Plan my European vacation.

[Dinner]

I have to admit I'm not going to have the disposable income to return for a proper European holiday for at least a year. Much of this has to do with my desire to save so I can purchase a home (Less then six months to go baby!) and actually fill it with furniture I didn't buy at the Salvation Army Thrift Shop, but, this hasn't stopped me from dreaming and planning for my next European vacation. Does anyone have any suggestions on must see locations or attractions?

I'm thinking my trip will be about one month long and will most likely occur in the July-August 2004 time frame. I get two weeks vacation per year and another week's worth of sick leave/personal leave so I'll get paid for all but one week of my vacation. If I take it during this time frame then the Running of the Bulls and the Athens Olympics both occur during my visit which is a big plus. My last trip to Europe was with the Army so I didn't really get to see to many of the sites; I mostly saw the Balkans, northern Greece, a bit of western Germany, and the city of Cambridge, England and not much else. This time I want to see EVERYTHING!

Other then those two events and that I will be staying in hostels nothing else is really concrete. I haven't figured out which airline or route would be the best to take (a friend said she enjoyed having a two day lay over in Iceland when she flew Iceland Air) nor which cities are on the must see list. In your opinion is it better to go on a mad dash through Europe hitting all the major cities or is it better to pare the scope down and spend more time in fewer cities? I suppose if I had to I could cut Europe into two trips (which might be more fun but a longer wait).

So here's your chance to show your expertise folks! Make my itinerary or just chime in with helpful advice and suggestions.

[Japher]

Just go to EPCOT at Disney World...

[Solly]

Don't go to Bristol.

Try to convince people to hold a Poly meet for you in London.

(real advice; you can't do all of Europe in two weeks. Just do one country (UK ). Otherwise you'll be coming back time and time again and each time travelling miles and spending loads on transportation - just do the UK).

[Paul Hanson]

France, and lots of it.

[Dinner]

I have a total of four weeks. How does a Spain, France, Britain, and Ireland trip sound? Is it overly ambitious or do able? Also rental cars are expensive so I'm going to want to take the train or some other acceptable form of public transite.

Lastly, is it worth getting one of those open tickets where you fly into a place like London and then fly out of Madrid or is that just to costly?

[Japher]

Germany, Austria, Switzerland... that's what I'd do with 4 weeks, and if I had the time Tuscany... Beer, struddel, beer, and pretzles... yummy

[Makeo]

Don't bother with U.K. Four weeks there is so much more interesting stuff than boring UK.

[Spiffor]

All of Europe in one month is overly ambitious. You'll have a very shallow experience, and you'll end up having only seen the touristy attraction between two trains / planes. That will bring no real experience or memory, but only some industrially premade souvenirs

However, one month is enough to discover one country quite deeply. You won't be able to do / see everything a country has to offer, but you'll be comfortable enough, and you'll begin to see further than what the tourist industry wants you to see.

If you want to see several countries, then I'd advise you to spend a week in one region of this country, and then to travel to another country... You'll see the other regions in the future, when you'll be older and richer

If you want to take the train, France is definitely the place to go. National trains (TGV) are quick, reliable, and quite cheap in comparison with our neighbours. However, I have no experience with Spain's trains, so I can't tell about their quality compared to ours.

In Spain, I can only suggest you to go to Andalusia. It is a great place, very friendly, with several astonishing things to see (Granada is an absolute must), and with a daily life one can only dream of

In France, I'd say you spend a week either in Paris or in Corsica. A week won't be enough to do everything there is to do in either place, but it will acquaint you with it, and you'll want to come back later . If you go to Paris, you can spend the week tasting new wines at some shop I know

Germany is less touristy, and you will want to travel more across the country, to see the touristy monument, but also to taste the very many German beers. You can spend a few days near the German Alps, either in southwest Germany (Constance lake) or in southeast (sout Bavaria). Both areas are very enjoyable and offer great sceneries, even though they're quite short of monuments.

[Atahualpa]

There is a special ticket available to all europeans that includes all (well most) trains in Europe. I think such a ticket is available for non Europeans too, though I think it is a bit more expensive.

Search the internet for Eurail. Here for example: http://www.europrail.net/ though I guess you will find better sites

Its not too cheap though, dont know if that really pays off.

Nevertheless beware of thieves if you are travelling by train. Especially in Italy and very much especially at night.

ata

[Dinner]

Hmm, you are talking about the Eurorail pass?

[Spiffor]

Originally posted by Oerdin
Hmm, you are talking about the Eurorail pass?

You should take care of some problems with the Eurorail pass. There can be cohesion problems with it:

10 days ago, when I took my train from Paris to the Riviera (to embark on a boat inbound to Corsica), two Finnish tourists had the worst problems because of the Eurorail pass. Basically, it was mandatory to book on that train, otherwise you'd be rejected from climbing in.
Like me, these two didn't book, and had the worst problems dealing with the train's guy, who was an ******* that didn't try to be helpful at all (thankfully, I did the English - French translation and things got better).
Well, the person who sold them the Eurorail pass told them they'd have never to book or to pay for a fare... And in this particular case, it was wrong (it was their only bad experience with the Eurorail ticket so far though)

[Hueij]

Like already said, don't try to do the whole of Europe in four weeks...

If you want to spend a couple of days in Iceland, be sure to take a bundle of money with you. It's expensive with a capital E On the other hand, Reykjavik is a great city and if you going to stay over in Iceland be sure to take the Golden Circle Tour out of Reykjavik. I saw more natural wonders that day than in the whole of the rest of my life. Awesome!

[Dis]

I think I mentioned Rome to you at the poly meet. It's a pretty cool city to see. I recommend it.

[Bereta_Eder]

Totally unrelated but I just found that a two way ticket to L.A. from Athens, Greece costs around 1,000 euros.

[MrFun]

If you're too lazy to even plan your own vacation, then you certainly don't need one!