Things Old Travellers to Europe Seem Not to Understand!!!
May 12th, 2014, 02:59 PM
#41
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Yes RM but we are talking about youth travelers here not old fogheys - and me and many others expressed when we were young that type of travel thrilled us and is one reason we kept going back albeit at a gentler slower (more expensive) pace.
May 12th, 2014, 05:11 PM
#42
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well, being a native New Yorker I would never consider sleeping overnight in a public place - anywhere - anytime - even when I was a kid. Just knew better than that.
And our travel was plenty thrilling - just not taking a lot of risks. (Maybe it's because I don;t find risks thrilling - I find them scary.)
And our travel was plenty thrilling - just not taking a lot of risks. (Maybe it's because I don;t find risks thrilling - I find them scary.)
May 13th, 2014, 05:46 AM
#44
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different strokes for different folks - whatever pleases one travel style is fine - just don't extrapolate your subjective liking in travel to instruct others to do likewise IMO and this is what OlderFodorGarchs here often do when young folk present an ambitious travel plan.
May 13th, 2014, 06:19 AM
#45
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We just completed three months in Europe, home for Christmas, then three months in South America. We booked the beginning and the end of each trip, the rest was open. We decided a week or a few days ahead where we would go, based upon weather and what others we met told us about.
Yes we had a general idea, but many different options that we may take. Hotels were booked a few days prior
We loved it.
My first trip to Europe I was 18 (many years ago) I arrived in Barcelona and had no plan for the next three months. It was awesome.
Sometimes we plan the entire trip, sometimes we go by the seat of our pants. Both are great for us. I do know a lot of people who could never travel without knowing where and when they are going to go.
I also have friends who could never travel having the entire vacation booked.
As Pal says, different strokes for different folks. They are both the right way to do it IMO.
Yes we had a general idea, but many different options that we may take. Hotels were booked a few days prior
We loved it.
My first trip to Europe I was 18 (many years ago) I arrived in Barcelona and had no plan for the next three months. It was awesome.
Sometimes we plan the entire trip, sometimes we go by the seat of our pants. Both are great for us. I do know a lot of people who could never travel without knowing where and when they are going to go.
I also have friends who could never travel having the entire vacation booked.
As Pal says, different strokes for different folks. They are both the right way to do it IMO.
May 18th, 2014, 06:04 PM
#46
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I and my best friend went to Europe for a month in August 1976 and from my trip diary, I think we were in 15 cities. The exchange rate was fabulous and a First class Eurailpass was dirt cheap and so we just went. The train sometimes was our hotel and the train schedule sometimes decided where we went next. We started in Munich went to Heidelberg, Salzburg, Innsbruck. Paris, Lyon, Rome, Florence, Genoa, Antwerp and Amsterdam, among others.
We loved it and it didn't seem hectic at all. One day we got off in Cannes couldn't get a hotel, had lunch near the beach and hopped on a train to Bordeaux. The people we met from everywhere, was one of of our favorite parts. We never spent more than 2 nights in a place but in Rome saw the Forum, the Colosseum, the Sistine Chapel and still ate and drank at an outdoor cafe and stopped for Gelato. We only had a day in Amsterdam but still saw the Van Gogh museum, Anne Frank' houses, and just enjoyed the canals.
All the different vistas, flavors, people and history made it so worth it to two 21 year old girls who had never been on a plane! The independence and exhilaration of seeing so much we had only seen in books was life changing. I have aged into planning, bucket lists and resting my feet into the afternoon, but I sure understand all points of view!
We loved it and it didn't seem hectic at all. One day we got off in Cannes couldn't get a hotel, had lunch near the beach and hopped on a train to Bordeaux. The people we met from everywhere, was one of of our favorite parts. We never spent more than 2 nights in a place but in Rome saw the Forum, the Colosseum, the Sistine Chapel and still ate and drank at an outdoor cafe and stopped for Gelato. We only had a day in Amsterdam but still saw the Van Gogh museum, Anne Frank' houses, and just enjoyed the canals.
All the different vistas, flavors, people and history made it so worth it to two 21 year old girls who had never been on a plane! The independence and exhilaration of seeing so much we had only seen in books was life changing. I have aged into planning, bucket lists and resting my feet into the afternoon, but I sure understand all points of view!
May 18th, 2014, 06:55 PM
#47
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<<This is one thing olf fogheygharchs just can't see to understand - younger folks may be bored with the old 'you gotta stay 5 days in Paris or you should not even go there' attitude.
I'm a younger folk.
Fodors often makes me feel young!!
I'm a younger folk.
Fodors often makes me feel young!!
May 18th, 2014, 07:24 PM
#48
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When I was young, I'd travel for months in Europe, having booked only my flight over and the first night's accommodation. Now I feel that there are so many tourists that everything needs needs to be pre-planned and pre-booked or you miss out. I'd go back to the old way if it were as easy as it was then and stay as long or as short a time in each place as I felt like. I miss that kind of unplanned travel.
May 18th, 2014, 08:21 PM
#49
I often still do travel that way, dream on.
Friends laugh at me - I'll book restaurants a month in advance & happily wing it on accommodation if there's not a particular hotel/ place where I really want to stay.
Haven't had to sleep on a park bench yet - but ran a close thing in a country city here whose accommodation was fully booked by a Local Government conference. Nearest towns were 25 & 40 miles away. Got the last room in the worst pub & had one of the best breakfasts I've had anywhere.
Friends laugh at me - I'll book restaurants a month in advance & happily wing it on accommodation if there's not a particular hotel/ place where I really want to stay.
Haven't had to sleep on a park bench yet - but ran a close thing in a country city here whose accommodation was fully booked by a Local Government conference. Nearest towns were 25 & 40 miles away. Got the last room in the worst pub & had one of the best breakfasts I've had anywhere.
May 19th, 2014, 05:46 AM
#50
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We haven a good friend, an ex-pat, who for tax reasons could not enter either the UK or the US for six months.
This friend went to Australia and New Zealand with first and last nights booked but nothing in between. Traveled only by public transportation, preferably by bus, stayed everywhere from hostels to hotels to fishing lodges to flats rented by the week. Did what there was to do and then moved on, enjoyed really good excursions in some parts of NZ.
Our friend returned home to the UK and did the same there in perhaps six regions of the country. A B&B reserved for the first night, stayed if the place and the lodging were enjoyable, moved on if not.
Another friend, a very frugal person, visited London for three months at a time for a tiny amount of money by looking in local suburban papers at rooms for rent by the week in people's houses. She looked in towns on the rail lines, not the Tube, and was never more than 30 minutes from central London.
There are lots of ways to travel.
This friend went to Australia and New Zealand with first and last nights booked but nothing in between. Traveled only by public transportation, preferably by bus, stayed everywhere from hostels to hotels to fishing lodges to flats rented by the week. Did what there was to do and then moved on, enjoyed really good excursions in some parts of NZ.
Our friend returned home to the UK and did the same there in perhaps six regions of the country. A B&B reserved for the first night, stayed if the place and the lodging were enjoyable, moved on if not.
Another friend, a very frugal person, visited London for three months at a time for a tiny amount of money by looking in local suburban papers at rooms for rent by the week in people's houses. She looked in towns on the rail lines, not the Tube, and was never more than 30 minutes from central London.
There are lots of ways to travel.
May 19th, 2014, 06:00 AM
#51
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I think being in your 20s and having money to do this in the first place is wonderful. I was a dancer and was lucky if I had $ for rent. I had to wait until my late 30s to go anywhere and then it was one trip. I didn't travel again until my mid 40s (to Paris on TWA for $99 each way). I wasn't able to travel again until I got to my early 50s. All because of $: not having any for that kind of spending.
Now, I've been trying to make up for lost time!
Now, I've been trying to make up for lost time!
May 19th, 2014, 12:53 PM
#53
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Everyone has a different idea of adventure and enjoyment.
I have a friend who is a traveler - not a tourist. Has been to more than 100 countries, stayed in a yurt in Mongolia and went up the flooded Amazon in a canoe - with snakes dropping out of the trees on them.
That is not me.
I am exhilarated by different things. Like seeing a throne that belonged to Charlemagne. Or climbing through the Temple of the Vestal Virgins. Or walking the streets of St Pet - going into churches to see the restored icons.
All types of travel are valid if the traveler makes specific decisions about what they want. The problems happen when they make decisions based on invalid assumptions - or simply lack any knowledge of what they will encounter. Especially a family traveling with children or seniors. Obviously college kids can be much more flexible than can parents hauling 2 toddlers around with them.
I have a friend who is a traveler - not a tourist. Has been to more than 100 countries, stayed in a yurt in Mongolia and went up the flooded Amazon in a canoe - with snakes dropping out of the trees on them.
That is not me.
I am exhilarated by different things. Like seeing a throne that belonged to Charlemagne. Or climbing through the Temple of the Vestal Virgins. Or walking the streets of St Pet - going into churches to see the restored icons.
All types of travel are valid if the traveler makes specific decisions about what they want. The problems happen when they make decisions based on invalid assumptions - or simply lack any knowledge of what they will encounter. Especially a family traveling with children or seniors. Obviously college kids can be much more flexible than can parents hauling 2 toddlers around with them.
May 19th, 2014, 07:11 PM
#54
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Back in the day we didn't have the internet to research the safety of airlines. My first solo European trip was to Spain and Italy. I flew on the Spanish airline Spantax, whose slogan was "Spantax - held together with thumb tacks." On the return flight to NYC, we made an unscheduled 4 hour "refueling" stop in Gander, Newfoundland. But hey, for $99 RT it was such a deal (especially because I was incognizant of Spantax's multiple crashes or the typhoid outbreak from the food on board.)
Nowadays I wouldn't fly Spantax, but I do take Zantac.
Nowadays I wouldn't fly Spantax, but I do take Zantac.
May 19th, 2014, 08:06 PM
#56
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""Older people lose several hours each day resting, dressing up for dinner, sorting medications and going to the bathroom more often." ...best line I've read so far.
Yes, and it finally makes me understand all the "you can't do xxx in less than xxx days" posts. It's because they spend all their time trussing themselves up, and hardly actually ever get OUT, and when they do, they can't hardly move, anyways.
Yes, and it finally makes me understand all the "you can't do xxx in less than xxx days" posts. It's because they spend all their time trussing themselves up, and hardly actually ever get OUT, and when they do, they can't hardly move, anyways.
May 20th, 2014, 04:42 AM
#59
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I wrote "I was a dancer and was lucky if I had $ for rent."
sparkchaser wrote: "Not "that" kind of dancer, I take it." (Tongue planted firmly in cheek I take it.)
You've (all of us?) obviously been watching too many movies and TV where any so-called dancer seems to be a stripper or lap dancer. Is there any show that doesn't have at least one scene in a topless bar? When was the last time any of us saw a scene in a museum or real theater?
OK, I know I've moved from the original subject.
sparkchaser wrote: "Not "that" kind of dancer, I take it." (Tongue planted firmly in cheek I take it.)
You've (all of us?) obviously been watching too many movies and TV where any so-called dancer seems to be a stripper or lap dancer. Is there any show that doesn't have at least one scene in a topless bar? When was the last time any of us saw a scene in a museum or real theater?
OK, I know I've moved from the original subject.
