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Europe trip!
Phyphor
Building Planet BustersTasting FruitRegistered User regular
Building Planet BustersTasting FruitRegistered User regular
I've never gone before, mostly looking for advice on awesome stuff to check out and some things to watch out for. Solo trip, I'm there for 3 weeks (22 travel days), currently planning to arrive late May/early June, hopefully decent weather while avoiding some of the huge crowds.
Current plan is England (London, Oxford) (seeing relatives), Belgium/Netherlands (probably Brugge, Brussels and/or Amsterdam). France (Paris, Nice), hiking in Switzerland (no super high peaks, but I am looking at parts of the via alpina trail) then on to Italy (Venice, Rome, maybe Florence) flying out of Rome.
Anything else must-see in this general area?
Cool things to do in each city?
Will the trails in Switzerland be too muddy in June?
Should I do France-Italy-Switzerland instead and give the trails another week to condition properly? I do want to avoid huge crowds ideally.
Current allocations are 3 days England, 3 days Benelux, 5 days France, 6 days Switzerland, 5 days Italy, but I can shift that around a bit, maybe drop Benelux for more time in France/Italy? Though I would miss the Belgian beer & chocolate.
I particularly enjoy WWII and medieval era history and I'd definitely like to see some Roman artifacts where possible, as well as the culture and food of each area. No car, traveling by train.
Current plan is England (London, Oxford) (seeing relatives), Belgium/Netherlands (probably Brugge, Brussels and/or Amsterdam). France (Paris, Nice), hiking in Switzerland (no super high peaks, but I am looking at parts of the via alpina trail) then on to Italy (Venice, Rome, maybe Florence) flying out of Rome.
Anything else must-see in this general area?
Cool things to do in each city?
Will the trails in Switzerland be too muddy in June?
Should I do France-Italy-Switzerland instead and give the trails another week to condition properly? I do want to avoid huge crowds ideally.
Current allocations are 3 days England, 3 days Benelux, 5 days France, 6 days Switzerland, 5 days Italy, but I can shift that around a bit, maybe drop Benelux for more time in France/Italy? Though I would miss the Belgian beer & chocolate.
I particularly enjoy WWII and medieval era history and I'd definitely like to see some Roman artifacts where possible, as well as the culture and food of each area. No car, traveling by train.
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Rant over :-)
I'd skip Belgium as they make chocolate in Switzerland as well and there is great beer in most European countries. Also consider Utrecht instead of Amsterdam.
As for Italy then Florence is bloody great and since in the area you should not miss Siena.
When touring the museums remember some are HUGE and one can spend a whole day in those places fx. the Ufizi is 70,000 Sqft or more (it's been a while) and just the building itself is worth looking at as it's from the 16'th century.
Other places you should go in no special order: The Imperial War Museum, Pompeii, The Catacombs in Paris, La Défense (especially if you're into modern buildings), Tate Modern...
Oxford can really be done in a day, but there's tonnes to do in London. For history in London I can't recommend the British Museum enough. Amazing range of artifacts picked up during the days of the empire - covers every era of history and every region of the globe. For WWII history I'd suggest the Imperial War Museum, The Churchill war rooms and perhaps HMS Belfast (moored in the Thames).
In Oxford I'd recommend the Ashmolean museum (a smaller, but still excellent museum with the same scope as the British museum). The museum I particularly liked in Oxford was the Pitt-Rivers museum; an anthropology museum with the collections arranged thematically and not by culture.
I was never very fond of Belgium, it was all a bit 'eh'. Amsterdam is of course amazing, plenty of culture (Van Gogh museum, Rejksmuseum etc) as well as the weed and other hedonistic pleasures.
I'm not a huge fan of Italy in the main, I'm more of a northern European sort. France is nice, but I'd just list the usual sights (Louvre etc.)
Oh I do realize that, but I do only have 3 weeks as I have to keep some for christmas, so I guess the choice is a short time in a couple countries or pick one and spend a couple weeks there. I don't think I'll have time to get to Pompeii (though it would be really cool and I'll keep it in mind if I end up ahead of schedule), but I'll definitely check out the Ufizi, I've been hearing good things about Florence. Ideally I'd like to spend a couple months over there, or even move, but that won't be for another 2 years at least.
It includes the day I arrive, I have an overnight direct flight from Toronto, so I should be able to sleep and hopefully not be too bad. Doesn't include the day out. Travel in between the cities seems to be either somewhat short or can be done overnight, letting me sleep; I'm not driving. Hopefully the time spent wandering the Swiss alps, while I suppose it will be physically tiring, will be relaxing as well
The British Museum is definitely on the list, as is the War Museum; I'll probably spend a day at those easily. Oxford is mostly so I can visit my relatives over there, though I do want to see it. Belgium was sort of a "nice to have" addition, so I can definitely drop that this trip, I guess I'll have to see if there's anything that justifies not spending those days in France/Italy. I do plan on doing a more northern focused trip another time, so maybe I'll push it off until then.
Oxford can be done in a day, but it can be crowded, and isn't a city to drive around. I second the Ashmolean and the Pitt-Rivers museum, especially the Pitt-Rivers museum, which more people need to go to (it has dinosaurs! And shrunken heads!)
The Natural History and Science museums in London are both absolutely fantastic, and free! Both are also 'uge, so don't expect to see all that both have to offer. The Imperial War Museum is pretty great, as is the Victoria & Albert Museum, and the British Museum is of course, fantastic.
London will be REALLY CROWDED at that time though, since it's the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, which is a really big deal for the royalists in Britain, so loads of crowds, but if you're into that, there's a jubilee concert, and a huge parade of boats (including a royal barge) down the Thames on the 3rd of June.
I'd also skip Belgium, apart from Bruges which is amazing and can be seen in a day. Amsterdam is a great city, but Brussels is pretty crap, IMO. Paris is an awesome city too, never been to Nice, or Switzerland, or Italy, but hope the info on Britain helped.
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Eurail night trains are amazing for getting around without losing too much time, but even so by moving every few days you'll end up wasting a ton of time just figuring out logistics and getting set up.
You'll also probably reach incredible sights brain saturation a couple weeks in anyway, so there's no reason to try to see all the greatest hits in one trip, even if that were possible.
Buy a Frommers, there's a reason those books are famous. Europe on $70 a day is ideal. It'll tell you all kinds of stuff you would never think to ask; how much should a cab cost, what day is the Louvre quietest, what's the best way to get in from the airport, are there pickpocket busses you need to avoid.
Eat most of your meals out of the grocery store. It's cheaper obviously, but it's also fun as hell shopping for foreign junkfood, and you get to try lots of meats and cheeses and breads that are everyday food there but new and exotic to you.
--LeVar Burton
Riomaggiore is a coastal town in italy where you could spend eternity, it's awesome. Google it
Lauterbrunnen is a town in the swiss alps, which is in the swiss alps. the swiss alps are fucking amazing
Barcelona is crazy, easily my favourite big city in europe
I used a travel group called BUSABOUT
If you can I would recommend taking a couple trips with them, it's easy and you will make friends like crazy.
I spent 3 nights in most places, it's actually quite a long time really, being 2 full days to have fun in a given place.
edit: If you are in Zurich and are looking for a nice restaurant to eat at, try Zeughauskeller, I've been to Switzerland 3 times and have eaten here twice, it is always very tasty but a little spendy, around 25-35 chf for a meal, I should also mention they have a flak turret mounted above one of the entrances, and the entire restaurant has weaponry and armor everywhere, they have a 2 person meal called the mayor's sword where they serve you a huge portion of meat on a sword for about 80chf, obviously since you are by yourself you won't want this but it was pretty cool to see.
also if at all possible visiting the black forest is stunningly beautiful. I spent about 3 days in Titisee and its just so gorgeous, the area is good for walking on trails which seems like something you are interested in, although like I said when I was there last week it was still snowy/muddy
I was gonna jump in here and recommend the entire Cinque Terre. It's stunningly beautiful, Monterosso and Vernazza could use the financial assistance after the devastating floods and it's a relatively painless train ride from Firenze.
I know everyone wants to visit Roma and Venezia but imo they take a far backseat to the Cinque Terre, Firenze and Siena.
i spent 17 days alone in spain (in a bunch of cities), plus an extra few meeting up with friends in munich, on the last time i went to europe
better to get to know places better i think
also belgium is lame as was said before
Germany has awesome beer too and not of the funny kind the Belgians make(banana beer, chocolate beer, etc).
I would also suggest not to cramp too many countries into your schedule. And if you know some German, maybe you should visit Germany?
Each of the countries on your list is very different and can not really be experienced by just visiting one city each, maybe you should visit only half the countries you want to and plan the rest for a later trip in a couple of years? I can only imagine that everything will blur into one if you are constantly on the move and only have so little time for each place.
I do like Germany a lot, it's a pretty great country, with amazing countryside, and cool, very modern cities like Dusseldorf, as well as older cities like Nuremberg. Although I advised against going to Belgium, you should try Belgian trappist beer while in Holland, which is about 8-10%. Pretty great beer.
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There's a nice indian restaurant in which I always go too : "Mother India".
I'd note that the following are in Rome, and interesting:
1. The Forum. We went around it in about 4 hours, and there was still a lot more to see. But really, you can't go to Rome without seeing the Forum.
2. The Colosseum. This is another 3-4 hours really, though you do get to take some amazing photos. It's also one of those places you need to take pictures of so you can get people to believe you were in Rome
3. The Vatican - this is an all day thing, especially if you're an art/history/art history fan. The lines are a little crazy, but once you're in, it's fascinating. We did get a bit of art fatigue after 6 hours or so, but it's all amazing stuff.
4. You can, just about, get to Ostia-Antica from Rome (fairly straightforward by rail), and you may prefer it to Pompeii - wonderfully preserved Roman port city.
5. The Baths of Caracalla - odd one this, but worth trekking out for, we were (again) out there 3-4 hours, and it's utterly fascinating.
6. Domus Aurea - another 3-4 hours of Roman ruins - you may be sensing a theme.
7. Trevi fountain - very pretty, probably worth a few minutes ot visit/take photos/ You *will* get hassled/grabbed by vendors.
8. Spanish steps - as per the Trevi fountain. only really need half an hour or so here, but it does make for some great photos.
9. Capitoline/Palatine hill/musuems - really, the museums on the Capitoline are amazing, and a 2 day job. We did it in 1, but there is just so much in there, especially if Antique/Late Antiquity is your thing.
10. The Tarpeian rock - a bit tricky to find, but worth it for a few minutes visit - where they flung traitors to their deaths, and references in HBO's Rome if you ever need a refeence point in conversation.
11. The Pantheon - is very cool, you can probably do it in an hour or so, maybe less, if you're jsut taking a few photos and making a run for it.
12. Constantuine's Arch - worth a photo, and a quick visit, very grand
13. Cappuchin crypt - slightly creepy, but you are unlikely to see a crypt made of bones elsewhere on your tour. Bit of a trek though.
14. Castel Santangelo - looms over the Tiber, was once Trajans tomb (if memory serves). Interesting to walk around, anoother 3-4 hour job.
15. Trajan markets - these are great to see (along with Trajan's column), and make for great photos - can't get down into them I see, to recall, so doesn't take too long.
ETA: The ctacombs. They're awesome. But again, several hours.
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