Saturday, February 16, 2013

how cheap can i get plane tickets to amsterdam from florida?

Q. round trip, setting off on the 26th of december 2009. and how cheap are hotels in amsterdam 3? 3 star

A. Due to seasonal trends, December is usually rather expensive.
Travelocity quotes US$929 for a 1 stop flight Miami- Amsterdam on Dec 26, Return on Jan 2.

Finding online the cheapest flight for you is the job of Travelocity and similar flights brokers/ booking sites. The best ones are listed here: http://www.willgoto.com/1/023798/liens.aspx

As for hotels in Amsterdam, you may find your 3 star hotel in Amsterdam with the same sites. Travelocity offers for instance Park Plaza Vondelpark at $164 per night.

However, you may get a larger choice with a site such as Venere, a leading Europe-based hotel booking site. with prices ranging from 80 euros (=$114) to 200 euros (=$285) or more depending on location, facilities and other factors.
http://www.venere.com/holland/amsterdam/?ref=29621#o=default&r=0&m=0&f=C004100000000000&sb=1

If needed, you find other hotel booking sites here:
http://www.willgoto.com/1/023784/liens.aspx
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How much money should I save to backpack in Europe?
Q. My sister and I would love to backpack through Europe in June and July 2014. Our plan is to fly into Amsterdam and from there go to London. Then, we would like to go to Dublin, Paris, Rome, Venice, Athens, and Santorini. We are planning on spending about 2 months in Europe. Can anyone give me a rough estimate of how much to expect to spend? We will be staying in hostels and trying to eat cheap!
Also, any pointers on traveling/safety/general tips on backpacking would be helpful!

A. It depends on exactly when you come, the kinds of places you stay, what you see/do/eat, where you go and how you get around. As a rule of thumb, you can get by for around $100 per person per day plus airfare/train fare/driving costs if you stay in hostels and watch your budget carefully. Hotels will cost more. I generally spend 100-150 euro a night just for hotels when I go out exploring. Here are some resources that can help you plan and check options and current prices for your trip (expect prices in the future to rise):

http://www.kayak.com/ - airfares & hotels; the explore function is useful for finding the less expensive places to fly into from your starting point. Tuscany is an entire region, not a town. The most convenient airports to fly into will be Pisa or Florence, but Rome or Bologna are also reasonable options.

http://www.skyscanner.it/ - particularly good for budget flights within Europe, but you can also use everywhere as a destination to do something like the explore option on Kayak. You may not need the airfares, but you can compare to the cost of the trains to get around. this one may be more useful for you. Palermo is a long trip by train, Naples to Palermo is one leg of the trip where you might consider flying.

http://www.fsitaliane.it/homepage_en.htm⦠- train schedules and prices. The trains are a great way to get around here. In places like Spain or here in Italy, railpasses are rarely worth the money.

Driving can be expensive; fuel prices, tolls and parking all add up, but it can become cost effective for groups. You can check sites like Avis, Europcar, Sixt, etc, for your specific rental cost. Picking up in one country and dropping off in another can be very expensive. You can get driving distances and estimates fuel and toll costs on viamichelin: http://www.viamichelin.com/ .
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http://www.venere.com/ - hotels/B&Bs - prices for the same hotel can vary hugely depending on the season and what local events are going on.

http://www.hostelbookers.com/ - hostels.

http://www.monasterystays.com/ - monasteries & convents that offer accommodations

You can also look into camping or couch surfing as cheaper alternatives for accommodations.

http://www.whatsonwhen.com/sisp/index.ht⦠- festivals, exhibitions and events

http://www.backpackeurope.com/ - information & advice

For sightseeing prices: check the websites for entrance fees for the museums & galleries you're interested in. I spend anywhere between nothing and 40 euro a day depending on exactly what I go to see when out exploring. For food, I spend around 25 to 50 euro for a meal, but you can eat for less. I was in Venice recently and paid 32 euro for lunch at Da Raffaele sitting at a canal side table with the gondolas passing by. Here in Italy, You can get a whole pizza for 8 to 13 euro or a pasta dish in the same range. Panini or pizza by the slice is less. For reference, a McDonalds McMenu classico (medium) is going for around 7.50 euro. While you can eat cheaply most of the time, I would recommend getting a good local meal from time to time; that's part of the overall experience that it would be a shame to miss. When I travel, I like to try the local specialties and the good restaurants. Shopping depends entirely on you.

Best way to travel from Amsterdam to Paris?
Q. High speed train or rental car? Which is more practical and cheap?

Going to Amsterdam for 7-9 days and want to spend a little bit of time in France to see castles and such.

A. Amsterdam to Paris, no better option than the train.
If you want to do day trips from and to Paris, get a hotel on the edge of the city, near the right motorway, and rent a car there, either a local rental location or have it delivered to your hotel.
If you do a few days Paris and a few days castles, train out to a city near the castles and rent a car there. You can rent cars at all or most French railway stations if you book in advance.

Only if you want to roam around all the way, and not stay in Paris itself, you might want to rent a car in the Netherlands.

If you book your train early, or are willing to take odd times, you will beat the price of a rental car by miles. Early booking of a rental car will take a little of the rental cost but you will still be paying gas/petrol and that is expensive in Europe.

And for a one way travel, train, as drop off cost will be high.
Again, you can rent a car wherever you need it.

But going to Paris and the French castles on a 7 days visit to Amsterdam is overdoing it.
If you want to see Paris and a bit of France, make it a France holiday.
For both Paris and Amsterdam, fly into one and fly out of the other, saving you a travel day. The train costs only 3 hours or so, but with checking out of your hotel, getting to the station, be sure you are in time for the train, getting from the station to your new hotel and checking in, you spend most of a day on the travel.
With getting a rental car, collect it, fight the traffic, finding a safe place to park and again the checking out and in you will spend at least as long.




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