Going To Europe

[Click]

What up dudes.  I'm going to Europe for the first time this summer for 5 weeks.  I'm going for school where we will spend 1 week each in London, Brussels, Amsterdam, and Paris.  My buddy and I are staying an extra week to do our own thing.  When we are in session for school we have the weekends off to do whatever we want.  

What can you guys recommend as far as travel?  Just the eurorail?  My friends said he found out many locals just fly because it isn't too expensive and way faster.  For example it says 13 hours from Paris to Rome on train or 1.5 hour flight.  

What cities would you recommend for the party scene.  I've heard Barcelona, Pamplona, Amsterdam and Munich.  All the older people I've talked to say I must go to Prague.  

And what cities were you overall most impressed with for sight seeing and fun. 

[Hassouni]

[quote name='Click' date='25 January 2010 - 11:52 PM' timestamp='1264481567' post='447706']
What up dudes. I'm going to Europe for the first time this summer for 5 weeks. I'm going for school where we will spend 1 week each in London, Brussels, Amsterdam, and Paris. My buddy and I are staying an extra week to do our own thing. When we are in session for school we have the weekends off to do whatever we want.

What can you guys recommend as far as travel? Just the eurorail? My friends said he found out many locals just fly because it isn't too expensive and way faster. For example it says 13 hours from Paris to Rome on train or 1.5 hour flight.

What cities would you recommend for the party scene. I've heard Barcelona, Pamplona, Amsterdam and Munich. All the older people I've talked to say I must go to Prague.

And what cities were you overall most impressed with for sight seeing and fun.

[/quote]


Hey dude! I've been to a lot of these places so I hope I can be helpful.

As for weekends in London, let me know where you're staying either here or PM me, I know London like the back of my hand and can help you out. It's worth picking up the Time Out magazine for each city, if it exists (it started in London, I'm sure there's one for Paris and Amsterdam).

Amsterdam has a very chill vibe, lots of old school pubs with huge glasses of Heineken on tap, and the best bar food ever. Native Dutch food apart from the bar food though is crap, but some of the best Indonesian food in the world can be had there, stick to that. My favorite area was what's called the Canal Zone, outside the immediate center (Dam Square, the Red Light District, etc), I found the Western and Southwestern canal areas to be esp pretty. The whole city is gorgeous though.

As for Paris,...my knowledge of Paris is off the beaten tourist track. The Pont des Arts at night is the spot to hang out and drink in public...go up to the area around Gare du Nord and stroll around Faubourg St Denis (I think is the name of the street) for Paris's Tamiltown, a great, cheap, and ultra authentic South Indian neighborhood. The Marais and Bastille neighborhoods are pretty good for nightlife.

As for partying, I haven't been to Barcelona, Munich, or Pamplona, but I hear the first two are really top notch. London of course is world famous for partying: you name the venue, it exists: pubs, bars, swank lounges, dives, dirty clubs, fancy clubs, superclubs, it's all there in profusion. Paris is also a good party town if you can find the right venues, the Parisian electro scene is pretty much my favorite dance music scene right now--also it might be worth checking out N and W African venues cos that's some fun shit. Amsterdam....trance music is huge there, but a lot of the regular bars (and other venues) are very touristy, but it's fun.

I was in Prague less than a year ago, PM me if you end up going, i can give you a list of some really great bars. Beer there is SO cheap and generally really good (like $1-2 a pint!), and a lot of places have a fun beer-cellar atmosphere. It's also breathtakingly beautiful. Budapest is also really cool, it's a grand imperial city, and if you like wine, it's a must visit.

I'm surprised nobody mentioned Berlin, that's an incredible party city: extremely young, shockingly cheap (everything: lodging, food, drinks, entertainment), and probably the most cutting edge club scene in the world, again if you know where to look (here's where a Time Out or something similar would be incredibly useful)--one night I was out clubbing till about 7:30 am...and people were still out.

By the way, going by train is very nice, relaxing, and scenic, but it's not as cheap as it seems. Low cost airlines are aplenty in Europe, you can get staggeringly cheap flights if you don't mind frequent air travel. Off the top of my head, there's Easyjet, based in the UK but which flies everywhere, Transavia, operating out of Amsterdam, Air Berlin, and I think there's one called Wiz (there are lots more too if you investigate)

Enjoy! Edited January 26, 2010 by Hassouni

[Hassouni]

[font=Times][size=2][size=2]Forgot to mention my overall impressions: all the places are great, with the exception that I think Paris is grossly overrated, but it has its own virtues. London is my favorite city in the world, partially for sentimental reasons, but also I think it simply has more to offer than anywhere else. Amsterdam and Berlin are pretty high up there too. For sightseeing I guess London, Paris, and Berlin offer more than the others--all three are old, big, old, important ex-imperial capitals, and that counts for a lot.


In all seriousness though, for your free week...if you can afford plane tickets, go to Istanbul for a week. I absolutely guarantee you will not be disappointed. I would almost say I love it as much as London. It's probably so different than anything you're used to that if you can make it, it will be infinitely worth it. Again, if you decide to do that, PM me, I spent awhile there and fell in love with it[/size]
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[Click]

Wow thanks.  Great advice.  I will definitely be going to Berlin.  Sounds like a great time.  I'm surprised how much you love London.  I always here it's a nice place, but never spoken so highly of.  I now look forward to my first week of the trip more (which is in London).  I'll check out those "Time Out" publications.  They sound like they will be a great help.

[fineout]

Munich is great but super expensive, if youre going to be wanting to party in germany i say hamburg or berlin, hamburg has a really fun club and party scene and the best part its really easy to find anything youd be into because its all on one street. I also am in love with berlin they have some great clubs and bars as well, the one redeeming thing is if you dont speak german (im assuming you dont) berlin might be a little easier because its more international of a city.

[Amn_sinclair]

Aright touring europe, ryanair.com is a good site to check out for cheap tickets. the train is nice but gets expensive. In regards to the flying though if you are checking bags its going to get expensive most of those cheap flights are flights with no checked baggage just one carry on so be careful there....

Amsterdam is an awesome city there is a lot to do, and you can get pretty much all the major sight seeing done in 2 days. That doesnt include night life sight seeing

Prague is awesome its really cheap for the most part. Our dollar is way better then the czeck krown. Beautiful city to and fun.

Paris is really over rated like bad, i didnt like paris.

There are a lot of citys to that arent major cities that are way better then the major cities ill get back to you on those...

[TiLLooR]

One thing for sure is that you will need to start planning and booking now, it will be peak season by the time you get there. Also as you dont live in europe at the moment you dont qualify for many of bundled tickets e.g. Interrail global pass which gives you rail access throughout europe jumping on and off trains etc. Buy you should def check out prague.

[SnowLeopard]

If you wish you party I'd say Barcelona or Prague. Amsterdam is nice but the party scene is not that good. If you're looking for a chill-time however you should definitely be in Amsterdam. Because that's where the 'stoners' go:Hookah:!