REVscene - Vancouver Automotive Forum

lilgurl · 05-03-2011, 03:18 PM

Hi Guys,

I'm trying to figure out where to travel to for my honeymoon and Europe has come to mind, however, I have no idea where to begin in planning for it.

Planning on going in October for 2-3 weeks and the 2 places I would love to visit is London and Paris.

The one thing that stumps me is accommodation. I heard it's fairly expensive there, do you guys have any suggestions on where to stay.

Also, has anyone been on the Contiki tours to Europe? Would you recommend it?

Thanks!

gars · 05-03-2011, 03:50 PM

It depends on what sort of trip you're looking at. Are you looking for a relaxing vacation in fancy hotels and nice restaurants? Or are you looking at getting better value by staying at cheaper places and being able to see more sights?

Paris has a very large range of hotels - that range from very cheap (Hostel Prices) - which results in places that are smaller than most motels in the states, and just about as nice - to very lavish hotels.

Easiest way to get an approximation of prices - is just to Expedia it - you get a range of hotels (maybe not the best deals for those specific hotels), but you'll be able to see where they are around the city.

I personally stayed at Hotel Du Commerce a few years back - then stayed at a few random hostels and a few crappy cheap hotels in random places.

I liked the hotel because it was in a quieter location right by the Latin Quarter... The rooms are really spartan though, so if you're looking for something nicer, look elsewhere.

http://www.commerceparishotel.com/

London - you can find cheaper hotels, but again, depends on where you want to stay and how much.

Delish · 05-03-2011, 04:58 PM

Italy is amazing. I have a client at work who just came back from her 3 week honeymoon in Italy (Rome, Venice, Florence) and she loved it. I also backpacked Europe last summer and Italy was definitely a favorite. It's such a romantic place and the culture and sights are amazing (Cinque Terre, the Colosseum, the museums in Florence, the ancient ruins). I'd personally pick Italy over London, and I found it less expensive too.

TheNewGirl · 05-03-2011, 05:38 PM

My mom has done Italy three times in the last 6 years she liked it so much. She says you can't possibly do the whole thing in one trip, apparently she could have spent a week in Rome alone.

The first time she did a tour, it was nice she said because it was a tour where you only have tour activities every other day (giving you the freedom to take it your own pace on the off days).

That said for your honeymoon you might not want to be on a tour with a bunch of strangers.

gars · 05-04-2011, 10:33 AM

Oh right, Contiki tours - great if you're single, and want to sleep around and party - but not that great for your honeymoon. There are tons of other tours available that will be better for a honeymoon. That said - if you're willing to spend time to research and plan out your trips and itinerary, you could save money by going yourself.

Italy - I found to be quite repetitive. There are a few amazing highlights - Venice is absolutely amazing, romantic and beautiful, Cinque Terre (someone mentioned this already above) is again, romantic and beautiful - but because you're going in Oct, if it rains, you're going to be bored and miserable there. And of course, Rome is amazing, there's tons to see there, and just so much history.

That said, Paris is still my absolutely favorite city.

London - it's true, it's not as exciting as the other cities, but you can always go around the UK - I think it's awesome going through the countryside in the UK, going through small towns, coastal towns and stuff. I find when I was in Italy for a few weeks, I would get tired of trying to communicate with my phrase book, and it's a nice change to be in a country where they actually speak english.

Spoon · 05-04-2011, 12:03 PM

Spent a week in Rome and then a week in Paris for my honeymoon. Absolutely fell in love with Rome and would love to go back again. Loved their street food so much we sometimes ate them for dinner (anyone know where I can find a good Arancini in Vancouver?).

Paris on the other hand didn't thrill me as much as I would've preferred. Maybe cause I was overloaded with museums and historical sites already from Rome. And everything was expensive there.

Other than that, make sure you have a good mix of activities when you plan your trip.

lilgurl · 05-04-2011, 12:23 PM

Thanks for all the replies! After reading it all, London doesn't sound like that much fun compared to Italy. Maybe I'll go there instead. Would 2 weeks in Italy be enough?

But the 1 week in Rome and 1 week in Paris sounds like a good idea as well.

Still really confused on where I want to go. Everyday it changes! >.<

Spoon, how much did your entire trip cost you roughly?

Is the weather pretty miserable in October for all the places mentioned above? Maybe its not a good idea to go there at that time of the year.

lilgurl · 05-04-2011, 12:30 PM

Oh and replying back to your question Gars,

i'm looking at getting a better value by staying at cheaper places (but not totally shitty) to be able to see more sights.

Spoon · 05-04-2011, 01:17 PM

For our trip we had to make a stop in HK as well (Vancouver > HK > Rome > train to Paris [extra] > HK > Vancouver), so our travel agent told us to get Cathay Pacific's Asia or World pass. Don't remember a lot of the details since it's been 3+ years ago. I think our airfares were just under 2k per person plus another $100-200 or so for the train ride from Rome to Paris (per person).

The train ride between the two cities was a personal choice, since I wanted to see the scenery etc. But thinking back, I wouldn't do this again since the ride was way too lenghty (around 12hrs I think). If you plan on just visiting one country alone though and visiting different cities along the way, travelling by train might not be a bad idea (budget wise) since they have special passes for them; the shorter rides might actually be enjoyable. For our train ride from Rome to Paris, the price was actually about the same as travelling by air. So if I knew what I know now, I would've opted for air (but I can at least say I've experienced it).

Hotels were roughly $200 CDN per night for both cities (CDN's probably a lot stronger now than when I went though, so bonus for you!). Nothing extravagant, but the locations were good. We went in late October and maybe had a bit of luck on our side, cause the sun followed us for the whole two weeks and only had a light drizzle on the days we were leaving the city.

Also to help us plan our own itinerary, we used Google Earth a lot to plan our daily trips. Saved us a ton of travelling expense and time cause for each day we would just visit everything that was for example on the northern side of our hotel instead of running all over town. And if you still can't decide where to go, try looking through Wikitravel (http://wikitravel.org/en/Main_Page). We probably browsed through it for a week or two before we finally decided on our destinations.

Keep in mind though we took our time in our trip. We're not the type who want to visit 20 different historical sites in a day just to say we've been there. It was quality over quantity. So while 1 week in one city was enough for us, it might be too long for others (This is in reference to Rome. Paris on the other hand was huge, so we only visited several districts during our stay).