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Travel FAQ
Visitors
to site do send me queries on England and Europe Travel.
Here, I have published some questions. Hope you find
these useful
Q:
I have 4 weeks for Europe Travel. I will Fly into Switzerland
and want to Fly back from London. Please suggest some
itineraries.
Ans:
am suggesting 3 options for you. See below.
Option
1: Swiss, Germany, Italy, France, England
Option 2: Swiss, Italy, France, England, Holland
Option 3: Swiss, Italy, France, England, Spain
For
such a long trip, we need to use the top down approach.
i.e. to decide to top level option first and then use
sheet 1 in the spreadsheet to fill up the detailed itinerary.
Off
course it depends on your liking, but I would do option
3. It gives a good overview of Europe – from Alps
in Swiss to Beaches in Spain. Also it reduces the number
of Long train travels as you would take Easyjet in two
long journeys. I just checked on the site and the flights
are available at very reasonable prices if booked for
June / July now. (From Basel to Barcelona and then from
Barcelona to Paris)
Summary Option 1:
Covered countries: Swiss, Germany, Italy, France, England
Nights in Hotels: As below
Day 1 Basel
Day 2 Basel
Day 3 http://www.myenglandtravel.com/switzerland_travel.html
Swiss – other places
Day 4 Swiss – other places
Day 5 Swiss – other places
Day 6 Swiss – other places
Day 7 From Berne Go to Munich
Day 8 Munich - Olympic stadium, BMW museum, Rathauss
Day 9 Neushwenstein castle (Fairy tale castle) back
to Munich
Day 10 Travel to Basel
Day 11 Basel
Day 12 Basel to Venice
Day 13 Venice
Day 14 Venice to Pisa. See Pisa. Go to Rome. Night in
Rome
Day 15 Rome see myenglandtravel.com for suggested itinerary
Day 16 Rome
Day 17 Rome to Basel
Day 18 Basel
Day 19 Basel to Geneva. Geneva to Paris on TGV train
Day 20 Paris
Day 21 Paris
Day 22 Paris
Day 23 Paris to London
Day 24 London
Day 25 London
Day 26 London
Day 27 London to Mumbai
Summary
Option 2:
Covered countries: Swiss, Italy, France, England, Holland
Nights in Hotels: As below
Day 1 Basel
Day 2 Basel
Day 3 http://www.myenglandtravel.com/switzerland_travel.html
Swiss – other places
Day 4 Swiss – other places
Day 5 Swiss – other places
Day 6 Swiss – other places
Day 7 Basel to Venice
Day 8 Venice
Day 9 Venice to Pisa. See Pisa. Go to Rome. Night in
Rome
Day 10 Rome see myenglandtravel.com for suggested itinerary
Day 11 Rome
Day 12 Rome to Basel
Day 13 Basel
Day 14 Basel to Geneva. Geneva to Paris on TGV train
Day 15 Paris
Day 16 Paris
Day 17 Paris to Amsterdam by train
Day 18 Amsterdam / Den Haag
Day 19 Amsterdam
Day 20 Amsterdam night Euroline bus to London
Day 21 London
Day 22 London
Day 23 London
Day 24 London
Day 25 London
Day 26 London
Day 27 London to Mumbai
Summary
Option 3:
Covered countries: Swiss, Italy, France, England, Spain
Nights in Hotels: As below
Day 1 Basel
Day 2 Basel
Day 3 http://www.myenglandtravel.com/switzerland_travel.html
Swiss – other places
Day 4 Swiss – other places
Day 5 Swiss – other places
Day 6 Swiss – other places
Day 7 Basel to Venice
Day 8 Venice
Day 9 Venice to Pisa. See Pisa. Go to Rome. Night in
Rome
Day 10 Rome see myenglandtravel.com for suggested itinerary
Day 11 Rome
Day 12 Rome. Rome to Basel train in the night
Day 13 Basel
Day 14 Basel to Barcelona Easyjet Flight - Its available
Day 15 Barcelona - See myengland site for itinerary
Day 16 Barcelona - See myengland site for itinerary
Day 17 Barcelona - See myengland site for itinerary
Day 18 Barcelona to Paris Easyjet Flight- Its available
Day 19 Paris
Day 20 Paris
Day 21 Paris
Day 22 Paris to London
Day 23 London
Day 24 London
Day 25 London
Day 26 London
Day 27 London to Mumbai
Q:
I have heard Trains in Europe were better simply because
the airports are typically way out of the city and u
end up spending a bomb to get to the city by cab..
Ans:
Most, if not all airports have cheap coaches
and trains running from airport to city centre –
Have seen it in Barcelona, Munich, Geneva, London (Heathrow
Express or Tube), Paris etc.
So once you decide the top level itinerary, it’s
a matter of minutes to see whats on offer.
e.g.
If you decide to take easyjet, their site itself has
information on how to travel from Airport to city centre.
http://easyjet.com/EN/Planning/Destination/bcn.html
In this case it costs just 3.20 Euro. So if you take
all printouts and timetables with you, you should be
fine.
Sometimes
if the Airport is quite away from the city, still I
have seen trains/tubes (e.g. Munich) running. Once you
decide what you want to see, you can look at these.
If you want to see it before deciding see the easyjet
link above, which should have most information you need.
Q: Whats the best thing to do - let us know
economical ways to survive me veggie, co-traveller non
veg is fine so I will have the larger prob I gess..?
Three
major contributors to cost are:
1. Travel – use cheap flights and buy the correct
train passes to save money
2. Stay – Do a mix of hostel stay (typically 11
pounds per person per night) on few nights and hotels
on some nights (assume GBP 45 ~ 50 per room). Often
I have seen that if you stay slightly outside the city
centre, hotels are 25% cheaper. And typically there
are cheap fast tubes in most cities in Europe. I have
used this technique in Rome, Paris and it worked fine.
3. Food – Since I’m a Veggie as well, it
can be an issue. However, if you stay in a hostel (it’s
a misnomer, there are people of all ages, with family
as well) mostly they have a included breakfast. You
can have a heavy breakfast and have a light lunch and
a good dinner. It also helps if you buy stuff from supermarkets
(like Pizza) and corner shops which are cheaper than
hotels.
You
can also take pouch food with you like noodles, fried
rice etc.(you just need to put boiled water in). Where
ever there was no free breakfast in hotels, I had bought
my own bread, cheese, butter, Ketchup from a supermarket
on previous night. That saves as well.
Q:
We plan to stay in Basel (Swiss) managing most on a
day trip types (except Paris for which they are booked
for 2 days at 275euros return tick for two ppl and for
225 at some hotel there for 2 days – is that a
reasonable deal?Any tips of travel/sightseeing/mode
of transport there?)
Ans:
1. Stay in youth hostels rather than hotels: (apx. 15
Euros per day per person) – Breakfast is generally
included – its clean, comfortable and you get
to meet visitors from all around the world and make
new friends. Anyone of any age, with family can stay.
www.hostelworld.com, YHA international etc.
2. If staying in hotels, hotels in suburbs are much
cheaper. Most of the countries in Europe have excellent
local transport(and fast as well). This proves much
cheaper.
3. travel overnight – saves on hotel. Sleeper
trains are quite comfortable. E.g. Basel to Venice overnight
– just checked, there is a train around 9.30 pm
via Zurich which reaches Venezia at 7.15 am
4. This is if budget is still less – I have tried
doing this on couple of days on a 11 day tour of Europe
in 1998. Food – buy packed food for breakfast
from supershops and cook in microwave – may be
for a day or two – saves time taken in hotel and
serviced breakfast is very expensive in places like
Geneva. You can have a proper meal later in the evening.
Question:
We
are keen on doing italy and spending 3-4 days there
and I wanted to check with you if you know of absolutely
cheap places where they can stay and any suggestions/tips
that you can give..
Ans:
For Italy in 4 days, here is what I suggest.
Overnight
train from Basel to Venice reaching in the morning.
See Venice in a day (I have suggested what to see in
www.myenglandtravel.com under Italy section). Stay in
a hostel.
Leave
early morning to Pisa (2.5 hours), see Pisa for 7/8
hours, proceed to Rome (2 hours) Stay in Rome.
Skip
Florence.
Day
3 – Day tour of Rome on the hop on hop off bus
(details of bus and what to see again on myenglandtravel.com).
Day
4 – Vatican + other leftover places from yesterday.
Overnight train to Basel
Q:
Have 4 days – what shall I see in Holland? Would
be based in London
Ans:
Try to do Paris with Amsterdam (around 3 hours). Else
you'll again spend more in travelling back.
If not possible, I'm not sure if you would really like
Amsterdam in this season (October). In April, there
is Keukenhof gardens. Otherwise compared to other European
cities, its not up there.
Places you can see are - Anne frank house, bridges and
canals, Rijksmuseum etc.
You
may like the overall atmosphere though - bicycles, coffee
shops, narrow streets etc.
One place you can visit is the miniature garden in Den
Haag (go by train from Amsterdam cst) and if you get
time visit Rotterdam.
Question:
Going to Rome month end.. if not a prob, can u plaese
let know the must see in rome and munich...please only
if u have the time
Ans:
Munich(Bavaria) -fairy tale castle Neuschwanstein, BMW
museum, Olympic stadium, Konigsee, Rathaus etc. - will
need at least 3 days
Rome: I have added an itinerary on www.myEnglandtravel.com
under Italy travel section
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