nyse

My first post, but I've long appreciated the wit & wisdom found here. If one wished to focus on European capital cities, what are some suggested combinations? Dublin/Belfast, London/Paris/Brussels and BudaPest/Vienna/Prague, but do others come to your experienced minds? Thank you.

WallyKringen

This question strikes me as being odd. What makes a city a capital is the seat of a country's government. But, oh newbie poster, what is the criterion for your wanting to do some "combination" - some bracketing of such cities?

Proximity for easy flitting from one to another? Then Brussels / The Hague-Amsterdam / Paris / London could be one such bracket, Berlin / Copenhagen / Prague / Warsaw maybe another, Vienna / Bratislava / Budapest another - but what's the point? There are dozens of cities between those "capital" ones that are just as worthy of a visit.

Please explain further what it is you're after, won't you?

WK

suze

Interesting question, but first I'd have to get out my encyclopedia and figure out exactly which ise the capital city of each european country -lol!

nyse

Goodness, my interest in capital cities is termed odd? (Thought you'd be kinder to a first timer.) Yes, I'm well aware of what makes a city a capital and therein lies their appeal. I am able to visit Europe once a year and have no interest in "flitting" as you put it but do realize there are more places I'd like to visit than years of travel ahead. We all make choices, and I choose Rome over Florence, Berlin over Munich, etc. So the point is to see, in depth, as many of the cities I'd like to as possible.
And thank you for the brackets you do mention!

saps

Oslo - Stockholm - Helsinki

WallyKringen

But you still have not given us a criterion other than that each city must be a country's capital. So - again - by what other criteria would you like us to make suggestions? Geographical proximity? We did that, and the map will speak for itself. Any other that we can't divine from your post? What other characteristics should the cities share besides being seats of a country's government? Then state what that is and we'll see what we can come up with.

Besides, geographical proximity means little in these days of budget airlines - check www.whichbudget.com and www.skyscanner.net.

norween

If you want to be a bit original and still match your criteria :
Vaduz / Monte-Carlo - Andorra la Vella - Saint Marin

WallyKringen

How about these:
Tirana
Minsk
Tórshavn
St. Peter Port
Chisinau
Nikosia
Valletta
Saint Helier?

Just for bragging rights...

nyse

Thanks for your interest WK and I appreciate the responses. I hoped the examples in my original post would illustrate what I was seeking -- sensible/convenient ways to combine more than one capital in a given trip. One obviously can look at a map and see where the <b>*stars*</b> are, but I was looking for experienced insight. Eg, just considering the Iberian Peninsula, would anyone have suggestions re Lisbon/Madrid/Gibralter/Andorra---Anyway, let's let this thread drop as I'm set for Paris/Brussels this October and thus have another year to consider my options!

Nikki

I took one trip that combined three nights in Paris with five nights in Rome, and another that combined three nights in London with five nights in Venice. Both of these were arranged as packages through www.gotoday.com, which has many such combinations available.

Another time I flew to London for a few days and then to Copenhagen for a few days. I flew open jaw from Boston to London and from Copenhagen to Boston, with an Easy Jet flight from London to Copenhagen for a very inexpensive rate.

I have just returned from a trip that included Barcelona, Ibiza, Madrid and Lisbon. I flew open jaw from Boston to Barcelona and from Lisbon to Boston. While Ibiza is not a capital and Barcelona is not the capital of Spain, I think this falls within the spirit of the question. The flights within Spain and Portugal were all on Vueling, a Spanish budget airline, and the tickets for each flight were 10 euros plus tax per person.

I enjoyed all of these trips. I do not think that such combinations need to be related in some way; it is fun to see the contrast between places and experience two very different cultures/climates/cuisines.

Shalott

in addition to ease of transportation, and cultures, another factor imo would be the time allotted to the trip.
For example, on a 10 day trip I'd recommend at least 6-7 days for a first visit to Paris, leaving, say, 3-4 days for a smaller or less diverse city like Brussels. If I had only one week, visiting both London and Paris wouldn't allow enough time for either, imo.

WallyKringen

Nikki, s/he wants strictly capitals, seats of country governments, for reasons best know to her/him, so it's not for us to quibble...

But your point about Vueling and the others is well taken, for someone who travels light and doesn't fuss over the lack of this and that in the frills department, or the added busride to an outlying airport when it saves you a few hundred bucks...

I took the train from FRA to K&ouml;ln to pick up a Germanwings to Paris for twenty bucks because there are no budget flights from FRA to PAR - the trains wer thirty bucks (the slow and cheap ones where you have time to see the castles along the Rhine), and I save twohundred bucks.

And Easyjet Orly to Geneva for 25 bucks - hard to beat.

Nikki

Wally, the three flights I took on Vueling were to or from the main airports in Barcelona, Madrid, and Lisbon, no outlying airports. And there were the same frills as the major airlines: seat assignment, on line check-in. I couldn't actually tell any difference between our Vueling flights and our flights on KLM and Northwest, other than the lack of food service. And since each flight was under an hour, that was no problem.