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OperaMouse posted:Stockholm alone is entertainment enough, but one of the coolest things ever I did was visit the iron mine in Kiruna all the way up north (as in above the arctic circle). You go some 500m below the surface in the abandoned shafts and see some of the mining equipment. Very very impressive. I went to a similar area, went to Abisko to see the midnight sun. It was absolutely amazing, the landscapes there are incredible. But yeah, 20 hours by train is the downside...
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Feb 8, 2012 07:55
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Econosaurus posted:I'm living in the Czech Republic and I want to do some traveling around Europe this semester. It looks like Ryan air doesn't fly out of Prague, what other websites/airlines should I be looking at for cheap flights around Europe?
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Feb 15, 2012 03:01
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jet sanchEz posted:Okay, thanks everybody, I will buy them today. Is there a site that is recommended? I checked this site, https://www.tgv-europe.com and the price is about €65, does that seem about right? Unfortunately, we must travel on a Friday, which seems to jack up the price a lot. Is there a cheaper site out there?
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Feb 27, 2012 18:20
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I got an apartment for a month through only-apartments.com. It seems pretty good, you just need to make sure there are good reviews for the ones you want. That said, I booked mine months ago so you might not be able to get anything at a real good price anymore.
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Mar 5, 2012 21:10
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Also don't be surprised if people in Paris especially reply to your French with English. It's not really to be insulting, chances are they just want to help you out/practice their English, but it can get annoying, especially if you're there to practice your French. Hell, I'm a native French speaker and sometimes I'll be having a conversation with a server or someone in French no problems, they'll hear me speak to my husband in English and then they'll continue our conversation in English. You're probably less likely to have this problem outside of Paris/really touristy areas. And to be fair people do this in basically every country ever, but for some reason people really like to complain that the French do it more than anyone else, so fair warning.
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Apr 20, 2012 14:08
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Kilted Yaksman posted:I need some advice on booking a flight using miles. I'm hoping to visit multiple cities in Europe, and I have ~102,000 miles from British Airways. I'm hoping to spend most of the time visiting a friend in Jülich, but would also like to spend a few days each in Berlin, Prague, and Amsterdam, in no particular order, and preferably traveling by train. So, where should I fly in and out of? I've heard there's a big tax for flying into LHR, which I think is a BA hub, so I'm wondering how easy it might be to transfer my miles to another airline that would fly directly to one of the cities I want to visit, or if there is a better option I'm not aware of. Please help! I have no idea what I'm doing. Looks like your options for European airlines include: - Air Berlin - American Airlines (I'm assuming you're American) - Finnair - Iberia - Aer Lingus - Alitalia Personally, I'd try flying to Paris and take the train to Aachen, then a regional train to Julich. Try booking a flight to the cities these airlines fly to, and chances are it'll give you their flights. Or you can call them. I had to call Qantas to book my JAL flight because it didn't show up on the online search. HookShot fucked around with this message at 06:59 on Apr 24, 2012 |
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Apr 24, 2012 06:55
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Kilted Yaksman posted:Thanks for the advice, I'll definitely give them a call. I wasn't finding much info about booking through partners when I searched their website, so that'll probably be easier. Even though Berlin and Julich are in the same country, they're on opposite sides of it. You're looking at a 2 hour train ride from Paris on the Thalys, whereas it's probably closer to 5-6 from Berlin. And yeah walking around Paris at night is fine. At the limit stay away from Montparnasse (18eme), but that's about it. Also, don't assume dispatchers at taxi companies speak English, not in France. However, "un taxi [your location] s'il vous plait" will be understood and they'll send you a cab. They'll get the fact that you don't speak english.
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Apr 25, 2012 18:41
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Can anyone recommend an internet cafe or something where I can log into my gmail and print off documents in Rome? Bonus points if it's near a metro station! Thanks!!
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May 5, 2012 21:30
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IceG posted:I am going to Rome for 3 nights for business at the end of the month but only one day of that will be boring crap. Any good ideas on what to see or where to eat without paying insane prices? Can the Vatican be done in half a day? You COULD do the Vatican in half a day but I wouldn't recommend it. Do you have two days, or three to see rome? If two, do St Peters, Vatican museum, Trevi Fountain, Pantheon and Spanish Steps in one (it'll be a hell of a big day) and in the second do the Colosseum, Roman Forum and Palatine Hill.
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May 10, 2012 10:01
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I really liked visiting Szczecin in Poland as a day trip, but I probably wouldn't do it if I was only spending three days in Berlin. Also going on a tour of an underground bunker from WW2: http://berliner-unterwelten.de/tour-1.13.1.html
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May 26, 2012 08:01
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Laminator posted:Right, I meant reimbursement wise. If you end up getting hospitalized or something in a country that has universal health care, do you still get a bill since you're not a resident? Yes, you will be billed the full amount, which is likely going to be pretty much the same as if you were in the United States with no health care coverage. You didn't spend your entire life paying taxes in Europe and contributing money to their health care system, why would you expect for them to pay for your health care?
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May 28, 2012 17:15
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Cervixalot posted:Crossposted from the recently started 'Tell Me About Greece,' thread: You should be fine in Greece. We were going to do Greece on our trip, but we were going to be doing ONLY Athens, and then when it turned out they were going to have their elections when we were there we cut out that leg of the trip and went to Berlin instead, but in hundsight I don't think we even really had to do that. Everything I read while making the decisions said the islands were pretty much completely fine, it was only Athens where there were any problems and even then for tourists it's still pretty safe.
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May 30, 2012 06:44
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professor muthafukkah posted:I have another question regarding Europe. I am only going to be using the train 2 times in my trip, so I wont be buying any EURAIL passes, but I'd just like to know roughly how much these train tickets will cost? I looked around online but they were around US$200 and that seemed a bit much, but what do you eurogoons say? I will be taking a night train from Paris to Barcelona, and then another one (maybe?) from Amsterdam to Paris. How much would these be roughly? Thanks The prices you see online are what they cost, and they're only going to get more expensive, not cheaper. You don't mention your dates, but a lot of train tickets only go on sale 3 months before the date, and then as the cheaper fares sell out and get more expensive. So, if you're going in two weeks, you'll probably be paying a lot. I paid the second lowest fare on some tickets for my trip because I booked too late for the cheapest price, two months before we were going. Check on tgv-europe.com (don't let them send you to raileurope.com), they have most of the trains on there.
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May 30, 2012 16:59
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I spent a week in Berlin on my most recent trip. I wouldn't say it's too long, depending on your interests, but I wouldn't spend longer than a week in Berlin. Look into a day trip to Sczcecin in Poland as well, we really enjoyed that when we went. We did the Neues and Pergamon museums, Berlin wall stuff, Topography of Terror, Reichstag, Brandenburg Gate, Schloss Charlottenburg and we didn't get the chance to go to Potsdam. So no, you can definitely spend a week in Berlin, I can't help you about going elsewhere though sorry.
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Jun 23, 2012 04:29
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TGV-europe.com is like raileurope.com but actually functional. You just get all your prices in Euros, and it's infinitely better than the gigantic flaming garbage pile that is the SNCF website.
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Jun 26, 2012 23:16
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Even if you found a route I'm pretty sure it would be at least 20 hours (I know Paris to Rome is 16, but there's no TGV), meaning that yeah, you'd be on an overnight.
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Jun 29, 2012 23:36
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Arnold of Soissons posted:We won't be renting a car. We also won't be there on Sunday, I screwed up my dates, we'll be there on Monday. Same time though. http://flybus.is/ for the bus schedule. Cabs are really expensive apparently, we never took one. I'd personally go downtown and just wander around. There's not a huuuuuge amount to do in Reykjavik itself, but the city is beautiful and definitely worth a look. I didn't go to the Blue Lagoon but that's not a bad suggestion either, everyone says it's pretty awesome.
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Jul 26, 2012 22:48
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If you just went to Rome to see the most basic things ever and then got out, it's no wonder you didn't like it. Rome is amazing. Yes, it's definitely more crowded than Berlin, but I absolutely LOVED it. There's nothing like wandering into tiny churches that it takes you 15 minutes to find to get a look at a couple Caravaggio paintings, walking 40 minutes in the heat to get to a gelato place near Spagna from Castel Sant'Angelo and then having it be rewarded with the best gelato you've ever tasted in your life. Obviously you had a bad time and all, that's fair enough, but this is more to just let other people know that I found Rome to be an absolutely incredible, vibrant city full of life and awesomness. Plus I found it actually a lot cheaper than most other European cities since we would get away from the touristy areas for things like food.
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Aug 4, 2012 18:31
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Insane Totoro posted:We are looking at staying at the Hilton Garden Inn at the Rome Airport. There is a free shuttle to the Rome Airport where I assume you can catch a bus or train into the city. The price of the hotel looks right too. $1300 per person on Expedia including airfare and six nights. For reference, you can get a 7-day card for $32E that will let you go anywhere (except the aiport) on all the transport, which you will need to take if you want to go somewhere like St Paul's Outside the Walls or Ostia Antica, or even if you just want to not walk for like an hour to get between the main city and the Vatican or the Coliseum. Of course, you can also get one ticket for 1E50 that lasts 2 hours if you just need to take a quick trip. I don't know what just the airfare would cost you though, so it might be worth it anyways if it turns out that the hotel is basically free.
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Aug 7, 2012 16:38
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OhYeah posted:2. Go to see the Eiffel tower, but forget about standing in line for the lift to go to the top. You will be waiting for hours, if not half a day. Eiffel tower is an amazing feat of engineering and you can get the full experience by climbing to the second floor by the stairs. It's cheaper as well. The line to the stairs takes 15-30 minutes, not hours and hours. I agree with everything, but I would say while definitely take the stairs to the second floor, take the lift to the top from there. I've never waited longer than 10 minutes on the second floor to get to the top, and it is worth it (and I'm afraid of heights!) Also, go up Tour Montparnasse at night, get there around 9:30pm and at 10 the Eiffel tower does the light show, which is awesome to see from there. edit: also even though you'll probably read that it's 700 steps to the second floor of the Tour Eiffel, they're actually really well designed so you don't feel like you're going up hundreds of steps at all. I used to go up them with my granddad when he was like 70 years old and he had no problems.
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Aug 10, 2012 05:48
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Aromatic Stretch posted:There's been some great advice on going to Paris in the last few pages, but I was wondering if anyone had any advice on good things to do during a slightly longer stay. I'm going for 7 days at the start of September and I've never been before, but I think 7 days will be long enough to see a lot without feeling rushed? Orsay will take you a full day, for sure. The Champs-Elysees should take you a half day or so, maybe a bit longer, if you take your time, including the visit to the Arc de Triomphe at the end. And yeah, seconding the advice to spend a day at Versailles.
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Aug 19, 2012 04:36
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No, Schengen is fine for a Canadian, they'll just stamp your passport when you show up at your POE, and you won't get another stamp until you leave the region again. No need to apply for anything before you get there. It's also 90 days for Canadians (and everyone else except NZers, AFAIK)
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Aug 20, 2012 20:28
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No, the Invalides has always been awesome. I've been there about 4 times in the last 15 years and it hasn't really changed much, they've just added a few things here and there. But it's always ruled.
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Aug 21, 2012 17:48
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the Musee d'Orsay is a good one if you want one museum to spend the whole day in. For good places to eat, just take the Metro to Montparnasse, walk a few blocks away from the real touristy parts and find somewhere to eat around there. Usually the best crepe places in Paris are around Montparnasse, I can't give more specific recommendations than that though, sorry. I also can't guarantee it'll be cheap, but the further you get from the station the better.
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Oct 12, 2012 01:20
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Boris Galerkin posted:Thanks for the suggestions guys. Leaving tomorrow. I already said we're not going to any museums. I'd really like some suggestions on what is a "must eat" food in Paris that isn't available anywhere else. Oops, sorry, I read your original post as "we definitely want to spend the day in a museum" because I suck at reading, apparently. Buy a baguette from a bakery, croissants (sure, they're available elsewhere, but they won't be near as good as in France) or a pain au chocolate and find a creperie. Crepes aren't just for desert, they're a fine food for lunch or dinner as well as a savoury dish. Don't get one from those stupid carts out the front of touristy places though, try and find an actual good one (as in my last post, Montparnasse does have a bunch, it's like 10-15 minutes on the Metro). Stay away from anything touristy. If any of the signs around it are in English, stay the hell away from it. It's not hard to order "une baguette et deux croissants" from a real boulangerie.
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Oct 12, 2012 21:44
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Dj Vulvio posted:Visit Tour Montparnasse if you're fond of landscapes, you can even see the Eiffel Tower, which isn't possible on the tower itself 
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Oct 13, 2012 18:16
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Saladman posted:definitely not worth the 90 minute line it always has unless you get there before opening. If you go, take the stairs and you won't have this problem. It is 700 steps, yes, but they're really well designed, you won't feel like it's 700 steps at all, they're actually really easy to go up, and the wait is almost never more than 30 minutes. We waited 40 minutes last time, and that was because one of the elevators was broken, so the line to take the elevators was longer than usual. My grandpa used to take me up the stairs when he was 70 years old, you shouldn't have a problem if you're even reasonably fit.
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Oct 14, 2012 18:39
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Depending on how much you like history, if you take a tour of the church in Aachen (Aachen Dom) you can see Charlemagne's throne. The old city itself is also very nice to walk around in. The downside is there's only one tour a day in English, so if you want to see the throne and your schedule won't allow you to be there at the right time, then I hope you enjoy taking an entire tour in German. If it were me I would go Amsterdam -> Aachen/Cologne in a day or two -> either Frankfurt or Prague -> Berlin Also I would skip Brussels, unless you want to go just for the waffles. There's nothing to do and it sucks. Personally, I would do: June 17 - 20: London June 20 - 26: Paris June 26 - 29: Amsterdam June 29/30: Aachen, Cologne June 30 - July 3: Prague July 3 - July 6: Berlin I'd also take the Eurostar, and the high speed trains wherever possible because yeah, they're more expensive, but they do save you so much time that you can spend looking at things. Book 3 months before you want to go and you'll get the cheapest tickets.
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Oct 19, 2012 18:05
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Mr.AARP posted:Wow, so Prague is do-able? I thought the trip from Cologne would just take too much time by train. I'll definitely look into it since that's one of the cities I've always wanted to see. It's a longish train ride, about 7 hours on ICE, including connections in (I'm assuming) either Frankfurt or Nuremburg, but honestly Germany is one of the nicer cities to go through by train in Europe, I think. If you really don't want to do it during the day I'm pretty sure there's a night bus that does it too, if you're a good sleeper.
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Oct 19, 2012 21:18
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DammitJanet posted:- We have four days in Paris, and then we're heading to London. We were looking at taking Eurostar through the Chunnel ($65 USD), but EasyJet looks a little cheaper ($42 USD), and we're all for saving some money.
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Nov 19, 2012 18:39
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Gat posted:Paris-London So yeah, take the Eurostar. Gare du Nord to Paddington or Waterloo (I can't remember where it ends up in London) is just going to be so much easier and better and cheaper in the end. Plus it's a cool thing that you'll be able to say you've done.
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Nov 19, 2012 22:45
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Not to mention it's an hour by TGV, which will get really expensive, really quickly.
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Nov 25, 2012 18:18
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What were you planning on doing Iceland-wise? You definitely won't be able to circle the country in 10-12 days, not without driving way longer than would be fun. Camping is pretty easy, it does actually get colder than you would imagine even in the summer in Iceland. We were there in June and had our winter jackets on basically every day. Northern Norway is really beautiful, although I haven't been as far north as to hit Finland.
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Dec 3, 2012 03:54
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Funny Bunny posted:Yes you will.. We did it in 10 days in 2010 without ever being in a hurry, drove the entire ringroad and even visited the Vestmannaeyjar. Of course, if you like to undertake multiple hikes at the same location or do multiple-day tours, you will need a few days more. But it is definitely possible to have a nicely paced roundtrip in 10-12 days. This is of course due in part to the absurdly long days in the summer and the fact that many "sights" are outdoors nature locations: you could still start a 3-hour hike at 8pm! Seriously? We skipped the entire east and north coast of the country, and did the south and west up to Latrabjarg in 11 days and we thought that was pushing it. I'm really glad we didn't decide to do the entire country because we would have spent so much time in the car instead of actually discovering the country.
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Dec 3, 2012 17:51
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Oh, yeah, I missed that, you're going to be paying huge amounts for car rental in Iceland too. We had a Chevy Aveo from Sixt for eight days and it cost us around 700 Euros (though we did get the extra insurance thing) plus gas. Which was like $2.25 a litre, or $8.50 a gallon if you're American. Literally the only thing we could find that was cheaper was a company that apparently bought cheap used cars and rented them out, then when I reviewed them online there were a whole bunch of reviews from people that used them and had the car conk out on them in the middle of Iceland. It wasn't like they were $10 a day either, it was more like it came out to 600 Euros instead of 700 Euros. Seconding the Lofoten islands though, they're absolutely amazing.
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Dec 4, 2012 01:55
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And if you just act like an rear end that just goes up to people and asks things in English, French people WILL get you to take the train in the wrong direction.
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Dec 17, 2012 22:05
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The thing you have to remember about the French, and that most people and especially non-Europeans who don't understand the history don't think about, is that the French have HATED the English for basically a thousand years and vice versa. They are historically enemies, and that doesn't go away immediately. Of course, it's getting better, and most French people won't tell you they hate the English that openly, but if you go up to them and immediately speak to them in the language of a people they hated and have gone to war with at least a dozen times, and expect them to speak it as well, they're going to be a little bit upset about it. This is a country that specifically made sure they were in the +1 time zone even though that makes no sense geographically entirely because they didn't want to share a time zone with England.
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Dec 19, 2012 21:06
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Saladman posted:Shhhh! You're letting facts get in the way of his stereotypes.
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Dec 21, 2012 18:50
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Lascivious Sloth posted:Australians traveling in Turkey; what is the best way to utilize money? a money card at international ATMs in Turkey or ??? If you're with a big five bank it probably doesn't apply to you, but watch out if you use one of the smaller ones.
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Dec 22, 2012 18:41
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| # ¿ May 11, 2024 22:24 |
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Landsknecht posted:Because this thread is old and it needs refreshing and we have averted the mayan apocalypse I am going to make a new, super awesome OP for 2013. What does it need besides local translations for chickencheese (kaesehuenchen)? It'd be really cool if there was a small guide for all the major cities (or countries) of Europe for trips of various days (1-3, 5-7, 7-14). I think it'd be possible if you could get one or two goons who know various cities (or even regions, like say, Bavaria, the South of France, the Swiss Alps, etc) to do a writeup for each one. That said it would probably be way more trouble than it's worth.
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Dec 23, 2012 19:14
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