Sammi and Mona europe trip summer 2010!!!

omg…all of my comments have been deleted!!! im so sad!!!! this is our updated version of what Mona and I want to do in europe and egypt…please add ur input, thanx so much and all the comments i had are saved in my email…so all of you input has not been lost! and can someone please tell me what (NaN) means on the scheduled day??? im so confused!
thanks so much
-sammi and mona

oh i was also going to say that Mona and I have gotten connected to a travel agent and are hoping to get the best deals for hotels and airfair….wish us luck on this pain in the butt planning…if any of guys have suggestions on what to see in the places were going feel free to drop a comment of send an email at
whitesamantha99@yahoo.com
thanks for everything and take care all my fellow eurotrippers!!
-sammi and mona

I am glad to help! Here are the places I have been to in Italy: Rome, Florence, Assisi, Pisa, Venice, Verona, Lake Garda.
First off you should know that gondola rides in Venice are one-of-a-kind but expensive. I think the rides were in the low-20s in Euro. However, the gondolier takes you through the Grand Canal and the ride lasts somewhere between 30-40 minutes, so it is well worth it and you should take advantage of it (also the gondolier sings and dances for you, no charge!). But he did charge us per person, but I’m not sure if that’s how it goes or if I got ripped off.
Money management in Italy is difficult if you plan to go to the “hot spots” in terms of tourism. Places like Rome and especially Venice have shopping items well over what you would expect them to be, but once in a blue moon you need to go on a little splurge. In the big cities personal pizzas went anywhere between 7-10 Euro and single slices were 2-3 Euro. It is important that you monitor your money and think like a smart shopper.
I believe it is very courteous to know the basics of the Italian language, it can go a long way. Before I went on my trip I had been studying Italian for three years (still am today) and I am so glad I used it to speak to the locals. Learning how to ask for directions or ordering in a restaurant will make the natives very pleased and you yourselves will feel a sense of accomplishment. I remember I was in Florence at a restaurant ordering a pizza in Italian and somehow I had impressed the waiter so much that he exclaimed, “Il tuo italiano è perfetto!” (“Your Italian is perfect!”). Point is: learn beginner’s or intermediate Italian, they will appreciate it.
If you are considering to go on day trips to any of the above cities I have listed, please don’t hesitate to ask me about them. Good luck!

thank you so much….we would love to know stuff about florence and how much does it cost for stuff in venice because i really want to buy a traditional venetian mask…i dont want to spend over 50 euros(preferably) what can you bring back from italy because i know i really want to buy wine and pasta…but im not sure about vacum packed salami or other stuff. we would also like to pick your brain about any other places you have been to in europe that would be amazing!! thanks so much for helping us out Mona and I really appreciate it!
-sammi and mona

packer said this: just so i dont have to go back to my email it will be easily located on here!!!

“Sammi and Mona,
I am very impressed that you are planning this far in advance. I have been
running train tours through Europe from Los Angeles for young adults for over
13 years. I see your trip as a mix match of routes and cities. You are
waisting so much time by backtracking. Are you stuck to flying into Munich?
Have you thought about flying an open-jaw flight to save time and money?
Fly LAX to Dublin
Fly Dublin to London via low cost airline to save time.
London to Paris via “Eurostar High Speed Train” about $65.00 – $85.00
if bought in advance. Train goes under the English Channel and travels from
London to Paris in 2hrs. 25 mins.
Train all over Europe using a Eurailpass and end in Italy.
Take Ferry from Italy to Greece or Fly from Rome to Athens.
Fly home from Athens via any city in Europe, like Rome or even Dublin.
I also noticed that Bern was not on your updated list. WHY ZURICH? *************************
Here is my suggestion;
Make a “Master Trip Notebook” with dividers for Map of Route and list
“MUST SEE” cities, Air Flight, Train Travel, One tab for each city you
want to visit.
Sit down with your travel mate and make a list of what are your “MUST
SEE” cities like Paris and what places in Italy. Do it seperately and than
look at them together.
Research those cities and read over all the sites and make a list of your
“Must See” sites/museums and prices in each city that both of you agree
on or will you have a “FREE DAY” so each of you can go your own way and
see the museums that you want to see?
Paris: Check hours and days Museums are closed. **************
This is just a sample and does not include all the sites.
Eiffel Tower Elevator to Top 13.00 Euros. Picnic on the lawn before going up
the tower.
Arc de Triomphe – free to view. Cost to climb the stairs to the top.
Notre Dame – Free to enter church. Cost to climb the stairs to the top. ***************
Do these 3 sites together. They are located next to each other.
You can see all 3 places in less than 3 hours. If you have nice weather, take
a picnic lunch and sit on the hillside lawn in front of Sacre Coeur and enjoy
the view and people watch.
Sacre Coeur – Free to enter church. Cost to climb the stairs to the top.
Montmartre Art District next to Sacre Coeur. Free to walk around touristy
neighborhood.
Moulin Rouge – Free to stand across street and take pictures. Over 100.00
Euros to see a tacky vegas style show. ***************
Seine River Cruise 11.00 Euros. Day or night.
Musee du Louvre – Closed on ??? 9.00 Euros.
Wed & Friday, open till 9:45pm. After 6pm on Wed & Fri, 6.00 Euros.
Musee d’Orsay
Centre Pompidou
Musee Rodin
Napoleon’s Tomb and Invalides Museums
Musee Picasso
Musee de Cluny
Like any big city, there are so many smaller museums that do not get any
exposure in tour guide books. Go to Paris web sites for a full list and see
what interests you. *******************
Many cities have FREE walking tours. You tip whatever you want at the end. A
great way to see and learn about the city and you pay what you can afford.
Walking Tours, Bike Tours, Hop-On / Hop-Off bus tours, ******************
Day trips from Paris;
Versailles, Fontainebleau, Chartres, Giverny, Disneyland Paris ****************
By doing this list, you can plan what you are going to do for 6 days! ***************
Have you broken down each train trip to see your travel time between cities?
This will show you how much time you actually have to see anything in each
city.

Your schedule:
munich, germany arrive
Munich to Vienna is estimated train is 4hrs.+ (NO changes)
vienna, austria 2days
Vienna to Insbruck is estimated train is 4hrs. 50 mins. (NO changes)
insbrook, austria 1 day(this is a maybe we might put this day on switzerland
or vienna)

liechteinstein 1 day

zurich, switzerland 2days

venice, italy 2days Venice can be done in one day.

rome, italy 3days

amalfi, italy 1day
How are you getting from Amalfi Coast to Athens

athens, greece 1 day
What is your estimated arrival time.

How are you getting to the island of Santorini?
What is your estimated departure time and how do you get to the port for a
ferry (2 ports in Athens) or airport for a flight. What is your duration time
of ferry or flight?

santorini, greece 3days
How are you getting from Santorini to paris?

paris, france 6days

london, england 3days

dublin, ireland 2days
How are you getting from Dublin to Amsterdam? That is a long distance.

amsterdam 1 day

bruge, belgium 1 day
Bruge to Munich is a long distance. approx 8 hours inc. transfers.

munich, germany depart

As you can see, your trip needs a bunch of work to fine tune your plan.
If you need any help, feel free to e-mail me at buzzs@att.net [1]

[1] mailto:buzzs@att.net”

thank you so much pack for this advice…we still need to revise our up to date list we are not heading to cairo…too much money and instead we are fly home from another airport near southern italy or greece……thanks to all who have had wonderful advice…keep it coming lol
thanks a million
-sammi and mona

Greece is amazing but Athens is horrible….Go to the islands like Santorini or Mykonos or stay in Corfu which is spectacular!

The vendetta over Athens continues.

You have way too many destinations. I would scrap Vaduz, Zurich, and Cairo in the interest of spending more time in other places. You could also skip amalfi and see Cinque Terre as a day trip from Florence. You can’t do everything and your destinations are very spread out!

wow i have never heard anything bad about athens before…umm i think ill get some other opinions before i scrap it completley.
tigrouflip:
austria, switz, and liech are family places cant skip those and we have decided not to go to cairo. so cairo is off but everything else is still on.
we are going to have a few tweeks to things but for the most part everything is the same. although amalfi is not a full day its like a stop before our port at bari…for the paper of course lol
in some time ill finalize everything on here..we just working with our agent and she is moving stuff around…and i posted this before we talked to the lady and now she wants to change stuff so im sorry for the confusion on some stuff.

does anybody know how to change dates and stuff on here without scrapping the whole trip??? i have to adjust stuff and its gives me error messages and stuff…its really frusterating.
things have changed, such as dates, destinations, and directions lol so i need to change those to get help from you all.

ill just make another list as a comment and then you all can pick it apart lol
when i talk to mona we will make a semi final list and post it

I’m not much help with the changing dates. I’ll have to agree with the other posts I’ve seen about you going trying to do WAY too much.

In 28 days, I’d consider 4-5 countries. The question you need to ask yourself is why do the amount of countries matter? Do you want to come back and tell how many you went to? That’s pretty expensive for bragging rights.

This won’t be your only trip to Europe so take your time and check it out by regions. The idea is to see the sites and meet people.

I’d also get rid of the travel agent. You will not get the best deals. Go to a website like travelocity and get your own tickets. Use this site to find hostels and book them yourselves.

No we are not trying to go to a ton of places for bragging rights or anything like that. I have school, and as most people know college is not cheap. This summer i will have the funds and the time to see as many places as possible. Also Mona has a packed schedule too she will be starting school shortly. Were doing like a tour around europe…and in several “tour books” they do more than we are doing in like 25 days. Also like i said we have to make the final decision on where were going but honestly i dont think its that many countries. Ireland, England, France, Italy, and even in those places were mostly just going to one city except for Italy, then switz, austria, and liech are family which dont really count because were not trying to soak up the culture in the few days were there. and then just a few days in greece. were probably not going to amsterdam or belgium…but if time allows we will. we have taken several peoples advice and were not going to jam pack our schedules…we are just going to see a few must see things then linger around the city and experience the culture. Were going for a vacation but we are also going to film a movie so our trip will be documented and we wont forget any of the wonderful things we saw. I would really like to thank all the people who have given us great advice and those who will in the future. So with all that said if you guys look at the cities were visiting can you share with us the places and must see things we should do??
thanks again

Liechtenstein is just a place to go for bragging rights. It’s a country in name only…it’s really just a small town with a castle on the hill. You could easily skip it.

liechtenstein is where Mona’s family lives thats why were going there….as well as switzerland and austria.

You look different.

yeah thats an updated picture of mona and me. I am on the left and she is on the right…in the other pic she was in the hat and i was wearing glasses.