My European Trip

[Sam_goUUUdogs]

We've been planning this for sometime and we now leave in just under 10 weeks, its just me and a mate going although we are meeting up with different friends along the way, and while we've got our itinerary all planned out we're now trying to sort out what the must do/see's are at each destination.

Start off flying from Melbourne to Kuala Lumpur where we have an overnight stay before getting to London, there for a couple days and then we head off on a 14 day contiki tour going through, Paris, the French Rivera, Monaco, Pisa, Florence, Rome, Venice, Munich, Rhine Valley and Amsterdam.

From there we are going off and doing our own thing for a couple weeks, down to Porto, Lisbon, Madrid (There for Real Madrid vs Barcelona), Ibiza, Valencia, Barcelona.

We then head back up to Paris where we are meeting friends and heading to Villers-Bretonneux for ANZAC day, then onto Ypres, Brussels and Luxembourg before heading back to London.

Up to Manchester for a few days (and Manchester City vs West Ham), although staying with a friend in Wigan, after that we're back to London for a week and a bit of a rest, though we'll be doing quite a few stadium tours during this time as well as heading to the West Ham vs Blackburn match, and we've also got a day tour booked through Windsor, Bath and Stonehenge.

Then up to Edinburgh, Glasgow (Hoping to take in a Rangers game) Newcastle (Got tickets to the darts) and Sunderland, then again back down to London for the FA cup final.

Next morning and we're off to Liverpool, heading to Liverpool vs Tottenham before flying over to Belfast, then onto Dublin and the Europa League final.

From Dublin we head to Cardiff, spend the day there and then we are staying in Swansea with a mate for a couple nights, an early start and then to Hereford for a day of cider before getting back to London again.

West Ham vs Sunderland on the final day, and then we've got a couple more nights before we head back to Kuala Lumpur for a night and then onto Melbourne.

We've got a fair mix of trains and planes in there, 9 flights within Europe, and the longest train journey we have is only about 3.5 hours.

So any personal recommendations for any of the places we are going?

[Q.]

Portugal has, I'm told, some of the best hostels in all of Europe. My partner stayed in these two while she was in Porto and Lisbon and said that they were head and shoulders above all other hostels she's stayed in across Europe (and were loads of fun too):

http://www.rivolicinemahostel.com/

http://www.lisbonloungehostel.com/

Just be sure not to leave your booking too late as they fill up quick!


Also, I have PDFs of guidebook chapters for Porto, Lisbon & Barcelona - PM me your email address and I'll send them to ya!

[scottroo]

Hey mate, got back in November, you are going to have a ball, if you can get over to turkey and visit anzac cove, amazing place, really glad i did that! my tip to you is to go out of your way to eat, eat where the locals eat because the other places are really just tourist traps and the food isnt that fantastic. Do as much touristy stuff as you can and take it all in, if you can get over to the greek islands, some of the best scenery i reckon anywhere in the world

[redandblack]

Sounds like a wonderful trip, Sam.

That's a lot of cities, so next trip, take time to see some of the smaller places too.

[Sam_goUUUdogs]

Hey mate, got back in November, you are going to have a ball, if you can get over to turkey and visit anzac cove, amazing place, really glad i did that! my tip to you is to go out of your way to eat, eat where the locals eat because the other places are really just tourist traps and the food isnt that fantastic. Do as much touristy stuff as you can and take it all in, if you can get over to the greek islands, some of the best scenery i reckon anywhere in the world

We've got a fairly full on itinerary so unfortunately its unlikely to deviate all that much, although I'm planning another trip for the football in Poland and the Ukraine mid next year, and in between matches I'm aiming to get around that side of Europe a little more, so Turkey and Greece are definitely on the cards then.

[Jim05]

Sounds great. Contiki tours are awesome, we went on a similar one to yours for 21 days, only difference by the sounds of it is vienna and switzerland. Amsterdam is absolute good times if youve got a good bunch on tour with you. We had a great group apart from a few young knobs that were from sydney and intent on ruining everything.If youve got a spare day head over to dublin,flights were 1p + taxes with rynnair and had an absolute ball there. Going back probably next year so getting keen already

[mighty hounds]

Im actually off the flight centre to start booking my contiki for october. Will be doing alot of stadium tours while i have down time in London.

[Sam_goUUUdogs]

Sounds great. Contiki tours are awesome, we went on a similar one to yours for 21 days, only difference by the sounds of it is vienna and switzerland. Amsterdam is absolute good times if youve got a good bunch on tour with you. We had a great group apart from a few young knobs that were from sydney and intent on ruining everything.If youve got a spare day head over to dublin,flights were 1p + taxes with rynnair and had an absolute ball there. Going back probably next year so getting keen already

Certainly looking forward to Amsterdam, its the last stop on our contiki too, so will be a good for a final night out with everyone, I've been in contact with a few people on our tour on the contiki forums and so far they all seem really good, so fingers crossed that ends up being the case.
We've got a couple days in Dublin planned (Really looking forward to a Guinness or two ) didn't quite get flights that cheap, but I think we only paid about £19 to get from there back to the U.K. which isn't too bad.

Im actually off the flight centre to start booking my contiki for october. Will be doing alot of stadium tours while i have down time in London.

Which Contiki are you planning

A tip I've already found with the stadium tours is if you can't find any info, or the tours aren't running when you want to do them, just send them an email.
Old Trafford cricket ground currently has quite a bit of redevelopment going on so they are not running any tours at the moment, but Lancashire CCC have said I'm more than welcome to come into the office and someone will take us for a bit of a walk around anyway.

[Sam_goUUUdogs]

Has anyone been in Spain on good Friday before or know what its like?
We're scheduled to be in Valencia that day and had planned to head to Barcelona on a train in the afternoon, however I'm not too sure they will even be running now considering how dead good Friday can be.

[redandblack]

The trains do run on that afternoon, Sam.

http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query. ... 1&OK#focus

Change the stations or date to double check.

The German rail site is excellent for timetables.

[Sam_goUUUdogs]

The trains do run on that afternoon, Sam.

http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query. ... 1&OK#focus

Change the stations or date to double check.

The German rail site is excellent for timetables.

Thanks very much for that mate

[mighty hounds]

Im actually off the flight centre to start booking my contiki for october. Will be doing alot of stadium tours while i have down time in London.

Which Contiki are you planning

A tip I've already found with the stadium tours is if you can't find any info, or the tours aren't running when you want to do them, just send them an email.
Old Trafford cricket ground currently has quite a bit of redevelopment going on so they are not running any tours at the moment, but Lancashire CCC have said I'm more than welcome to come into the office and someone will take us for a bit of a walk around anyway.

Im going on the European Vista which goes for 21 days! Was spewing when i couldnt go on the one which included spain! but will now be going their after the contiki! Im going over solo which I dont mind at all and getting help from a mate of where to book and finding hostels and things like that!