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webmeister posted:Italian cities for whatever reason just have really lovely (or non-existent) cleaning services, so there's often garbage strewn everywhere and loads of graffiti which can be a culture shock. Particularly for middle class westerners who assume graffiti = bad area. As others have said, the only real danger aside from drunken 2am wandering is from pickpockets and there are pretty easy obvious ways to protect yourself against that. Same thing in Spain, with regards to the graffiti. It looks especially "bad" after businesses close for the day because a lot of graffiti is done on security shutters.
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Jan 25, 2018 19:00
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I have to constantly remind myself to not judge a city's appearance on a Sunday for much the same reason. Everything is closed, all the shutters are down so it's just graffiti everywhere. Also - turns out the place in Venice that charged 1100 euros for a 4-person dinner is a typical scam restaurant like those ones in Lisbon. A lofty 1.5 on TripAdvisor, and a magnificent 1.2 on Google Reviews. They're also getting fined 20,000 euros by the city, but I don't know how forced closure and banned from running a business for the next X years isn't an option.
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Jan 25, 2018 20:32
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For a week or two in January I can recommend a winter sports holiday in a place like Ischgl in Austria or something similar. (Ischgl has it all though: great skiing and great partying.) It is affordable as opposed to Switzerland and usually great apres-ski including wellness, concerts, stuff for children and mostly party and drinking until your liver is a smoking ruin. Great fun. Also the skiing and snowboarding teachers there really know their poo poo and get you on track in no time. (If you are a beginner or want a refresher.)
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Jan 26, 2018 11:43
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StealthBus posted:I know January isn't the best but it's the only time we can get the kids looked after, and we've both never seen snow. I don't have a snowy place in mind as I've never done a snow-based holiday, but I would certainly throw Sintra (just outside Lisbon) into the pot and somewhere like Athens where you can see some cool archaeology. But that's because I like that sort of thing. I love Amsterdam's vibe but, like London, maybe it wouldn't be different enough from Aus for you guys.
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Jan 27, 2018 16:09
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Germany was baller yo. I need to spend a proper amount of time in Berlin but thanks to you all telling me to skip Checkpoint Charlie and the Wall.
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Jan 27, 2018 17:47
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Booked a single room at a hotel literally right next to the Atocha Renfe station and the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid for $79/night (it's on Plaza Emperador Carlos V), feels good man
actionjackson fucked around with this message at 00:31 on Jan 29, 2018 |
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Jan 29, 2018 00:29
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Can any Barcelona people verify that this schedule for the R2 is current? http://rodalies.gencat.cat/web/.content/pdf/horaris/R2.pdf I ask because the Renfe site is giving me a technical error, and I wanted to verify that the R2 Nord route does in fact have it's first stop at Passeig de Garcia at 5:08 AM, arriving at the airport at 5:30 AM (first line, first page). Google is telling me the first train isn't until 5:32. This is the renfe search engine which as I said is giving me an error: http://www.renfe.com/EN/viajeros/cercanias/barcelona/index.html
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Jan 31, 2018 19:25
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actionjackson posted:Can any Barcelona people verify that this schedule for the R2 is current? I got the schedule search to work by forcing my browser to request the Spanish version of pages (it's not enough to select the language on the website, you have to set your browser to Spanish, because RENFE hates you on a personal level and wants you to suffer). It shows the first R2N train leaving Passeig de Gracia at 5:28, and arriving at the airport 24 minutes later. However! There is a train on that schedule, from Passeig de Gracia to the Airport, at 5:08, designated "R2S." I don't know how that ends up at the airport, and it's the only one on that page, but if I had to guess, it's a scheduling thing where the train comes from the terminus on the R2S line but finishes at the airport for the first train of the day. If you'll notice, the same thing is reflected by the PDF. The first train of the day leaves from Estacio de Franca, on the south line, but arrives at the airport, so it's coded as R2S, and I assume Google's system cannot account for RENFE's earnest desire to cause suffering and confusion.
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Jan 31, 2018 22:38
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Misc posted:The Beehive, the owners are American if that provides any peace of mind Thanks for this! I'm a bit bummed the hostels I'm going to have mostly turned out to be $40+ a night, when I was really hoping for $25-35, but at least this one appears to be very nice (and has some of the highest ratings I've ever seen on Hostelworld/Google Maps/etc, so). Still looking around for hostels in Paris. It seems like pretty much all of them are near Gare du Nord, which I guess will at least be fine in terms of transit. Honestly, I'm okay staying relatively far from tourist destinations, if the transit system is easy enough to use. Also still looking for hostels in Florence, Berlin, and Amsterdam. I'm probably going to drop Venice from my itinerary entirely to save a little money (much easier to travel direct from Florence to Berlin and add a couple days to my stay there, where it's cheap, and I'll have friends in town to hang out with). Also, while I saved $250 on my flight by arriving in Dublin early and extending my stay there, I just realized the later flights were so expensive because it's easter weekend, and also hostels are crazy expensive there, and mostly seem to be kinda lovely for the price 
abraham linksys fucked around with this message at 23:01 on Jan 31, 2018 |
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Jan 31, 2018 22:56
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The train schedule seems simple enough from what you linked, but I have no idea what the hell is up with those three different shades of green at the top, e.g. why does the dark green at Estacio de França have a gap in it? I thought maybe "that means it doesn't run on Sunday and holidays" but as far as I can tell, it does. That said I would be suuuuuper surprised if the rodalies.gencat.cat website was incorrect. I guess you have a super early flight? If the difference between arriving at 5:30am or 5:50am makes the difference between getting your flight or not getting your flight, you'd be better off getting a taxi. It's not that far and taxis are reasonably priced. (Granted I'm coming from Switzerland, so taxis anywhere seem reasonably priced.)
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Jan 31, 2018 23:07
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abraham linksys posted:Thanks for this! I'm a bit bummed the hostels I'm going to have mostly turned out to be $40+ a night, when I was really hoping for $25-35, but at least this one appears to be very nice (and has some of the highest ratings I've ever seen on Hostelworld/Google Maps/etc, so). Unless you're super stoked on hostels for some reason, I'd really suggest trying AirBnBs at least once. Tick the "private room" setting. E.g. for Paris you can get somewhere like: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/15419028 for the same price as a hostel. If you're super social and you're traveling by yourself and want to meet people to go drink with, then go for a hostel though. If you're traveling as a couple/friends and/or don't want to meet 20 year olds in hostels, then AirBnB is probably better, although YMMV and you should try both. Anywhere in Paris inside the ringway ("périphérique") is fine. The touristy section of Paris is quite large and there's no one location that's central to all tourist locations. You'd want to take a metro no matter where you stay, as walking from (e.g.) Sacre Coeur to the Eiffel Tower is ridiculously far and while you might do it in one direction, you wouldn't do a round-trip walking it. Most of the interesting sites in Paris form a kind of square-ish shape between Arc de Triomphe, Les Invalides, the Pantheon, Le Marais, and Sacre Coeur. Saladman fucked around with this message at 23:20 on Jan 31, 2018 |
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Jan 31, 2018 23:13
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Saladman posted:Unless you're super stoked on hostels for some reason, I'd really suggest trying AirBnBs at least once. Tick the "private room" setting. E.g. for Paris you can get somewhere like: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/15419028 for the same price as a hostel. If you're super social and you're traveling by yourself and want to meet people to go drink with, then go for a hostel though. If you're traveling as a couple/friends and/or don't want to meet 20 year olds in hostels, then AirBnB is probably better, although YMMV and you should try both. So my thought, generally, is that I'm a solo traveler who would be okay meeting other travelers (fwiw I'm 24  ), and I'm wanting to save money. But you're right; I should at least look at Airbnb in each city - I always just assume that in tourist areas it's gonna be kinda pricey, but I forget that, y'know, these are cities with plenty of people living in em with a spare room or two. I know at least there's some good ones in Dublin that are $50-60 a night which, while $10-20 more than the hostels, seems like it would be worth the extra money.
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Jan 31, 2018 23:18
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abraham linksys posted:So my thought, generally, is that I'm a solo traveler who would be okay meeting other travelers (fwiw I'm 24 Yeah, just make sure you look for private room instead of full apartment. Shared room always seemed weird to me on AirBnB -- who the gently caress is renting out a bed in the same room that they sleep in?? (Besides creepy-rear end dudes looking for female travelers who want to travel cheaply.) Man Something Awful is loving old when 24 is a younger poster. How long until the primary threads here are about AARP discounts? It's interesting the difference in the last 9-10 years I've been reading this forum (before regging) when posts go from "how to backpack 4 cheap after high school" to "how 2 honeymoon" to "how 2 travel in comfort".
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Jan 31, 2018 23:24
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Saladman posted:The train schedule seems simple enough from what you linked, but I have no idea what the hell is up with those three different shades of green at the top, e.g. why does the dark green at Estacio de França have a gap in it? I thought maybe "that means it doesn't run on Sunday and holidays" but as far as I can tell, it does. That said I would be suuuuuper surprised if the rodalies.gencat.cat website was incorrect. It's a TAP flight to Lisbon, but I can always take the one at 10 AM instead which is probably what I'll do.
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Jan 31, 2018 23:30
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abraham linksys posted:Also, while I saved $250 on my flight by arriving in Dublin early and extending my stay there, I just realized the later flights were so expensive because it's easter weekend, and also hostels are crazy expensive there, and mostly seem to be kinda lovely for the price Saladman posted:Man Something Awful is loving old when 24 is a younger poster. How long until the primary threads here are about AARP discounts? It's interesting the difference in the last 9-10 years I've been reading this forum (before regging) when posts go from "how to backpack 4 cheap after high school" to "how 2 honeymoon" to "how 2 travel in comfort". My parents received an AARP membership package for me earlier this month, in fact. Me and the missus are gonna fix up the mobile home and just park it in a lot somewhere and call it retirement! I'm 42
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Feb 1, 2018 00:54
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Girlfriend and I are going to Amsterdam in March for 5 days, March 9-14. She REALLY wants to go to Paris and that Monday the 12th looks like it would fit in our schedule but I'm having a gently caress of a time finding rail tickets. Am I SOL unless I blow Second question, I've been looking through all the suggestions in the thread and taking notes but are there any places that you strongly recommend (or hate)?
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Feb 2, 2018 05:02
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Amsterdam to Paris and back sounds like a super exhausting daytrip. You're looking at probably something like 7.5 hours of travel time keeping in mind that you want to be at the train station at least a few minutes early, so it's not just the 3h15 in the train each way, it's also getting to/from the train station and getting the train station wiggle room so you're not running through packed corridors of commuters. As for the tickets, I'm not sure what you're looking at: Thalys's still sells the cheapest class of tickets for €55 on March 12. Train tickets almost never sell out anywhere in Europe, 99% of the time you can buy a ticket like 5 minutes before the train leaves. The only exceptions I've ever seen to this are on popular routes during holidays or special events, e.g. going south from Zurich to Milan on Good Friday, or trains going to Munich for the first day of Oktoberfest. I don't think there's anything massive going on March 12 in either Paris or Amsterdam. The cheapest tickets for your itinerary look like they're €110/each and would get you into Paris around 10am and you'd have to leave around 7pm. That does get you time in Paris but aren't you going to be super exhausted because you got up at 5am to catch a 6am train, spent all day walking around and Maxing Out Tourism, and then you get back to your hotel around 11:15pm? Seems like that money could be better spent doing something in or near Amsterdam.
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Feb 2, 2018 09:11
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I just had a quick look and even on a high-speed train, Amsterdam -> Paris is over 3 hours each way, and two return tickets on that date costs around 300 euros even in second class. It's your holiday after all, but I'd be saving Paris for another time. With Amsterdam, my main advice is to book whatever you want to see in advance. If you're keen on the Rijksmuseum, the Van Gogh Museum or Anne Frank's House then book in advance, otherwise you'll spend half of your trip waiting in line. edit; I got these prices from rome2rio.com, I guess you just went direct to Thalys, Saladman? I couldn't remember the Dutch national operator 
webmeister fucked around with this message at 09:28 on Feb 2, 2018 |
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Feb 2, 2018 09:13
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webmeister posted:If you're keen on the Rijksmuseum, the Van Gogh Museum or Anne Frank's House then book in advance, otherwise you'll spend half of your trip waiting in line. I lucked out and was able to get into the Rijksmuseum with my group of three people without any wait at all in the middle of the high season. Your mileage may vary but booking in advance can't hurt. It's definitely worth it. The Anne Frank House was a total no-go though, the line to get in was like 500 meters long. I'd also recommend the National Maritime Museum, which (when I went) was pretty empty of people. It's not going to be interesting if you don't already kinda like boats though, but it goes pretty deep into the Netherlands' history as a naval and commercial power, and the maritime art section is huge and impressive.
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Feb 2, 2018 09:18
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If you really want to turn Paris into a day trip (why the gently caress), you could take KL1223 in the morning and KL1246 in the evening for the sweet sweet price of €684 for two persons.
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Feb 2, 2018 10:08
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I've got a better idea: don't go to Amsterdam, go to Paris. Then you'll be in Paris for that one day, and also several other days!
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Feb 2, 2018 14:54
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Saladman posted:aren't you going to be super exhausted because you got up at 5am to catch a 6am train, spent all day walking around and Maxing Out Tourism, and then you get back to your hotel around 11:15pm? You basically described an average day trip to Chicago for us, longer if we're going to a White Sox game. Plus part of the fun of a vacation is being exhausted at the end of the day. We don't know the next time we'd get another chance so it's worth the travel time. It might be decades before we can do it again or we could all be dead after Trump nukes his own country to hide the piss tape so we wanna take advantage and say we've seen Paris at least once.
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Feb 2, 2018 15:19
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webmeister posted:edit; I got these prices from rome2rio.com, I guess you just went direct to Thalys, Saladman? I couldn't remember the Dutch national operator Yeah, directly on the Thalys line and for his date & time. The 6h17 and 7h17 departure are both €110 (for both tickets together, not each), and the return is €130 leaving at 19h19.
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Feb 2, 2018 15:32
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duck trucker posted:we've seen Paris at least once. That's the thing though. You won't really be able to say that. Sure, you may be able to train in -> get a photo in front of the Eiffel Tower -> train out again, but you won't really be able to see or do or experience anything else. It's just a step above saying "I've been to New York because I had a connector flight through JFK once!"
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Feb 2, 2018 15:41
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Drone posted:That's the thing though. You won't really be able to say that. Sure, you may be able to train in -> get a photo in front of the Eiffel Tower -> train out again, but you won't really be able to see or do or experience anything else. I totally get that. But we're fully expecting to not do much other than see landmark, take photo, see another landmark - take photo -eat late lunch- head out. Like if it offends you sorry, but we're well aware that this is just a pinky toe dip into Paris and not the real Paris experience.
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Feb 2, 2018 15:59
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Anyone know why the price of flights from Paris to Rome are totally hosed on the weekend of April 13-15? I'm really bummed that I'm going to spend like $200 on an EasyJet (after paying extra for a seat where I can take both my roller bag and my small backpack). I looked into flying Paris to Venice and it was slightly less, but not by much. I even looked into the sleeper train, because while I'd lose a night in Paris, all the cheap flights out are so late in the evening I'd be looking at a late check in and missing a night in Rome anyways. The sleeper train seems to not be very good, and also quite expensive that weekend (as is the TGV to the Italian high-speed rail daytime trip). This won't kill my trip, I'm just super peeved to be spending so much on a loving EasyJet. I've been loving with my itinerary to try to travel on not that weekend but I think I'm stuck with it  also goddammit I was just thinking "oh Vueling flights are at better times and wouldn't require I buy the upgraded seat, since they allow a second bag for free" but my carry-on is too big for Vueling according to their site e: ended up doing the sleeper to Venice (found a nice looking Airbnb in Venice for $70 a night too). I was originally planning to fly to Rome, then train to Florence and Venice, but now I'm reversing that. It'll very likely be the dumbest thing I do on this trip, but it just seemed so much simpler than trying to gently caress around with expensive flights. I just moved one of my nights from London to Paris (not a hard choice, considering my I've already had two weeks there ). Also, I save on one night's accommodations with this, I guess!
abraham linksys fucked around with this message at 20:22 on Feb 2, 2018 |
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Feb 2, 2018 19:11
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The 2018 Rome ePrix is held that weekend. I dunno if that matters.
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Feb 2, 2018 23:14
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Flights on Fri, Sat, Sun are always ball breakingly expensive. Tues-Thurs is where the deals are at.
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Feb 3, 2018 01:09
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duck trucker posted:You basically described an average day trip to Chicago for us, longer if we're going to a White Sox game. Plus part of the fun of a vacation is being exhausted at the end of the day. Just go to Paris Paris Las Vegas and call it the day. Better yet, get the gently caress out of the Mid West. Of all the places I have been in the world, it's the most traumatic one for me
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Feb 3, 2018 04:26
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caberham posted:Just go to Paris Paris Las Vegas and call it the day. yep. i lived in europe for four years and returned to chicago two years ago. suck the poo poo out of my rear end in a top hat, chicago thread.
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Feb 3, 2018 09:46
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duck trucker posted:I totally get that. But we're fully expecting to not do much other than see landmark, take photo, see another landmark - take photo -eat late lunch- head out. I don't think anyone is offended, but that doesn't sound like fun to most people in this thread, and we're just making sure you understand what you're getting into. If that's what you want, then great. My partner and I consciously made the decision to spend more time in places even if that meant missing bucket-list places and it's worked really well for us. We're going to Rome in early October for 7 days and I can't wait. (I'm sure the thread has tons of tips for Rome so I will read through, but if anyone has anything off the top of their head that would be appreciated. Particularly of the 'good locations tp stay' and 'what needs to be booked in advance' variety.)
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Feb 3, 2018 18:12
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For a hotel in Lisbon any recommendations around the Rossio and Baixa-Chiado stations? I think I'm going to need something with a 24 hour desk service as I have to get a taxi at like 3:30 am to go to the airport from there.
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Feb 3, 2018 23:01
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Chocolate Milk posted:I don't think anyone is offended, but that doesn't sound like fun to most people in this thread, and we're just making sure you understand what you're getting into. If that's what you want, then great. FYI I was in Rome in early October last year and it's basically peak tourism season. You probably know that already though. You absolutely want to do advance booking for the Coliseum and for the Vatican (see picture below - that's the line for those who didn't get advance tickets and it went on forever). I didn't get advance tickets for the Borghese gallery but I got there when it opened and had no issues. I don't know what your budget is but I stayed here, and it was fantastic http://www.hotelamalfiroma.it It's three starts but honestly feels like four. The breakfast is great as is the location (midway between the train station and the Coliseum). I think a paid a bit under $100/night.
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Feb 3, 2018 23:07
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That's the most expensive part of town, I guess if you have money you can't go wrong with anything Pestana for example
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Feb 3, 2018 23:07
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I'm using miles for the flights and staying in Barcelona for free, so I'm fine spending a bit more than I would normally on a hotel
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Feb 3, 2018 23:14
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Altis avenida is p cool looking from the outside I'm from here, so I don't stay at hotels often, so maybe not the best guy for this. Can't go wrong with booking if you search for baixa de Lisboa
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Feb 3, 2018 23:17
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Is the overnight bus still active? The 208 http://www.carris.pt/en/bus/208/descendente/ Also are there certain spots that I'd expect taxis to be available in the very early morning? actionjackson fucked around with this message at 01:48 on Feb 4, 2018 |
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Feb 4, 2018 01:46
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ended up cancelling the Thello after reading a few reviews of the 6-bed rooms in particular (I figured it'd be like "oh a hostel on wheels" but apparently it's much worse) and ate a $200 flight to Venice. Ah well. At least I'll be getting in in the morning at around 11:20am, meaning I'll be in Venice by 12:30. I'll be there for that Sunday and the next Monday, and at least I managed to find a wild deal on a train to Florence Tuesday morning ($13 on Italo Treno!), and now I get a 6th night in Paris, which is neat. I'm slowly finishing up booking things. Hopefully won't make too many more mistakes like that. Did want to ask y'all for carry-on recommendations and general tips on packing light for a long trip. My bag is, it appears, slightly too big for RyanAir and Air France's cabin bags, and that's before I put stuff in it and it expands. I'm thinking of getting one of these carry-on backpacks, and then one of these daypacks that folds into a pocket (which gets the bonus of not having to spend on an EasyJet seat that lets you bring a second, smaller bag), or, y'know, the non-Amazon Basics equivalent. I'm kinda worried about being able to lug that backpack around, but most of my hostels are near-ish to trains, so maybe it won't be so bad. My dream would be like... some kind of lightweight bag that turned into a backpack, but I'm not sure that actually exists. fwiw the restrictions I'm looking at are quote:RyanAir 55cm x 40cm x 20cm The Air France one is particularly weird and brutal but at least there I could upgrade to a checked bag for like 25 euros, which isn't as bad as actual budget carriers. In retrospect, I wish I'd just booked EasyJet for it
abraham linksys fucked around with this message at 03:08 on Feb 4, 2018 |
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Feb 4, 2018 02:47
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Well the more travel the lighter your luggage. There was a travel gear thread about people dorking out over bags. The amazon one you linked looks fine, if it isn’t that good then get a better one next time. You probably want to start cheap
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Feb 4, 2018 03:04
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Apparently the Amazon one is like 3cm too big for Air France, what the gently caress Air France  I'll take a look for that travel gear thread, thanks. e: anyone know why I can't find any Bahn trains from Berlin to Amsterdam on May 1, or the week around it? I'm worried it might have something to do with secret construction or holiday stuff because there are trains available later. Looked like a nice alternative to a 7am EasyJet, if a bit long abraham linksys fucked around with this message at 04:21 on Feb 4, 2018 |
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Feb 4, 2018 03:10
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