suze

Rick Steves Italy

aj2lagop

I travel quite a bit to Europe and my girlfriend often comes with me. I am 30's professional. I like a city with great historic sites and museusms, new upscale restaurants, a good live music scene, and vibrant lounge and niteclub scene (once in a while when mood strikes me). Places I would recommend: London, Dublin, Paris, Barcelona, Madrid, Costa Del Sol-Spain, Rome/Florence/Venice, Vienna, Prague, Croatia.

These are all places that have wonderful cultural sites that can be seen by day (pick up any guidebook,) but also have a vibrant nitelife and restaurant scene, where many other young professionals as well as locals meet to relax and unwind.

jules4je7

I have to 2nd Suze's reply. Rick Steves Italy 2006 book would be the best thing for you.

Also, go to your local library and check out his Travel Skills video and other videos on traveling there.

It makes it twice as nice to see it with your own eyes...

Happy travels,

Jules

ilovetulips

Misscupcake- My husband and I are early 30's and we decided to visit Amsterdam and Paris. Paris was a dream of mine since high school and Amsterdam seemed like a neat place to visit with minimal time on the train. We wanted to maximize our time with sightseeing rather than travel. The sky is the limit as far as ideas- I know 20 somethings who really liked Prague and London as well. For a book to start out I like Rick Steve's Europe Through the Back Door. You can look at his itineraries for a whirlwind tour or a an individual country and customize it as you wish. It also offers good tips for train travel, packing, money matters etc. Between Rick Steves guidebooks, people on Fodors boards and my own research on the net we did it on our own and I was very pleased with how it turned out. Being able to travel independently in Europe is easy and very rewarding as long as you do your planning.

CDNshelly

Hi misscupcake, when we decided to take our first trip to Europe we were in our 30's. Once we decided which country we wanted to visit, I stopped by the travel agent and brought home all of their tour package guide books.

We began to feel that the tours might not be for us too and that is when we decided why not follow their lead, use their route structures and advice on sights to see and research into hotels they were utilizing. We were then able to chose what would be of interest to us, but would be able to do it on our own time schedule. I researched a Trafalgar tour of Switzerland and then located some Swiss internet sites to help me along with finding great hotels. I use Fodor's, Lonely Planet and Rick Steves guide books. My husband buys me guide books as Christmas presents. That is how I know where I am going next!

When we rent a car I use the Michelin web site to produce "the road trip". I set up the intinerary and once I find the Hotels for each location, I just start with Day One, once I get the confirmation email I move on to the next town until I am at the point of departure. Organization was beneficial on that first trip, we have loosened up, but still use the same basic formula. Good luck with your planning, this is a great site to help you out.

misscupcake

Thanks everyone. I just ordered a Rick Steves guidebook and I checked out some DVD's from the library today. I'm searching the web pages and looking at all the website everyone has gave me. Thanks so much for the help.

5alive

I am in my 30s and I would like to answer a different question you asked: where do the 30-40 year old crowd go?

Well, I have two different female friends both single, who've never met each other. Both were strongly considering Portugal. One actually went; the other decided on Costa Rica. Why Portugal? Supposed to be less expensive than much of Europe, "undiscovered." Although the pictures were lovely, I would suggest you go to one or two of the main countries you mentioned for your first visit. My friend who went to Portugal had already backpacked through the Big Three (France Germany Italy) while in college. In my opinion, you wouldn't really discover the heart of Europe without going to one of these.

The only 30-somethings I've heard of doing a tour was a biking tour. I also have a friend who has done marathons around the world.

I agree, photo books are the way to start. They inspire you. Eyewitness are great for that. I also like the Fodor's See It Rome.

Rick Steves Italy is a good overview.

Let's Go: Rome or Let's Go: Italy are directed to college students and those in their 20s and 30s. They often list phone numbers of "English help lines" and other items that I just don't see in other books.

KathrynT

misscupcake,

You've gotten lots of good advice here. One thing I haven't seen mentioned yet is the idea of taking organized tours once you have arrived at your destinations.

Rome, in particular, comes to mind as it can be a fairly daunting city at first. There are many discussions on these boards of wonderful sounding tours. You might do a search here for Rome +tour or ask another question for recommendations.

Also, sometimes a first day "highlight" tour will give you a general sense of that location and will narrow down for you what you may wish to explore in further depth.

Happy planning!

misscupcake

Thanks 5alive, I will check into the Let's Go books. KathrynT- I was thinking the same thing. Once I get there I do want to take day tours, but I have only heard about the Smithsonian tours......what other companies out there have great day tours? I will do a search on that today.

ahmedhaff

Since hitting 40 (last year), denial has been our favorite topic of conversation - well at least the most popular one.

This is the point at which we are coming to grips with the realization that we are slowly getting fixed in our ways - we like our coffee in a certain way (and do remember fondly, that it didn't quite matter 20 years ago), we are beginning to like our things to be in their places. Get the picture?

Travel alone is great for us. We tried a a tour group recently and found ourselves unforgiving of others. Intellectually disturbing, but true. Travelling alone has always been much more fun, not least because we have come to be display more concern for each others needs than our own individual ones. Travel has helped evolve our love for each other and has taken our companionship to higher levels - every time.

Forget groups - discover each other, as you discover a new city...

swalter518

Hi cupcake,
My husband and I are in our early 30s (approaching mid 30s) and we travel alone. Our trips together have been all over and were highly influenced by the Ricker (as my husband calls him) initially and the more comfortable we've become, the more we've ventured out on our own. Our trips have been as follows:
honeymoon (ok, we were 29 technically)-Oktoberfest/Munich area to Rothenburg, Ger to Brussells (relatives living there at the time) and Paris
France-Arles, Nice, Paris
Italy-Tuscany (Siena and Florence), Amalfi Coast and Rome and most recently, Venice. All of these also involved daytrips to surrounding areas. We've stayed at many of the hotels recommended by RS and in some instances have run into his tours while we were there. There crowds had a few people in our age group but were typically people in the 50s and 60s. We prefer to travel on our own schedule which is why we've never explored that route and probably won't at this point.

bardo1

<<It can be overwhelming to arrange everything yourself, but that way you get what you want. Start by deciding where you really want to go and how much time you have. If you only have a week, one country is enough. (I'd go to Italy!) I find that once the flights are booked (or at least the dates decided), I can work on an itinerary and find places to stay, with the help of this Board of course.>>

SusanMargaret,
You've hit the nail on the head and in the most succint way yet.

misscupcake,
It would also be easier and less stressful to hire someone else (at great expense) to shop for your food and clothing - but would you really want someone else deciding what you will eat or wear?

KathrynT

I've seen Scavi Tours and Context Rome tours mentioned a lot on this forum but can't personally comment on them as I haven't taken them. I think we will do a Scavi Tour next summer if we can.

We did do a tour by an English speaking guide at the Colliseum (offered at the Colliseum ticket office) which we really enjoyed.

Hope this helps.

ilovetulips

Misscupcake- If you decide to go to Paris there are 2 possibilities for day tours. I have heard great things from a coworker who used Paris Walks this past March. They do 2 hour tours in different neighborhoods of Paris like the Marais, Montmartre, Latin Quarter, etc. WE used Michael Osman a private guide and we were so impressed with his tour. He took us through the Louvre (at my request) and we got so much out of it. He spent a total of 10 hours with us touring different neighborhoods and churches. If you go to Paris, I highly recommend him.

Flaze

In our 30s and 40's (with children in tow) we traveled ala Rick Steves. Low budget, great advice on sight seeing and places to stay and eat. Now that we are in our 50's, children are in their 20's- we are traveling much more upscale. Better hotels and inns, much nicer restaurants. The difference? Whe we were traveling "closer to the ground" we experienced much more of the local culture. The more money you spend, the more isolated you becom from the real people of the area. We really hate menus in english given to us in Paris. Its much more fun to struggle with a menu and waitstaff that doesn't understand a word we are saying. Everyone laughs, and we get a really great experience. Enjoy your youth and reliance on the locals. Travel on a slim budget- you will enjoy every minute. Our boys love staying at youth hostels- they tell us we don't know what we've missed. how true!