F&E - Paris & Italy

thommy

New Member
lolz...wear a hat/cap jo?

this thread is very informative...will bookmark it in case I have $$$ to go Europe next time
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cuclainne

New Member
not superfamous, stansted is about 45mins away from central london if you take the direct train .. they're not known for being on time though - they said it's the express train but ended up stopping at almost every train station along the way to pick up the office crowd.

we went out of the station to get something to eat (we left stockholm at 4.30am) - when we came back to the tube, the gates were closed and there was a sign saying no trains running on this line due to some technical fault. had to pay 20GBP to get to our hotel near Earl's Court.

on that same trip, we took a budget flight to spend a few days with my friend in N. Ireland. The return flight was delayed for several hours and by the time we reached heathrow, it was close to midnight and our return flight to stockholm at stansted was at 8am!! the guy at the heathrow express counter was not very helpful and eventually told me that there is a bus leaving for stansted in FIVE mins and that it's the last one for the night. At that time it was already midnight - imagine me and the husband had to run to the bus terminal with our bags and barely made it. the bus from heathrow to stansted takes about 1.5 hours.
 

yomeishu

Member
joey, mid nov might be very cold for swiss mountain..lol, anyway, we went in may,and we went to 2 mountains Jungfrajoch and Schilthorn. mountain sure cold.. unless u dun go to mountain but u go to swiss must go to the mountains..lol

You can wear layering lor, like 1 sweater plus 1 big jacket, when l went up to the mountains l wear 3 layers plus scarf. Oh ya a quick sharing, l met "hui ge" in Jungfrajoch!! haha so coincidence.

Superfamous, 3 days in london issit too rush? Why not next time go to london separately then have a driving trip there, from there to york, to ireland, scotland..etc

if u have more days in italy u can go to Pompeii, the city was buried and rediscovered. quite interesting.
 

superfamous

New Member
cuclainne, uh oh... i'm afraid that might happen to us too, will spoil the entire trip
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if we do go london, will probably stay in the central part coz that's where we will spend most of our time..

qwerty, actually 3 days go anywhere seems v rushed, LOL. my hubby doesnt want to go scotland or ireland, so while i would love to drive around there, i dont think we will do that in the near future..
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joey04

New Member
Hi, as my aunt stay in London, we really wish to go and visit her since we have travelled all the way to Europe. Is it possible to include Paris, Italy and England in 19 days? Geographical wise, is it feasible? What do you all think?
 

cuclainne

New Member
not superfamous, all part and parcel of travelling ..

london is really expensive .. we were there for 3 days and then spent 4 days in belfast. my dad went ballistic when he found out we went to belfast (i sent a postcard) - he said it's so unsafe there, etc. but we were lucky cos we stayed with a friend of mine and her husband and they kept us away from the unsafe areas.

i want to go to scottish highlands - my husband said it's really beautiful there.
 

superfamous

New Member
cuclainne, my hubby has the same mentality as your dad too.. but we have friends in ireland and scotland so it would be nice to see them.

yeah bracing myself for all the flight delays, train strikes, small hotel rooms, etc. LOL.
 

pinkglove

New Member
cuclainne, Yes, the scottish highlands looks breath taking! I'm looking fwd to go there this June.. but im also very worried abt strikes and long flight delays... but it's inevitable and part of f&e trips ... btw, which stockholm airport did u go to that time, im prob gg to land at stockholm skavsta, have not checked if it's inaccessible..
 

cuclainne

New Member
pinkglove, my husband has been to scotland as a child but i've never been .. i fell in love with it all over again after watching this BBC drama, Monarch of the Glen. we hope to be able to visit the estate they used to film the series.

international flights land at arlanda airport - about 20mins away from the city centre if you take the arlanda express (train), 40mins if you go by bus.

i've been to skavsta before - when i flew budget to london (land at stansted). it's about 1.5 hours away by bus from the city terminal. the buses run following the flight departure and arrival times so if you miss your bus, then you'd have to wait a while. it's very expensive to take taxis in sweden.
 

sahdeau

Member
just checking...for those eurail pass...wat does it mean by 4 day in 2 month..?
abit lost..
and if we going paris and italy. should get those point to point pass or those country pass ah ??
 

superfamous

New Member
i calculated and point to point is cheaper for me rather than getting the pass. you can do the maths yourself from the trenitalia website. just key in the destinations to get an estimation of how much it will cost
 

sahdeau

Member
i was doing the calculation of days..
paris 4 day
venice 2 day
florence 3 days ( include 1 day pisa)
rome 3 days.
im left with abt 3-4 days..
should i cover more cities or should i go london too>?
 

superfamous

New Member
sahdeau, i'm going from may 8 to may 29 but not sure if its confirmed yet coz my hubby's NS reservist changed dates after we booked! so he's trying to defer. if cannot defer, we will probably have to change dates..

now i'm considering either london or naples/sorento.. but naples sounds scary, not sure if i wanna go there.

you can also consider cinque terre or milan, both in italy
 

pinkglove

New Member
sahdeau, I'll be there 3 - 20 June. hehe, when will u be in paris? i'll be in paris 3-5 and 18-20.. have u factored in the days when u reach there and rest, one day's gone? U may wanna check the timing of ur flights / trains, e.g,venice is it 2 full days etc...
 

sahdeau

Member
i will be at paris from 12-16 june
when we touch down will be 2:10 pm at paris
thinking can just walk ard shop shop...btw have u gals change $..
i really dunno how much should we bring..
it;s like so much heard.
then wondering if should bring cash there? how much do u gals plan to change for france and italy if let say all branded is bot using CC??
have u gals book lodging..
thinking if i should book ibis for paris ..
 

sahdeau

Member
pinkglove... i just saw ur thread..that u r going there for photoshoot? can provide me with more details..maybe more pple cheaper
 

superfamous

New Member
ive changed just a little bit (S$1k only, LOL) since the exchange rate is quite good.. not sure how much to bring, will just prob change a little here and there and just keep first..

in addition to the cash i am changing, i will bring along CC (charge hotels and major expenses to it) and debit card to withdraw cash over there in case i didnt bring enough cash.


do you think euros 100 per day for 2 people is enough for meals? sounds more than comfortable right? also need to factor in transport and all the museum fees..
 

pinkglove

New Member
not superfamous, great tat u've made up ur mind! it's actually a very good idea to go london now cos pounds are low..
sahdeau, if u are keen, i can PM u more details for the PS? I think ur period of travel is just nice for the PG if u r keen because he would have finished our shot.
 

superfamous

New Member
yeah it was between sorrento/capri/naples or london so we decided on london instead. will prob just make a day trip to naples/pompeii if we have the time in rome
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now i just need to figure out what are the must see sights and where to stay in london!
 

thommy

New Member
good choice Jo, sterling pounds is very low now, best time to go
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Heard Harrods is shiok for shopping...hahaha
 

superfamous

New Member
is it really v low? i thought it was lower last yr? :p

what's the rate like?

aiyoh now i have to watch both euros and pounds LOL
 

thommy

New Member
it has gone up a bit over the past 2 weeks but still low as compared to few yrs ago when it easily hit 3.15 or more

today is ard 2.29 but come ur HM time, dunno whether will go higher haha
 

sahdeau

Member
i dunno...
thinking of changing now..since rate is pretty good..
wat do u gals think..
i heard shopping is best done at london compare to paris
 

cuclainne

New Member
i went to london when one pound was equivalent to 3.30sgd. it was so expensive - they charged me 1.5GBP for chopped chillies at a chinese restaurant .. but yes, a lot of shopping to be done. places like top shop, next, etc. if you intend on buying chanel or lv, paris is still the best place to buy.
 

pinkglove

New Member
yes, agree.. LV n chanel's still best in Paris. I had e rate of 3.1 last time too.. really a great difference.. euros just dropped a bit this week, slightly below 2, which's quite good cos it has remained strongly for quite some time.
 

sahdeau

Member
i was looking at the train passes,,,it seems not worth it lei..
if let say i go from paris-venice-florence-pisa-florence-rome.. it's cheaper using the normal tickets..
any idea how the train passes can be cheaper, and did u gals book the tickets or plan to book tic online...using singapore website.?
what are the things that is BESt book or pay in singapore
 

pinkglove

New Member
When I went travelling around Italy from venice - florence - pisa - back to venice, I purchased their normal train pass tickets when I was there, no prior booking & I didn't do extensive travelling ard Italy. I flew from Paris to venice for $40 only. so I guess if u wanna use eurail, there's gotta be many long distance travelling to make it worth?
 

pinjie8275

New Member
Hi Qwerty

Thanks for your mail! I just came back from Guangzhou. It's a terrible city!

For my Europe trip, we will drop out Amsterdam. Doing Rome/Florence/Venice - Bern/Interlaken - Brussel/Bruges - Paris. We are not 'art' people too hence would probably just view the museums from the outside. hehehe.... My 16days exclude the flying time hence should have sufficient time to explore.

I have done some calulation on the train fare and it seems that the 14D Global pass is much cheaper than the 3-Country pass for us... Point to point tickets within Italy is much cheaper than using pass but u lack the flexibility of last minute change plan. I think the pass is only worth is u r travelling between inter-country. However, if u wan to get the cheapest train fare, u would have to purchase early bird tickets with lotsa restrictions.
 

bbs

New Member
hi guys,

am so glad to have stumbled upon this thread, am planning for my HM to london/paris/italy too end of may-early june, just started planning my itinery, and am looking into the best way to travel around (fly/train), wanted to ask for some advice on travelling by rail within italy (venice-florence-rome)and possibly milan too.
 

superfamous

New Member
hi all, just an update, i booked all my hotels except for rome already. phew, big hole in the pocket already!

still not sure where to stay in rome! i think we kinda overspent with the hotels so need to look for cheaper options in rome already :p

i also need to book my budget flight and eurostar next & decide whether to buy museum passes, etc.

Elisa_C, you can try booking the trains on the trenitalia homepage but its rather problematic coz they do not accept international credit cards, you can always try but no gurantee. its cheaper to book ahead of time but if thats not possible, you can buy when you in italy itself. this website is quite informative: http://www.seat61.com/Italy-trains.htm#How to use Trenitalia.com

you can calculate yourself whether its cheaper to buy a rail pass or to buy point to point coz the fares and timings are all listed on the website. do check your timings nearer to the date coz they might change the schedule.
 

pinkglove

New Member
That's very fast, not superfamous! I haven even bought my air tickets.. haha..

Where're u booking for Paris? I also need to book 2 nights for Paris..Am still thinking if I wanna stay in e same hotel.
 

sahdeau

Member
u r super fast....
can u share ur accomodation detail n cost with me..

u book thru the hotel website itself?
and train tix ..u book thru where?
 

bbs

New Member
thanks superfamous! is it possible to share your accomodation details with me as well?

Currently m planning my route to be flying into london-rome-venice-milan-paris-then back to london as we will be flying out from there. AM thinking of flying from london to rome then using train travel all the way within italy and to paris. I've read on the internet that its better to buy tickets for travel within italy 1-2 days in advance at the train stations for point to point travel, do you guys have any advice on that? thanks
 

superfamous

New Member
pinkglove, must act fast otherwise i'm afraid the prices will go up and rooms will run out. already one of the hotels i was eyeing dont have rooms available already.. the good thing is alot have early bird discounts (of course its non-refundable..)

i booked castille paris on rue cambon
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its part of the starhotels chain. about 230 euros per night. the hubby is kinda particular about hotels so i had to spend more.. u can check out grand hotel st michel (latin quarter w nice rooms) or hotel bonaparte (rue bonaparte, v gd location but not so nice rooms, about 134-164 euros per night) too
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or try hotwire.com for le meridien etoile.

sahdeau, i booked through hotels.com and justonehotel.com. below is the per night cost. as mentioned above, my hubby is particular about hotels so i had no choice to spend abit more. plus, i am particular about location too (but i can put up with not so ideal rooms, LOL). you can definitely find cheaper hotels than those i have choosen.

Paris - Starhotels Castille € 229.49
London - Manderville Hotel £148.00
Rome
Florence - Grand Hotel Minerva € 223.99
Venice - Best Western Hotel Montecarlo € 188.03
Milan - Starhotels Anderson € 130.05

train, i am gonna try the trenitalia website to see if its successful, otherwise will just buy when i am over there. i have friends in UK, might just ask them to book for me, if possible. am trying to settle the other stuff first
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superfamous

New Member
Elisa C, can refer to my post above for hotels
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your plan sounds good.. maybe you can try flying from milan to paris instead of taking a train?

yes correct buy the train tickets a few days in advance if possible. i intend to departure ticket on the first day i arrive in the city if i dont manage to book online.
 

superfamous

New Member
oh, if anyone intends to stay in paris for more than 5 nights to a week, can consider renting an apartment. they look more comfortable and are bigger than hotels in the same price range.

i was eyeing a couple on ile st louis but they required min 7 days stay during high season (quite unflexible on that policy) and i would not be in paris for that long. and they're quite popular, alot of those i was eyeing are all booked!

http://www.vacationinparis.com
http://www.parisforrent.com
http://www.guestapartment.com
 

pinjie8275

New Member
Airfare is moving up almost every 2 weeks... Last week I chacked Emirates is $2300+ per couple. This week the price raise to $2500+ per couple. =(

SQ already reached the capped at $3800 per couple.
 

superfamous

New Member
Thomas, thanks.. i changed the past 2 weeks liao. euro once at 2 and once at 1.9something.

how much do you girls budget for a day? i'm wondering if 100 euros for 2 people for transport and food is adequate? how about in london too? not sure how much to change
 

pinjie8275

New Member
I dun think $100Euro per day for 2 is enough. I am budgeting E$20/pax/meal. And also depending the nos of trains u taking. Entrance fee to place of interests are also very expensive leh... Probably E100/pax/day.
 

pinjie8275

New Member
Hi superfamous, just noted that you are travelling on the may 8 to may 29. My date is 1 April - 17 April. Hence got a bit time to share with u my experience when i am back... hehehe.... =)
 


superfamous

New Member
pin&jie, not gonna include the attractions into that 100 euros, not including transport in between cities in that either.. just the transportation for in the city itself, in between attractions
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yes, pls do share your experience when you r back! how much are you changing?

btw, which cities are you heading to?
 

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