It’s been about 8 months since we took our most recent Europe trip. In travel time, that feels like an eternity ago. If you are looking to plan a trip with an even wider travel gap since your previous, you may be grateful for the refresher this post will provide on all the small details that you may overlook if you are not paying attention to them.
With Euro trips particularly, I always feel like there are just endless options. Since it is so easy to hop from one country to the next, you could almost combine any mixture of countries and cities to visit in one trip in a two-week trip.
How to even choose?!
Freddy Menendez, a young professional living in Tallahassee (also working on his Master’s degree), recently took an incredible trip to Europe with a friend. Freddy and I met in the local Tallahassee running club, Gulf Winds Track Club, and would chat about our recent trips abroad and how we always have the travel bug.
They chose to visit London, Paris, Brussels + Amsterdam, so if you are considering any of these cities for an upcoming trip, his insight will be extra helpful for you. Freddy provides some great clarity on what measures to take while planning your trip to Europe, including transportation and choosing sights to see.
My favorite part of Freddy’s traveling tips are reading about what surprised him and his friend, how they loved things they did not expect to enjoy as much as they did. As you can see, Freddy is quite the photographer (all photos are his!) and really captured some incredible memories during his trip abroad.
Check out what to know when traveling to London, Paris, Brussels + Amsterdam below!
AB: What inspired you to take your trip and how did you choose the cities you visited? What was your process for booking transportation and accommodations?
FM: So my Europe trip was fairly spontaneous being booked only about 2 months in advance after finding a good deal on airfare. In November, I was supposed to run the New York City Marathon and due to a stress fracture, I had to postpone that.
My best friend and I were planning on going to New York but with that canceled, we briefly talked about doing the Europe trip we had always talked about but kind of put it off because the semester was starting. Fast forward a couple of weeks, and we both get the travel bug.
With it being winter, we didn’t really have a preference on where to go as long as it was in Europe. This is where Google Flights came in handy.
I was able to find that London was the most cost effective point for us to fly into and that it didn’t cost any extra for us to fly home from Amsterdam. Within the next day of finding the flight, we booked it through our Chase credit cards using points.
Knowing that we would start in London and end in Amsterdam, we figured we would use Europe’s awesome public transportation to see the major cities along the way. After talking about it, we decided the ones that we wanted to see were Paris and Brussels.
From a previous trip to London, I already knew about the EuroStar to get to Paris but I had no idea who to get tickets from for the Paris-Brussels and Brussels-Amsterdam train rides. Using Google Maps, I got the recommendation of Thalys when selecting Train as the transportation method and bought tickets on-line.
When it came to selecting accommodation in each city, I Googled what were some of the better areas for tourists. Once I had a general area for each city, I compared the cost of an Airbnb and a traditional hotel. It seemed that because of the holiday’s, everything was a little inflated in price.
This made hotels and Airbnbs about the same cost so we ended up just going the hotel route. I personally have had good experiences with Expedia so I used them to search and book the hotels and ended up selecting based on location and customer reviews. We decided to prepay everything and luckily everything went through perfectly.
AB: What was your favorite aspect of your travels, and your least? What surprised you about the places you visited?
FM: Surprising to both my friend and I, we both enjoyed the churches and cathedrals the most on this trip. There is just something very special about the amount of work, craftsmanship and time that went into creating the Gothic architecture of Westminster Abbey and Notre Dame (these are the two most notable but we saw others that were simply amazing too).
The entire time we spent in the buildings, we were in awe of how they were built so long ago and still standing so strong. It was also very nice to see some of the churches decorated for the holidays.
Overall, there was nothing on this trip that I really did not like. But if I had to choose, I think one of my least favorite experiences was the Louvre. Don’t get me wrong, the museum itself is amazing and there truly are some amazing pieces of history that I honestly thought I would never get to see in my life. It is very cool to see pieces that we have studied throughout our years in school however, it is fairly crowded and just way to big in my opinion.
In total, we walked about 7 miles inside the museum and spent maybe 6 hours and saw only 2 of 4 floors they had to offer. It was laid out in a pretty confusing manner and with the free map we spent the first couple hours lost lol. I’m not a huge art person, so after a while I got a little bored with it and was ready to go. I wish they offered multi-day tickets so that we could go in and out and see it in pieces.
I think what surprised me the most was how good the food we had in every city was. In London, we visited two different street markets for food.
The first was your awesome recommendation, the Borough Market. They had so much variety it was insane, everything was very fresh and tasted awesome. We liked it so much so that we went twice in the four days we spent there, it really is that good and inexpensive!
The second market we went to in London was along the River Thames called the Southbank Centre Market. They didn’t have as much selection as the Borough Market but the food they did have smelled and tasted awesome.
If I had more time in London I would definitely try out the other markets like the Camden or Covent Garden. We didn’t find markets like Borough in Paris, Brussels or Amsterdam but that did not stop us from finding great restaurants and cafes.
Now I’m scared when I eat out in the States it just won’t compare! I guess it gives me more incentive to learn how to cook it myself.
AB: What do you wish you had known before you took your trip? If you could do it again, what would you change?
FM: I wish I had known more about the public transportation within each city. I obviously knew they existed but I didn’t do any research on how to pay. I assumed that we could just buy tickets once we got there.
While this assumption was true, it wasn’t necessarily always the best way especially for London. When we first tried to take the Tube, I quickly found out that they use Contactless payments for credit cards and our American cards don’t always support that.
I also didn’t know about the oyster cards that are used within London. We resorted to buying day passes every day for about 13 USD but if we had known about the Oyster cards, we would have spent about half that.
If I could redo the trip, I think I would have spent more time in London and less time in Paris. I really enjoyed London, there was so much to see, do, eat and all around enjoy.
Paris has some nice things as well but I never felt quite right in Paris like I did in London. I never expected to like London as much as I did so any extra time I could spend there would be awesome!
AB: What advice would you share with someone wanting to do a Europe trip?
FM: Don’t hesitate when you have the opportunity! Seriously, I almost hesitated taking this trip for a few reasons. First, I thought about the time off from work. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to take that many days (about 3 work weeks for me).
I also thought about not wanting to travel in the winter. Winter has a tendency of having not so favorable weather in most of the cities we were visiting which can kind of ruin plans.
However, I decided to seize the opportunity and I am so glad I did. This trip provided me with experiences and memories I would have never have gotten if I didn’t go. At the end of the day, that is all that traveling is about.
AB: What did you learn when you were overseas that you brought back home with you?
FM: This one might be a little unconventional, but the ability that the people in London had to queue in crowds. I was blown away by how well the Tube flowed with the amount of people that were in there at any given time. The etiquette the people showed when it came to walking, going up stairs\escalators was amazing.
It really made it seem so much less crowded when people that were in a rush could pass on the left while others went at normal paces on the right. I find myself doing it now as much as I can. I only wish that we in the states can catch up to make everything go as smooth as it was when I was in London.
AB: Where to next?!
FM: This is a hard one, there are so many places I plan on visiting that each offer such different experiences. It really is going to depend on timing but I know I will be doing a mini-trip (5 days or so) to New York in November for the marathon.
When it comes to an overseas trip, I think the next destination will be Spain once I graduate from my Masters. I would like to spend 2-3 weeks seeing the different parts of the country from the riviera in the south all the way to Oviedo, the city where my grandfather was born in the north and as much as possible in-between.
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Thank you, Freddy, for contributing your experience!
Want more Europe travel tips?
- How Much It Really Costs to Travel to Europe for 10 Days
- Local London Gems Suggested By a Local
- Two Weeks Out: What You Need to Do Before Going Abroad
- How to Book the Best AirBnB
-AB
