I have a ridiculous desire to travel through Europe. I blame it on Mary-Kate and Ashely Olsen. When I was a young and very impressionable teenager I loved watching the Mary-Kate and Ashley movies. Do you remember those? Titles like Passport to Paris, Winning London and When in Rome? Do you notice a theme to these popular titles? All three of them have the name of an extremely popular city in Europe. After watching those movies as a young teen I have been dreaming about the day when I would get to go. Two and a half years ago I wrote this very similar post day dreaming about a European vacation. Well I am excited to report that I am actually going!!!
I have spent the school year babysitting after school 3 nights a week to earn enough money to fund the better part of our vacation. We will be buying our plane tickets this weekend and then I will be in official crazy excited vacation planning mode.
We plan to leave on June 20th (my last day of school.) We will fly to Rome, spend 3 days there, fly to Venice spend 2 days there, then fly to London and spend 5 days there. Then Mike will come back to the united states and I will fly to Paris. There I will stay with my Aunt, Uncle and Cousin who live just outside of Paris for about a week. I am really excited about my bonus week with my Aunt. I haven't seen her in ages and I don't even think I have met my little 4 or 5 year old cousin. That will be a lot of fun to spend time with them and just relax with no intense travel agenda. To walk to the local markets and park and get a feel for what it would be like to actually live in France... oh I can't wait!!
Here is where I NEED YOUR HELP! Please tell me everything I need to know about traveling to these places. Hotels, restaurants, shuttle services from airports to hotels, things to do, do you buy the city pass or just pay per sight you go? Do you do an organized guided tour or do you try to go to all those places on your own? What is the best website to buy tickets to shows like Les Miserable in London? I can think of several of you who have visited Europe and these cities especially. I have read all your posts and looks over all the pictures and I want to know how you decided what things to do, what things to skip. All of it! I want as much impute as possible. I would be so grateful for any help that you have to offer.
(London)
(Paris)
(Rome)
(Venice)
I don't think June 20th will come fast enough. I think my 25th birthday will undoubtably be one I will never forget!
Sounds fabulous!!
ReplyDeleteI've been to Rome, Florence, Lucerne, Bern, Paris and London. When I was 17 so I'm not much help with planning, but I loved all of them! We went with Uncle Duane's school group. He has been many times so call and chat with him (or e-mail) about local hidden gems, especially in Paris.
Italy was my favorite, I loved Florence. Switzerland my second favorite. All so beautiful, unique and fun!
I'm super jealous you get to go!
Hopefully I'll be planning a trip to Europe soon with how successful Paparazzi has been for me! If I can get someone to watch my kids for 2 weeks, lol!
P.S. You should do Paparazzi, I'm telling you it's very profitable! I have a very well off friend in CT (she has a room for her Coach purses and Manolo Blahnik shoes etc) that is a consultant and is very successful! It's definitely something to consider!
Kristin- my honest suggestion would be to slim down the list of cities and focus on one or two countries. When McKay and I went to England last summer we spent 5 days in London alone. Then four days in the countryside. It was amazing, and I would have felt so rushed if I would have only had two days. Seriously, there is so much to see in these places! But that is my style, I would rather dig deep and spend more time in one place than skim the surface.
ReplyDeleteAHHH I am so jealous! I love all of these places, especially Rome. Oh Rome. It will forever hold my heart. There is so much here that you CANNOT miss out on...so let me fill you in. You have GOT to see all the major tourist sites. Seriously, amazing. If possible, get a tour of the Colosseum-amazing history that you wouldn't know about if you just went on your own. Not sure what the price is for that though. Then you gotta see the Forum since you're right in that area already. Beautiful. My two favorite areas though were the Plaza de Nova and the Vatican. So with the Plaza de Nova there is so much there to see. For an art major and lover its amazing. A fountain of Bernini's is there and it's amazing. If you've seen Angels and Demons, it's the fountain that's towards the end of the movie. If you go see the Pantheon there is an AMAZING gelato place right there that you have to go to. I went to a few different ones, and although all of them were delicious, that one was by far the best. You have to get pizza there too. So good!! With the Vatican you have to go and see everything. It's breathtaking. Do the climb to the top too! So cool.
ReplyDeleteOk sorry I wrote you a novel...but seriously do everything everywhere. Europe is amazing. I love it and I can't wait to take my husband back. Question though...did you guys get any good deals on flights??