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

[ekumunng]

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

@eastern11

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?

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!