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European Vacations

Planning a European Vacation

Most people will tell you that the first thing you need to do is set your budget. I disagree. The first thing is to figure out how much time you have and the second is to figure out what you ‘hope to see’. THEN you set a budget.

It’s All About Time

For those making their first trip to Europe, time is usually the most constrained commodity. When my wife and I were working, vacation planning was all about optimizing weekends and holidays to make the most of our limited time. We deferred the longer vacations to when we were retired and had more time.

Let’s say that you have two weeks. That’s from when you get off work on Friday (Day 0), then that first week (Day 1-7), the next week (Day 8-14) and the following weekend (Day 15-16). Then you get to go back to work on Day 17 to recover from your vacation. At least that was how we used to do it. Of those 16 days, at least two are travel days getting to and from the old world. That brings us to the topic of transportation.

Flight Decisions

Our recommendation is travel to Europe on an overnight flight and return on a daytime flight. The last time we flew to Europe we left JFK Airport on a 10 PM flight, arriving in Paris around noon. We were relaxed and got into our hotel with ease mid-afternoon. After unpacking, we went to a local restaurant. Later, after a relaxed evening, we went to sleep early and hit the ground running the following morning.

On the other hand when I was still working, I once had a 9 AM flight out of Newark to London that had me arriving at my hotel that evening. It was close to 11 PM when I finally got to my hotel. I had a room service dinner and then hit the sack with a full stomach. For me, that wasn’t the best option, but it was what I had.

Comparing the two options, I felt more refreshed after the overnight flight. On the other hand, I know that some people want to maximize time. To them, that half day gained using the morning flight might be worth more than the discomfort that first day brings. Obviously, that’s something you need to decide for yourself.

Vacation Modes

Over the years we’ve done various different kinds of vacations in Europe. On one end of the spectrum, we planned and executed everything on our own, focused on keeping costs low. At the other end of the spectrum we were part of a 12 day planned tour where everything was laid out and organized for us. There is a mix of costs and benefits to each, and a variety of points in between.

Doing it yourself

– This is tough. You’ve got to figure out which countries and cities to visit, and what to see and do while you’re there. The Internet definitely has plenty of resources to help. These resources include travel sites (Travelocity, Expedia, etc.), blogs, airline sites and more. Next come decisions around where to stay. Trip Advisor is a great site for looking at reviews and getting an idea around cost.

Budget planning – Good hotels run $130-$200 per night, and you get what you pay for. Nicer accommodations obviously cost more. Rental car including insurance from a mainstream vendor should run you about $250/wk (compact with manual transmission) and gas about $350/wk. That puts a base weekly cost around $1650 for one week in Greece or Spain. More in mainstream Europe (England, Germany, France, Netherlands, etc.) where car rentals can be significantly more expensive.
Note – Unlike in the US, your personal car insurance generally does NOT cover your rental car. So you’ll need to opt for personal injury and damage coverage.

A few other points. There are things that you’ll want to do that involve local tours in English. Assuming you spend an average of $75 a day (per person) on these tours, that pushes a one week cost to about $2700. Obviously you have food and other costs, but this is a good number for comparison with an organized tour. The last consideration is language. We did quite well in Spain with our very poor Spanish. Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovenia were beyond anything we could master. In our travels, The Netherlands, Spain and Germany seem to have the most English speakers. Eastern Europe is friendly, but has fewer English speakers.

✔Pros – You can control costs and management of your schedule is completely in your hands.
✔Cons – First, you can spend a great deal of time planning. You may also limited by your knowledge of the areas you’re planning on visiting. Booking hotels and transportation may be challenging. You can get tripped up on travel and transfers if you’re a less experienced traveler. Language barriers.

Organized Tour

This can be easy. You look at one or more tour company, review their tours and pick one. You can work with the tour company directly, or work through a travel agent. We’ve used Liberty Travel for years and like that we can get catalogs from multiple tour operators to browse through. Our travel adviser, Susan, can normally answer our questions or she reaches out to the tour operator and quickly gets the answers for us. She is absolutely amazing.

The tours we’ve taken generally (but not always) have the same starting and ending location, making flight decisions easier. Regardless, your travel adviser can help with flight recommendations. You can often get discounted flights through the tour operator as well. Globus is by far our preferred tour operator. They’re not the cheapest, nor are the the most expensive, and they’ve never disappointed us.

What we like

What we like about this option is that there is a predetermined plan, hotels and transportation coordinated, and professional guides provide insight and color during the trip. Most tours also have free time and optional excursions built in, increasing flexibility. Globus picks nice hotels and we’ve found that the guides will provide great recommendations on what to see and do during your free time. They can also help with dinner recommendations, which is great as you get to experience a new location with confidence.

Costs

Costs advantages are a bit difficult to calculate. Using the $2700 weekly cost for Greece or Spain, going it on your own looks very attractive compared to an eight day group tour in Greece that will run about $3800 for a couple. However, the comparison is like comparing apples to oranges. Unless you’ve visited a country before, and are comfortable with where to go and what to see, we strongly believe that an organized tour is the best option. That experience is very much akin to visiting a city and first taking the hop-on/hop-off bus. After a day on the bus, you know what you really want to see. An overview tour of Spain really prepares you for revisiting… or not. (In Coming to America I write about similar value in taking local excursions off a cruise ship)

Benefits

Organized tours generally provide most breakfast and some other meals, which is great. The real value comes from the organization and local knowledge you get from the tour director and guides. You’re visiting the most relevant sites with someone that knows what to see and when to visit. You get to enjoy the experience without getting stressed over hotels, meals, transportation and translations. You can focus, and enjoy the experience.
✔Pros – Most efficient use of your time both in planning and on the trip. Removes the burden of coordinating a myriad of travel options including the hotels and transportation. Most breakfast and some other meals are normally included in an organized tour. Low stress.

✔Cons – More costly. Your ability to deviate outside the planned itinerary is somewhat limited.

Hybrid Plan

This is our favorite option. You could spend 4-6 days in one area (Barcelona or Madrid for example) at the start of your trip while relaxing and getting acclimated to the time change. Take the Hop-on Hop-off bus to get an overview of the city. Then spend your time exploring whatever you found interesting from the bus tour and from the front desk at the hotel. Staying in a larger city allows you to leverage public transportation like the Metro or local buses. That can be a huge plus – fewer complications and costs from rental cars!

Tour Vendors

We found Julia Travel to be a very reliable provider of excellent half and full day excursions across Spain. There are similar vendors across Europe. Tourist Information centers in the train stations are also a great resource for information on what to see and do locally. We always found English speaking staff available in these centers.

After a few days on your own, you’ll be rested and adjusted to the time change. That’s a great time to join your scheduled organized tour in a different city. Best of all, you get the best of both worlds as the tour gives a great experience, but the personal accomplishment of exploring on your own has its own satisfaction.

Here are some other points to consider when traveling to Europe.

  1. Spain, and to a lesser extent, France, have later dinner hours. We spent six weeks in Spain in 2018 and found that most restaurants opened beginning after 6 PM and many opened at 8 PM.
  2. Spending a bit more for a hotel in Europe often means you get a continental breakfast included. That can be both a great convenience and time saver.
  3. ATM access is not that much of a big deal any longer. You can look at the back of you bank ATM card for the networks supported or just use a major bank ATM. In Spain we used both Caxia and Santander without issues. In Germany (Munich) we used a bank ATM across from the main train station.
  4. Organized tours like those provided by Globus, AAA, Kensington, and Tauck generally have agreements so that they can skip to the head of the line when they arrive. That means less time waiting in line and more time soaking up the culture.
Do It Yourself Resources:

Use Viator to preview what local tours are available
Use local Tourist Information Offices- (excellent resource and typically have English language speakers)
Identify quality local travel experts (e.g. Julià Travel in Spain)
Travelocity and Trip Advisor are good Internet based resources

Hop-on Hop-off bus tours are excellent ways to get to know a new city!

Two great examples of local Tourist Information offices are Valencia and Xativa in Spain. Excellent service, English spoken and plenty to do. You can find more offices like this all over Europe!

Organized Tour Resources:

Liberty Travel – Our preferred travel agency
AAA Travel – Surprising quality
Globus Journeys – Best Mix of quality and affordability

Example Tours:
Globus – Classic Greece
Globus – Eastern Europe

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