Heya all, my missus want to go to Europe for our honeymoon and I was wondering if anyone could share some tips on flights, rail, accomm, etc. to basically get the best value in time and money. Probably go for 3 weeks. Maybe land in London first and visit the cities of Amsterdam, Paris, Rome and Venice.

 

Noice. Even I'd consider getting married for that!

 

To me???

 

<blushes>

Never knew you cared!

 

Yep.
Go to a travel agent, get them to quote you on paper, and take it to a Flight Centre. They will beat it... well at least thats what they say. Just don't get your quote from a Students Flights or Escape Travel as they are the same company.
Get it from some sort of "yum cha" downtown travel agency. They are by far the cheapest and get their quote on paper. Hand it to Flight Centre and watch the person at the counter have a mini heart attack when you ask them to beat it.
Word on the street is if you are up for it, buying a Eurail pass is the cheapest way to get around. But thats if you're up for slummin' it with the backpackers on your honeymoon.

 

Sounds like a plan. I don't mind the Eurorail, actually prefer it so I can see the countryside rather than flying from city to city. Want to keep costs down as well of course. Can't decide whether or not I want to hire a car in France or UK and drive some of the way or train it.

 

If you get a car make sure you have a GPS navigator. In fact take one anyway as it will help you in streets of foreign cities.

 

Will a local GPS bought here work over there?

 

GPSs work anywhere on the planet if you have the maps.

If you buy a TomTom for example you can purchase maps for all over Europe.

 

I'll get back to this blackie. I went over for three and a half months in 06 and should be able to help you out a lot.

For instance, don't get a eurail pass they're a rip off and you're better off just paying for individual tickets.

Tomtom would be a great tool to have. We got lost walking around a few times and that can be half the fun but it can also lead to some great adventures and seeing sites you would've missed.

Do a comparison of using london as a hub vs not because I'm not sure its really worthwhile if you're travelling short term i.e <1year.

You might be better off flying into italy and then home from london and just working out your in between flights?

I went from scandinavia down through germany into austria then back up through czech and into berlin again to fly to greece then did 10 days through the greek islands then over to italy and spent about 3 weeks working our way up from amalfi to rome to florence to cinque terre via pisa to venice then geneva then paris then munich then brussels then amsterdam then london the bangkok then home.

Only thing I booked in advance was my flight to helsinki and my flight home from london via bangkok. Not for everyone but definitely for me except if it were a honeymoon! For my honeymoon I'm thinking thailand or vietnam where you live like a king and queen without having their budget hehe.

I'll be heading over to trek vietnam, cambodia and laos this year though then honeymoon in march 09