As you may recall, we narrowed down this year's vacation plans to the Canadian Rockies, Hawaii, and Europe.
The Canadian Rockies were the first to go (always the bridesmaid!) and with Europe seeming to be overwhelming in so many ways (where to go, booking all the parts, where to begin, etc.) so...
Hawaii (more specifically, Maui and the Big Island) vaulted into the immediate lead... besides being a no-brainer destination... largely thanks to our past experience with the Pleasant Holidays website. It's so easy to use... booking air, hotel, and car all in one place and price (with decent savings)... hassle-free multi-island planning... flexibility to change hotels, change room from mountain view to ocean front, upgrade from economy car to convertible, get a later/earlier flight with instant updates to the total package price.
I lamented... if only there was a website like this for Europe?!?
A couple days after pricing a quite lovely Hawaii vacation, I stumbled upon European Destinations and... voila!!... below is this past weekend's bookstore purchases...
Like Pleasant Holidays, the European Destinations website makes multi-destination travel planning a breeze... lots of flight and hotel options... and with "package" savings. We priced a direct flight from Phoenix to Heathrow on the British Airways website and it cost more than an entire week-long flight/hotel package on European Destinations.
I have never been to Europe, so where to go was a huge, but happy, dilemma. My original thought was two cities, one "biggie" and then something smaller and unexpected. The "biggie" focal point became Paris.... Paris/Amsterdam, Paris/Berlin, Paris/Barcelona...
The prices were pretty much in-line with what we were looking at for Hawaii. A big surprise given the not-so nice combo of a declining US$ and climbing air fares due to fuel prices.
After trying out dozens of city combinations, kind of on a whim priced the triad of London - Paris - Amsterdam and it was not a crazy amount more... so heck, while we are all the way over there... why not see more?! Granted it will be whirlwind... London and Paris, in particular, are a full-course meals... but a healthy plate of appetizers is just as good!
I particularly like the order of the destinations. While they don't tawk "American," English speaking London seems a good toe-dip into Europe. Paris is the crazy middle, overwhelming in so many ways. And laid-back, liberal and even naughtier than I thought Amsterdam... a place to catch one's breath before the trip home.
Another thing that made this particular package desirable was high-speed train rides between the European cities... while not Big Ben or the Eiffel Tower, a ride on the Eurostar through the "chunnel" is a pretty cool thing to check off the travel "bucket list."
We haven't booked anything yet, though I am guessing pretty soon. One of the big reasons I did this "announcement" post today, was for some reader input.
I am open to hearing "what to do"... but given that we'll be in each city for 2-3 days, I am anticipating that not being an issue. I am most hoping for is "where to stay" advice... either specific hotels or areas, particularly in London and Paris. We did stumble on to cool hotel in Amsterdam (free mini-bar?!?!), so I think we are fine there.
We did London and Paris this past summer. Five days in each. What you do, really depends upon your interests. We took two days in Paris to do Euro Disney.
Posted by: Scott C | Monday, January 21, 2008 at 11:29 AM
This input is second hand but good none the less. Go to the LOGO site and review the travel section. The advice they give about traveling abroad is always gay friendly and safe. Plus they seem to know where all the great places are. Their travel shows on cable always hold my atention.
Thy this:
http://www.logoonline.com/travel/destinations/main.jhtml?regID=11
Posted by: Scot | Monday, January 21, 2008 at 10:05 PM