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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Anyone been to Europe?
DH and I are seriously considering going next summer. We plan to start TTC in January so a lot will depend on how that goes but at this point we can afford to go and both have summers off so we thought it would be nice. I want to go to Paris and Venice while he really wants to go to Barcelona. Does anybody have any suggestions on other great places to check out / where to stay / travel websites to look for deals / anything is appreciated. He has been there before and his aunt lived and worked in Germany for a while so when we spoke briefly with her about it she mentioned there are trains we can easily take to get around once we are there. Any experience with these?
TIA!
Re: Anyone been to Europe?
Been to Spain which was fantastic. There are trains, buses, etc which make it very easy/ relatively inexpensive to get around once you are already there.
My sister lives in Poland and has for the past few year and her and her husband travel extensively there and it never seems like its a major thing for them.
Good luck TTC and hope your trip planning goes well
I have never been to Barcelona (although ironically I dated someone from there) so I can't help you about that. I've heard it's beautiful and my SIL studied abroad there. I have been to Paris 3 times, but the first 2 times I was quite young. When I went as an adult we stayed in the 4th arrondissement and really liked that area. It's centrally located, near the Seine, a great walking area and close to Metro (subway) stations and it's less expensive than some other parts of the city. There are good restaurants there. It's within walking distance of a couple of museums. Also if you plan to shop, this is the area. We stayed here:
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g187147-d636096-Reviews-Hotel_Turenne_Le_Marais-Paris_Ile_de_France.html
My parents also had good luck renting an apt in Paris, but I was not with them then. I'd have to check with my mom where it was. I know it was near the Metro, too.
Depending on how much you want to travel outside the city, going to small towns and/or the countryside, you may not want to deal with renting a car. If you do want to explore outside Paris, I would wait until after your stay in Paris to rent a car because meters will bankrupt you and having to feed them constantly is a PITA. It is true that trains in Europe are generally a much more effective way of getting around than here. My dad and I flew into Amsterdam and took the train to Paris. It only took a couple of hours.
If you go in July be aware that every summer, the workers go on strike. They do rolling strikes, so all the postal workers strike one week, all the bus drivers one week, etc... Just keep in mind because it does happen every year.
I have been to Venice once, also. It was beautiful and I definitely recommend going. San Marcos cathedral is the most gorgeous church I've ever been in. But it is a small city so you can just spend a day there and see everything. I think it is very expensive to stay in Venice. We stayed in Veneto, the town you take the boat from to get to Venice. I was 17 and don't remb the name of it or if it was a nice hotel.
If you are looking at other parts of Europe I may be able to help, too. I've traveled quite a bit in France and Switzerland especially. Have a great trip!!
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We've been to Paris, Amsterdam (and around the Netherlands), Slovenia, and Venice. Slovenia was by far my favorite -- hiking around the Julian Alps, then heading to the capitol Ljubljana, and then down to the coast at Piran. I also really like Paris, but didn't love Venice.
I highly suggest picking up some Rick Steves books. They're super helpful in planning and figuring out what you'd like in Europe.
T and I are headed to Paris and Geneva area (haven't decided yet where we'll stay between Geneva, Chamonix, Montreax, Lausanne...yeah, we're slacking on trip planning) in a little less than a month. We'll be there for 10 days. I'll know more after we're back of course, but this is the first Europe trip for both of us...very excited!
I think you can definitely visit all those places, just depends on how much time you're planning. If you're staying in a city for more about 4 or more days, I'd research renting an apartment. I haven't done it, but wish we did when we were in Paris. We looked into it, but then decided against it before we went.
When you fly to Europe, you'll want to look at booking an open-jaw or multi-city flights. For example, you would fly into Venice and out of Barcelona, so you don't have to waste travel time backtracking to Venice. Trains are great for transportation in Europe. Although, between those 3 cities, I would think it would take longer than a plane. But I still think it's worth experiencing. You'll probably have to consider which way is cheaper too.
I'd highly recommend visiting smaller towns outside the big cities. It's always helped me gain a better overall experience and feel like I was seeing more of the daily life.
I agree with the ladies above and think you should go the library to check out different travel books. I'm a fan of Rick Steves.
Thanks for all the help and tips. I will definitely look into those Rick Steves books, hopefully they will have them at the local library or something. We definitely want to check out some of the more obscure towns outside the cities and might even rent a car so the tip about waiting until we are ready to leave the city is helpful. Looks like we have a lot of research to do