Hellobee Boards

We went to London, Paris and Dublin for our honeymoon. We had a blast! Flew into Paris and mostly walked around there, took the Eurostar to London, took the tube around London, then flew out of Gatwick to Dublin via Ryanair for dirt cheap. In Dublin, we took a bus to an attraction in the country for a day trip.

My only advice is, if business class is mostly empty and they are offering seats for less than $150 or so to upgrade, and you are doing an overnight flight, DO IT! Unless you're planning on flying first-class, but that was too pricey for us.

Eurostar was amazing, I loved taking the train. The tube was very easy to figure out in London.

I packed light, and fit everything in one backpack for two weeks. It was tough, but doable. I want to go back!!

Generally speaking, London airports have much higher taxes to fly in and out of, but that's irrelevant if you find a super cheap fare. Paris and Milan are both pretty conveniently located for travel throughout Europe and tend to have flight deals.

I would also recommend Prague and maybe Budapest as stops on your trip. I've visited quite a few place in Europe and those have been my favorites so far (in addition to Florence, but that's further away).

For waterfront that is easily accessed by train, Positano Italy is amazing! We took a train from Rome to Naples. Then arranged for a car from Naples to Positano (which I guess wasn't super convenient, it's another 1.5 hours I think, but man was it worth it!)
From Positano you can take day boat trips to Capri and there's a grotto that's supposed to be gorgeous (we didn't do grotto since I was pregnant and they said it was too choppy for me).
3-4 days in postitano would be perfect amount of time. And Rome was also amazing if you don't mind doing 2 cities in one country. I have a friend of a friend who IS friends with Mario Batali and he gave us restaurant recommendations. If you decide to go I can share with you!

Oh and when we did our Itay trip we used a travel agent. It actually doesn't cost anything extra (at least not that I'm aware of - I think they make their money on the other end, from hotels and airlines? But maybe I'm wrong). It was really helpful to have someone else think about these logistics (where to fly into, the order of cities, arranged trains, car services, narrowed down hotel options which I often find overwhelming). Even if we paid a slight premium it was worth it.
We've also used Amex travel services and that had been good too.

@looch: Yeah I didn't want it to come out the wrong way, but while Monte Carlo was beautiful we found it a little boring. And we like relaxing and doing very little. Haha. BUT we stayed there way longer than we should have. I think 5 Days. The first 2-3 days we really enjoyed relaxing and driving the roads of the Grand Prix and seeing the insane cars and all of that. But it's pretty small and there isn't a ton of restaurants and nightlife.
But for a short relaxing trip it's PERFECT and the place we stayed had insane views and great pools.
http://m.montecarlosbm.com/properties/luxury-hotels/monte-carlo-bay-hotel-resort/#

Also just a note: When traveling by train, boat or anything with a scenic view, the journey can be a great part of your European trip and enable you to get a glimpse into local life.

@youboots: Ireland=beer My mom just came back from Spain and Portugal and loved it. She kept saying I had to go there.

@youboots: The main reason we did Ireland was because it was so cheap to fly over there, and then cheaper (and shorter) to fly back from Dublin to home. Plus we both wanted to see Ireland and we met up with friends. The first night we were there, we sat in a crowded pub, drank Guinness, and listened to live music.

It's definitely worth going back to and doing up the whole country though!

I think Paris was my favorite city. We stayed by the Luxemburg Gardens. My only regret is that the morning we were due at the train station, I ran over to the bakery for one last croissant. I get there only to find out that the bakery wasn't open until 9! I wish I could have eaten more pastries!

@youboots: you could fly into London and out of Athens and make your way overland or find a cheap flight. London to Paris is easy enough...you can take an overnight train from Paris to Rome. Then you can travel around Italy for a few days, and then fly to Athens or Santorini.

I once flew into Athens and flew out of Zurich, but I made an enormous loop in Europe before coming back to Zurich. I flew into Athens, took the ferry to Santorini for 3 days and back, flew Athens--Venice for about $70, went to Venice, Rome, Florence, some small towns around there (Pisa of course, Lucca to a vineyard, Siena), then down to Naples to see Pompeii, Mt. Vesuvius, etc. Then back all the way up on the train from Rome to Paris...3 days in Paris, then on the Brussels, Amsterdam (and a few places around the Netherlands...visited a friend in University in Delft), then to Berlin and Munich, and finally back to Zurich where I flew out.

It was about......3.5 weeks total? It was a blast--I traveled solo and had so much fun and met so many interesting people. So I think London--Paris---Rome (and surrounds)--Athens (Santorini) is doable in 2 weeks. Look for cheap flights between cities, or overnight trains to save time.

@808love: It was amazing! I used to use the website Couchsurfing all the time back then this was pre marriage/pre kids and stayed with people in most of those locations, but stayed in hostels the rest of the time.

One of the hardest things about marriage and parenting for me has been giving up that kind of freedom. I traveled solo to Europe, then India, then Argentina, then backpacked from northern Mexico to Guatemala, then a second trip just all over Guatemala.....all by myself, and I miss it. =/

I live in the south of France and travel quite a bit to see family in other countries.
We usually fly Ryanair because the flights are always the cheapest.
Other low cost airlines are easy jet, German wings, air lingus, vueling.
The train system in France isn't bad with bordering countries,l. From Paris you can get to Belgium in an hour(great beer), to the south Marseille in three( sun) and London in two! So it's a good starting point!
What i often do when traveling to an unknown city is looking at the airport website and see which airline flies there and then look on their website for ticket info. I be never found cheaper tickets than on the actual airlines website.
When are you going and do you want sunshine?

@mamainthesun: what part of the south of France do you live in? We are spending a week there this summer (currently waiting for our airbnb confirmation)!

@mamainthesun: we are waiting for a confirmation near Grasse. I have been wanting to go to Marseille for years, and I hope we can at least do a day trip this summer!

Hi! I'm Irish (live in Ireland) and have been to lots of places in Europe! If you're only going for 2 weeks, I'd try to fly early morning/evening between destinations because I could never sleep well on overnight trains. And flights aren't a lot more expensive than the train. I did a train trip over 3 weeks from rotterdam-Amsterdam-Brussels-Paris-Barcelona-Madrid-Lisbon-Porto. Barcelona is fab for architecture and bright colours, lots of Gaudi and the cathedral. Definitely do the day bike tour if you go, it really shows you the highlights and is not exertional at all. South of Italy is also amazing, I think Rome is one of my fave cities in the world. I did a day trip to Pompeii on the train via Naples and it was totally doable. We went to amalfi for our mini moon, and that's also absolutely gorgeous and only about 1.5 hours from Naples by bus/car I think. It very easy to get boat ferrys up and down the coast, to Capri etc. Weather would be gorgeous that time of year too. From what you've said, I would fly to Paris for 3/4 days, fly/overnight train to Barcelona for 2/3 days (not as much to see as Paris/Rome but still a really cool city) then fly to Rome (fly to Naples and bus transfer is probably cheapest) for 3/4 days (so much to see there, and food is amazing), then head down to the coast for some relaxation before heading home (Naples is quite a big airport I think, it would probably be easy to fly home from here). I think that would be a fab trip and not too hectic and not all big cities. Ryanair fly to/near each place. There are lots of other amazing places too, Ireland and UK are nice but weather much less reliable and I would personally prefer the other trip. You could squeeze a day or 2 in London to the start of the trip and get the Eurostar to Paris. South of Spain (Seville, Granada, ronda etc) is gorgeous. Portugal is lovely but maybe slower pace and less in the way of major sights than other places, but that could suit you. Florence is kind of difficult to get to, as in it takes a day or so and I'd probably skip it if you only have 2 weeks but it is totally gorgeous, as is Venice/Verona/Lake Garda. Other places mentioned like Prague/Croatia are also lovely, depends what you want from your trip! Europe is so rich in history and sights it's hard to go wrong to be honest! You'll have an amazing time. I have found trail finders preplanned itineraries for inspiration before, they give a good guide as to good routes to takes, time needed in each place etc, then you can customise as you see fit. If I could be of any help in your planning let me know!