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Two Weeks in Europe

post #1 of 22
2/3/12 at 2:30am
Thread Starter 
Looking to do 2-2.5 weeks or so in Europe in April. This is my first real trip aside from resort vacations and I'll be going solo at 25 years old. Looking for recommendations for where to stay, what to do etc. I'm looking to break my trip down like this;

Berlin: 4 days
Hamburg: 3 days
Amsterdam: 4 days
London (not sure about this one yet): 2 days
Scotland (Glasglow/Edinburgh): 4-5 days

I'm looking to meet new people, have some fun and do some post-breakup/life changing events soul searching (aka drink good beer and meet girls). I'm not too interested in the booze cruise type tours and not interested in playing tourist.

Ideas on hostels etc are appreciated. As well, if anyone has done this before...are my timelines fairly reasonable? I'm a quality over quantity guy and these seem like worthwhile locations to hit according to my research.
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post #2 of 22
2/3/12 at 4:09am
Amsterdam is very nice but is rather small, so you may want to consider swapping the amount of days between Amsterdam and London.

London is huge geographically and if you've never been there before, there is just so much to do, expensive though apart from the world class museums that are free. If you want to relax,though, Amsterdam is a great option, and not necessarily involving coffee shops. smile.gif

Your schedule concerns central / northern Europe, have you thought of moving further south or north? Or maybe a side trip to a more rural location away from the big cities?
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post #3 of 22
2/3/12 at 4:16am
Quote:
Originally Posted by johnH123 View Post

Looking to do 2-2.5 weeks or so in Europe in April. This is my first real trip aside from resort vacations and I'll be going solo at 25 years old. Looking for recommendations for where to stay, what to do etc. I'm looking to break my trip down like this;
Berlin: 4 days
Hamburg: 3 days
Amsterdam: 4 days
London (not sure about this one yet): 2 days
Scotland (Glasglow/Edinburgh): 4-5 days
I'm looking to meet new people, have some fun and do some post-breakup/life changing events soul searching (aka drink good beer and meet girls). I'm not too interested in the booze cruise type tours and not interested in playing tourist.
Ideas on hostels etc are appreciated. As well, if anyone has done this before...are my timelines fairly reasonable? I'm a quality over quantity guy and these seem like worthwhile locations to hit according to my research.

Is there a specific reason for your wanting to go to Scotland? I can think of a bunch of places that I'd rather go for a trip like this.
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post #4 of 22
2/3/12 at 5:34am
why Hamburg?

I think that Berlin, Amsterdam, Brussels and London for 2 weeks would be a better plan, and a good fit of your time. Adding Paris instead of one city wouldn't be a bad thing, or changing the structure to be half norther eurorope and half southern europe.
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post #5 of 22
2/3/12 at 5:45am
Quote:
Originally Posted by globetrotter View Post

why Hamburg?
I think that Berlin, Amsterdam, Brussels and London for 2 weeks would be a better plan, and a good fit of your time. Adding Paris instead of one city wouldn't be a bad thing, or changing the structure to be half norther eurorope and half southern europe.
Ahem!
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post #6 of 22
2/3/12 at 6:09am

I found Hamburg to be similar to Berlin (at least as a visitor with limited time). If you want to drink good beer and meet girls, I suggest visiting Belgium (between Ghent, Brussells, Bruges, Antwerp most likely).

 

I also don't think visiting London for only 2 days will be worth it. After the 2 days, you'll likely have felt you've done nothing there because the city is very, very large.

 

I'm also curious in your choice of Scotland. Why not Madrid, Paris, or Prague?

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post #7 of 22
2/3/12 at 6:14am
Quote:
Originally Posted by b1os View Post

Ahem!

sorry, I like Hamburg, but I go there for business every now and a again. there are maybe 20 cities in Germany I would go before Hamburg for vacation, maybe 100 cities in Europe I would go before Hamburg for vacation.
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post #8 of 22
2/3/12 at 6:27am
I'd take out at least one day from Amsterdam and add it to London. I spent 6 days in London at the beginning of December, and still had plenty of things which I'll do on a future trip. Four days in Berlin seems about right. Since you're already planning on being in the north with Berlin, maybe you could add a Scandinavian country instead of Hamburg. How are you planning on getting around? If you begin in Berlin, it'd be quite convenient to train from Berlin to Amsterdam, Amsterdam to Brussels, and Brussels to Paris/London, as with Globetrotter's plan. I'd only give Brussels a couple of days, but it's definitely a place to visit.
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post #9 of 22
2/3/12 at 8:23am
Also, for life-changing experiences (not of the booze/girl variety), I can't recommend enough going to a concentration camp. Dachau seems to be one of the most easily accessible (from Munich), but I made it to Auschwitz. If you can find a decent flight to Krakow then it is definitely worth your time. The American Memorial at Omaha Beach is moving as well. It's a bit of a trek from Paris at about 3 hours on train and 30-45 minutes by bus from Bayeux.
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post #10 of 22
2/3/12 at 9:07am
Quote:
Originally Posted by globetrotter View Post

sorry, I like Hamburg, but I go there for business every now and a again. there are maybe 20 cities in Germany I would go before Hamburg for vacation, maybe 100 cities in Europe I would go before Hamburg for vacation.
Ha, no offense taken. I think Hamburg is a nice city when the sun shines, but that's it. I'd not travel there myself. Personally, if I were OP, I'd spent most of the time in Paris and London. That is, maybe 6 days Paris, 5 days London and 3 days in Amsterdam/Berlin/Copenhagen/... or just one week in Paris and London. But then again, I like culture and would never travel somewhere just for the sake of partying.
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post #11 of 22
2/3/12 at 12:44pm
If you are just going to drink beer and meet girls, look at eastern Europe Prague, Warsaw etc.
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post #12 of 22
2/3/12 at 2:13pm
Do pub crawls. Trust me on this, you meet so many people if you get on the right ones and it makes for a cheaper night of drinking overall (and you have people in your group). Its also 1000x times easier to hook up versus going into a bar solo.

A lot of them are promoted on hostels, but do your own research and see if they have a FB page with photos, saves a ton of time.

I would recommend going to Madrid-Barcelona-Paris. You'll have a richer experience, culturally speaking. Or Italy. Something where people are a little ruder and everything is old world. Prague is awesome too.
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post #13 of 22
2/3/12 at 8:56pm
Thread Starter 
Thanks all for the responses.

I've decided to change my intinerary a bit... Prague->Berlin->Hamburg->Amsterdam->Scotland. I'm just looking to chill out for 2 weeks or so (might actually stretch this out to 20 days), I'm not really going with a specific goal in mind and I'm not overly concerned about too much tourist stuff. I have an Eastern Europe trip and Ireland trip on the books to do within the next year or so, I'm using this as an opportunity to feel out backpacking. I've spent the last 8 months cooped up in one of the world's less desirable locations, so my only goal is to....not have a goal to my trip.

I'm working with a large number of Germans right now and they have advised me to hit Hamburg, even if just for a day or two. Also, I'm heading to Scotland as I have a fairly strong cultural/personal interest in that place.

Pub crawls sound like a great idea, and was something I was looking at. A lot of people have been pushing me towards a contiki/topdeck type of tour but I'm really more interested in getting into the local culture as opposed to travelling with a huge group of English speaking backpackers. Those tours look like fun, but not what I want at this point in time.
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post #14 of 22
2/4/12 at 1:22am
Cross Hamburg, stay in Belgium instead (Beer, Beer, Beer, chocolate and pommes frites laugh.gif). Berlin is enough Germany you'll need. You won't experience any "local culture" in the Reeperbahn.
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post #15 of 22
2/4/12 at 4:03am

Berlin is a veery good choice,

This is one of the most underrated city in Europe.

Barcelona, as Xericx said, is kind of must see as well

 

 

For girls of course Poland & Czech are recommended ;)

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