October Cook's Tour

[chefzen]

Hi,

I'm new to the board and have been lurking for the past month or so. The wealth of information here is absolutely amazing. As I have been planning my trip, I have found that I've been using a lot of the tips and suggestions that I have read here.

Anyways, I am planning a month long trip to Europe in October. I have worked in the financial services industry for the past 5 years but have been transitioning into the culinary arts over the past six months. The current plan is to use my 4 weeks (22 business days) of paid vacation from my day job to go to Europe to go tasting. Upon returning, I'll build a small cushion and will pursue a full time career in the culinary arts. ;D

I have been spending all of my free time at the day job cruising the net and different websites about backpacking around Europe and all of my lunch hours in Barnes & Noble's and Border's, but the volume of information out there is so great and so hard to filter that I'm having trouble putting it all together.

I'm looking for a little feedback on my current working itinerary. Nothing is set in stone yet, and airfare isn't an issue due to being bumped during the holiday season. The only firm thing for me is that I wnt to be in France from Oct 11-17th for Tasting Week in Paris and Lyon.

My objectives are as follows:

1) Eat as much local cuisine as possible on a limited budget.
2) Explore farmer's markets.
3) Meet people to explore and dine with (whether it be a picnic from a farmer's market or a nice sitdown meal at a brasserie).
4) Take a break from my hectic life and experience European life.
5) Try to get a peek into a French kitchen (I gotta network for that one).

So sightseeing isn't the highest on my priority list. If given the choice of spending time getting to know new people and going to see a museum by myself choose to get to know new people, but if I can go to a museum with new people, even better.

Another interesting bit is that there is a possibility of my mother tagging along on the Italian leg of my trip.

So here's what I'm thinking so far:

Fly into Rome ('cause it's cheaper) on the red-eye so I get there early in the morning. Train to Naples, check into a hostel, and then train to Pompeii to check out the ruins etc.

Naples: Sleep and eat in Naples 1 night if I can make it to Pompeii that same day, if not 2 nights. My Italian co-worker tells me that Naples & Florence are the two places to eat in Italy.

Rome: 2 nights

Florence: 2 nights.

Chianti or Siena: 1 night. Tuscan food woot!

Cinque Terra: 2 nights. I have heard from 2 separate sets of friends that it's an amazing place, and I'm a big fan of walkin/hiking. Hopefully I'll find someone to walk with me.

Arles or Marseille: 1 or 2 nights. If I go to Marseille, it's all about the Bouillabaisse!

Lyon: 2 nights. I'll need to find a good restaurant that's participating in the Tasting week festivities.

Paris: 3 nights. I plan on trying to find some of Ernest Hemingway's old haunts as I was an English Major in college and try to find some of the sights in the movie "Before Sunset."

Strasbourg: 1-2 nights. Can someone say "fois gras"?

Vienna: 2-3 nights. I'm going to try to find some of the sights in "Before Sunrise."

Prague: 2-3 nights. I have heard from multiple people that the city is really quite amazing.

Berlin or Munich: 2-3 nights. I have had a lot of German friends, and I'm curious to check out a German electronica club. Schpaetzel and beer should be good too.

Amsterdam: 2-3 nights. I have been here before on my only other European trip a couple of years ago for an Electronic music festival, but I just want to check it out again. I loved the museumsplein and the Leidesplein. And there was an amazing fry joint on Damrak. *swoon*.

So I'm going to really try to balance a budget for this trip. I'm not going to go to Michelin rated restaurants every night I'm in Europe, but maybe one a week. I plan on picnicing for at least two of my three meals a day. Are there any markets in particular that I should be hitting or little stores that anyone knows of? Is it hard finding people to eat with as you're backpacking around if you're flying solo?

Does this sound like a doable itinerary? Are there too many cities and stops?

If Halloween is my last full night in Europe is there any one place that you think would be cool to visit on Halloween? (And Halloween is my favorite holiday second only to Thanksgiving)

Is it hard to go fast and loose around Europe in October? Should I be booking my hostels well ahead of time? Do people often start traveling by themselves and end up tagging along with other people that they meet along the way?

If I buy bottles of olive oil and wine, should I just ship it or should I hump it with me across Europe?

Do any of y'all have any special gastronomic memories of backpacking around Europe?

Anyways, I know this was a long post, but I have a lot more research to do before this all goes down. Any help, advice, questions for me to think about, it would be much appreciated.

Cheers.

ZEN!!!

[Eagle]

chefzen, I haven't studied your proposed Itinerary in any detail, but my initial impression is that it's a bit too "ambitious", even for a duration of four weeks! You have a lot of one and two day stops, and those are generally not a real good idea. Don't forget also, that you're going to "lose" the first day due to flight times and jet lag.

My feelings would be to drop a few of the destinations you have planned. While Napoli was the place where Pizza originated, I think the overall opinion on this Board is that it's not really as "good" a stop as some others. You might want to add the days to Rome or Tuscany instead?

Your Itinerary is quite "spread out" the way it's listed. Was this the order you planned on visiting the various cities? A month is not a long time in travel terms, so you're going to have to plan VERY efficiently! You will have to plan for "travel days" as well, and in some cases look at budget airlines to save time.

You might enjoy reading www.ricksteves.com/graffiti/graffiti36.html or www.ricksteves.com/graffiti/graffiti91.html for some good feedback on European cuisine from other travellers.

Although you provided lots of info in your OP, if you could elaborate a bit more on the order you want to travel and other details, it would help. Hopefully some of the other "regulars" will have some good suggestions also.

Cheers!!!

[chefzen]

Eagle,

First of all, thanks for the reply. I've been looking at all of my materials and have been trying to re-evaluate my itinerary.

I was, in fact, thinking of trying to do my itinerary in the order in which I wrote it on my original post. Either that or going from Strasbourg to Amsterdam and following the path to Berlin, Prague, and Vienna or from Amsterdam to Prague, Vienna then Munich.

As I have heard a lot about how Naples is not the most interesting or the nicest of cities, I put that in as a base camp just because it was close to Pompeii and it would be an easy place to start from if I wanted to take a day trip there. Is there any other place that I can start from if I want to take a day trip to Pompeii? Is Rome feasible? I noted that in another thread someone was thinking about staying in Salerno or the Amalfi Coast. are those good options? I wouldn't mind axeing Naples, but I really do want to see Pompeii.

Although I had already slimmed down my proposed itinerary before I posted, I realize that my cities are a bit scattered. I think that I would be willing to give up my German cities and Prague, but I'm not really willing to give up Vienna. Unfortunately it's the city that's the farthest east. Do you think that it would be better to axe Prague and or whichever German city?

I've had issues trying to figure out where I should stop in the Provence region of France as well. I hear that there is some absolutely amazing food there, but I can't pinpoint a place to go. Nice, Cannes and St. Tropez all seem a little too geared towards the rich socialites, and I can't seem to find enough compelling info on Marseilles or Arles to REALLY make me go there. So, Perhaps I should skip Provence and go straight to Lyon. Does that sound like a better idea?

I think that another thing that makes it really difficult to figure out my trip timing is that I really want to be in Paris and Lyon for the week of 10/11-10/17. Geographically and time wise, it makes sense to me to do Italy before I go to France and then use the last two weeks to do norther and eastern Europe destinations.If only I could start or end in Paris. =P

I have checked out the Rick Steves website and have flipped through a bunch of his books, so I have seen the grafitti wall. I have to say that though they have a lot of information, it's really difficult to digest it all due to the organization.

Anyways, any more help and advice that anyone could offer would be much appreicated.

Cheers.

ZEN!!!

[Eagle]

One suggestion for visiting Pompeii (I assume that's a "must see" destination?) -- you might want to base yourself in Sorrento or Positano, rather than Naples. There are bus tours to Pompeii but I don't know if any of these leave from the Amalfi coast area?

I'll have another look at your Itinerary based on the stops mentioned in your second Post, and try to offer some more suggestions. Hopefully some of the others will have some tips to offer as well.

Good luck with your trip planning.

[newbie]

I can sort of help you in Arles. I can't tell you which restaurants are good because I didn't go into any, but the town is filled with quaint restaurants. Also, on Wednesday and Saturday mornings, there is a open air farm market in the centre. It's filled with all kinds of cooking things like provencal oil,wines and cheeses. I recommend getting a roast chicken with potatoes lunch there. (Delicious! ;D) The entire Provence region is renowned for wines as well. Even if you're just into the gastronomy, there is tons to offer in Arles. It also has tons of Roman ruins, a colosseum and Van Gogh related items.