UK & Europe - 4 weeks

[meow]

Hi, I'm planning for a 4-wk trip with my husband in 2009. Suggestions are much appreciated. Here is my rough itinerary:

UK:

England - 9 days (London, Oxford, Cambridge, Bath)
Scotland - 5 days (Edinburgh and Inverness)

Western Europe:

Budapest, Prague, Vienna - 7 days
Rome, Venice - 7 days

We're looking into staying at B&Bs and eating out once a day. How much should we plan on saving?

Also, should we cut down on the number of days in UK and concentrate on Western Europe? Or should we skip Western Europe entirely and concentrate on just the UK? We'll be doing a RTW to SE Asia and Asia as well.

Thanks!

[crystal]

Hi Meow

Just a couple of quick questions.

Are you wanting to do Oxford, Cambridge and Bath as trips from London because they are doable as day trip or are you planning on staying over?

Any particular reason for Inverness? There are more beautiful and more interesting places closer to Edinburgh - Stirling (history-1hr from Edinburgh), Loch Ness and the Caledonian canal(nature and monster hunting), Fort William, Loch Lomond, St Andrews ...

How are you going to travel between places in the uk - train, bus, budget airline?
The trains in the UK are very expensive although if you book well in advance you can sometimes find good deals. The buses are cheaper but take much much longer. Budget airlines (London - Edinburgh?) are available often cheaper that trains but often not to central airports so the extra cost of transport into the city needs to be added.

Are you expensive eaters :-) ?
Of course you can spend a fortune eating out especially in London but you can get a good pub grub meal for about £5 - £10. Alot of the chain pubs ( Weatherspoons) offer good special offers like buy one get one free. You can go the McD and fast food route and get food for about £3. A cheap restaurant meal might set you back about £20-£30 excluding wines or anything like that.

9 days seems a good amount of time for the English cities/towns. I think the norm on this board is to recommend 4/5 days for London so you have the spare days for travel and the other places.
Remember if you consider spending more time in the UK prices are higher here than the majority of the rest of Europe especially in London. My own thinking is you should keep the western europe portion of your trip but I've no reason for suggesting this other than personal opinion.

[meow]

A friend of mine who's studying in England right now says I should visit both Oxford and Cambridge just because they are "close to each other".

As for Inverness, I'm not even sure if that's the place that everyone raves about I just know you take train that goes up north through the Highlands where you can catch the best sceneries in Scotland. Please let me know if this is not Inverness.

As for transportation, since we're doing a RTW, and we're not particularly in a rush, we'd like to take the train. Is this much more expensive than budget airline?

We're not expensive eaters but we'd like to have a nice meal every now and then. We've read about how good the curry is in London and we'd like to try it. I don't mind eating cheap food as long as it tastes decent and is filling.

[herrbert]

First of all I would increase the number of days you have for Budapest, Prague and Vienna. In my opinion, Vienna needs 4 days, and Prague and Budapest at least 3 days each. If you want to stick to 7 days. I would skip either Budapest or Prague.

Flying is often the cheaper option, but you need to book you flights on time. As your trip will be in 2009, you will have time enough to find some bargains. (actually if you book about 3 months in advance, you are likely to get good prices. If you are travelling in peak season, then try when the shedules are published by the airlines.) In my opinion you should take a look at flights, if the travelling time by train is 5 hours or more. 5 hours is usualy the amount you need to get from one city to another when you are flying. (including, getting to an airport, checking-in waiting, bagageclaim, and a tour to the city you arrived in).

[crystal]

The scenery up to Inverness from Edinburgh will take you through the Cairngorm mountains (Aviemore ect) I think. It is a spectacular journey, I drive it about three times a year, as is a lot of Scotland. It's just I've never thought of Inverness as somewhere interesting to stay (I may be totally wrong ;D). But looking at your time frame for Scotland I'm guessing you are not planning on spending much time in Inverness it's more for the experience of the trip/scene - am I right

As for transport once you have your dates set keep look at train prices you get some good deals if you book well in advance. Just some food for thought, using Herrbert rule of a 5hr journey, London - Edinburgh would be a 5hr journey from Kings Cross Station so it's really your call.

BTW worth visiting the uk for the curry alone. We like it hot ;D

[babyruthcoming]

I’ve just returned from my holiday really inspired – I did a French language course in France and loved every minute! The trip to France was initially just meant to be a holiday but my travel buddy convinced me to do a language course and I’m so glad I did – we even extended our trip! It was a great way to get involved with the culture – the teachers showed us round the whole of the town and I don’t think we would have seen half as much should we just have been holidaying alone. I am studying in Barcelona at the moment and I noticed similarities to the Catalan spoken there and French. I’m looking to learn Castilian Spanish too (I love Spanish life and would like to stay here, though not necessarily just in Barcelona, for a while yet) and so after my great holiday language learning experience in France, now I have found vuelos Barcelona Tenerife for cheap, I think I’ll try out a Spanish language course there – after all, my curso de francés was most definitely a success! Any related input would be of great help; I do worry perhaps the Canary Island accent may make learning Spanish difficult – would I be better just having the beach holiday there and going to a city such as Madrid to study Spanish? I hear the accent is clearer and being a beginner (and learning two other languages!), I don’t want to challenge myself too much!

NOTE: babyruthcoming - this is bit "off topic" from the OP. Please advise if you want your Post moved to the more appropriate "Living Room" section.

[WillTravel]

babyruthcoming - your last two posts are completely contradictory with two different life stories and you seem to be spamming.

[fergiecr]

My uncle went to Glencoe, and Ft. William. He pretty near couldn't get a place to stay because his last name was Campbell (look up Glencoe massacre, and you'll understand why). If you go to Ft. William, and Glencoe area, I hope your last name isn't Campbell (my last name is Ferguson, so I'm good!). It's probably irrelevant in your case, but there are some old grudges up in that area. Also, when you're in Scotland, it's probably best not to wear football (soccer) jerseys as that can be unsafe as well. Rugby jerseys are fine, but if you walk around a protestant end of Glasgow with a Celtic jersey, or a Catholic area with a Rangers jersey, you're likely to get beaten up. In Edinburgh it's Hibernian (Catholic) and Hearts (Protestant) so best to avoid those jerseys there as well. Again, probably doesn't apply to you, but I have known people where it has applied to them, it applies to me as well (I'm a Celtic fan). Make sure you stay safe.

[crystal]

Or a gers shirt in Manchester

[Eagle]

meow, I have a few thoughts to add as well.

A friend of mine who's studying in England right now says I should visit both Oxford and Cambridge just because they are "close to each other".

Regarding visits to Oxford and / or Cambridge, it would help to know why you want to visit these sites? Given the specifics of your trip, my preference would be to visit either Oxford or Cambridge (with only 9 days, you don't have time for both IMHO). The U.K. is somewhat expensive, so if you're on a tight budget it would be more prudent to decrease your time in England by a few days, which would also allow you more flexibility with the other locations you want to visit in Europe.

Once you have a somewhat "finalized" version of your Itinerary, you'll be able to plan transportation in more detail. I generally prefer travel by train where possible, however for short jaunts in the U.K., Bus works well too and it's quite cost effective. On the continent, I normally use rail but that depends to some extent on the length of the trip (my criteria is that if a trip is 6-8 hours or longer, I'll consider budget airlines).

Depending on the destinations you choose, rail might be the best choice in the U.K., even if it is a bit "pricey". You could (for example) travel London - Bath (with day trip to Oxford or Cambridge?) - York - Edinburgh. Use a budget airline from Edinburgh to whichever location on the continent you want to start from.

One possibility might be to travel Prague - Vienna - Budapest by rail, then budget flight or rail to Venezia, train to Roma and then fly home from Fiumicino / Leonardo da Vinci (use the Leonardo Express to travel from Roma Termini to the airport - it's an easy trip - when I did the trip last month, the cost was about €11 per person). Talk to your travel agent about "open jaw" flights.

I'm sure the fantastic group here will be able to help make your trip a success.

Cheers!