Visiting Europe

Vienna is a beautiful city, you probably won't want to leave, but Salzburg is only about an hour away. You could go see Mozart's birthplace. Stay away from the hookers in Prague, and don't party too hard in amsterdam. Have fun, be safe!

 

I see you're cunningly avoiding Belgium!

Private European joke...they have the reputation as the most boring nation in Europe!

 

Belgium is great - Bruges is very beautiful and Brussels is one of the best capitals in Europe for eating out and not as expensive as say Paris. The Belgian Grand Prix is the favourite of most of the Forumal One drivers and has the best setting as well. The trouble is that most of these places really need weeks rather than days to appreciate them rather than just visit tourist sites.

 

Next to Venice, I'd have to Prague as one of the most beautiful cities I've seen. Maybe I just happened to have a great time for some other reason, but spend as much time in Prague as you can. Hell, spend as much time in Europe as you can. Unless, or course, you run into Bruce. Then, of course, high-tail it out.

 

For my honeymoon just under a year ago, my wife and I went to Europe for our honeymoon, to various countries.

Our favourite city was Paris - beautiful.

But back to topic, if your cousins and friends there are busy, it may be prudent to take a paid tour around those places - you can organise them when you get there. This way, you don't have to worry about transport or queueing up for tickets etc. You get taken to the popular sights.

The alternative is to hire a car when you get there, get a good map in English, and go driving around yourself, which is great too.

While you're in Europe, if you can, take more time to travel to different cities and countries - you really need to spend lots of time there. Europe does have a sense of history and romance that does not exist anywhere else in the world.

 

Always nice to have locals take you to the places you can't find in books.

What I've always done, is find the best tour book I can. (Eyewitness and Let's Go are great brands). In fact, it doesn't usually hurt to have two books. And make sure that they're the most current edition. Then I plan my days based upon the books. They'll usually have hours of museums and names of hotels and restaurants. A good book will also have detailed street maps, information for buses or taxis, and some basic vocabulary in the national language. I've been very successful using this methods while on vacation. The only thing to watch for, is sometimes the books, even the latest editions, are a little behind on the location's hours or entrance fees. Don't take the hours or entrance fees for granted, but check once you get there, or even before hand if you have a website or phone number.

 

I feel the same way about Rome.

 

And Ireland.