Thorn Tree travel forum

Western Europe FAQ thread

This branch covers: Western Europe.

I've made a start with a load of links. Please add to this if you've got some useful information that'll answer questions that come up again and again and again.

Here are some simple tips about looking for information:

1. Research before asking a question. It will help you get better, more detailed and useful answers from the community if you've already done some homework. It's also polite. The community is here to help, but we're not your personal search engine. Invest some preliminary time and we'll help you fill in the gaps.

2. Explore Lonely Planet's Destinations online, which has a wealth of key info and tips.

3. Have a good look around the Thorn Tree before asking your question - quite often your question (or one very similar to it) will have been asked and answered many times al... more »

Budget ski resort for snowboarders?

We are looking at trying to get a couple of days snowboarding in France at the end of January, and wanted some suggestions for where to go. We have only been snowboarding once before, so are still beginners, and don't really mind if the area isn't that big, as long as there are several chair lifts. Does anyone have any suggestions that might be cheaper options than the bigger resorts? Any help would be much appreciated!!

Tentative Trip Itinerary

My wife and I will have about 6 weeks to travel through Spain before returning to Portugal. The following is our tentative itinerary with timeline.

• Jan 29 - bus from Faro to Seville. Stay 4 nights
• Feb 2 - fly (already booked) Seville to Barcelona. Stay 7 nights.
• Feb 9 - bus to Zaragoza. Stay 3 nights.
• Feb 12 - bus to Teruel. Stay 2 nights.
• Feb 14 - bus or train to Valencia. Stay 3 nights.
• Feb 17 - bus or train to Cuenca. Stay 2 nights.
• Feb 19 - bus or train to Madrid. Stay 6 nights. This may include day trips to Segovia and Toledo.
• Feb 25 - train to Granada. Stay 4 nights.
• Mar 1 - bus to Cordoba. Stay 2 nights.
• Mar 3 - train to Seville. Bus to Faro

The latest list of cities you can reach with the Eurolines bus pass?

There's reasons not to trust the info on their websites, and to assume they won't answer emails (and I'm out of Europe with no phone, so I can't call them).

So: do anyone have the latest complete list of cities you can reach with the Eurolines 15/30 days bus pass?

(Don't look in their websites, becuse there are some contradictive info there. But maybe someone bought the pass recently and received some fresh list by email?)

Corfu

Some recent pics and info on Corfu; great off-season deals:
http://1worldimages.com/2009/11/10/corfu-crossroads-of-the-adriatic-sea/

clean, cheap room in Roma

Flying into Rome on January 1 and staying 2-3 nights before heading north (Siena, Florence, Venice) for 3 weeks. The only reservation i'm making for the entire trip is my first night or two in Rome (hope that isn't unwise)......any recommendations on a clean, inexpensive, well-located place to stay? Perhaps one of the convents? I'm a 40ish female traveling solo to Europe for the first time; love food, wine, culture, action but don't need to be in the "center" of it all -- off the beaten path and cool is better than the "hot spots" for me. Grazie!

Porto trip in March - first time - need suggestions

Hello,
My husband and I are planning to take a week-long trip to Portugal for our first anniversary. We're looking at getting a place to stay in Porto by the beaches so that we can take some time to surf. We're also looking to rent a car while there and would like to see much of the culture of Portugal. Any suggestions on places to visit, things to see, and other things to do while there would be appreciated. We will be there at the end of March going into the beginning of April and already plan on bringing our surf boards with us. Also, we don't mind going a little farther from Porto to see things. Your responses will be helpful. Thanks.

Recent Trip to Italy

Ciao! My friend and I just returned from Italy and had a wonderful time, thanks in part to the helpful folks here. I thought I would post some things we learned to help out those planning a trip. The only accomodations we booked in advance was the hotel in Venice; we had no problem booking the others as we went along. We travelled everywhere by train; Italy's train system is very convenient and easy to use. All hotels were booked through www.venere.com. All cities we found to be quite walkable and rarely used public transport. We flew into Venice and spent two nights. It was so valuable to have a hotel located close to the bus station once we saw that we'd have to haul our luggage up and down so many flights of stairs on the bridges. We had easy access to everything being low-tourist season, but if you want the secret tour of the Palazzo Ducale, you still need to make reservations a d... more »