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A few Eurail pass questions: On Rick Steves' web site, it mentions that an adult (26 or older) must purchase a first class ticket. If I look at a regional Eurail pass on the official web site, it gives me the option of purchasing 1st class or 2nd class for an adult pass. If I'm offered that choice, is it worth the savings to take 2nd class or is 1st class substantially more comfortable? Additionally, are there any web sites where I can find the approximate travel times for train travel, as well as what stops there are along the way between major destinations? The Eurail web site just has a map of the major rail lines, as far as I can tell. I've been debating what the smarter choice is between budget air travel versus a Eurail pass, but it seems like the train might be simplest because all of the budget air lines seem to fly out of airports that are far out of the way. The idea of 6 hour + train trips is a bit unnerving to me but I'm not sure that the hassle of getting to the airport and then flying is enough to offset it. The ideal set up seems like it would be a Eurail pass + budget air travel but I can't imagine that's all that realistic. Anyone have experience making this same decision?
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Jul 15, 2010 01:47
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What is the weather like in Central Europe in early spring? I'm trying to decide when to go, but April keeps coming up as a strong possibility. I prefer temperatures in the mid 50s or so, which is probably what the weather would be like here in the states at that time. Is spring in bloom then? I want to see green!
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Jul 21, 2010 22:43
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mzandrea posted:What do people insist on hopping around so much in such a short period of time to big spots like Berlin and Paris? Do you want to say you've been somewhere, or do you actually want to go somewhere and absorb it? I'm sure it's the former. Coming back and telling people, "Yeah, I was in Europe and visited 9 countries!" sounds more impressive (to those people) compared to saying "I spent a week in Berlin."
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Aug 5, 2011 14:44
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Is it even worth exploring a potential trip to Austria and Germany for late May of this year? The flight selection seems quite limited, and what is available is expensive. I don't know if there's any specific airport in either country (or even neighboring country that is a rail pass train ride away) that I should be concentrating on in terms of having a better selection of flights that originate in the U.S., but if so I'd appreciate any suggestions. I realize this isn't an ideal method of trip planning but let's say that the cost of the trip is covered if I can find a reasonable flight, should I explore the options or forget it?
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Mar 29, 2013 16:56
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Rojkir posted:Did you try skyscanner with a broad search? Like US -> Germany with flexible dates. Cause i just hit some random dates in there and it gives me flights for around 650 euro which is very reasonable. I hadn't done that, but it seems like there are a lot of options, just nothing particularly great for my origin airport. I think I'll explore some "multi-city" options. Anyone have recommendations for an east coast airport that I should try to look at? Shorter duration for the trans-Atlantic portion is highly preferred.
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Mar 29, 2013 17:47
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Why do I have to show my passport and fill out a form when buying a bottle of water in the airport in Germany?
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Jun 20, 2013 17:46
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Junior G-man posted:I think it's pretty standard to have to show your boarding pass if you're buying stuff in the duty-free area? Could be for either, I suppose. It was after I cleared security and right outside of the gate, so I assumed it operates the same way it does in the U.S. in that once I'm through security I could just buy any type of liquid. But it's probably related to duty but I thought that was only for the stores that were specifically labeled as such. I also find it ironic that I don't have to take my shoes off when going through security for a flight from Europe to the United States, but I do when flying within the United States, when the only time that an explosive contained in a shoe was attempted to be used to destroy a plane was on a flight from Europe to the United States.
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Jun 21, 2013 14:56
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manwithoutskin posted:Will I have much difficulty outside of the main cities only speaking English, or even in them? Despite what I read before going to Europe that indicated otherwise, I had trouble speaking only English in major cities in Austria and Germany. With this anecdotal experience as my framing to answer your question, yes, I would expect you may have trouble outside of major cities, particularly if you are indeed hoping to travel off the beaten path.
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Nov 6, 2013 15:36
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Amaterasu posted:Looking for advice on a trip to Austria with a stop in Southern Germany in mid October. The longest I can plan for is 11 days but 10 sounds better. We'd probably leave on Wednesday and return on Friday so we'd have the whole weekend to adjust back to CST before going to work on Monday. Of course you basically lose a whole day on each end of the trip just for actual travel. You'd probably find this book useful if you do decide on Munich: http://www.amazon.com/Steves-Snapshot-Munich-Bavaria-Salzburg/dp/1598806890 Munich does make sense because you are a very short train trip from Salzburg. There's a lot you can do in Munich, but Neuschwanstein is definitely a must as I'm sure you know. If you want a hassle free method and don't mind spending a bit more than what it would cost you on your own, I recommend New Europe Tours (http://www.newmunichtours.com/). You meet up in the train station, pay the tour guide, and they take care of everything. The tour guide we had, Jonathan, was very knowledgeable and led us all around the area outside the castle. We also went to Dachau with the same tour guide and it was also very informative. In Salzburg, you can walk around Old Town (Rick Steves offers a nice guided walk for this) and hike up to the fortress. There's museums and Mozart's birth place if you care about that at all. There are various tour companies that offer day trips to surrounding areas for hiking and sightseeing. For Vienna, I think our highlight was Schönbrunn Palace. If the weather cooperates, you can do the palace tour and then wander around the grounds for hours.
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Jan 16, 2014 15:51
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Amaterasu posted:Sand Monster, thank you for the link. I didn't realize Dachau was near Munich. I would also be interested in their WWII tour of Munich as I'm a huge history buff. Yeah, short train ride and bus trip away. The tour is particularly helpful for this because otherwise you are wandering around on your own. For WWII history, you can visit the Eagle's Nest outside of Salzburg. I didn't get to go because the weather wouldn't cooperate.
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Jan 17, 2014 14:57
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Amaterasu posted:While we're staying in Munich I'm planning on day trips to Dachau and Neuschwanstein. Would a Bayern ticket be worth it? Just based on my experience, I'd suggest going with this tour group: http://www.newmunichtours.com/ I posted a recommendation in this thread before, but it was incredibly simple. You meet in the train station, pay the guide the fee, and they cover all of the transportation (trains and buses are needed to get to both of those sights). Plus, with Neuschwanstein, you avoid the hassle of waiting in line to get in. We had the same guide for both places and he was very friendly and knowledgeable.
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Sep 12, 2014 16:46
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Curl_like_smoke posted:Salzburg... history (the older the better) ... Go check out Festung Hohensalzburg which was originally built in 1077 (!). You can take a self-guided tour and walk around the grounds for a few hours. They continued to expand it over time but it's still pretty neat and has a great view of the city.
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Jun 15, 2015 15:15
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Carotid posted:My boyfriend and I are going to Germany next week, land April 12th and leave April 19th. We plan to split the trip between Berlin and Munich, with a day trip to the Neuschwanstein castle and probably Dachau as well. We love cool architecture and art/museums, as well as bars and live music. We don't mind walking so anywhere where we can just wander around and stumble into cool stuff works too. Any recommendations for places we should definitely have on our radar? For Munich, you can pretty easily check off the "cool architecture and art/museums" and "anywhere where we can just wander around and stumble into cool stuff" very near the city center. I'm not sure of the names of the area I'm describing, but east and northeast of the main train station is a great area for walking around. You can see a number of interesting and historic buildings (St. Peter's Church has a tower you can climb up for a minimal fee), museums, plus a lot of gardens/parks, including the massive English Garden. If nothing else, check out Rick Steves' walking tour audio guide which will highlight a lot of sights in the area. There's a few beer gardens in the area, too, which you should check out.
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Apr 5, 2016 16:17
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Does anyone have experience renting a pocket WiFi device while traveling in Europe, e.g. something like this offering https://hippocketwifi.com/en/pocket-wifi-europe-rental/ ? I'm finding that most don't disclose the actual speed and instead say like the one above that it is "up to 100 Mbps". Just curious what the reality is, and any experiences / pros and cons.
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Feb 20, 2019 15:12
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FCKGW posted:It says right on that page "4G LTE up to 100mbps"? They have a 1gb/day allowance and after that you are throttled. The comment was more geared toward curiosity for what the reality is. "Up to 100Mbps" conceivably means I could get 1Mbps or 100Mbps. Waci's reply was probably accurate -- it depends, and I probably won't get an answer. Again if nothing else I was just interested if anyone had rented one, and what their experience was.
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Feb 20, 2019 17:49
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webmeister posted:I still really don’t understand who those pocket wifi devices are aimed at, they just seem like such a solution in search of a problem For me personally, it's a combination of traveling with a group (we can all share the WiFi) and wanting to being able to go to sleep while watching international Netflix on my WiFi-only iPad with its wider catalog of movie and TV shows that aren't accessible in the U.S.
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Feb 21, 2019 22:28
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Saladman posted:Airbnb is almost always the way to go if you're going to spend 3+ nights in a city. Does anyone have recent Airbnb experience in Amsterdam? Apparently they introduced new legislation that kicked in starting this year which places a hard limit of 30 days per year that a person can rent out their place on Airbnb, and with a maximum of 4 people for each stay. My group has been having a lot of trouble trying to book a place for much later this year and seemingly it's due to this new law. Places are "available" but when you go to book it, the reservation request isn't being accepted at all. We're concerned that even finding one that we can reserve now will get canceled later on down the line.
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Mar 18, 2019 15:02
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Carbon dioxide posted:If you go to Europe with a CC without knowing the pin and without any cash money you just screwed yourself. Also, the "tap credit card to pay" feature is fairly widespread in Europe, isn't it?
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Jul 21, 2019 15:22
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webmeister posted:I think Americans' insane situation with paid leave also has a lot to do with it. When you can only get a week off at a time once a year, I can understand the mentality of cramming in as much as possible despite how miserable it might be. Whereas for other nationalities, taking 2-3 weeks off for a holiday isn't a big deal and you can plan out a much more reasonable itinerary. Counterpoint: if you're American and you can only get one week of vacation at a time once per year, find a new job, because your employer's PTO policy is horrid.
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Jan 8, 2020 15:19
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runawayturtles posted:Day 3: Museum overload - Rijksmuseum, Van Gogh Museum, Anne Frank house Reserve your Anne Frank house tour in advance. It sells out quickly, but they have entry fairly late in the day. We did Van Gogh when it opened and the crowd wasn't too bad at all for the first hour or two.
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Jan 31, 2020 15:13
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Bollock Monkey posted:And even though I was aware it's an expensive place, I had really underestimated quite how expensive it is. Just adding that to reinforce the point in case anyone else is using this thread for research. I've heard that too but curious if you could share any personal anecdotes of what you experienced.
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Mar 1, 2022 15:33
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webmeister posted:Yeah the Honest Guide guys are fantastic and super brave, mixing it up with those street hustle gangs like they do. Highly recommended watching if you're ever thinking of going to Prague, or even Europe in general really There's a show called "Scam City" where the host travels around and deliberately attempts to become a victim of known scams in the area he's visiting. Also worth watching if you can find it, and that kind of subject is of interest to you.
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Apr 25, 2022 13:34
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Jerry Manderbilt posted:if I have a week in Munich is it worth earmarking a day to go to Neuschwanstein? I'd bet getting a guided tour since I wouldn't have a car. Echoing the other poster that if you have a week in Munich then you should absolutely go. Yes, you can get there on your own, but I used this tour and recommend it, as they handle all of the logistics: https://www.neweuropetours.eu/sandemans-tours/munich/neuschwanstein-castle-tour/
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Sep 8, 2022 13:04
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