London Travel Answers

Four cities is a lot to see in 16 days. It appears that there is new airport under construction in Berlin, and that currently the code BER is being used by at least one older airport (Tegal) that will close when the new airport opens (2013.) The airline should be to tell you what exact airport your flight will be from. I would start by looking at travel between the cities you want to visit. The Eurostar is the obvious train option from London to Paris. http://www.eurostar.com/ You can book online, 90 about days in advance for the best price, and print the boarding documents before you leave home. Then check the trains from Paris to Amsterdam and Amsterdam to Berlin (you are committed to finishing in Berlin.) If there is a weakness, you may want to skip Amsterdam. Five days in London, Paris and Berlin is a nice balance. Enjoy! DG

thank you for the response! I juuust got off the phone with the flight company and my flight was cancelled but redirected to TXL, phew. mini heart attack there. I have now heard a few times, to skip Amsterdam and that four cities is a lot, I will take that into considerationI just really wanted to see those in particular for my first time there! I will think on this. is it best to book all train rides before, or just my first London to Paris one? ( yes definatley will be using Eurostar!

I don't think 4 cities in 16 days is unrealistic. It will give you at least an introduction to those 4 cities and getting to them shouldn't be too difficult. My wife and I have been on 2 trips to Europe over the last 3 1/2 years. We were both in our 50's after our kids graduated college. We've been to Paris and London on both trips, on the second trying to get to some more sites that we hadn't seen the first go round. I cant help with the hostels. Besides the train travel look into the discount airlines of EasyJet or Ryan Air. We flew EasyJet and if you book far enough in advance can get some very good prices. Just beware of their restrictions. If you have additional questions about each city you can also post a question for each. Also you can check members travel pages for each location and check out tips and pictures.

Hey, I don't see anything wrong with 4 days in each city, I recently spent 3 days in each of those places plus a few more and found it a good chance to have a taste of each city and decide where you may or may not like to explore further later on. My suggestions: avoid white tulip backpackers in Amsterdam, easily one of the worst I've ever stayed in. The bulldog chain of hostels is spose to be pretty good.. Definitely reccomend both The generator and wombats hostel in Berlin. Both are close to the subway station and wombats has plenty to see nearby :) Berlin is amazing! My fave city in Europe so far! Enjoy

If you want to fit in 4 cities in your visit then I see no real problem. Just accept that a goodly chunk of each travel day will be taken up with getting to/from station and hotel and with the travel itself. You don't actually *have* to book any of the tickets in advance. But you would be daft not to book the first segment on the under-Channel Eurostar in advance, and you should do it *now*. The reason? Well, this particular train is very expensive and its cheaper fares are limited in availability..and soon sell-out. Booking is open 120 days before travel and you are now well into that period. So do book your London>Paris tickets as soon as you possibly can to be sure of getting the cheapest fare on the departure you want. For the other segments, booking in advance is really up to you. It's highly unlikely you wouldn't be able to travel if you just turned up on the day, but you might not be able to take the departure which suited you and you would certainly pay the maximum fare. You can sometimes find cheaper online advance fares, so it really is worth checking now and snapping up any advance discount fares you find for dates/departure times which suit you. You could use http://www.thalys.com/ But for Amsterdam>Berlin I'd definitely use the official German railway website: bahn.com/i/view/overseas/en/... which is offering discount advance fares for that route in September (I've just seen fares as low as 39 euro). Bahn.de is excellent; they will send you an eticket to print out and you present this to the guard, with the same card you used to purchase the tickets (that part is absolutely essential, so don't forget the card!). Works brilliantly. Split your time equally between all 4 cities. They all deserve more time than you have, but are all equally fascinating.

Look at http://www.generatorhostels.com/ for London and Berlin ?

I stayed in the Berlin Generator and thought it was fine; large clear shower blocks, breakfast was included (though I think you have to pay extra now), lockers in the room and a sink in ours. It's right behind a U-bahn station to (remember to validate your tickets before stepping onto the train) Amsterdam I stayed in a kind of hotel / hostel so it had dorm rooms but with no shared common room and not a proper kitchen (only a sink and microwave. I met some nice people in my dorm room but the place wasn't the sociable if that's what you're after. I can look up the name later if you're interested, it was quite cheap in the museum area. I don't think you're too ambitious, yes you'll be on the go all the time but I get the feeling you're expecting that anyhow.

Thinking about London accommodation again - I think it is sensible to base your searches in the walking vicinity of St Pancras and Kings Cross area because you may find that (a) the Piccadilly line tube to Kings Cross is cheapest and best for inward travel and (b) you may find a cheap Eurostar fare early morning or later that requires you to walk to the station without any other travel needs. There are many cheaper end places to stay around St Pancras and Kings Cross. For example YHA London - St Pancras Hostel could be great as well. Travelling around from this area is easy enough using bus / tube / walking. You can walk to the British Museum in 20 minutes for example. http://www.britishmuseum.org/

thank you everyone so much! All that advise it extremely helpful! I'm going to print it all off and add it to my books! I have no problem being on the go the whole time, as im'm like that in regular life as it is! so with your advise, I'm going to do all four :) very appreciated!

I don't have a favorite hostel in London, but one thing you could consider doing is staying outside of London. Dartford in Kent is sooooo much cheaper than London for hotels, then you just take the train in from the Ebbsfleet International station and you're in London in minutes. The other cool thing is that this station is international so Eurostar trains to and from Europe stop there, so it could make your trip easier. ebbsfleetinternational.co.uk... is the link. Also, since you're flying into LHR, there's a direct train to London St. Pancras from the airport. Hope this helps! Have a great time!

The problem with staying outside London is that the cost of travelling to and from can reduce any savings on accommodation you make. So before you decide on somewhere, check fares on www.nationalrail.co.uk Dartford>London, for example, is 7.70GBP one-way (journey time around 45 minutes). Ebbsfleet International station is near (but not very near...you'd need a bus unless you found a hotel right by that station) Gravesend. Journey time is 18 minutes but it will cost you 14.80GBP one-way.

We are in Amsterdam right now after the London Paris Amsterdam leg you ar planning. Eurostar part was as described aleady. We had prebooked the Paris to Amsterdam section with reserved seats. This train was very busy at 10.25 am and was in two sections... only one part went thru to Amsterdam... be sure to hop on correct section. The trains are numbered.The carriages are numbered so if you are prebooked with reserved seats you are fine. Some of the enquiry desks at Gare du nord are busy. I have not looked at your profile but NOT all counters have English speakers. Look for the flag above the window if you need English. In France you really need a few French words. Not so that I have found in Amsterdam re Dutch.....seem to be many English speaking people in Amsterdam. I always carry a note of where I am staying in the language of the country and learn a few basic words. Each city has its charms. I am sure you will be amazed by Amsterdam...but watch out for the bicycles they are everywhere and a bit dangerous if you are walking on bike tracks. We are also booked on the train to Berlin which does not leave from Amsterdam central so be careful. You have to leave from the airport station ...Schiphol well anyway you do at the moment.So check. A train goes through to Berlin but we hop off on the way. I will not know how crowded this train is till Wed. Again we leave mid morning

I suppose I had in mind the Olympics when I wrote this because the hotel costs in London have tripled for the season, so I figured taking the train from Ebbsfleet would be a lot cheaper than staying in the city. But you're right, that's irrelevant because on rereading the post I see she's going in September, not August. Oops! Sorry. :-/

No probs. :-)

We were on the train from Amsterdam that goes to Berlin today. We hopped off to go to Hamburg. We had to go to Schiphol to board the train...it did NOT go to Amsterdam central The train had unused seats as far as the border with Germany but I do not know what happened after that...We had booked seats.

There are trains every couple of hours from Amsterdam Centraal to Berlin: http://www.ns.nl/en/travellers/home