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I've done most of Europe but not the Germanic countries, and figure I should address that shortcoming. Anyone have ideas for a 10-day trip? I was thinking of Oktoberfest but it sounds like it might be more trouble than it's worth (especially at this point) and that going to Munich afterwards would be preferable. Maybe Munich / Vienna / Salzburg by train in early October? Those are fairly close, so is it worth adding in someplace farther like Berlin or Prague?
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Aug 17, 2010 18:48
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| # ¿ May 5, 2024 20:07 |
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If you had 13 days in early December, and just wanted to wander around Europe, where would you fly into?
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Nov 16, 2010 19:11
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elwood posted:Personally I would fly into London stay there for a few days and decide from there what to do and where to go. Plus I've never done Dublin.
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Nov 16, 2010 20:57
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Saladman posted:[Edit: I actually did like Barcelona, I just didn't understand the rave. I also like sitting around on the beach.]
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Nov 18, 2010 20:38
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OK, I managed to book at least the first two legs of my trip, because I was getting a little panicky about how the "low-cost" airfares were jumping up in price every day. So, Dublin or Munich hostel suggestions?
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Nov 29, 2010 16:22
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There are pros and cons to traveling alone, and traveling with a perfect companion would certainly be better, but the people I've actually traveled with were certainly not perfect and some of them really made the trip less fun. It can really show you a side of people you don't see in normal everyday life, like how well they deal with uncertainty. Tips: Talk to everyone. Don't feel obligated to do stuff with people. You just met them, you have no duty. Hostels with bars are good. The "fun" rating on HostelWorld reviews is a good indicator. You probably won't sleep too well though. Do the bar crawls and walking tours. Sometimes people mix in guided tours to get to places that are out of the way or would need a car, which is a good way to meet people too.
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Nov 30, 2010 15:58
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Back from Europe, and managed to just avoid the snow craziness. I flew into Dublin the day after the airport opened a couple of weeks ago, and flew out Prague -> Dublin -> US right when Heathrow airport was closed. Kept meeting people who were stranded in the airports for days, and the couple sitting next to me on the flight to the US drove from Belfast to Dublin just so they could get on a plane. FYI, don't go to Dublin or the UK when they have snow on the ground. They don't know how to deal with it so everyone just stays inside until it melts. OTOH, Prague had a freaking blizzard and I flew out just fine.
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Dec 22, 2010 15:17
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Limastock posted:Im in prague and its the most awesome place ever. To the guy thinking about renting a car i would never ever do that. People drive crazy here and there are hardly any traffic lights.
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Dec 27, 2010 16:47
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Saladman posted:Czech Republic's accident rate is not the highest in Europe either, nor is it even close. Greece has the worst drivers in Europe, statistically by fatal road accidents. Germany is pretty bad too. http://www.unece.org/trans/main/wp6/pdfdocs/RAS_2007.pdf Czechs owned cars before 1991.... Skoda is Czech, and they make / always have been a pretty significant manufacturer. Guess that is proof you shouldn't believe the walking tour guides. Which I should have known already. And he was actually Czech!
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Dec 28, 2010 02:06
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Saladman posted:If you buy them at the same time, you'll be seated together unless the train is already full. What can happen also is that the window seats fill up completely, so even though there are plenty of seats, there aren't two together.
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Dec 28, 2010 15:23
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Fat Turkey posted:In general, would it be better/cheaper/more expensive to book things in advance now or will I be OK with just a few days in advance, as I have no real schedule yet. It definitely can be, although you lose the flexibility of the full price ticket which has no particular date associated with it, just a separate seat reservation if needed at all. For instance, a hi-speed ticket from Vienna to Munich is usually EUR 84.30. But even 3 days in advance you can get a ticket for EUR 49.99, and a week out is EUR 29.99. Those are only good for a particular train though. But that is a LOT cheaper obviously.
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Dec 28, 2010 16:57
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ChadBroChill17 posted:I appreciate the way that the different culture/art/architecture combine to create a completely foreign environment for me to explore. I thought Paris was absolutely beautiful. It wouldn't have been the same without all of the buildings, statues, and monuments. It's difficult for me, however, to get excited about looking at one individual piece of art, especially if it's just sitting in a museum. I don't know why you would skip Vienna then. It's basically all fancy buildings / palaces and statues and monuments.
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Jan 14, 2011 17:45
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Yeah, honestly, customs entering Europe is some guys looking bored that you walk past in the Nothing to Declare lane.
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Jan 17, 2011 23:23
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It is a pretty big problem in some countries though. Some co-workers from Argentina were training here in the US and they really did stock up on the electronics to avoid the 21% tax there and the much higher list prices. But they aren't idiots so they took them out of the boxes, installed their own backdrops, etc.
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Jan 18, 2011 14:35
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I thought Germany and Prague and Vienna were fine in December... as long as it wasn't raining. Cold but very pretty and the Christmas markets are great. Does get dark early, and getting up early doesn't necessarily help.
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Jan 24, 2011 20:11
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scr0llwheel posted:These are the locations we're thinking about. How long were you there for?
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Jan 24, 2011 21:13
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I wouldn't go back just for the Christmas markets, but I do think they are a legit tourist thing that you can't see in the other seasons. Depends on whether you have them locally I guess... I've never seen one on the East Coast US, but I know they have one in Chicago. The hostels were super-super cheap in the winter too, although the food was still pretty pricey.
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Jan 25, 2011 14:54
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It’s not really Europe but I don’t know the right thread: has anyone been to the Canary Islands? I saw it in passing in a documentary and it looked amazing but as an American it’s not someplace anyone I know has ever been.
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Mar 14, 2022 00:41
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Sometimes it can work out… we took a direct flight from Newark to Düsseldorf once because it was a crazy deal at $500, and then took the two hour train to Amsterdam which was pretty painless. IIRC a direct flight to Amsterdam was $800 or $900.
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Apr 24, 2022 19:48
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Tate Modern was still doing timed free tickets last month when I was there, so might want to double check on that.
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May 18, 2022 01:05
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I don’t mind for a normal one or two week vacation, given it requires literally no effort and your phone just works normally.
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Jun 14, 2022 12:49
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Turin also has an Egypt museum for some reason, probably disreputable history. Cool mummies and statues. We had the museum pass and did that one, the cinema museum, and the auto museum, I think. All fun.
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Jun 25, 2022 15:06
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What’s expensive nowadays? Haven’t stayed in a hostel for five years now.
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Jun 29, 2022 13:38
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They went to Spain in July, they probably just think it’s normal.
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Jul 15, 2022 21:03
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Sicily looked amazing in White Lotus Season 2, but that was at the Four Seasons. How is it for normal tourism?
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Dec 25, 2022 23:45
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Ha, I thought TERF island meant Tenerife, I need some coffee.
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Jan 5, 2023 14:09
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Nothing wrong with German beers.
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Jan 5, 2023 21:07
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I miss SPG. Those points went so far in Europe and they were all these classic old hotels with huge rooms. My wife still raves about the Hotel Maria Cristina in San Sebastián.
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Jan 11, 2023 03:45
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This is usually my go-to site: https://www.seat61.com Most popular trips he explains the various route options and often how to buy the tickets on the weird websites.
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Jan 15, 2023 23:14
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We were in Mykonos in late October a few years back and it was a ghost town. Actively shutting down around us. Santorini was nice, although the beaches were deserted. Ferries were still running.
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Jan 19, 2023 05:56
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Someday I want to try the Rick Steves super minimalist packing system. All fancy travel clothes, you have one change of clothes and you wash in the sink every night or two. Everything fits in a day pack.
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Jan 29, 2023 18:52
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I used to have an ATM card that charged a flat 1% fee for foreign usage which was sometimes very convenient. Particularly places where it was hard to get small bills out of the ATM and also hard to break large bills. Now we typically get 100 euros out once at the airport and it lasts the whole trip.
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May 20, 2023 18:29
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Yeah I seem to recall it was mainly train ticket machines that wanted chip + pin with no fallback.
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May 21, 2023 16:30
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The one-ticket-per-card thing seems like it would be a problem for locals too.
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May 26, 2023 00:17
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Also 50/50 you downloaded the right app, and depending on the country it might not be translated. That seat 61 website that shows how to buy train tickets is a horror show.
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May 26, 2023 21:37
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Comic book museum in Brussels has a good gift shop if you just want to check it out for free. For some forgotten reason, we went to the musical instrument museum which was a really cool old building with a ton of instruments with about half labelled in English.
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Jun 18, 2023 15:48
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mmkay posted:I recommend taking a day trip to Lucca and walk around the walled part of the city, it's an hour long train drive one way and it's a very nice and chill. This except rent a bike to ride around on top of the wall.
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Jun 22, 2023 12:38
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I liked Bath, I don’t remember going to anything the baths but the architecture is very fancy.
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Jun 30, 2023 23:25
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I remember going to Czech Republic by train from Austria, and the ticket machines for the subway only taking Czech coins and who has Czech coins when they first get there? I had to buy a coke or something just to get change. Has that gotten any better? I feel like Czech was still pretty cash focused at the time but this was ten years ago.
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Jul 6, 2023 22:59
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| # ¿ May 5, 2024 20:07 |
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webmeister posted:There's so much cool poo poo to see and do in Morocco I'd just save it up for another trip to be honest. And as far as I know none of the cool poo poo is close to the coast?
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Jul 15, 2023 14:32
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