Europe Trip

dman1260

dman1260

Member
My girlfriend and I are planning a trip to Europe this summer and I thought I'd come to Newschoolers for some first hand advice. We're gonna go for about a month starting mid-June. We want to go to Spain and Italy for sure, but we're also open to other ideas. So, anyone have any advice (anywhere you have to see in these countries, where to go etc.) on Spain and Italy or any advice on other places we have to see?
 
ill be traveling in europe the exact same time, planning on just playing it by ear, curious to see what people have to say tho
 
Hey man, you will absolutely love it. Have you been to europe before? You have to go to Tuscany and visit the hill towns there, amazing small towns and really pretty countryside. The Dolomites in northern italy are epic if you like hiking/backpacking. I went to Scandinavia last summer and would reccomend sweden and denmark especially if you are heading up north. PM with questions cuz im too lazy to type alot, hahah. Also PM skier_boy26 because he did a trip two years ago with his gf and would know more romantic spots adn stuff.
 
Here's a list of awesome places i've been to that I suggest you check out.

Britain

-Salisbury Plains (Stonehenge and Salisbury Church are amazing)

-Tower of London (London in general is very cool)

-Cliffs of Dover

-Town of Baath, Roman Baths are there, probably the most picturesque spot in Britain that i've seen.

France

-Gah where do I start, everything!

-Normandy Beaches

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-Dieppe

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-The Somme

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-Port of Calais

-Vimy Ridge (even if you're not Canadian it is one of the best preserved battlefields of WW1 in Europe, it's a jaw dropper)

-Waterloo

Netherlands

-Amsterdam of course, just don't wander alone at night.

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-There's a miniature village somewhere close to Amsterdam that is a massive mini model of Amsterdam itself, cool shit if you're around there.

-Take a canal cruise of Amsterdam, feels like Venice.

-Anne Frank House

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Belgium

-Check out Brussels, awesome night life, I wish I got to see more of it.

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More to come in a bit!

 
if you're looking to do something different Croatia is stunning and really unspoilt by tourism..

you can get a ferry across from Italy and go island hopping. That's what i plan to do this summer...
 
Give Germany a shot. I absolutly recommend it. I was in Berlin for spring break and tis the most fun i've ever had in my life. If you're going to be in Spain and Italy Munich would probably be a better stop-off for you. It'd let you go thorugh the alsp and see a bit of Austria. Check it out.
 
Italy

-Everything you can possibly see there.

-Rome, check out the Parthenon, Colosseum, Hippodrome, The Spanish Steps and Roman Fountain etc. You can't take a 2 minute stroll without running into ruins!

-Pompeii or Herculeum

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Vatican City

-Even if you're not Catholic you won't find a more powerful place than this.

-St. Peters Basilica

-Church of St. Peter (largest Domed church in Europe)

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Greece

-Spend a lot of time here if you can.

-Tons of ruins everywhere

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-Epidarus Theater (sound amplification is unreal here)

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-Delphi (the most scenic area I saw in Greece)

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-Olympia

almost forgot to mention, if you're American, I wouldn't tell anyone...

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I did a 1 month trip last august with my sister.

we flew into london then got a cheap flight to kos, a greek island. ferried to athens, then ferried to the southern tip of italy (place called bari). took the train up the west coast of italy stopping in positano (beautiful), rome, florence, pisa, cinque terre (absolute must see. more about this later), then into france to menton, grenoble, switzerland to visit family, then back to paris and london. my advice would be to plan a shorter route and spend more time in each place. I loved everywerher we went but we didnt have enough time to really see what we wanted.

cinque terre is the sweetest place ever. it's a provincial park type thing, with 5 tiny fishing villages all linked together by hiking trails through vineyards and olive groves. no roads link them, only a train. there are a couple of hostels, pm me if you want to know where we stayed. but it was definitely my favourite place that we saw. the views off the cliffs are just indescribable.

yup so more questions just ask.
 
yes. soooo true! although i went like 10 years ago before it got really discovered, ive heard the crowds now are super bad...
 
i recomend france. theres a few few glaciers if you wanna go skiing and the country has so much diversity and culture to it, check out paris for sure, some awsome sights. places like normandy are great too.

Also, if you can get over, here in britain theres definatly a lot of places to check out.

London is great to stay in for a few days or so because theres so much to do. Also check out baths and all the roman stuff, as said above.

and if your going to spain. Barcelona is amazing.
 
thanks for all the good responses.

I have one more question, anyone know a good way to find out how much the trains cost from place to place? I've been looking at a bunch of different websites and they all have different information. It would be helpful to know the real costs so I can decide if I need a Eurail pass of some sorts. Basically any information about train travel in general would be great, or just how you got from place to place.
 
we bought a 6 day eurail pass for the countries we were visiting by train (france and italy). planned to use the pass on long travel days and just buy the shorter tickets. ended up using the pass probably 10 days. how it works is on the day you use it you write in the date, like 3 /9 for today. but it's pretty easy to change say a 2 to a 3 so we did that a few times. and we wouldnt write in the date until we saw the ticket guy coming, sometimes we never got checked so never used up a day. also if youre going really far check out cheap flights. we flew london to greece and then ferried/ trained back up to london from there.
 
in rome you have to watch out for gypsies that try to get your pin number at the bank machine.

you can also drink from all the fountains there. (only the water coming out the spout)

parthenon would would be cool to go to on a rainy day.

pizza places there charge by weight rather then slice

don't forget the sistine chapel in the vatican.

spanish steps are cool as well.

catacombs outside the city would be something to consider.

there is also a huge park in rome that i forget the name of but you can rent bikes 2 wheel or 4wheel to explore the park.

take a trip on the subway. you will never see so much grafitti in your life. they are also loud as hell.

don't make eye contact with the vendors or look at their product or they will zero in on you. if they do tell them you already have one and they will go away.

if you can swing it go to florence as well and see the duomo and the ufizzi, and arno river. sienna and san gamingo is also nice as well. both small cities in the heart of tuscany.

guard your passport with your life and use the safe in your room.

Greece

defintiley take a trip to the acropolis

take a look at the ancient olympic track called kallimamaron

delphi is an intereesting trip as well.

also if you can swing it get a cruise to take you around the greek islands such as

mykonos-cool harbor with cool windmills. there is also a pink pelican there. yes, a pink pelican i have pictures to prove it.

rhodes-the old city of rhodes is cool to go to. they also have stray cats there that came half-way up to me knee...and im 6'3".

san torini - you've seen the pictures before. amazing place. you can either take a donkey to the top or a gondola. amazing sunsets. go to the other side of the island to see the black sand beaches.

crete-good museums.

also find out if your cruise stops by ephesus which is in turkey which is a cool place to go to. its where the gates of hercules is. and a roman theater that rivals the one in delphi.

thats as far as i can go

 
You have to admit the view from the theater in Delphi is almost impossible to match, just nuts.

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There's a massive ski hill around Delphi also
 
I backpacked france, spain, italy, and the netherlands for 5 weeks after high school....was the most amazing trip ever. A lot of the stuff has been pointed out already so I'll keep it short.

Spain

Madrid- I intended to stay in madrid for 4 days but ended up leaving after 2 because it's not that great of a city. Pretty trashy and has lots of pick pockets: keep everything important on an inside pocket or something, they are very skilled and don't hesitate at the fact that other people are watching them (also, they're probably armed so don't be a hero -learned this the hard way.)

Barcelona- AWESOME, So much cool stuff in barcelona, the beaches, the sagrada familia, the parks, the boardwalks, bars, etc.

Seville- also cool, but not worth more than a day or two.

France

Paris- So much to do, give yourself a few days here, you will regret it if you don't. Food-don't eat on champs elysees or any other famous avenue, you will get ripped off on really shitty food. Go find a little hole in the wall restaraurant, it will 10 times cheaper and infinitely better.

Alps- beautiful mountains with lots of great activities in the summer. Go to a ski town like tignes or avoriaz and do some hiking, biking, hang gliding, rock climbing, etc. Also, both tignes and les 2 alpes have glaciers if you want to ski.

Nice- awesome city, best of both beaches and mountains. Visit Eze, its a small village about 3 miles out of nice and is really historic with lots of great artisans. Also, make a trip to monaco and ask a local for a good beach to visit. Oh and stay at this place Villa Saint Exupery: it's an old monastery thats been converted into a hostel- awesome staff (smoked hash in the bar with the staff), awesome food, cheap booze.

Loire valley- lots of castles, history, and fastatic food and wine. Tours, blois, and orleans are all good places to stay. Go for a bicycle tour of the castles.

Italy

Venice- Wasn't a big fan, the water smelled pretty bad and it's just one big tourist trap. The city is only alive because of tourism so it's only tourists, vendors, and pigeons. Everything is overpriced- don't stay in venice itself, find a place on the mainland.

Florence and the surrounding areas- Probably second favorite city next to Nice, lots of history and famous art is kept here. Don't leave the historical area at night- I got chased by muggers across a bridge. Really beautiful countryside, go on a bicycle winetasting tour- riding a bike while hammered on great wine= awesome. Go for a hike, visit villages, etc.

Rome- So much stuff to do it's overwhelming. Already accept the fact that you won't get to visit everything and you will have a better time. Free drinking fountains are actually clean and really great because it gets HOT. Ride the subway, its an experience and watch out for crazed gypsies.
 
So I just booked my trip to Europe. We're going for 5 weeks and we're going to make sure and check out as much of the stuff you guys mentioned as possible. Thanks for all the great advice, I really appreciate all of it.

Two questions to help plan the specifics (kinda touched on them before but would like some more responses):

If you guys got a rail pass, which one and do you think it was a good deal?

Did you book stuff in advance, just call the hostels a few days out and reserve a room, or just wing it?
 
That's the kind of mentality I think everyone needs to drop out of their heads when they head to Europe. Most people go to Amsterdam for weed and the red light district but when it boils down to it you can buy weed and hookers at home any day. It's an incredibly nice city but there's at least 1000 other things I would rather do there.
 
I use to live in Malaga, Espana....southern Spain and the entire Costa del Sol is incredible. If you have any interest in going to Portugal, check out Lisbon. There's so much to see in Western Europe and a month is a good chunk of time to spend traveling. Enjoy!
 
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