2 week Europe trip - need help please

Old Dec 16th, 2013, 11:53 AM
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2 week Europe trip - need help please

Hi all, my husband and I (both age 30) plan to take a Europe trip next summer. We can take 2 weeks off of work. Max budget would be 10k. We definitely want to visit Paris and London and potentially somewhere in Spain as well. I am overwhelmed with getting started on planning the trip. We are both very busy lawyers and I do not have a lot of free time to plan the trip. Would anyone recommend a travel agent? We are both "foodies" and are excited about trying different cuisines, we love people watching, we're not super into art but I would appreciate seeing a museum or two, I like the idea of an excursion to a "countryside" city as well off the beaten path. Does anyone have recommendations on a travel agent, trip itineraries, or just how to get started planning? Thanks in advance!
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Old Dec 16th, 2013, 12:26 PM
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You can consider group tours - many like Rick Steves and many do not (www.ricksteves.com) of PBS TV fame - or you can plan your own trip with a minimum of work - online hotels thru any of several large booking groups - limit your cities to 3 or 4 max or perhaps just two and do day trips into the countryside from them.

Trains are a great way to get around - cars are useless in cities - say land in London - spend 4-5 days there take the Eurostar train under the English Channel in 2 hours to Paris - spend 4-5 days there and bop up to Amsterdam, one of the most beautiful cities in the world and fly home from there (so-clled open jaw ticket - fly into London back from Amsterdam.

For lots of great info on European trains I always recommend these IMO superb sites - www.budgeteuropetravel. com - download their free and excellent IMO European Planning & Rail Guide for lots of ideas on where to go and trains and www.seat61.com and www.ricksteves.com.

the London-Paris-Amsterdam trio is a great intro to Europe and does not invovle much travel time - do day trips from London say to Cambridge or Oxford, from Paris perhaps to Reims for Champagne tours or from Amsterdam to some smaller Dutch gem like Haarlem or Delft - all easily done by train.
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Old Dec 16th, 2013, 12:39 PM
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What PalenQ says. Also, remember you will lose the first day to overnight travel and at least 1/2 day for every change of venue.

If it were my trip, Paris would get the most days, but you must read up and decide what calls out to you.

Before we became more DIY, we worked with American Express for air, hotels and train trips between major cities. Then went on our own or worked with hotels for local tours. More and more tours are online now so you can make reservations for them online beforehand.
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Old Dec 16th, 2013, 12:43 PM
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You get started by reading guidebooks and looking at maps; deciding how you want to move around from place to pace; and investigating food and wine sites (if that's what mainly interests you). Hardly anyone here uses travel agents (for good reason; many of the regular forum contributors here have far more travel experience and detailed knowledge than any travel agent, and it's just so easy these days with the internet to plan the trip YOU want, not some canned package or someone's guess as to what might appeal to you).

You're going to three world-famous cities. There is no end of information about them freely available. Even if you put in a half-hour a day in planning, you can easily design your own trip to suit your wishes. People here will be liberal in providing tips to help you.
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Old Dec 16th, 2013, 01:02 PM
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"Would anyone recommend a travel agent?" You have to say where you are from!
The travel website covering Spain is http://www.spain.info/
or browse this forum.
Is being a "foodie" means missing out London??? Duck my head and running now!
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Old Dec 16th, 2013, 01:07 PM
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Pals plan is a good one but if you would rather see more 'countryside' than a third city you could do a great trip with just London and Paris and day trips. It's certainly possible to fit in Spain but that would involve flying and complicates things and adds more 'travel' time taking away from 'seeing' time. Given what you have said, unless Spain is a really high priority I would save it for a separate trip.

Some day trips from London include Oxford, Cambridge, Warwick, Bath, Canterbury. All of them are easily done by train. They are much smaller and much different from London, but they are cities. If you want to see little villages you could rent a car for a couple days, or even do an organized tour. If you put "London day trips" into the search box you'll get tons of ideas.

Same for Paris. This past summer I did a day trip to Provins, a small medieval town about an hour by train from Paris. But there are many other options.

The problem with including Spain is that it is so large and there are so many very different regions that people are tempted to want to do several areas and then your trip becomes much more choppy, with not enough time in any one place, much less relaxing and harder to plan. But if you really want to see Spain I would do 4-5 days in London (one day trip max), then train to Paris for 4-5 days (and I would not do a day trip), then fly to Barcelona for the remainder and fly home from there.

You are talking about 2 or 3 hotels which, unless you are very fussy, you can easily book in about half an hour on booking.com

If you need help deciding where to go I have photos of all the places I mentioned here: http://www.pbase.com/annforcier
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Old Dec 16th, 2013, 01:20 PM
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Good advice above, London Paris Barcelona is easy to do as is London Paris Amsterdam.

All 4 cities have great food. The joke (see above) about London is that 50 years ago the food was dire, not any more, as a world city it leads the way.

When do you consider summer to be. It's best to avoid late July to Early August as europeans all go on holiday then and prices go up. Barcelona will be the hotest but being by the sea will still be pleasant.

Each of the 4 cities has great public transport and good links to their airport.
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Old Dec 16th, 2013, 01:52 PM
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What do you mean by "foodie"? It is used as a universal term but has no universal meaning.

Where did the foodie = miss London concept start on this thread? Geez, if they want Michelin stars to accompany their food, they can find it.

Here's what I said on another thread for London:

Here's what you absolutely MUST do because there are two of you.

(1) Go to daysoutguide.co.uk, review the attractions, and print out every 2for1 voucher that is even mildly interesting. The Tower will be on there, St. Paul's may be, Hampton Court Palace will be, Churchill War Rooms, HMS Belfast and more will also have offers. THERE IS NO LIMIT TO THE NUMBER OF VOUCHERS YOU CAN OBTAIN. (And there are offers for places outside London too).

(2) Bring passport-size head shots of yourselves with you.

(3) When you get to London, purchase a SEVEN-DAY PAPER TRAVELCARD at the nearest National Rail station: London Bridge, St. Pancras, whatever. Do NOT get an Oyster card. You get an orange, flimsy seven day zone 1-2 travelcard from a manned ticket booth at a National Rail station (not a Tube station). The travelcard is good for buses and Tube trains in zones 1-2 in London, which will be about all you need.

(4) Present said travelcard and vouchers at whatever attraction they apply to. You receive two entries for the price of one admission.

Here are the savings:
Tower of London = 21.45 GBP ($34+)
Hampton Court Palace = 17.60 ($28+)
Churchill War Rooms = 17.50 ($28+)
Shakespeare's Globe Theatre & Exhibition = 13.50 GBP (~$22)

Just four top attractions and you save $112 for doing nothing more than printing stuff on your computer.


As for you:

Does the 10k budget include the flights or not? If so, your budget for your time on the ground is now 7500-8000 for 12-13 nights depending upon what type of flight deal you get (which itself is partially dependent upon your embarkation point). That's sufficient for a good trip, but it's also 20-25% less than the 10k.

Neither London, Paris nor Barcelona (or Amsterdam if you want to go there) are untrod paths - there is plenty of information out there.

You're not the only lawyer on this forum and some have small kids on top of doubly overworked spouses. Get your flights (into London, out from your last destination, choose the "multi-city" option when you go to Orbitz or whatever). Don't give the "we're busy so we can't plan" excuse. That's a cop-out. It's your trip, take control.
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Old Dec 16th, 2013, 02:40 PM
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Some great advice given already, here's another perspective. First of all, I honestly think you can plan this on your own, even with a busy schedule. The fact that you posted here tells me you have at least a little bit of "do it yourself" in you. If this is your first trip outside the US (I'll assume US based on your user name...), the process can seem overwhelming. I would consider just sticking with London and Paris, splitting your time evenly between the two cities. One advantage of this approach is that it requires less planning; you arrange flight plans to, say, arrive in London and depart from Paris, book Eurostar somewhere in the middle, and then book a place to stay in each city. After that, just start thinking of cool, fun things to do in each city. There are so many possibilities for each city. Each new day brings new choices... Feel like taking in some art? head over to the Orsey or Tate Modern... the point is to preserve as much flexibility as possible. Think of this more as research rather than planning. Also, keep in mind you're likely to discover things while there that you hadn't thought of, so be flexible enough to take advantage of those chances.
If you have your dates locked in already, head over to Kayak and model out some travel arrangements. Once you have the basic "skeleton" of your trip figured out, the rest can come over time...
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Old Dec 16th, 2013, 02:41 PM
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Nothing wrong with using a travel agent, either.
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Old Dec 16th, 2013, 02:46 PM
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Actually, stokebailey, I think a number of reasons have been clearly stated why using a travel agent is not a great choice these days. It may not be "wrong," but it's usually not the best solution unless you want to take someone else's trip.
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Old Dec 16th, 2013, 04:22 PM
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>>Nothing wrong with using a travel agent, either.wonderful food BTW) , Paris and Barcelona there is nothing a TA can do better than an individual. I have a friend who is a very experienced/well traveled/widely recommended local TA . . . and she has spent very little time in either London or Paris, and when there has only stayed in hotels arranged as TA junkets. She can book things - but doesn't have the actual experience to give details/informed advice about places.
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Old Dec 16th, 2013, 05:20 PM
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Sorry -

I've had quite a bit "dire" food in GB and no way was it 50 years ago. Granted it's a lot better than it used to be -but it's no Belgium (IMHO the best food in europe - much better than France).

Agree that you need to do research to find out what YOU will enjoy. No travel agent can tell you that - and many IMHO - are really prepared only to sell tours and cruises - not personalized itineraries.
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Old Dec 16th, 2013, 06:29 PM
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>>I've had quite a bit "dire" food in GB and no way was it 50 years ago.
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Old Dec 16th, 2013, 11:01 PM
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London has fantastic food...I don't have enough time to get to all the places on my list! From Michelin stars to pop up street food london has an amazing good scene.

I could say I have had dire food everywhere, and yes you can get it here in London. Do a bit of research and you should be fine. I bet I could find dire food in NYC as well. If you care about food and prepare there is no excuse for wasting time and money on a bad meal!
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Old Dec 16th, 2013, 11:12 PM
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Street food? I think this could be an English v American thing. Street food in England means hotdog type of food sellers etc. You must avoid those.
http://www.virtualtourist.com/travel...dors-BR-1.html
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Old Dec 17th, 2013, 04:53 AM
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London has a smorgasbord of delightful food options - from ethnic foods from around the world - London and any British city has such exotic foods - especially cheaper snack foods and those greasy spoon British cafes (few found in central London however) - anyone who ways the U K is a food wasteland is a food snob IMO.
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Old Dec 17th, 2013, 04:54 AM
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No to mention the hot pots and grub pub food found in a pub lunch.
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Old Dec 17th, 2013, 04:59 AM
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Geez, guys, could we get back to NBADancer's original post? She has specifically asked for TA's so how about those of us who have used them, let her know. Arguing over whether GB has better food than France is really not germane.
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Old Dec 17th, 2013, 05:12 AM
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Street food on London in certainly not hotdogs! There are pop up street markets selling tonnes of different foods! Check out white cross street market by the barbican for an example when in London!

TDudette - I would hate someone reading this in future believing some if the things people say, that is the reason for my posts - and for the OP who says they are a foodie to try and not to be misled.

As for TA - I always plan my own trips so would recommend giving it a go!
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