Spring Break Europe-desperate for advice?

Question

Hi, I'm a college student in the states who just decided to visit Europe over spring break(3/10-3/18), and I am totally clueless on how I should pursue this goal. I am definitely not a nightlife guy, and my travel objective is to visit the cultural and historical places of Europe. Also, I am not intending to stay at five-star hotels, but I would certainly like to stay at cheap but nice and clean places. The only thing I know is that I want to visit these places(listed in order of preference). Paris, Rome, Florence, Berlin, Vienna, Prague, Madrid, Vatican City, Venice. And I have no idea where to start. Of course, I wouldn't be able to visit all these places in a week. I would certainly like to visit the top 3 places indicated. Do you have any advice on how I should plan my trip? Which airline provides the cheapest fare to Europe form the states and within Europe? How should I manage transportation and lodging? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you

Answer 1

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Answer 2

Dear Muhanjae,

Do you want to learn and experience something or only see?? Americans always want to see -what do they understand??
If you want to relly learn about life and history etc. -pick one of those cities and stick with it -like Paris.
You will only be able to scratch the surface in one week. Think -to have time to stand in front of Mona Lisa -not rush through.To have time to smell the spring aromas, while enjoying your cafe-au-lait and croisant. Or instead look sadly on the zillion things you did not see/have time to enjoy/admire while rushing to the next place. Besides - if you get bored (highly unlikely) you can always take a fast train to Lyon or a train to Brussels or up to the Alps or -you name it.
The cheapest and most interesting and clean places to stay in are the Youth hostels-I think you need a memebership card from your local Youthhostel association. Go to their web pages to find out about the details. Usually they are max 20 dollars a night -and you meet interesting people in Youth hostels.And they are clean and nice and for young people who want to travel and see the world.
The cheapest flights you get by going to some of the Kayak, orbitz etc web sites.
I visited Europe last New year starting from Houston -and the cheapest flight was through airfares.com It was significantly cheaper than from the other web pages.You better book that soon -the flights are more expensive the quicker you need them. If you need to change planes -sometimes that is MUCH cheaper than the direct flight reserve at least 2-3 hours in between. They can offer you 1-2 hour time to change planes.That works, if everything goes smoothly- but if not, you are in trouble.
Book stores have good travel books -but one gets easily overwhelmed, I suspect. (you get used and reasonably priced books from Amazon.com also and you can start by going to the library.
Take your Marcel Proust with you and an interesting travel guide and enjoy your trip -Europe is fantastic, but you get choked if you try to take too large a bite all at once . It is humbling to have to admit that not all is possible -but you get your reward!

Have a most enjoyable trip to Europe

wishes

mary a

from Europe

Answer 3

Go to your local book store, and start looking at the travel guides. Michelin green guide is excellent, and it's the one I used when I was in Europe. You have a lot of planning to do because a week is a very short amount of time. Do an on line search for the least expensive tickets for the dates you'll be going. That's the easiest way. My best advice is to do a great deal of research as far as logistics for when you get there. Consider, also, that is usually less expensive to fly to Brussels than Paris, for example. Have fun!

Answer 4

AirFrance and Lufthansa are good airlines for going to Europe that most people in North America haven't heard of, but you just need to look for deals in general...like on the internet.

As for lodging, I would recommend a hostel. They're really cheap, and I hear they're good. I've been to cheap hotels in Eastern Europe, and they're okay, but I plan to try hostels for my trip to Western Europe this summer. Just use good judgement; if the neighborhood in which your hostel is situated looks bad, I'd recommend a hotel instead then. If you're interested in hostels, try: www.hostelz.com. Also, you could plan your travel via train or bus at night so that you don't have to worry about lodging...sleep on the way!

I think that you've got such a list of places, that you might as well wait until the summer to visit Europe when you've got more time. I am not sure if it's worth purchasing a plane ticket for only a few days in Europe; you'll put your airfare money to better use if you spend more time there and get to see all that you want to see. Also, you'll certainly spend two days running through airports alone if not more--some stopovers are long, and sometimes flights are delayed. I don't know if I would recommend traveling via airplane between your destinations in Europe although you can sometimes find very cheap airfare between European nations that won't take long. Also, it's more fun to look at the countryside if you go by bus or rail.

You'll be so tired from traveling too! I lived in the Russian Federation for much of my life, but now I live in Canada, and when I go back to visit my family during the summer, I am so tired and find it difficult to adjust to the time change even though I grew up there. You may think you can deal with the time change easily, but it's not really that easy. By the time you become accustomed to the difference, it will be time for you to fly back home.

I think that if you want to visit the first three on your list, you'll have enough time, but it may be difficult to see the whole city with your time available. I think it would be best to travel by rail (look at www.eurail.com for a good deal on rail travel) or bus. Also, as I say, if you travel by night, you can sleep on the train or bus and not have to worry about lodging.

Most planes entering or leaving Europe enter in Amsterdam (Nederland), Frankfurt am Main (Germany), or Paris (France). I am traveling to Western Europe this summer, and those generally seem to be the most popular international airports. I would recommend perhaps finding a flight into Paris, and then one out of Italy. You could probably travel from Paris either west to Berlin then Prague then Italy or from Paris east to Madrid to Italy if you're very, very lucky with the time frame you've got to travel. However, if you can't make Berlin, perhaps visit Hamburg in place of it. It's closer to France, and Berlin's further east.

Best of luck, and I hope you won't get too tired out from this traveling!

Answer 5

I suggest going into a Barnes & Noble store with pen pad, brouse through the travel section, pick a good selection of the most interesting travel books, take notes in an overstuffed chair & flesh out your ideas. You could even buy the most relant and useful one.

Answer 6

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