Europe Adventure: The Prelude

For those of you who might not know, our Europe trip came about as I was to do an overseas immersion programme in Ireland for 6 weeks. Since I had to make my way there, we decided that why not take the chance to travel to some other places in Europe!

Being students, we were on a budget. However, this is not the most economical way of travelling. While many people might suggest staying in BnBs (bed and breakfast), we decided that it's safer to stay in hotels due to the comparatively larger amount of reviews on trusted sites such as Agoda and Booking.com.

The cities we went are: Paris, London, Rome, Venice, Zurich, London. In that order. Perhaps some of you might question the geographical route as in why is it not so 顺路. Well, that's because of some time restrictions we had as well as my dream to spend countdown in London. Spreading 14 days like so...

Paris (2) -> London (3) -> Rome (3) -> Venice (3) -> Zurich (2) -> London (1)

International Transport

So first off, as with any trip, one would have to book air tickets if they would like to travel. As you can see from the route above, we were flying in to Paris Charles De Gaulle, and out of London Heathrow. And here's our recommendation for cheap tickets: Skyscanner. This website is quite well known, and the good thing is that they provide comparisons. However, purchases would still have to be made from the airline itself, which is through another website. For example, in our case, we got Emirates return tickets at SGD 1500, which was a bargain at that time. In recent times, it seems to have gotten a little bit cheaper and I've heard people getting Qatar tickets at SGD 1000 so do give it a shot. Other cheaper options include KLM/Air France, but my friends who took it had bad experience (poor service, poor air quality).

Besides the international flight, we had to get around in the EU. We took the Eurostar from Paris to London. Book directly from Eurostar in order to save $ instead from other 3rd party websites. Also do book early, which yields you the best rates. We flew from London to Rome (SGD 200), and Zurich to London (SGD 165) via British Airways, also booked via Skyscanner. All prices are quoted per pax.

The rest of the journeys between cities were made on trains. Train travel is pretty convenient when travelling in Europe, if possible, do take trains! As mentioned, Paris to London was on the Eurostar as mentioned. Rome and Venice are in Italy and train travel is very simple with Trenitalia. It's an internal train service for Italy, and booking is simple via their website. As with other bookings make sure you book early for the best deals.

Accomodation

A lot of people would choose BnBs, and book them from sites like Airbnb. However personally I really place a lot of emphasis on clean toilets and hotels are a safer choice for me! So, going back to a trusty site which we have used for our travels with lots of relatively reliable reviews... Agoda! Do take note of whether you go to agoda.com.sg or agoda as the accounts would be different. We're not going to do any reviews on the hotels we stayed in, that will have to wait for later posts so stay tuned ya? Instead, we're just recommending the tools which you can use for your various bookings!

Vital statistics

So, most of you would be curious about some vital information and wouldn't want to plough through all that text above, so they're listed below!

Duration: 14 days

Total Amount spent (including shopping): ~SGD 5000

Cities covered: Paris, London, Rome, Italy, Venice, Zurich

Flights: 3

Train rides: 3

Air tickets from: Skyscanner

Train tickets from: Eurostar, Trenitalia

Accommodation from: Agoda

We'll be getting a post out soon on our first destination - Paris!

Double Hellos