Europe visiting best way
What's the better access to visiting Europe this summertime, if you can remain a month or much and seek to view rather a piece, but you wear't need to consume overly more money or remain at the lowest bottom-end hotels? That's the challenge an elderly pair newly posed. And although it's exceedingly comprehensive, I can offer some general counseling. If you now: cheap travel - it`s easy and very interesting
To begin, if your picture of an inexpensive European hotel is a drab six-floor walkup, you're 20 to 30 years behind the times. As in the United States, European budget accommodations are progressively at contemporary budget chains. The bottom-end chains are a piece plainer than any we have here, with really tiny rooms (around 100 angular feet) and maybe a tub across the hallway, but the next tier upward is often like Motel 6, Super 8, and new U. S. budget chains.
If you intend to remain as lengthy as four to six weeks, however, my hint is that you resolve downward for a week or much in a specific spot and make your sightseeing by day excursions quite than shift hotel.
* Settle down in a major city apartment and do your sightseeing by public transportation.
* Settle down in a countryside cottage and do your excursions in a rented car.
In your shoes, I'd do some of each—maybe a week or so in two cities and a week or so in two countryside areas.
Just about any major capital and commercial center would do for city-based stays. My first choice would be Paris, as it has lots to see and do and excellent local and regional public transportation. As an added plus, rental apartments for the summer are fairly plentiful in Paris because so many Parisians go away for a month or more. Also good: Either Milan or Rome for Italy; Amsterdam, Brussels, Berlin, or Frankfurt for Germany; and just about any sizable city for Switzerland. I'd add London except for the low-cost constraint.
To keep costs a bit lower, you might consider some time in Eastern Europe—a city such as Budapest, Prague, or Warsaw—or the countryside. However you'll find fewer rental choices and you'll probably find it a bit harder to cope with shopping and the other details of daily rental life.
Whatever city you stay in, you'll be taking a lot of short day-trip excursions rather than a few long trips. I suggest you avoid rail passes and instead look to everyday senior deals for your train and transit requirements.
For a countryside stay, I'd say, pick out what you like. France, Italy, and Spain have a wider selection of rural rentals than other European countries, but you can find options just about everywhere. I'd stay away from Provence and Tuscany, because rentals there are so over-publicized that prices are high and availabilities are tight in the summer season. And in midsummer I'd also avoid seaside areas, since the locals grab up those rentals.
Whether for city or countryside, the Internet is full of sites that list European vacation rentals. Among the bigger are Vacation Rentals by Owner and HomeAway, both of which provide listings prepared by property owners and link you to those owners. If you prefer to deal with a U.S.-based agency that actually visits and evaluates its properties, start with At Home in France for France and Spain and Vacanza Bella for Italy. Those are just two of dozens, however, and you might want to do (or have your travel agent do) some more extensive searching. And if you live in a U.S. location Europeans might consider desirable, consider a home exchange through a site like HomeLink International.
