Planning a Short Vacation in Europe

May 11, 2009 7:13 AM

Any tips or advice on planning a week or two vacation/layover in Europe on my way to the United States from Israel?

I'll be finishing up a year abroad in Israel and flying back to the United States sometime between June 5th and June 15th and I would like to fly into Europe, hang around for a week or two and then continue on to Los Angeles. The only country that I definitely want to see is Italy so I was planning to fly from Israel to Rome and then on to Los Angeles from Rome.

My questions include:

1) Is it best to do this as part of a single itinerary or break it up? My plan was to try to fly Delta, but do airlines allow you to book your flights as some sort of package deal, or is it better to just buy the flights separately? Is there any reason to do both legs through the same airline, or does it not matter?

2) Will basically all European airports have some sort of lockers that I can use for short term storage of my bags? Are these all reasonably secure? I won't have anything expensive with me that I'm leaving behind, it would just be a pain if someone stole all my clothes.

3) Has swine flu caused any impacts on international travel in Europe? Is there anything extra I should be doing while traveling? Is there any problem with coming from a country (Israel) that has citizens diagnosed with swine flu?

4) Beyond booking a flight and a place to stay for the first couple of nights, is it possible to wing it once I'm there. My inclination is to decide what cities I want to see and where I'm going to stay a day or two in advance, but I was hoping to stay at cheap hostels, and I just wanted to make sure they all wouldn't likely be full during late June and early July.

5) I will be landing without a working phone and I would like to get a cell phone while I am there. Do most airports have a place where you can buy a pay-as-you-go phone? I have an old cell phone I can bring, so I might be able to get by just buying a SIM chip, if that is a possibility.

Thanks so much.

posted by andoatnp to travel & transportation (11 comments total)

Oh, and I saw this thread, "advice wanted for 10-12 day trip to Italy" which is also full of good advice.
posted by andoatnp at 7:22 AM on May 11

General tip - "Europe" is a pretty big place - if you're only here for one or two weeks, pick one (maximum two) countries and spend a decent amount of time in each place. There's nothing worse than sprinting around between countries. Perhaps Italy and maybe the South of France for you?

Answers:

1) On itinerary, probably the best thing to do is figure out your landing country/city and your exiting country/city, and then get in touch with your airline of choice to see about getting an "open-jaw" ticket that allows you to fly into one place and out of another. Failing that, book them seperately.

2) On lockers - some places do have them, some don't. They're usually pretty expensive for anything longer than a couple of days, but are pretty secure. Big railway stations often have them too.

3) On swine flu, not as far as I'm aware, although France has banned flights to Mexico. You might be scanned or swabbed at an entry point, but I doubt it.

4) On accommodation, you might want to check out couchsurfing.com. As for hostels, my modus operandi was always to have a place booked for your first night, then take a wander around your first day to find somewhere for the rest of your stay. Seemed to work well. June/July will be busy everywhere, but it's rare that hostels aren't bookable online these days, so you should be able to check in advance before you arrive.

5) You should be able to buy just a SIM card in most European countries, assuming you have an unlocked GSM phone. Google term for this is "country name PAYG SIM international". Average cost for one of these is 5 - 15 euros, with 5 euros of call time and the option to top up.
posted by Happy Dave at 8:35 AM on May 11

(1) Airtreks & similar may have "around the world" tickets that accomplish your goal cheaply. Skyscanner is the most flexible search engine for discount & one way flights within Europe, check them out. Ask the normal travel sites & agents too.

(2) Yes, some airports have lockers, but not reliably like train stations. A week surely exceeds their time limits however. If not, it's still cheaper to mail your stuff to LA.

(4) hostelz.com is the best resource for hostels. All other hostel sites scam you by not delivering contact info without payment, excluding cheaper off-network hostels, and/or scrubbing comments.

(5) No, SIM cards are not usually available in airports, try kiosks in train stations. Check out PrePaidGSM (look at Wind), callineurope.com, travelsimshop.com, etc.
posted by jeffburdges at 8:36 AM on May 11

1. The cheapest ticket, I believe, would be Alitalia Tel Aviv to Los Angeles, via Rome (Alitalia 809 to Rome, then 642). A good travel agency can get you a 10-14 days lapse between the first leg of the journey and the last (try Ofir Tours or Cnaanan Tours in Tel Aviv).

2. During your time in Europe, you could travel via rail. If you're under 26, you are entitled to a discounted pass (check RailEurope.co.il ). And as Happy Dave already pointed out, all big train stations have lockers.

3. Cellphone - are you sure? What for? It will be very expensive to call the USA or Israel from Italy via cell. Better use one of those pre-payed cards (check Bezek 014card, tel. [phone] ).

4. Hostels - check also The official hot hostel list from The Guardian.
posted by dov at 9:23 AM on May 11

We had a similar goal of stopping in Europe on the way to Israel last summer and ended up spending a few days in Geneva since it was the cheapest option. We found it by doing several Travelocity multi-city searches of Our US city->Varying European Cities->Israel. The price ended up being comparable to if we had flown straight to Israel. Things may be more complicated for you if you're not going round trip.
posted by Xalf at 9:49 AM on May 11

I did this.

Italy will be crazy busy in June / July. Since the dollar is weak, and people are poorer, it won't be quite so bad, but it's bad. It's definitely still possible wing it once you're there... so don't let my warning stop you. But yeah, I think that in 2 weeks, I'd do at most 3 or 4 cities. Total. Sorry. If I had to pick, it'd be: Rome, Florence, The Cinque Terre and mabe try to hit Genoa for a couple days before your trainride back to Rome for flight back stateside.

If you must, you can try to hit some of the french riviera too. But there's not a big airport there, so you'll either have to get back to Rome (al italia / delta) or continue on to Paris (air france / delta).

Regarding the phone: I don't think you'll need one. When we did it, we'd just arrive in a city, buy a phone card, make calls to hostels for the next few days, and then rock it out. I guess having a cellphone is a security blanket for you kids these days (cue up the crotchety "In *my* day...")... But I don't think you'll *need* one for anything.
posted by zpousman at 2:06 PM on May 11

I'd avoid the rail passed linked by dov if your staying in Italy. Eurail passed will never save you money in Italy because (a) Italian trains are usually dirt cheap and (b) the few expensive Italian trains will charge you 10-20 euros for the reservation, which almost always increases the per day pass price above the walk up fair. Just buy tickets at the stations or on trenitalia.com.

Eurail passes can save you money on fast trains in Germany and France.
posted by jeffburdges at 2:24 PM on May 11

For your needs, avoid the "Around the world" tickets. They're just not the deal that everyone says; maybe I'm doing it wrong, but I think for your needs they're a waste.

I would get a one-way flight from Israel, and then purchase a separate flight to the States. It's remotely possible that buying them combined would save you money, and much more likely that it won't. There are lots of budget airlines that fly between Europe and various destinations (including possibly Israel) that won't mesh with your transatlantic flight. So you'd end up having to use a major carrier for the Israel->Europe flight, which will increase costs. One possibility is Israir, which has very cheap (85 euro, around 140 with taxes and fees) flights from Tel Aviv to Rome (although you'd have to leave either the 4th or the 7th, no flights available on the 5th or 6th).

If you are going to be in Europe for "a week" I would stick just to Italy and get a flight out of Rome or Pisa (slightly cheaper than Florence I think). If you are going to be in Europe for "or two" I would make the trek to the Paris airport where flights may be cheaper.

Not sure how long this will be available, but Air Berlin offers a flight from Rome to LAX for $490 (Air Berlin 8841 + Air Berlin 3530) on June 14th. There's also a flight from Paris on the 15th for $497, also Air Berlin. Unless you have oodles of frequent flier miles, Delta is not a good choice. Their prices for one-way tickets to LAX are obscene.

In my experience it is rarely cheaper to mail your belongings home. That's never been my experience. You generally get two generous baggage allowances and the fee for going over the weight limit is around $100 or so. Compare that with several hundred dollars for shipping the equivalent amount of belongings home. Now, it might be cheaper from Italy, so you could certainly take your belongings to Italy and ship from there.

Italy is a wonderful travel destination and has plenty for you to experience with no need to go elsewhere. You could even quite happily spend a week in Rome with a few day trips to neighboring towns. The only reason you should trek far afield is if you aren't sure you will make it to Europe again anytime soon. In which case I would head from Rome to Florence, then depending on your time and tastes either go up along the west coast of Italy towards the French Riviera and up to Paris, or spend more time in Tuscany and northern Italy and then back down to Rome.

There is a third option; taking a plane into Greece and then taking a ferry down to Brindisi and then traveling up Italy to Rome. A lengthy process but gets you some time in Greece and the ferry ride is pleasant enough.

Don't bother getting Eurail passes. They are only worth it if you plan on spending a lot of time on a train, which would suck. I suppose it works if you're the sort of person who relishes spending a day wandering a city, then jumping on a train, sleeping in your seat, and then getting out at your next destination and walking around.

Unless you're doing both France and Italy there's no harm in buying a prepaid sim in Italy. As cellphones become increasingly ubiquitous payphones have fallen out of favor. If you are fortunate to stumble upon the immigrant area of whatever city you're in, there will be phone shops where foreign workers send remittances, cash checks, and make international phone calls. Basically it's a set of booths and you pay by the minute using whatever system they're using (which means you can't use your own calling card or make a collect call). Usually the rates are fairly reasonable (at least they were when I was in Italy a couple years back). Normally I'd say you don't need a cellphone but this is you at the tail end of a long stay out of the country, and there's probably going to be some important planning taking place before your return to the States. You'll want a way to contact people if something comes up, and spending 15-30 minutes (or sometimes longer) finding access to a public phone can be a real hassle. Get the sim card, won't cost you more than $20-30 for the two weeks and will be a real source of peace-of-mind.

My absolute favorite website for checking out accommodation is TripAdvisor. It always has the most consistently reliable reviews of hotels, etc. Staying at hostels in most places is a good idea but the IY hostel in Rome is horrific. Stay at one of the many Pensiones instead. Maybe 1.5-2x more expensive but the hostel looks and feels like a prison and is way the hell from everything else in Rome.
posted by Deathalicious at 12:01 AM on May 12

Note that if you do buy a SIM in Italy, you'll need to bring your passport along.

Technically, you're supposed to have a codice fiscale (Italian SSN) as well, but many of the stores will simply plug your passport data into a program/website that spits the appropriate alphanumeric code, which is apparently good enough for the powers that be, even though it's not a valid registered CF.

Buon viaggio
posted by romakimmy at 3:57 AM on May 12

I just wanted to pop in and second the advice for http://www.couchsurfing.org/

Last week I registered and then this weekend met a bunch of awesome people at a park meetup.
I'm certain you will find really great folks to stay with or show you around and experience the local vibe much better than any other way. I'm going to be hosting folks in the city I'm in and I'm certain I'll stay with others around Europe when I start traveling around this summer.

Plus you'll probably feel safe enough leaving your stuff with these people, if you find some hosts that are willing to let you do it.

I haven't heard of any restrictions within Europe about h1n1. I think you'll be fine in that respect.

I did some of Italy's Amalfi coast last summer and the local slow train was real cheap and we met and conversed with an awesome guy that inspired us for the rest of our Italian experience, probably would've been a different experience on the stiffer upscale trains.

Getting a local phone would probably be a good idea. I don't know much about it, but I might also look into a local number through skype (just a random thought?), then you could get couchsurfers to call that number and you could always find a internet cafe/wifi connection to ring them back or make your other calls.

happy trails!
posted by talljamal at 8:04 AM on May 12

Btw, skyscanner shows Israel to Belgium at $120 or to Italy at $174, but always research the baggage allowance on airlines that give good one way rates. Yet another reason to consider mailing some clothes.
posted by jeffburdges at 3:57 PM on May 12