Family's first trip to Europe...please help!
J J MIO
http://www.InsideTheWeb.com/messageboard/mbs.cgi/mb20205
The areas of interest you describe are the ones that will have to be addressed.
But they are too general to allow a specific answer. Prices in Austia vs
Paris vs Lonson can be quite different.
Jack (California)
Douglas W Hoyt
> We are a family of 4 (kids are 6 and 10). We are interested in home
> exchange. We don't know where to go and when...
> We might be interrested in Paris, the Loire Valley, Alsace, the Rhine and
> the Black Forest. We are flexible as to when, where and how long!
I don't know a thing about home exchange, but here are some other basic
basics:
* MOST of Europe is on vacation in August. LOTS of Europe is on vacation
in July. A small piddling proportion of Europe is on vacation starting the
last week of June. These vacationers go where the sun is (Spain, southern
France, Italy), or at least to where a beach is (coastal Belgium, Holland,
Germany, Denmark). Things fill up hard and solid in those places when they
are on vacation.
* In June, these same sunny places are pretty vacant and available. A
wonderful time to visit!
* In the cities of Northern Europe, where there is much culture,
entertainment, and variety, people come from all over the world to fill
things up in (you guessed it) much of July and all of August. One trend:
the more rural areas you describe, such as the Alsace, the Rhine, and the
Black Forest are becoming accessible anytime, because people are visiting
there less and less, because the weather is not as predictably hot as it is
farther south. You can go to southern Germany or northern France in summer
and have a fairly easy time of it vis-a-vis tourism. The weather is
somewhat unpredictable--but that's why the locals are not going there as
much any more--and it can be very pleasant in July and August!
* Now Rick Steves tells people that the weather south of the Alps is like
southern California, and the weather north of the Alps is like Seattle. I
would add, that in much of the Mediterranean, it is much more humid than
Southern California, and can be stifling. North of the Alps, you can have
heat and sun--but some summers (if you go far enough north) you can also be
bogged in by rain and enough chill that you have to go out and buy wool
hats.
THE LONG AND SHORT OF IT:
Mediterranean destinations are wonderful in June (perfect weather, fewer
visitors).
Semi-rural northern destinations are just great in July and August (better
weather, not too full).
The classic big cities are very visitable in May and June.
The classic big cities get much fuller (and the locals leave) in July and
August.
Oh yes, AIRFARES: our local wonderful consolidator agency, Educational
Travel in Madison, is a very good weather-vane on airfares--and things tend
to be really reasonable before the 15th of June (only the departure dates
matter, not the return dates), and go up by a coupla hundred after that
date. Check on TISS, CheapTickets, or whatever decent travel agency in your
area that handles consolidator airfares (regular air, as found on Expedia or
Travelocity, can average about $500 over the true discounted fares). But
mid-June is usually the cut-off before things really spiral (May and earlier
can be even cheaper).
wvriter
family, I would rent a gite in France to start, lease a car from Renault
(requires minimum stay of 17 days and is much cheaper) and spend a week or
two in one area, moving on to another for a similar time. I would start in
France because Renault supplies cars only for pick-in France, whereas
drop-off can be anywhere within reason.
I love to travel but don't have a ton of money to do it. I can pay more and
go less often, or pay less and go a couple of times a year. I choose the
latter. Lately I have friends lined up to go along! To do it cheaply, I
rent gites or agriturismo farm apartments or occasionally do special hotels
I have identified that are good and cheap. I drive, because after a decade
or two of the hot spots, I want to visit the smaller places. And with 4 or
5 traveling, it pays. What is off-season to some is on for me. Do start in
May, it will pay, even if it is May 30th.
A note of warning: my travel agent friend who often goes with me thought she
would be helpful by booking an agriturismo apartment through one of her
booking agents. Their price was more than 50% higher than the same place
booked directly after searching the net on Metacrawler. The apartment for 6
was $485 a week directly, and the booking agency was tacking on $250.
"Douglas W Hoyt" <DUG...@prodigy.net> wrote in message
news:88fi7h$cecg$1...@newssvr03-int.news.prodigy.com...
>
> > We are a family of 4 (kids are 6 and 10). We are interested in home
> > exchange. We don't know where to go and when...
> > We might be interrested in Paris, the Loire Valley, Alsace, the Rhine
and
> > the Black Forest. We are flexible as to when, where and how long!
>
> I don't know a thing about home exchange, but here are some other basic
> basics:
Robert Buxbaum
<Decob...@hotmail.dot.com> wrote:
>Good advice from Doug, and I will add that if I were traveling with a
>family, I would rent a gite in France to start, lease a car from Renault
>(requires minimum stay of 17 days and is much cheaper) and spend a week or
>two in one area, moving on to another for a similar time. I would start in
>France because Renault supplies cars only for pick-in France,
Although there is a fee involved with either a pick up or return from a city
outside France it is just as possible to pick up outside France as it is to
return it there. Admittedly the fees involved for either can often offset
the savings involved in the lease program.
From: < http://www.worldtable.com/eurodrive/locations.html>
Airports/Fee - for pick-up *or* return
Amsterdam/$50
Barcelona/$50
Brussels/$50
Lisbon/$175
Madrid/$100
Milan Linate/Malpensa/$100
Oporto/$175
Rome Ciampino/Fiumicino/$175
Zurich/$175
Cities/Fee - for pick-up *or* return
Frankfurt/$50
Milan/$50
Munich/$100
London/$175
Santiago de Compostela/$175
Vigo/$175
>whereas drop-off can be anywhere within reason.
As long is it's in a city with a participating Renault dealership. ;-) See
list above.
--
Food, Wine, & Travel<www.worldtable.com>
Renault leasing <http://www.worldtable.com/eurodrive/renault.html>
Brittany July'99 <http://www.worldtable.com/reports/brittany.jul.99.html>
Don Friedman
June - in fact, there was little I ever found closed even in March and April.
My travel limitation with kids is school-based so we end up traveling over
Easter or leaving just a day or so before school lets out so it has been some
years since we've been able to travel in May.
Doug is on the mark about settling down in one spot and working outward from
there. For myself I stick to taking the trains and not bothering with the
expense and hassle of a car. Having done it both ways I much, much prefer the
train. At those ages my kids got bored really quickly with museums, churches
and historical sites so we had to temper them with more interesting fare for
them - science centers, modern shopping and cable television. Now that mine are
adolescents things are more manageable but still I have to remind myself about
the number of Cathedrals we can see this summer in Italy . . . not many!
Don
Steve & Carla Legault wrote:
> We are trying to plan a trip to Europe in 2000 and we need help.
>
> We are a family of 4 (kids are 6 and 10). We are interested in home
> exchange. We don't know where to go and when...
>
> We might be interrested in Paris, the Loire Valley, Alsace, the Rhine and
> the Black Forest. We are flexible as to when, where and how long! We need
> suggestions. We are worried about the summer crowds, but we are also
> worried about having all the tourists attractions (mainly castles) being
> closed in May or September. We intend on going back every year, so we
> don't have to see every thing the first year. Our budget is limited so we
> would appreciate input on when to leave for best air fares (month,day of
> the week,etc..)
--
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Late 1950's . . . invented as ARPNet at the Dept of Defense
Mid 1960's . . . expanded to civilian use under the National Science
Foundation
Early 1990's . . first web browser invented at the State University of Ilinois
Late 1990's . . . mainly used to complain about how nothing good as ever come
from the government.
Jack
>> We are trying to plan a trip to Europe in 2000 and we need help.
>>
>> We are a family of 4 (kids are 6 and 10). We are interested in home
>> exchange. We don't know where to go and when...
>>
>> We might be interrested in Paris, the Loire Valley, Alsace, the Rhine and
>> the Black Forest. We are flexible as to when, where and how long! We need
>> suggestions. We are worried about the summer crowds, but we are also
>> worried about having all the tourists attractions (mainly castles) being
>> closed in May or September. We intend on going back every year, so we
>> don't have to see every thing the first year. Our budget is limited so we
>> would appreciate input on when to leave for best air fares (month,day of
>> the week,etc..)
Just log on http://i.am/jack_travel and a lot of your worries will be
over. Honest ! ;-)
Jack
My Paris,daytrips from Paris, Provence, Cote d'Azur, valley of the
Loire, Belgium and Holland posts are open again at
http: http://i.am/jack_travel WITH pictures and at
http://home.mminternet.com/~nowhere_man
gcun...@my-deja.com
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