Europe - Switzerland, Paris, London

babyhamham

New Member
Hi,

I’m planning my honeymoon and we intend to cover Switzerland (arrive Zurich)> Paris > London (depart) in early July. Have the following qns, appreciate it if anyone can advise:

Switzerland (4N)
1. Should I get a 4 days Swiss Pass from raileurope sg? I’m tiking of covering Interlaken (Jungfrau and maybe Mt Titlis), Zermatt, Bern, Lucerne. Should I cover Geneva? Any must-sees?
2. Is it easy to plan F&E in Swiss? This is our 1st time to Europe.
3. Is it convenient to carry our luggage from cities to cities (via rail)? Coz most likely we’ll be staying 1 or 2N in each city.

Paris (4N)
1. I’m tiking of getting a train ticket from Zurich to Paris. Where can I get my tickets from?
2. Is the train system in Paris friendly? As we’ll be lugging our luggages from the train station to our hotel, I head some stations do not have lift and we need to carry our luggages up the stairs?
2. Tiking of covering Seine river cruise, Louvre Museum, Versailles, Arc De Triomphe, Champs Elysees, Notre Dame and Eiffel Tower.
3. Any hotel recommendations? Preferably near train stations and not too expensive.
4. Tiking of getting LV. Shd I get from Paris or London?

London (4N)
1. Eurostar from Paris to London. When shd I book my tickets?
2. Sightseeing plans – British museum, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Tower Bridge, St. Paul’s Cathedral, Buckingham Palace, Marble Arch? Any place I should add or take out?
3. Intend to shop like crazy coz its summer sales. So I shd cover Oxford St and Carnaby St? Anywhere else?
4. Outlet shopping – Bicester village.
5. Any hotel recommendations? Preferably near train stations and not too expensive.

Thanks a lot!
 


lovetotravel

New Member
Dear Pudding,

Switzerland - Four night is short and I would recommend you choose either one (Jungraujoch or Mt Titlis). Zermatt is far so skip that for next time. My suggested route Zurich, Lucern, Interlaken & Vevey. You can base in Interlaken for 3 nights and vevey for one night. Yes it is easy to travel in Switzerland and 4 day swiss pass is good. With the swiss pass train ticket,you can hop on and off any town that you like and bus, boats, trams are free.You get discount to go up jungfraujoch with the pass.
You don't have to change hotel everyday cos journey btw towns are usually 45mins to 2 hours.

Paris - If you last stop is Geneva or vevey or lusanne, you cran also buy ticket to paris from there, don't have to travel back to Zurich.
Metro system in paris may look complicated at first but if you can focus and find the line that you want on the map, it is not difficult at all. Plan your route before stepping out of the hotel. Yes train station in Paris do not have lift and with luggage it will be tough climbing up and down the stairs trying to find your way. I suggest taking a cab to your hotel and after checkin, you can slowly explore the city.
I previously stayed in Tim Hotel Tour Eiffel which is 7mins walk away from Eiffel tower and next to dupliex station.
You should get LV from paris.

Hope this helps.
 

lilostitch12

New Member
Hi Pudding, I hope I am not too late. I just returned from my holidays in Sept and had exactly the same route as you.

Switz
1. Dont need to get from raileurope.sg. All train stations in switz have counters to sell you the swiss pass.

2. F&E is simple in Switz. They can speak English and have the best transport network. The timing for trains and buses are amazing punctual.

3. Carrying luggage in Switz is not a problem.

If you only have 4 days in Switz, I doubt you can cover so many areas. Suggest you stick to Lucern and Jungfrau area. Zermatt is out of the way. I wrote a trip report in tripadvisor.com. You may wish to take a look if you are interested. Here is the link.

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g188045-i336-k3926971-Trip_report_5_days_Sensational_Switzerland-Switzerland.html

Paris
1. You are travelling in the wrong direction. France is on the left side of Switz while Zurich is fairly towards the west side of Switz. You should take a train from Geneva. I pre-booked my tickets on raileurope.sg for this journey as I am worried about language barrier.

2. Travelling in Metro is rather simple. I read from internet that there are incidents of pick pockets in the Metro. Just stay vigilant. We did not had any nasty incidents except some beggers on the trains. But they will leave you alone if you ignore them.

3. You can check tripadvisor.com for hotel recommendation. I wouldnt recommend mine because I was staying in a disneyland hotel which is far from city.

4. LV in Paris is cheaper. Each passport is only limited to purchase of one bag and one wallet.

London
1. Book your eurostar tickets in advance if you have a fixed itinerary. The tickets gets more expensive nearer to the date.

3 & 4. I didnt really do shopping in London so cant advise on that.

5. We stayed at Arosfa hotel at Gower street. Very convenient and highly recommended in Tripadvisor.com for value. It is 15 mins walk from St Pancras if you take the eurostar. There are nearer tube stations such as euston sq and goodge street tube stations nearer to the hotel.

Let me know if you like to have my itinerary. Can share it with you.
 

blackberri96

New Member
Hi lilostitch12 and Peng,

Your recommendations and advice are really appreciated. My wedding's not until next year but am really excited about travelling. Was thinking of Europe. Switzerland - France - London -Italy.... Which would be the best order and any recommended length of stay? Hear from u guys soon! =)
 

lovetotravel

New Member
Hi Jamie,

I would not go for so many countries. Travelling from one place to another takes time and you don't want to spend your honeymoon rushing from places and checking in and out of hotels. I would suggest pick two countries. How many days you plan for this trip?

I'm also making my plan to Italy next yr but only at initial planning stage. Never been to London so can't advice. If u need details on Switzerland and France, I can help.
 

blackberri96

New Member
Hi Peng,

Thanks for the advice. u're rite...I wun wana be rushing around. Do tell me more about Switzerland and France if u can! Btw, do we normally pair France with Italy or Switzerland?
 

kriskris

New Member
Hi guys am gng for my honeymoon in dec 10. Route is Swiss-Paris-London. Am in a dilemma which Swiss pass to get. Hope to get some advise here.

We will be based at interlaken for 5N making day trips out to Lucerne, Bern etc and plans to go Mt Titilis and Jungfraujoch. After tat we will base 2N in Lausanne and make day trip to Geneva,Vevey n Montreaux. Reason to base in Lausanne is we departing to Paris on the 7am train from Lausanne and it's nearer to Geneva for day trip instead of from Interlaken

Lilostitch, I also booked Arosfa Hotel based on rave reviews from trip advisor but the rooms are really tat small as reviewed? I wanted double room but not available n they offer a triple room at discounted price, I took it. Is it reali in a convenient location?
 

thiasy

New Member
Just came back from my 21 day honeymoon. My route was London-Paris-Barcelona-Venice-Florence-Rome.

Travelling around using Metro is basically very convenient. but alot of staircase to climb. However, do be careful of pickpockets. My hubby wallet got pickpocket while we were in Paris changing train to go to airport. Usually the pick pocket work in a group of 4 to 5 pple and will target you when you are travelling with luggages. 2 will block and distract you while the other 2 will try to take your wallet. Why we know is because we were targetted a few times when we were travelling. It's always the first or the last day when we are at the train station with our luggages.

For Paris, I stayed there for 4 nite. Not rush and I can spent hours in museums .
happy.gif
If you like shopping, you can go to La valle discount outlets where there are alot of branded shops at great discounts. Just one train stop before disneyland.
happy.gif


For Italy, I recommend 3 nite (Venice), 1 nite(Florence), 3 nite(Rome). Train ride between these places are abt 2 hours.
 

rtan

New Member
Don't be an easy target for pickpockets. It's very simple. Ditch the wallets and use a neckpouch. There's no way they can get to it then. We've never once had any problems in Paris.

All pockets, be it zipped, buttoned, whatever, are potential targets. The same goes for easily accessible pockets and compartments on backpacks and bags.

Not looking blur helps too.

These people are professionals. But just be aware, no need to be paranoid.

I have a writeup here which may prove useful:

http://rtan.net/Paris/safety.html
 

rtan

New Member
The other thing that might be useful is to identify the potential pickpockets. I don't mean to be racist, but generally it's the people of North African descent and the darker skinned people that you should be looking out for.

Watch out for those loitering around or pretending to be talking on mobile phones. I will eyeball the suspicious characters briefly to let them know that I know what they're up to.

Think about it. If you were a pickpocket, what would you do? You would stand in a corner or at the side near crowded areas. You would observe the foreign-looking people because they are most likely to be tourists carrying large amounts of cash. You would target those with a lot of luggage, those who look a little lost, those who look blur, those who are not aware of their surroundings, those who appear unobservant, and those who did not notice you or even turn to look at you. And you would target those where you can see a bulge in a pants or shirt pocket; that means a wallet and it means easy money. Or a handphone.

One of our friends was alert enough and she felt a slight bump on her backpack as she was queuing up at Macdonalds. She turned around and saw a black guy with her handphone up his sleeve, but because there was a dangly thing it was sticking out from his sleeve. So she confronted him and got her handphone back. Well done. But they are really fast, they are professionals. And later in the day we saw the same guy on the metro, targeting the next unsuspecting tourist.

Her only mistake was to have put her handphone in the handphone pouch on the backpack. Bad idea. But she learned from that and later stuffed her handphone deep into her backpack where its existence is not obvious. Inconvenient yes, but if it's difficult for me to get it out, it won't be any easier for the pickpocket! Even the locals use neckpouches, so it can't be a bad idea.

So listen and learn from all our experiences, good and bad. And enjoy your trip! It is Paris after all.
happy.gif
 

kriskris

New Member
just wanna check, i will be at Effiel Tower for the New Year Countdown..After that, will be taking metro back to hotel, will it still be safe? I presume by then its abt 12+ midnight already...have asked some of my frens who have done that before, a group of 4 asian gals and they say its perfectly ok...However from those pickpocketing reports, i still feel a bit worried..i have intended to get the Carte Orange but understand it has been phased out and replaced by Navigo Card(purple). Has anyone here bought that before?

I still need advise for the Switzerland leg of my trip on the Swiss Pass..can anyone advise based on below itinerary which pass is more suitable?

Day 1: SIN-ZRH-Lucerne/Explore Lucerne
Day 2: Mt Titilis Excursion
Day 3: Lucerne-Interlaken/Explore Thun/Spiez/Brienz
Day 4: Jungfraujoch
Day 5: Day Trip to Bern/Fribourg
Day 6: Interlaken-Lausane/Enroute to Montreaux & Vevey
Day 7: Day Trip to Geneva/Explore Lausanne
Day 8: Lausanne to Paris via TGV
 

thiasy

New Member
Yup, Agree.. didnt meant to be racists. But it's always the blacks that are selling illegal bags and arabian looking pple being pickpockets & beggers. After my hubby lost the wallet in paris, he learnt his lesson. Any wallets, stuffed it right in the middle of your backpack with all your barang. Neckpouch is extremely useful. just stuff it inside your clothes. no one can see.
happy.gif


I will be going back to Europe (UK-France-Switzland-Italy-Austria) again nxt yr June.. have to start planning now.

Anyone have itinery for Austria?
 

baby_luv

New Member
How much would it roughly cost for a 2 weeks trip to Swiss-Paris-London? Was thinking of going to Manchester city too.
 

rtan

New Member
Hi avatar82,

Condolences on your husband's tragic loss of his wallet. The most important thing is he learned his lesson, and you got a free lesson! The hard way perhaps, but look at it on the bright side; at least he didn't have his wallet pickpocketed twice.
happy.gif


With regards to your next Europe trip, may I boldly suggest, a driving tour instead? The only proper way to see Europe is to rent a car and drive around. You can then also visit the beautiful countryside as well as the cities and towns of the various countries. If both of you are amenable, I (and other experienced forummers I'm sure) would be glad to help with your planning.

Do you have a rough itinerary so far? I can give suggestions for France, and maybe some of the other countries. Austria, sorry; the last time I was there was in 1985 for a spot of winter alpine skiing, so I'm afraid I'm not much use apart from Wien and Salzburg.

But driving through the Austrian Alps is fantastic; another reason to get that rental car.
 

rtan

New Member
Hi Michelle,

Here are some approximations for you to do your math:

Plane tickets: SGD 1500 per person.
Hotel per night: SGD 200 - 300 per room. I'm afraid it's this expensive because you did choose among the two most expensive cities and maybe the most expensive country, as most Singaporeans are wont to do. Of course if you're backpacking and staying in hostels, it would be considerably cheaper, but shall we say, a lot less romantic.

There, I've started the ball rolling. Now it's time to do your job. You didn't even mention for example, whether you're going by trains, budget flights, and/or renting a car.

We also have absolutely no idea on whether gastronomy and Michelin-starred restaurants are important to you, or you're content with the EUR 0.80 baguette from the boulangerie.

I could be lazy and give you a rough figure like 5k or 10k per person, but that would be quite useless to you, and possibly way off the mark. Lastly, you didn't even mention your budget; it's very different if you've just won the lottery versus austerity.
 

andie_luv2

New Member
dear all, urgent help needed here...

am flying to london, madrid and paris with my hubbie this jan for his business trip...but its our first trip thr and we got totally no idea whr to go for sight seeing and shopping...
we will be staying in
Radisson Edwardian Sussex Hotel
19-25 GRANVILLE PLACE
LONDON, W1H6PA, UK - England

can any kind soul advise according to this timeline??

thankz alot and really appreciate any help!!!

21/01/2011
Friday
(day1)
0910- Flying from Singapore to London.
1550- Reaching London
*i am planning to watch a musical since my whole afternoon would be gone and the shops would be probably close by the time i reach my hotel. i heard from my colleague that some musical actually have show timing at 7 plus pm. which is perfect for us. i also heard from her that i could get the tix from leicester square's half priced booth or something..***** true?? will i be able to get last min tix for any musical on that very day??*

22/01/2011
Saturday
(Day 2)
London
*we hope to slot in some sightseeing on this day. was thinking of visiting the london eye, big ben, london tower, and probably some museums/galleries thats famous and worth going...hopefully we will be able to finish these plc by noon and have some time for shopping...lol...*

23/01/2011
Sunday
(day 3)
London
*wish to slot in some shopping trips on this day. i heard that primark is cheap thr!!! may i know is thr any branch thats near marblearch station? and how abt H&M and Marks and Spencer??!!! i urgently need to refill my tidbits!!! lol...*

24/01/2011**
Monday
(day 4)
London
*as my hubbie will be working on this day, i am alone to spend this day...but i dun mind to continue my shopping trip thou.*

25/01/2011**
Tuesday
(day 5)
Flying off from London to Madrid
will be staying in Eurostars Madrid Tower
Paseo de la Castellana 259 B
Madrid; CP: 28046. Spain.
*i got totally no idea whr this plc is. and no one seems to have been to madrid before!!! is thr any plc that i can spend the rest of my 3 days in madrid?? i am like totallly lose thr!!!*

26/01/2011**
Wednesday
(day 6)
Madrid

27/01/2011**
thursday
(day7)
Madrid

28/01/2011**
Friday
(day 8 )
Madrid

29/01/2011
Saturday
(day 9)
Am flight from Madrid to Paris
*any recommandation for hotels in paris?? we will book our own hotels thr, however, we are not sure which area is central and good.*
we plan to slot in some sightseeing here, probably the effiel tower and all..*


30/01/2011
Sunday
(day 10)
Paris
*shopping day. is thr any premium outlet in paris? will be be cheaper to get LV, Gucci, Burberry and all in paris or London??*
31/1/2011
Monday
(day 11)
Paris
*sightseeing+ shopping trip*

01/01/2011
Tuesday
(day 12)
1115hr – fly from Paris back to Singapore

02/01/2011
Wednesday
(day13)
0615hr – reach Singapore Changi airport.

so sorry for the tones of questions!!! but i am really lost!! dun seem to be able to find much info online too.... TIA!!!
 

rtan

New Member
Hi Andrea,

"we hope to slot in some sightseeing on this day. was thinking of visiting the london eye, big ben, london tower, and probably some museums/galleries thats famous and worth going...hopefully we will be able to finish these plc by noon and have some time for shopping...lol..."

You want to visit all these places in half a day? You've gotta be kidding right? Why the big hurry, since you have time? Surely you don't just want to touch and go for each attraction? Just travelling around the metro and walking to those attractions would take you half a day. Now if you actually want to visit the attractions, of course that would take more time right? It would take you at least one or two days.

Not able to find much info online? Here are some websites to help you get the ball rolling. Do your own research and then come back with more questions. Everything you need is found there, including recommendations on what to see and do, so there's no point in us repeating ourselves and giving recommendations here.

http://www.tripadvisor.com/
http://www.virtualtourist.com/
http://www.wikitravel.org/

One last thing to consider is day trips out of the cities; Europe has much, much more to offer besides just the cities.

PS: Try to visit some off-the-beaten-track places as well, mix that in with the predictable touristy spots. You'll enjoy it a lot more.
 

rtan

New Member
Hi Andrea,

I realized you may not have a lot of time for the day trip, but if you can squeeze that in, it would give you something to see besides just the cities.

I suppose you know about the pickpockets (especially in Paris and Madrid) and what to do to protect yourself?
 

charray

New Member
Hi Lilostich 12, wonder if i can have a look at your itinery? Am planning a honeymoon for May next year and need somewhere to start... =) you can pm me... thanks!!
 

aimei28

New Member
Hi Lilostitch,

Hope you'll be able to see this post. If you do, wonder if you could send me your itinenary? You can PM me or reply to me here and I can give you my email address. Thanks.
 

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