Honeymoon Help
May 27th, 2005, 11:52 AM
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Honeymoon Help
I was told to come here and ask for honeymoon help! We are planning on flying into London and visiting Amersterdam, Paris, and then make our way to Italy. In Italy I have no idea what cities we will visit yet, probably Rome and Venice.
Are there any websites that can start me off in this planning process? Things to do, places to stay? I'm at the very beginning of this process. We are traveling in February.
Are there any websites that can start me off in this planning process? Things to do, places to stay? I'm at the very beginning of this process. We are traveling in February.
May 27th, 2005, 10:56 PM
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Hello AustinBride, I too welcome you to Fodors.
In that it is the start of the long Memorial Weekend a lot of people are gone for the holiday so don't feel like you are being ignored. And congratulations on knowing to bump or top (ttt) your thread to keep it to the top.
And congratulations also on your upcoming wedding.
When will your honeymoon be? With 20 days (does that include the travel time) how many days to do you wish to spend in London, Amsterdam, Paris and Italy.
First suggestion Austin Bride. If you can tell us how many nights (versus days) you wish to spend in each location it makes it clearer how much time you have (for example 3 days leaves a question mark in many minds. Saying 3 nights is much clearer as then we know that you arrive day 1, have day 2 and day 3 without arriving or departing and then day 4 you will be departing.
It seems to me, at this point, with 20 days you are trying to cover to many areas.
Are you going on your honeymoon immediatly after your wedding? If so, most bridal couples are a bit tired and stressed after all the wedding festivities. But of course that depends how big of a wedding you are having, how many activities before the wedding etc. But generally couples are a bit tired afterwards. And then there is the jetlag feature.
Were you planning on spending time in London?
Have you purchased your airplane tickets yet. If not I would do an open jaw ticket where you fly into one city and fly home from another city so that you do not have to backtrack.
To do London, Amsterdam, Paris and parts of Italy such as Rome and Venice with 20 days is not a good idea. Almost impossible to enjoy anything.
I will assume this will be your first visit to Europe. Do know that everytime you change locations you have to figure at least a half of day to check out of your hotel, take whatever transportation you are planning on using (and will this be planes, trains, rental car), checking into the next hotel etc. You have named 5 locations. You will lose a lot of your honeymoom time jumping from one locale to another. And that in itself will be tiring and not the least bit romantic.
May I suggest that you go to your local library and check out some good travel books. Even the coffee table books with beautiful photographs. That will help you two decide which areas really grab your heart. Also, if you do not have one buy a good map of Europe so that you will understand where each location is in relation to another. Europe is a big continent.
Then pick 3 cities (I would not do more then 3 cities with somewhere around 20 days)and do some research on those cities. Don't forget Google searches can give you a wealth of information. www.google.com.
From the 3 cities you could do some day trips to smaller towns etc. But staying in 3 cities would certainly be much more relaxing and would sure give you more time to experience each area. You do not want a "This is Tuesday so it must be Belgium" type of honeymoon.
Your $200.00 dollar a night budget for hotels. Is the $220.00 US dollars or $200.00 Euro Dollars. Figure that it will take about $1.26 to $1.30 US Dollar to "buy" $1.00 Euro Dollar. The US Dollar is getting a bit stronger against the Euro the last days, but it does change constantly. To be safe I personally would figure $1.30 US Dollar to equal $1.00 Euro Dollar.
Be patient if you do not get a lot of answers over the holiday weekend, again many are busy with holiday celebrations and trips.
Also, you need to do the research I suggested (or go to a good bookstore like Barnes and Nobles) so that when you come back here you will have some good information so that people here can help you plan a wonderful honeymoon.
I would suggest that you just post again on this thread so everything is in one spot.
Best wishes, and have fun researching and dreaming of your honeymoon.
In that it is the start of the long Memorial Weekend a lot of people are gone for the holiday so don't feel like you are being ignored. And congratulations on knowing to bump or top (ttt) your thread to keep it to the top.
And congratulations also on your upcoming wedding.
When will your honeymoon be? With 20 days (does that include the travel time) how many days to do you wish to spend in London, Amsterdam, Paris and Italy.
First suggestion Austin Bride. If you can tell us how many nights (versus days) you wish to spend in each location it makes it clearer how much time you have (for example 3 days leaves a question mark in many minds. Saying 3 nights is much clearer as then we know that you arrive day 1, have day 2 and day 3 without arriving or departing and then day 4 you will be departing.
It seems to me, at this point, with 20 days you are trying to cover to many areas.
Are you going on your honeymoon immediatly after your wedding? If so, most bridal couples are a bit tired and stressed after all the wedding festivities. But of course that depends how big of a wedding you are having, how many activities before the wedding etc. But generally couples are a bit tired afterwards. And then there is the jetlag feature.
Were you planning on spending time in London?
Have you purchased your airplane tickets yet. If not I would do an open jaw ticket where you fly into one city and fly home from another city so that you do not have to backtrack.
To do London, Amsterdam, Paris and parts of Italy such as Rome and Venice with 20 days is not a good idea. Almost impossible to enjoy anything.
I will assume this will be your first visit to Europe. Do know that everytime you change locations you have to figure at least a half of day to check out of your hotel, take whatever transportation you are planning on using (and will this be planes, trains, rental car), checking into the next hotel etc. You have named 5 locations. You will lose a lot of your honeymoom time jumping from one locale to another. And that in itself will be tiring and not the least bit romantic.
May I suggest that you go to your local library and check out some good travel books. Even the coffee table books with beautiful photographs. That will help you two decide which areas really grab your heart. Also, if you do not have one buy a good map of Europe so that you will understand where each location is in relation to another. Europe is a big continent.
Then pick 3 cities (I would not do more then 3 cities with somewhere around 20 days)and do some research on those cities. Don't forget Google searches can give you a wealth of information. www.google.com.
From the 3 cities you could do some day trips to smaller towns etc. But staying in 3 cities would certainly be much more relaxing and would sure give you more time to experience each area. You do not want a "This is Tuesday so it must be Belgium" type of honeymoon.
Your $200.00 dollar a night budget for hotels. Is the $220.00 US dollars or $200.00 Euro Dollars. Figure that it will take about $1.26 to $1.30 US Dollar to "buy" $1.00 Euro Dollar. The US Dollar is getting a bit stronger against the Euro the last days, but it does change constantly. To be safe I personally would figure $1.30 US Dollar to equal $1.00 Euro Dollar.
Be patient if you do not get a lot of answers over the holiday weekend, again many are busy with holiday celebrations and trips.
Also, you need to do the research I suggested (or go to a good bookstore like Barnes and Nobles) so that when you come back here you will have some good information so that people here can help you plan a wonderful honeymoon.
I would suggest that you just post again on this thread so everything is in one spot.
Best wishes, and have fun researching and dreaming of your honeymoon.
May 28th, 2005, 03:44 AM
#6
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Hi AB,
In 20 days you will have a lovely visit to London, Amsterdam and Paris or
London, Paris and Venice or
Venice, Florence and the Amalfi Coast or
Venice, Florence and Rome or
London, Paris and Rome
$200/nite is a mid range for hotels.
You might want to consider:
Fly into London 6 nights
Take Eurostar to Paris 6 nights
Fly Easyjet Paris Orly to Pisa and train to
Florence 4 nights
Train to Venice 3 nights
Fly home
From whence do you depart?
When?
In 20 days you will have a lovely visit to London, Amsterdam and Paris or
London, Paris and Venice or
Venice, Florence and the Amalfi Coast or
Venice, Florence and Rome or
London, Paris and Rome
$200/nite is a mid range for hotels.
You might want to consider:
Fly into London 6 nights
Take Eurostar to Paris 6 nights
Fly Easyjet Paris Orly to Pisa and train to
Florence 4 nights
Train to Venice 3 nights
Fly home
From whence do you depart?
When?
May 28th, 2005, 04:54 AM
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Congratulations on your wedding.
As the other posters suggested, I think your itinerary is too crowded. As this is a honeymoon after all, and so I guess you want romantic destinations, I'd personally go for a week in Paris and then Rome, Florence and Venice. Take the train in between those cities, so you can enjoy some of the landscape. February isn't the best time concerning weather conditions though. If you decide on Venice, remember about the Carnival! Venice is gonna be really crowded and you'll need to book long time in advance if you're going to be there during these days. Good luck!
As the other posters suggested, I think your itinerary is too crowded. As this is a honeymoon after all, and so I guess you want romantic destinations, I'd personally go for a week in Paris and then Rome, Florence and Venice. Take the train in between those cities, so you can enjoy some of the landscape. February isn't the best time concerning weather conditions though. If you decide on Venice, remember about the Carnival! Venice is gonna be really crowded and you'll need to book long time in advance if you're going to be there during these days. Good luck!
May 28th, 2005, 05:49 AM
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Congratulations -- I'm not sure if I'm more happy about your pending nuptuals or that you get 20 days in Europe afterwards. 
Personally, I think you can see any major city in Europe in 4-5 days (with the exception of Paris). While Europe is probably not much bigger than Texas -- if that's where you're from -- it does take time to travel from one end to the other.
As a result, I'd recommend keeping it simple...First off, buy Rick Steves "Europe Through The Back Door" book -- it's great for first-timers who need a primer on travel skills and information about ALL of Europe so you can decide what's best for you, and it also gives realistic estimates for what you can see in a given amount of time.
If you fly into London, you could easily spend 4 nights there, then head to Amsterdam for 3, Paris for 5 or 6, and take the night train from there to Venice (2-3 nights is plenty there, and it's super expensive). Take the train from Venice to Rome (I think it took about 4 hours) and spend your last 5 nights there. If you want to shave off a night from Rome and stop off in Florence on the way from Venice, we did that and it worked wonderfully.
Then fly home from Rome.
If you sleep and eat relatively inexpensively, you can do it on about $200-$250 per day for both of you (about $100 per night for hotel, the rest for eating and seeing sights). London and Rome tend to be a little more for hotels than Paris, for example. Take extra spending money for gifts and extras.
Good luck planning it! That's half the fun is deciding where to go.
Cheers,
Jules
Personally, I think you can see any major city in Europe in 4-5 days (with the exception of Paris). While Europe is probably not much bigger than Texas -- if that's where you're from -- it does take time to travel from one end to the other.
As a result, I'd recommend keeping it simple...First off, buy Rick Steves "Europe Through The Back Door" book -- it's great for first-timers who need a primer on travel skills and information about ALL of Europe so you can decide what's best for you, and it also gives realistic estimates for what you can see in a given amount of time.
If you fly into London, you could easily spend 4 nights there, then head to Amsterdam for 3, Paris for 5 or 6, and take the night train from there to Venice (2-3 nights is plenty there, and it's super expensive). Take the train from Venice to Rome (I think it took about 4 hours) and spend your last 5 nights there. If you want to shave off a night from Rome and stop off in Florence on the way from Venice, we did that and it worked wonderfully.
Then fly home from Rome.
If you sleep and eat relatively inexpensively, you can do it on about $200-$250 per day for both of you (about $100 per night for hotel, the rest for eating and seeing sights). London and Rome tend to be a little more for hotels than Paris, for example. Take extra spending money for gifts and extras.
Good luck planning it! That's half the fun is deciding where to go.
Cheers,
Jules
May 28th, 2005, 11:21 AM
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I disagree on the budget. Even though February is low season - for my honeymoon I would want at least one special hotel if at all possible (figure $350-$400 per night) and would not want to be so modest for the others.
Many people who have not traveled in europe before expect hotels to be similar to the US - large, modern, with big rooms. Most hotels in Europe are old, fairly small and frequently have smallish - or very small rooms - with one double bed or two single beds. They MAY BE very charming and prettily decorated - but expect small, old and often eccentric unless you spend a lot
This is not to discourage you - I find many 3* hotels charming - but it is your honeymoon and you don;t want to be disappointed by misinderstandings.
If you give an idea of your total budget people can help you organize it in terms of hotels, meals (do you want modest cafes with an occasional splurge, lots of nicer places, eating from take aways etc), transit in and between cities, cost of sights, any shopping etc.
Many people who have not traveled in europe before expect hotels to be similar to the US - large, modern, with big rooms. Most hotels in Europe are old, fairly small and frequently have smallish - or very small rooms - with one double bed or two single beds. They MAY BE very charming and prettily decorated - but expect small, old and often eccentric unless you spend a lot
This is not to discourage you - I find many 3* hotels charming - but it is your honeymoon and you don;t want to be disappointed by misinderstandings.
If you give an idea of your total budget people can help you organize it in terms of hotels, meals (do you want modest cafes with an occasional splurge, lots of nicer places, eating from take aways etc), transit in and between cities, cost of sights, any shopping etc.
May 30th, 2005, 11:49 AM
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Thank you everyone for the input. After reading your responses we have conversed and decided that if need be we would cut out Netherlands (Amsterdam) and only visit London, Paris, and Italy (still not sure what cities).
Here are the answers to your questions:
When will your honeymoon be? February. We would love to spend one or two nights in Paris or Italy over Valentine’s Day.
With 20 days (does that include the travel time) how many days to do you wish to spend in London, Amsterdam, Paris and Italy. Yes, that includes the minute we leave the US until we get back. We understand two of our days we will spent on airline travel to Europe and Back. So really that leaves us, 18 days, correct? We haven’t sat down and counted the hours; however, when we did look at airline travel… if we leave at US morning…..13 hours flight to London…..we arrive at 6 am the NEXT day…. Does that sound right?
Are you going on your honeymoon immediately after your wedding? NO! Unfortunately, my fiancé is being laid off and we have no idea what month…. We are positive it will be the end of September through December. To be absolutely safe we are planning a February honeymoon, we may move it up based on his lay off. Do you think weather will be considerably different in November through February?? Also, we are prepared for jetlag.
Have you purchased your airplane tickets yet? NO WAY. Again, we will wait until after we receive his 90 day notice for his lay off. Then we will be positive what time of the year we will be able to travel to Europe. We have Frequent Flyer miles to use, so cost is not in question. Those are paid for. Also, yes, we will do an open jaw. We would like to arrive in London and depart in Rome. What do you think?
We have ordered online Rick Steve’s Books regarding London, Amsterdam (even though we are considering cutting this city out), Paris, and Italy. These should arrive in 3 – 4 days.
We also have decided that we may spend about 3 – 4 nights in London, and spend the rest of the nights in Paris and Italy. We have researched “must sees” in London and there aren’t many that interest us, hence why we would like to limit our time in London and spend the bulk of our time in Paris and Italy.
Yes, this is our honeymoon; however, romance is not our top priority! We have from October till our trip to be romantic!!
We are going to be in another continent for heaven’e sake, so we’d like to soak in as much history, architecture, etc. as possible. We have never traveled outside of the us so this will be a first!
We do like to splurge so, yes, we will probably choose a hotel in Paris or in Italy to absolutely splurge on (romantic)! Then the other hotel choices will be reasonable, yet nice!
Here are the answers to your questions:
When will your honeymoon be? February. We would love to spend one or two nights in Paris or Italy over Valentine’s Day.
With 20 days (does that include the travel time) how many days to do you wish to spend in London, Amsterdam, Paris and Italy. Yes, that includes the minute we leave the US until we get back. We understand two of our days we will spent on airline travel to Europe and Back. So really that leaves us, 18 days, correct? We haven’t sat down and counted the hours; however, when we did look at airline travel… if we leave at US morning…..13 hours flight to London…..we arrive at 6 am the NEXT day…. Does that sound right?
Are you going on your honeymoon immediately after your wedding? NO! Unfortunately, my fiancé is being laid off and we have no idea what month…. We are positive it will be the end of September through December. To be absolutely safe we are planning a February honeymoon, we may move it up based on his lay off. Do you think weather will be considerably different in November through February?? Also, we are prepared for jetlag.
Have you purchased your airplane tickets yet? NO WAY. Again, we will wait until after we receive his 90 day notice for his lay off. Then we will be positive what time of the year we will be able to travel to Europe. We have Frequent Flyer miles to use, so cost is not in question. Those are paid for. Also, yes, we will do an open jaw. We would like to arrive in London and depart in Rome. What do you think?
We have ordered online Rick Steve’s Books regarding London, Amsterdam (even though we are considering cutting this city out), Paris, and Italy. These should arrive in 3 – 4 days.
We also have decided that we may spend about 3 – 4 nights in London, and spend the rest of the nights in Paris and Italy. We have researched “must sees” in London and there aren’t many that interest us, hence why we would like to limit our time in London and spend the bulk of our time in Paris and Italy.
Yes, this is our honeymoon; however, romance is not our top priority! We have from October till our trip to be romantic!!
We are going to be in another continent for heaven’e sake, so we’d like to soak in as much history, architecture, etc. as possible. We have never traveled outside of the us so this will be a first! We do like to splurge so, yes, we will probably choose a hotel in Paris or in Italy to absolutely splurge on (romantic)! Then the other hotel choices will be reasonable, yet nice!
May 30th, 2005, 12:14 PM
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AusitnBride,
Congratulations!
The only places I've visited in Italy are Rome and Florence. A lot of people will say go for Rome with the Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps etc, but Florence was more my kind of city. As it's a honeymoon you just might be persuaded by the outstanding selecton of reasonably priced jewellery on the Ponte Vecchio in Florence - maybe best not tell your intended until you get there...
Good Luck.
Congratulations!
The only places I've visited in Italy are Rome and Florence. A lot of people will say go for Rome with the Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps etc, but Florence was more my kind of city. As it's a honeymoon you just might be persuaded by the outstanding selecton of reasonably priced jewellery on the Ponte Vecchio in Florence - maybe best not tell your intended until you get there...
Good Luck.
May 30th, 2005, 12:20 PM
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Hi AB,
>...if we leave at US morning
Yes, if you leave Austin at 10:00 you will arrive London about 06:00 the next day.
>Do you think weather will be considerably different in November through February??
November won't be as cold.
>We would like to arrive in London and depart in Rome. What do you think?
Good idea. I think that your most convenient budget flight would be from Paris Orly to Pisa (PSA). There is a direct train from Pisa Airport to Florence (abt 1 hr).
See www.whichbudget.com
If you are planning to take the Eurostar train to Paris, the cheapest fares are the one-day RT.
>We also have decided that we may spend about 3 – 4 nights in London, and spend the rest of the nights in Paris and Italy. <
I think that you will find London is worth 4 nights.
>..we will probably choose a hotel in Paris or in Italy to absolutely splurge on (romantic)!<
Check the Villa San Michele outside Florence. You might be able to afford it in Feb. Someone earlier mentioned that they were upgraded to a suite because it was their honeymoon.
http://www.villasanmichele.com/web/o...a1a_splash.jsp
Enjoy your honeymoon.
>...if we leave at US morning
Yes, if you leave Austin at 10:00 you will arrive London about 06:00 the next day.
>Do you think weather will be considerably different in November through February??
November won't be as cold.
>We would like to arrive in London and depart in Rome. What do you think?
Good idea. I think that your most convenient budget flight would be from Paris Orly to Pisa (PSA). There is a direct train from Pisa Airport to Florence (abt 1 hr).
See www.whichbudget.com
If you are planning to take the Eurostar train to Paris, the cheapest fares are the one-day RT.
>We also have decided that we may spend about 3 – 4 nights in London, and spend the rest of the nights in Paris and Italy. <
I think that you will find London is worth 4 nights.
>..we will probably choose a hotel in Paris or in Italy to absolutely splurge on (romantic)!<
Check the Villa San Michele outside Florence. You might be able to afford it in Feb. Someone earlier mentioned that they were upgraded to a suite because it was their honeymoon.
http://www.villasanmichele.com/web/o...a1a_splash.jsp
Enjoy your honeymoon.
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