Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with europe and london

What is the best way to move from London, UK, to Brussels, Belgium?

meso — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 07:07:30 -0800

Hey there! I'm moving to Brussels for a job early November, and I'm trying to plan my move from London. What is the best way to do this move? My latest plan is to drive there in a van with a friend, stay with him for a couple of days, and have him drive the empty van back to London. Am I missing something? Is there an obvious way to make it easier/cheaper?

Right now the costs would involve paying the van rental, the Eurotunnel transfer between the UK and the continent, paying for a hotel, and packing stuff myself.

More information: I don't have any furniture, just books and clothes. It's not a massive amount. I don't have a driving licence myself. I'm also hesitating between driving there with a friend, gonig there on Eurostar and leave my stuff, or send them to myself by post.

Any suggestion would be immensely appreciated... thank you!

Planes, trains, and lots of bags; Germany, France, and the UK.

Devika — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 17:35:17 -0800

InsaneLast-MinuteEuropeanTravelFilter: How to get one procrastinator and three bags from Berlin to France and England. Read on, it's probably crazier than you think! I'm coming from Canada to do a semester abroad in Glasgow, and I'd like to do some traveling before the start of term. Currently I'm finishing up a summer program in Berlin. The plan is to meet a family friend in Reims, travel around France with them, visit my aunt in London (with a few days in Hampshire to see the partner), then head up to Glasgow.

A couple of problems with this pretty good plan. The first hurdle is that none of the tickets are booked yet. Strictly speaking I should be out of Berlin by the 17th, but am considering spending a night in a hostel or begging the institution to let me stay another day if the saving is significant enough.

The second complication is the three bags I brought over. I'd started out one hard suitcase and one soft bag, but added another suitcase to keep under the weight limit. The two hard suitcases weigh 30 and 50 pounds (about 14 and 23 kilos) respectively, and the soft bag weighs 50 pounds (23 kilos). Lugging three bags around Europe seems like it would be a nightmare, and very costly if I fly an airline like EasyJet or Ryanair. It seems around 108 GBP to ship two suitcases from Germany to the UK according to this site, assuming the same rate applies backwards. Is shipping one or two heavy bags to London a good idea, or not cost-effective?

If I'm traveling by train, I'd think that the bags would be less of an issue. However, booking by train at the last minute seems rather costly. I've been poking around the Deutsche Bahn website for ages and can't get it to tell me how much money a ticket would be before asking me to put in a credit card number. I remember seeing a fare of around 230 euros (Berlin-Reims) on another rail site, as opposed to 88 euros (Berlin-Paris, assuming Paris-Reims will be a cheap train journey) from EasyJet on the 18th. A random thought also occurred - would it be more cost-effective to fly on a better airline, even perhaps first class, if I can take my bags with me?

My question in all its barely suppressed hysteria basically boils down to this - when making travel plans within Europe at the last minute and with considerable baggage, is it better to take the train or fly, and should I keep my bags with me the entire way or ship two of them up? I'm having trouble conceptualizing all of this, and the partner and I have been at our wits' end trying to figure it all out at the last minute. I hope the all-knowing hive mind can give me some much-needed guidance!

Where should I live in the USA? I like music, culture, etc - but I need to be close to Europe.

wingless_angel — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 04:13:01 -0800

Where should I live in the USA? I like music, culture, etc - but I need to be close to Europe. So I have the opportunity to be a US permanent resident next year and am starting to research as much as I can about where I might live. But there's a glitch - the timing is kind of bad and I am going to need to spend a fair of time in Europe over the next 3 years for work. I've got the permanent residence maintenance issues in hand (assuming I get the visa next year of course! I'm a DV winner) but the big question is: where should I live in the US (probably a few months each time) and establish my life/residence until I move for good?

I have spent about 4 months in the US across the past 5 years for vacation and conferences, places I've liked best have been Seattle, Chicago, especially Evanston, Santa Monica (but not so much the rest of LA), New York. I have only spent a day in Boston, but it seemed good. I don't drive so public transport is critical. I would not move to San Francisco for this reason. Climate I am not so worried about.

I have previously lived in Sydney, The Hague, and currently London. I like areas that are lively but not on top of the action - we live just north of Camden Town, and I lived in Newtown when I was in Sydney. I eat a lot of Asian and ethnic foods - I like variety. I also like living in a place with a lot of music, good bars, bookstores, museums etc and access to open spaces and parks. Living in London and the Hague, I'm used to an overpriced cost of living. My husband is an academic so a city with lots of academia would be good. Most of my US friends live in NYC.

The kicker is that I would be going back and forth between the US and Europe often for a couple of years, so I would prefer somewhere that is close flightwise to keep costs and flight times down (7hr flight vs 11 hr, for instance). A city with ample short-term leases would be good (or long-stay holiday apartments). We also need someplace where establishing a life is not too difficult - places where you can open a bank account and get ID and build credit. London for example, is tedious at this.

Where should I go, MeFi?

Another Question about moving to London. Likely more to follow.

ElmerFishpaw — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 16:53:24 -0800

I'm moving to the UK. I love snowboarding. What are my options? Switzerland is right there! Or is it? Relatively cheap airfare and stellar mountains will be calling me. Can I take off from London and shred the Alps in a weekend? If so, where exactly? If not, could I make it in a 3-day weekend? Have you done this?

Living in Oakland, I am accustomed to leaving for Tahoe at 5pm friday and boarding all day sat and sun and returning late sunday night. Can I recrate this weekend in the UK? (Im not interested in indoor mountains of any kind) Thank you!

How can two Seattle residents best go about looking for jobs in London?

Anonymous — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 13:46:37 -0800

How can two Seattle residents best go about looking for jobs in London? My wife and I have been talking about moving to London for a while. Ideally, we'd like to both find jobs in London, live there for 2-3 years, then move back to the U.S.

We would like to have jobs and be living in London 1 year from today. We love Seattle... we just want an adventure before we have a baby.

- What has been your experience with finding (or not finding) a job in London?
- What should we expect with regard to potential time lines, snags, red tape, and pitfalls?
- What tools to job searching/networking have you found useful?
- What government agencies/government connections did you use in your quest? (i.e. if your Senator/Congressman was a good friend, could he/she help speed things along, side-step hang-up, and/or
- We want to live in London... not a 1-hour Tube ride from Central London.
- What have I not asked that I need to know?

Our employment backgrounds:
She is 26, I am 28. My background is business (primarily sales & marketing) and I've been fairly successful, despite my age. Her background is architecture, though she's looking to switch her focus to humanitarian efforts. Potentially working with organizations as a project manager for different efforts.

Our current combined income: $105,000/year (pre-tax)

Accomodations in London, Belgium & The Netherlands

dhammond — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 23:49:14 -0800

I'm going to London, Belgium and the Netherlands from May 10th-24th, and I'm looking for great places to stay. My tentative itinerary:

London (5 nights - 5/10-5/15)
Brussels (1 night - 5/15-5/16)
Bruges (2 nights - 5/16-5/18)
The Netherlands (6 nights - mostly Amsterdam, but other cities as well - 5/18-24)

I'm traveling alone, and I'm interested in hearing from those who are quite enthusiastic about a certain place and want to tell me how great it is.

My basic requirements:

-- Located in or very to close to the city center, preferably away from tourist areas as much as possible.

-- Decent value. Less than $200 a night in most places, though I will go up on that in London or if it's a really spectacular place and gives a nice bang for my (floudering) buck.

-- No hostels.

--Big bonus points for buildings with nice, old-timey architecture.

For the Netherlands, I'll be spending a good deal of time in Amsterdam, but I would also be interested in hearing about other towns and cities that might be worth an overnight stay or long day trip.

As a point of reference, I stayed at the Strand Palace in London last year and, though I found it a bit shabby, it was a steal at under $200 in an incredibly central but not too touristy area. I don't mind staying there again, but would love to try something different if you can recommend something.

Thanks, y'all!

Help plan a honeymoon!

Becko — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 20:41:14 -0800

Help me figure out how to plan this honeymoon... My fiance and I are getting married July 5 next year, and we wanted to go to London for our honeymoon. However, while we are there we also think it would be awesome to go to as many other countries as possible, within reason. I'd like to have a decent amount of time in any location, and I'd also like to be able to take trains or buses wherever we go, I don't want to fly except for the trip there and back. We'd like to spend a day or two in Brighton as well. If we were only going to go to one other place I think we'd like it to be Scotland, but we also like the idea of going to Paris if possible. We are pretty open on how long it can be, I will have at least 10 days vacation time from work, and there will be weekends in there, so it could potentially be a couple weeks. However, I'd like to keep travel/hotel under $5,000.

So what are some suggestions on the best way to plan this trip? I'm confused how to go about booking a multiple destination trip like this. I am also not sure which country would be the best to fly into, pricewise. I have quite a bit of time to plan this, but I'd rather figure it out sooner rather than later. It's a lot of information for me to try to sort out, so help is greatly appreciated.

What's a creative souvenir?

BradNelson — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 16:20:00 -0800

I need creative souvenir ideas. I've been in Europe for three months and will be heading back to the States in a couple weeks and feel obligated to bring back some souvenirs. However, I don't want to bring a pile of key chains, t-shirts, and coffee mugs. I want some creative things. Any suggestions?

Note that the only major cities I will be going to before I leave are London (where I have been staying) and Budapest.

Paris, London, Switzerland in a week - recommendations?

Malad — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 22:16:20 -0800

I want to do Paris/daytrips (1-2 days), Switzerland (4-5 days), and London/daytrips (1-2 days), all late this January. I'll be traveling alone. I'd love some advice. I've done a lot of the main Paris/London touristy stuff, and also seen Nice, but I've never visited Switzerland.

Recommendations in my itinerary for great:
-hostels/B&Bs/budget hotels?
-must-see scenery?
-must-see attractions?
-must-taste restaurants/pubs/wineries/etc.?
-amazing classical music/other concerts/film festivals/etc.?
-other must-sees on your personal list, in whatever category?

Oh, and -- a great travel guide or two I should buy before I leave? Any other tips welcome too.

Thanks!

Where are the cheap Eurostar tickets?

k8t — Fri, 01 Sep 2006 18:11:50 -0800

How can I get really cheap Eurostar tickets (London-Paris and back)? I'm taking my sister to London. I want her to see a bit of Europe too. We're going to Rome for a few days, but she is dying for Paris. I'm going to do a day trip, as described in EssexJan's post.

I want to go on Sunday, September 17, but am willing to go on Saturday, September 16.

Where are the top secret cheapo tickets?

Where can we go from London for a few days in Europe?

k8t — Thu, 20 Jul 2006 14:24:43 -0800

[EuroTripFilter]What European city can we go to CHEAPLY for a few days from London? I lived in London for a year, but now I'm back in the States. I'm going back to London for 10 days [September 8-18]. I'm bringing my never-left-the-US twin sister with me. I know that this may very well be the last time that she ever travels at all. As such, I'd like us to leave London for a few days to see something on the continent. Paris or Brussels via Eurostar is the obvious destination, but I was there just last month, so I'm not all that interested. I'd love to go to Rome, Florence, or Prague. She does want to see Paris though. (And I'm willing to do 24 hours there.) So, Hive Mind, how can we get from London to Paris and then onto Rome (or Florence or Prague) cheaply? Would taking the Eurostar to Paris and then flying or taking the train to the next city work? Should we just skip Paris altogether and wait for cheap flights to other European cities? Which would be cheapest? Advise for cheap travels preferred!

How easy is it to emigrate to the US from the EU

Svea — Fri, 25 Nov 2005 16:18:44 -0800

How difficult would it be for a married couple (1 german, 1 english) currently living in london - to move to live and work in US - for example to san francisco what steps can be taken? what obstacles are in place? anyone have any xperiences they could share? there must be some advantages tot he US-UK 'special relationship' right?

Recommend good deals on disposable phones in the UK & France.

bcwinters — Sun, 10 Oct 2004 19:13:46 -0800

European disposable mobile phones: My parents, who are American, are going to Edinburgh, London & Paris later this week. They've asked me what I know about disposable/rentable phones since their phones won't work over there. I know nothing. So now I'm asking all of you: What do you know about good deals on disposable/rentable phones in the UK & France? (I believe they're looking to use the phones for a period of 7-10 days, and if it makes things simpler I think they are willing to do without during the French portion of the trip if necessary)