Europe suggestions
 

A group of four girls want to take a trip to Europe flying from New York City. We want to travel late july early August 2007. We are interested in Amsterdam for 2 nights and then head over to SPAIN fo rest of vacation. In Spain we want to go to Panpalona (sp?) and Ibiza for beach.

I am not sure what things to do since i we just decided this. We also don't know if possible to take train from Amsterdam to Spain? if so, how long is the trip? What's the cost? Our age range is 28-33 years.

I LOVE some imput on MUST things to do in Amsterdam and in Spain.

ANy suggestions on which airline to use? Any direct flights from NY to Amsterdam? Direct flights to Spain?
If we can't take a train to Spain then Amsterdam will be cut out from vacation due to budget.

Thanks in advance for your much needed assistance

You might want to start with a map of europe (seriously, so you can see the distances).

The train ride from Amsterdam to Spain would be a VERY long one. If you can't afford to fly between Amsterdam and Spain, I would advise to skip it and fly into Spain from NY.

I'm curious why you chose Spain if you don't know what you want to do there. I suggest getting a few guidebooks, looking under the Destination tabs here at Fodors, going to the library.

You can begin researching plane fares with a general booking website such as expedia.com

Iberia flies Amsterdam to Madrid, for example. The flight is 2-1/2 hours and costs $555 round-trip.

Thanks for you input.
I chose Spain because I've always wanted to go to Ibiza for the party scene.
Besides sightseeing, i would like to go to key places and feed my culture :-)

Vueling flies from Amsterdam to Madrid, Barcelona or Valencia for under 70 E one way.
http://www.vueling.com

I agree with Suze that you can benefit from some general research (guidebooks, michelin maps, searching other threads on this forum with specific keywords, etc) before posing perhaps more specific questions

-e

Vueling Airlines flies from Amsterdam to Barcelona and Madrid. I checked a random date in July and found fares of eighty euros one way to either city. There are flights from Barcelona and Madrid to Ibiza.

Maybe get an openjaw ticket from JFK to Amsterdam and then Barcelona-NYC. Check out whichbudget.com for flights from Amsterdam to Spain (probably Bilboa for your destination). TONS of info on Spain on this board--it's a wonderful country.

Enroute:
Great site. 70 E is well within our budget and then do it again from madrid to Ibiza.
The group is getting together next weekend and reviewing the 'Let's go" bible on Europe.

I appreciate everyone's input.

I'm curious. Does anyone know how long it WOULD take to travel by train between Amsterdam and Spain?

Under the "Destination" tab in the orange strip at the top of this page you will find loads of information for Madrid, Barcelona, etc. even things like "Best 3 Days" outlined for you already.

Well Ibiza has the party - but not the culture. You need to figure out how to fly between Ibiza and Barcelona or Madrid or Seville inexpensively (from the US you can't fly directly to Ibiza).

It doesn;t make sense to take the train from Amsterdam to ? and then fly to Ibiza - it would take 14/16 hours at least.

How many days do you have (to see if 2 countries even makes sense)?

And are you aware that in summer Spain is VERY hot? Although Ibiza is not as bad as the south - which is often over 100.

Agree you need to look at a couple of guide books and a map and figure out how much time and money you're wiling to spend to see what.

You can fly from Amsterdam to Barcelona for about 110 GBP. The flight is about 2 hrs.

www.opodo.co.uk.

By train, the trip will take nearly an entire day and would likely not cost much less.

For train schedules:

http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en

We are going for 12 days. My friends have purchase some books and we'll take a careful look at destinations.

I am thinking maybe Amsterdam will be cut out completly and visit some other time.

At this point we'll even explore taking the CONTIKI package tour to Spain which will cover a lot of Spain and even stop in Ibiza which is my main reason for trip.

If you want to party, and don't necessarily want the responsibility of planning, I think a Contiki tour might really be good for your group. Especially with 4 people together, you might find it easier to just "go along for the ride" with a tour package.

I agree that Amsterdam really doesn't fit with this itinerary. Better go there another time when you can spend a week there imo. I wouldn't go to the expense to go anywhere for just two days (only my opinion).

The party scene in Ibiza is mad. I hope you are prepared for that :-)