Dear Travel helpers,
Hi Bella.
1. In general, yes it is safe. I can't say anything specific re Portugal or Greece, but for France (Paris), Italy (Venice, Rome) and Spain - I've travelled on my own without any problem. OK, the Italian boys may try to chat but they're pretty harmless if you politely and firmly rebuke their "admiration".
2. For accommodation (hostels), food, sightseeing and local transportation (if necessary, but most times if you stay centrally you could walk to most places of interest) - allocate about €50-60 minimum per day for budget travel. The hostel will on average cost around €20 per night, food about €20 although it can be cheaper if you buy things from supermarket and cook at the hostel or eat at student quarters, and the remainder for tickets to sights and local bus/metro if required. To travel comfortably, push for about €70-€80 minimum. This would give you more freedom and choices when it comes to eating, and you can also buy a couple of postcards and souvenirs.
As for train travel from one city to another, it depends on how much travelling you plan to do. If you're only visiting a small handful of cities, then you are probably better off buying the train ticket online ahead of travel as there's usually discounted price. The price is hard to estimate since we don't know your full itinerary. If you plan to be on the go a lot, consider getting an Eurail train pass.
3. This question is so general it is rather hard to answer. Additionally you've listed your destinations as a mix of countries and cities, so that's a little confusing. E.g. do you want to see more of France apart from Paris?
Hi Lili,
Thanks so much for your reply, its very useful for me
This will be my first time in Europe and i will spend 1 week for each countries and i think i will stay in the capital cities of the countries such as Athen, Rome, Venice, Paris, Madrid, Barcelona and Lisbon.
I heard that i can buy train ticket to access some europe countries, please advice
Have a good day,
Bella
Hi Bella,
1) May I suggest your order of visit to be : Athens - Rome - Venice - Paris - Barcelona - Madrid - Lisbon
2) Athens - Rome : the easiest way to do this is by air. I believe there are ferry services from Greece (I don't know if there's any from Athens directly, so you may need to go to Igoumenitsa or Petra) to the east coast of Italy, such as Bari, and take a train from there to Rome. This will take up a lot of travelling time.
3) Ticketing agents:
Italy - Trenitalia
France - Voyages SNCF or TGV Europe
Spain - Renfe
Europe-wide - Rail Europe
It is generally cheaper to buy from the countries of travel than to go through Rail Europe.
4) Rome - Venice : train service is the most convenient way to travel this. The fast ES/ES* train takes less than 4 hours for the journey. You can book the ticket from Trenitalia 3 months before travel. I have noticed Trenitalia has just changed their ticketing system too, giving better discount for advance purchase. When you first do searches, the standard prices will come up but once you pick on the option that you want, it'll go to a page that then shows you the various discounts available.
I've just checked for ticket price for a random date in March. There is ticket for €51 (30% discounted ticket compared to standard price). When I also randomly check ticket for January (to get indication of any other rate), it seems there should be a special one-way, 2nd class fix ticket at €48. Maybe if you wait for another month and try looking again, you will find this €48 ticket for travel in March? Since this is Italian domestic travel, you can buy the ticket online as ticketless, and just print the confirmation and bring with you on the train.
5) Venice - Paris : there is a direct night train from Venice to Paris that you can take. The standard fare is €127 but there seem to be a Smart Price at €45 for sleeper in a compartment with 4 couchettes, and €35 in compartment with 6 couchettes. I can't seem to get the information on the conditions for buying the Smart Price ticket though - the link doesn't work. Since the website has just been overhauled, maybe in a few days time a new updated link will be posted? (Update: according to a different website, this price is ticket that's non-exchangeable, non-changeable, and non-refundable.) The night train will take some 12 hours of travelling time. As this is international travel, you can book the ticket online on Trenitalia but you must choose to pick up/print your ticket from the machine at the train station in Italy.
Alternatively, Ryanair flies from Treviso (~25 minutes from Venice) to Beauvais (~75 minutes from Paris) so you can look into this as well. However, know that the bus ticket from Beauvais to Paris is €13 (correct price at the moment). I don't know how much will it be to travel from Venice to Treviso. And be careful that when you book with Ryanair that they have very strict luggage allowance. If you have only hand luggage (and only ONE bag is allowed, handbag must be put inside the hand luggage) your weight allowance is 10kg. If you want to check in your bag, you have to pay for it, and the maximum weight allowed for the checked-in luggage is 15kg. You will also have to pay for online check-in as well as credit card processing charge. Sometimes, Ryanair has promotion that don't charge for airport taxes, or online check-in. If that happens, it can be very cheap even after adding credit card charges. But you won't know when or if such a promotion will take place. Otherwise, I'll guesstimate a one-way flight with Ryanair with no check-in luggage to be around €50.
So you can decide if you're willing to travel 12 hours in a night train for €35 directly from Venice to Paris, or travel by plane with Ryanair for about €60-€70, taking into account of transportation to/fro the airports to the cities.
6) Paris - Barcelona : again, there is direct night train from Paris to Barcelona, or Ryanair flight from Paris-Beauvais to Bercelona-Girona.
Night train travel time is near to 12 hours, and cheapest ticket I've seen is €71. Normally, at least in Europe, tickets can be bought from http://www.tgv-europe.com/en/ but from Sudan, I'm not entirely sure if this will work. Alternatively, perhaps try http://www.raileurope.co.uk/ ?
7) Trains in Spain and Portugal - I've never puchased tickets for them online before so I can't really advise much, apart from try using Renfe to book for Barcelona - Madrid and Madrid - Lisbon.
Well noted with million thanks.
I will start planning my trips now, as long as the trains are safe i prefer to travel by train so i will enjoy more.
Again, thanks so much for your advice.
I saw there are a lot of forums discussing about Europe trips.
Have a good day
Bella
Hi Bella,
Europe is pretty safe for single woman traveler. Although you have to be little bit careful at some place, must avoid the late night walk. Do not carry expensive things with you, during night out. Overall Europe is fabulous for the long holidays.
The destinations you choose are among the best cities or country in Europe. I would suggest you to keep a low budget for your trip, specially when you have to cover all these expensive cities.
I wan in venice for last year Christmas celebrations and found some attractive offers with some leading travel agents online.. its easy to find them and they will surely consult you better than any other. here is some of i known very well
-snip-
Hi Asif,
Thanks so much for your sugession, im also planning to take some tours for those cities, since ill be going there alone.
But from one country to the other countires i will take euro train by my self, i hope it is sefe and once i got there i will take tours
Please let me know, in which area should i stay in Venice, Rome,Paris, Barcelona, Madrid n Lisbon
Thanks so much
Bella
Hi Guys,
My wife and I are planning to go on our honeymoon to Europe in March 2010 too. These are the places we plan to visit: Rome, Florence, Venice, Milan, parts of Switzerland and Paris. It will somewhere in mid-March, how is the weather at that time, how many degree Celcius?
thanks in advance,
Mid-March is not going to be warm. You'll be looking at anything between 10-15 C in general. Rome would be on the higher end of this range, and the further north you go the cooler it'll be.
Weather, based on past averages, is really very much just as pointer but it's not going to be accurate indicative. For example, this week in Europe in general has seen really cold temperature, even up to -8 C in Paris, there are snowstorms grounding flights etc.
By the way, for future questions, you should start a new thread in order to get answers. Posting in another person's thread means (1) other TPers would assume you're trying to answer the original question, and (2) the owner of this thread is going to receive notifications of all responses in this thread, be it relevant or not, so it's not very polite.
I should say the temperature above is that of maximum-ish temperature. If in terms of average temperature, then it'll be about 7-13 C. If you go to Alps regions Switzerland, then it's going to be even cooler.
[ 20-Dec-2009, at 09:13 by lil_lil ]
Im going to Paris on 19 Feb 10, would be glad if somebody can join me..please advice which hotel i should stay in Paris which is not more than US$ 50/night, im a single woman traveller, i would like to stay in a safe and good location hotel.
Many Thanks,
Bella
0 Response to "Travelling to Europe on beginning of March 2010"
Post a Comment