Our travels to Europe began when we were married; we learned a lot along the way since then. In the first part of this story, we talked about getting to your destination and our favorite places to stay once there.
Our travels to Europe began when we were married; we learned a lot along the way since then.
In the first part of this story, we talked about getting to your destination and our favorite places to stay once there. Here, we’ll dive into the fun stuff: what to do once you’ve found a place to lay your head.
But first, remember this: like all things in life, attitude is important when traveling. An ancient Greek philosopher said, “Some people can make a heaven out of hell; others can make a hell out of heaven.” It is true. A positive attitude really makes a trip a joy, and problems become challenges to overcome. An example would be, on a trip with our children, we were staying in a small French village above the Mediterranean with a steep incline to the beach. As we were ready to leave the beach, the underpowered car could not go up the hill in first gear. Jane and the children got out, but it still did not have power to get up the hill. The luggage was next with the same result. Finally, I turned the car around and went up the hill in reverse. We weren’t mad at the car. We accepted its limitations. Now we realized why we had such great gas mileage. It became one of our nicest memories of the trip.
Without further ado, a couple things we like to do.
River cruises
Here you have the option of having a great adventure at a bargain price. While we have taken one wonderful European river cruise from a German company (now gone), there are now no European river cruises at mid-season that are less than $300 per person per night. One company -Viking River Cruises — advertises 2 for 1 — which on a 7 night cruise is — at the lowest Standard rate — $2,456 per person for the seven nights instead of $4,799 per person. That is $350pp per day versus $685pp per day. Well!! The lovely alternative is for three couples to charter and self operate a river boat. While the companies prefer previous boating experience, it is not required. In all cases instruction is given as is a boat handling lesson before actual departure. You are in historic canals that have lovely villages and towns on both sides. Here you go at your own pace, you visit scenic villages and farms. As you visit these places and admire the beautiful scenery you really become almost a part of the area. The two of us have done this with two other couples in Friesland and the joy and the sense of accomplishment is great. The most popular area for such river boat cruising is in France and the current 2012 weekly rate (mid-season which is May 12 to June 29 and all of September) for a very nice six berth river boat through the Rive de France company www.rivedefrance.com is 1,377 Euros — plus approximately 200 Euros for fuel, any one way fees and cleaning for a total of 1,577 Euros ($2,208 dollars at the current exchange rate of $1.40). This equals $368 per person for the week. Adding a generous $30 per day per day for purchased food and wine and meals ashore, the total daily per person cost is $83 for a vacation you will always remember. Plus, your friends will admire your adventure and envy your courage.
Cruise ships
Cruise ships often provide a very good bargain With a consultants help, cruise ships can be a great bargain — like almost half of the current lowest rate. We only like to travel on mid-size ships (1,200 to 2,000 passengers), as the giant ships seem overwhelming to us and the smaller ships are too expensive for our budget.
On our latest 2011 “twice the fun at half the price” trip we took a trans-Atlantic 15 night cruise which started on April 23rd. — our 51st. wedding anniversary — on the Norwegian Sun. As the Norwegian Sun was leaving Port Canaveral we were having dinner in the ships most beautiful dining room as we entered the Atlantic. Our stops stopping included the port of Ponta del Garda in the Azores, Lisbon in Portugal, Bruges in Belgium, Amsterdam in the Netherlands and ending in Copenhagen, Denmark. The total amount we paid — including port charges and taxes — for this wonderful cruise was $625 per person — or $42 per person per day. We achieved this bargain price five weeks before the cruise departure by working with an outstanding cruise consultant, Harry Kroll at Cruise Company hkroll@wth.com. Before getting this wonderful rate, we had checked the various staterooms of the ship, as we knew that a few inside cabins are suite size and will sleep five or accommodate wheel chairs. These cabins are usually held until the last minute in case a request for a wheel chair cabin is made. So, we asked Harry if we could have cabin 9108. He said, “Let me check“. A few minutes later he returned to the phone and said: “You have it! If a wheel chair cabin is requested, they will upgrade you.” No such request was made and we had this beautiful large cabin for the cruise. For this $625 per person we had outstanding service, perfect accommodations, 15 wonderful dinners — with as many courses as you wanted — in a luxurious dining room and always at an ocean view table, fantastic buffet breakfasts and lunches, plus stopping at five wonderful ports.
At those ports we hired, with three other delightful couples and at less than half the per person price of a ship sponsored tour, a driver having a nine passenger van. Our first stop was the port of Ponta Delgada in the Azores. As we had never been to the Azores, we called my brother, — a former SAC Air Force officer who had landed in Ponta Delgada a number of times — and asked if we could go around the island in one day. He replied, you could go around the island three times in one day. So we decided that we would not only go around the island but we would go inland and visit the many lakes and inland villages. We also had lunch in the town on the other side of the island — with no other tourists in sight. In our Lisbon stop we toured the city, then went to villages inland and then up the coast for 45 miles, seeing beautiful sand dunes and beaches. Coming down the coast we went through some very lovely coastal towns. In Bruges, the former Royal capital of Belgium, the eight of us spent the day taking a river boat tour of the town and then seeing the many historic buildings and museums. In our Amsterdam stop we had a very full day — being the first off the ship and almost the last on. Our nine passenger van was a brand new Fiat (more luxurious than a Mercedes van) with a great driver. We first drove west toward the north sea, going along the huge inland lake, visiting picturesque villages and small lake side towns all the way up to the town of Sneek in the Freisland Province of the Netherlands. We drove back along the other side of the lake and then had a complete tour of Amsterdam. When we were back at the ship, the driver of the van said: “I purchased this van eight weeks ago exactly for during these extensive tours and you are the first to request it. Thank you.”
On our day tours, we were able to see more places than any other passenger on the ship and at less than half the cost of an offered tour.
We ended the tour in Copenhagen where we stayed for three days at the Hotel Maritime, which is located only two blocks from the famous Nyhavn Harbor, which is our favorite and relatively inexpensive hotel in Copenhagen.
We flew back to Boston on Iceland Air at a cost of $650 per person and we had a great flight with a short stop in Iceland. For this same flight other airline one way fares ranged from $1,175 to $1,250.
