tessietoes

We booked our tickets to Greece!!!!!

Land in Santorini end of Sept with everything else open except maybe leave Paris for last. The logistics part is my least favorite planning part so if you have suggestions, links and advice on airlines, trains, ferries, car rentals it is much appreciated!

How would you rearrange the cities based on weather, what's going on art/music festivals, etc with around 70 days.

Crete
Meteora or (still undecided)

Driving (around 16 days - where to base maybe 4 days each)
Marseilles
Bordeaux
Limoges (maybe)
Loire

Moscow
St Petersburg
Amsterdam
Belgium
Brugges
Paris (day trip to London)

Any apps for our phones you found useful?
Hotels with comfortable beds under $150-200
except Santorini and St Petersburg up to $300 (Four Seasons is under $270 late Oct!)

And if you can suggest day trips and your favorite restaurants and the best stuff you ate then that would be really awesome. The travelers are myself and fiance.

Any advice is helpful and we appreciate everything.

Thank you!

tessietoes

Meant to say Brussels not Belgium

fuzzbucket

Not to be unkind, tessietoes, but it would be better to do some more research on the Internet for the things you want to do.
It's doubtful that anybody has visited all the places you want to go to.

If you Google the cities or regions you want to visit - just enter "tourisme Brussels" or "tourist guides", for example - you'll find all the expos, festivals, and suggested places to eat.

You should try using www.booking.com for hotels. You can filter for the price, as well as anything else you need.
I think you might find that 4 days in each city will have you losing at least one full day. It might be better to cut out some cities.

mjs

I have been to almost everywhere on your list except Limoges and Meteora. Am not sure why this particular list unless you have been to Europe before and have visited many of the more popular tourist destinations. Going to Crete can be difficult without going through Athens yet Athens is not part of your itinerary. Doing a day trip to London is another example does not make much sense time wise for a destination that probably has more things for visitors to do than anywhere else in Europe. I am also not sure where you are flying to from your home country and how you are returning. Seven weeks is a lot of time but there are limits to what you can do. It seems that you have budget around 25K which should be fine. Just do not know how to advise you without more information as to why you want to go where. It is better if you come up with your own itinerary and let the rest of us could help you fine tune it.

StCirq

<<Marseilles
Bordeaux
Limoges (maybe)
Loire>>

Sorry, but this is just a weird list and seems so random. Especially if you've booked tickets to Greece. Why on earth would anyone spend 4 days in/near Limoges?

Anything you want to know about art/music/festivals can easily be found on the official websites of any city/town/village in Europe.

You seriously need to do some basic research in guidebooks or on the web.

You are months away from needing info on restaurants and what people ate that pleased them, and that is so subective as to be useless, anyway.

If you booked tickets to Greece why are you roaming all over the Continent?

hetismij2

That late in the year there will not be a lot going on festival wise.

A day trip to London?? Really?

tessietoes

Yeah a day trip to London to meet a work friend for a meal most likely lunch. I should've mentioned that. I know it's a bit rushed with the 5 hour commute both ways. We might overnight. We've been to London a couple of times and loved it but would like to spend more time in other places.

It's obviously a loose draft and I wouldn't be surprised if there are in fact several people on this board who have been to all those places and could provide insight. We have 9 weeks total. I agree it's random. StCirq what's wrong with Limoges?? I have eaten on many a plates by them!! I know... we still need to do a lot of research obviously. Asking here is part of it since so many of you have seen these parts of the world that we haven't so hoping for anything useful not found in guidebooks. The drive from South/west France up to Paris is one we are really looking forward We'll have a couple of weeks to explore that area.

I understand the restaurants are subjective, aren't they all? Still it's fun to hear what people enjoyed as we might too.

menachem

your itinerary needs to be much more detailed before people can give advice based on their own travel experience.

eg. re Amsterdam: how many days do you have? what kind of stuff are you interested in? do you want to do day trips, etc

that's for you to lay out to us.

as it stands, my instinctual reaction was: go google it yourself.

tessietoes

Got it!

I realize the craziness of the question but we're still trying to figure it out ourselves.
Here's another loose draft and #-ish of nights:

Santorini 5 then ferry to
Crete 8 - stay in Chania in old venetian harbor - hotel overlooking the harbor would be nice!
fly to Athens then bus to
Meteora - 2 or 3 nights here to visit monasteries. This seems like a trek but the place looks amazing. I hope it's worth the getting there and back!

then fly to either Moscow or St Petersburg depending on flight prices availability from Athens airport. I think that's the nearest airport? Since we're going to be in Athens perhaps spend 2 nights here. Any favorite restaurants here?? I read Athens has fabulous dining options and can't wait to try. The less expensive of course the better but maybe we can space out the occasional splurge. Our travels are a mix of high low budget. Some dives, fancy..just kind of depends there aren't really any strict rules just being mindful of the value/experience.

then fly to Bordeaux (which airport?), rent car -
How to Visit Bordeaux Top Chateau for the Best Wine Tastings
http://www.thewinecellarinsider.com/...wine-tastings/

What to See and Do in Bordeaux When You Are Not Tasting Wine
http://www.thewinecellarinsider.com/...-tasting-wine/

If there's still time after all those things I can already see us doing, head to the Loire. No more Marseilles or Limoges. We will make it Marseille one day I'm writing it down so it really comes true.

Then to Paris for about 10 days to 2 weeks!!!!!! Tempted to stay in Paris for the entire time but since we haven't been ...maybe

Train to Brussels 3 nights
how do we get to Brugges for 2 nights or is 1 night enough?

Then a week in Amsterdam just in time for the 2017 Amsterdam Light Festival watercolor segment. Has anyone seen this in person? And maybe a day trip if we're still standing before heading back to US. I'll narrow more as we weed through things. Thanks for any advice!

menachem

the Festival of Light is something shopkeepers and the tourist board came up with for tourists to have a "reason" to visit Amsterdam. It's underwhelming to me.

GLOW in Eindhoven is much better

http://www.gloweindhoven.nl/en

menachem

also

https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2...nd-netherlands

instead of Amsterdam

tessietoes

Thanks menachem! I do like Glow much better than the Light Festival and will look out for it if our travel dates coincide. I love these light shows!

Last year I went to James Turrell's Light Reignfalland at LACMA and thought it was unlike anything I've experienced. http://www.lacma.org/art/exhibition/...ight-reignfall

PalenQ

if you have suggestions, links and advice on trains, airlines, ferries>

Info-laden sites: www.seat61.com; www.budgeteuropetravel.com and www.ricksteves.com.

Airlines - www.skyscanner.net and www.whichbudget.com.