Travel tips for Europe ( London, Paris, Venice, Amsterdam, Munich) needed.

Society Travel & Tourism
1

In March I need to go to France for work. My wife and my daughter want to tag along.
My airline ticket, car rental, meals and hotel stay in France will be paid by my company.

I did some basic math it will cost me around $4000 extra out of my pocket if I take them along.
This is the calculation I did.
Airline tickets $1800.
Euro rail tickets to visit Venice, London, Amsterdam,Munich, $500.
Lodging and meals in cities other than Paris. $1700.

A few questions.

  1. Is March right time to visit these cities?
  2. Is it too conservative a budget ?
  3. Is Thursday to Saturday enough to visit these cities?
  4. Can we still cut down on these expenses and make it cheaper?
2

Re: Travel tips for Europe ( London, Paris, Venice, Amsterdam, Munich) needed.

I would think @ekumunng would be the best source of info about travelling in Europe. Dunno where he is right now though. Might be busy with work?

3

Re: Travel tips for Europe ( London, Paris, Venice, Amsterdam, Munich) needed.

Uncle March is a good time to visit Amsterdam

I can only tell you about Amsterdam because I am living there .......And two days are not enough to see this city but you can somehow manage it...

As far as lodging is concerned Paris and Amsterdam are too expensive so I think budgets are quite good

However you can cut the budget if you take airlines such as Ryan air and books tickets and dont take the euro rail even if u want to to it book them before they will be cheap

BTW Munich is nothing special to be honest go to Freiburg its a small city in the outskirts of Swiss and France the best city to visit in Germany as a tourist you will not be disappointed trust me

And if u need any help in Amsterdam let me know?

4

Re: Travel tips for Europe ( London, Paris, Venice, Amsterdam, Munich) needed.

[QUOTE]
1. Is March right time to visit these cities?
[/QUOTE]

London and Amsterdam might be bit windy and rainy. Venice, Munich and Paris will be fine.

[QUOTE]
2. Is it too conservative a budget ?
[/QUOTE]

Venice, Amsterdam, Paris and London will be expensive. Try to make booking early but these places are always pricy. As for your budget, one can opt for 2-star or budget places to stay or even opt for more expensive options so its really a personal preference. I think $4k is a decent enough budget for 3 persons. Also take into account the entry tickets to different places.

[QUOTE]
3. Is Thursday to Saturday enough to visit these cities?
[/QUOTE]

You mean Thursday, Friday and Saturday, 3 days. I hope you have more than 3 days for these places. I assume you wanted to say 9 days in total (From Thursday to next week Saturday). Below is my recommendation.

**Venice **1 night, I did venice in a day (from 09:30 till 17:00). I think one night is enough for a family trip but if you want to take things slow and visit other islands instead of just gondola rides then make it 2 nights. (Thursday + Friday)

**Amsterdam **3 nights, I agree with waleedhbk, 2 nights are not enough for this city. I stayed 2 nights but did not see it properly. (Saturday, Sunday, Monday)

Munich, 2 nights should be enough but I'll suggest you to see **Florence **or **Milan **instead of Munich. With Florence you can do **Pisa **trip in a half day. (Tuesday, Wednesday) OR (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday) if you opt for Milan or Florence. **Budapest **is another option, **Vienna **is another alternative.

London, well you'll have to skip a day from above to make a good trip to London. London, Paris, Rome, Berlin, Madrid each require at least 4 night stay to fully enjoy, even for a lone traveller.

[QUOTE]
4. Can we still cut down on these expenses and make it cheaper?
[/QUOTE]

Try to fly by air, trains are expensive, unless you buy tickets well in advance. Also consider the time trains will take. For example, Paris to Venice sleeper train leaves Paris at 20:00 and reaches Venice 09:30 next day. Another point to remember is that you may have to change trains in-between. The only benefit I see with trains is that you can save money on lodging, if you take night trains. Being a solo traveller it is doable but with a family, you'll have to decide.

Between the cities fly airline and locally (like from Venice to Florence or Florence to Pisa) take trains. Try jetcost DOT ie website. It will give you cheapest airfares and options. Choose the suitable option and then head to respective airline page to directly buy from the airline. This way you will not pay, 10 to 15 euro booking fee of the websites.

Ryanair is tempting but in Paris for example, they use an airport outside the main city and one way bus fare to reach that place is 15 euro per person, so take this into consideration as well. Air Berlin, Transavia, Vueling are good airlines, fly from main airports and have better planes.

There is also no harm in looking for 2 or 3 star hotel with good reviews. Sometimes you can save money on lodging this way. Tell you wife to use booking DOT com to make a potential list of hotels based on the available reviews. Any place with a 7+ review score (with at least 30 reviews) is a good place to stay according to my experience.

In Paris, museums are free on 1st Sunday of every month. If your daughter is under 12 then buy half price tickets for her to travel locally. If you want to visit Versailles Palace then keep a day for it, same is the case with DisneyLand Paris.

I live in Paris so if you need any help or guidance then let me know.

5

Re: Travel tips for Europe ( London, Paris, Venice, Amsterdam, Munich) needed.

If I am visiting Paris you will be my guide :@:

6

Re: Travel tips for Europe ( London, Paris, Venice, Amsterdam, Munich) needed.

Mirch Uncle

Try to book hotels either Ibis budget,or Ibis city centre they are cheap 3 star but very good hotels located in the middle of the centraal of each cities of Europe

7

Re: Travel tips for Europe ( London, Paris, Venice, Amsterdam, Munich) needed.

Only on weekend for a day!

8

Re: Travel tips for Europe ( London, Paris, Venice, Amsterdam, Munich) needed.

I live in the US and am visiting UK in the Summer IA. While I will be staying with family in the UK I would like to go visit Paris and Itlay. We are four people, my husband myself, and fourteen year old son and nine year old daughter. Would US $4k be enough ( including airfare, lodging, eating out, entry tickets etc. ), number of days will be as less as possible as my budget is low, maybe 2 days in Paris and 2 days in Venice or would it be better to do a day each in Rome and Venice if budget allows and what is the best way to get between these two cities?

9

Re: Travel tips for Europe ( London, Paris, Venice, Amsterdam, Munich) needed.

Thank you for so providing a detailed answer. I appreciate it.
I appreciate your offer for help.

10

Re: Travel tips for Europe ( London, Paris, Venice, Amsterdam, Munich) needed.

If you have good money management skills you can definitely do it.

Will you fly out to US from UK or continental Europe?

If you need to go back to UK for return flight then I'll suggest you to head to Venice from UK. If you book ahead, you can get good flight deals. Try jetcost DOT ie to get the idea of prices. I checked ticket price for 3 adults and 1 child (under 11) for 2nd June and two early morning flights cost 138 euro(6am) and 232 euro (8am) from London to Venice.

Venice is expensive, in summer it will be overbooked and over crowded. I also had hard time finding reasonably priced hotel last July. You can get good deals if you book early. As I mentioned above, use booking DOT com to find reviews of hotels and deals. There are cheap options off the main Venice island but if you are staying for a night then its better to stay on the main island itself. Venice has two train stations, one on the mainland (venice mestre) , other at the edge of the Island (Venezia Santa Lucia). Use Santa Lucia to and from Venice, it's easily reachable.

One day is enough for venice unless you want to dine out and enjoy sun. Leave UK early in the day and spend the day in venice. Next day checkout and see remaining attractions. By evening around 1600 take local train to Rome. The journey time will be 03hr45. I just checked the price and the ticket for 16:35 train for 4 persons (2 adult, 2 under 14 children) is 118 euro. The tickets can be booked 4 month or less in advance. Check Trenitalia DOT com for ticket prices and booking.

I don't suggest a day in Rome, you should spend at least 2 full days. More than of your half day will be used in seeing Colosseum and Palatine Hill, so a single day is not much. The good thing in Rome is that you can get good options of staying in various price ranges. There are also apartments available with traditional kitchen and stuff. Again check booking DOT com

From Rome head to Paris by air. Train journey will be long, between 17 to 21 hours and may involve connections. In my search I found air tickets under 200 euro for 4 persons. Paris is touristy all year around, no matter what kind of weather it is. But still early booking is good.

From Paris to back UK, you have 3 options, by air, by train or by bus. By air will cost you between 130 to 180 euro. Euro star train will take 2hr20 and will cost $207 USD. Megabus will take 9hrs to reach to London and costs 68 euros.

So your total travel cost will be 232 + 118 + 200 + 180 = 730 euros which is $862 USD as of today (I've taken the most expensive options from above). So you can safely assume travel costs of under $1000 USD, around 1500 to 1800 for lodging and rest for dining+other expenses.

Trenitalia prices are mostly stable and do not increase that much but all other prices are as of today and may increase, so early booking is recommended. When booking air tickets also keep an eye on flight times, early morning and late night flights are cheap but do consider the transport options to reach to and from airports at odd hours.

Everywhere in Europe, children (under 11 or 12) and youth (under 25) have reduced prices for travel, museums etc. So its better to inquire about any discount for your kids.

Hope that helps!

11

Re: Travel tips for Europe ( London, Paris, Venice, Amsterdam, Munich) needed.

^ wow thanks a lot. Not sure, if we will fly out back to US from the Continental Europe at this point. Most likely we will fly out from the UK. We might even fly out to Continental Europe first then UK but dragging all the luggage around will give me nightmares. As I am planning to stay a month in the UK.

12

Re: Travel tips for Europe ( London, Paris, Venice, Amsterdam, Munich) needed.

:D

Ibis,you must book in so advance.

13

Re: Travel tips for Europe ( London, Paris, Venice, Amsterdam, Munich) needed.

Just a small tip

Try to book your flight to UK and then take return flight from Final destination Like Arrive at London and take the flight back from Milan or Amsterdam. This will reduce your inland travel cost to Half.

In Europe The best way is to take Train Try to look for www.raileurope.com Here you can buy one ticket which will be vaild in Europe and you can use it everywhere. This will be the best option.