Are we ready to start off on our voyage today? While we enjoy the sights and tastes on this journey, I will also be giving you various links, tips and information that will be very useful whenever you plan a holiday. Holidays can be wonderful, if well planned. I personally enjoy planning holidays myself and dont prefer going on organised tours confined in a bus & with no flexibility to the schedule.
You can actually plan your holiday by blindly following this itinerary and going through my blog. I will also be more than delighted to be of any help in planning your itinerary and stay as I LOVE doing it.
You could write to me at prashantrao@hotmail.com with the Subject : ITINERARY HELP.
Our 18 day itinerary of Europe covering 5 countries was as follows:
Paris, France - 6 days (including French countryside & day trip to Keukenhof, NL)
Wengen , Switzerland - 4 days
Salzburg, Austria - 3 days
Vienna, Austria - 2 days
Prague, Czech Rep - 2 days ( We should have kept this for at least 3 days)
Paris, France - 1 day
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| A sneak peak of things to come ! |
We have covered Switzerland, Italy, Belgium, Germany in our earlier visits. In fact we loved Wengen in Switzerland so much that we included the same again our itinerary. Similarly we loved the Tulips in our earlier visit to Keukenhof in Netherlands so this was also included as a part of the itinerary. Paris was also added for the same reason.
Before we get into our first destination, a few things that I would like to share:
Travel /Transportation :
The best way to travel in Europe is by road or rail so that one can enjoy the countryside and hence we did use air travel only to fly into Paris from Riyadh and then to get back. Within Europe all travel was by the fabulous train network and by air only from Prague to Paris as the train journey is really a long one.
For international air travel bookings, you should review www.expedia.com and www.kayak.com, they give you a great choice of connections, airlines, fares and are both reliable. I have not had problems on refunds or changing travel dates thus far.
If you are sure that you will not change dates of travel or will not cancel your holiday then you can get sweet deals . Such tickets are inflexible and have zero refunds. I wasnt sure of travel dates and ended up paying more. Once you identify the airline/connections then go to the relevant airline website and check if they are offering something better in terms of costs. If so, book on the airline website only. If not, book through the website which gives you a better deal and is reliable or trustworthy.If you are in India, www.makemytrip.com is a good travel aggregator to consider. We booked our tickets on Saudia Airlines website directly for the entry and exit into Europe. The rest were all booked on the individual rail websites.
Within each city in Europe, we travelled like the locals. We walked, took the trams, metros and the train network. These give you a wonderful flavor of the city and are really efficient. We also saved a lot of time and money as well. Switzerland particularly is exemplary in all respects. Every form of transport is simply superb, timing, safety et al.
It looks daunting and challenging, isnt it? I assure you, it just isnt. ! Continue reading the blog over the next few weeks and you will believe me.
Stay/ Accomodation :
Whenever we plan holidays which are more than a week, we prefer to stay in serviced hotel apartments or apartments available on rent or hotels which offer a laundry room as we can travel light and have our clothes washed frequently. Hotel rooms in Europe are rather small and in some places almost cramped so my suggestion in to go for apartments as they offer space in addition to the amenities of a home. Hotel bookings can also be done on www.booking.com
Some hotels offer a laundry room with coin operated washers and dryers. Very often hotels like the Mercure, Ibis, Marriot have this but not always. During this trip I booked apartments offered on rent by the apartment owners using www.tripadvisor.com . The website is just a medium to identify, review and contact the apartment owner for availability and pricing. Booking is confirmed by the apartment owner on email usually after a token advance or deposit is wire transferred to them. I used Paypal to transfer the money to some of them. All the apartments we booked had a washing machine/dryer, a kitchen or kitchenette and a wifi. Morst importantly, their locations were prime, close to metro stations, major attractions so that travelling around is convenient. We were lucky as all the apartments we chose were simply fabulous in all respects. The other website which is also very good is www.airbnb.com . You will get a great choice of apartments on this website as well.
.Get ready for the first destination.....Paris.
