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Dream Vacation or Trip to the Heart of Darkness?
You have always said that one day you will take that dream vacation to Europe with your honey and some of your closest friends. Now, finally, you can all afford it…..Now what? Where do you start? Making major, and costly, decisions with your friends can be daunting, unfamiliar territory. It’s easy to become overwhelmed and end up planning a trip to the heart of darkness rather than your dream vacation.
In the best of situations, there are a million things to consider on a trip to Europe and even the best of friends will run in to some difficulties in the planning stage. And it might seem that the magic of being in Europe will overtake just about any kind of disagreement. You will compromise. After all, it’s the trip of a lifetime.
Well, unless you are willing to take some risks up front with your friends and get some advice, you may find yourself having a European Vacation experience, Griswald family style. And because you are not related, you won’t have a legal requirement to stay friends. After a 17-day trip to seven cities in two European countries with some of my best friends (luckily we still are), we have compiled some hindsight wisdoms to help other compadres venturing on their first trip to Europe avoid some pitfalls of traveling abroad: Listen to the Advice of Travel Agents
In the planning stages, be sure to be reasonable about the amount of traveling within Europe that you want to do. If a travel agent recommends that you cut down the number of places you travel in the time you have allotted, take his or her advice. You will be glad you did.
Europe has a wonderful rail system, and it is easy to get from one country to another. But remember that you will be carrying your bags and using a system of travel that you are unfamiliar with. If you are not careful, you will spend your entire time in Europe running from train to train, staring at train station terminals hoping it will begin to make sense to you at some point. We all agreed that we would spend more time in Paris and Rome on our next trip to Europe and cut down drastically the number of cities we traveled to in two-weeks’ time.Plan Separate Accommodations when Possible
It’s a good idea to plan to fork over the extra dough to have separate rooms for at least some of the trip. Mix it up so you are staying together for some of the time and separate at other times. Living space in Europe can be a lot smaller than it is here, so you will be glad you did. Book Outside Isles on the Plane
For the flight over and back: Do NOT, I repeat, do NOT sit in the middle row of the plane. After nine hours, you will feel like a manic anchovy, especially in the middle seat. Let whoever books the flight know this.Communicate About Different Styles of Traveling
Discuss your fears and travel proclivities with your friends. If you are afraid that your snoring will be an issue and you like to sleep in on trips and take sightseeing casually, talk about that. If you like to explore the nightlife, find out how you can work that into the sightseeing schedule without overwhelming your fellow weary travelers. Count on Rail System Strikes in Europe
You will want to check regularly at the train stations to make sure you know when and if strikes are taking place. In our case, we found out there was a rail system strike planned in Italy the day we were traveling from Nice, in the south of France, to Venice. The strikes are announced in advance and planned for specific durations of time. Due to the strike, we had to make a major decision about our trip within an hour. We had to cut our time short in Nice and head to Venice a day early. Because of this we missed the Cannes Film Festival, a highly anticipated part of the trip, at which we planned to scope out the stars. It was both unfortunate and fortunate. We had extra time in Venice, which is a great city, but it was a grueling decision. Some of us were so desperate to stay and see Cannes that we contemplated taking an eight-hour bus trip overnight to Italy the following day. Others, not so keen on the idea of arriving in Venice, at 2 in the morning, were quite prepared to take the fastest train out of Nice, ditch Cannes, and get to our accommodations in Italia at a reasonable hour, with enough time to get a pizza and some gelato, if we were lucky. We all eventually said au revoir to stalking Johnny Depp and headed to Venice, but not without some tears. Be prepared to make these kinds of decisions with your friends. Purchase Flexible Eurail Passes
Purchase flexible Eurail passes so that your group can split up if you have differing interests on a particular day (or in the event that there is a rail system strike and some of you can’t get Johnny Depp off the brain). Though it is cheaper to buy Eurail passes that have limitations, you will regret having these limitations. For instance, we bought tickets that required that we travel in a group. None of us could take a train without the rest of us in tow. We had to travel like a pack of ducks, everywhere. It may seem that you will all want to stick together because you will be in a foreign place, but you will get accustomed to the metro and rail system and will want to explore different areas on your own or in smaller groups. For instance, while in Paris, half of our group wanted to go to Versailles for a day and half of us wanted to take a trip to Rouen to visit the Joan of Arc Museum. Some of us also considered heading to the Normandy beaches. Because we had to travel in a group, we all had to compromise and agree on one destination. Get Acquainted with Each European Destination
When you arrive at each destination, take a half a day to learn the surrounding areas. Memorize your address and make sure each of you has it written down as well. Learn the common metro stops for your area and write these down and keep them with you. Take a test run on your own and meet your friends for lunch. Then you will all feel comfortable later splitting up to find different points of interest. And always make an alternate plan in case something goes wrong. For instance, you might decide to all meet at the apartment/hotel at the end of the day at a specific time as a last resort. Plan for Shopping Time
Plan time in your schedule to shop. Some of us have different needs for shopping, but we all want to bring something home for at least one person. If you don’t plan time into your schedule for shopping, you will never find time if you are on a Tight Sightseeing Schedule. Under-book Your European Sightseeing Schedule
Don’t plan a tight sightseeing schedule. All the attractions take time to locate and time to enjoy thoroughly. Also, remember that the hours for different attractions vary. Some of the attractions like the Sistine Chapel close at odd hours, like 2:45 p.m., and many of the attractions are closed on certain weekdays. And try to do this before you get on the plane. Do your research and make sure that you have time to see what’s important to you. Plan Time for Laundry
We all packed as light as we could for our two weeks of travel-well, okay not as light as we could- and we all had to do laundry at least twice while we were there. Apartments and flats often come equipped with washing machines, but there are NO CLOTHES’ DRYERS in the apartments in Europe. The only dryers we found were in a laundry mat in Florence. Don’t Expect to Eat Dinner Early
Many restaurants also have irregular hours. Many times, if we arrived at a restaurant too early in the evening (like 7:00 p.m. I don’t think they have a problem with acid reflux in this country.), we would catch the staff during their dinnertime. After they finished eating, they would usher us in for dinner. For those of you who have trouble eating too late in the evening, you may want to plan ahead for this.
European Menus
Watch out for pricing on menus. One of us ordered a fish entrée at a small restaurant in Venice that was priced at 7 euro per ounce. Apparently the fish was 12 ounces when cooked, but when it was prepared and brought to the table, it appeared much smaller. Needless to say, the 84-euro fish made quite an impression.
Language Barrier
It’s true. In the major metropolitan areas of France and Italy, most folks are not delighted to speak in English. It’s not their native tongue after all. We were lucky to have fluent speaker with us, but he couldn’t be with all of us at all times. In the more rural and touristy areas, you will have much more luck with happy English speakers. Still, beef up on as much of the language as you can before you arrive and come emotionally prepared to be mildly tolerated by the natives!
Overall, the magic of being in Europe will overtake a lot of things, but good planning and communication will help you avoid some pitfalls of traveling with friends.
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