I'm going this fall for work and am trying to already plan out an evening with some coworkers. Anyone have a good recommendation for a rijstafel place that is both real good and not overrun with tourists?
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Jan 24, 2020 09:36
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what city are you going to? amsterdam? makes it easier to recommend a restaurant
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Jan 24, 2020 11:12
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Oh whoops, sorry, thought I mentioned it in there. Yep, Amsterdam. Staying near Amsterdam RAI.
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Jan 24, 2020 11:59
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Drone posted:Oh whoops, sorry, thought I mentioned it in there. Yep, Amsterdam. Staying near Amsterdam RAI. Kartika will be a short tram ride away from you and is delicious. There's also a nice proeflokaal right by it called Golem's.
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Jan 24, 2020 19:32
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snoremac posted:Thank you. Looking at returning flights it seems Barcelona and Madrid are inevitable layovers were I to take off from anywhere else in Spain, so I plan to begin in Barcelona, travel somewhere south by train, then end up in Madrid before going home. Sort of a U-shaped itinerary. Where'd you end up going? I just booked a trip to Spain that is bookended with a couple days in Madrid when I get there and a couple days in Barcelona before flying home (well, maybe just one day, because it is expensive as gently caress in Barcelona as I'm looking, even AirBnBs aren't cheap) but in between we've got six nights that we're looking to spend somewhere along the southern coast, either all in one spot or split between two.
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Jan 24, 2020 22:22
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Carbon dioxide posted:If you don't want to go the touristy way and be swarmed by tourists another option is just ride or drive around the tulip farming areas and see the fields from the road. If you go that way just please be careful about parking your car unsafely on the shoulder of narrow farm access roads, and don't walk into the fields. Usually they aren't really fenced off but they're still private property and the farmers make their living from selling these flowers, and walking through them damages them. Tourists walking into the fields are a big annoyance for the locals. Good advice in general, but early May is def. too late for that, especially with this warm year. Perhaps in the Keukenhof they'll manage to desperately keep a few late tulips alive using the latest horticultural technology until the park closes, but the farms are just gonna do their thing. Drone posted:While we're on the subject of the Netherlands: I'm going this fall for work and am trying to already plan out an evening with some coworkers. Anyone have a good recommendation for a rijstafel place that is both real good and not overrun with tourists? Sampurna - The slightly more expensive but they don't go easy on the flavours. Is small and directly on the flower market, so likely to be full at many times. Kantjil & de Tijger - Solid choice that we bring visiting professors and such to from the university. Reasonably big but may still be full. This place has excellent takeout too for a quite reasonable price. It's a good option when on the go but a quite different experience than eating there of course. Puri Mas - Although it's in the very touristy Leidseplein area it doesn't seem very touristy at all, and it's quite big so there's almost always place. Not open for lunch. At this point it's been a while since I've been here (there are not many other reasons to go to Leidseplein) but they were really friendly and had good food, at a slightly cheaper price than the others. It was my favorite, I should go here again. These are all in the 30-35 eur (reasonably priced for Amsterdam) range, there are fancier/more expensive options too where you might have to book weeks in advance or whatever but I have no experience with that.
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Jan 24, 2020 23:12
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Hi thread. Another ignorant American here to ask "is this itinerary too insane." I have a chunk of time off in June and was thinking of spending two weeks (plus two days to account for travel) to bum around the UK plus Ireland. Mainly just trying to see what a feasible amount of time to spend would be, a (very rough, very open to change) thought I was having was spending a day or two in Galway to check out some highlights in the western part of Ireland, a few days in Dublin with a day trip or something to the GIant's Causeway, then splitting the rest between Scotland (Glasgow and the highlands) and England (London for sure, and presumably other more scenic northernly places?). I'm mainly interested in nature (though I suck at difficult hikes) and relaxedly stumbling through towns.
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Jan 26, 2020 04:50
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Deviantfish posted:thinking of spending two weeks (plus two days to account for travel) to bum around the UK plus Ireland ... I'm mainly interested in nature I've got some bad news for you! More seriously London plus Scotland plus Ireland is too much for two weeks imo if you want to get out of the main cities and take your time seeing more than the main sights. To give you an idea, I've done 10 day road trips in Scotland and Ireland with my partner and both felt about right.
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Jan 26, 2020 08:32
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Deviantfish posted:I'm mainly interested in nature (though I suck at difficult hikes) and relaxedly stumbling through towns. Pick two from your list of countries and have a week in each. Don't try to zip all over those two countries, either - pick a couple of places and spend a few days in each. I know you're coming from far away and I know there's a temptation to see as much as possible, but you'll enjoy it more if you find peace with the fact that you will only really be able to see a few places.
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Jan 26, 2020 12:24
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Just the journey from Dublin to the Giant's causeway is a 6 hour round trip - it's really really not a day trip. Like the others have said, if you want to look at nature and womble around towns in a relaxed way you're probably going to have to cut out at least one whole country, and whichever countries you do settle on, don't plan on zipping from one end to the other. You'll just end up exhausted and not able to enjoy the places once you get there.
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Jan 26, 2020 12:40
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Deviantfish posted:Hi thread. Another ignorant American here to ask "is this itinerary too insane." I have a chunk of time off in June and was thinking of spending two weeks (plus two days to account for travel) to bum around the UK plus Ireland. Mainly just trying to see what a feasible amount of time to spend would be, a (very rough, very open to change) thought I was having was spending a day or two in Galway to check out some highlights in the western part of Ireland, a few days in Dublin with a day trip or something to the GIant's Causeway, then splitting the rest between Scotland (Glasgow and the highlands) and England (London for sure, and presumably other more scenic northernly places?). I'm mainly interested in nature (though I suck at difficult hikes) and relaxedly stumbling through towns. If I were you, I'd pick one island or the other; there's plenty to see and do in either location, and if you really want to spend some time on leisurely nature walks and "relaxedly stumbling through towns" then you don't want to be rushing around like a madman trying to visit the entirety of the British Isles in one go.
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Jan 26, 2020 15:21
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If you want to focus on nature don’t bother with London or the south east of England. It’s fairly densely populated and areas like Kent, which can be quite nice, are quite flat and not as dramatic as say the Scottish highlands or parts of northern England.
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Jan 26, 2020 17:13
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Deviantfish posted:Hi thread. Another ignorant American here to ask "is this itinerary too insane." I have a chunk of time off in June and was thinking of spending two weeks (plus two days to account for travel) to bum around the UK plus Ireland. Mainly just trying to see what a feasible amount of time to spend would be, a (very rough, very open to change) thought I was having was spending a day or two in Galway to check out some highlights in the western part of Ireland, a few days in Dublin with a day trip or something to the GIant's Causeway, then splitting the rest between Scotland (Glasgow and the highlands) and England (London for sure, and presumably other more scenic northernly places?). I'm mainly interested in nature (though I suck at difficult hikes) and relaxedly stumbling through towns. I spent 2 weeks in the UK (london and scotland) a few years ago and it was full just with that. I flew into london for like 4 days, then took a train to Glasgow (I like trains) and went as far as Skye then back to Edinburgh. If you like long walks look at the West Highland Way.
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Jan 26, 2020 17:17
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Thanks for the feedback! I'll start trimming then.
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Jan 26, 2020 20:19
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A busy itinerary works if you want to see a lot of things, and decide where you want to focus future trips. But in that case, it's really only setting the stage for a future trip. I'm doing a marginally fast-paced trip to Portugal this spring, and it's more about seeing where I might want to spend longer in the future.
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Jan 27, 2020 16:41
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Deviantfish posted:Hi thread. Another ignorant American here to ask "is this itinerary too insane." Deviantfish posted:I have a chunk of time off in June  Deviantfish posted:and was thinking of spending two weeks  Deviantfish posted:(plus two days to account for travel) Deviantfish posted:to bum around the UK plus Ireland.  Deviantfish posted:Mainly just trying to see what a feasible amount of time to spend would be, a (very rough, very open to change) thought I was having was spending a day or two in Galway to check out some highlights in the western part of Ireland, a few days in Dublin with a day trip or something to the GIant's Causeway, then splitting the rest between Scotland (Glasgow and the highlands) and England (London for sure, and presumably other more scenic northernly places?). I'm mainly interested in nature (though I suck at difficult hikes) and relaxedly stumbling through towns. Cutting out London is an interesting idea, but you might end up being there anyway because of the airports. In any case, forget any sort of idea of "seeing London" and perhaps just spend one day to see like one or two of the famous things (i.e. having a walk around Westminster), or one particular museum/theatre you're interested in. and having a good curry somewhere. Wales also has really impressive landscapes, fewer tourists/people in general, and is closer to England so this might fit well into a plan involving London.
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Jan 27, 2020 21:10
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Comboios de Portugal isn't quite as baffling as Renfe's website, but I still enjoyed the fact that everything is in beautiful, perfect English right up until the point you actually want to make a purchase. That was a nice touch. But I have succeeded in making a purchase and I guess when you're flogging first class tickets for under 20 euros, you can't afford translation for the entire website
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Jan 28, 2020 15:04
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dennyk posted:If I were you, I'd pick one island or the other; there's plenty to see and do in either location, and if you really want to spend some time on leisurely nature walks and "relaxedly stumbling through towns" then you don't want to be rushing around like a madman trying to visit the entirety of the British Isles in one go. Yeah, I took two weeks around Ireland itself, and I still feel like I spent way too much time driving and not enough time exploring the cities or countryside. I'm trying to avoid that same mistake when visiting Scotland this year, so I'm trying to figure out what to see outside of Glasgow and Edinburgh, how to break it up, and whether or not I can fit a couple of days in Islay somewhere in there. But that won't be for months.
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Jan 29, 2020 21:18
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Where's good in Prague to eat /drink that isn't a drunken hell of British tourists on stag weekends etc?mojo1701a posted:I'm trying to avoid that same mistake when visiting Scotland this year, so I'm trying to figure out what to see outside of Glasgow and Edinburgh, how to break it up, and whether or not I can fit a couple of days in Islay somewhere in there. But that won't be for months. Distillery tours are a way to visit some picturesque places outside the cities in an organised way. If you can drive over here then pick a couple that look nice and plan a route, otherwise there are organised ones you can find. Danger - Octopus! fucked around with this message at 13:42 on Jan 30, 2020 |
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Jan 30, 2020 13:40
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Are any of the guided tapas tours in Barcelona worthwhile, or are my wife and I better off just popping into places that look interesting / have decent reviews on Google?
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Jan 30, 2020 14:39
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Coming back on the Spain thing, some friends who've been there reccomended Malaga. So right now I'm looking at 3 days in Madrid (not counting the arrival day since we'll be too tired to do anything of note), might include a day trip to Toledo as one of the days 2 1/2 days in or around Malaga 2 1/2 days in Seville 1 1/2 days in Barcelona The half days are because of the travel to the new places. I did have recommendations for doing the Basque region instead of southern Spain but this itinerary balances seeing multiple parts of the country with not spending half my time at airports or train stations. Anybody have anything thoughts on what I could change to have a better trip? I'm tempted to make Seville just 1 1/2 days and adding a day in Barcelona but that's the only change i'm looking at right now. Thoguh fucked around with this message at 16:41 on Jan 30, 2020 |
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Jan 30, 2020 16:38
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Honestly, if your flight out is from Barna I would just drop Andalucia altogether and go to Valencia and somewhere else on the Catalan coast. That would cut down on travel time immensely, particularly the annoying trip Seville-Barcelona trip through Madrid
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Jan 30, 2020 16:51
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Ras Het posted:Honestly, if your flight out is from Barna I would just drop Andalucia altogether and go to Valencia and somewhere else on the Catalan coast. That would cut down on travel time immensely, particularly the annoying trip Seville-Barcelona trip through Madrid I'll check in to Valencia. The thing that held me off of it from the initial look is that it seemed to be too large and busy to just plan on hanging out on the beach doing nothing for a few days but not have enough touristy stuff to fill up more than a day. So it kind of fell in to a spot where it didn't hit either goal of the trip (some beach relaxing and some seeing the sights) well. But I'd be happy to be told that was a wrong first impression. Especially if there are towns down the road that would hit the beach part if we did 2 nights in Valencia to see what there is to see and then hit up a beach town for 3 or 4 nights before heading to Barcelona.
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Jan 30, 2020 18:03
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American living in Munich here with my wife and an eight year old boy. There's a week off of school at the end of February, looking to do some kind of trip. Was originally thinking about a ski resort in the Austrian or Italian alps, being in Munich they're not that far away, and I haven't managed to visit either country yet. But, looking around, it looks like it may be too late to book a reasonably priced stay at any of the nicer/cooler kid-friendly places. So, now I'm also looking at trips to random parts of Europe that we haven't been to yet, like Lisbon or Istanbul. Partly I'm worried that it won't be as fun to visit most cities in the winter, though; will it be too cold to do neat outdoors stuff? Will all the cats in Istanbul be hiding (I loving love cats)? Guess I'm looking for ideas if people have any, we usually go fairly cheap while traveling but I'm willing to splurge a bit more this time. As you can probably imagine, a place with fun stuff for the kid is a priority. Places we've already been in Europe: Frankfurt, Nuremberg, Stuttgart, a few random Bavarian ski towns, London, Dublin, Paris, Barcelona, Amsterdam, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Prague, Malta edit: I'm not necessarily opposed to going a bit further afield either, like Tunis or Morocco, though it seems like that would be more complicated and might be harder with a kid? Cicero fucked around with this message at 21:37 on Jan 30, 2020 |
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Jan 30, 2020 21:31
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Cicero posted:American living in Munich here with my wife and an eight year old boy. There's a week off of school at the end of February, looking to do some kind of trip. Was originally thinking about a ski resort in the Austrian or Italian alps, being in Munich they're not that far away, and I haven't managed to visit either country yet. But, looking around, it looks like it may be too late to book a reasonably priced stay at any of the nicer/cooler kid-friendly places. I've been in southern France and in Italy for the last 3 months and it has been not at all cold (but I think this is an unusually warm year). Have you considered Rome? I'm not sure it's the best place for kids (pollution etc) but you can legitimately say that having pizza and ice cream is a cultural activity and the historical sights are a bit more accessible to children than most places. It's not the cheapest but definitely cheaper than skiing.
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Jan 30, 2020 21:47
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Rome definitely could work if your son likes history at all, and it also has cats you could also do Naples with trips to Pompeii/Herculaneum which I'd expect would be a lot more interesting than just museums/churches etc
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Jan 30, 2020 21:59
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If you like cats and travelling you should go to the Greek Island of Skiathos. They are famous for their stray cats, which are being cared for by a specialised cat welfare organisation.
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Jan 30, 2020 22:14
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Danger - Octopus! posted:Where's good in Prague to eat /drink that isn't a drunken hell of British tourists on stag weekends etc? I'm about to leave and can fully recommend Lokal branches for being chill places to eat and drink. Honest Guide had a lot of good recommendations too. Kantyna is pretty cool too!
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Jan 30, 2020 23:43
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