Okay, I got a lot, and by a lot, I mean A LOT, of questions about our recent trip to Europe. Which was AMAZING, and I would recommend everyone to go, really to go on any vacation, take time off from work and your everyday activities to explore other parts of the country and the world.
So I am going to write this in two parts, two blog, one part about the booking and the second part an itinerary of what we did each day.
Alright, here we go. This post is very long....
Planning
1. We booked the airfare at the beginning of November 2016 (trip was July 17 2017).
We decided to take this trip in August 2016 (once I go back to work, we decide, tentatively, vacations for the following year and started looking for airfare then. The cheapest we had ever seen it was about $800 per person during the summer.
Download the app "Hopper" it will track airfare for you, make sure you have notifications turned on. It will let you know when prices have gone up or down.
We tracked every date in the summer (June and July) that worked for us, all different varieties of combinations. In November got a message that the July 17 - August 1 to LHR (London) was the cheapest.
At that point, we looked at the direct airlines, Expedia, Google travel, and Kayak. United had the cheapest flight. It was an average of $600 a person which was the lowest we had ever seen for the summer. We booked it and we also got the travel protection because it was such a long time until the actual trip we wanted to make sure we got the money back if something happened.
So at this point we knew we were doing a round trip to London from SFO.
2. Budget. Budget. Budget. with the airfare bought we need to sit down and budget the rest of the trip. How much we would spend in accommodations and things to do, as well as an average of how much we would need for spending, including food, souvenirs, suitcases (we didn't have any), things we need it to buy for the trip (new shoes, more socks, bathroom stuff, etc.).
3. Where to go and for how long. We knew we wanted to see London, Paris, and Barcelona. We sat down and wrote all the things we wanted to see in each place. We knew we wanted to spend at least one extra day in Barcelona to have a beach day and relax. After making a list and checking it twice (lol) we added Amsterdam to the itinerary. (November)
4. Once we knew the dates and order we wanted to do in each place, we started to look at hotels and Airbnb. We look at Hotels through Expedia and the actual hotel web page. (this was between the end of November and the end of December)
We booked hotel everywhere with Expedia, the ones that you pay at the hotel not in advance and had a cancellation date near our traveling time. Some of these hotels were near the airports, with two twin beds. These were hotels in our budget, cutting it really close to what we had established for each city. We booked hotels first because we wanted to make sure we had a place to stay.
Airbnb, we had never stayed in an Airbnb so we were a little apprehensive about it. However after researching, talking to friends, and looking at all the amazing places (and way cheaper than hotels) they had, we took the plunge and we book all Airbnb and cancelled all the hotels.
With Airbnb some places where cheaper than others, we stayed within budget for accommodations. Paris was the first one we booked, I mean you guys saw that view, we didn't want to loose it, from them we used the rest of the $ budget for all the others. Every place was amazing, enough room for all four of us we would stay in the same places again. If you are bringing a lot of bags make sure there is an elevator. In Amterdam we were on the fourth floor and the third floor in Barcelona with no elevators.
Read all the reviews, specially the ones about safety.
5. Thing to do. This was the most FUN to plan. We looked at the list we had of what we wanted to see and we booked everything through the actual location (like Camp Nou in Barcelona) or with Expedia (like Disneyland Paris). We looked around to compare prices and choose what was the best option.
You can see about using points from credits cards, with AAA, or Costco, travel agencies, etc. We book with Expedia a lot and we had some $/points to use, reason why we booked that way.
If you are traveling with children keep in mind that they may not be interested in spending a day at a museum. Pick what you really want to see and what they will enjoy.
We choose not go inside the Louvre, its way too big and there was no way any of us could be there for hours and hours. I knew I HAD to visit the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam, so we booked that with a canal cruise deal they had. Disney Paris came with the metro/train tickets, they even told us which one to take, where to transfer, and when to exit. The London Eye had the skip the line option, the regular line was over an hour long, we waited ten minutes.
We booked the activities from December all the way to May. Keep in mind that the closer you get to the trip the more expensive some of them will become.
Why book ahead of time and not once you are there? I am a planner, I like to know what we are doing each day to make sure we got to do everything we wanted to do.
Also, I wanted to make sure everything was booked that need it to be booked, then it was already paid and all we had to worry about was expending money once we got there. This had worked well in the past and it worked GREAT this time around as well.
Don't over book!! You never know how long the lines will be, how long you will stay in one place, how far one place is from the other, or if you will have the energy or anything like that. Book one in the morning and one in the afternoon. There are so many things to see without paying to go inside, don't over spend.
6. Transfers. We used the Hoper app again to look for flights. We knew we wanted to fly from London to Amsterdam and from Barcelona to London.
The first transfer we booked was Barcelona to London in the morning of August 1. That was the same day we were flying from London to Montreal (and hen Montreal to SFO). Advice, take the earliest flight better to have extra time at the airport than almost miss your flight running from one terminal to the next because the first flight was late (yep true story we almost stayed in London).
Then we book London to Amsterdam, we booked a flight. When we look dat the train it said we had to transfer trains in Brussels and we did not want to do that so, a plane it was.
We decided to take the Thalys train from Amsterdam to Paris, it was a little bit over three hours, we were able to sleep. We bought the first class tickets (it was like $20 difference per person) but we had wifi and it included snacks and a lunch (not a good lunch, but a lunch).
Originally we wanted to take the train from Paris to Barcelona but it was a 6 hour train ride. So we ended up booking a flight, it was the last one we booked, we were waiting and waiting for prices to go down.
7. Before you leave the US.
a. call you bank and let them know you will be traveling, they will ask you for the specific date sin each place. This will help them to keep track of where your card is been used. Asked them about the currency conversion fee. Banks will change a % to change currency while in the states. Once in Europe you can take money out of their ATM, European banks don't charge a fee, you bank will change 1-3% plus the free for using a non bank ATM which usually carries from 2.50 to 5.50. Also ask and increase your daily withdraw amount.
b. check with your credit cards, see how much they will charge for the currency conversion fee, try to get one that does not charge, the Capital One Saphier is the best (I heard). Also ask of you need a pin to use it. All European machines work with a pin for form bank and credit cards, with US cards they will ask you to sign, if you have a pin you don't sign.
c. make a copy of your passports, take one with you and leave one at home with someone, in case you lose your passports (or they get stolen) and you need to get a new one. Its a good idea to also email your self a copy
d. look for all the US embassies where you will be staying and send yourself an email with the info (you can also print it and take it with you)
e. make a copy of your credit cards and bank cards, leave at home with someone reliable in case you need to info. Also give them a copy of your itinerary with address and numbers of where you will be staying in case of an emergency
f. get the international plan for your phone, this will allow you to send text messages, and make calls (for a lower price), helpful if you end up getting separated from you husband/wife/friend/etc.
I am not going to tell you how much the trip cost because it will be different for everyone, depending on when you go, how long you stay, what you do, where you eat, how much things you buy, etc. You can call em/text me/email em, if you want an idea of how much it was.
But I can tell you that we are NOT in debt because of the trip.
We only booked things as we had the money to book them. Example, we booked the flight - paid the credit card, booked accommodations - paid the credit card, and so on. We booked thing from November to May. I worked summer school and did assessments to have extra $ (and yes to get my purses). But we did not over book and we only book as the money came in. We knew we did not want to be in debt because of the trip, Think that scared us a lot and we worked hard to stay in budget. There are things we did not do because of it (like going to the Game of Thrones city in Barcelona, next time). But because of summer school, we were able to stay in Montreal fora few more days after leaving Europe.
Montreal was not part of the original vacation. We did have a 2 hour 30 min layover in Montreal coming from London. However the London to Montreal flight changed so much from November to May, originally it was a 2:10 flight, it change to 2:30, 3:00, back to 2:10, to 2:45 and then again at 2:10. Because we would have to pass immigration in Canada, we decided just to stay there for a few days and relax and explore the city. It was. good way to end the trip because it was only 3 hour difference, so we were not so jet lag, we were able to use the pool and relax. Montreal is also beautiful !
Okay this is it for this one. I will write part two in a couple of days. I need to look back to let you know what each ay looked like as they were super fun but super busy. I will also give you my personal opinion about this trip with children. I will also put some pictures :)
Love you all.
