dave1964camp
Traveller
1 comments
Posted 14 years ago
I'm on a whirlwind Europe tour with insufficient planning (and no rail pass). I'm currently in Amsterdam, must check out of hotel by noon Wed 11-May-2011. The next definite destination I have is Monaco, have open invitation so can show up at my leisure. I will probably want to stop in at least one other city in between (Paris? Munich? Other?).
Questions: Which route offers the least complex rail connections? least expensive rail routes? Most reasonable lodging options (not too expensive, but not fleabag either)? Best tourism opportunities for a 1-2 day stay? Any constructive advice is appreciated.
Thanks for all your help.
P.S. After Monaco, I'll be traveling around a little more, but heading back to the United States soon. Which European city is it cheapest to fly to the United States (specifically California) from?
Flo
Traveller
10725 comments
Hi,
sorry, havent seen your question before. I hope you have found a good route to get to Monaco - best probably is to go via Paris.. :)
I dont know if there is any airport/airline for cheapest flights to the US - maybe try sites such as skyscanner, checkfelix,...
Flo 8)
nltrainer
Traveller
1478 comments
that would have been via Paris-then TGV or nighttrain to Nice-or even onward.
There is NO site or airport that consistently offer best fares-and if it has low fares-it will be for any US-airport. Oneway is always a bad deal compared to a smartly purchased return (with changeable dates). Sometimes it is even cheaper to buy the lowest priced return and forget to come back. (This is because of the rules of YOUR country for us-we can only enter without all the stringent visa-rules with a prebooked and confirmed return-so about noone buys a single-in fact you get flagged by your immigration if you use a single as a suspected person and possible terrorist)
if paying the lowest is the most imprtt-use as many of the wellknown compare all airlines booking sites as possible and see what airlines are mentioned most. Also look for flights to NYC-and you know best what a domestic single would cost home from there-and compare.
next step: use EURO sits from LON-and then check what a cheap nofrills airline from Nice or nearby would cost-the FR do not have that much with the USA and are not known for low prices either. But then also realise that UK/LON is very, very expensive and you likely will need to go across it to another airport. on a site like whichbudget.com you can check which ''nofrills'' airls fly to/fro (think EASY or Ryan and the like)
dave1964camp
Traveller
1 comments
Thanks for your replies. I did end up taking a Thalys from Amsterdam to Paris (where I sit typing this), and a TGV from Paris to Monaco (departing tomorrow morning).
A fellow American traveler I talked to on a train about a week ago said he was told Paris was the answer to cheapest European city to fly to America from. But it seems like there's no shortcut to doing the website research myself. BTW, I'm ultimately flying to either SFO or OAK. I flew out of OAK because SFO was jammed up, but sometimes SFO is actually cheaper. Either way, that's a long way from NYC (Newark? La Guardia? Idlewild?)
I understand that Homeland Security [sic] makes it hard to fly one-way into the USA. I didn't have any trouble flying one-way to Europe and hope that my US Passport absolves me of any problems flying back home. At this point in my journey, price is a secondary factor; comfort and lack-of-hassle are rising in priority. I'm even thinking of springing for 1st-class or business-class because the thought of spending another full day in coach is frightful. But I don't want to spend more than I have to for no good reason (like I picked the wrong city to fly from).
Thanks again, fellow travelers!