Europe Travel Questions for Experts?
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I’m from Western Canada, and in the year between high school and university I want to do a trip around europe. Based on my research and what seems like a general online consensus, I’ve decided to get a eurail 15 days of travel in 2 months youth flexi pass, and hit (in order):
Amsterdam
Berlin
Prague
Vienna
Budapest
Istanbul (hoping eurail does istanbul by that time)
Athens
Venice
Florence
Rome
Bern
Barcelona
Paris
London
Brussels
back to Amsterdam
1. do these sound like good destinations? should I see Interlaken instead of Bern? Munich instead of Berlin? A different greek destination? a different Ntherlands destination? Is Lisbon any good?
2. Would it be worth it to do a short round trip flight from Istanbul to Cairo to see a bit of Africa for say, 3-4 days? how much would that cost?
3. I can start at really any of the places listed above. which one would have the cheapest fares from Calgary? Where should I buy tickets?
4. How much would food cost daily if I did markets and grocery stores eating sandwhiches and peanut butter?
Thanks
I think its good for u on eurail,but also try ryan air and easy jet,its sometime cheaper than rail.
Comments are closed.
Wow! Looks like you will have a very busy trip. In order to have adequate time to visit one city per day, you most likely plan to sleep on the train while en routing to your next destination. Here are my opinions with respect to each of your destinations:
1. Amsterdam — not much to see except the canal network throughout the city water ways.
2. Berlin — Although I have been to Germany, I have never been to Berlin. I heard that Berlin is more historic. I have been to other cities like Nuremberg, Munich, and some other small towns between Berlin and Nuremberg, and some towns in the southern most of Germany. If you want to see the old and new castles, you should head for the southern most town called Fuessen which can take several hours to drive from Munich. By the way, Munich is a nice city with new buildings and modern airport.
3. Prague — No comment. I have never been to Prague before.
4. Vienna — No comment. If you want to see the birth place of Mozart, go to Salzberg. Other than that, there isn’t much to see. I heard in Vienna, you might want to try some coffee drinks.
5. Budapest — No comment.
6. Istanbul — If you desire to see the great blue Mosque there, this is the place to be. The bazaar is just a big market place with many small merchants. If you buy things there, you should learn to bargain — they give you a starting price which is normally higher and then you bid lower in return. If the seller agrees with your bid, you have a deal or else just walk on. Bargaining is the same in Egypt.
7. Athens — There is a big pedestrian zone opposite to the city hall. This is the place you will see a lot merchants selling goods on the streets.
8. Venice — Famous for its gondolas. You can see people making glass wares in some souvenir shops. Be careful about pick pockets.
9. Florence — Famous for its churches and architecture. Again, pick pockets are quite active here. Be alert when some young people approach you trying to give you a hand.
10. Rome — A good place to visit. You can see the St. Peter church, coliseum, the fountains, and the ruins of the old roman. If your train stops at St. Peter, you can first visit St. Peter and then head out to a nearest subway station to go to the Spanish Quarter. From there, you just follow the tourist route to the fountains and so on all the way to the coliseum and the the roman ruin. The ruin site is about a block from the coliseum. This can take you several hours to walk non-stop from the Spanish Quarter to the Coliseum. The fountain is good to visit in the summer. During late fall, they might be draining out the water for repairs.
11. Bern — No comment.
12. Barcelona — I have never been there. But I heard that there were a lot of pick pockets.
13. Paris — A good place to visit. The museum can take all day to walk through. It could be a little inconvenient if you don’t know French. The Nostradam might be a good place to pay a visit. There is a train station northeast of Paris. It has connection to the subway lines.
14. London — If you like to see the Tower of London, this is the place to be.
15. Brussels — No comment.
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Very good destinations, if you want to go to another destination in holland i would suggest Maastricht, also really nice though amsterdam’s pretty cool. Berlin is amazing and once you’re in istanbul i doubt you’ll want to go anywhere else. i fell in love with that place, still, to this day, my favourite city in the world! easiest thing to do is probably land in london and then take the underground channel tunnel to france. Not sure where to buy tickets most trainstations will have seperate eurail booths where you buy ‘international’ tickets. Oh if you go to Belgium… let me warn you now… do NOT do Brussels there is like, nothing to do there, and people aren’t very nice. travel through to Gent, Antwerp, and/or Bruge. Gent and Antwerp are student cities they’re both very historical and there are tons of things to do there. festivals, markets etc. lots of fun.
i think aproximately you could end up spending between 5 and 10 euros for a meal. if you go to supremarkets it’ll probably be cheaper, but what you should know is that cafe’s aren’t really expensive in most countries apart from France and London. so you can get some really good meals for really cheap AND if you’re a student you can get HUGE helpings for like 3 euros. great pasta’s and sandwiches. so don’t hold out on going to the small local cafe’s just because you don’t want to spend too much money.
FOOD… meh… it depends on where you are, and i should warn you, they don’t have peanutbutter everywhere in Europe
Have fun!
References :
1) Some very good destinations. I would only say that if you try to see all of them you will be spending A LOT of time on a train. More time in fewer stops might make for a more enjoyable vacation. A few thoughts:
I haven’t been to Bern but Interlaken is fantastic. Unfortunately it’s also fantastically expensive.
If you’re going to go to Rome, Florence and Venice you should also head to Naples. Pompeii, Capri and the Amalfi coast are all worth seeing.
Athens isn’t worth going out of your way to see unless you’re really into Greek history/culture. And unfortunately you’ll likely have to go out of your way to see it.
Skip Brussels and head to Bruges.
Check out Easyjet, they do fly into Egypt. Unfortunately it’s not Cairo, but you can at least get there for not a lot of money. I believe they also fly to Morocco.
You’re most likely going to be able to find cheap airfare into London, followed by Paris. Check out sta travel, and also glance at the websites of individual airlines, they sometimes have good deals that don’t show up on yahoo travel type websites.
Food prices depend on location. In general things get cheaper as you go south and east.
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Prague is very very touristy, but I still think it is worth seeing. When are you going? The European countries will have from the end of November, until just before xmas, xmas markets, which are a real experience.
Top 2-Louvre cafe(2nd best hot choc)3.50euros
-Boat ride 10 euros for 1 hour. Comes with a guide, free snack, and a drink.
I too think you might be better off with fewer places. Otherwise everything will end up being a blur, and you don’t really get to enjoy the atmosphere. Plus, fewer places, more money to spend on food. It’s the food, where you often get to really experience the differences in countries.
Vienna has so much to do, despite it being such a small city. Top 3-Sacher torte at the Sacher hotel(5 euros)
-Hundertwasser Kunsthaus (modern art, but non offensive and funky, plus the architecture is an experience.) 9 euros
-Schoenbrunn Palace, the grounds are great to walk around, go up to the Gloriette. It has a nice view over Venice 2 euros.
You can do all this in 1 day. 24 hour ticket for transport is 5.50 euros.
Doggie bags are very kosher. Austrians hate waste. Schnitzels are huge and you often get 2 pieces, with fries. Normally you get given a piece of foil to wrap your food in.
1 hour from Vienna is Bratislava(Slovakia). So a good chance to see another country, with a slightly different flavour to Italy, Austria, and Belgium. You could probably do this with the Eurail pass but if not, it is 12 to 15 euros return from Vienna. Trains are hourly, and run after midnight.
Budapest is a 5 hour train ride from Vienna. We only tried one restaurant but the portions were huge. Enough for 3 people and it’s entirely kosher to ask for a doggie bag.
It’s a little outside of the main city, but only a 10 -12min bus ride. But I think worth the effort, as most cities have destroyed their commie statues etc.. The statue park. http://www.szoborpark.hu/index.php?Lang=en
Again a lot to do. Buda castle has a great view over the city-http://www.budapestinfo.hu/en/things_to_see/architectural_variety_es_thematical_sightseeing_tours_walk_in_the_castle
Plus, there are a few museums up there.
Gellert hill has a good view too, with a kinda wax museum but not like Madame Tussauds. For 2 euros though, why not? All about the war, with losts of interesting history that you don’t get to read in many other places.
Venice is my favourite city. No need to see museums or anything here. just walk around and enjoy the atmosphere, food, and architecture. Big portions here too. A good range of food and prices from, very pricey-to reasonable but it all tastes good.
Having said that though- don’t miss the Basilica. Its small, but amazing. And don;t get put off by the queue. Although long, it moves quickly.
http://europeforvisitors.com/venice/articles/top-11-free-sights.htm
Florence-Although, I loved being there because it’s Florence. It;s a dive. Grubby, and they don’t seem to bother fixing things.
Don’t miss David’s museum. Not for David, but for Michaelangelo’s unfinished statues. It’s very expensive, and the food was not up to the usual fab standard of Italian cuisine in Italy. There’s a humongous green marble church, that you can’t miss there. Miss it. Nothing inside, as if they ran out of money or forgot to decorate.
Climbing the tower was worthwhile, but it’s not free.
However if you do go, go to Pisa as well. It’s only about 2-3 hours(sorry my memory fails me) away, and it’s lovely. Smaller, cleaner, nicer atmosphere, and of course there’s the leaning tower of Pisa.
Rome-It may sound stupid, but don’t miss the Colosseum. Our friend was on a tour, and they didn’t go. Some fellow travellers said not to bother, and she has regretted not going. Especially after seeing our pics. But go with a tour guide, they really bring the area to life. Don’t miss the Roman forum either. It’s a stones throwaway from the Colosseum and it has the best view over Rome. The best! If you get the right tour guide, this trip gets thrown in as an added bonus.
Rome is small enough you can walk around and see most of the sights in a couple days. Esp if you don’t bother with the Trevi fountain and the Spanish steps. Snore.
the Vatican get there early! (8am)or get there around 2pm- crowds have died out by then, and you won’t have wasted your time queueing. Rome is expensive! Def, a supermarket place to eat at.
Paris-Hope for a rainy day, so you don’t have to spend all day queuing for the Eiffel tower, and take the stairs. Get 1 minute off the beaten track, and you can find reasonably priced food. i.e. right beside the Louvre, a coffee was 7 euros, around the corner 2 euros.
If you had to pick, I would recommend the Musee D’Orsay over the Louvre. It has more art that you will recognise.
Paris is huge! Allow yourself at least 2-3 days. There are also some very nice free guided city walks.
London- the sights are very very very expensive. We found a place that did 2 huge chicken pieces with fries,
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myself.
I think its good for u on eurail,but also try ryan air and easy jet,its sometime cheaper than rail.
References :
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