European travel

The Lounge General Discussion
#21

Just a fellow Lithuanian chiming in. Don’t even try to take a train from Lithuania, as they are still aligning the rail to the European routes, so International travel is almost impossible. Take a plane out and later you can travel by train. :slight_smile:

If you are traveling in summer, even Lithuania has so much to offer and then you could allocate like 3-4 days per City. So say 4 days Lithuania, 3 days in Paris and then similar thing in Brussels, Amsterdam or wherever. We often do long weekend trips to various capitals of Europe and usually it’s enough to catch the vibe and see main spots.

They could be touristy, but they are for a reason, usually they are worth seeing :wink:

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#22

Bit obvious, but I’ve always had a really good time in Amsterdam, and I’m sure there are plenty of people on here that live there to give more insight, but I always found it so easy going, and the Dutch mega friendly (and laid back). Great people. :grinning:

An old (ish) but good insight from a music perspective:

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#23

It could be the name of the country.

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#24

Amsterdam is a hell hole full of drunk and drugged up tourists.

This is my opinion as a Dutch person. Nevertheless, tourists seem to like it.

Never ask a European for their opinion on their own nation’s capital. It will be uniformly negative.

That said, of the European capital cities, Paris is not the worst. It is very much a working city, where locals do their local things. If you know where to look (student areas are good, and for lunch search out places where office workers have theirs) it’ll be possible to escape your fellow tourists every now and then.

This is in stark contrast to some other places mentioned above. Both Lisbon and Prague are awful and completely given over to tourism (the bits where there are no tourists are absolutely not worth visiting unless you have business there).

Rouen, while really nice, is not devoid of tourists either. Basically tourists are just par for the course in any European city worth visiting, including, I’d imagine, Vilnius.

So, again, my recommendation would be to stick to Paris and Vilnius and maybe a day trip to Brussels (though Rouen would also be good) if you feel like you have exhausted Paris in that time - which would be impossible.

Anyway … whatever you end up doing: have fun!

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#25

Since coming up from Vilnius, you might want to stop in Berlin… One of my favourite EU cities. If you want to do some plane hopping I also recommend you visit the area around alps. Maybe I’m biased cause I’m from there originally, but Slovenia is very nice, historical, family friendly, and the capital Ljubljana is usually adored by anyone who visits. If you look at Ryanair flights, you will see the prices are pretty good, so for example if you travel to Trieste or Venice, you will be able to travel around a bit and see a large part of Alps, as well as Istira to experience some of the Croatian coastline. You can easily hop to Paris or mostly anywhere else from there.

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#26

As in most of the bigger cities/capitols, the fun is not in the city centre. Not in Prague, not in Lisbon, not in Amsterdam. I work in the city centre of Amsterdam, but when my shift ends, I am the first one fleeing the scene on my bike :grin:

Still, for me it’s a great city to live, not a hell hole. As a visitor, I always try to go where the locals are hanging out. That works out everytime.

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#27

As other said, within the time you have, Paris and lituania might be more than enough if you don’t want to spend all your vacations on the road.
Sure there’s a lot of nice little cities in France , but if it’s your first time here go for Paris. There’s a lot to see

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#28

“Amsterdam is a hell hole full of drunk and drugged up tourists.”

:rofl: I do sympathsise. I noticed the recent ad campaign trying to get the annoying British tourists to stay away. We’re not all like that :grinning:

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#29

If you are looking at 10-14 days I wouldn’t necessarily go to any other places.

A week or so in each place would give you a decent length of time to get to explore and see things, particularly if you want to travel outside the immediate area (Versailles, Fontainebleu, Chartres for example).

Obviously everyone likes travelling in different ways but I think it gets a bit dull or tiring just dropping into a city to say you’ve been.

That being said, if I was moving on from Paris I would probably go by Eurostar and then fly home from wherever you end up.

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#30

Europe is so different, if we compare

  • Portugal/Spain,
  • France,
  • Greece,
  • Italy,
  • Belgium/Netherlands/Luxemburg,
  • Switzerland/Austria/Germany,
  • Czech Republik/Slovekia/Poland,
  • Dänmark, Sweden, Norway,
  • Finnland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania …
  • and that’s not all :wink:

Just don’t try to see Paris in one day. Take time to focus and enjoy one or two places and don’t overlaod with impressions, which are so different. Even trying to see one of those countries in one week is IMO a demanding tour, which is only good to get a tourist-checklist done and show your friends.

IMO to enjoy and feel Paris, Lisbon, Barcelona, Rome, Amsterdam, Berlin, Stockholm even one week would be not enough to get most of the nice places packed in one schedule :wink:

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#31

10-14 days for two destinations in EU is not much. It’s even less if you consider the four travel days and different time zones: US - Paris - Lithuania - US.

I second the idea to spend a week in Paris / its surroundings and a week in Lithuania.
… or stay much longer in EU.

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#32

I would also recommend to take it slowly. Also, do not underestimate the jet lag when flying towards Europe (in my experience it is much worse than when flying the other way).

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#33

OP has indicated they’re not so interested in big cities, so this is mostly for the more general discussion.

I am more interested in big cities (though I appreciate the countryside), but there are many I don’t care for. If you do the package tour version of Paris (spend an hour in the Louvre, wait in line to go up the Eiffel Tower) you may wonder why you bothered. But real people live in Paris, quite a diversity of them. It is a compact, walkable city with a great Metro. Getting away from the top 10 sights (or seeing them at off-hours or, for the Tower, just by walking in the vicinity and adjacent park), you have a lot of interesting neighbourhoods to explore. Paris is populated enough to absorb its tourists and not be transformed by them (except for spots where the concentration gets sufficiently large). There are lots of good museums and galleries where you don’t have to line up. The food is great and so is the shopping if that’s your thing. You can get by in English (though learning a few tourist phrases and food words is always polite and effective). Too bad about the coffee, though. I bring my own.

I live in Lisbon (well, for only three months so far, but with long-term intensions) and enjoyed my visits here over the years, but I wouldn’t recommend it as a first European destination. (Barcelona, maybe, but one needs to do one’s research.) I’ve driven for a month in a big circle around central France, and again in central Italy. Those little quaint towns can be picturesque, but it’s not an unspoiled experience. The locals are not fools.

And for those saying Paris is dirty, crowded, and full of scams: have you never travelled outside Western Europe?

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#34

I haven’t visited the Baltic states, but I do know there’s plenty of “medieval stuff” to see to keep you busy for 14 days in the three Baltic states alone, and at a relaxed pace (an important consideration given you’ll have a 12 yo with you). Vilnius, Kaunas, Riga, Tallin and maybe take the boat to Helsinki, and picturesque villages and castles in the country. In the way of nature, in Lithuania there’s the huge sand dunes on the coast (The Curonian Spit). I’d really recommend going in June, July or at least late May, because in April it’s usually be pretty chilly in the Baltics.

Also in the Baltic region I’d highly recommend St Petersburg, a city I’ve spent a lot of time in (among Europe’s most impressive big cities in terms of architecture and museums), but for the foreseeable future getting a tourist visa may be near impossible for obvious reasons. It used to be possible to get a visa by booking a relatively cheap hostel or hotel for two nights.

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#35

In the current situation I would strongly advise against going to Russia. But I think that is not a serious option for the OP anyway.

It is just not safe there. Have seen lots of people returning since the start of the war, people who had built a life over there.

I am sure the US State Department thinks exactly the same.

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#36

In Lithuania: Vilnius, Trakai, Kaunas, Curonian Spit. Thats’s the usual itinerary for 3-5 days. Renting a private lodge somewhere near a lake is also popular and a kind of more authentic way to experience the local vibe (google: kaimo turizmo sodyba).

There are a few cool spots in Poland nearby tooo. Gdansk, Malbork, Olsztyn (home of Polyend), Święta Lipka, Hitler’s bunker, so called Wolf’s Lair.

Also, Riga (home of Erica Synths) in Latvia is nice, a few hours away too.

Tallinn and Helsinki is a bit further away, but still worth going there. There’s a few large interesting islands in Western Estonia also worth visiting.

Also, don’t underestimate Vilnius. The old town itself is quite big and it takes a few days to visit all the top spots.

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#37

Amsterdam native here! Europe is very diverse, and really can’t be summerized by stacking all the highlights in a couple of days. I agree with the suggestion to fully focus on a few places and forget about trying to see everything in 10 days.

I don’t love paris personally… even though it has a lot of great sights and things to do, to me it doesn’t have the laid back, relaxed vibe (‘gezelligheid’ as we call it in Dutch) which make some other European cities great places to just hang out without rushing from highlight to highlight. Paris is a busy metropole and feels like it.

I’d suggest both Rome and Amsterdam for a combination of amazing historic sights and museums, and a walkable, almost village-like vibe. As others said above, the city centres are often very crowded and can be too much, but just outside of the historic centres there’s great places to hang out.

In general: southern europe has better food, north/west is more progressive but more cold and expensive, the east is beautifull but more traditional (grossly stereotyping here as almost every country is unique).

Have fun whereever you end up!

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#38

I’m personally not a huge fan of Paris neither and would propose Marseille instead, an amazing place! Also Porto over Lisbon, having visited both.

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#39

If you like history I would highly recommend Rome… you’re literally waking on a museum :grin:

But like everyone else have said… 10-14 days is not a lot if you have already planned two different countries.

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#40

Maybe it’s because I’m a “small town boy” the size of a citiy doesn’t impress me, it’s more the other way around. Having been in metropols with 10 mio citizens around me, I can tell that those made me dizzy. But trying to get in touch with the life-style made it much better.

For Paris I would recommend, walk the streets, walk the banks of the Saine, walk the street up to Sacre Coeur (not the stairs), sit for an hour in one of those typical cafés and watch people, visit Galeries Lafayette etc. … try to become for a short time a parisien :wink:

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