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Mar 21, 06
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Travelling through Europe
My fiance and I are planning to go to Europe for our honeymoon this summer and want to get the most out of our trip. Neither of us have been to Europe and know very little about travelling there. We know we will be starting off in London and using Eurail passes so we can travel around to other countries we would like to visit.
I am looking for any advice/information/tips from those who have been there (especially if you have used the Eurail pass!). Thanks in advance! :) 
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Mar 21, 06
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Mar 21, 06
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i found this out while travelling
wish i knew before i bought the eurail buy a 5 10 or 15 tripper or whatever the numbers are use an eraseable pen write in the dates you use it, rub off, and write a fresh date in the same place save ya tons of cash vs getting an unlimited one when you going? and what you after? time of year changes possible plans
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Mar 21, 06
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we are going in June for about 2.5 weeks. So far we don't have an itinerary planned, we were thinking of winging it for the most part . That is why we want the most open Eurail pass we can get so we don't have too many restrictions. I was told by someone that in some of the countries you need to get additional passes to travel within the country to different cities. Do you know if you absolutely have to do this or is it just a good idea becuase you save more money? We only plan to spend a day or 2 in each place since we will only be there for a couple weeks or so.
Last edited by brokencrayon; Mar 21, 06 at 01:42 PM.
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Mar 21, 06
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Take twice the money, and half the clothing you think you'll need. If your trip went anything like mine, you'll be malnourished for the most part of your trip (lots of dining out and heavy drinking, train food and street food in between), for this reason I recommend that you pack multivitamins and use them on a daily basis.
If you plan on staying in hostels, book a few days in advance and then call a day before you get there to confirm your reservation. At most hostels, they dont allow you in to your room till about noon, so you might be stuck wandering the streets if your train arrives in the morning (8:00am or so). Usually if the people at the hostel know you have a reservation, they'll let you leave your bags there so you dont have to lug em all the way around town while youre killing time. Bring a small day bag with you, (this is common sense). What you should carry in your daybag is a photocopy of your important pieces ID, inlcuding your passport. I always had a small canadian flag hanging from the back of my backpack, it was probably one of the smartest things I chose to do for my trip, needless to say, we were very well received. If you plan on saving some serious money, then you should get used to going to the local grocery stores and making your own light meals. Sandwiches are ideal for a backpacker, plus you can meet other travellers while youre preparing your meal at the kitchen of the hostel youre staying at. Another way to save money is to not buy pepsi or coke, in most cases youre better off buying a beer, (in eastern europe beer is cheaper than water. 25 cents a pint :D) Ill stop now before I get carried away, best of luck to you on your trip. Last edited by ja_raul; Mar 21, 06 at 02:57 PM.
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Mar 21, 06
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Since you are going for 2.5 weeks I would suggest you go to two or three places that are close by eachother that really interest you. You don't want to spend all of your time travelling!
Remember also, the Eurail pass does not cover your fair out of London.
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Mar 21, 06
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If you know some of the main places you are going in advance, I may suggest flying if they are far apart. You save time, and if you book at least a month in advance with Easy Jet or Ryan Air, you can save a lot of money. I remember getting flights from London to Athens for around 50 pounds. and you don't have to spend a day and a night getting there.
I would suggest if you are only going to be there for a couple weeks to just pick a couple main places to go to instead of stretching yourself thin. Especially if it is supposed to be a romantic getaway. You will end up spending too much time in transit, and when you finally get to your destination you will need time to rest before even having a chance to see anything. I've done the mad dash before, usually a week for each country. But I found I missed things that I wanted to see, due to arriving on the wrong day when things were closed, and then having to leave the next day. (I went to Florence on a Monday and all the galleries were closed) If you are going to push it though, I suggest the flight option or take night trains for long distances. But remember to book your bed the day before, you can't get it on the same day. Then you have to curl up on a seat for a long time which really SUCKS!!! Oh and make sure to set up reserved seating for your daytime trains. Most of the time the Eurorail just lets you on the train. And you may find a seat, but when you get to the next stop someone may have reserved the seat you are in, and you will have to move. ( I had some woman yell at me in italian once because I was in her seat) You can usualy just go to the ticket window and pay a little extra for a reserved seat, that way you can actualy take a nap without having to worry about someone moving you. Give yourself some time in the big cities. If your really tired, or it's just a crappy day. I find taking the bus tours can help. That way you don't have to do much, you get a lot of info about the whole city, and then you can make note of things to go back and see when you are rested. Last edited by Kandyapple; Mar 21, 06 at 05:33 PM.
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Mar 24, 06
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I've travelled through Europe a few times now...here are some hotspots:
Bordeaux: - Beautiful place - Near Ocean - Hot Chicks!!! ;D Amsterdam: - Red Light District - Legal Drugs (If that is your thing) Vienna: - Infinite old Cathedrals/Churches/Catacombs to visit Budapest: - Turkish Bathhouses!!! - Don't use Euros yet (Infinetly cheap booze/everything) Athens: - Pretty Obvious.... Krakow: - The new Paris - Everything Paris has - 50% cheaper This is by no means a detailed description of anything...just the places I personally enjoyed the most out of my trips. I know people everywhere in Europe...if you need a tourguide/etc, PM me.
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Mar 24, 06
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^It all started at a rave party where our dialated pupils first crossed paths with eachother and we decided to exchange fnk nicknames... you know, being the hardcore ravers that we are!
 Thanks though! :317:
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Mar 26, 06
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Quote:
To the OP: I'd caution you on the eurail pass. There are many fees you will have to pay in addition to the initial $450 USD that the pass costs. Overnight trains will often require that you reserve a couchette. The price for this can vary from like 9 euro to around 40-60 in some of the more expensive countries. Also in certain eastern countries you will be required to purchase train tickets, as your eurail pass won't be valid. Thankfully these countries are usually dirt cheap. Also in some places you will be required to pay "reservation" fees to board a train. I can't quite remember where we paid them or what they cost, but I remember being distinctly unhappy about all the cash I was having to fork out on top of the eurail pass. Edit: Try to make it to Prague and Barcelona, if you can. Those were my favourite stops, if you wanna lump Ibiza in with Barcelona. Last edited by diaphorrhoea; Mar 26, 06 at 11:00 PM.
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Apr 05, 06
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Apr 06, 06
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try a contiki tour, when i went there was a couple on their honeymoon and they hung out with us but also had a lot of their own time as well, there are tons of packages to choose from, and they can last a short 9 days or go up to a month and a half....at least it gives u a taste of everywhere and you can always go somewhere else after its done
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Apr 06, 06
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e-mail: [email protected] msn: [email protected]
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Apr 10, 06
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i, personally, wouldn't do contiki, but it depends on if you like package party tours or not.
london, prague, and barcelona, are all in different directions, and if you only have 2 1/2 weeks it would be a lot of travel. eurail doesn't cover england or the czech republic. what i would do if i were you: get a cheap flight from london to paris. you'd need at least three days in each city. night train to prague - 2 days. night train prague to venice (you could work out a way to take a train to vienna in the morning, spend a few hours there in the afternoon, then hop back onto a train to italy, or n/t to budapest, then n/t to venice via vienna). venice to florence - 2/3 days. florence to rome - 2/3 days. fly back to london from rome. so basically: london -- fly -- paris -- n/t -- prague -- n/t -- budapest -- n/t -- venice -- florence -- rome -- fly -- london. it would still be a bit rushed, but you'd see (what i consider) the best sites in that part of europe. plus with night trains you'd save on accomodation, plus have more time to sightsee in the days. i'd avoid only spending one night in a place, you'll feel better/enjoy it more if you feel you can unpack for a day!
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Apr 19, 06
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^precisely...
thanks for the advice lithe!
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Apr 20, 06
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stick to the low countries, they speak english.
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Apr 20, 06
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you're welcome. :)
i'm pretty passionate about travel, and spend what's probably an unhealthy amount of time reading about/researching certain destinations and trips.. i never claim to know what the BEST option would be for every individual, but just share what i would do. and for the record i've never been to london or prague. :P
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Apr 26, 06
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Yeah someone tell us about the massive rave parties out there
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Apr 26, 06
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Quote:
I was on a train from Vienna to Prague and the ticket checker guy comes along. He asks for my ticket and as I had been doing for the past 3 weeks, I pull out my Eurail pass. As soon as he sees it he shakes his head and says "Eurail, no Czech Republic". I thought I had planned my trip pretty well and upon hearing this I start to get pretty nervous. Visions of the "no ticket" from Last Crusade (and later Dogma) were flashing through my head. I started to argue with the man who barely spoke any English and tried to think of how I could show him the reason I thought my ticket was valid. Luckily I had brought my Eurail brochure with me, because the Eurail ticket doesn't say the countries which it is valid for on the ticket. I pull out the brochure and it says the pass that I have, the European East pass, is valid for The Czech Republic. He looks at it for a bit and then realizes that I have a European East pass, stamps it and goes about his business. I have no idea how I would have convinced him that my ticket was valid with my limited Czech, luckily I had the promotional tourist brochure with me. I'm guessing that Prague is the only place in Eastern Europe that a lot of people visiting Western Europe go to, so he gets a lot of people thinking their pass is valid there. But the European East pass is definitely valid for The Czech Republic. On another note, I don't know how it is in Western Europe but a lot of ticket checkers in Eastern Europe, especially the Balkans that I visited (Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania) seemed as if they had never seen a Eurail pass before even though it is valid for the trains in those countries. A few times I had to try to explain to a ticket checker, who didn't speak any English, what they were supposed to do with the Eurail pass. On my Balkan Flexipass, I got 2 extra trips because the ticket checker looked at it for about 5 minutes, flipping through every page, then just wrote some illegible scrawl on the back. It's a little bit stressful wondering whether your ticket is going to work, but other than going into The Czech Republic, I had no problems.
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