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Post by htapawaso on Mar 23, 2009 11:59:59 GMT -5
This will be my first time travelling alone, and I am a bit unsure of myself, so I would truly appreciate any advice you could give me.
Anyway, as the title suggests, I'm going to Europe for about 50 days.
I've booked a one-way ticket from Melbourne Australia (my home) to London for May 15.
Towards the start of July (probably about the 5th or 6th), I intend to fly to Hong Kong to meet up with my girlfriend and continue travelling in Asia.
My extremely rough plan at present is to train from London to Paris, then on to Amsterdam, Prague, Munich, down through Italy and take a ferry to Greece, from which I will fly back to London and out to HK (It appears to be a lot cheaper than flying from anywhere else).
Bearing in mind that I have been to London, Paris and Italy before, and do not intend to spend all that much time there (due both to cost and time restrictions), does this plan sound overly ambitious considering the time limit of 50 days? Or could I even consider more places? (I would love to go to Krakow, for instance, although it is somewhat out of the way).
I would also consider skipping Italy entirely, and taking the train from Eastern Europe down to Greece, and if you think that's wise, can you recommend anywhere nice to stop inbetween?
Also, I am slightly confused about the way EURAIL passes work.
If I had a global pass, would it be feasible to train all the way from Athens to London? How many days would that count against my pass, and would it be a logistical nightmare?
If it makes any difference, I have both a British and Australian passport, so I can be an EU citizen or not.
Thanks for any help or advice you can offer, and sorry for the muddle of questions.
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Post by Eagle on Mar 23, 2009 19:12:51 GMT -5
htapawaso, welcome to GFE! I have a few comments on your travel plans. I normally travel solo these days, and so far no major problems, however good planning really helps to make things go smoothly. Your basic route looks fairly logical, although it's hard to say whether 50 days will be "ambitious", as you haven't specified how many cities you'll be visiting in Italy or Greece? Including at least a few stops in Italy would probably be a good idea, as it will help keep the rail journeys to a manageable time limit. For the trip from Amsterdam to Prague, you might consider budget air. I believe the airlines flying that route are My Air, SkyEurope and click4sky.While it may be feasible to use train from Greece to London, that's not a method I would suggest due to the time factor. Budget air would be your best bet for that route. You won't be able to make an informed decision on which Rail pass to use until you have a somewhat firm idea of what cities you'll be visiting and in what order. Once you have that information, enter the details in www.railsaver.com and the site will "suggest" the best combination of Rail pass or P-P tickets. For more detailed information on Greece, you might have a look at www.greektravel.com/, as there's LOTS of information on the site. Good luck with your planning!
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Post by htapawaso on Mar 23, 2009 22:45:37 GMT -5
Sorry, should have been more specific about Greece and Italy.
In Greece, I will definitely spend a couple of days in Athens simply because I'm interested in the history, and then perhaps a more sizeable amount of time on an island. I was originally thinking Corfu (an uninformed choice), but I'll read that incredible site you linked in more detail to make a proper choice.
As for Italy, I am now strongly leaning towards not going there on this trip. I went only 15 months ago (albeit on a school trip), and while I would love to go again, I feel I should use my limited time exploring other countries. Besides, it's not exactly on the way.
Regarding the trip between Amsterdam and Prague, I'm thinking of breaking that up by going to Berlin for a few days to a week. Would you still recommend air travel if this was the case?
To simplify, the places I'm now planning on are:
London
(maybe) Paris
Amsterdam
Berlin
Prague
Krakow
Athens/Greek Island(s)
I wonder if you could shed any light on the rough time of train trips? I'm curious whether it would be worth getting overnight tickets, or if the train journeys between these places would be too short for it to be worth it.
Thanks for your help, and the warm welcome.
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Post by herrbert on Mar 24, 2009 14:52:10 GMT -5
the best source for trainshedules in Europe is the website of the Deutsche Bahn, as it list all shedules in Europe: www.deutschebahn.com/site/bahn/en/start.html here you type the places, and see how long it takes, and if nighttrains are available. (for travels outside of Germany, you will not see the costs.) For some routes, it will not be worth to take a nighttrain (if it is too short, they usualy don't excist.) Paris - Amsterdam is 4 hours by train, so it's not worth it. If you leave out Paris, than think if you want to include a place in Belgium, if not, it might be worth it to take flight to A'dam instead of the train. (Amsterdam-Berlin is also available by flight, and it has my preference, if it is not too expensive.) The trip to Krakow is a long one, and in some cases it is a good option to fly to it from, somewhat unlogical places, as there are not flights available from nearby places, but there are from some that are further away. If you make your way from Berlin to Prague, you could add a day in Dresden, if you like. I think by the way, that 4 days is good for Berlin, I think that a week is a bit too much. I don't think the trip so far looks too ambitious, and could even consider some extra towns. London (4 days, but less if you have been there) (maybe) Paris (normaly 4 days, but see London) Amsterdam (2-3 days) Berlin (4 days) Prague (3 days) Krakow (3 days, incl daytrip to Auschwitz?) Athens/Greek Island(s) (2-3 for Athens, and 2-3 per Island on average) So I am at around 30 days, plus a couple of traveldays in total at the moment. |
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Post by htapawaso on Mar 24, 2009 16:05:37 GMT -5
the best source for trainshedules in Europe is the website of the Deutsche Bahn, as it list all shedules in Europe: www.deutschebahn.com/site/bahn/en/start.html here you type the places, and see how long it takes, and if nighttrains are available. (for travels outside of Germany, you will not see the costs.) For some routes, it will not be worth to take a nighttrain (if it is too short, they usualy don't excist.) Paris - Amsterdam is 4 hours by train, so it's not worth it. If you leave out Paris, than think if you want to include a place in Belgium, if not, it might be worth it to take flight to A'dam instead of the train. (Amsterdam-Berlin is also available by flight, and it has my preference, if it is not too expensive.) The trip to Krakow is a long one, and in some cases it is a good option to fly to it from, somewhat unlogical places, as there are not flights available from nearby places, but there are from some that are further away. If you make your way from Berlin to Prague, you could add a day in Dresden, if you like. I think by the way, that 4 days is good for Berlin, I think that a week is a bit too much. I don't think the trip so far looks too ambitious, and could even consider some extra towns. London (4 days, but less if you have been there) (maybe) Paris (normaly 4 days, but see London) Amsterdam (2-3 days) Berlin (4 days) Prague (3 days) Krakow (3 days, incl daytrip to Auschwitz?) Athens/Greek Island(s) (2-3 for Athens, and 2-3 per Island on average) So I am at around 30 days, plus a couple of traveldays in total at the moment. Thanks, that's encouraging news. I suppose if you think I can fit some more things in Italy is a good option after all. When you suggest taking flights instead of trains, is this because it will save me money or time? Because if it is time, I'm not particularly bothered to tell the truth. I love trains, and being an Australian I am used to horrendously long journeys and actually quite enjoy them. Good chance to see the unfamiliar scenery. If it's money that's another matter of course... saving money is always good... Ok then... amended plan... Buy a France/Netherlands/Germany/Czech Rep. Eurail pass Arrive in London (4 days) P-P ticket to Paris (3 days) Pass to Amsterdam (4 days) Pass to Berlin (4 days) Pass to Prague (4 days) P-P to Krakow (4 days) Fly to Rome (3 days) P-P to Napoli (3 days) P-P to Bari, immediately followed by ferry to Patras and on to an island (3 days) Ferry to a second island (3 days) Ferry to Athens (3 days) Fly to Moscow (1-2 days) Take Trans-Manchurian rail to Beijing where I spend whatever remaining time I have before going on to HK Although I just input the journey (the relevant bits anyway) into that railsaver website and it has assured me that purchasing all P-P tickets will be cheaper than getting a pass. Why do they even have passes? The only way to save money on them seems to be getting a 2 month global ticket and travelling EVERY SINGLE DAY. EDIT: Although I just went to the pricing thing on that same page, and all these P-P tickets seem to add up to an awful lot more than a pass. Is that site really accurate? |
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Post by herrbert on Mar 26, 2009 19:50:48 GMT -5
When suggesting flights, you always need to keep in mind both saving time and money. For it is natural to look at flights, when train journeys take more than 4-5 hours. This is usualy about the time you need for getting to the airport, check-in, wait, the flight itself, and the travel from the airport, as it comes to continental flights within Europe. During the time of the flight (2-3 hours), you can cover much more ground, so saving time is one aspect.
There are a lot of cheap budgetflights in Europe, train travels can become pretty expensive, while budgetflights, in most cases can be found for 75 euros or less for a one way ticket. (and with less, it can go down to 20 euros if you are lucky on certain routes.)
Think about the visa that you will need for Russia.
Can''t tell you anything about Eurailpasses, as for Europeans there are different ones. (which I also don't use, because I always have short trips.) So that's up for someone else.
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