people who have vacationed to europe - first timer looking for some advice

[purbeast0]

my wife and i are heading to europe for the first time in august. we plan to go for like 11 or 12 days. we're taking 2 weeks off but want a few days to recover when coming back.

usually when i plan vacations they are to the carribean, and i have a laundry list of things that i want to do and see on those trips. it's also to see what hotels are in good locations and usually closer to the beach = better.

this trip we're doing because my wife has wanted to go there for the past 5+ years and now we're actually making it happen. the 2 places that are 100% on the list are paris and spain. in spain we'd like to see barcelona, madrid, and seville.

so the things that i'm really uncertain about to look for in these places is how to find a "good" hotel. i don't know anything about location in these places or what is considered the "good" areas to stay in with things to do close by. typically we like to stay in mid to high end hotels when traveling. but location is typically important too.

another thing i'm unsure about is traveling between countries. i have heard of the eurorail pass but haven't done much research on that. will this get me from france to spain?

and on that note - should we try to see more than 2 countries if we're going to be there for nearly 2 weeks? or will that feel too busy?

as for the flights, should we fly into france then fly out of spain? or should we find a way back to france then fly from the same airport we arrived in? typically when booking vacations we fly in/out of the same airport and just do "roundtrip" so i guess doing 2 separate one way flights is just something i'm not used to.

i'm sure i'll have more questions as things come up but for now that's all i got i think.

 

[Ancalagon44]

I've been to Barcelona before - nice city. I stayed in B-Hotel, which I can recommend. It's very well situated and nicely equipped.

I passed through Madrid, just went to the airport really.

Depends on what you consider a successful holiday. Do you like moving around a lot? Do you like keeping busy the whole time? Or do you prefer relaxing for a bit in one place? How much do you like cities?

Regarding round trip vs different cities. It was a 2 hour flight from Paris to Barcelona. If it is much cheaper to fly from the same city, then do it. If it is the same price, rather save yourself the 2 hour trip (longer when you consider boarding time etc).

Oh I did go to the beach in Barcelona. It's... okay. Not fantastic. I think some other parts of the Spanish coastline probably have better beaches.

Bear in mind that the most popular Spanish beach towns, such as Majorca, will more than likely be full of drunk British tourists.

EDIT: I should add. You won't have a problem speaking English in Barcelona. But, in the rural parts of Spain, it would be a problem. They don't speak much English there.

 

[Homerboy]

Train between locations.

You could spend 2 weeks in 1 city if you wanted. My biggest recommendation, ESPECIALLY in Paris, is just to walk around. You can see the normal tourist traps and check them off your list (they are cool and impressive). But just stroll on the streets. Pop into the small shops and markets. Eat at small cafes and sit and people watch. Enjoy the culture and not just "OH!!! Eiffel Tower!!!" That was unquestionably the best part about traveling in Europe.

Oh and don't be a loud, obnoxious American. That will get you nowhere with the people.

 

[BarkingGhostar]

After spending three weeks in the UK in December 2014 I quickly realized I would spend three months and still not see everything of interest in just the UK.

 

[purbeast0]

I've been to Barcelona before - nice city. I stayed in B-Hotel, which I can recommend. It's very well situated and nicely equipped.

I passed through Madrid, just went to the airport really.

Depends on what you consider a successful holiday. Do you like moving around a lot? Do you like keeping busy the whole time? Or do you prefer relaxing for a bit in one place? How much do you like cities?

Regarding round trip vs different cities. It was a 2 hour flight from Paris to Barcelona. If it is much cheaper to fly from the same city, then do it. If it is the same price, rather save yourself the 2 hour trip (longer when you consider boarding time etc).

Oh I did go to the beach in Barcelona. It's... okay. Not fantastic. I think some other parts of the Spanish coastline probably have better beaches.

Bear in mind that the most popular Spanish beach towns, such as Majorca, will more than likely be full of drunk British tourists.

EDIT: I should add. You won't have a problem speaking English in Barcelona. But, in the rural parts of Spain, it would be a problem. They don't speak much English there.

my wife is nicaraguan and came to the US when she was 13 so we won't have any language issues anywhere we go in spain.

i actually think majorca was one of the places she mentioned checking out too.

on vacation i like to go do stuff and see things. i do also like to relax a bit too, but i think having 12 days will let us balance it a good amount. when i go to the carribean though i'm not one of those people that will just sit on the beach all day every day then go to sleep, rinse repeat every day.

 

[purbeast0]

Train between locations.

You could spend 2 weeks in 1 city if you wanted. My biggest recommendation, ESPECIALLY in Paris, is just to walk around. You can see the normal tourist traps and check them off your list (they are cool and impressive). But just stroll on the streets. Pop into the small shops and markets. Eat at small cafes and sit and people watch. Enjoy the culture and not just "OH!!! Eiffel Tower!!!" That was unquestionably the best part about traveling in Europe.

Oh and don't be a loud, obnoxious American. That will get you nowhere with the people.

TBH i don't give 2 shits about seeing the eiffel tower. i've been up the fake one at kings dominion multiple times, as well as the one in vegas lol. i know the real one is larger but in general i just don't care about it. but my wife on the other hand...

and yeah we're about as far away from the "typical american tourists" that you can be.

 

[Ancalagon44]

Bear in mind that there will be subtle differences in the Spanish that your wife speaks. Someone who did their Masters degree in European Spanish explained to me that although European Spanish and American Spanish have a huge amount in common, the meanings of some words are not the same.

I'd probably limit yourself to 3-4 locations max. That way, you spend between 3 and 4 days at each location, which is enough to not feel rushed and do/see the things you want.

 

[NuclearNed]

I've been to Great Britain & Italy. We took a regional flight from London to Rome, which was cheap & easy. Once in Italy, we did the train thing, which was super cheap & easy. We didn't rent a vehicle the entire trip.

 

[purbeast0]

Bear in mind that there will be subtle differences in the Spanish that your wife speaks. Someone who did their Masters degree in European Spanish explained to me that although European Spanish and American Spanish have a huge amount in common, the meanings of some words are not the same.

I'd probably limit yourself to 3-4 locations max. That way, you spend between 3 and 4 days at each location, which is enough to not feel rushed and do/see the things you want.

yeah we already know most of the common differences between the two.

 

[dullard]

I would say you'd want a week in Paris, but could do it justice in maybe 4 days. Barcelona deserves at least 3 days and the surrounding areas a day or two. That doesn't leave enough time for both Madrid and Seville. If I were you, I would drop Madrid off the list. Sure, you can do one or two days in a city but then all you are doing is sitting in a bus/train/airport and not actually experiencing the destinations.

Since you are very time limited, I suggest just sucking it up and being tired on your first day back at work. Leave Friday after work and come back Sunday at midnight. That'll give you a full 16 days in Europe rather than your planned 11 days.

Also, fly into one city and out of another. That saves you the hours of time travelling back to the first city for no reason at all. It is called an open-jaw ticket. You may also see it listed as a multi-city ticket. Often it is cheaper too since you have the flexibility to choose which direction to fly. For example you could book one of these:
1) A ticket from your hometown round trip to Paris.
2) A ticket from your hometown to Paris and a ticket back from Barcelona.
3) A ticket from your hometown to Barcelona and a ticket back from Paris.
Now you have three prices to choose from and frequently the cheaper one will be either #2 or #3.

Finally, Europe has Ryanair. You can fly from Paris to just outside Barcelona (Girona where you can see a fantatic Salvador Dali museum) for ~$55 in August. Or from Seville to Barcelona for ~$56. Book that part separately from your international flights and save hundreds of dollars.

When I travel to Europe, I open up Hotels.com (you don't need to book with it, I just like the map feature) and type in the city that I want to visit. Then click on the map view. That will show you where the hotels are clustered. Usually the roads circle around that spot as well. This is the city center. This is where you want to stay. 90+% of the sites you want to visit will be in walking distance of that city center. You can also click on the feature on the left side of Hotels.com to map the locations of interest to help narrow the location down even further.

Then use any website to actually book the hotels.

 

[Ophir]

I highly recommend Spain. The Andalucia triangle (Sevilla, Cordoba, Granada) is spectacular, in particular Granada, which is in my top-3 favorite places in the world.

I would recommend flying in to Madrid, renting a car, stopping in Toledo on the way to Granada, stopping in Cordoba on the way to Sevilla. They're all tiny, so a day or two is enough. Use Ryan Air or Easy Jet to get to Barcelona then Paris, fly out of Paris. I wouldn't do more than that, or else you'll be on transport more than at your destinations.

Keep in mind, though, that August is vacation month in Europe. So some places may be deserted as if it were Christmas day here, especially in Spain. September/October are generally better for travel, and the temperature should be better, as well. Remember that A/C is a luxury not a necessity over there and it gets plenty hot. Luckily, they make up for it with copious amounts of ice-cold sangria.

Most travel websites let you do multi-city flights, though usually at a slight premium.

Try to avoid too many places on the itinerary. I would bookend with 3 days in Madrid and 3 in Paris to give yourself a break.

 

[dullard]

My hotel advice is that Europe is different than the Caribbean. In the Caribbean people tend to spend a lot of time drunk at the hotel and spending down time at the pool or nearby beach. In Europe you have castles, fantastic cathedrals, museums, extraordinary food (but stay a few blocks from the tourist areas for food in Barcelona you'll get just crap there), historical sites, etc. You'll spend almost no time in your hotel.

So I tend to go cheap on the hotels in Europe. Just get a low-end hotel in a prime location then get drunk on the local wine/sangria and you won't care that you aren't in a 5 star hotel for 6 hours before you go out on your next adventure.

 

[dullard]

I highly recommend Spain. The Andalucia triangle (Sevilla, Cordoba, Granada) is spectacular, in particular Granada, which is in my top-3 favorite places in the world.

Granada with the Alhambra is really worth visiting. But to me, it was Barcelona-lite. So I wouldn't recommend going to both on the same trip just for variety reasons. Both are well worth visiting, but it may be better to do them on separate visits.

You are correct with the September/October advice. That is the perfect time to visit those two countries. Fewer tourists, less heat, cheaper prices.

 

[Ophir]

yeah we already know most of the common differences between the two.

Don't listen to that guy, they're essentially the same. The difference is less than British English and American. He'll, it's probably less than deep Southern. Definitely less than Scottish to American.

I've never had a problem with my Mexican, and by the end I start picking up the Spanish accent. They do use some verb tenses that don't exist in the New World, though, but they get it and switch the tense quickly.

 

[zinfamous]

Eurorail will get you from anywhere to anywhere in western Europe.

That is a shitty time to travel in southern europe--touristy and hot, but a good time can still be had.

For that very short travel time, I recommend a max of two home bases--like Barcelona and Paris as you are mentioning. Spend about 2 days within each city hanging out, and make day trips to surrounding areas on the other days. Too often people head out there and feel they need to see EVERYTHING. They end up going to some new place every 2nd or 3rd day and are so rushed to cram in everything that they end up seeing nothing. Don't be that person. It's a vacation, so you should relax.

I've never actually been to Spain, but I've heard great things about Barcelona and those southern areas. I doubt this has changed much, but Barcelona is supposedly super thievy. It generally isn't a problem for most people, but you should always be rather vigilant. Space is generally smaller in these areas and in the middle of tourist season, you really have to watch out for gypsies. Living in Florence for ~5 months, I never had a problem, but the first day my mom came to visit, I had been so used to the general flow of things that I briefly failed to notice a couple of shitheads sidling up to us as we were planning what to do during the next couple of rainy hours. I also failed to check her planned gear, which included a tiny knit purse with a button flap, so always completely open. We got back to her hotel about 1 hour later, discovered that her brand new passport, debit card, credit cards, and $300 cash (collected by her Sunday School class as a gift for her travel) was gone. This was Christmas time, so not touristy at all. Lesson to be learned is that you should always maintain a general vigilance to the people around you, even when you know the usual tactics and are comfortable with them. ...and doesn't take a crowd or the proper season to be a victim.

 

[zinfamous]

My hotel advice is that Europe is different than the Caribbean. In the Caribbean people tend to spend a lot of time drunk at the hotel and spending down time at the pool or nearby beach. In Europe you have castles, fantastic cathedrals, museums, extraordinary food (but stay a few blocks from the tourist areas for food in Barcelona you'll get just crap there), historical sites, etc. You'll spend almost no time in your hotel.

So I tend to go cheap on the hotels in Europe. Just get a low-end hotel in a prime location then get drunk on the local wine/sangria and you won't care that you aren't in a 5 star hotel for 6 hours before you go out on your next adventure.

This. "2 star" hotels in Paris, for example, aren't great, but you are going to be there to sleep and that's pretty much it. But from country to country, that kind of rating doesn't mean much as they can't be compared. I recall 3 star not being all that expensive anyway.

I'm personally past the idea of putting myself in hostels, so I wouldn't recommend them to OP...but there is also a crazy fancy range of hostel quality across Europe.

 

[biostud]

I have a sister living in Paris and been to Barcelona several times.

For hotels just use something like hotels.com and read customer reviews.

For what to see it really depnds on your interest for holidays more than one week i prefer both going to the countryside and city.

I don't want to use too much time travelling, so I wouldn't recommend that for seeing "everything".

Select a few cities/areas that seems interesting to you, and plan the shortest travel route between them. Also many of the famous attractions are so crowded with turist you'll end up using all your time in queues.

Also buy some good guide books before planning your trip.

 

[biostud]

This. "2 star" hotels in Paris, for example, aren't great, but you are going to be there to sleep and that's pretty much it. But from country to country, that kind of rating doesn't mean much as they can't be compared. I recall 3 star not being all that expensive anyway.

I'm personally past the idea of putting myself in hostels, so I wouldn't recommend them to OP...but there is also a crazy fancy range of hostel quality across Europe.

Yeah, All you need is a clean and not too noisy room with a bathroom. You're going to be out exploring all day.

Also stars only say something about which facilities are available, not how clean/noisy the hotel is.

 

[Ophir]

Granada with the Alhambra is really worth visiting. But to me, it was Barcelona-lite. So I wouldn't recommend going to both on the same trip just for variety reasons. Both are well worth visiting, but it may be better to do them on separate visits.

You are correct with the September/October advice. That is the perfect time to visit those two countries. Fewer tourists, less heat, cheaper prices.

You know, I didn't much care for Barcelona. Too tourist trappy, dirty, and seedy in many spots. I've been twice, but it never meshed with me. It also doesn't help that I think Gaudí art is awful, almost repulsive.

Madrid I loved, and I have to disagree with you on Granada. Aside from the Alhambra, the mix of the Spanish, Moorish (Arabic), Gypsy, and Jewish culutures is spectacular. We had an awesome time watching the Gypsy flamenco inside of a small cave with like 6 other people. Incredible energy and plain good fun. Plus the city is tiny, so you can easily walk across it in an hour or two.

 

[zinfamous]

I have a sister living in Paris and been to Barcelona several times.

For hotels just use something like hotels.com and read customer reviews.

For what to see it really depnds on your interest for holidays more than one week i prefer both going to the countryside and city.

I don't want to use too much time travelling, so I wouldn't recommend that for seeing "everything".

Select a few cities/areas that seems interesting to you, and plan the shortest travel route between them. Also many of the famous attractions are so crowded with turist you'll end up using all your time in queues.

Also buy some good guide books before planning your trip.

That's very important. If OP's plans include the Louvre, prepare for frustration. It takes about 2 or 3 days to see everything in there. It probably takes half of a day to get through queues and hit the highlights like the Mona Lisa, Venus d'Milo (such a stupid statue...who cares?), and crazy shit you never realized was there, like Hammurabi's Code.

"Across the street," The Musee D'Orsay is the popular recommendation, but it will also be super crowded. But it focuses on impressionism--it probably has the best collected display of Rodin + Monet + Van Gogh all in one spot if that is your thing.

For Paris, maybe get to Sacre Coer and the Mon Marte district (there is a super cool Dali micro museum in Mon Marte that focuses on his sculpture and drawings...but the best part is that it is loaded with info and you actually come out understanding far more about the dude than you would at a major national collection..and it's tiny and quick), and the Pompadue [sic?] area.

Hit up specific neighborhoods that have their own sort of vibe and a lot to see in their general, compact area. You could effectively check out both of Mon Marte and Pompadue in one day and feel like you've "done" Paris, somewhat decently.

 

[purbeast0]

i don't give a CRAP about seeing things like the mona lisa or going inside any museums. my wife doesn't care about museums either but i don't know if she cares about the mona lisa.

that kind of sucks that august is not a good time to go. we were planning mid-july but my wife could not get off in july but got off august 14th to the 28th so that is pretty much what we're going with at this point. september we have to fly to boston for a wedding so i doubt we'll go then. plus we've been putting this off so long too that we're ready to just go.

one thing i'm personally curious about doing is going to normandy and seeing the dday beach. saving private ryan is one of my favorite movies and it would be really cool to see where the real life event took place.

 

[RossMAN]

Skip hotels and use http://www.airbnb.com instead, we haven't stayed at a hotel for a few years.

 

[Blackjack200]

one thing i'm personally curious about doing is going to normandy and seeing the dday beach. saving private ryan is one of my favorite movies and it would be really cool to see where the real life event took place.

Some of the World War I battlefields are supposed to be absolutely surreal. This is what millions of artillery shells did to Verdun.

 

[zinfamous]

i don't give a CRAP about seeing things like the mona lisa or going inside any museums. my wife doesn't care about museums either but i don't know if she cares about the mona lisa.

that kind of sucks that august is not a good time to go. we were planning mid-july but my wife could not get off in july but got off august 14th to the 28th so that is pretty much what we're going with at this point. september we have to fly to boston for a wedding so i doubt we'll go then. plus we've been putting this off so long too that we're ready to just go.

one thing i'm personally curious about doing is going to normandy and seeing the dday beach. saving private ryan is one of my favorite movies and it would be really cool to see where the real life event took place.

well, that would definitely save you a lot of time/money then. That would certainly cut down the "things you must see" in Paris. One option would be to take 2 or 3 days out of Paris and set up in somewhere like Bordeaux. You could easily get to Normandy and back from there, and maybe spend a day doing a local wine tour--which was actually pretty cool. Bordeaux is kinda sleepy, though.

Skip hotels and use http://www.airbnb.com instead, we haven't stayed at a hotel for a few years.

I was about to post that. Also, if you want to go super cheap/free plus potential of meeting cool locals and getting a real feel for the area, then consider CouchSurfing.....not everyone's bag though, obviously.

We did that on our last trip through, and it was awesome, but tough to find a spot at the height of the season in popular destinations. Also, accommodations certainly vary. We were lucky in Brussels to have a host that picked us up at the train station, took us to her apartment, and gave us the keys for 2 nights while she stayed with her GF. She also took us out one night to drive around and take us to a fancy restaurant. (Belgians have quite a bit of pride in their cuisine). Accommodations in Luxembourg were very different (sleeping on a couch bed), but the hosts were equally awesome. Anyway...doubt you are interested in that.

 

[Pantoot]

Skip hotels and use http://www.airbnb.com instead, we haven't stayed at a hotel for a few years.

100% agree.
For some reason it seems a lot of people don't use airbnb in barcelona, make sure you check out enjoybcn and some other ones.