spud
Full Travel Member
Posts: 33
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Post by spud on Jan 5, 2009 22:49:32 GMT -5
OK, i am going to post an itinerary to see what you guys think - nothing is set in stone so i am open to any suggestions and advice.
The reason i have chosen to go to brugges and brussels before paris is because i am meeting a friend in europe, and he wont be there til the 1st July and he will definitly not want to miss out on Paris. I also have an urge to be in the Somme area of France for the 1st of July as it will be the anniversary of the Battle of the Somme.
I will have a Euro rail pass covering the 21 countries available
* ferry
** Not included on rail pass but will travel by rail.
*** Flying
June 2009
25 - Glasgow - Dover(No need for help here, done the journey before)
*26 - Dover - Calais - Brugges
27 - Brugges - Brussells
28 - Brussells
29 - Brussells
30 - Brussells - Paris
July 2009
1 - Paris
2 - Paris
3 - Paris - Berlin
4 - Berlin
5 - Berlin
6 - Berlin - Prague
7 - Prague
8 - Prague
9 - Prague - Vienna
10 - Vienna
11 - Vienna
12 - Vienna - Venice
13 - Venice
14 - Venice
15 - Venice - Rome
16 - Rome
17 - Rome
***18 - Rome - Athens
19 - Athens
20 - Athens
21 - Athens - Salonica
**22 - Salonica - Budapest
23 - Budapest
**24 - Budapest - Krakow
25 - Krakow
**26 - Krakow - Warsaw
**27 - Warsaw - Berlin - Amsterdam
28 - Amsterdam
29 - Amsterdam
30 - Amsterdam - Calais(Not neccessarily directly)
*31 - Calais - Dover - Glasgow
----------------------------------------
Looking forward to reading your feedback
Cheers, Spud
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Post by madamtrashheap on Jan 5, 2009 23:38:26 GMT -5
spud, just a quick glance at your itinerary this time around but I have a few notes:
I'd be more inclined to spend 3 nights in Brugge and 1 in Brussels (even though I enjoy Brussels) as you might find the WWI battle grounds are easier to access from Brugge than Brussels (assuming you want to visit these as well as the Somme area).
Paris - you will need to add at least another night here, especially if you plan to travel to the Somme area and back in a day. Alternatively, look at staying in towns like Vimy, Arras, Bapaume or Corbie for a night.
Italy - are you only interested in Rome and Venice? If so, then look at adding another night to Rome (take one from Venice if necessary) as there is a lot to see. Good to see you're flying from Rome to Athens.
Salonica? Haven't heard Thessaloniki referred to by it's "other" name for ages - are you Macedonian?!
Warsaw-Berlin-Amsterdam by rail - there are flights on this route which would cut down travel time. Check KLM (Dutch) or LOT (Polish) airlines for direct flights.
You seem like you've already put a lot of though into you trip, so just keep tweaking it until it fits perfectly.
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Post by Eagle on Jan 6, 2009 0:07:51 GMT -5
spud,
Your proposed Itinerary looks reasonably well sorted. You seem to have allowed adequate travel time between cities.
However, there was one thing that really stood out. As usual, MTH noticed it right away. I would definitely delete one day from Venice and add it to Rome. The suggestion to add time in Brugge and delete from Brussels is spot-on as well.
One point to make (and you may already be aware of this?) is that even with the 21-day Eurail Pass, you'll need to pay separately for seat reservations, which are compulsory on some trains (almost without exception on the fast trains such as the TGV in France). The Pass also doesn't cover Couchette fees, if you decide to take a few night trains. I'm assuming your Eurail Pass is an Interail Pass, as I don't believe the Pass available here in North America can be sold in Europe?
One final note on the Rail Pass, is that you may be able to use a less expensive pass if you decide to take some budget flights, as MTH suggested.
With a bit of "fine tuning", your Itinerary should be good!
Cheers!
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Post by herrbert on Jan 6, 2009 10:53:47 GMT -5
My suggestion would be to put Amsterdam at the beginning, save some time by taking a flight from Glasgow to Amsterdam, and at the end fly to Glasgow directly from Krakow.
I am not that keen on the one full day in Krakow, as well. I think at least one more, would be better. One day to see the city, one for a daytrip to Auschwitz. I also think that one day in Budapest is really short as well.
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spud
Full Travel Member
Posts: 33
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Post by spud on Jan 6, 2009 16:12:37 GMT -5
Thank you very much for the feedback folks. Will strongly consider the Brugge/Brussells and Venice/Rome changes.
The reason for only one full day in Krakow is because I have visited the city twice in 2006 and 2007 and have been to Auschwitz before and do not want to go again, i do alot of research on the holocaust, but visiting auschwitz is one thing i'd like to leave as a one time experience.
Im not Macedonian, was just spelling it salonica out of laziness haha! However my grandmother is from Athens and i have alot of love for the country.
cheers again, spud
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Post by madamtrashheap on Jan 6, 2009 19:55:35 GMT -5
Im not Macedonian, was just spelling it salonica out of laziness haha! However my grandmother is from Athens and i have alot of love for the country. Ya-ya would probably call it "Thess" (ask her!) rather than Salonica - is that right? At any rate, let us know when you've updated your itinerary and we'll see if there are other things/places to suggest. |
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spud
Full Travel Member
Posts: 33
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Post by spud on Jan 6, 2009 23:23:58 GMT -5
I do recall her referring to the city as Thessaly often in the past haha.
Will look to update the interary in a few days once i've spoken to the two lads im travelling with.
Please afford me some advice on accomodation in the various cities(preferably budget hostels as we are young and skint!) And any budget expenses.
cheers again, i really appreciate the advice and feedback!
an excited spud!
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spud
Full Travel Member
Posts: 33
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Post by spud on Jan 6, 2009 23:51:26 GMT -5
How much are seat reservations and couchette usually?
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Post by madamtrashheap on Jan 7, 2009 0:48:09 GMT -5
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Post by herrbert on Jan 8, 2009 6:17:57 GMT -5
The reason for only one full day in Krakow is because I have visited the city twice in 2006 and 2007 and have been to Auschwitz before and do not want to go again, i do alot of research on the holocaust, but visiting auschwitz is one thing i'd like to leave as a one time experience. Point taken, but are you really willing to make the travel to see Krakow for 1 day, and maybe a bit of a day in Warsaw. It seems to me that you will be spending more time on the train during these days. Would skiping Poland and flying directly to Amsterdam not be more economical? (or if you want spend time in Vienna/Salzburg/Munich in between if you go by train. If you really want to visit Krakow, it might be easier to make a weekend trip from Glasgow, by Ryanair or Easyjet from Edinburgh? |
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spud
Full Travel Member
Posts: 33
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Post by spud on Jan 8, 2009 23:44:04 GMT -5
The reason for only one full day in Krakow is because I have visited the city twice in 2006 and 2007 and have been to Auschwitz before and do not want to go again, i do alot of research on the holocaust, but visiting auschwitz is one thing i'd like to leave as a one time experience. Point taken, but are you really willing to make the travel to see Krakow for 1 day, and maybe a bit of a day in Warsaw. It seems to me that you will be spending more time on the train during these days. Would skiping Poland and flying directly to Amsterdam not be more economical? (or if you want spend time in Vienna/Salzburg/Munich in between if you go by train. If you really want to visit Krakow, it might be easier to make a weekend trip from Glasgow, by Ryanair or Easyjet from Edinburgh? You make me a really sound point there. I'll take into concideration bypassing Poland entirely and possibly checking out another place in Germany and maybe extra time in Budapest/Greece. not going to do any direct flying to amsterdam as our budget may not handle adding in another flight to the mix. We have also looked at flying direct from Glasgow to Bruxelles now as it would save money/time than taking a train to London then Dover and ferry from Dover to dunkerque. cheers, spud |
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spud
Full Travel Member
Posts: 33
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Post by spud on Jan 9, 2009 0:57:16 GMT -5
heres an updated version of the plan so far...
June
26: Glasgow - Brussels - Brugge(less than 1hr)
27: Brugge
28: Brugge
29: Brugge
30: Brugge -(less than 1hr) Brussels - (1hr22m)Paris
July
1:Paris
2:Paris
3:Paris - Berlin (Between 9hr and 13hr, depends on whether or not we get the night train)
4:Berlin
5:Berlin
6:Berlin - Prague(4hr35m)
7:Prague
8:Prague
9:Prague - Vienna(4hr)
10: Vienna
11: Vienna
12: Vienna - Venice(8hr23)
13: Venice
14: Venice - Rome (4hr30)
15: Rome
16: Rome
17: Rome
18: Rome - Athens (fly)
19: Athens
20: Athens
21: Athens - Thessaloniki (6hrs)
22: Thessaloniki
23: Thessaloniki - Sofia (5hrs)
24: Sofia
25: Sofia
26: Sofia - Budapest (15hrs Belgrade change)
27: Budapest
28: Budapest
29: Budapest - Glasgow
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Post by madamtrashheap on Jan 11, 2009 22:12:58 GMT -5
spud, still not sure that you've allocated enough time in Paris, especially if you're still intending to be in the Somme on July 1st. If you only plan to see what you can in a day or so, then that's fine, but don't plan on trying to see everything in 2 days (with or without the Somme visit). You'll see a bit, but again it depends on your interests. The rest of the alterations look fine.
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spud
Full Travel Member
Posts: 33
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Post by spud on Jan 12, 2009 21:36:58 GMT -5
The itinerary is not set in stone, everything we do is flexible, so long as we make the flights in rome and budapest. we might even choose to miss certain cities out altogether that are on the itinerary just now. So there will be an option to stay in Paris longer if we wish. Not being in the somme area for July 1st won't be to big a deal, just a thought i had since it coincided with the time we'd be in the vicinity.
Think we're just about ready to book everything this week for the trip with regards to flights and rail passes.
Thanks for all the advice so far and hope to hear more from people soon. Hoping to stay an active member of the forum even after the trip, as its a pretty cool set up and i think i could contribute quite a bit to it in the future.
cheers, spud
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spud
Full Travel Member
Posts: 33
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Post by spud on Jan 13, 2009 19:08:23 GMT -5
Had to make a change to the interary as one of my friends who was going to be travelling with us has had to pull out for financial reasons. So instead I will be travelling out to Paris on July 1st and Belgium will have to be overlooked.
July 2009
1. Glasgow - Paris (fly)
2. Paris
3. Paris
4. Paris - Berlin
5. Berlin
6. Berlin
7. Berlin - Prague
8. Prague
9. Prague
10. Prague - Vienna
11. Vienna
12. Vienna
13. Vienna - Venice
14. Venice
15. Venice - Rome
16. Rome
17. Rome
18. Rome - Athens (fly)
19. Athens
20. Athens
21. Athens - Thessaloniki
22. Thessaloniki
23. Thessaloniki - Sofia
24. Sofia
25. Sofia
26. Sofia - Budapest
27. Budapest
28. Budapest
29. Budapest - Glasgow (fly)
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