KAtravelove

Hi, I am new to this forum! My husband and I are planning our anniversary trip(20years), to France and Spain for a month from the beginning of may 2015.
We don't have our tickets yet and the lowest fare so far is about $1,200.00. Not sure what is a good deal to Paris? I have several questions:
-Do you recommend flying in and out of Paris or would it be better to fly into paris and out of a city in Spain?
-We wanted to to try and be a little spontaneous and book a couple places through Airnb or Verbo but then just book places as we go so we have more flexibility.
-We love smaller towns, quaint villages, good food, hiking in the mountains. So any suggestions for must see places would be greatly appreciated!
-We are thinking of renting a car and driving or doing a combination of public trans and driving? Good idea? We like the flexibility of driving.
-Any good travel books?
Any other suggestions, we haven't booked anything yet. Just starting to research and is a little overwhelming as there is SO much to do and see in these countries Thank you!

milepig

Welcome to FT!

Over on the right-hand side of the top bar you'll see a link to "destinations" and a good place to begin would be to browse the forums for France and Spain. I'd begin by doing some searching and browsing before asking a very general question, as it has likely been asked and answered several times in the past.

In terms of your flights, I would very much recommend pricing out what we call "open jaw" tickets, this is arriving in one destination and returning from another. They often cost no more and save the time involved in circling back to your arrival city. I'd look at flying into Paris but also price Amsterdam and Brussels, since they're both worth a bit of time and Paris is easy to get to from either of them. You could then return from either Madrid or Barcelona. You can make the rest of the journey by train or rental car, or if you're in a rush and the price is right just buy a separate plane ticket. The hops in Europe are short, so most low-cost airlines are perfectly doable for the short flight times.

I always book a hotel for the first night(s) so I know I'll have something but if you want to be flexible you can certainly plan a few days out during your trip. You can also book cancellable hotel rooms since if your plans change you can normally cancel up to 24 hours beforehand, just be sure to read the restrictions before you book.

Tchiowa

Be spontaneous. Get a Eurrail pass. That's a train pass where you can prepay it in the US and select x days out of y days (something like 10 days out of 30) and that means the tickets are valid for 30 days and you can use them for 10 trips. Anywhere you want to go. You see something cool in Paris and it references a museum in Venice, hop on the train to Venice. You can find hotels or cheap lodging at the train stations throughout Europe. So when you arrive in Venice, go to the hotel desk and they'll find you a place to stay.

Personal suggestion: Take the train to Algeceiras, Spain. There is a ferry that takes you across the Med to Morocco. Rent a car and go to Fez. That's one of my 5 places everyone has to see.

Last time I did that, the ferry was included in the cost of the Eurrail pass. And they do the immigration paperwork on the ferry so when you land you can head out immediately.

KAtravelove

Thank you for the tips, I will check out the destinations tab. I am going to look into Amsterdam or Brussells as well for departing cities. Once I do a little more research I will have more specific questions . Thank you!

KAtravelove

Sorry, I'm so new to this I think I posted your reply on the second post! Anyway thank you for the tips, Im sure I will have more questions later!

obscure2k

Please continue to follow this thread in the FT Europe Forum.
Thanks..
Obscure2k
TravelBuzz Moderator

Koby

But if you'd like to that, first check the European Rail Travel forum here on FT. France and Spain are 2 countries for which rail passes give you poor value for money since most long distance trains are high-speed trains which require a supplement (and I think they even limit the number of pass holders on some/most/all trains - please check first).

deniah

IF you are not doing an open-jaw flight, i remember that US-Madrid flights are often better priced than US-Paris.

There's not a small quaint town in Spain or France that's not to like. Personally I have a preference for the one more westward, since IMO the food is the better, the prices are better, and the atmosphere just seems more relaxed.

In the NW Spain area Santiago de Compostela is a beautiful town...there is A Coruna , Vigo, Melide nearby...

NE in the basque region Bilbao is spectacular in its modern architecture, and San Sebastian is beautiful being by the water. Some of the best eating in the world there. And its conveniently near the French border to hit beautiful upscale Biarritz. Wind your way up to Bordeaux if youre into wine....


...tons of options. cant go wrong

PitaPan

Last year in April, we did a similar adventure and it was wonderful! We flew to Doha from Hong Kong and, then on to Madrid. We then trained to Barcelona, and then on to Bordeaux, finally finishing in Paris (spending a few days in each city). Highlight was definitely Madrid for me though--the food was unbelievably delicious. I had honestly never really had an interest in Spain before that trip, and Madrid completely turned me around.

Trains are frequent, and not too expensive, so you can pretty much get anywhere easily.