European Tours Thread 4

[glacy_rein]

^thanks sis review ko yung advice mo, busy lang sa birthday and may sudden jp plan this april! geez!!

[letters_to_cleo]

Hello sisses, anybody here visited Copenhagen na? will go here this holy week (four days) and I plan to go to Malmo, Sweden din for a day tour since apparently 30 minutes train ride away lang sya. Ang nasa checklist ko pa lang is yung National Museum, Nyhaven, Christ Our Savior Church and Tivoli Gardens. Meron pa bang dapat hindi ma-miss sa Copenhagen, mga sis? Kelangan masulit at maplan ahead ko ang trip na ito kasi ang mahal ng hotels sa lugar na ito waaa. And dahil dyan baka di na ako mapadpad dito anytime soon.

[melodymedley]

Well hello to my fave thread in GT. At Thread 4 na pala.
Good to see that mama squeak is still here and patiently answering EU questions.  Hope you enjoy your France and Italy trip.

I've been pretty busy with life for the past couple of months. Not a lot of time for GT. I recently changed jobs din. But tuloy pa rin sa planned travel this year! 

Just to share my thoughts on planning: Prioritize. I understand that mahal ang pamasahe at minsan lang sya. But you'll have to choose the cities, choose your non-negotiables, and save the rest for another trip. May nasa Cashcashpinoy na voucher na may Rome-Paris-Madrid for 7D6N. Parang hindi bakasyon yun. 

I also realized na mahaba-haba din na bakasyon ang 4 weeks. Sulit ang plane ticket pero kapagod din pala if your thinking is "bakasyon" sya because you have to "cram" everything in those dates. I envy those who've been traipsing around Europe for months already.

Ang pinasalubong ko na lang yung mga caramel waffles which I bought in AMS airport. Cheap enough and yummy! Hirap kasi kapag bumili ka na sa ibang cities, kelangan bitbit na throughout the trip (nakakain ko tuloy  )

So my EU III draft itinerary: Budapest-Vienna-?Switzerland cities/Prague again. I am actually choosing between these countries or Turkey. Hold muna yung Egypt trip because of safety reasons.

Hope I can pitch in here from time to time, time-permitting. Cheers to Europe dreams!

[i_miss_sleep]

Just sharing this wonderful website that helped me built my itinerary in a matter of minutes! It will suggest which transportation to take (air or train) and rooms too. You can make modification based on your preferences/budget/time/etc. Hope it helps:

http://www.europeandestinations.com.

Now I just need to investigate on the hotels suggested on this site and see if it fits my liking.

My first in Europe and was hoping for a longer stay BUT I may have to settle to squeeze my must-see in this short period. IT looks like this:
2 nts - Amsterdam
5-6 nts - Paris with daytrip to Brussels (via Thalys)
2 nts (still torn between Lucerne and Barcelona) - (TGV (night train) to Basel /Lucerne; Air to Barcelona)
2 nts Venice - (via Eurocity; Iberia/EasyJet)
2 nts Florence - (via Trenitalia)
4 nts Rome - (via Trenitalia)
-----
Total: 18 days

I'll be towing my son along and thinking of hitting the beach either in Rome or Barcelona. Trip is in July. My fear is he might get exposed with nude bathers in any of the beaches we visit. He's only 8. Any advice on this?

Pls. feel free to comment on IT and suggestions are welcome! TIA.

[bagaholic_chewy]

^ sis, meron din overnight train from Paris to Barcelona and v.v. you might want to consider that para mas direct ang travel nyo..

As for beach, we went to a beach in Barcelona (Barcelonetta beach yata yun, mga last week of July yun couple of  years ago) and yes, maraming topless. And me mga nagmi-make out. Yung ibang kids deadma, yung iba naman nakatingin sa nagmi-makeout, di naman din sinaway ng magulang. Haha! Although, super lakas ng alon kaya sandali lang kami sa water. Konting swimming lang then higa/tambay na lang.

[letters_to_cleo]

Sa lahat yata ng beaches na napuntahan ko sa Espana (Barcelona, Alicante, Mallorca, Valencia) lahat merong topless haha! Normal lang sa kanila yun eh. I think ayos lang yun, kainggit nga wala silang body issues, kiber lang basta makapag tan sila haha!

[mama squeak!]

@letters_to_cleo! Hubby and I will be going to Lyon! We'll be staying for 3 nights coming in from Tours. Basahin ko ulit your Lyon posts and sa France thread ko na lang ipo-post mga Qs ko para di OT tayo.

Para hindi naman OT, here's our European IT for this coming March:

Day 1 - Arrive in Milan and take the train to Venice. For the first night we will be staying in a hotel near The Bridge of Sighs

Day 2-3 Transfer to Hotel Cipriani as part of Orient Express' Venice-Paris promo

Day 4  Orient Express Venice-Simplon Line to Paris (YAY! Excited) 

Day 5  Arrive Paris in the morning. Take the TGV to Tours for an overnight stay.

Day 6 Pick up car and start our Loire Valley tour. Visit the following chateaus: Villandry, Usse and Azay-le-Rideau. Overnight in Azay-le-Rideau.

Day 7 Chenonceau and Amboise.

Day 8 Chaumont, Chambord and Cheverny

Day 9 Montresor and Loches

Day 10  Valencay and back to Tours. Return car and overnight in Tours.

Day 11 Tours to Lyon via TGV

Day 12-13 Lyon

Day 14 Paris (overnight) Shopping! 

Day 15 Flight back home.

Relaxed and easy IT lang. Wish we could stay longer but 2 weeks lang yung off ni hubby.
 
  

[chez]

mga sissies, i would just like to ask for side trip suggestions.... i will be attending a conference in Barcelona on Oct....and has already applied for a 10 day leave after the conference. can you give me suggestions on the side trips? we are planning to visit Fatima, is it also possible to visit Lourdes, France? we are still in the planning stage, basically the paper is still blank except for the 4 day Barcelona....please i welcome any suggestions...

[ziva]

This thread is so inspiring!  I dream of touring the good parts of Europe someday and sabi ni hubby sa 10-year anniversary nalang namin. Ewan ko lang kung may follow through ang promise (***fingers crossed***)

[letters_to_cleo]

^^ From Barcelona, you can take a bus going to Andorra, the country-municipality up in the Pyreneess. No visa required as long as nasa EU ka. ang perks: tax free shopping, ski town sya. Also, Paris, very easy na to go to from Barcelona.  Check out flights from Barca at vueling.com, it's the budget air ng Iberia air, and ang hub nya is Barca so daming flights out of Barca to EU countries here.  Before, on a vacation, I went to Morocco, also visa free, from Barca via vueling, okay [textspeak!] prices ng tix. But i think hehe sa EU countries ka na lang mag concentrate sa pamamasyal sis, nakakasensory overload  ang Morocco in a so-so way for me haha!

[letters_to_cleo]

@mamasqueak wow! nainggit ako dun sa Orient Express! Enjoy the good food in Lyon and don't misd Bernachon and the Paul Bocuse hall of gourmet food! Also if you so prefer, Lyon has a tourism project where yung mga locals nila have a volunteer program to tour for free ang mga tourists. Free sya then iseset up ka sa isang volunteer depending on your interest. Usually two hour walking tour lang, nice way to mingle with the local.  sa visitlyon website sya.


Enjoy! Lyon is super close sa Geneva haha! One train ride away lang

[chiena19]

Hello mga sis!
Help naman can you suggest an itinerary for 10days euro tour? Non nego places to go: paris, rome, spain, belgium (to visit hubby's relatives)
 Kasama namin ang 3yr old daughter so hopefully mga child friendly activities din...
I'm still thinking if we'll visit disneyland paris, worth it ba? Super thanks in advance!

[little_princess]

^ parang it's a bit cramped if 4 cities in 10 days kasi it's best to spend 3-4 nights per place.

Paris and Belgium are near each other. Spain is south west while Italy is more south east. Mas straight line travel if you do Belgium-Paris-Spain or vice versa

[i_miss_sleep]

^^ this is another website helping me build an itinerary. www.visitacity.com. You pick a city and decide how many days you'd like to spend on each and it will figure out for you what works based on distance and time. You can customize it too.

@bagaholic and @letters_to_cleo, input is much appreciated. Again, nabago na naman ang itinerary ko because choice of airline doesn't have direct flight to amsterdam. So instead of flying to France then going to Amsterdam then back to France...I thought sayang pasahe. So mag-fly in na lang kami to London. Spend a quick 2 days there (basic London on day 1 and Bath/Stonehenge on day 2) then proceed to Amsterdam. That's as of writing. Until July...I know maraming mag-change! So still watching this thread for more tips!

[chiena19]

@little_princess and @i_miss_sleep thanks for the tips, will check on the itinerary builder.

[cinnam]

Euro airfare promo again sisses c/o bpi thru Singapore air, only $888 economy rt, even up to 6 mos installment. Booking til feb 23.

[mama squeak!]

^Got a text from BPI about this too. Good deal na yan! 

[divamom]

Good morning mga sis! I'm back lurking at this thread. Our planned Euro tour might not push through this May cos the supposed budget was spent on our sudden US trip last Dec. Though I'm a bit positive that we can still pull it off...kahit France and Italy na lang sana on a 10-12 days trip. My main goal is Paris talaga as a graduation gift to my daughter, pero if kaya pa ng Italy why not. Would 300k suffice for us 3 in the family? Or sa France lang talaga kaya ang budget? Thanks again mga sis!

[mama squeak!]

^sis, you can check my sample computation for 2 adults in Paris for 5 days which I posted in the France thread to give you an idea. Here's the link.

[divamom]

Ok sis, will check it now. Thanks again for your help!