Planning for Europe – May 2009
The itinerary:
fly into Munich
Regensburg (Germany) with my mom – 3 days
Munich (Germany) where I meet up with Lissette – 2 days
Fussen/Reutte (Germany/Austria) – 2 days
Salzburg (Austria) – 3 days (including a side trip to Berchtesgaden)
Venice (Italy) -3 days
Montreux (Switzerland) – 1 day
Geneva (Switzerland) – 1 day
Lauterbrunnen (Switzerland) – 3 days
Lucern (Switzerland) – 2 days
Bacharach and the Rhine (Germany) – 3 days
Heidelberg (Germany) – 2 days
Fly out of Frankfurt
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It’s a charged itinerary – Europe’s become really expensive since the last time I was there (in 1993 – the last time the Montreal Canadiens won the Stanley Cup! It’s also the year Bill Clinton became president in the US. A really long time ago…). Anyway, we might never travel through this part of Europe again so we’ll see as much as we can in 3 1/2 weeks. I’m also adding a couple of days at the beginning to see my mom in Regensburg (she’s left Thailand and is in Europe for the summer).
This is not the most exciting and pictoresque of my blogs but some might find this entry informative because travelling Europe on; a) a tight schedule and b) by train requires A LOT of planning. I don’t know what people did before the internet.
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A few tips:
Blend In (don’t dress like a tourist)
Above: the Lederhosen that German men wear. I’ve decided not to pack pants on this trip (takes too much space in the backpack) and just buy a pair of lederhosen once I arrive in Munich. One of my travel tips is to blend into the local populace as much as possible. Not only will I blend in with my lederhosen, they’re also loose and generally comfortable – perfect for hikes, early morning jogging, or even just for comfort when lounging around in airports.
Ok, I’m just kidding – I saw National Lampoon’s European Vacation last weekend and couldn’t stop thinking about how funny it would actually be if I went around wearing lederhosen everywhere…
real tips:
Hotels; www.tripadvisor.com is a great resource. But I only use it for reference and not booking – I look up the hotel and book directly online (I prefer my money goes to the hotel and not to a 3rd party site). I also find dealing directly makes it easier to make any amendments after the fact – which I had to do with the hotel I booked in Salzburg because of complications with train reservations (see below). They’re just more amiable when you book direct. Also; I’ve heard what some people say – but I find I generally get a better price dealing directly.
I’ve pre-booked all our hotels; with our limited time I don’t want to spend time trying to find a hotel. Surprisingly some hotels were full up months in advance – so making reservations 1 1/2 to 2 months in advance is not a bad idea (especially a place like Venice where I actually struck out with my first 2 hotel options. I also had problems with Munich which surprised me…).
Itinerary: Lissette and I both had ideas of what we wanted to see – she wanted history and culture, I wanted nature and castles. I designed the above using a combination of Lonely Planet guides, Trip advisor (as mentioned above), and Rick Steve’s “Best of Europe 2009” travel guide (www.ricksteves.com). Once I had “must see’s” and “possibilities”, I worked out different itineraries using the German Rail site (Deutsche Bahn www.bahn.de/international/view/en/index.shtml). That’s when you see that some destinations or the ordering of destinations don’t make sense; bad connections, infrequent trains…Then there’s weather; we wanted to go in May when there are fewer tourists, but then I also had to consider weather in the mountains: that’s why I’ve tried to push Switzerland towards the end of the trip (some cable cars and hiking trail don’t open up until mid-May). So there were a lot of factors in building the itinerary.
Trains: This is technical but I wish someone had told me all this stuff:
You CAN save money by buying a Eurail pass, but you have to plan it properly otherwise the little money you save won’t be worth the effort you put into it.
I bought a Eurorail Select Pass Saver for 2 people (basically a volume discount – you pay less per person than you would individually). There are so many variations of the number of countries and days of travel that you really have to research which pass is worthwhile for you; We’re going to 4 countries so I chose the 4 country pass including 5 days of unlimited travel within 2 months – you can chose the number of unlimited days but every day is more expensive and you have to decide if the incremental days are worth it. I will end up taking the train 11 times during the trip – but I calculated that I had 5 MAJOR train days; the other train days were minor trips of an hour or two that are relatively inexpensive.
The passes for 2 adults (4 countries, unlimited travel for 5 days) cost a total of 1,030 Cad for 1st class (if you are over 26 you can only get a 1st class pass). I calculated (using Bahn.de and raileurope.com) that I would have paid $1,400 for individual tickets if I had decided not to buy the passes (this is basis 2nd class – much more for 1st but we wouldn’t have required that additional comfort). So there are some savings PLUS you travel 1st class.
I bought the tickets I needed for the minor trips (ie. the ones not covered by the pass) in Germany on the Deutsche Bahn website – they email you an online ticket. No problem and very efficient and they even reserve a seat where required.
BUT, there are a few things about using the passes that have already made me question whether they were the way to go.
1) Some trains require reservations. You would think that would be easy. It’s not. First of all, it’s up to YOU to figure out if you need it or not. If you think you can just show up on a train with your pass you are mistaken. So you have to look at all the trains you are taking on your journey to see if they require a reservation. Then you have to call Rail Europe (1 800 622 8600 in Canada) to make your reservations.
IF YOU DIDN’T BUY A PASS and just bought your ticket online, they automatically assign you a reservation and you don’t have to worry about all that.
2) You may not be able to reserve certain portions, as I found out. Eurail tells you that in the pamphlet they send you with the passes. So when I called to reserve the Salzburg-Venice train I was told that I would have to pay full fare, that there was no more availability for Eurail pass holders. I had to change plans. So it’s kind of like booking a flight with miles; there’s only so many alloted spaces available.
IF YOU DIDN’T BUY A PASS you don’t have to worry about any of that.
3) Can someone please explain to me how it can cost $95 cad (for 2 people) to make a reservation on the Salzburg-Venice train? Or $67 cad from Venice to Milan? This is called getting shafted en el culo. I ended up paying $280 cad (for 2 people) for reservations. It’s the Italy portions that killed me (reservations in Germany, Austria reasonable. No reservations required in Switzerland). Suddenly the passes don’t sound like such a great deal.
Again, IF YOU DIDN’T BUY A PASS, you don’t have to worry about that, the reservation is included in the price of your ticket.
Again though, your savings will be different depending on the amount of travel you do on your travel days, plus also reservation fees. It’s complicated but you have a lot of variables you should consider before buying Eurail passes.
I’ll have a better assessment of the passes once there and travelling around. But in the meanwhile I’ve never spent so much time planning as I have planning for European trains. Yes, they’ll probably be some savings from buying the passes, PLUS we have 1st class seats. But knowing what I know now I would have skipped the passes and just bought my tickets individually. It’s already been a major headache and I havn’t even used the passes yet!
The thing is, you can do all the planning in the world as I have and everything can still go wrong. Hopefully that won’t be the case. If so, what you wear can help smooth the way – so when Lissette asked me what she should wear in Germany, I came up with some ideas of what Women should wear when visiting Bavaria to fit right in (these can also be worn back home when relaxing around the house)
ok, just kidding…
Tags: 1, Europe 2009
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