Back on the Planning Wagon
Jan 5th, 2011 | 06:38 PM
#1
Original Poster
Joined: Aug 2010
Posts: 205
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Back on the Planning Wagon
I hope everyone had a joyous holiday and wonderful new year! December is always a busy month for my family so there was no time taken for planning the trip. Back and refreshed now I'm going at it full throttle!!! With less than 3 months the BF and I can hardly contain our excitement!!
So...we have our itinerary down and all of the accommocations booked and confirmed (will reconfirm before departure) with much help from fellow fodorites! Now on to transportation, activities, and the best thing FOOD! I'll post our itinerary and hotel locations below so any advice or suggestions on any of these topics or need to knows would be much appreciated. Looking forward to being active on the forum again!
Just a refresher, BF and I are in our late 20s', interested in art, history, architecture, FOOD, music, just about anything worth taking time out to enjoy. We're not very discriminating and would like to hear anything anyone wants to offer. Our budget is $10,000 which is understandably small, but our airfare, 80% of our lodging, and most of the train tickets will be bought in advance so will not be included in the budget.
So here it goes: 7 weeks End of March to Early May: 2 ppl/ $10,000
Day 1 - Day 7: London [B&B Hotel Meridiana near King's Cross and St.Pancras]
Day 7 - Day 16: Paris [rented apartment on Rue di Louvre 1st arr.]
Daytrip to Versailles
Day 16 - Day 19: Toulouse [Hotel du Taur on Rue du Taur]
daytrip to Albi and maybe Moissac
Day 19 - Day 21: Cinque Terre [Hotel L'ancora Riomaggiore]
Think we can squeeze in a quick visit to Pisa before we arrive in Florence??
Day 21 - Day 25: Florence [Leopoldo House on Via Fabbroni 78]
Any daytrips here or should we spend entire time in Florence??
Day 25 - Day 27: Siena [Siena Hospitality on Via Giovanni Dupre]
daytrip to San Gimagnano and Volterre. Can we do both by car? or should we does this when we're in Florence?
Day 27 - Day 34: Rome [Apartment on Fi Vizzano 00179]
Easter week!!!!
Day 34 - Day 37: Venice [B&B Venezia on S.Elena Calle Bainsizza 30132]
Day 37 - Day 40: Seville [Novotel Seville on Avda Eduardo Dato]
Day 40 - Day 42: More of Seville! [Sevilla Palmera on Alfonso Lasso De La Vega s/n]
we had to book at another hotel because everything was full due to the Feria de Abril.
Day 42 - Day 44: Granada [Hotel Albero]
Alhambra!
Day 44 - Day 48: Madrid [FLAT5MADRID on San Bernardo,Centro Madrid]
Sorry for the length of this post
So...we have our itinerary down and all of the accommocations booked and confirmed (will reconfirm before departure) with much help from fellow fodorites! Now on to transportation, activities, and the best thing FOOD! I'll post our itinerary and hotel locations below so any advice or suggestions on any of these topics or need to knows would be much appreciated. Looking forward to being active on the forum again!
Just a refresher, BF and I are in our late 20s', interested in art, history, architecture, FOOD, music, just about anything worth taking time out to enjoy. We're not very discriminating and would like to hear anything anyone wants to offer. Our budget is $10,000 which is understandably small, but our airfare, 80% of our lodging, and most of the train tickets will be bought in advance so will not be included in the budget.
So here it goes: 7 weeks End of March to Early May: 2 ppl/ $10,000
Day 1 - Day 7: London [B&B Hotel Meridiana near King's Cross and St.Pancras]
Day 7 - Day 16: Paris [rented apartment on Rue di Louvre 1st arr.]
Daytrip to Versailles
Day 16 - Day 19: Toulouse [Hotel du Taur on Rue du Taur]
daytrip to Albi and maybe Moissac
Day 19 - Day 21: Cinque Terre [Hotel L'ancora Riomaggiore]
Think we can squeeze in a quick visit to Pisa before we arrive in Florence??
Day 21 - Day 25: Florence [Leopoldo House on Via Fabbroni 78]
Any daytrips here or should we spend entire time in Florence??
Day 25 - Day 27: Siena [Siena Hospitality on Via Giovanni Dupre]
daytrip to San Gimagnano and Volterre. Can we do both by car? or should we does this when we're in Florence?
Day 27 - Day 34: Rome [Apartment on Fi Vizzano 00179]
Easter week!!!!
Day 34 - Day 37: Venice [B&B Venezia on S.Elena Calle Bainsizza 30132]
Day 37 - Day 40: Seville [Novotel Seville on Avda Eduardo Dato]
Day 40 - Day 42: More of Seville! [Sevilla Palmera on Alfonso Lasso De La Vega s/n]
we had to book at another hotel because everything was full due to the Feria de Abril.
Day 42 - Day 44: Granada [Hotel Albero]
Alhambra!
Day 44 - Day 48: Madrid [FLAT5MADRID on San Bernardo,Centro Madrid]
Sorry for the length of this post
Jan 5th, 2011 | 09:03 PM
#3
Joined: Oct 2005
Posts: 75,049
Likes: 50
Just a couple of comments -- throughout your itinerary you have listed the same day in two different cities. This often really misleads one to think they have more time then they do.
Maybe if you worked it out in "nights" instead of "days" it would help a bit.
Not sure why you chose that particular hotel in London. I assume because it is close to St Pancras for the Eurostar. IMO it isn't necessary to book near the station (why spend a full week in a less than fabulous place because you want to avoid one 10 minute cab or tube ride)
Have you looked into flats? A small hotel room is fine fo a couple of nights - or 3. But those 4 walls w/ no sitting area will feel awfully small by the end of that week.
Maybe if you worked it out in "nights" instead of "days" it would help a bit.
Not sure why you chose that particular hotel in London. I assume because it is close to St Pancras for the Eurostar. IMO it isn't necessary to book near the station (why spend a full week in a less than fabulous place because you want to avoid one 10 minute cab or tube ride)
Have you looked into flats? A small hotel room is fine fo a couple of nights - or 3. But those 4 walls w/ no sitting area will feel awfully small by the end of that week.
Jan 6th, 2011 | 08:14 AM
#5
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 2,041
Likes: 0
Regarding your Spanish portion, is there a reason behind your choices of hotels? In Sevilla & Granada your hotels are not very centrally located or particularly charming. I think you could find hotels better located for a similar price.
For Sevilla you'll basically have 5 nights/4 days. I'd recommend a daytrip to Cordoba. To get to Granada from Sevilla you can take the train or bus - either option is about 3 hours so it's personal preference. From Granada to Madrid you may be able to catch an inexpensive flight. If you are leaving early on day 48 you'll really only have just 3 full days for Madrid. I'd do a daytrip to Toledo or Segovia. You may be able to do both but it could be a bit rushed.
Maribel's guides have excellent recommendations for hotels/food:
maribelsguides.com
A great website specific to Sevilla (and good explanations on the Feria):
http://exploreseville.com/
For Sevilla you'll basically have 5 nights/4 days. I'd recommend a daytrip to Cordoba. To get to Granada from Sevilla you can take the train or bus - either option is about 3 hours so it's personal preference. From Granada to Madrid you may be able to catch an inexpensive flight. If you are leaving early on day 48 you'll really only have just 3 full days for Madrid. I'd do a daytrip to Toledo or Segovia. You may be able to do both but it could be a bit rushed.
Maribel's guides have excellent recommendations for hotels/food:
maribelsguides.com
A great website specific to Sevilla (and good explanations on the Feria):
http://exploreseville.com/
Jan 6th, 2011 | 09:01 AM
#6
Original Poster
Joined: Aug 2010
Posts: 205
Likes: 0
thank you for all of the replies so far! to answer a few questions
JanisJ: apologies if it was confusing. I'll put it into nights for future posts so it will be easier to read. I chose the hotel mainly because it fit into our budget. I looked for several apartments but was not able to find any in the price range that we needed. to be honest, lodging is not that important to us. As long as it is clean and decently located it will do. I always appreciate your comments though and I hope to receive any more information you can give!
CathyM: I was so frustrated in my search for hotels in Sevilla! We'll be there during the celebration of the Feria de Abril so weren't able to find anything in the price range that we wanted for a decent location. Everything else was significantly higher. I know it'll be a little out of the way but we'll just make it work. Thank you for the links! I'm taking a lot of notes.
JanisJ: apologies if it was confusing. I'll put it into nights for future posts so it will be easier to read. I chose the hotel mainly because it fit into our budget. I looked for several apartments but was not able to find any in the price range that we needed. to be honest, lodging is not that important to us. As long as it is clean and decently located it will do. I always appreciate your comments though and I hope to receive any more information you can give!
CathyM: I was so frustrated in my search for hotels in Sevilla! We'll be there during the celebration of the Feria de Abril so weren't able to find anything in the price range that we wanted for a decent location. Everything else was significantly higher. I know it'll be a little out of the way but we'll just make it work. Thank you for the links! I'm taking a lot of notes.
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