Europe Travel Forum

Hello, A Friend and I are planning a trip to Europe for the month of August 2009.

We're wanting our budget to not be so high, but also not so low.

We have eight places listed out where we'd like to go. All th places are quite a jump from each other, but we are wondering the best way to go about doing this.

[Amsterdam, Paris, Helsinki, Galway, Dublin, London, Rome, & Somewhere in Sweden(I can't quite remember at this moment.]

swap helsinki for krakow

Hmmm

You can take the train between Paris & Amsterdam in 5 hours (high speed version Thalys - book early on internet for big discounts).

If its Stockholm you're going to then you can take the ferry between there and Helsinki.

Dublin/Galway you can take the bus or train, or rent a car.

Otherwise I'd go for low cost airlines - say Ryanair between London and Dublin; Easyjet between London/Amsterdam, for example. Traditional carriers try to match their deals, so look at Aer Lingus and KLM as well.

Try to avoid British Airways and Heathrow if at all possible.

Watch out for public sector strikes in Italy & France. Alitalia staff and air traffic controllers are at it in Italy. In France, a favourite target is the RER (suburban trains) between Charles de Gaulle airport and the city.

I agree about flying.

Look at www.whichbudget.com and www.harefares.com for budget carriers and their destinations.

Start looking for fares around April 2009, to get the best prices. Book tickets when you see good fares: prices rise as you get nearer to departure, sometimes daily. Remember strict check-in times (a minute or so late and you miss your flight with no refund) and hold baggage limits (20kg for most, 15kg for Ryanair).

You can also use the train for some parts of your journey. Look at:

http://www.bahn.de/p/view/international/englisch/international_guests.shtml

for info and details about allEuropean train routes. Fares will change by 209, of course, but timetables will not change very much. To explore train fares you will have to go to the individual country's website (google the country name + 'railway'). Don't be tempted to buy a Eurail pass (or any other pass) until you have totalled the point-to-point cost of your journey, because passes are often not the budget option they seem.

You can get very good fares (from 29.50GBP at the moment) on the Eurostar train from London to Paris (or Amsterdam) but you need to book well in advance. The 'window' for booking is 127 days beforehand (I think): www.eurostar.com

Book your accommodation in advance, because August is high season. Look at www.venere.com
www.hostelworld.com (if you want hostels)
www.booking.com
for ideas.

You might wish to narrow down your list of destinations. That will likely decrease your expenses. It will also allow you more time to visit each of the destinations you finalize. If you visit all the destinations you have listed, you could spend quite a bit of your vacation in transit. I would probably try to fly in to Dublin, visit Galway, London, Amsterdam, and Paris. You could possibly use overnight transport, (ferries), from Ireland over to England, and from London to Amsterdam. You also could check on overnight rail transport from Amsterdam to Paris. The overnight travel allows you to combine your travel expenses and lodging expenses. For lodging you might wish to look at the following site: www.hostelworld.com. They often list budget lodging that isn't actually hostels, but can be somewhat inexpensive. If you want to see more of the countryside, trains, and a bus line, are viable options. Gary

Coaches (buses) are most frequently the cheapest mode of transport, but journey times can be long (and it can be a tiring way to travel).

www.eurolines.com is the portal for international operators in Europe, timetables, fares etc.

Another advantage of travelling a bit more slowly is that you will have more of an opportunity to meet the locals. If you spend all your time in train stations, airports, and attractions you are likely to just meet busy tourists running from one place to the next. For me, when I took time to have a nice meal with the local people, or took in a concert with them, or travelled with them, it made my vacation much more fun, and insightful. Gary

of course you should NOT swap helsinki for krakow! helsinki is a beautiful, hip and interesting place.

you can travel between stockholm and helsinki by ferry or plane. you should check out deals by SAS (scandinavian airlines) and finnair, because they often have cheap flights.

well,the person is travelling a whole month and is young..shell meet plenty of people anyway.
btw, between helsinki and stockholm you have viking lines and tallinksilja lines ferries.
tho id still opt for the plane if you find cheaper flights (which is very possible) because it can be cheaper than taking the ferry.
you should also tell us where in sweden you wanted to go, then its easier to help.

btw,there is ryanair between london and tampere, a city about 2 hours by train from helsinki. so if you decide on that you can easily reach helsinki. ryanair has a cheap tampere-helsinki airport.
tampere is worth half a day-day, has good pubs and a nice park nearby, plus if you like the moomins, the moomin museum is in tampere.

Hi It looks like you are jumping around and not going in a regular direction. I would start say in Rome and work my way north using train and bus, do not criss cross the country, more direct route, less kilometers travelled, cheaper rail tickets etc. Keep out of airports, they take up time.

Good Luck,
Mike

My earlier posts were not meant to discount Rome. or Helsinki, or Sweden as travel destinations. For a younger person, Finland and Sweden might actually be quite a lot of fun. Gary

August 2009 is more than a year away, we do not know yet what discounts could be available. In some cases airplanes, in some cases trains on special tickets bought in East/Central Europe, in some cases busses. I did experience once in a while that "regular" airlines can offer discounts and undercut the "no-frills" operators like Ryanair.

My gut feeleing (this is probably the best for two people)

- fly to London, fly from, say, Helsinki.
- finish with UK+Ireland first
- fly to Rome on a no-frills airline (Ryanair?)
- Rome->Paris: go by train, try to reserve on-line with Trnitalia
- Paris-Amsterdam: try to reserve on-line with Thalys (if train) or just use bus (probably will cost less)
- Amsterdam->Berlin: try to get a cheap train ticket for overnight train (couch), upgrade on-board with RZD (Russian) sleeper (an insider tipp: better sleepers, practically free tea, etc. - and VERY reasonable upgrade. Not sold on the station, only from conductor!)
- Berlin-Stockholm: use the night train, reserve on-line
- Stockholm-Helsinki: use the ferry

This is a very rough idea only, since it's over 1 year from now you are way to early.