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morcant posted:My partner and I finally have time in our schedules to take our honeymoon trip to Italy, only two and a half years late. At the moment we're looking at spending 8 nights in Turin, and 5 in Asti, but I might tweak those. I've got a list of things I want to check out, but mostly I was curious if anyone has any recommendations for flying to Italy from the United States - this'll be my first time traveling to Europe, and if there's a crap airline or something, I'd like to know what to avoid! You'll have a lovely trip but... why so much time in Torino and Asti? Family of your partner? I mean Torino is fine and all but 8 days there and 5 in Asti is way too much time to spend there even at a super-incredibly-relaxed honeymoon pace. If you're going in the summer then I guess you can do hiking and base yourself there? 5 days in Asti is still a lot and I'm not sure what there is to do as daytrips from there. Alessandria has kind of cool fortifications, and the Ferrero Rocher factory is nearby... but it does not do tours. If you don't have family there and you're not planning it as a hiking trip, there are other nice parts of Italy to go to that are nearby and off the beaten-to-death tourist track. For checking the normal flight prices, use flights.google.com to check around the dates you're interested in and whether it makes more sense to fly into Milan or Torino. It will probably never be cheaper to fly to Genoa but maybe worth checking just in case. Your best bet for flight sales is probably to sign up for daily digests from somewhere like https://www.secretflying.com/ and then watching for flight deals to Milan. Depends where you're coming from though. Flight prices don't really fluctuate much based on if you search on a Tuesday or search on a Wednesday, that's a myth that maybe was historically true but it sure isn't anymore. Flight prices also don't become "more expensive further out and cheaper 2 months before and then more expensive after that", that's another weird myth people propagate. Buying earlier is almost always better unless you are unlucky and miss a flight sale, but you can also wait a long time -- tickets for transcontinental flights two weeks ahead of the date are usually not much more expensive than buying it 6 months in advance. Ticket prices also tend to skyrocket between ±mid June and ±mid August. If you end up flying within Europe, flights on low cost carriers are 99% of the time much better to buy in advance, and the more in advance the better, as those prices do steadily go up from month to month based on the way they sell tickets (e.g. EasyJet, RyanAir). E: Taking Italy at a slow pace is awesome and definitely the way to do it, I just... would not recommend 8 days in Torino. For 13 days I'd maybe do 4 days in your first destination, then 3 in 3 more destinations. Or rent a car and drive around the coast and mountains, depending on the time of year and your interests. Public transport sucks in the Italian countryside. Saladman fucked around with this message at 18:31 on Jan 24, 2019 |
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Jan 24, 2019 18:26
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Yeah I’ve gotta agree - Turin is a nice city but eight days seems a bit excessive. I’d also say it’s the least “Italian” feeling city in Italy; thanks to the Savoy influence the city feels way more French than Italian. Piedmont wine country to the north is quite nice, just don’t go in the winter when everything is closed.
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Jan 25, 2019 03:42
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There's a secret Templar map to the Spear of Destiny hidden within the weave of the Shroud, and they need some lead time to case the vaults.
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Jan 25, 2019 06:04
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For the transatlantic, the US carriers are all pretty much the same in my experience, but everyone I know who's use Alitalia more than a couple of times hates them (me included). They just seem generally understaffed, overworked and pissed off. Whoever you use, make sure you book a single ticket all the way to your destination (rather than buying a cheap JFK to Paris ticket and then Easyjet to Milan) because I've had a number of occasions where part of the flight I booked got cancelled months before the flight and we were re-routed with long layovers and there was nothing we could do because they just changed their routes. Also, if you do plan on flying with Easyjet or Ryanair, check their cabin baggage policy carefully, I think you are allowed one small bag only, not a bag and a personal item and they are strict about it.
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Jan 25, 2019 11:07
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morcant posted:this'll be my first time traveling to Europe, and if there's a crap airline or something Not sure where you're flying from, but for the transatlantic flight I would recommend Lufthansa. Really for any flight I would recommend Lufthansa as they're pretty much always extremely consistent and imo are really comfortable to fly with. I've also never had a bad experience with British Airways, but I haven't flown with them in a hot minute. Heathrow is definitely a bit more overwhelming for a first-time traveller than Frankfurt when it comes to picking a layover, but as long as you budget enough time between flights you'll be fine. I kinda doubt there are many direct flights to Turin from anywhere in the US, but I haven't really looked in detail. When I fly out of Europe I usually look for flights in this order of preference: Lufthansa > something else in Star Alliance > British Airways > everything else
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Jan 25, 2019 12:04
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Also if you're booking one leg with a low-cost airline make sure the airport you're flying into is the same one you're flying out of. Easyjet in particular are notorious for offering flights to, for example, (big letters) Frankfurt (very small letters) Hahn which is a good 60-70 miles outside of Frankfurt proper.
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Jan 25, 2019 12:14
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greazeball posted:For the transatlantic, the US carriers are all pretty much the same in my experience, but everyone I know who's use Alitalia more than a couple of times hates them (me included). They just seem generally understaffed, overworked and pissed off. Whoever you use, make sure you book a single ticket all the way to your destination (rather than buying a cheap JFK to Paris ticket and then Easyjet to Milan) because I've had a number of occasions where part of the flight I booked got cancelled months before the flight and we were re-routed with long layovers and there was nothing we could do because they just changed their routes. Also, if you do plan on flying with Easyjet or Ryanair, check their cabin baggage policy carefully, I think you are allowed one small bag only, not a bag and a personal item and they are strict about it. With ryanair they deliberately make their policy confusing. You're allowed a backpackers sized backpack and 1 small bag free. They tag your big bag when you get to the gate and you put it in a luggage pod yourself when you walk out to the plane, and collect it as normal.
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Jan 25, 2019 13:15
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Drone posted:Not sure where you're flying from, but for the transatlantic flight I would recommend Lufthansa. Really for any flight I would recommend Lufthansa as they're pretty much always extremely consistent and imo are really comfortable to fly with. Yeah I would never connect through London again. It's even worse than connecting internationally through the US. I'd pay a small premium in time or money to go with Lufthansa or Swiss instead of Alitalia, but I wouldn't pay more than like $100/ticket or ~2 hours of travel time for it. Alitalia is not that much worse. Yeah make sure the whole itinerary is on one ticket, unless you have more than 24 hours of leeway built in between the flights. This goes double for travel between November and March when snow can easily gently caress up all flight schedules by many hours. IMO almost all of the legacy/national transatlantic carriers are pretty similar in economy except United and Alitalia are a little shittier than the rest. There aren't that many LLCs that fly transatlantic, but if they do, e.g. Norwegian Air Shuttle, it might be worth considering. If either of you are taller than ~5'10 then be careful booking an LLC, especially for a long flight. I'm 5'9 and have been on some flights where my knees touch the seat in front of me (particularly memorable: VivaColombia, but I guess people in Colombia are typically quite a bit shorter than Europeans).
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Jan 25, 2019 13:37
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OTOH, making connections in the states from Europe, you have to collect your bags in the transit airport and take them yourself to the connecting flight desk. I've come close to walking right through baggage claim after a long flight and forgetting to transfer my luggage. That poo poo's dumb. I flew with Condor once, they were OK for a low-cost transatlantic. But I made the mistake of booking through a lovely agent (kiwi.com can gently caress off forever) who booked me two separate tickets from San Diego to Zurich. I had to check in all over again in Frankfurt and pay the extra bag fee twice. I'm not using online agents in general anymore because it makes it more of a hassle if you have to change anything with your flight when you have to go through this third party who already took your money. We couldn't do online check-in on our last flights because the field mapping between cheapflights.ch didn't match BA's so the names were a bit borked on the boarding cards and they didn't match the passports (combined first and middle names) so the system booted us out and we had to do it in person.
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Jan 25, 2019 13:56
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Yeah that's a good point too. Even if you check flight prices with Orbitz or whatever, buy the ticket with the carrier directly unless there's a massive price difference, which is unusual and probably indicates a bug in the system. Unless they changed it in the past few years, you also have to get your checked bags if you transfer through US->London->Torino, whereas US->Paris->Torino will check you through the whole way. It's kind of annoying that the US does not have the concept of international terminals, which really forces them to make you go through customs etc even if you just want to do an international transfer. Saladman fucked around with this message at 14:11 on Jan 25, 2019 |
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Jan 25, 2019 14:09
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I came through Heathrow on the way back to Switzerland a few weeks ago and everything was checked through.
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Jan 25, 2019 18:55
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Saladman posted:You'll have a lovely trip but... why so much time in Torino and Asti? Family of your partner? I mean Torino is fine and all but 8 days there and 5 in Asti is way too much time to spend there even at a super-incredibly-relaxed honeymoon pace. If you're going in the summer then I guess you can do hiking and base yourself there? 5 days in Asti is still a lot and I'm not sure what there is to do as daytrips from there. Alessandria has kind of cool fortifications, and the Ferrero Rocher factory is nearby... but it does not do tours. If you don't have family there and you're not planning it as a hiking trip, there are other nice parts of Italy to go to that are nearby and off the beaten-to-death tourist track. webmeister posted:Yeah I’ve gotta agree - Turin is a nice city but eight days seems a bit excessive. I’d also say it’s the least “Italian” feeling city in Italy; thanks to the Savoy influence the city feels way more French than Italian. We're going to Torino to see a lot of the historical sights - I know it isn't as "Italian", but I got into Italian history learning about the Risorgimento, and would like to see the Palazzo Reale, the Museo del Risorgimento, and I've also found tours of the city's underground and stuff like that. My partner's also requested we have downtime during the trip, so I've tried to work that in - but I did wonder if I might have added a bit too much. Initially I wanted to do Turin, some wine tastings around Asti/Alba, and then Rome, but I wasn't sure if 13 nights was enough. I also didn't realize that it's easier than I thought to get a car and drive in Italy, so that might alter my planning a little bit after all. Drone posted:Not sure where you're flying from, but for the transatlantic flight I would recommend Lufthansa. Really for any flight I would recommend Lufthansa as they're pretty much always extremely consistent and imo are really comfortable to fly with. We'll be flying from Philadelphia, but flying back to Chicago. I did another search for the flights, and found a pretty direct flight to Frankfurt, a 70 minute layover, then from there to Turin, and through Lufthansa at that. For the first, longer leg, Kayak was helpful enough to tell me the seats have AC adapters, which is good because my Switch only has like, three hours of independent battery power or whatever.
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Jan 28, 2019 00:36
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morcant posted:We're going to Torino to see a lot of the historical sights - I know it isn't as "Italian", but I got into Italian history learning about the Risorgimento, and would like to see the Palazzo Reale, the Museo del Risorgimento, and I've also found tours of the city's underground and stuff like that. My partner's also requested we have downtime during the trip, so I've tried to work that in - but I did wonder if I might have added a bit too much. Initially I wanted to do Turin, some wine tastings around Asti/Alba, and then Rome, but I wasn't sure if 13 nights was enough. There's also a direct from Philadelphia to Rome, and if you're interested in history I can't imagine missing Rome. I mean, even if you're interested in the risorgimento and don't care at all about ancient Rome, then Rome is still a major place to go since that's where the huge museum and monument to the reunification of Italy is. It's a good museum too. OTOH I totally agree taking it relatively easy during your honeymoon and not rushing from site to site. Rome might feel like it has too many MUST SEE things if you go there, so I guess to some extent I could see skipping it but eh... 70 minute layover is tough, there's a good chance you'll miss that connection -- so just make sure that you're not taking the last flight of the day from Frankfurt to Torino, otherwise you'll have a good chance of an overnight in Frankfurt, which is "eh". You can check on FlightAware for the exact flight you plan on taking to see what the on time % is. Free registration lets you go back 60 days or 90 days. I always check this when buying tickets with international connections of < 2 hours. Yes definitely rent a car if you're interested in the countryside and plan on spending all 13 days in the Piedmont area. Rent it once you're done with Torino, so maybe at like day 4 or 5. I can't imagine getting around the mountains near Torino without a car, but I haven't been to any of the Alps south of Aosta though so can't recommend anything super specific. I've been to the Alba-Asti area with a car so I'm also not 100% sure, but I've been to enough of Italy to be pretty confident that the public transit will be terrible for anything other than getting to/from cities with > 50k population. I really like Liguria, except both Genoa and Savona are shitholes. Especially Genoa, which is hands-down the ugliest city I've seen in Europe. (I've been twice, though only in winter.) I'd really recommend not spending 8 days in Turin unless you speak Italian and/or have family or friends there and/or plan on renting a car and doing trips around the countryside to small villages and mountains. Otherwise you will spend 4 of those days sitting in your hotel in Turin playing Ocarina of Time or whatever. Don't spend too much time in museums trying to see every object and read every placard. Museums are exhausting for most people to spend more than a couple hours in and, while they contribute context and have some unique stuff, are far and away not the best place to experience history in Italy. If you do go to Rome or Venice then make sure to check TripAdvisor before going to any restaurant. Elsewhere in Italy almost every restaurant will be good. E: Kind of OT, but I don't think I've ever heard anyone say in English "Turin" to refer to Torino except when specifically referring to the "Shroud of Turin". Maybe this changed due to the 2006 winter Olympics? I was surprised "Turin" was still the official English spelling on Google maps; I thought it was as deprecated as "Leghorn". OTOH an English-native speaker saying "Roma" or "Napoli" makes them sound incredibly pretentious. Saladman fucked around with this message at 12:56 on Jan 28, 2019 |
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Jan 28, 2019 11:21
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What if I call it neapolis
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Jan 28, 2019 15:56
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underage at the vape shop posted:What if I call it neapolis Seems fully acceptable to me if you are a native speaker of Latin or ancient Greek and have a shaky grasp on English. Otherwise kind of weird but less pretentious?
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Jan 28, 2019 16:33
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Saladman posted:There's also a direct from Philadelphia to Rome, and if you're interested in history I can't imagine missing Rome. I mean, even if you're interested in the risorgimento and don't care at all about ancient Rome, then Rome is still a major place to go since that's where the huge museum and monument to the reunification of Italy is. It's a good museum too. OTOH I totally agree taking it relatively easy during your honeymoon and not rushing from site to site. Rome might feel like it has too many MUST SEE things if you go there, so I guess to some extent I could see skipping it but eh... First off, thank you Saladman for a lot of good information! And for reminding me of info I should have included in my other posts - like the fact that we're planning this trip for the second half of May, and that I'm currently on my 4th semester of Italian. Thankfully my classes have been 98% in Italian so I feel like I can get the basic content of what I hear, even if I'm still slow at forming anything beyond basic thoughts and responses. There's stuff I want to see in Rome, no doubt - I just thought we wouldn't have enough time for two big cities and some countryside stops. Even if it's more complicated, though, I want to do Turin first. However, I may do another draft of our itinerary, and see what I can do if we shave some time off Turin and Asti. A couple days in/near Rome might be possible, even there's no chance I'd see everything I want to see (my partner is less concerned, as he's been to Rome before, but not Turin). Saladman posted:70 minute layover is tough, there's a good chance you'll miss that connection -- so just make sure that you're not taking the last flight of the day from Frankfurt to Torino, otherwise you'll have a good chance of an overnight in Frankfurt, which is "eh". You can check on FlightAware for the exact flight you plan on taking to see what the on time % is. Free registration lets you go back 60 days or 90 days. I always check this when buying tickets with international connections of < 2 hours. Good point. I checked and thankfully that's far from the only Lufthansa FRA-TRN that day - our particular connecting flight leaves at 7:10 but it looks like more depart every hour or so. I may see if we can switch to the one of the later ones - an extra hour or two won't be a big deal. Saladman posted:Yes definitely rent a car if you're interested in the countryside and plan on spending all 13 days in the Piedmont area. Rent it once you're done with Torino, so maybe at like day 4 or 5. I can't imagine getting around the mountains near Torino without a car, but I haven't been to any of the Alps south of Aosta though so can't recommend anything super specific. I've been to the Alba-Asti area with a car so I'm also not 100% sure, but I've been to enough of Italy to be pretty confident that the public transit will be terrible for anything other than getting to/from cities with > 50k population. I really like Liguria, except both Genoa and Savona are shitholes. Especially Genoa, which is hands-down the ugliest city I've seen in Europe. (I've been twice, though only in winter.) Well, that handles my tentative questions about Genoa! Though in fairness I don't actually know anything about it yet. Just that I have to give a presentation on someone from Liguria in class next month, lol. I'll probably go with Mazzini, unless someone else calls dibs before I do. Saladman posted:If you do go to Rome or Venice then make sure to check TripAdvisor before going to any restaurant. Elsewhere in Italy almost every restaurant will be good. Got it! For Turin, other than a place or two where I at least want to get a drink, I think our plan was to just, wander and find a place that looks good for meals. I'll keep that in mind otherwise, though. Saladman posted:E: Kind of OT, but I don't think I've ever heard anyone say in English "Turin" to refer to Torino except when specifically referring to the "Shroud of Turin". Maybe this changed due to the 2006 winter Olympics? I was surprised "Turin" was still the official English spelling on Google maps; I thought it was as deprecated as "Leghorn". OTOH an English-native speaker saying "Roma" or "Napoli" makes them sound incredibly pretentious. Yeah, I was a little unsure about this myself - saying "Roma" or "Napoli" definitely seemed really pretentious to me (unless I'm like, actually communicating in Italian), so I just went with "Turin" in my post for that reason. 
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Jan 28, 2019 16:58
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Maybe it’s a Swiss thing? I’ve only ever heard Italians say Torino, everyone else I’ve heard call it Turin. I didn’t mind Genoa, the old city area felt like Venice without the crowds or canals, but it’s probably also the sketchiest place I went in Italy sooo And the driving around wine country north of Turin is pretty easy.
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Jan 28, 2019 17:12
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Saladman posted:
This is not really reliable in Rome, but it will help weed out some of the bad ones. 50% of the highly rated ones were also bad.
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Jan 28, 2019 17:42
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webmeister posted:Maybe it’s a Swiss thing? I’ve only ever heard Italians say Torino, everyone else I’ve heard call it Turin. It might just be that. There are so many context-dependent-correct ways to say every city name here in Switzerland that no one remembers any which name for a city is 'correct' in the currently-spoken language. Like I can never remember if it's Chur or Coire when speaking English. (Just looked it up and, lol, it's either in English, I guess maybe that's part of the problem.) My wife speaks Italian, French, English, and German all very well and she can never remember the language-correct way to say basically any city's name in Europe. 70 minute layover should be fine if there are a bunch of flights. I can't imagine all flights being full in mid-May even in the chance you do miss the connection. 1 and 30 May are both big holidays in Italy and most of Europe (May Day and Ascension), but you're not hitting either of those. Yeah if you want authentic modern Italian, then Genoa is certainly a thing, I just wouldn't spend much time there especially as Liguria is generally pretty stunning countryside. More generally, a lot of people get sketched out by many European cities since there is graffiti absolutely everywhere and once the shop shutters go down, like on Sundays or evenings, everything looks like Murderville. I haven't looked up the stats, but I bet Genoa is safer than San Francisco. I remember Beachcomber saying s/he was super sketched out in general by the tags everywhere after visiting last year and it's not an unusual comment to hear from Canadians and Americans visiting Europe. Any way you will likely have a great time, and if it jives at all with your personalities, you might want to just plan hotels a couple days in advance so that if you get bored after 3 days in Turin you can leave, or if you love it, you can stay. The enly slight difficulty might be flexibility with a rental car if you want a good rate. Saladman fucked around with this message at 18:56 on Jan 28, 2019 |
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Jan 28, 2019 18:48
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FWIW I find the reviews on Google maps to be best in Europe, they prioritise reviews by people with lots of reviews in that area so you don't get a bunch of one star spam from Americans mad that it took more than 45 minutes to eat dinner in a restaurant.
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Jan 28, 2019 19:30
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webmeister posted:Maybe it’s a Swiss thing? I’ve only ever heard Italians say Torino, everyone else I’ve heard call it Turin. Swiss/Balkan maybe because in Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia it's Torino.
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Jan 28, 2019 22:46
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greazeball posted:FWIW I find the reviews on Google maps to be best in Europe, they prioritise reviews by people with lots of reviews in that area so you don't get a bunch of one star spam from Americans mad that it took more than 45 minutes to eat dinner in a restaurant. Entropist fucked around with this message at 00:07 on Jan 29, 2019 |
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Jan 29, 2019 00:03
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Huh, when did Google reviews get so good for Europe? I don't think I'd checked in years, but last time I remember looking maybe 3-4 years ago, local restaurants here were almost as devoid of reviews as Yelp. Now the Mexican restaurant down the street from my place in CH has almost 1000 reviews on Google vs 200 on TripAdvisor. Jeez, even the kebab shop next door has almost 200 reviews. The local coffee shop I go to in Cairo when I'm out there has like 1200 reviews too. That's awesome, I had no idea it had gotten so much better than TripAdvisor.
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Jan 29, 2019 12:58
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I assume it's because everybody has google maps and geo location and the app will ask you "How was <place>?" when you leave that place. TripAdvisor can't send that kind of push notifications unless you have the app installed.
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Jan 29, 2019 13:50
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Google maps has a lot more reviews but they're still way too positive in most cases. Anything under 4 stars should be interpreted as "terrible"
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Jan 29, 2019 21:11
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Shibawanko posted:Google maps has a lot more reviews but they're still way too positive in most cases. Anything under 4 stars should be interpreted as "terrible" The thing I notice about reviews on Google maps is the ones with comments are usually helpful, but at least half of them are either 5 stars or 1 stars with no actual review with them. I know Google has been trying to promote better reviews with their local guide program, but they need to get rid of these bs ratings so people have some faith in them.
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Jan 29, 2019 23:17
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Amateur reviews are garbage because people are idiots. Look at the actual text of the reviews if you must, rather than the ratings, and hopefully a few of the better ones will give you an idea whether you want to visit a place. Pretty much every restaurant is somewhere between terrible and amazing, and different people care about different things and have different standards, so the only way to use reviews is to attempt to understand what people liked or disliked about a place. I have places I love, that I would steadfastly steer certain people away from because I know they'll hate it. Is that a 5-star place, a 1-star place, or a 3-star place? You can make a solid argument for any of the above.
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Jan 30, 2019 03:55
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morcant posted:My partner and I finally have time in our schedules to take our honeymoon trip to Italy, only two and a half years late. At the moment we're looking at spending 8 nights in Turin, and 5 in Asti, but I might tweak those. I've got a list of things I want to check out, but mostly I was curious if anyone has any recommendations for flying to Italy from the United States - this'll be my first time traveling to Europe, and if there's a crap airline or something, I'd like to know what to avoid! If you are a food nerd like me and don't mind the pricetag (~ 200€ per person) and the 3h drive to Modena, then I would recommend booking a table here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osteria_Francescana and do the full 5 course menu with accompanying wines. If you want to get an idea what you're getting yourself into watch "Chef's Table" S01E01 on Netflix. Also get a few bottles of topshelf Balsamico vinegar to take back home.
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Jan 31, 2019 16:31
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uli2000 posted:The thing I notice about reviews on Google maps is the ones with comments are usually helpful, but at least half of them are either 5 stars or 1 stars with no actual review with them. I know Google has been trying to promote better reviews with their local guide program, but they need to get rid of these bs ratings so people have some faith in them. Usually if there's a lot of 2 and 3 star reviews it's a red flag. Mediocre is worse than polarizing.
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Jan 31, 2019 19:39
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dennyk posted:None of the mobile providers here will ship SIM cards overseas, I'm afraid, but you may be able to buy a prepaid SIM at WHSmith or Spar at the Dublin airport. No idea what they cost or what providers and plans they sell, though. Any of 'em will work everywhere in Ireland; some networks have slightly better coverage than others, of course, but there aren't really any completely dead zones around here unless you're hiking deep inside one of the larger mountain ranges or out on the Skelligs or something. No idea what the prices or terms will be for SIMs sold through some third party like that, so just go with whichever provides the data you need. If they're charging you much more than €30 or so, they're probably ripping you off, though. Just remember to turn off data roaming on your phones after you board the plane to avoid getting dinged with any roaming charges here before you swap SIMs. To piggy back on this, we're taking a trip to London and Ireland (Dublin/Killarney/Galway)in March and need to pick up sim cards as well. Would it be better to pick one up at Heathrow or hit up the Carphone Warehouse that's across from our hotel? I was planning on going with 3 or Vodaphone, not sure if one had better coverage or not.
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Jan 31, 2019 22:48
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), but if it is still free, you will probably still have a lower roaming data limit on your plan than the limit within Ireland, so make sure you read the terms of service carefully.
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Shibawanko posted:Usually if there's a lot of 2 and 3 star reviews it's a red flag. Mediocre is worse than polarizing. Bunch of 4/5-star reviews with a smattering of 1-stars: probably perfectly fine. Usually the 1-stars are entitled grudge reviews, or someone had an off day, which can happen to anyone. solid 1-2 star average: probably best avoided, especially if all the reviews mention similar problems.
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Feb 1, 2019 15:53
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Yeah, it usually helps avoid terrible restaurants, but it can be almost impossible to tell a good from a great place even with hundreds of reviews. Need to actually read reviews and look at pictures or trust some guide like Michelin.
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Feb 1, 2019 16:08
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Shibawanko posted:Usually if there's a lot of 2 and 3 star reviews it's a red flag. Mediocre is worse than polarizing. Personally, I find it's the opposite. I think the most helpful and honest reviews are usually the two and four star reviews. They tend to be the most likely to be real vs the the glowing 5* It's the most wonderful place in the world and the 1* its sucks reviews. But I agree, if it's mostly 2 and 3 star reviews, it probably sucks for real.
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Feb 1, 2019 22:05
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I find zomato pretty reliable everywhere. Speaking of Rome, what's the best things to do for a couple in their late 20's for 5 days? We were thinking of seeing all the main historically relevant sites but is there something that would help us socialize with Italians, or something that is more, I guess, interactive? What are your thoughts? Also, what are the best nightlife hotspots there? And the absolute best club?
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Feb 2, 2019 18:58
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Things I have learnt about the Netherlands: 1. Dutch people are generally fairly pleasant. 2. Fritesauss is basically crack. 3. Hypermarkets don't exist because? 4. Dutch isn't a language: it is English spoken with a really, really strong accent and written phonetically.
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Feb 2, 2019 20:44
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Shut up Meg posted:Things I have learnt about the Netherlands: What's a hypermarket? Like a big store with regular non food stuff besides food? It's probably because we have pretty strong existing general supply chain stores like Blokker and stuff. Frisian (in the north) is the closest language to English, it's probably sort of interesting for an English speaker to listen to. It has sound patterns that are even closer to English (like "church" which is "kerk" in Dutch but "tsjerk" in Frisian, or the use of "it is")
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Feb 2, 2019 21:29
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Shut up Meg posted:Things I have learnt about the Netherlands: Have you tried poffertjes yet?
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Feb 2, 2019 21:41
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Shibawanko posted:What's a hypermarket? Like a big store with regular non food stuff besides food? It's probably because we have pretty strong existing general supply chain stores like Blokker and stuff. Yeah, I was looking for something like a Walmart - a really big store that sells everything and was a bit surprised that they don't exist. The small ones are nice, but I refuse to pay EUR2+ for a pack of AA batteries, mostly on principle and assumed stuff like that would be much cheaper in such a place. 'Kirk' is Scottish for church, so I am even less convinced Dutch is a real language. (Seriously, I agree that it is interesting how much sort of makes sense to a native English speaker. You sort of get the impression that if just listened long enough, you'd learn the language automatically) Beachcomber posted:Have you tried poffertjes yet? No, but I am going to make it a priority. Definitely. Any varieties recommended, or is original best? For the Kinderdijk, is it simple to just drive and park there? I was looking at the Waterbus from Erasmus bridge, but parking near there seems a pain. E: I have tried to get a answer by googling, but the various sources are contradictory, vague or not very well translated. I would quite like a journey by Waterbus, but not if the car park is going to cost a fortune. Shut up Meg fucked around with this message at 22:28 on Feb 2, 2019 |
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Feb 2, 2019 22:23
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Walmarts don't make sense in holland because most shopping is done on foot at the local supermarket, at least in the cities. The buildings also tend to be smaller so supermarkets don't have as much room to store stuff.
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Feb 2, 2019 22:49
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It's true, Walmart-like stores exist in Germany and France but not in the Netherlands. If you want to pay less for day-to-day products you're best off going to one of the budget supermarket chains, Lidl or Aldi. For many non-food products, Blokker and Hema are/were very big in that department but a bit pricey. Their budget equivalents are Big Bazar and Action. Speaking of Germany, it's actually not uncommon for people who live ~100 km or less from the border to go shopping in Germany regularly. Some products are much cheaper there, others are much more expensive. So if you really care you'll have to basically write down prices here and do a comparison with the prices in a German Real or other hypermart. Edit: Considering Kinderdijk, this page https://www.weekendplanner.nl/dagjeuit/kinderdijk-molens.htm says there's a car park that costs 5 eur next to the main entrance, or you can park your car on the side of the street nearby for free. So I don't think getting there by car will be a problem. As far as I understand that site and https://www.kinderdijk.com/ you can walk up to the windmills for free, but you need a ticket to enter one of the museum mills, which you can buy there or, for an euro extra, when you arrive. Note that this is a bit of a rip-off. Many windmills in the Netherlands can be visited entirely for free and won't be nearly as crowded with tourists as the Kinderdijk museum ones. They are just as nice and if they're open for visitors they're usually in active use and you can buy freshly milled flour there. The only reason the Kinderdijk ones are more popular is because of a successful international tourist marketing campaign. The less popular ones don't tend to advertise much online, so you're often best off driving past them on Saturday afternoon or whenever and see if they got their doors open or if they put a sign up "Bezoek de molen" or something on the street side. Carbon dioxide fucked around with this message at 23:00 on Feb 2, 2019 |
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Feb 2, 2019 22:50
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