|
For Ljubljana, Tivoli Park is a very nice walking park. I thought the castle itself is overrated, you're just there for the view. So if the weather's crappy, I wouldn't spend the 20 euros to go up there. You can get off the train between Austria and Ljubljana at Bled, if you have time for a day trip. I was just there in mid November, the public bus from Ljubljana was rammed full even that late into the year. For Zagreb, there are a bunch of oddball museums, like The Museum of Broken Relationships. You can walk up to the government buildings and an old church, but the view from there isn't that great. There was a strong earthquake right at the start of the pandemic, so a lot of buildings are still covered in scaffoldings, including the Zagreb Cathedral. You aren't allowed to enter unfortunately. Again, I'd recommend a day trip to nearby Samobor, which is a very nice suburb of Zagreb. My grandma was born there, so maybe that colors my opinion. There are castle ruins that you can hike up to and a restaurant at the bottom of the hill that serves a great mushroom soup and roast boar gnocchi. Samobor:   Tivoli Park: 
|
#
?
Jan 23, 2024 22:17
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 28, 2024 08:31 |
|
|
Saladman posted:How much time do you have for getting from Vienna to Split? What season? Hey, thanks for the info. I forgot to mention that we are going in early to mid March, so not the nicest time of year, but whatever. The itinerary we have worked out so far (we have only booked the flight, no hotels or other transport yet) has us in Vienna the morning of the 7th and at my sister-in-law's Airbnb the evening of the 9th, so not much time there. The plan was Vienna to Ljubljana on the 7th, Ljubljana to Zagreb on the 8th, then Zagreb down to Split (technically Privlaka) on the 9th. I would personally be ok with skipping Zagreb but I'm not sure how the others feel about that.
|
|
#
?
Jan 23, 2024 22:22
|
|
|
I wouldn't do the one day - one city thing, even though Ljubljana and Zagreb are quite close. Saladman's suggestion is fine, but you can also go Zagreb - Plitvice - Split by bus and spend a day at Plitvice. A quick google search "zagreb plitvice split" finds a bunch of tours that transfer you from one city to the other with one day (or less) stop at Plitvice. That would be my recommendation.
|
|
#
?
Jan 23, 2024 22:35
|
|
|
If you don't see Lake Bled you owe an apology to every kid in the 90s who ever had a Lake Bled screensaver, like me. Apologize.
|
|
#
?
Jan 23, 2024 22:47
|
|
|
3D Pipes FTW
|
|
#
?
Jan 23, 2024 22:53
|
|
|
Sharparoni posted:Hey, thanks for the info. I forgot to mention that we are going in early to mid March, so not the nicest time of year, but whatever. The itinerary we have worked out so far (we have only booked the flight, no hotels or other transport yet) has us in Vienna the morning of the 7th and at my sister-in-law's Airbnb the evening of the 9th, so not much time there. The plan was Vienna to Ljubljana on the 7th, Ljubljana to Zagreb on the 8th, then Zagreb down to Split (technically Privlaka) on the 9th. I would personally be ok with skipping Zagreb but I'm not sure how the others feel about that. I don't think spending over a quarter of a day, each day, on checking in and out of hotels/airbnbs, getting to the train station and driving by train would be that enjoyable; so you may want to double check if that's what you're really into. You don't exactly leave much time for the must-sees/dos.
|
|
#
?
Jan 23, 2024 23:16
|
|
|
Since there aren't that many trains per day, you may want to consider Flixbus as an alternative. They're very basic and bring-your-own food and drink but they move you long distance for cheap.
|
|
#
?
Jan 23, 2024 23:38
|
|
|
I took Flixbus from Trieste to Zagreb, and then from Zagreb to Ljubljana. It was fine, despite a few of my Euro friends laughing at me when I told them my plans.
|
|
#
?
Jan 24, 2024 04:21
|
|
|
Plitvice Lakes are a nice walk on a boardwalk through a very beautiful setting. It's absolutely packed with tour groups and it's sort of making your way through tour groups between the lakes on a boardwalk. It wasn't what I expected from a national park experience. I felt like I didn't have the room to sit with it and enjoy it, or the space to explore it. I probably wouldn't do it on a repeat trip.
|
|
#
?
Jan 24, 2024 05:23
|
|
|
Dr. Fraiser Chain posted:Plitvice Lakes are a nice walk on a boardwalk through a very beautiful setting. It's absolutely packed with tour groups and it's sort of making your way through tour groups between the lakes on a boardwalk. It wasn't what I expected from a national park experience. I felt like I didn't have the room to sit with it and enjoy it, or the space to explore it. I probably wouldn't do it on a repeat trip. It almost certainly won't be like that in early March. But also the weather will be garbage in early March. I've only passed through by train but I can't imagine wanting to stop there in that season. It is COLD (average 5°C) and more likely than not to be a typical European dreary grey and rainy day. Sharparoni posted:Hey, thanks for the info. I forgot to mention that we are going in early to mid March, so not the nicest time of year, but whatever. The itinerary we have worked out so far (we have only booked the flight, no hotels or other transport yet) has us in Vienna the morning of the 7th and at my sister-in-law's Airbnb the evening of the 9th, so not much time there. The plan was Vienna to Ljubljana on the 7th, Ljubljana to Zagreb on the 8th, then Zagreb down to Split (technically Privlaka) on the 9th. I would personally be ok with skipping Zagreb but I'm not sure how the others feel about that. Privlaka is Zadar, not Split... The train to Zadar no longer runs AFAIK, and even if it did it would be absurdly slow and require a change in Knin way out of your way; Flixbus is your only option by public transport. Or, rent a car because you're sure going to want one in Privlaka unless you can borrow a car from your in-laws. That's leaving Vienna after 2 days there on the 7th, not arriving on the 7th and then departing, right? Don't try and visit two different cities on the way from Vienna to Zadar. Ljubljana and Zagreb are not both on the way from Vienna to Zadar, and while both are fine, neither one is all that incredible. Since your season of travel sucks, but you are traveling with friends, I would pick one of the two, spend 2 nights there, and enjoy hanging around a backwater European capital with your friends. There's nothing "must see" in either, but you're with company and there are good restaurants and nice bars and hangout spots everywhere. If you get lucky with the weather, maybe visit Lake Bled if you go via Ljubljana. Flixbus goes direct to Zadar from either Zagreb (3.5 hrs) or Ljubljana (7.5 hrs). Zagreb is also much more easily reached from Vienna than is Ljubljana. TBH I'd go with Zagreb just based on that, especially since you're travelling with friends (do you know their travel prefs*?), but Ljubljana is a somewhat nicer town. Museum of Broken Relationships is quite neat though, is the one thing that Zagreb has going for it. Weather will be equally bad and European in both cities in early March, and you are unlikely to have both the weather and the time to go to Lake Bled. E: *Like, are one or more of you really into "countries visited / capitals visited" counting? Is that important enough to those people to add an extra 8 hours of transportation time in 2 days and an extra hotel checkin/checkout, which will take you ~10 additional daylight hours (in addition to the ~5 daylight hours it would take just to get to Zagreb) out of your ~24 daylight hours during that period? Saladman fucked around with this message at 09:28 on Jan 24, 2024 |
|
#
?
Jan 24, 2024 09:05
|
|
|
I went to Ljubljana and Lake Bled, admittedly in summer, and really enjoyed Ljubljana as a cute little city with loads of easy day trips out. Bled is only a couple of hours away by very cheap and comfortable bus. I think rushing round only Ljubljana in half a day would be doing Slovenia a disservice - it's possibly the most beautiful country I've visited so far. There's a real benefit to taking any travel a little more slowly than the American-Going-To-Europe temptation. Spend longer in fewer places and really make the most of them. Spending all your time away in transit/recovering from being in transit loving sucks and stops you from soaking up the experience of travel.
|
|
#
?
Jan 24, 2024 23:02
|
|
|
Fruits of the sea posted:Seconding Sintra, I wish I had more than one day there. The Moorish castle is very cool, a short but steep walk up and its crazy how its just barely balancing on the very top of the mountain. Quinta da Regaleira is a super bizarre garden with caves, secret tunnels and a bunch of references to masons/knights templar, built by an eccentric rich dude around 1900. My tip for Sintra: get there (ideally by train, a free ride is included in the Lisboa Card for example) an hour before everything opens, then walk up to the Moorish castle on foot, arriving just when it opens. Then do the visits in the opposite direction of all the tourist buses and most everything will be far less overrun. I used the Villa Sassetti trail, which is apparently closed now, but here are instructions: https://www.sintra-portugal.com/guides/walk-to-palacio-pena-castelo-mouros-sintra.html
|
|
#
?
Jan 25, 2024 10:03
|
|
|
CmdrSmirnoff posted:Just booked a flight into Lisbon and then out 3 weeks later; late June to mid July. Everything still needs to be filled in beyond that. Thinking of a few days in Porto, then heading south along the coast through to Faro. Probably train from Porto to Lisbon, and then maybe rent a car for the rest of it? How's driving in Portugal? I would definitely second (third?) taking a day or two to explore Sintra, also want to add Cascais/Estoril as an easy day trip from Lisbon, would recommend trying to catch the sunset at the Boca do Inferno. WaryWarren posted:I took Flixbus from Trieste to Zagreb, and then from Zagreb to Ljubljana. It was fine, despite a few of my Euro friends laughing at me when I told them my plans. Last year i took a flixbus from Antwerp to Copenhagen once and it was fine, took nearly a day though (with a transfer at Hannover iirc); looked into trying the same to get to Porto but 40 hours is a bit too long.
|
|
#
?
Jan 25, 2024 10:36
|
|
|
On Portugal chat, one thing I would strongly recommend avoiding is going in the Belem Tower. Go look at it from the outside -- it's pretty -- then bail and go to the Jeronimos monastery nearby. The queues for the Belem Tower are absurd, and the inside is tiny, barren, and expensive for what it is. If someone gives you a ticket for free and there is zero line, then go ahead, but the interior visit has got to be an Emperor's New Clothes type of thing for anyone to give it a thumbs up.Grillfiend posted:looked into trying the same to get to Porto but 40 hours is a bit too long. :o . Yeah any land transport longer than ~12 hours in Europe requires someone to be super dedicated to not flying, since medium-distance intra-Europe flights will be cheaper than a bus and way, way cheaper than a train. Checking for next month, I see you can either have a €90 Flixbus trip for 30 hours from Brussels to Porto (1 change), or a direct flight for €30 plus the like €12 or whatever it takes to get to/from CRL airport and Porto airport to the respective city centers. Saladman fucked around with this message at 12:37 on Jan 25, 2024 |
|
#
?
Jan 25, 2024 12:32
|
|
|
I missed my return flight from Romania so had to take Flixbus back home to be there the next day. It was 23 hours lol. TBH it wouldn't be that terrible if I was capable of sleeping in bus, that part was pretty unpleasant. I've also taken a double-decker Student Agency bus from Germany more recently and the top floor seating was niiiice. Like business class nice, and a very smooth and quiet ride.  (I didn't have the food) If you can book in advance, flying does make a lot more sense usually but it's a decent option for shorter or last-moment trips. You can usually buy it the same day without paying through the nose.
|
|
#
?
Jan 26, 2024 15:10
|
|
|
Dr. Fraiser Chain posted:Plitvice Lakes are a nice walk on a boardwalk through a very beautiful setting. It's absolutely packed with tour groups and it's sort of making your way through tour groups between the lakes on a boardwalk. It wasn't what I expected from a national park experience. I felt like I didn't have the room to sit with it and enjoy it, or the space to explore it. I probably wouldn't do it on a repeat trip. I stayed overnight in the town next to the lakes and was there right at opening, for the first two hours or so we were practically alone in the park until all the cruise ship groups started arriving, it didn't get actually crowded until around 11am, and because we started early enough we were happy to leave around 1 and had a great time.
|
|
#
?
Jan 27, 2024 17:43
|
|
|
Next week I’m going on a little tour of Milan, Turin, Genoa, Florence (each 1-2 nights), a weekend in Bologna, then a few days in Bergamo. Any advice on those cities or cool things to see there? I’m particularly excited to stuff my face in Bologna, open to suggestions for mind blowing food there. Thank you all!
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2024 08:03
|
|
|
Mushroom Zingdom posted:Next week I’m going on a little tour of Milan, Turin, Genoa, Florence (each 1-2 nights), a weekend in Bologna, then a few days in Bergamo. Any advice on those cities or cool things to see there? I’m particularly excited to stuff my face in Bologna, open to suggestions for mind blowing food there. Thank you all! Can really only offer advice on Turin, I have family there. If you’re into antiquities the Egyptian museum there is incredible, it’s the largest in the world outside of Cairo. The national museum of cinema in the Mole is also great, but when I was in town last year it was being renovated and so a lot was closed off - definitely go if they’ve finished that. The new Lavazza museum is also pretty cool - covers the history of espresso, industrial design, even has the espresso machine from the space station there. And the Pinacoteca Agnelli has a small but really good collection of late 19th/early 20th century pieces, and in an incredible facility on top of the old Fiat factory, where they’ve turned the rooftop test track into a sculpture garden. I’d skip the Royal Palace in town, but if you really want to see a grand old palace go to the Hunting Lodge at Stupingi. Also, compared to Milan or Florence, none of the churches are worth much time (though if you actually want to see the replica Shroud that’s on display that’s in the Duomo). There’s a great old Roman gate and tower a few blocks from downtown that’s worth walking by, as well. Food and drinks wise go to the original Eataly in Lingotto (near the Pinacoteca in fact) to wander around and have at least one meal there. Also seek out gianduja, which is a chocolate and hazelnut confection that Nutella is a pale imitation of. And have a bicerin, which is a coffee drink that’s a mocha with the hazelnut chocolate. Will you have a car, or are you doing this by train? If you have a car, between Turin and Genoa you can stop off in Alba or Barolo and do all the food and wine stuff they offer too.
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2024 08:38
|
|
|
Mushroom Zingdom posted:Next week I’m going on a little tour of Milan, Turin, Genoa, Florence (each 1-2 nights), a weekend in Bologna, then a few days in Bergamo. Any advice on those cities or cool things to see there? I’m particularly excited to stuff my face in Bologna, open to suggestions for mind blowing food there. Thank you all! Just walk around the centers of the cities and see what you like… you don’t have that much time anywhere between transportation time and check in/check out, especially not places with a one night stay. There’s almost no way to go wrong by going to the cathedral of any Italian city and then walking around that neighborhood until you see something that suits your interest. Slightly out of the city center, Bologna has a neat super long staircase that is pretty unique and very slightly out of town (but walking distance) that has a good view of the city. Bergamo is in a neat natural setting. I also hope you’re not renting a car for this - that would be a nightmare with the ZTLs. If you are then be extra supremely one billion percent careful while driving or you’ll get many hundreds of euros in fines at some point. If you have several days in Bergamo, it may be worth going to Lake Como, eg taking the train to Varenna, then the ferry to Bellagio (I’m almost positive it runs year round). OTOH you’re way outside of season so the smaller and cuter towns will be pretty dead. Lecco will be lively as it’s a real city, but it also doesn’t have the most amazing setting.
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2024 10:28
|
|
|
Any must-sees or lesser-known gems in the Spanish or French Basque region? I want to spend several days chilling and hopefully hiking either in the hills or the Pyrenees around there in May. Would love to spend some time in small towns that are accessible by train or bus.
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2024 15:19
|
|
|
Thank you both so much for the suggestions— I feel like I have a clear picture of what I want to do in Turin now. I’ll be keeping an eye out for those steps in Bologna, too. To answer both your questions, I will be taking the train for getting between cities and will not be driving, so no risk of getting smacked down by ZTLs (I appreciate everyone in the thread making the risks very clear)! Anyway, happy to keep hearing suggestions for the other cities (or second opinions on Turin). We will be in Bergamo for a few days as opposed to the more rapid cadence of the Milan-Turin-Genoa leg of the trip.
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2024 15:34
|
|
|
Fitzy Fitz posted:Any must-sees or lesser-known gems in the Spanish or French Basque region? I want to spend several days chilling and hopefully hiking either in the hills or the Pyrenees around there in May. Would love to spend some time in small towns that are accessible by train or bus. Yes! On the French side, there's a big difference between the coast, which is pretty urban/suburban and inland, which is lots of hills and farming. In terms of coastal towns Biarritz is the most famous, but IMO Bayonne (the largest one with a great historic centre - the Basque museum is good) and St Jean de Luz are the most worth visiting. If the weather's good Bidart has a tiny town centre with a couple of nice restaurants (both the creperie and pizzeria are good) and good views of both the coast and inland. Briketenia in Guéthary is a fancier restaurant but would probably require a short walk without a car - the lunch is fantastic value. Wherever you end up going, check out Pariès for some local specialities and nice chocolates. If the conditions are right head to a beach (check webcams first) to surf/watch surfers. Inland Espelette is the most famous town and worth a visit, a touch touristy but not too bad. You can use visorando and https://www.geoportail.gouv.fr/ to find and plan walks respectively. The area around Sare is probably your best tradeoff in terms of distance from the coast : walk quality, and the caves are worth a visit. I can recommend these three but there are honestly so many great ones: https://www.visorando.com/randonnee-le-tour-de-l-atxuria-en-passant-par-la-v/ https://www.visorando.com/randonnee-le-tour-du-mendibil-depuis-le-col-urbia-/ https://www.visorando.com/randonnee-pic-de-toutoulia-par-le-col-d-harrieta-d/ (We did the loop and went up the smaller peak without the extra bit) Haven't done this one but is recommended a lot: https://www.visorando.com/randonnee-passerelle-holzarte/  Around Saint-Étienne-de-Baïgorry is also good for walks - the one up and around Oilarandoi is worth doing and very pretty (we found the exposure on one side a bit much so did a there and back but I think most hikers would find it trivial). Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port is quite a lot further away but also nice, it's most famous for being on the Camino de Santiago and has loads of great hills nearby. The landscapes on the French and Spanish sides are quite different, both in terms of geography and how the land is managed, either doing a walk which crosses the border or doing one on both sides would be my recommendation. Avoid Hendaye and Irun - you can go swimming in Hendaye if there's too much surf elsewhere but neither are really worth visiting otherwise. I can't say so much about the Spanish side. Peñas de Aya is a decent although very popular short hike. There is some interesting coastline on both sides of San Sebastian although the city itself I could take or leave. I seem to remember the San Telmo museum being worth a visit and the view from the weird fairground on the hill to the NW of the town is very good. e: for transport there's a train along the coast but you'll be getting the bus otherwise. Getting the train between France and Spain is possible but requires a fiddly change around the border, check Man in Seat 61. If you hire a car it's all easy in France but if you drive into Spain make sure you bring cash - some of the toll booths will take cards, but the smaller ones might have compatibility issues with non-local ones. distortion park fucked around with this message at 16:49 on Feb 8, 2024 |
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2024 16:39
|
|
|
Mushroom Zingdom posted:Next week I’m going on a little tour of Milan, Turin, Genoa, Florence (each 1-2 nights), a weekend in Bologna, then a few days in Bergamo. Any advice on those cities or cool things to see there? I’m particularly excited to stuff my face in Bologna, open to suggestions for mind blowing food there. Thank you all! One of my favorite memories in Florence was seeing the sun set over the city from the Piazza Michelangelo. Basically turns into a party.
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2024 16:57
|
|
|
Coco13 posted:One of my favorite memories in Florence was seeing the sun set over the city from the Piazza Michelangelo. Basically turns into a party. Mine is memories of being young, and naive... drinking cheap Lambrusco wine on the Janiculum hill overlooking Rome at sunset, love that memory.  If you get bored with Bologna, seeing as you're there for a weekend, a side trip to Ravenna is well worth it. There are eight UNESCO World Heritage sites, mainly dealing with mosaics. Wonderful place and not to overrun with tourists, at least when I was there.
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2024 17:42
|
|
|
Mushroom Zingdom posted:Next week I’m going on a little tour of Milan, Turin, Genoa, Florence (each 1-2 nights), a weekend in Bologna, then a few days in Bergamo. Any advice on those cities or cool things to see there? I’m particularly excited to stuff my face in Bologna, open to suggestions for mind blowing food there. Thank you all! Out of those cities, I haven't been to Milan or Bergamo, but of the others, I definitely liked Bologna best. It feels most like a real city that combines that great history with normal life. And it's small! Very walkable. Tons of small university-affiliated museums in out of the way places, about all possible subjects. I don't remember specific restaurants, but I did really enjoy a communist craft beer bar outside the city center. I can't find it anymore now, so I'm afraid it's gone. I had a good pizza in a restaurant looking out onto the piazza maggiore, but for the life of me can't find that either. Good pizzas are everywhere, though, so just walk around and see what looks nice and where other people are.
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2024 18:15
|
|
|
Thank you! This is all incredibly helpful. I'm hoping to see both the Spanish and French sides (without a car if possible), and you've probably covered everything I'd be looking for on the French side.
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2024 18:37
|
|
|
Mushroom Zingdom posted:Thank you both so much for the suggestions— I feel like I have a clear picture of what I want to do in Turin now. I’ll be keeping an eye out for those steps in Bologna, too. To answer both your questions, I will be taking the train for getting between cities and will not be driving, so no risk of getting smacked down by ZTLs (I appreciate everyone in the thread making the risks very clear)! Anyway, happy to keep hearing suggestions for the other cities (or second opinions on Turin). We will be in Bergamo for a few days as opposed to the more rapid cadence of the Milan-Turin-Genoa leg of the trip. The thing in Bologna is this: https://bolognauncovered.com/2019/01/18/walking-bologna-portico-san-luca/ if you want to do something vaguely physical that's also cultural. For restaurants, you can normally just go wherever, but do double-check the Google Maps rating before going in a random restaurant (reviews should be > 4.0), because there are some truly abysmal restaurants in city centers that prey on tourists. Unlikely to be many of those in Torino or Genoa, but Florence will be full of them, and Milan will have a few. Restaurant hosts standing outside restaurants inviting you in, with menus on podiums next to them, tend to be worse restaurants, but that's not always the case, especially if you're eating at off-peak hours or off-peak days. This is in contrast to e.g. France, where ~100% of restaurants with hosts inviting you in will be bad.
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2024 21:28
|
|
|
Agreed. I just had the best pasta I've had in a while, in Palermo, in the only restaurant that didn't have a guy or a menu outside like all the other restaurants on the street do
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2024 22:17
|
|
|
Honestly, if you’re looking for restaurants in Italy, and don’t have recs or a list and so it’s a shot in the dark, go to Italian tripadvisor or Italian google reviews and see what restaurants are well ranked only among reviews in that language.
|
|
#
?
Feb 9, 2024 08:19
|
|
|
Mushroom Zingdom posted:Next week I’m going on a little tour of Milan, Turin, Genoa, Florence (each 1-2 nights), a weekend in Bologna, then a few days in Bergamo. Any advice on those cities or cool things to see there? I’m particularly excited to stuff my face in Bologna, open to suggestions for mind blowing food there. Thank you all! Too long since I last visited Bologna for any specific recommendations but ITV in the UK just showed Big Zuu's 12 Dishes in 12 Hours and the first episode was Bologna. Absolutely recommend watching for some inspiration. It is geo locked to the UK but my wife has no issues using a VPN to watch when she is abroad visiting family. Enjoy your trip, Florence and Bologna especially are two all time great cities.
|
|
#
?
Feb 9, 2024 10:03
|
|
|
Fitzy Fitz posted:Any must-sees or lesser-known gems in the Spanish or French Basque region? I want to spend several days chilling and hopefully hiking either in the hills or the Pyrenees around there in May. Would love to spend some time in small towns that are accessible by train or bus. I've been there this summer, but by car, so I don't know how accessible by public transport things are. The French side was already covered pretty well. I got a ton of recommendations for the Spanish side and managed to see little of it. We stayed in Hondarribia, not so much for the town itself but the coast north of it is quite nice. We also stayed in Pasaia on the East side of the bay, which was quite pretty and great for seafood. In San Sebastian, focus on the food, there are many great pinxos places. Getaria was a nice place west of San Sebastian, famous for its fishing and for its white whine vinyards. We also went to Mundaka which is very nice and has a beach, and went to Elantxobe which is super scenic on a steep hill by the sea. Inland, there is the Ullíbarri-Gamboa lake near Gasteiz, which was a very chill place and something quite different from your usual Basque destinations. Other places that got recommended to me but that we didn't get to: Hernani (strong local culture), Oria (nice village), Igeldo (near San Sebastian). For hiking, along the coast the Ruta del Flysch is famous but it is also quite advanced, as you can get easily trapped / swept away by the huge tidal difference there if you are not prepared. In general there are tons of places to hike and the Camino also runs through there, you can walk parts of it.
|
|
#
?
Feb 9, 2024 20:58
|
|
|
Thanks, that's a great help on the Spanish side. I wonder if I should just suck it up and rent a car for part of the time. It's easy enough to go without one in (and between) the big cities, but I don't want to have a mediocre experience somewhere if it really warrants a car.
|
|
#
?
Feb 9, 2024 22:23
|
|
|
Thanks for all the great ideas and recommendations! I can share some thoughts once I’m back to pay it forward to the thread. Looking at Italian reviews is an especially good idea.
|
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2024 01:48
|
|
|
Fitzy Fitz posted:Thanks, that's a great help on the Spanish side. You’ll want a car if you are planning to visit the countryside, or if you are planning to stop in any city that is not directly on a train line. Driving in small towns and the countryside is very easy, if you can drive in your home country you’ll be fine there, just be mildly careful if you normally drive on the left.
|
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2024 11:04
|
|
|
Echoing the earlier questions about Italy, I have a trip coming up this summer (July/August) going through Venice (3 days), Florence (4 days), Rome (5 days), and the Amalfi Coast (6 days). I've been to Rome before, so I have a pretty solid idea of what to do there, but any suggestions for the other areas would be much appreciated. And thank you to everyone who gave some info about England and Scotland last year - really helped make my trip memorable!
|
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2024 16:46
|
|
|
When I was in Florence we just took an uber to a winery like 45 minutes out of town and it was magical. Even in January.
|
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2024 17:06
|
|
|
A Dapper Walrus posted:Echoing the earlier questions about Italy, I have a trip coming up this summer (July/August) going through Venice (3 days), Florence (4 days), Rome (5 days), and the Amalfi Coast (6 days). First off, super exciting! I’m no expert but a few thoughts on Venice from my one 3 day visit there: - I greatly enjoyed the Doge’s palace. Even coming from Florence just before I was absolutely stunned speechless at the beauty and intricacy of the art lining every wall. We got a guided tour called “secrets of the palace” or the like that took us through some of the jails and torture chambers in the back of the palace - evidently in the most serene republic of Venice serenity wasn't always serene. - Gondola ride isn't cheap but is worth it. I found going right around sunset was a good call as you get to see the city before and after dark- we did one that went out on the grand canal right as the lights were coming on and it was great. - There are inexpensive tours on tripadvisor that will take you out to Murano, Burano, and Torcello. These were each very memorable and give a sense of what outer Venice looked like historically- Murano is known for its glassblowing, Burano for colorful houses (instagram island) and Torcello for having 8 or so permanent residents and a church that has existed since like the 800s. - Venice is the ultimate random walk city. Walk into a random church and see the most beautiful architecture of your life until you go into another random one down the street. Marvel at the idiosyncrasy and beauty of this one of a kind miraculous gem of a city. -Check out the Jewish ghetto (Canalreggio I believe) for a slightly less touristy part of the city. - Expect the food to be more expensive and lower quality, unfortunately. Mushroom Zingdom fucked around with this message at 19:28 on Feb 10, 2024 |
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2024 19:22
|
|
|
One of my favorite memories of my Italian trip was the Musical Palazzo in Venice: https://www.musicapalazzo.com/en/ I went to see Barber of Seville, since I thought the comedy would "translate" better since it's all in Italian, and it absolutely did.
|
|
#
?
Feb 11, 2024 17:43
|
|
|
A Dapper Walrus posted:Echoing the earlier questions about Italy, I have a trip coming up this summer (July/August) going through Venice (3 days), Florence (4 days), Rome (5 days), and the Amalfi Coast (6 days). in florence: if you like museums, Uffizi is a must, consider the Firenze card so you can skip ahead in line, this also grants free access to to other museums 4 Leoni is a pretty good restaurant, at least when we were there, a good mix of italian and foreign guests. it’s just “off the path” enough in oltrarno to not be overrun with those big groups of day-trip buses Ditta Artigianale has a small cafe that serves both great coffee and great gin tonic (if that’s your thing) Stay the heck away from Ponte Vecchio between 9am and 6pm
|
|
#
?
Feb 11, 2024 18:08
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 28, 2024 08:31 |
|
|
Fitzy Fitz posted:Thanks, that's a great help on the Spanish side. I doubt it would be a mediocre experience without a car, you would just go to other places. My trip was planned as a road trip so we largely avoided cities. Some of the places I mentioned also have a train station, but overall you would be looking more at city stuff which should still be cool and not mediocre in that region.
|
|
#
?
Feb 12, 2024 19:10
|
|