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Traveling to Europe?
I am in the very beginning stages of thinking about going to Europe next year. Dh and I have never been. The places we really want to go are Germany (my mom's side of the family is German), Ireland- the South, not the North (the other side of my family is Irish), Italy (most especiallly Rome), and St Petersburg (the architecture- gorgeous!)
I am totally clueless where to even begin. So if you've been to any of these places, my questions for you are:
1. Is it insanely expensive? Any tips on how to make it more affordable?
2. How do you book your trip? Do you go through a travel group that already has a set itinerary or book everything seperately by yourself?
3. Do you think we could combine any of these places or should we just pick one? I mean, I know I'm not going to hit Ireland and St Petersburg in the same trip. 
4. Do you have any other tips? Recommendations?
I'd love to be able to do this as a babymoon, but don't want to drain our whole savings right before we TTC.
TIA!
Re: Traveling to Europe?
Do you know about when you are planning to visit and for how long? That will help to determine whether you should just do one location or multiple. You don't want to be traveling more than exploring and enjoying the culture. Do you know where you want to fly into yet? Also, my first stop when planning a trip is to go to Tripadvisor and check out their forums, things to do and hotel recommendations. There is a ton of great advice and I have found some great (and cheap) hotels on there.
I obviously think you should come to Germany
! Depending on when you come, you could make things affordable by crashing at my place in our guest room! As long as we don't have family coming at that time then it's free...how much more affordable is that?!
Traveling through Europe can be cheap if you know what to look for and if you are willing to sacrifice some conveniences. Staying at hostels or at places with shared bathrooms help to drive down costs. The tourist information places are incredible if you want to just book your trip as you go along. I've done this several times by driving or taking the train to the city and then just showing up at tourist information and asking for a double room with whatever amenities you want and then telling them about how much I wanted to spend. They will call around and make the reservation for you and give you directions. I've had great luck that way, but my husband likes to have set reservations so we don't do that much. Priceline is also a great option. I have used it to bid on rooms in Munich, Amsterdam, Brussels, London and Cologne and have always had great luck. I generally bid between $50-$100 a night and won't do anything less than a 4 star. I have gotten some incredible deals and all of the hotels were nice, clean and close to public transport.
I love to travel by train but with the locations you are looking at I would probably looks at some of the low fare airlines like Ryan Air and German Wings. If you want to consider the train option then check out Deutsche Bahn (you want high speed ICE, EC or IC trains) and Eurostar.
I sent you an email so let me know if you need any more help planning!
Now jumping domestically.
Well that was a crazy couple of years.
That would be awesome. tarat1010 at gmail dot com
Gracias!