seeking advice on Europe trip-Update: finally decide to join organized tour

wayne_fan

Thinking of going to Europe in April this year as Emirates has promotion for departure in March right now. It will be $1500 return with 1 or 2 days stop over in Dubai. None of my friends have visited Europe before. Can "qianbei" give me some ideas or suggestions?

1. I heard April is not the best time to go as it's cold there. But it will be $350 more expensive per person if we depart in April or May. Since this is a budget trip for us, we can save $700 in total if we fly out in end of March.

Is April really a bad time to go? Some people said Sep/Oct is better.

2. My plan is to fly on Mar 28 and stop in Dubai two days for sightseeing. Then continue to Barcelona and fly back from Athen on April 20. We'll have around 19 days in Europe. I'm thinking of going to Spain, France, Switzerland, Germany, Czech and Greece. Is this too much?

In terms of fly in/out cities, is there a better option? At the moment, only following cities got cheap ticket price: Barcelona, Paris, Milan, Athen.

3. I'm not sure if we have time to visit UK. Time is really short.

Appreciate it if anyone can give us any suggestion with trip planning.

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update:
After lots of research, we've finally decide to go with a pacakge tour. The purpose of this tour is to see and experience as many places as we can in short time. So we won't be able to go into details. Time will be wasted in finding our way if we have to DIY.

My colleague is recommending Top Deck to us. Anyone has done similar tours in Europe? How about those Chinese tour company from Chinatown? Please recommend if you know a good tour company. Thanks heaps.

jinluo

1. I heard April is not the best time to go as it's cold there. But it will be $350 more expensive per person if we depart in April or May. Since this is a budget trip for us, we can save $700 in total if we fly out in end of March.

四月还好吧，只是冷些。五月就没问题了。

2. My plan is to fly on Mar 28 and stop in Dubai two days for sightseeing. Then continue to Barcelona and fly back from Athen on April 20. We'll have around 19 days in Europe. I'm thinking of going to Spain, France, Switzerland, Germany, Czech and Greece. Is this too much?

太多了，最多选4个国家。

In terms of fly in/out cities, is there a better option? At the moment, only following cities got cheap ticket price: Barcelona, Paris, Milan, Athen.

France, Switzerland, Germany这几个国家坐火车方便哦。坐飞机去机场，检关等浪费很多时间。坐火车提前10分钟到都没问题。

3. I'm not sure if we have time to visit UK. Time is really short.

太多了吧。

yxl72

Thinking of going to Europe in April this year as Emirates has promotion for departure in March right now. It will be $1500 return with 1 or 2 days stop over in Dubai. None of my friends have visited Europe before. Can "qianbei" give me some ideas or suggestions?

1. I heard April is not the best time to go as it's cold there. But it will be $350 more expensive per person if we depart in April or May. Since this is a budget trip for us, we can save $700 in total if we fly out in end of March.



Is April really a bad time to go? Some people said Sep/Oct is better.

4月即使南下西班牙也很冷。如果shoulder season 阿航可以拿到1800的价格，个人选择9－10月出行。

2. My plan is to fly on Mar 28 and stop in Dubai two days for sightseeing. Then continue to Barcelona and fly back from Athen on April 20. We'll have around 19 days in Europe. I'm thinking of going to Spain, France, Switzerland, Germany, Czech and Greece. Is this too much?

In terms of fly in/out cities, is there a better option? At the moment, only following cities got cheap ticket price: Barcelona, Paris, Milan, Athen.

19天2－3国最多。可以选择openjaw机票。建议先北后南。。我们9月底去西班牙，超热。

3. I'm not sure if we have time to visit UK. Time is really short.

木有时间了童鞋。如果想拉链游欧洲。19天5国+。建议当地跟团。

TR278

要看玩什么吧, 泛泛而谈怎么说得清?

如果走马观花,到了拍张照片就走,19天也可以.比如迪士尼乐园过而不入, 去德国哪里？柏林，慕尼黑，去不去新天鹅堡？旁边的萨尔斯堡去不去？雅典看看神庙，海岛去不去（光是爱情海小岛看日落不得2-3天？）。

不知道你的兴趣和具体目的地，只知道几个国家名，怎么可能知道够还是不够？行程都是自己安排的，能连得起来，不够也够，看你如何取舍而已。

wayne_fan

since this is our first time to go to Europe, we just want to get a feeling of different coutires.

My colleague suggest tours like contiki or top deck, which has tours for 22 days in 10 countries. Anyone tried them before?

wayne_fan

two reasons for choosing April,
1. air ticket is only 1500
2. planning to have baby this year, so don't want to wait till sep/oct.

wayne_fan

yxl72 发表于 2014-1-3 11:26
Thinking of going to Europe in April this year as Emirates has promotion for departure in March rig ...

Thank you.

How do you get openjaw ticket? I never booked this type of ticket.

yxl72

wayne_fan 发表于 2014-1-3 14:18
Thank you.

How do you get openjaw ticket? I never booked this type of ticket.

然后你可以选择dubai住几晚。

wayne_fan

yxl72 发表于 2014-1-3 14:22
然后你可以选择dubai住几晚。

oh, i see. you mean multi stop ticket.
this is what I planned. we can stay in Dubai for two days. then fly in/out of Europe from different city.

yxl72

wayne_fan 发表于 2014-1-3 14:26
oh, i see. you mean multi stop ticket.
this is what I planned. we can stay in Dubai for two days.  ...

是啊。楼主。
你点进去看就可以了。阿航订票很简单的。

eg:悉尼－>巴黎。   伦敦－>迪拜     迪拜－>悉尼

kevly

Thinking of going to Europe in April this year as Emirates has promotion for departure in March right now. It will be $1500 return with 1 or 2 days stop over in Dubai. None of my friends have visited Europe before. Can "qianbei" give me some ideas or suggestions?

1. I heard April is not the best time to go as it's cold there. But it will be $350 more expensive per person if we depart in April or May. Since this is a budget trip for us, we can save $700 in total if we fly out in end of March.

Is April really a bad time to go? Some people said Sep/Oct is better.

June, July, Aug, & Sep are better in Europe, but mate, it's Europe, it has its character no matter when you go. plus the related costs are higherin the high season too, like hotels and transits.

2. My plan is to fly on Mar 28 and stop in Dubai two days for sightseeing. Then continue to Barcelona and fly back from Athen on April 20. We'll have around 19 days in Europe. I'm thinking of going to Spain, France, Switzerland, Germany, Czech and Greece. Is this too much?

In terms of fly in/out cities, is there a better option? At the moment, only following cities got cheap ticket price: Barcelona, Paris, Milan, Athen.

19days for the countries you mentioned is not really enough unless you just wanna do one city in each country, which is way not enough, it's just too much to see and feel and try over there. what you should do is decide where you really want to go and what you want to do the most, then draw a line on the map and fly in from one end / fly out from the other end.  

3. I'm not sure if we have time to visit UK. Time is really short.
No, you won't have time.

Appreciate it if anyone can give us any suggestion with trip planning.

TR278

June, July, Aug, & Sep are better in Europe, but mate, it's Europe, it has its character no matter when you go. plus the related costs are higherin the high season too, like hotels and transits.
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今天早上想到的，英雄所见略同。如果是自然景观，月份可能还重要，如果看的都是宫殿，博物馆，建筑古迹，就别想太多了，季节变化对这些东西没太大影响。

楼主的朋友建议不错啊，参个团，走马观花，领略一下各国风情，少花不少心思。

wayne_fan

谢谢大家的意见， 就是因为这个emirates打折有1500刀的机票，所以急着买3月底出发的机票。

今天看到etihad也在打折,而且可以4月出发， 这样还可以利用四月份的三天public holiday。就不用浪费年假。 这样的话基本就是4.12到5.3，希望天气可以稍微暖和一点， 不用带太多衣服， 缺点就是不能去dubai了， 不过时间这么少，估计去dubai也是很累人的。

有人坐过etihad吗？ 这个要在UAE的首都中专， 不知道值不值得停留一下四处看看。他们的促销这个月8号就结束。

TR278

楼主的重点之一似乎放在机票打折上了，其实有时不要太在意省钱，忽略了旅游的乐趣。当年我过慕尼黑HB酒吧而不入，就为了省11欧元，没有一尝德国咸猪手，未能体验一下希伟人革命造反的足迹，三生有憾啊 相反在希腊米岛坐驴上山，吃希腊烤肉卷，钱是要花些，但真的觉得那时很开心。放开一点儿，其实不会花太多吧，毕竟不是准备过去血拼的。

我只能谈谈我去过的地方的一些体验，版里有很多其他网友的游记，都可以看看，你要看有哪些是感兴趣的，有所取舍，才能有安排和计划：
法国：
巴黎：看宫殿，各种宫殿。当然还有个无法匹敌的博物馆（但排队很吓人，要去请早，切记，否则看到人龙可能有一种掉头就走的想法。不记得加导游是不是可以插队了，不肯定。）。铁塔。赛纳河游船，凯旋门。童心未泯，要玩遍世界上迪士尼乐园的，巴黎有一个。有兴趣的话，还可以去红磨坊
比利时：
布鲁塞尔：尿童（得准备个放大镜，否则可能会有失望的感觉），欧盟总部
瑞士：
自然风光。没去过，但一些成熟的游览线好像都是自然风光为主。当年申根签证不包，所以跳过了。
意大利：
罗马，梵蒂冈：看教堂，各式各样的教堂。看完就达到对教堂的审美疲劳了。有些地方好像是你同意和导游一起，就可以直接插队的，所以遇到人兜售，价钱你觉得还行，不必犹豫。
威尼斯：有水但热情如火的地方，欧洲人自己度蜜月都有去那里的，大运河旁边小旅馆一住，别有一番风味（物价不贵）
德国：
柏林：人文的东西，其他我没感觉出来，就是柏林墙，柏林环，两德战后冷战史，想感受那个去才有意思，否则我觉得可以直接跳过
慕尼黑：广场闹钟和HB酒吧的咸猪手...（三生有憾啊...)
德奥边境：新旧天鹅堡 （就是一个歌剧院的城堡，嘿嘿）
萨尔斯堡（奥地利）：有些一日游的项目，德国国王湖啦，冰川游，煤矿游...时间充裕选自己喜欢的玩吧，不过萨尔斯堡本身看过，就知道那里为什么能蹦出个世界级作曲家了。一方水土养一方人。人杰地灵就是这么个意思。
维也纳：应该可以跳过了。没有特别吸引我的地方。如果对西西公主，国际原子能总部，多瑙河有兴趣可以走走。
希腊：
雅典：广场宪兵换班和卫城。很多兜搭去海岛的人，没试过。
爱琴海海岛：比想象中便宜，物价不高（不知道现在怎么样了）好像有裸体海滩和gay海滩有兴趣可以走走
英国：
剑桥：康河游船（如果去了，不坐白不坐，闭上眼睛，体会一下徐志摩的轻轻和悄悄）有些东西，靠眼睛反而可能体会不到
伦敦：法意去过了，估计只有大笨钟和国会能刺激一下，其他的西敏寺，伦敦眼，伦敦桥，白金汉，骑士营，温莎蜡像...看兴趣啦。我居然发现了福尔摩斯故居，原本完全没意识到会发现的，算意外收获吧。

澳巴

去看下Euro Trip这部影片说不定会有灵感

wayne_fan

TR278 发表于 2014-1-5 00:05
楼主的重点之一似乎放在机票打折上了，其实有时不要太在意省钱，忽略了旅游的乐趣。当年我过慕尼黑HB酒吧而 ...

说得很在理。 谢谢提供这么多信息。

lazysnail

我第一次去欧洲也是跟团的。。当地旅行社的华人团。。巴黎唐人街有订的。。网上名字我忘了。。。机票南航国航也就这个价格。。。为什么要跑中东啊。。。