Traveling to Europe before the Internet

I remember doing a three month Eurail pass and carrying a huge Thomas Cook rail schedule. I also remember carrying a pretty substantial file of copies, maps, and torn pages from dozens of guide books. When someone suggests it's awkward to travel with a laptop -- if only they knew!

There were these things called guide books, plus the Thomas Cook timetable NP mentions, plus accommodations books, plus tourist aid offices --

plus an antiques called telephones and the even more antique stamps, envelopes and paper

Right NeoPatrick!

My father was the big planner then, and we were living in Saudi Arabia. He used to live by the guidebooks -- Frommer's "Europe on $5 a Day," and "Europa Touring" with both maps and hotel recommendations and phone numbers (I still have his last copy). Yes, folks really depended on travel agents to get the train schedules or rental cars and to make hotel arrangements (the travel agent books had photos of the hotels).

It was a different world then!

s

I remember just finding tourist offices and relying a lot on their help. I remember calling locally for train and bus schedules, and/or asking hotels to call. I also remember relying much more on guidebooks, and not always eating as well as we do now, with personal recs from the Internet.

Also, we didn't go as often back then.

There weren't the same sort of car rentals deals; or, at least I didn't know how to find them in pre Internet days.

Let's Go travel book and info obtained from train stations.

Most Swiss families used to have a very thick book containing all train connections within Switzerland. They had to be replaced annually.

The internet has made it so much easier to plan a train journey.

I have thought of this too. In some ways, it was easier. Today there are too many choices. We read guidebooks and if a hotel had a decent review, we stayed there. Today one tends to agonize over selecting a place to stay. Even if there are 99 good reviews of a hotel its the 1 negative review that will drive you crazy. I try not to do this by the way.

My first trip was a 3 month Eurorail trip in 1974. We bought charter air tickets and the Eurorail pass before going over. We carried "Europe on $5 a Day" along with another travel book and ripped out each section to pass on to other backpackers and lighten our load as we went. We had mapped out a general route and then in additon to our books relied on advise from other kids for specific places to stay and things to do. As for train schedules we would check the schedule for our next destination when we arrived in a new town. We had a fabulous trip - one of the highlights of my life.

One thing you didn't mention, which I just had a conversation with someone the other day about was telephoning home. We didn't. It was too expensive and would have involved going to an American Express office and waiting hours for a line. We said good bye at the airport and then 3 months later siad hi to our parents when they picked us up at the airport! Seems fuuny now, but that was the way it was.

Since my first trip to Europe was in 1968, perhaps I can provide some perspective.

> How did you know train schedules?

You go to the train station and look at the "Departures" sign. You could do this the night before (to ensure you wouldn't miss a train by five minutes), just show up at the train station and wait for the next train to your destination, or look at the next train and decide if it goes to a place you were thinking of going to.

> How did you buy tickets?

Go to the ticket booth and buy them. If you mean rail passes, you'd mail your check to the office selling them.

> How did you find a place to stay?
I know you didn't ask this, but this has been the BIGGEST change for me.

Your guidebook would list several recommended places with approximate prices. You'd go to them, one at a time, until you found one with a vacancy and (you hope) a price you're able to pay. Or you went to the central lodging office at the city, and allow them to find you a place.

> How did you find the best air fares?

Back then travel agents would do this for free.


I am not IN ANY WAY nostalgic for those days -- I MUCH prefer using the Internet for finding the best transport ptices, reading rail schedules, buying the appropriate pass, and finding lodging in the next city you'll be stopping at.

Barblab, Three months in Europe. Sounds like heaven!

My first trip was in 1991 and it certainly was seat-of-the-pants compared to the way we travel now! (Or course, being 22 years old and knowing everything helps. ) We had a Rick Steves guide, I remember, and an idea of all the historical places in London we wanted to see. We bought Britrail passes here and had NO lodgings or meals planned. We mostly stayed in youth hostels and B&Bs. We took the train to Dover and the Hovercraft to Calais, then the train to Paris...as I recall someone at a hostel told us which station to go to and we just showed up.

I shudder a bit now over all the things we missed doing because we didn't know *what* we were doing, but we had a blast.

KL467 - 3 months was great, and in 1974 we did it from LA for $1200.! I was just remembering we only bought the Eurorail pass for 2 months and hitch hiked in the UK and Ireland since it was not covered on the pass. That was such a safe and acceptable way to travel then, even for women. Times change.

By the way, I wish I had all the money I spent on the faxes and phone calls making reservations in Europe before the days of the internet and before they started offering decent phone rates to Europe. For a five month trip, all hotels reserved, that was one big hunk of money!

No travel agent-Frommer's and Fodor's travel guides and I had a Eurail time table book. I read everything I could find before my first trip in 1983. There were still lots of unexpected things. My son and I had a 1 month Eurail pass and we came home after 2 weeks. I had a couple of bad experiences, but I was not pick pocketed.

It wasn't easy...but like everything else, you did it if you wanted to travel. We somehow did it...my first Fodors' Guidebook was for Eastern Europe, 1983..for decades before that I used brochures and maps from each country which I fetched at the various consulates in Boston or L.A., or wrote to the NY Tourist Office for each. Bookstores had one shelf or less for guidebooks back then. Same for my first trip to Ireland and the UK...just a handful of guide books at the small corner book store...now there are shelves and shelves. National Geographic was an excellent tool....my aunt bought me a subscription when I was 12 and renewed it every year until I returned from the service and started college....then I kept it up, on and off for many years.

None of these "hardships" took one moment of joy from us...we just didn't know any better way. It is hard to imagine for many of you who have never "watched" your radio when your favorite program was on!! Yes, we did just that! Imagination is a powerful tool.

stu t.

There was a time before the internet?

I don't know how we lived without it.

Ah, the first trip was in 1988 and I read my "Let's Go Europe" cover to cover before we left. Armed with that, a Eurail Pass, and the Thomas Cook Rail schedule we had a fabulous 6 weeks.

After that I was hooked and started a collection of pages torn from travel magazines and read everything travel-related I could get my hands on.
I remember faxing requests for hotel reservations and waking up in the middle of the night, excited to hear the fax machine go off with a reply.

NeoPatrick-you gave me a chuckle with your laptop comment. I totally agree. My laptop is smaller and lighter than most thick magazines and certainly weighs less than all the guidebooks I used to tote around.

I've just come back from a 2 month trip with my husband and 2 children (14 and 11) in the age of the internet and it was a dream. We only had one poor accomodation choice which was the only one where we used a reservation service instead of the internet. Most places I just booked the night before.

This was in stark contrast to the trip my husband and I did 25 years ago armed with very little cash and a copy of Let's Go Europe. The biggest difference was the budget.

Patrick, so true. I remember my first trip to Europe in 1972, flying with Freddie Laker from LAX with a mandatory refueling stop in Bangor, Maine. I spent a lot of time and money on phone calls in those days. No faxes, no internet, lots of guidebooks and notes galore. Great memories but I wouldn't want to go back to those dark ages.

In re-organizing past trip materials last week, I came across the letters I received in reply to requests for hotel reservations from trips in the 1980s. They were very sweet to see, but using the internet is much easier!

Yes, I remember many guidebooks, and in particular one dusty, small and old-looking book about castle hotels in Germany/Austria. I took it to our travel agent, who was helping us plan our honeymoon, and told her we wanted to stay at one, and would she make the reservations. My feeling at the time was, she had told us she would plan our trip, this was part of our trip, and if she didn't want to do it, she could say no (as I recall, we paid the phone charges). Not quite the way travel agents work today, but to be honest, I don't think they worked that way back then, either. But she did make that reservation!

Other than plane and train reservations, that was the last time we used a travel agent.

When we took our firs trip to Italy which was for two months we obtained our airline tickets through a Travel Agency in our city. They made reservations for our hotel for the first two nights and reserved our rental car through Hertz beginning two days after we arrived in Italy.

While wondering around Milan the day after arrival we went into a book store and purchased the Touring Club Italiano maps, one for Northern Italy and one for Southern Italy. We purchased a few of other maps also for Milan, Venice, Florence and Rome.

We got referral for restaurants from waiters while having our morning espresso at a cafe or while walking around we would see a restaurant that was appealing and make a reservation for that night.

Often the hotel we stayed at phoned for us and made reservations at the next location if we knew where we would be that night. Otherwise we found a hotel on our own if we were not sure.

Somehow it all worked out just beautiful. But Italy didn't have the amount of tourist back than as it has had these last years.

Oh, when we arrived at Malpensa Airport (the old airport which was very small) we had no idea how to get into Milan. I saw a ticket booth for bus tickets. They sold the tickets for the Malpensa Shuttle bus. Within 20 minutes or so we were on our way to the center of Milan. We got a taxi to take us to our hotel. I had my Italian all figured out but the joke was the taxi driver only spoke French! That was a riot. Good times!

Hi Loveitaly, I structered my early trips to Europe about the same way.
I would have the hotels book another hotel for the next leg of the trip. I had a travel agent make the initial reservations for cars, transfers, first and last hotels.

I would go to a convenient travel agency and pick up travel brochures for the places I was planning on visiting. I would look at the routes of their tours and where they stayed and read all the little blurbs about the places. This is how I decided which area to stay in, what to see and what to expect. I also used the thomas Cook rail schedule like a bible. I tore out the pages of the countries I would be visiting. Before I left on one trip I remember mapping out all the railways I would be using in Switzerland and Germany.

The only real big difference I notice now, besides the crowds of tourists, is the ease with which I can phone around. I used to have to put in my name at my hotel or tourist board to get on the list for an international call or to another European country.

I remember one hotel in Venice where I put myself on the list in the afternoon and forgot about it, at about two in the morning I got the call from the front desk that my call had finally gone through. Another time I called home in a booth in a hotel lobby and the desk charged me by the minute for the time I was in the booth.

Then progress intervened and a few years later I could use prepaid cards but I had to match the card to the payphone and dial all sorts of numbers and then it was a guess if it would go through.

Hard to believe it was not that long ago.

My brother and I went to Europe in 1966 with another friend and his sister shortly after graduating from college. My brother bought a tiny BMW with the door in the front for $350. His friend bought a new VW to take back to the US for his dad. We spent three months wandering through six countries- no hotel reservations at all. We either stayed at campgrounds in our little tents or in hotels- sometimes pensiones or even the Ritz in Madrid. There was a great exchange rate that summer so my part of the trip didn't cost much more than $1000!
This was a memorable experience for all four of us.

Before the internet we used guide books, other resources if we had access (my company travel department had a book with practically every hotel in the world and you could fax them) and travel agents.

I had a really great agent at AmEx who had traveled to europe a lot - and got us some great deals (either reduced prices and/or additional freebies). But we used her only for flights and upscale hotels (which paid her commissions.)

We generally did road trips and just reserved a car from here (by calling Hertz, Avis and a bunch of other companies for comparison). If we needed train tickets we got them when we got there.

Being in NYC made it easy since most major tourist destinations had an office of their national tourist board in Manhattan that you could go visit and collect literally dozens and dozens of brochures on every travel topic you could think of. They offered brochures on cities and provinces, hotels, cars, trains, tours, camping, list of local events - everything you could think of. Actually it was very convenient to have it all in one place.

In other parts of the country you had to call them and they would send you a pack of brochures.

I would like to thank everyone for taking the time to explain the pre-Internet days. It makes me really appreciate what we have now.

It seems that now we get to utilize our "time" and "money" in Europe better because most of our planning is done back home.

We were living in Germany in the early-mid 70s, so traveled mostly by car. We used guide books and read lots of history and art books. When we wanted to see something, we just got a map and language book and headed in that direction; no hotels booked, no restaurant recs, no guides; but with two young children in tow. Somehow it always worked out. Back then, there were no lines for anything.

This is one funny thing no one else mentioned, or at least I didn't see it.

I don't know how widespread this was in other parts of the country. It didn't seem to be true in bigger cities, but at that time, in Northern Italy, there were some small, local banks that were allowed to print currency. It was equivalent to the Lira, but was only accepted as currency within that town or city. There were also local phone systems that took tokens, not coins. It was acceptable for shop keepers to give change in the local currency or in phone tokens that worked only in the local system.
We probably still have some of the tokens and currency that we were given in Vicenza, and couldn't spend anywhere else. We quickly learned to ask for change in Lira,and refuse change in phone tokens or local currency.

How did we travel back then? We learned what we needed as we went. It is easier now and fun to plan, but traveling that way made my kids very self relient and adventurous.

Oh my gosh Sassafras, you reminded me, when on the autostrada's we would get change that was coins for the public phones rather than lira. I have some of those in my safe, lol.

Actually KL I strongly feel travelling in Italy "back then" was so much easier. We arrived in Pisa for example, found a great hotel and went to the tower. No need for a reservation to climb to the top of the tower and buying a ticket was not necessary. The same when we arrived in Rome. We had a reservation at a hotel..made by the hotel we stayed at a night or two before. One just walked into the Colloseum..no ticket, no lines. The same with seeing David in Florence. I know SeaUrchin knows what I am talking about. A much easier way to enjoy Italy.

My father was in the Air Force, stationed in Hawaii, when he retired in 1961. Being adventurous and reasonably well-traveled (we'd lived in Japan in the mid-50's when I was six years old), Mom and Dad decided that we should live in Europe for a year, deciding that Geneva was a good place. To get there we would travel "space available" (possibly a term familiar term to other military brats), meaning that when there was space on a military aircraft or seats on commercial aircraft pre-purchased by the military, we would fly free.

In preparation for this trip (from Oahu to Wake to Guam to the Phillipines, to Thailand, to India, to Saudi Arabia, to Libya, to Malta, then Europe, Mom and Dad wrote letters and made a very few phone calls (one didn't dawdle on long distance calls in those days). I was accepted at a private school in Geneva (where my parents were sure we could find reasonable accommodations) and my sister (who'd completed her freshman year in college) would go to university in Munich.

Other preparations were made on the fly - contact hotels the day before arriving, use the old-boy network, show up in a train station to find the right train, and walk from train stations to search for hotel rooms. This is what we did in Rome - when we arrived at 9:00 pm, Dad and I (a lad of 14) started walking in areas around the train station (Termini?), leaving my mother and sister to sit on bags at the station until we returned with a hotel room key in our hot little hands. When we returned to the station 90 minutes later, we learned that they had been approached by several gentlemen ready to inquire their price!!!

My parents did have friends all over the world, or so it seemed to me. But I do know that we were also VERY flexible. As it turned out, in part due to "difficulties" associated with the Berlin Wall in the summer of 1961 and in part due to the cost of living in Geneva, we did not stay for our year in Geneva. On the other hand, our family had a glorious two-month adventure all over the world (no - it was not "slow travel').

Today I spend hours and hours on the internet and make international telephone calls without a care. I'm SO concerned that I get us just the right hotel or apartment and just the right restaurant and just the right train and just the right rental car. I enjoy the planning, but there's a part of me that thinks that the way we did it "before the internet" was also fun.

Sorry if this reminiscence is long and boring, but perhaps other old farts had similar experiences and have had similar rememberances.

Sam

Sam, you brought back my memory of arriving at a train station in the late afternoon or early evening, taking to a person at a travler's desk and picking out a hotel, getting a voucher for that evening.

The first time I went to Sorrento this is what we did. We drove into town, stopping in Meta and getting a voucher for the Hotel Riviera. Since it was last minute, the price was about half of what it would cost, the room had a wraparound porch and views of the sea and Naples. We stayed a week for very little money.

I was in Italy and Spain for 5 weeks in the late sixties (my parents planned that first trip), and a couple of times in the seventies, then for a 3 month stay in the eighties, plus a few lesser trips. I remember the lack of cell phones and internet cafes, wow. I never have used a travel agent, although my parents must have consulted one for my first trip.

I was in Florence around the time of the Flood, and do remember being able to wander in to see the David easily without reservations and crowds all armed with digital point and shoot cameras.
And the city was still showing many effects of the flood, everyone was still working to clean up.

Once I stayed for awhile with a couple who lived in a huge place up around Fiesole and I have such good memories of how peaceful everything was. Tuscany had much less traffic for example. And of course there was no airport for Florence back then.
There were summer crowds of students, nothing like today though. And of course there were still many Florentines living in the Center of Florence, whereas today many have moved out and there are crowds of immigrant vendors instead.

I bought a rail pass for travel, and even back then I would meet and talk to people and that's the way I got recommendations on where to eat, etc.

On my 3 months stay I was mostly staying with friends I had met back here in NYC, who then passed me along to other friends, so I only stayed in hotels a couple of times, and those were recommended by people I stayed with. Then I stayed with a painter who lived in Padua and we went into Venice a few times with other people who lived there.

I remember the difficulty of making international calls back home.

I still have my crumbling maps of Florence and Rome from back in the "old days".

I don't remember how I scheduled train rides, but I do remember just kind of waiting for the next train.

I remember riding up in the front car with the engineer on a Spanish train from Madrid to Toledo- I don't think that would happen today!

I wasn't using credit cards or ATMs. I still miss the Lira (as do some of the Italians I know!).

I like the Internet for the vast amount of information I have found during my research since it emerged, and for the wonderful friendships with people in Europe I can maintain with email (I remember writing letters home in tiny script on those blue tissue papery folding airmail letters that took forever to get there. I was so surpised recently when a friend from the Amalfi Coast actually wrote me via snail mail- i had never seen his handwriting before!

The internet has changed the way I make my memories, because of email and forums like this one.
I used to make elaborate scrapbooks filled with my drawings and all the little pieces of my journeys. Today when I open them, I can almost breath the air I was breathing when the moment happened. And now there is more typing away on a keyboard and more technology so everything is so easy and breezy that things just go by in a flash. I kind of miss those slower times of just simples sights and smells and tastes without any electronics to interrupt the flow of things- Today I have a friend who is running around in India and writing us a daily blog-very different!

Perhaps surprisingly, I found it easier to get accommodation twenty years ago. When I arrived in a European city in those days, my chance of getting a room in a hotel was pretty good, because they weren't being overbooked on the Internet. I have read posts on this Branch in which folks write about booking several hotels in the one city, deciding at the last moment at which one they will stay, and cancelling the others. The practice seems not uncommon, and that means that Ratestogo or similar sites can usually meet my needs nowadays, but it's still more time-consuming than just rocking up on the day as I once did.
On the other hand, tickets are much easier and cheaper to purchase on the Internet than my former-days practice of using travel agents.
For trains, I have maintained the former routine: I turn up at a station and get on the next train heading to where I want to go: There always seems to be one leaving 'soon'.

ttt

Interesting thread. I've often thought about this when reliving my first trip in the summer of '69. Like barblab, we spent 3 months in Europe. We only made reservations in the advance in the larger cities. Used telexes and that archaic form of letters with stamps. With all other places, we used the "zimmer/room" booths in the train stations. Never had a bad experience and more often than not, we'd get a room in someone's apartment and met some wonderful people in the process.

Got a 2 month Eurail Pass, but spent the first 3 weeks in UK where it wasn't honored. Then, we validated it when we got to the continent. We simply got on a train when it was convenient. Only had to make reservations when we used the old TEE trains. The only other time Eurail Pass wasn't good and we had to buy tickets was going to West Berlin through East Germany from Hannover. At the height of the cold war (and Vietnam) THAT was an experience.

We took two books with us: Frommer's on $5 Day, and Thomas Cook Rail Guide. We really splurged and budgeted $10 Day instead of $5 !! We had worked out our itinerary ahead of time on a typewriter and took copies of that.

Had probably the most memorable summer I've every had. And come to think of it, it wasn't a hassle at all.

Use guidebooks, telephone airlines and receive tickets by return mail, fax the hotel for reservations.

We remember having to send those silly "international reply coupons" to inexpensive, small, non-chain hotels to ensure that we got a reply to our request for reservations (and the fun of dealing with small post offices who had no idea what those reply coupons were). Then when we arrived to check into the hotel, we'd watch the staff leaf through their ring binders looking for our original letter written on thin, flimsy air mail paper.

Re trains v. cars, my first trips to Europe were in high school groups or as a Rotary exchange student, so somebody else dealt with the transit details.

I'm not surprised that the Internet took so long to come into widespread use...advanced technology and all that. But why did it take the world so long to get luggage with wheels?

<why did it take the world so long to get luggage with wheels>

NO KIDDING!!!!!!!!!

Six month trip starting June, 1963: PanAm IDL(JFK)-ORY, and nothing planned after that.

We had a blast. After we picked up my new VW at the factory, we cruised all over Germany, Switzerland, Italy, France, Monaco, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the UK by driving to the next town and finding a hotel at the Tourist Center in the train station. Sometimes our hotelier would recommend his friend in the next town.

I turned 21 in Baden-Baden, and the beaches of the Côte d'Azur were rife with opportunity for fun, both horizontal and vertical. The UK was a-flutter with the Great Train Robbery and the Profumo scandal. It was a fine year to come of age in Europe.

The first trip I planned was in 1984 (three weeks in Belgium, France, Germany, Austria and Switzerland). I used the Birnbaum Travel Guide written by the late travel author Stephen Birnbaum.

He had some pretty good driving itineraries, and I continually made it from Point A to Point B without a navigation device or viamichelin print-out. I even put the correct gas in the car.

<why did it take the world so long to get luggage with wheels>?

Because it used to be that European Travel was reserved for the wealthy who also had people to transport that luggage for them?

It was very easy when I travelled as a teenager through Europe. I only reserved the first night hotel and then I learned about better places to stay from other teens that I got to know on the train or beer pub. I remember paying 15 pounds a night to stay at a brand new YMCA skyscraper in central London. There was a lot more element of surprise back then, thankfully I was young and didn't care much where I stayed.

We did tons of reading & then attempted (usually several times) to make an international call for reservations. We also used snail mail as well.

I worked at the corporate headquarters of my company, and we had an International Department. They had a Hotel Redbook and an international airline guide, as well as a well-traveled VP who just loved to share information. We also had a telex machine before there were fax machines. I'm so old.

I remember wanting to stay badly at a certain small hotel in London because it was in a great location. I found out about it from a Fodor's guidebook which listed the phone number. I first called them to get the exact rates and check availability. Then they required a deposit, but did not accept credit cards. I had to go get a Thomas Cook office to get a money order in British pounds and mail it to them in order to hold the room. I'm so glad those days are over!

I'm so old that I remember in order to place a call back to the states, I had to go to a calling center and they actually placed the call while you wait along with many others.

I was just having this conversation with my best friend from college and travel companion on a blessed 6-week tour of Europe in 1989! We were recounting how many times we slept outside (in parks, on beaches - SCARY!) because we'd arrive in a town and there would be no room for us at the local hostel.

Really, we had a train schedule and our Let's Go Europe. And we just went. We made a lot of phone calls to hostels and pensione from the train station, or as someone else noted, we'd wander from place to place, checking out our options. It was pretty great - such an adventure.

And now my trips are all thoroughly planned in advance. Perhaps too thoroughly. Thanks to the internet, not only can I make bookings for hotels and restaurants, but I can actually SEE PICTURES of all those places before I even get there. And I can "chat" with many people who have already been there, done that. Talk about taking the mystery out of travel!

I traveled with a friend for 2 months through Europe the summer of 1988. I had one bag with all of my belongings and an Eurorail pass. We had no reservations - we decided each day what we wanted to do and where we wanted to go. We would pick a train going somewhere interesting, and when we arrived, we would go to the Tourist Information booth and get a hotel we could afford. (These hotels were sometimes very interesting as you can imagine!). We had traveler's checks which we would cash as needed. We had "Let's Go Europe" to give us suggestions as to what to see and do. Also, this was before the Euro, so each time we would arrive in a new country, we would exchange our money then head straight to a McDonalds to buy a milkshake to make sure we understood the exchange rate!

We'd go with a charter flight, 2 month Eurail pass, a Fodor's or Frommer's guide book, suitcase, and that was it. We'd just go with the flow.

No reservations, no pre-planned itinerary, we found our own restaurants. For hotels, sometimes we'd use one from the guide books, sometimes we'd stop at the tourist office at the train station.

Sometimes if my friends and I split up, we'd arrange to meet again in a particular city on a particular date and leave messages for one another at the Amex office. It was great fun. I did several trips like that, with a lot of repeat destinations. I loved arriving in a foreign city and knowing my way around - and looking up friends I'd met on a previous trip. Still do.

One of the fun things about travelling pre-internet was a trip to the Poste Restante. Flicking through the mail to find you own and okay, maybe read other people's postcards too.

Alternatively, you stood in line for your mail at the Poste Restante or American Express office, chatting with other travellers, getting recommendations of places to stay and see. Then you'd be handed (hopefully!) a large stack of mail and you'd retreat to the nearest cafe to savor all the news from your friends and family.

Does anyone else remember that?

Once, there was a postal strike in Greece and I remember looking mournfully through the window of the post office to see mail scattered in piles on the floor. I slipped a note through the letter box asking if they could send my mail on when the strike was finished. Two months later, I was living in the UK and was thrilled to receive a thick envelope of mail sent from the Santorini Poste Restante. It was like receiving Greek sunshine on a dreary London day!

Actually planning was less stressful before the internet. Now there is too much opportunity to overthink.

We spent 6 months in Europe in 1972 and that is when I became a guidebook cuckoo. We would choose a hotel from the guide book and ask someone at the hotel where we staying to call ahead for us.

There were less choices becasue we had less money.

We traveled many times to Europe after that. I would do my research and then give a travel agent, remember them, the itinerary and she would book all the hotels and flights.

The travel agents at that time rarely went to the smaller towns in Europe, so had to guide them.

I had an wonderful travel agent who I believe still works in Orange County, CA. She booked air, trains and big city hotels for us. In smaller towns we went to the tourist office to find B&Bs or tried places friends recommended. Only got one bum place from a tourist office during 3 trips to Europe. I phoned the Hotel Petrisberg in Trier, West Germany from Switzerland and had a funny conversation that was a mishmash of German and English. When we arrived our reservation was in order and it was a lovely hotel.

In pre-EuroStar Paris train service was interrupted by a strike (gee, who knew?). We did not know if our train would run to the coast for the ferry to Dover. The staff of the Hotel Welcome called and called for us to try to get info to no avail but on the scheduled day our train chugged away without a problem. However the train from Kings Cross to York had engine trouble and we had no way to tell the owners of the Bootham Bar hotel that we would be late. They very nearly gave up on us and locked up for the night.

I also remember traveling with a friend in the 1980s and calling home to give our parents an update on where we were. We took a pile of coins into the phone box and I kept feeding the machine while she talked. Then her mom called mine to give the update.

I researched with library books and magazines. I bought Baedeker's guides for the sights (still have one of those) and found restaurants on my own. I discovered Rick Steves guides in the late 80s. I would guess from his TV shows that Steves and I are about the same age. I noticed in recent years he likes a little more comfort and amenities to his hotels too.

I wouldn't trade the experiences for anything.

Yes, PairofDiceLost, I remember Poste Restante and American Express pick up. In those days it didn't seem necessary to keep in daily touch with "home". I am grateful to parents who let me go without letting me know of what worries they might have had. I did send them regular post cards and my grandmother faithfully sent news via those two channels.

A little more to add to my previous post. Sometimes when we would get off the train, there would be people at the station soliciting boarders for rooms in their homes. We actually stayed in a home in Nice with a little old lady and her husband! We were literally in their guest bedroom (all 5 of us - we had picked up some friends on the way!) Times have changed . . .

Postcards, oh yes, that was the way to keep in touch with loved ones at home. And the postcards took such a long time to arrive but everyone so enjoyed receiving them.

I think the biggest difference is that people now think they can (and must) cram a month-long trip into 10-14 days. Trips are over-planned, over-scheduled marathons.

The other enormous impact is the proliferation of super-cheap inter-Europe airline fares that allow Europeans to take 2-3 day getaway trips and non-Europeans to strive for the above-referenced 30-day-trip-in-14-days.

I remember back in the 70's and 80's that you had to set your alarm clock for the middle of the night here in the states (usually around 3AM) to call a hotel overseas to make and confirm a reservation-thank heavens for the internet now!!

I have a question about the postcards from home. For those who moved around a lot, how did family and friends know where to mail the postcards to?

KL467,

About receiving mail. most people I knew who took long trips had a general itinerary, based mostly on geography. I remember a particular friend's three-month trip--"I'll start in London, then head to Paris, then Milan, then Rome." Certainly he traveled to more place than that in three months, but that's where I sent he four letters he received from me--the the American Express office in each of those cities. The news he received was not very "current," but he was delighted to receive any word from home.

I did some pre planning - usually just deciding where i wanted to go, then went. No reservations, no guidebooks. I was bicycling so I had no idea how far i would ride one day. If the weather got bad, I would hop a train and go somewhere else. Never a problem.

I got my ticket from a travel agent. Since my sister had been a travel agent, I used the company she had worked for. Just went down one day and looked in their book and picked a flight.

Boy, this brings back memories!

As I have recounted on other threads, my first solo trip to Europe was in 1970, aged 17. Three months. Started and ended in Paris, visited Switzerland and Britain too.

I had a Canadian Youth Hostel Assn membership and handbook of hostels, a primitive map of France, a few addresses and telephone numbers, my American Express Travellers Cheques and an "international student's card".

Oh, and I had a stamp on my passport to say I had provided the British High Commission here in Canada with some proof I planned to return in the Fall -- this was said to expedite admission to the UK.

Apart from the above, I had NOTHING else to go on. Not even "Europe on $5 a day". (I would have considered $5 extravagant, actually)

How did I manage?

1. Hitch-hiked everywhere. In the UK, I never waited more than 5 minutes for a ride, at any motorway entrance. Countryside was slower.

2. Shamelessly descended on/ cadged off friends' parents and the parents of friends of friends.

That's how I ended up staying in an Ambassador's residence in Switzerland...and visting Les Baux with some American political grandees from Washington... and having drinks with a Lady Vansittart in her mansion overlooking Hyde Park...

3. Hooked up with groups of complete strangers who became instant, short-term friends. Trading info and advice was a daily exercise in those dreary hostel common rooms.

4. Accommodation in London and other large cities was found just as people indicated: You went to the train station and asked where there were rooms. There were thousands of kids on the roads and the support provided in London especially was exemplary.

Later I discovered London House, a U. of London residence (Mecklenburg Square). In the summer, they rented rooms to Commonwealth students on a first come, first served basis. A single room with telephone and maid service was L 1.50. Meals downstairs in their beautiful dining room were about 40 pence/ a dollar.

5. I had a groundsheet and perhaps a sleeping bag for emergencies. They were few but they did happen. I withstood the (small) hardships with a stoicism that amazes me today.

EG: being dropped off in central Paris late in the evening and having nowhere to stay. I actually slept on a park bench by the Arc du Carrousel. I was so naive that I did not understand I was in a major male cruising zone. Perhaps it was the constant foot-traffic past my bench that kept me from being robbed or murdered! But I was just mad at the lack of peace and quiet around me.

6. Mail was American Express. International telephone calls required a 1-2 hour wait in the Post Office. You waited in line with passport in hand to cash your traveller's cheques, checking the rate posted in white plastic numerals on a black board...

7. With a student's card you could visit a student travel bureau where discount and charter flights (and maybe train tickets) were sold. From a trip the following year: Paris Le Bourget to LHR for (I think) $13! LHR to Ljubljana for $27!

8. The other great bargain: the last-minute theatre box office in Leicester Square. I saw the greatest actors of their generation -- Geilgud, Richardson -- and many other big names (Diana Rigg, Alec MacGowan, Maggie Smith, Gladys Cooper) from "the gods". I often paid only 5 shillings/ 25 pence (this was the period of conversion to decimal and prices were listed in 2 forms)!

We relied on the "travel police" or the equivalent of "travelers' aid" office in train stations, with very few exceptions. I don't even know if any countries still have them -- doubt it -- closest would be some of the "information" areas that might or might not have a hotel-booking service (for a fee).

When it was two of us single, 20-something women, the person in the travel-assistance office would make a point of finding us a room in a safe area -- she (usually a woman) would call the hotel or rooming house, give them our names, and then we'd head over there.

I think it's not just the difference in technology that makes traveling without reservations now impossible. There are just many, many times more tourists now, flooding European countries in particular.

Someone asked how family knew where to send mail. I went with a rough itinerary and so they sent letters where I might be. some of my mail never caught up with me. After thirty days (maybe 60 days), it was returned to sender. My grandmother and mother collected these and bundled them up to send to me. I was back at college by the time the letters returned to the States, so was glad to receive them even though late.

I love this post. My first trip was in '78 with Frommer's Europe on $15 a Day and the Eurail time table book. Six countries in one month. Got off the plane or train and looked for a room. It was important to get to a destination early in the day to get a decent one. In Munich we stayed with a friend of my travel buddy. This trip (Baltimore-Amsterdam-Baltimore) cost $1,000 for air, Eurailpass, lodging, meals, everything.

Sometimes people would meet the trains and let us look at pictures of their homes/b&bs and the rooms they were renting. We wound up in a charming place (although in the middle of nowhere) outside Salzburg. Or we would look for the "i" (tourist information office) and ask for assistance. I think they were a lot busier then than they are today.

We would change money at the American Express office. Once (1989) while in line for an hour at the AE in Athens I struck up a conversation with an Australian woman who was traveling for 18 months. Oh, how I envied her as my vacation was a mere two weeks. We were both heading to Mykonos the next day and decided to travel together. We got along well enough that we decided to room together. Funny how I would never do that here. On the same trip I met a woman on the ferry from Mykonos to Santorini and we shared a room once we reached the island. Afterwards, as I live in So. Calif. and she was living in San Francisco, we got together several times when I was up in SF on business.

Well, the edit button wasn't working for me. I wanted to add that I now do an enormous amount of research on hotels. The good part is that I can afford better hotels now. The serendipity is gone, but my travels are more rewarding. Access to information can be overwhelming at times, but websites such as this one is invaluable.

I miss lira and francs, I miss those gems one would stumble upon (lodging, meals, etc.), and I miss the lack of crowds. However, I have had the good fortune to experience travel the "old fashioned" way and the informed way, and I would not trade either for the other. Both were life experiences.

Gee, did none of you know about Green Guides and Red Guides, and Michelin Maps? These all existed long before the internet. There was this stuff called pencil and paper, too.

You could reserve a car through an American company.

Travel agents were the best resource for discounted plane tickets. And there was also Sir Freddy Laker and a host of charter companies that you could reserve, usually through a student travel service.

The trains had city ticket offices, I recall once booking the Madrid-Barcelona train at a Department store. And I knew how to use a telephone to call ahead if I thought it might be advisable.

We did occasionally use the odd old lady waiting for the busses to arrive. And the tourist offices in London and Paris were the place to go if you needed a room on the day of arrival.

I worked in Paris the summer of '66. I was 20 at the time. Every Saturday I went to get my mail at the Am Express Office near L'Opera. I often saw friends while I waited in line. There was a book to sign on the counter there which listed our addresses in town. I once saw the name of an acquaintance from college on the list. She was traveling with her Aunt and staying at the Ritz! I was on a budget and couldn't imagine such luxury.

I traveled for the last three weeks of my vacation on a eurail pass and visited a friend in Sweden. I had met her when I was 15 in Montpellier for a high school summer program. She also visited me in Paris. I got to meet her whole family.

My husband and I bought a car and spent the summer of '69 in Europe. We camped and had no problems finding places to stay. We also visited my Swedish friend and swam in the Baltic. Our budget was $15 a day. We packed exactly what Frommer reccommended in his $5 a day book.

I lost touch with my Swedish friend, but found her on the Internet and we reconnected in Sweden on her 60th birthday a few years ago.

I'm thankful that there was such a thing as eurail passes and friendly American Express offices that made travel possible for people like me who were traveling on limited funds. I also think that Frommer's book showed us how to travel well.

Now we have this board at Fodor's with good answers for almost any travel question. I couldn't have imagined this place 40 years ago..;

Funny this subject should come up. Swisshiker and I were just talking about this today as we were driving home from the Austin/SA GTG.

We would use guide books to find a hotel. Then we would phone or fax our request for reservations. Sometimes we would mail traveler's cheques in £, French Francs or whatever the local currency to make a deposit on the hotel.

It all seems so primitive now.

In those long ago days of yore, I was traveling within the Iron Curtain more often than not, doing research for three eventually published books.. now, that was hairy at times, especially driving a car with a German license plates which I did several times. Romania, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia used road bocks occasionally, to keep track of Western visitors. I used to rent my cars in Munich or Berlin...some agencies had restrictions but I could always depend on at least one to waive them. Petrol and food were two every day problems to face...many a time I found long lines at the petrol stations and no product. I would then stay at a nearby town and had the "hotel" clerk call the station to find out when they expected product. Quickly learned that for the best food choices the hotel in town was the best bet, and failing that I could usually count on any of my interviewees to fill a bag for me, even though they suffered terrible shortages. In exchange I would always leave some USD which was in great demand on the black market back then. Little grocery stores had precious little for sale . even to the locals who had
designated coupons.

Road maps were scarce, signage was poor or missing, and the roads in Romania, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia were either pot-holed, poorly maintained or neglected altogether.
Poland actually had the best road system in the region, closely followed by Hungary and Czechoslovakia (not what is now Slovakia, though).

In the USSR, I could never drive....mainly because they had no mechanism for renting a car to a Western foreigner, nor would they probably do so if they did...so I relied on busses usually.

In Romania, the Ceaucescu regime made it very difficult for foreign visitors. A Marine Sgt., a guard at the US Embassy in Bucharest, schooled me in what was going on in this regard. When I crossed the border from Bulgaria, the license plate on my German rental was phoned in to a central number in Bucharest. Each time I stopped anywhere (petrol, food, etc.)..once again my license # was phoned in to Central...and I along with all foreign drivers was duly tracked this way all over the country on three separate visits...

Yes, it was adventurous and exciting and full of anxious moments...and got old very fast.
On two of the journeys my wife had joined me.

The situation improved dramatically in the past 20 years, as many of you may have experienced. I took a group of my readership to both Romania and Bulgaria a year and an half ago and had a hard time convincing them of any of the above factual history.

Keep on truckin'...

stu t.