College Student Traveling Dublin, London, Paris, Berlin, Prague, and Athens
I've set my travel plans for two weeks (Aug. 23rd-Sept. 6) before spending a semester in Athens, Greece; beginning in Dublin, taking RyanAir to London, the Eurostar to Paris, AirBerlin to Berlin, train to Prague, and a flight to Athens before my semester begins. I'll be spending 2 nights in Dublin, 3 in London, 3 in Paris, 2 in Berlin, and 3 in Prague.
A couple quick questions:
1. An ealier thread recommended taking SkyEurope from Prague to Athens which was great at the time and cheap; however, the airliner has recently filed bankruptcy, despite continuing airfare, and I've yet to find any positive reviews on the airline in the past 6 months. Any other suggestions on getting from Prague to Athens for under 250 Euro?
2. I want to see the big "touristy" attractions (Eifel Tower, Guinness Brewery, British Museum, etc.) But am more so interested in the smaller things that aren't so mainstream - for example, I recently traveled to Italy and while the local bars were fun and loaded with Americans, I found a small bar underneath a restaurant with a local musician who played beautiful Italian music all night. In other words, I'm looking for something that will give me more a feel of life in those countries rather than a perception of life to an American (I know, hard to do in big tourist cities). Wikitravel has been a big help but I guess I'd like some input on local restaurants and places of attraction to go see - not so much clubs where I can find 100's of American college students doing the same thing I am but maybe a local bar with a live local musician playing, that sort of thing. Also, any sort of attraction or place thats just a neat part of any of those cities but not so well known would be gladly recieved.
As for Athens, I'm not so concerned about getting suggestions about the city yet, I'll have plenty of time to spend there and am planning plenty of excursions throughout the rest of the semester - Rome for example(I'll ask about that some other time).
Tips, Hints, and Sugesstions are what I'm looking for from "don't use this bathroom" to "go see this fountain" - Thanks in advance!
Any other suggestions on getting from Prague to Athens for under 250 Euro?
Buy a return fare on CSA and throw away the second leg. Won't be much less than 250 Euros, but it shouldn't be more expensive, either. If you want to be more adventurous, find a cheap way of getting yourself to MUC and fly Aegean for 120 or so.
As for the suggestions about what to do in each city, have a look at any one of about 43294235836 threads that will cover the basics, then come back to ask about anything more specific that you want to know.
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Is Dublin going to be your first stop? Will you be arriving there with all the "stuff" that you're going to need for your semester in Athens?
If so then you probably don't want to fly Ryanair...
Another comment is that it seems to me that you're trying to pack a lot into a relatively short period of time, especially when you consider the time spent travelling. You may want to leave one of those towns for later.
I agree very much with Aviatrix. Very cramped schedule, hardly enough time to do the main tourist attractions let alone the meddling in with local atmosphere you'd like to do. My suggestions would be to drop Dublin and drop Prague for now. Go to London immediately (flights might be even cheaper than going to Dublin and you safe on the connection flight). Then Eurostar to Paris and a flight to Berlin. Then Berlin to Athens. Spend four full days in each of the cities. The rest is for traveling. You will have seen the three most important European cities (sorry to all the others).
Then do an Ireland/England/Scotland trip some other time. And a Prague/Budapest/Istanbul trip on yet another occasion. This makes much more sense in terms of travel efficiency in time and money as well as cultural exposure you get.
also, you'll probably have time to travel while studying abroad. I'm sure there will be some days off of school where you can have an extended weekend. And also, you can plan to travel after you finish your semester when you've met and made friends with people in your program who come from other parts of Europe, and they can truly show you there town.
also, you'll probably have time to travel while studying abroad. I'm sure there will be some days off of school where you can have an extended weekend. And also, you can plan to travel after you finish your semester when you've met and made friends with people in your program who come from other parts of Europe, and they can truly show you there town.
Well, yes, but do note that travelling from Greece to Central Europe and beyond isn't that cheap- there are very few low-cost flights, and they normally aren't very cheap anyway- for example, it is not unusual to see Easyjet tickets priced higher than BA (and sometimes even C-class on BA) on the ATH/SKG-LON route.
Generally the cost of living in Greece is a huge farce. Up there with the highest in the world, for no apparent reason...
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Forget SkyEurope. It probably won't be flying next month. I barely made it out of Slovakia this week before the CEO resigned. Try Wizz Air. They fly Prague to Thessaloniki.
If you can arrange your itinerary to go to Athens from Berlin, London, or Paris, you could take Aegean (a good airline in my experience) to Athens. Their web site fares vary frequently and drastically, so you have to keep checking, but you may be able to get a fare cheap enough that the savings would justify rearranging your itinerary.
(Aegean's pricing seems usually to be on a per-segment basis so you don't have to buy an outrageously expensive one way ticket -- one reason I like them.)
Another suggestion: see if your transatlantic carrier (I assume you're flying from North America) has an alliance European air pass. Usually (not always) you have to use these on at least three segments, but they often work out to being cheap on a per-segment basis, and you might be able to use one for your whole itinerary.
Last edited by Cha-cha-cha; Jul 4, 09 at 10:53 am.
I second using Aegean - first class service for a LCC price including seat allocation, 20 kg baggage and a HOT MEAL!!! They fly from London Stansted and Stuttgart amongst other places, and are a really civilised way to travel.
