MsWorthy

Husband and I got a deal from a travel agent who booked our RT Canada to LIS plus intra-Europe flights. Wondering how can we make this trip more enjoyable. I understand it is very fast paced but for being able to score the flights for cheap, we took the bait. Now can you please lead us to the right direction on how to go about this---

We're leaving in Feb and we're starting to plan our itinerary.

Feb 8 arrive in Lisbon
Feb 10 arrive in Paris
Feb 16 arrive in Rome (departing from Brussels)
Feb 19 arrive in Athens
Feb 21 arrive in London
Feb 24 back to Lisbon
Feb 25 on our way back to Canada

We are planning on just staying in one of the cheap hotels in the city.
My question is _ IF YOU are in our situation, how will you plan this trip?

Also - my husband also wants to see Amsterdam - but not sure if we can really squeeze it in. Flights have already been booked and non-refundable.

Thanks

PalenQ

Amsterdam - could shoot up there by train in about 3.5 hours - stay a few days then come back to Brussels for your flight - check www.thalys.com for cheap tickets if you book weeks/months in advance - could be as little as 39 euros each way. For lots of great info on European trains check these sites: www.seat61.com - great info on discounted train tickets; www.budgeteuropetravel.com and www.ricksteves.com.

Even though you are flying everywhere do not neglect Europe's fantastic train system for say doing day trips from base cities like Paris

MsWorthy

PalenQ - thank you for your quick response. We will check Thalys.com and the other sites definitely. Husband is going to be happy about this!

My immediate concern with our itinerary is travel time from the airport itself to the downtown core.

How long does it take to get to the actual city centre from the airport?
Say ORLY airport to Paris? FCO to Rome? ATH to Athens? LIS to Lisbon? STN to London?

Feeling overwhelmed with our itinerary but my husband says we're in our late 20s, we should have the stamina to be moving from one place to another.

Kathie

Yipes! What a ghastly trip! Are the intra-Europe tickets separate from the trans-atlantic tickets? I'd be tempted to throw away the Intra Europe tickets and give myself time to enjoy someplace I wanted to see.

Right now you have 2 nights in Lisbon - just one day
5 nights between Paris and Brussels
3 nights in Rome
2 nights in Atthens
3 nights in London.

Best I can think of would be to use your Lisbon time to recover from jet lag, do a bit of walking. You only have a day. I'd spend 4 nights in Paris, take the train to Brussels, fly to Rome. If you skip Athens you can have 5 nights in Rome and fly to London from Rome.

Kathie

By the way, your husband's point about stamina is irrelevant, IMO. The issue here is whether you have any time to see/do/experience... and you don't.

MsWorthy

Thanks Kathie! I don't think I can do much with the Lisbon situation but can drop the Athens leg as it's out of the way - but will look into this for sure because we don't want to waste $300 down (FCO-ATH) and then have to fork out another $500 or so to fly from Rome to London. Thank you for the response - will think about this.

MsWorthy

Kathie - I believe TA booked us via KLM and 3 of the intra Europe via transavia..

ekc

A general rule of thumb is that it takes 1/2 day each time you change cities - pack, check out of hotel, get to airport 2 hours before flight, flight time, retrieve luggage (if checked), get taxi, travel into city (~1 hour from FCO to Rome), check into hotel, drop bags, now it's time for lunch.

So your days lay out as such:
Lisbon = 1.5 days (assuming you arrive in the morning)
Paris/Brussels = 5 days (losing time changing location to Brussels)
Rome = 2.5 days
Athens = 1.5 days
London = 2.5 days
Lisbon = .5 day

Good luck!

MsWorthy

Ekc, yes we arrive at 8am in Lisbon. And yes that's going to be our timetable. I know it is a lot to take in but it is what it is. Hoping to make the most out of it still and try to enjoy the travel.

Two years ago, We did our caribbean splurge before hopping to 6 islands in 18 days and we had a blast because there is really not much to do other than bathe in the sun.. However I'm scared this time as I feel like Europe is going to be a totally different animal.

Sassafrass

Skip Athens.
Skip Brussels.
Do Amsterdam if you must, in place of Brussels.
Add time to Rome.

Your TA planned this? Has he/she traveled at all?

Did they even consider putting London and Paris back to back and taking the train between?

You saved money on a RT to Lisbon, but did you even want to go there?
How much time and money is it costing you to return to Lisbon?
How much time and money is it costing you to get from Lisbon to Paris?

Rethink the sequence of cities.

MsWorthy

HI Sassafrass - Our TA looked at how we can save money so he mentioned flying to Lisbon from Canada. He has booked a couple of things for us in the past - cruises, and US flights but it is the first time for Europe. Honestly, I'm not really interested in Lisbon or Athens or Brussels - just Paris, Rome and London but he said it's more expensive flying between those cities directly so use other routes for cheaps.

MsWorthy

Is it safe to assume that in the city centres, most of the tourist sites are walking distance?

Dayle

I'm sorry but the only safe assumption here is that your TA has no clue. This is nota trip I would do at any age. I certainly wish you luck and that you report back on how it goes!

Buon viaggio

MsWorthy

Hi Dayle - Thanks and whew... Starting to think this might be more of a headache than a trip. For the deal we got $1400 CAD (1000eu) for a RT EuroTrip departing from Canada-- we thought we got a deal. Oh well.

anyegr

If you actually wanted to see all these places and had a very short time to squeeze them all in, maybe it would be ok. But you don't seem very enthusiastic about some of the cities.

If you aren't interested in Lisbon, Athens or Brussels, why would you waste time going there? You say it's cheaper. Well, time has a value, too. It's your vacation days being thrown away on places you say you aren't really interested in.

Why would anyone want to fly between London and Paris, anyway? Considering the waiting time at the airport it would probably be faster to take the train. More comfortable, too.

Have you already paid money for this? You say the flights are non-refundable. Does that include flights within Europe?

You talk about having to pay $500 for a flight from Rome to London. Is that for both of you or only one ticket? A quick search on Ryanair found a flight from Rome Ciampino to London Stansted on February 19 for ca 60 Euro. Even if you add the extra costs (for a checked bag and priority boarding and the Stansted Express into London) I doubt you'd get above 100 Euro for one person. Of course, Ryanair usually only have a few of those cheap tickets, but I can see the same price for the next day, too.

And no, most tourist sites will NOT be in walking distance from each other in the big cities. Fortunately, both London and Paris have decent tube/bus networks, so you don't have to walk all the time. I've heard Rome has a good transport system, too, but I've never used it. No idea about Lisbon or Athens.

NewbE

Not walking distance, but easily accessed via public transportation and some walking.

As for the cities you're not really interested in:

Assuming that nothing is refundable or changeable, how about getting interested in Athens, Lisbon and Brussels? I mean, you can bemoan mistakes made, or try to get excited about the trip you have planned, which I think you can do. I dont mean to go all sunshine and rainbows on you, but it's really a matter of attitude; this trip CAN be fun.

Sassafrass

Your TA should have taken into account all the extra costs of returning to Lisbon, plus the time wasted getting to and from airports, through security, etc, on your vacation. You should have been booked multi-city, into London, train to Paris, fly to Rome, home from Rome. But, at this point, you work with what you've got and you will be visiting Lisbon.

Cut as much as you can to make the trip heavier on being there and less on getting there, and use what you would spent in airports and planes to actually be doing some decent sightseeing.

Of course, do not use that TA again. Guess that was a given after this experience.

nytraveler

I'm not clear on if this is one ticket with many legs or separate tickets. If the latter I would dump the internal european ticket and just find the best/most inexpensive way to get to and fro the places you actually want to see. There are several discount airlines (which your TA did NOT book you on) and you can minimize your wasted time.

However, if it's all one gigantic ticket you just can't omit legs or the rest will be cancelled. So - first, check into that. In that case I would talk to the travel agent and find out how to fix this at the lowest possible cost (and ask the agent to eat part of this mess).

Second, figure out where you really want to go

Then get low cost tickets on discount airline or trains (London-Paris or vice versa) and enjoy as much as you can.

janisj

What nyt mentions is VERY important . . . If it is one booking and not separate tickets you may be totally stuck (screwed actually) w/ this mess. If it is a series of separate tickets, you can possibly 'eat' one or more and actually save a bit of money booking easyJet or similar to get back to Lisbon.

>>but he said it's more expensive flying between those cities directly so use other routes for cheaps.<<

I shouldn't be piling on --- but this totally ridiculous. Yes the flight might be a bit more expensive . . . but you are spending tons more on all the transfers and such. I'll be you could have done the trip for less booking your own flight to where you actually want ed to go.

Your TA is a putz. I wish you luck.

MsWorthy

Thank you so much for all your helpful comments and suggestions.

@NewB - thanks for the encouragement. It's the Athens leg that really throws this itinerary out of whack, but looking at the bright side-- atleast we can see the Acropolis.

@nytraveler - thank you for the suggestion. Spoke with my TA and he mentioned that he did warn us before we paid that it is nonrefundable. He said it is changeable but for a fee. I asked if we can take out Brussels, and just leave from Paris to Rome -- and he did say it is possible to change but it means CHANGE FEE plus FLIGHT difference.

@Sassafrass - thank you. Yes - I'm trying to get creative and see how can this itinerary work..

@Anyegar -thank you! I guess we'll have to factor in cab fares but hopefully we can use the buses without sacrificing the little time we have in each city.