I will be traveling across Europe in October. I plan to go to London, Paris, Prauge, Switzerland (city?), Rome, Venice, Salzburg and Munich. I would like to know of quant hotels w/ bath for two under $100 close to Eurail stations and the sites. Also, any comments on using Eurail for travel between cities? How are the sleeper cars?

Lisa: I have been to Paris about a dozen times and I
stay at The Hotel IBIS at #2 Rue Cambronne. It is
a newly renovated hotel but the rate is about $90
for two people and is 20 minute walk from Eiffel Tower/Champs d'Mars. Metro station is right outside
the front door. Good luck, Ed

Buy Karen Browns book on Small Inns for the area you are going to travel to. I have always found her recommendations to be very good. For Salzburg you can stay at the Watzmann Hotel in Bertesgaden, Germany. This is a very quaint small town and a very short 30 to 45 minute drive to the busy hustle, bussle of Salzburg. you get the best of both worlds. Venice is expensive. Find a good place there and be ready to pay top dollar for anything unless you get off the beaten track.

Lisa, Just returned from a 19 day trip to Europe and we planned to visit London, Munich, Switzerland, Innsbruck, and No. Italy but found that money didn't go as far as we had planned and had to sleep in car 2 nights. We were miserable and tired the next day of course. We took $7,000 American and spent very little on souvenirs, less than $200. Things like spending 4 hours in the one and only laundromat (with 2 washers, each load costing $3.50) and 15 people waiting to use them slowed us down. And it was the only one I found entire trip. If I would ask the hotel they would send me to a dry cleaner or think I wanted the hotel laundromat to wash my cloths. My hair was burnt to a crisp because the high voltage didn't completely get shut down through the converter. Met other Americans with wet hair because their conveters 'blew". We rented a car and 1 quart of oil in Germany cost $15. We had to fill it 3 times in one day and it cost $100 plust our snacks. We drank lots of water and would buy it cold at each stop. Lots 6 pounds so that was good. Sweated so much thought I was going to die. Slept through the black forest and it was raining so couldn't see much but the stop at the cuckoo shop was great. They allowed me to pick what I wanted and gave me a form so I could fax them and charge it to Visa when I get home. Some hotels have no lifts and my husband cursed them all, 4 floors up. Pack light. Airlines lost our luggage in London and have yet to find it. My son has no clothes for school today so he is at home. Next time I'm going to see the good ol USA. Much cheaper and just as beautiful!!

Lisa, 17 days in Europe requires real planning if you are going to do it right and economically and from the way I am reading your query you are approaching the trip with a "would like to see, how do I do it?" scattershot approach. If you haven't been to Europe before and really don't know your way around, then I forsee that the end result is likely to be as disastrous as the writer above who spent a fortune and had a miserable time. Your first trip to Europe should bring back happy memories and encourage you to return to those places you found particularly endearing so may I make a suggestion. Forget traipsing around by yourself on a Eurail pass looking for cheap digs near railway stations, and anticipating this will give you the best feel of the cities your train deposits you in and hie you now to a respectable travel agent who can find you an economical package tour of 6 or 7 countries over a 14 day period that will take via bus to many of the top cities, put you in more than decent hotels and have your bag(s) deposited to your door,get you in to all the must see attractions, and allow you to meet and get to know a host of interesting people from around the world who will be your fellow travellers for the time together. That way you will get a real flavour of the places you want to visit, good enough to know where you want to go back to in future, and good enough to give you an idea of how you could do this on your own the second time around. May I recommend looking at either Insight, Globus or Trafalgar tours for this experience? I have used all three in England, and throughout Europe and can vouch for the quality of the tour at a price that will be astonishing low when you compare it to what you are probably prepared to spend to do things haphazardly hoping they are right. Good luck and if you have any questions e-mail me (I will however be in Europe myself between 27 Aug. and 10 September). Lanny

Thanks for the advice. I just saw a travel agent yesterday. We have narrowed my trip down to four countries only. We are now going to London, Paris, Rome (I was just in those three cities in June), Venice and Zurich. On my prior trip, I stayed in hotels that were more expensive than $100 per night and they were far from the center of things. In London I stayed at the Phoenix, in Paris the Mercedes, and in Rome at the Columbus. I kind of know my way around Paris and London but am clueless in regards to the other cities. I had thought about taking a tour but on my last trip I talked to people carrying tour bags - Trafalgars, Globus, American Express etc. and asked them how they liked their tours because I knew I would be going again soon. Most people said that they were rushed, tired and not very happy. It is good to hear that you were satisfied with yours. Thanks again for the advice and have a great trip! Lisa

Lisa, thanks for the follow up. My advice was premised on your short plea for help which certainly didn't make it clear you had been to Europe before. That makes a big difference, obviously. I think you are smart to have winnowed your list of places down to a smaller number for this trip. Venice is very easy to get around and in any case, if you get lost it is a delightful place to be lost in so you should have no trouble. I never had trouble in Rome either, though a friend was robbed of all he owned by gypsies picking pockets and purses in the Sistine Chapel (stare up and gaze in awe while they pick you clean!, beware!!), and though this is the one city in the world I wouldn't want to drive in because I don't think I have the courage to ignore all potential traffic laws and then when finished driving, park three deep Rome style!. I am surprised you have not included Florence on your list -- perhaps the most beautiful and compelling of all Italian cities. I'd drop Zurich off. But perhaps you are flying into or from there? Re package tours. The extensive European one I did was a real "if this is Tuesday it must be Belgium" tour and that can leave you dejected if, for instance, you like one place a lot and find you are there for four hours and then gone (my first trip to Santorini, Greece, on a cruise ship was for four hours. I almost wept. But I did resolve to go back and did, for much longer!!) while some other place that is of minimal interest to you is on your agenda for 18 hours or something. The tour guides though are worth their weight in gold in terms of what they can tell you about places, and no one will get you in to an attraction faster and better, and closer at hand, than the tour groups. Strange the experience of the people you talked to re some of these tours, as more than a decade later I am still in contact with about half a dozen of my travellers from that trip -- living in the U.S., Australia and New Zealand. I have found these tours invaluable for determining where to go back to in future and my trips to Europe, the quickly upcoming trip aside, have resulted from my first big package tour more than a decade ago. Next week I head off into uncharted territory -- taking a flyer on Nurnberg and then crusing down the Danube and into places such as Vienna and Bratislava, and finally a few days at the other end in Budapest. Good luck on your trip.

Lanny, You won't believe this, but I took a day trip to Florence with a friend when we were in Italy in June. We had heard that Florence was not a place to miss. After the tour, my friend and I wondered what everyone was talking about! I guess we went on a bad tour or maybe our tour was just too rushed!

Was your trip to Europe a Sunbeam tour? I have a friend from New Zealand that works at Sunbeam tours and most of their customers are Aussies or Kiwi's - as she calls them! Thanks for the info and have a great trip!

Lisa

P.S. If you have any information on things that shouldn't be missed in Greece, please let me know I am going there in September.

Our grand tour of Europe was with Insight, a UK based company. The group was split about one third Australians and Kiwis, one third Canadians, and the final third divided between Americans and people from other former British colonies, such as Singapore etc. I don't think Insight is well known/well publicized in the U.S. The group seemed to be composed of upscale people, most with university degrees and strong interests in antiquities, world history and the arts and with the animation of a superior tour guide steeped in these traditions himself, he brought the places we visited alive. Re Florence, I doubt you can gain any appreciation of it from a day tour. It is a city that needs to be slept in and walked through. I bet they dragged you in to the city long enough to see the view of the city from the nearby hills (probably adjacent to the second David), then past the burial site of Elizabeth Barrett Browning and in to the museum long enough to see and photograph the original David, perhaps concluding with a 10-minute visit to the cathedral where Machiavilli and da Vinci are entombed, and not much more. I stayed there three days the second last time I was in Italy (I spent my holidays in Italy again last year), and ran out of time visiting the museums and galleries, churches, etc. and trying to put myself back mentally to the time of the de Medicis. I have to go back.

Re Greece. I am passionately interested in antiquities so my visits there have been in pursuit of the goal of bringing ancient history alive. I am familiar with Athens, much of the the Peleponneses (spent a week there) and can heartily reccomend visiting Mycaenae, Naupilion, Corinth, etc. there, as well as Olympia, Delphi, the Monasteries in central Greece and of course the islands of Santorini and Crete where major archaeological sites are also found. I have also visited Mykonos, Kos, Paros, and Rhodes for sun, sea and sand. What precisely are you looking for in Greece?

Lanny - You may be on your trip. So maybe you can respond when you get back. Hope you have a great time.

Our Trafalgar tour includes a tour of the Acropolis, Parthenon, Acropolis museum, the Agora, Royal Palace, the Temple of Zeus, Hadrian's Arch and the stadium. Looks like we will have three extra days to tour on our own. Any suggestions would be great. I am interested in jewelry shops - I hear they have some really neat jewelry.

Lisa