Suitcases — Update

As I said in my earlier post about going with the backpack style carry-on bags, I would do a follow-up story to tell you how it went.

First, a little more background on my efforts. I did a sample pack with enough clothes to make up 20+ outfits. Packed it and left it for 3 weeks then opened it up to check to see how wrinkled the clothes were. I packed 8 short sleeved shirts, two long pants, 2 shorts, underwear for a week and my DOP kit. I used the techniques shown on RickSteves.com. Best of all, the total weight was about 22 pounds. I can carry that and it will fit in the overhead of any airline that we planned to use during our trip to Europe in the spring of 2014.

Since we planned a week in Malta and a couple of days in Barcelona, prior to our 12 day cruise on the Mediterranean, we split our packing into two parts. First of all, we packed a 24″ roller bag with our cruise clothes. Both my clothes and my wife’s clothes. I pre-ordered the rental of my tux on the ship so that I did not have to pack a suit or sportcoat and slacks. All of my wife’s dresses would take up less space and weight less than one sportcoat, so I figured that it would be well worth the cost. Since it was a 12 day cruise, we needed enough clothes for a dozen outfits for each of us and a pair of dress shoes in addition to the shoes that I would wear to Malta. Also, since we had our carry-on backpacks from the week in Malta, we would have some extra clothes there as well. The roller only weighed in at about 35 pounds. Quite a drastic reduction from two 48 pound roller bags the year earlier.

We were not going to be using the “cruise clothes” in Malta and since we did not want to haul the roller bag to Malta and back, we made arrangements to drop the roller bag off at Citadines, the hotel we were using when we returned to Barcelona the following week. I planned a 6 hour layover in Barcelona before heading to Malta so that we had time to put our carry-on bags in the locker at the airport, take the R2 train into downtown and the L3 metro to our hotel to drop off the roller bag. The staff at the Citadines locked our bag in their secure storage room and it was there waiting for us when we returned a week later. We even had time to walk the La Rambla and enjoy some tapas and a cold beer before heading back to the airport.

As many of you know, most timeshare condos have a laundry room or a washer and dryer in the room. The place in Malta had a laundry room, so, on the night before the last day at the condo in Malta, I put on my bathing suit, and went to the laundry room and washed everything else. That meant that we would have week’s worth of clean clothes to add to what we packed in the roller bag and left in Barcelona.

I know you are just waiting to hear how it went. It went great but I know that we can go lighter next year. I still had too many shirts and pants and not enough underwear. My wife had a couple of outfits that she didn’t wear as well. Doing the week in the timeshare before the cruise worked out well because we had access to a washer and dryer which meant that we could get along with fewer clothes. The other thing that worked out well is that by sharing one checked bag and having a week’s worth of clothes in our carry-on bags, we did not have to worry about a lost bag. Fortunately we did not have a lost bag and could change clothes as often as we wanted during the cruise.

Already looking forward to next year’s vacation, especially since we will be going to Africa for a couple of weeks before we spend a week in Myrtle Beach for a family re-union. That means that we will need one set of clothes for the safari and an entirely different set of clothes for a week on the beach because it will be winter in South Africa and summer in Myrtle Beach.

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Turning Dreams into Memories,
One Vacation at a Time.
Bon Voyage!!!

As you might guess, this document is a compilation of information from our travels as well as from other travelers. I hope it has been of value to you. Check out the important links below.

Don’t hesitate to email us when you return from your trip with any suggestions that will make this document better for you and your fellow travelers!

You may also want to visit our Facebook page, www.Facebook.com/TeamEdwardsTravel

Riding the Metro in Barcelona

I noted in a post last year about how to get the best use of the Metro when travelling in Paris. This year, we traveled to Barcelona and after doing my homework, we were ready. Of course, I printed out the map for the local trains and the metro so that I had them in hand when we arrived in Barcelona. I also downloaded the RENFE application to my phone before the trip. It provides info on the train schedule in Barcelona.

I knew that we would take the shuttle from Terminal 1 to Terminal 2 to catch the R2 train into Barcelona. We would get off on the 4th stop at Passeig de Gracia. You should know that the name you see on the map is not always the name that you see on the board on the train. For example, our stop showed up as pg Gracia not as Passeig de Gracia. I always count stops so that I don’t miss my stop. A couple we met from Grants Pass missed their stop, the one at Sants, before our stop at Passeig de Gracia. We helped them off the train and over to the platform to get them back to their stop before we proceeded on to the Metro.

My wife saw some pickpockets getting ready to put the squeeze play on the man and she rushed them and shouted at them to leave the man alone and they snuck off into the crowd. Another thing that we noticed when we got on the train was the “helpful” man that assisted people with their luggage, placing it on the far side of the train, out of sight of the “victim” where their partner in crime could take the bag while the victim was still getting their other bags onto the train. Another reason that we opted for smaller and lighter bags for our trip.

Click on the map to enlarge it.

From there,we would walk over to the L3 Metro, which was three floors below the train, and take it two stops to the Liceu station in the middle of La Rambla. Only a half a block to our hotel from there. My research also provided several additional tips to make it a more enjoyable vacation.

First of all, I discovered that there are lockers at Terminal 1 in Barcelona where we could store our suitcases while we went into town. I planned a 6+ hour layover because we wanted to leave our carry-on bags in the locker and take our 24″ roller bag to the Citadines Aparthotel, (the hotel where we will stay before our cruise but after a side trip to Malta). I had made contact with the Citadines hotel on La Rambla to make arrangements to leave our suitcase with our cruise clothes so that we did not have to haul them to Malta and back. If you remember my earlier blog about Paris, we stayed at a Citadines Aparthotel there and loved it. It was a 1 bedroom apartment in the hotel. The one in Barcelona, we chose to use, is a studio apartment in their hotel right in the middle of the action. They are a great chain of hotels and apartments. When we vacation in England in the next year or two, I have already picked out a Citadines that we will be using there.

Second, to make the process a little easier, we purchased the 10 ride metro ticket that was good on the train as well as the metro. My research told me that I would need to have some Euros in small denominations to use the machine to buy the 10 ride ticket. We used 8 rides to make it downtown and back to the airport. We picked up second 10 ride ticket at the same time so that were ready for our return from Malta without having to pick up the extra ticket during the rush. We had 6 rides left when we started our cruise and gave the ticket to a couple we met from Tazmania who were going to spend a couple of days in Barcelona after the cruise. Even with giving the left over rides away, it was still cheaper to buy the 10 ride tickets than to buy single ride tickets for each leg of the journey.

If you are thinking of visiting, you may also want to have a look at this video. We did not make it but want to share it with you.

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Turning Dreams into Memories,
One Vacation at a Time.
Bon Voyage!!!

As you might guess, this document is a compilation of information from our travels as well as from other travelers. I hope it has been of value to you. Check out the important links below.

Don’t hesitate to email us when you return from your trip with any suggestions that will make this document better for you and your fellow travelers!

You may also want to visit our Facebook page, www.Facebook.com/TeamEdwardsTravel

Suitcases and Travel

I don’t know about you, but after our trip to Europe last year where we hauled our suitcases on and off the metro and the trains and airplanes, and up and down three flights of stairs in the metro, I don’t want to have to go through that again.

At the time, I did not think that we had really over-packed by too much. We were going to be gone for about 21 days and even planned to stop to do laundry about 10 to 12 days into the trip. We each had one checked bag and one carry-on bag and one personal bag. The personal bag had our medicine, travel docs, one change of clothes, my kindle and snacks. Nothing was over-weight; but when you figure that the checked bags were close to 48 pounds each and the carry-on bags were about 20 pounds each, that added up to a lot of stuff to carry. The three flights up from the metro station to the street was the final straw. We were going to pack lighter next time.

I bet you would think about what you needed to bring with you if you went through something similar. In fact, I challenge you to experiment before you leave home. Pack your bags, get on a bus or a train or the metro locally, haul your things to a hotel in a town a hundred miles or so away from home, carry your stuff to your room and then decide it it was too much.

Well, it is almost time for the next trip to Europe. We spent many hours over the past few months studying and watching seminars. I really liked the RickSteves.com video on packing light. I also looked at one from PackingLight.com that demonstrated how to travel with the equivalent of enough clothes for 60 outfits that will fit into a carry-on. Unfortunately the video from PackingLight.com is no longer available online. In both cases you would have to wash underwear and sox every couple of days to make their packing plans work. Well, I only needed to have 20-30 outfits for our trip, which meant that I could bring extra underwear and sox and not have to hand wash them every night or two, so that looked pretty good to me. Still need to find out if my existing carry-on bags would work or if I wanted to buy a new convertable bag that could be used as a backpack or hand carried luggage so that my hands were free when we hopped on and off the metro.

Before spending any money on a new carry-on bag, I also looked at what airlines allowed in the way of carry-on bags since it seemed that every airline had their own rules, especially the smaller airlines in Europe. So, to save you from having to do the same research, here is the results of our research. What you will see is a summary of several airlines rules followed by a summary of luggage that you own then a table showing examples of replacement carry-on luggage. I deleted the specifics of my luggage to leave you space to print out this article and to enter your info so that you can do your own survey. Click here for more on Packing Light.

American Airlines
Type of Bag	Size	Weight
Checked Bag	Max of 62” HWD	50#
Carry On	Max of 45” 22x14x9	40#
Personal Bag	Max of 36”
British Airways
Type of Bag	Size	Weight
Checked Bag	Max of 35.5×29.5×16	50# or 23kg
Carry On	22x18x10 or a total of 50”	50# or 23kg
Personal Bag	16x12x6 or a total of 34”	50# or 23kg
Veuling Airlines
Type of Bag	Size	Weight
Checked Bag	Max of 62” HWD	50# or 23kg
Carry On	21.65×15.78×7.87	22# or 10kg for carry on and personal bags combined.
Personal Bag	purse/briefcase/laptop	22# or 10kg for carry on and personal bags combined.
As of January 2018, Ryanair’s cabin baggage policy will change. Only priority boarding passengers will be permitted to take one small bag (35 x 20 x 20cm), plus a larger cabin bag (55 x 40 x 20cm) with a maximum weight allowance of 10kg into the cabin. Alaska Airlines
Type of Bag	Size	Weight
Checked Bag	Max of 62” HWD	50#
Carry On	24x17x10=51”	25#
Personal Bag	purse/briefcase/laptop/daypack

Fill in Your Currently Used Wheeled & Non Wheeled Bags
Description of Bag	Size in Height, Width and Depth	Total Size

Convertible Backpack Style Carry-on Bags
Name	Size	Weight	Wheels	Price
eBags eTech 2.0 Weekender- *3091 cubic inches	22x14x9	2#12oz	No	$75
eBags Motherlode Weekender Expandable-*3299 to 3651	22x14x9	4#	No	$80
Rick Steves Classic Back Door Bag *2500 cubic inches	21x14x9	3#	No	$80
Rick Steves Convertible Carry On (expandable)*2500-3000	21x14x9	3#	No	$100
Rick Steves Rolling Backpack *1960 cubic inches	20x14x7	5.5#	Yes	$160
Eagle Creek EC Weekender *2500 cubic inches	20x13x8	2#9oz	No	$150
*The numbers above with the asterisk is advertised cubic inches of space within the suitcase.

You should know that if you go for wheels, you will give up about 20% of the total carrying capacity. Also, most airlines have a restriction on how long wheeled bags can be for carry-on purposes because the wheels stick out beyond the end of the bag. EBags have lifetime warranty. They also have shoulder strap at no extra cost. It is $10 extra for Rick Steves Bags. Eagle Creek has a “no excuses” warranty. External compression straps cover bottom half of case with Rick Steves bags and the whole bag with eBags. This last item is important if you are trying to squash the bag down to fit in the overhead. Prices were online prices in March 2014.

After watching the webinars and doing the reading and re-thinking what I really needed to bring on my trip, it was time to decide to either stay with my existing roller type carry-on or buy a new convertible carry-on. I bit the bullet and bought the convertible carry-on because I knew that it would be much easier when we were on and off the metro trains.

But, will it all really fit like they showed on the videos? It was time to pack my carry-on suitcase to verify what I had learned. I also wanted to see how wrinkled everything got when things were scrunched down with the compression straps. So, I decided to try out the packing method showed on the Packing Light video. I was able to pack 4 pants, 7 shirts, 1 sport coat, 7 sets of underwear, my DOP kit and a few other items. Total weight was only 20 pounds, including the carry-on bag. I did not put in an extra pair of shoes or sox, but I will probably put the DOP kit in my personal bag and replace it with the shoes and sox and the weight will be about the same. Now I need to follow the advise on Rick Steves’ website and go downtown and walk around for a while. Better yet, take the bus or the metro to town, do some window shopping and come home. I bet I will be taking out some things when I get home.

I will get back with you after I take a test run with the new bag.

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Turning Dreams into Memories,
One Vacation at a Time.
Bon Voyage!!!

As you might guess, this document is a compilation of information from our travels as well as from other travelers. I hope it has been of value to you. Check out the important links below.

Don’t hesitate to email us when you return from your trip with any suggestions that will make this document better for you and your fellow travelers!

You may also want to visit our Facebook page, www.Facebook.com/TeamEdwardsTravel

Zurich –

During our first trip to Europe, to take a Viking River Cruise down the Rhine, from Basel, Switzerland to Amsterdam, we planned a three day pre-cruise trip to Zurich to see some sights and to get over the jet lag.

Good thing we did, because when we got to our hotel in Zurich, we went out to explore the town. It was obvious after a few false starts about what to see, that we realized that we were too strung out to make any decision other than to return to the hotel and get some sleep.

After a nap of a couple of hours, we were ready to explore. We went to the train station to scope out where we would be catching the train to Basel in just a couple of days.

I even picked up our tickets from Zurich to Basel while we were there. We wandered throughout the station to see where we would catch the train and watched a couple of trains come and go so that we knew that we would be comfortable when it was time to head to Basel for our river cruise. In fact, we found an train leaving for Basel and checked it out as well.

It was a beautiful train station, but most surprising, was that there was a compete shopping center under the station. Grocery store, restaraunts, deli stand for take-away sandwiches (which we used before our excursion on our second day in Zurich) as well as a bottle shop where we picked up a nice bottle of wine for back in our room.

We wandered through the Migras grocery store. Always fun to see what is up for sale in a foreign super market. I did note that the wine was across the hallway in a bottle shop, and that their deli was adjacent to the store, but through a separate entrance. We picked up the makings for dinner as well as a couple of sandwiches for our excursion to the Alps the following day.

We walked around the downtown district, enjoying the sights and taking several photos. We also checked out the location for our tour to the Alps for the next day. I called to verify our reservations and then we walked back to your hotel to settle in for the day. This is a beautiful city and we really were looking forward to our bus tour to the Alps the next morning.

We met up with our bus for the trip to Mt Titlis at the Sihlquai Bus Terminal. (To make it easier for you to navigate to the bus terminal in Zurich, some of the photos like the one below, has been captured from Google Maps Street View and has a live link back to the original Google Map. Click on the photo so that you can look around to get your bearings. For example, click on the photo below, turn around, and follow the tracks back toward the main train station in Zurich, then turn around and navigate back so that you are comfortable when you arrive. This is a great tool. I always try to walk the streets before I actually visit a new city.)

The guide, Trudy Carvalho from the Best of Switzerland Tours, was very friendly and told us about the sights we were seeing in English, followed by the same information in French and Spanish.

The sights were beautiful. Everything was so green. We made two stops in Lucerne, first to visit the Lion Cave then to visit the covered bridge and farmer’s market.

Above is the Chapel Bridge, the oldest covered bridge in Europe.

After our stops in Lucerne, we were off to Engelberg, Switzerland. Upon arrival in the small town of Engelberg, we went to the cable car facility to ride three different cable cars to the top of the mountain. One of them was the famous Rotair, a rotating cable car, to travel to the summit of gorgeous Mt Titlis, central Switzerland’s highest mountain. Although there was a blowing snow blizzard at the top of the mountain, is was still a sight to see.

We visited an ice cave and went out on a suspension bridge that hung along the side of a cliff. We bought a cup of hot chocolate and enjoyed our sandwiches from the Migras deli that we brought with us.

On the ride back down, we talked with a local resident who was up there to ski. He shared a photo of what it looked like earlier that morning before the snow started to fly. Beautiful. Looks like we will have to go back so that we can see it when the snow is not blowing.

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Turning Dreams into Memories,
One Vacation at a Time.
Bon Voyage!!!

As you might guess, this document is a compilation of information from our travels as well as from other travelers. I hope it has been of value to you. Check out the important links below.

Don’t hesitate to email us when you return from your trip with any suggestions that will make this document better for you and your fellow travelers!

You may also want to visit our Facebook page, www.Facebook.com/TeamEdwardsTravel

Get Some of Your Euros or Francs Before You Leave Home

One of the issues all travelers face is having the right currency in their pocket when they travel to multiple foreign countries. More importantly, having that currency when you arrive so that you don’t get robbed at the over-priced airport or hotel currency changing locations. The other big reason for getting the appropriate currency before leaving home is that we were going to be taking local transportation and most of that is done by selecting your train or metro of choice and putting the local currency into the slot. Also, if taking a taxi, their fare machines are calibrated to the local currency so that when they say 35 Francs, you don’t need to wonder how many dollars converts to 35 Francs. You just put the right number of Francs into the slot, take your ticket, and you are set to go.

Some people will say, but I need to know how many dollars that really is. I say why? Do you think the taxi driver will give you a lower fare because you think it takes fewer dollars to make up a Franc? Do you really think a mindless machine that is asking for 9 Francs will accept your $10 bill instead. Don’t add any additional stress to your trip. Don’t waste your time worrying about the exchange rate or the value of a Euro vs. a Dollar while you are bartering for goods or services. Just have fun.

How do you get convert your dollars to Euros, and do it without paying any fees? Well, as usual I went to Google to find out my options. I found that if you bank at Bank of America, www.BankOfAmerica.com/ForeignCurrency, it is as simple as logging in to your account and requesting the funds online. If you are a member of AAA, you can go to their online page at www.AAA.com/Travelmoney and it will take you to a page that talks about a couple of options to consider. If you click on “Order Foreign Currencies Online Now” it will take you to their onlinetravelcurrency.com website which uses TravelEx to allow you to order foreign currency. I found that I got fewer Euros for my money at AAA than I did at Bank of America. If you want to waste more money, you can go direct to www.TravelEx.com and order directly. You will get about 5 fewer Euros at AAA than at Bank of America, and you will get another 30 Euros less if you go direct to www.TravelEx.com. You need to check your bank to see who will give you the best deal.

I was not ready to buy the Euros when I first logged on, I was just doing research, but I did make a note of the exchange rate. The following day, I was ready to do the transaction, and noticed the rate had changed. I figured it was worth checking again every day for a while to see if I could get a better rate since those things change. After following it for a while, I made the transaction and did get a better rate than the one quoted the first time I looked. You should also just Google the exchange rate to see how close the bank is to giving you a good exchange rate.

1 Euro equals

1.31 US Dollar

Disclaimer

If the rate is not good, then try a different bank. Keep in mind that the quotes that you see on the Internet, like the one above, is really the rate that banks use between banks. It is never the rate you will actually get when you do it. I was able to get a rate of about $1.38 per Euro. Also, expect to pay a fee to exchange dollars for Euros if you only want a couple hundred dollars in Euros.

I found that my bank would waive the fee if you get at least $1,000 worth of currency. Well, I could not imagine that we would spend almost 3 weeks in Europe without spending way more than $1,000 but since I didn’t want to be carrying a ton of cash, I figured that would be enough to get started. I could not beat the convenience either. Also keep in mind that you won’t see any one euro notes. They come in 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 200, and 500 Euro notes.

The coins are 2 Euro, 1 Euro, 50 cents, 20 cents, 10 cents, 5 cents, 2 cents, and 1 cent. Always keep a couple of 50 cent coins in your pocket for a Pee Fee. Yes, most public toilets are fee based and you will need to pop a 50 cent coin in the slot to use the toilet.

Since we were landing in Zurich, we needed Swiss Francs and since we were spending the rest of the time in countries that used the Euro, I chose to get 250 French Fancs, in mixed small bills and 650 Euros in mixed small bills.

I filled out the online form and submitted it. I received a call the next day verifying my request and since I did not order one day service, a couple days later I got a call from my local branch that the funds were available.

I stopped by the bank, showed my ID, and I had my Euros and Francs and was one step closer to our vacation.

Now, as you might expect, the $650 Euros did not last for the whole trip. We did use our ATM cards to get Euros and generally we got good exchange rates that were close to $1.38 for each Euro. Keep in mind that your bank will charge a foreign transaction fee to each ATM transaction in addition to any ATM fee that may apply. If I recall, Capital One and HSBC do not charge a foreign transaction fee. I do know that Bank of America and the Golden 1 Credit union do charge a foreign transaction fee.

As for converting my Euros back to dollars, well, I spent it all so I did not have to worry about it. If I did have left over Euros, then I would think that it would be a good idea to plan another trip to Europe.

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Turning Dreams into Memories,
One Vacation at a Time.
Bon Voyage!!!

As you might guess, this document is a compilation of information from our travels as well as from other travelers. I hope it has been of value to you. Check out the important links below.

Don’t hesitate to email us when you return from your trip with any suggestions that will make this document better for you and your fellow travelers!

You may also want to visit our Facebook page, www.Facebook.com/TeamEdwardsTravel

Scheduling Tours and Excursions

It is really easy to go overboard when you are scheduling tours and excursions, especially if you see your trip as a once-in-a-lifetime trip. You feel the need to cram in so many things, that you don’t have any downtime to rest and enjoy your vacation.

When I first started to plan our first trip to Europe, I think I had something in mind to schedule everyday. If I would have had the cash on hand when I was planning the trip, I am sure that I would have booked everything that I had planned. Fortunately, as I look back on the trip now, I was not able to book everything that we wanted to do, so we initially booked only one or two special things in each city before we left home; one in Zurich, two in Amsterdam and two in Paris. If you wish to at least look at what is available, keeping in mind that there are dozens of websites and dozens of vendors that provide excursions and tours, here is the one that we use. We have been very satisfied with the quick and easy booking and the tours themselves.

Click below to book tours and excursions!

Shop thousands of destination activities worldwide!

Since part of the reason that we chose the Spring for our trip was to see the tulips at Keukenhof Gardens in Amsterdam, we booked that excursion. And since my wife had visited Belgum as a child, we booked a day trip to Brussels as well. As for Zurich, we booked a day trip to Lucerne and the Alps. Finally, for Paris, we booked dinner in the Eiffel Tower and a night time cruise on the Seine.

Of course, on our first day in Zurich, we booked nothing so that we would have some time to deal with the jetlag of the long flight from California to Zurich. Also, we purposely did not book anything the last full day in Paris so that we could just take our time and walk around hand-in-hand to enjoy the romance of being in Paris.

Probably one of the best excursions you can do in any new city is to do an on-off double decker bus tour. You get a chance to get the lay of the land and see all of the major sites. You don’t even have to pre-book this tour. Just find one of their bus stops, hop on and pay the fare, plug in your headset and you in for a full day or two of relaxing while they show you their city. Hop off when you want to take more time at a particular site, shoot some photos, and catch the next bus. It will be there in about 10 or 15 minutes.

This was not like any of our other vacations in so many ways. Most vacations have been to the beach in Baja or Hawaii where the goal was to just relax. Yes, we took in some sights, did some ziplining, or something adventurous, but mostly to relax. The trip to Europe was to see the sights. Just a suggestion, but make sure that you take some time for romance. Set aside some down time to enjoy the ambiance of the place you are visiting. We did, and that was better than any excursion.

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Turning Dreams into Memories,
One Vacation at a Time.
Bon Voyage!!!

As you might guess, this document is a compilation of information from our travels as well as from other travelers. I hope it has been of value to you. Check out the important links below.

Don’t hesitate to email us when you return from your trip with any suggestions that will make this document better for you and your fellow travelers!

You may also want to visit our Facebook page, www.Facebook.com/TeamEdwardsTravel

Simplify Your Vacation — Buy Your Train Tickets Online

A major part of our planning process is to make sure that we have all of our connections such as airline reservations, train tickets, etc… pre-purchased before we leave home. Of course, you can have your travel agent do that for you, which is one of the many reasons to use a travel agent.

If you are the independent type and don’t use a travel agent, then at least follow their lead and make your reservations and purchase your reserved tickets before you leave home. Make sure that you give yourself plenty of lead time, at least a month or two, so that the tickets can be shipped to you. That way you know that you have a seat on the airplane or train and won’t be going standby or with an open ticket. Once you start looking, you will find everything you need on Rail Europe.

We recently took a grand vacation to Europe that involved a flight to Zurich, Switzerland, a train trip from the airport to the city of Zurich, a bus tour to the Alps, a train trip to Basel, a river cruise down the Rhine to Amsterdam, two bus tours plus an on-off bus tour and a canal cruise in Amsterdam, the high speed train to Paris, intercity train and subway to our hotel, several trips on the subway, an on-off bus tours of Paris. the intercity train to the airport, and finally the flight back home.

Over 90% of all of the tickets were purchased and in our hands before we left home. No fuss, no muss. No worrying if we will be able to get from point A to point B or how to do it.

So, I will walk you through the process for getting tickets for your train travel in Europe just in case you don’t want to use my services as a travel agent to do it for you.

The first job, of course, is to decide where you are going and when you are going. For our recent trip to Europe, everything revolved around the Romantic Rhine River Cruise with Viking River Cruises. The cruise was scheduled from May 5th to May 12th. To deal with jet lag, we flew to Zurich early, leaving home on the 2nd of May.

Here is where the first issue comes up. We arrived, because of the time difference, at about 11:00 on the 3rd of May. So, make sure to double check for the local time. That meant that we needed a train or a tram ticket from the Zurich Airport to the City of Zurich at about noon. I wanted to take the train because I was going to be taking the train from the Central Station to Basel in a couple of days, and I wanted to be familiar with the train station. I also considered taking the tram if it would deliver me directly to the hotel.

I Googled, “train from Zurich airport to Zurich Central Station” to locate the info that I needed. I also read several of the posts to get some insight from other travelers. After some searching I discovered that I could take the #10 tram and it would deliver me directly to the hotel. It would take about 30 to 45 minutes because of all of the stops enroute. The train would get to the central station in about 10 minutes. Since our hotel was only a few blocks from central station, we opted to take the train.

Almost everything you need to know about trains is found on the Rail Europe website. Here was the site that we used for additional information. Just fill in the blanks, and order your ticket, but don’t forget to look at the fine print. After looking at the fine print, I discovered that there would be an $18 fee to order the tickets and have them sent to me. That combined with the fact that the trains ran every 15 minutes or so, left me to decide that we would buy our tickets when we arrived at the airport. I just had to make sure that I had Swiss Francs available to make the purchase. I will talk more about Swiss Francs and Euros in another blog post.

So, even though I am not booking this part of the trip before leaving home, I am not done yet. I still want to know how to get from the arrivals gate at the air port to the departure gate for the train. More homework.

To find out about getting from the airport to the train, I went back to my original Google search and found the link for Swiss Federal Railways – Zurich Airport. After clicking on this site I found that the train travel center was located beneath the airport. Looks like all-in-one service from this airport. I also found that the tram also runs every 15 minutes as well. I spent a little extra time on the airport site to check out the info on getting through customs. Now, I have done my homework and know that it will be an easy transition from the airplane to the train.

I also spent a little extra time online learning about the Central Station in Zurich. I found that there was a complete shopping center under the train station, including a grocery store, bakery, deli, etc… Our favorite was the Migros grocery store. We saw them every we went in Switzerland. Not mom and pop stores like we would look for in France, but very convenient and with decent prices. We picked up fresh bread, pastries, wine and cheese to take back to our room.

They also had a separate entrance for their Migros Take-Away, a deli where you could get sandwiches to go. Great for taking on the bus trip to the Alps.

For the next leg of the journey, I went back to the Rail Europe website and checked the schedules for the train from Zurich to Basel, our next major connection. Just like before, I typed in the from and to cities and found fares from about (25 Euros) $35 to $48 for economy and up to $74 for comfort seating per person. The trip would take about an hour. There were very frequent trains so I wasn’t too worried about getting tickets. I checked into the Basel area and found that there was more than one train station, so I checked to see which station would be closest to the pier where we were getting on the ship. The ship was closer to Basel Bad Bf than it was to Basel SBB, but it would require a transfer to an intercity train and it cost more, and the baggage would be more of a hassle, so I opted to take the train to the Basel Central Station and then take the taxi to the pier. A quick check on the taxi fares showed that it would be about $35 Swiss Francs, total for both of us.

The last major connection would be from Amsterdam to Paris France. Back to the Rail Europe site once again. Searching from Amsterdam Central Station to Paris Gare du Nord shows that we would be using the Thalys Rail Service for this trip. The cost for economy was from $124 to $206.

We did book this one online because we wanted reserved seats for the longer trip and I wanted my tickets in hand before leaving home. Also, I wanted to make sure that we were going forward, not backward. If you are traveling as a family with 3 or 4 people, you can get facing seats with a table in the middle if you want. (see the photo above) Regular seats have a drop down tray table just like an airplane. Just like ordering airline tickets online, you just fill in the blanks, provide the credit card info, and you are finished. The $18 fee for having the tickets sent to me was worth it to know that it was already paid for and we did not have to worry about getting a seat on the day we wanted to travel.

Always get to the train station early so that you don’t have to rush. We made sure to stop by the train station a day or two before we were leaving to find out where we would be catching the train. In fact, unlike air travel, you can actually go out to the loading platform where your train will leave from to really get the lay of the land. We also found out where to look on the side of the carriage, next to the door, to see about where to expect our carriage the next day so that we were there and ready to go when the train arrived for us. Just hop on, put your big luggage on the rack, sort of like the one on the airport shuttle, and take your carry-on back to your seat and put it in the overhead area just like on an airplane.

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Turning Dreams into Memories,
One Vacation at a Time.
Bon Voyage!!!

As you might guess, this document is a compilation of information from our travels as well as from other travelers. I hope it has been of value to you. Check out the important links below.

Don’t hesitate to email us when you return from your trip with any suggestions that will make this document better for you and your fellow travelers!

You may also want to visit our Facebook page, www.Facebook.com/TeamEdwardsTravel

Study the Metro Map Before You Leave Home

One of the joys of travel in Europe is that they have a great public transit system. In fact, on our trip to Europe, we did not rent a car. All of our travel was done on public transit, and it really was much easier that I thought it would be. Just make sure that you have Euros in your pocket beforehand. More about planning for that part of your trip in another blog post.

The key is to study the info available about the Metro system before you leave home. My wife bought me Fodor’s Paris 25 Best and Fodor’s Amsterdam 25 Best. Both have city maps as well as Metro maps. I made sure to have the Metro map in my pocket at all times. (Below is a copy of the map provided by the Metro since I did not want to copy Fodor’s.) Make notes so that you really know what you will be doing, how you will buy tickets, what you can buy before you leave home, etc… Nothing is worse than standing in a station and not knowing what to do. You watch people around you going up to the ticket machines, putting in their money and buying their tickets. If you did not do your homework, you would be lost unless you already live in a big city and use public transit everyday. Your only issue may be which lines to take to get where you want to go. If you are from the San Francisco area, it is like riding the BART train. You buy the appropriate ticket from the machine, slip it into the slot at the turn style, take your ticket when it pops up and walk on through.

Another advantage of studying the Metro map before you leave home, is that you can better plan which hotel to use based upon access to the transit system. I discovered after studying the transit map that in some locations, as many as three different trains intersected which would allow you to pick the appropriate train to go to different parts of Paris for sight seeing rather than to get on one train, go to another station and change trains to get where you wanted to go. You may still have to do that, but if you have three to chose from at one location, you have simplified the process. In Paris, we chose to stay where the #8, #6, and #10 lines intersected at the LaMotte-Picquet Grinelle station.

Since we arrived in Paris at Gare du Nord on the high speed train from Amsterdam, we had to buy a ticket from there to our final destination (Not like the movie, but where we were staying). It was as easy as walking up to the counter and asking for a ticket to Grenelle, or pointing at the map to where you want to go if you don’t speak French.

It would also be very helpful if you learned a little of the language before the trip. If you are not into learning the language, you can use Google Translate to type out your question and let it translate for you. Print it out and bring it with you.

For example, since we arrived in Gare du Nord, I would have typed the following into Google Translate, “I want to buy a ticket from Gare du Nord to Grenelle,” and it will give you “J’ai besoin d’un billet de la Gare du Nord à Grenelle, s’il vous plaît”. Print that out before you leave home and hand it to the person at the ticket counter.

The ticket covers your passage South on the “RER B2” train and the connecting trip on the metro. The cost was less than 10 Euros per person. If you type that same statement into the regular Google search, you will find postings from several other travellers who can walk you through taking the B2 train South to Denfert-Rochereau, then walking to the #6 line to travel west toward Etoile. Lots of stairs – so I hope you packed light. If you don’t want to go to that much trouble, maybe you should just get a taxi. Give them the name of your hotel and be prepared to pay closer to $100 Euros for the taxi, plus the cost of each bag.

The other thing is to learn is how to chose which train and which direction the train is going. You may be able to see that you want to be on the blue line, but when you look at the signs, the names of the station you see listed may not be the one you want to go to. In Paris, for example, they list the name of the last station on the line for each direction. If you look at the map, you will see the Number 8 (Purple) line in Paris has the name Balard for one direction and Creteil Pointe du Lac for the other direction (although it only shows Creteil on the signs at the station for the direction). The Number 6 (light green)line terminates at Charles de Gaulle Etoile (although it only shows Etoile on the signs at the station for the direction) on one end and at Nation at the other. The Number 10 (yellowish gold) line terminates at one end at Boulogne-Pont de St. Cloud on one end and Gare d’Austerlitz on the other. All we had to know to get back to our station at Grenelle was where we were in relation to it and then jump on the right train. You can see from the close up of the map below, where the #6, #8 and #10 line intersected at Grenelle. You will also be able to see the terminus at one end of the #6 at Charles de Gaulle Etiole (This is not the airport. Charles de Gaulle was just a popular guy) and #8 at Ballard.

Click this link for a map that you can enlarge. paris-metro-mini-map-2014

Make sure that you have already purchased tickets to simplify things. We bought a carnet of 10 tickets, 5 for each of us, for our daily travels about town as soon as we got off the train at the Grinelle station. We had to pick up a couple extras when we decided to take in more sights. Below, you see an example of a regular ticket on the Paris Metro. I think they only cost about 1.70 Euros per ticket and they are good throughout the whole center part of Paris. If you will be there for a few weeks, you may want to buy a Pass rather than individual tickets. I figured that we would use 10-20 tickets during the time we were there, a couple per person per day.

Don’t forget to look at the front of the train when you hear it arriving at the station. Sometimes there are two different trains using the same line. For example, the intercity train, the “B” line, has two trains going north, B3 andB5 and two going south, B2 and B4. When you are headed to Charles De Gaule airport from downtown Paris, you want to make sure to get on B3, not B5 or you will end up in Mitry-Claye, where ever that is. You won’t have an airplane waiting for you when you get there and you will have to buy another ticket to get back to Paris, then another ticket to get to the airport. Hopefully you will still make your flight.

Finally, make sure that you know which terminal you will be flying out of when you head to the airport. For example, if you are taking the B3 line to Charles De Gaule from downtown Paris, it makes stops at each terminal. If you get off at the wrong terminal, you will have to take the airport shuttle to the other terminal, dragging your luggage along when you do (Yes, this is the voice of experience.)

If you plan to visit Paris, here is a nice video about France worth viewing.

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Turning Dreams into Memories,
One Vacation at a Time.
Bon Voyage!!!

As you might guess, this document is a compilation of information from our travels as well as from other travelers. I hope it has been of value to you. Check out the important links below.

Don’t hesitate to email us when you return from your trip with any suggestions that will make this document better for you and your fellow travelers!

You may also want to visit our Facebook page, www.Facebook.com/TeamEdwardsTravel

Before and After the Cruise–Do it Yourself or Buy a Packaged Deal

No matter what kind of cruise you plan to take, it is always a great idea to plan to arrive in port at least a day early to get over any jet lag and to make sure that a flight delay won’t cause you to miss your ship.

Once you accept the need for the early arrival, you now need to consider arriving a couple of days early so that you can take in the sights of the port city. Sort of a mini vacation before you start your cruise.

Do you want to do this on your own, or do you want to be fully pampered? If you do it on your own, you will have to take care of your airline reservations, your transfers (taxi or shuttle) to your hotel, and the subsequent transfers to the ship the following day or even a couple of days later. You also need to make sure that all of this time is covered by your travel insurance so that any problems won’t come out of your pocket.

The same set of issues come up at the other end of your cruise, but remember that the larger the ship the more time it will take to clear the ship and head to the airport. All of that adds stress that you just went on vacation to relieve. I would suggest that you really make the best of your vacation and add a little time to each end of your cruise so that you can enjoy each port and so that you can leisurely arrive at the ship and so that you can leisurely disembark as well.

The real question is – do you want to plan all of this yourself or do you want to let the cruise line take care of it all? Generally, it may be a little cheaper to do it yourself, but it will be a lot easier to let the cruise line do it all.

Quite often, many cruise lines, especially if you are cruising in Europe, will give you special prices on airfare if purchased with your cruise, and they will arrange that airfare to fit around your before or after cruise stay in the port city. They will also take care of all transfers of luggage from the ship to your port city hotel. Additionally, they will be able to set up shore excursions in your port cities so that you will be able to see the local sites.

If that is not enough, the better companies, such as Viking Cruse Lines, will have someone there to meet you and to lead you through the process and they will also be available at your hotel should you encounter any issues. Although, more for the adventure and the experience of doing it the hard way, I booked all of my before and after cruise activities myself for our most recent European vacation, my neck and back still aches from lugging the suitcases from the ship to trams to trains to hotel rooms.

The next time, I will follow the lead of my friends on our Viking Romantic Rhine River Cruise and let them handle all the work. If you are less adventurous or if you don’t really want to have to lug your suitcases around as you go from air travel to train travel to subways or taxis, etc… I would suggest that you opt for the cruise line’s before and after the cruise offerings.

Friends that we met on the cruise did both and we have exchanged emails since returning home and they had nothing but wonderful compliments to Viking River Cruises for their experiences before and after the cruise.

For example, most our recent cruise, the Romantic Rhine River Cruise from Basel, Switzerland to Amsterdam, was with Viking River Cruises. They provide a 2-night Lucerne package for $599 per person and a 2-night Amsterdam package for $499 per person. They provide all transfers from airport to hotel to ship and from ship to hotel then to airport on the other end. They also provide something that is very important: a real live meet and greet person wearing a Viking River Cruises red jacket and signs so that it will be easy for you to connect with them. All you need to worry about is your carry-on and going through customs. They will walk you through everything else. They have also set up excursions at each end of the cruise as well. Visit the world-renowned museums featuring works by the Dutch Masters in Amsterdam and explore the traditional Swiss town along the banks of Lake Lucerne with its dramatic Alpine backdrop.

Best of all, is that with Viking River Cruises they regularly offer 2 for 1 pricing on their cruises; and they also provide discounts for air fare on the all-inclusive trips. You will also find that they include beer and wine with lunch and dinner without any additional cost and they provide excursions in each port, also without any additional costs to you. If you did not see enough with the provided excursions, they do provide additional excursions at some ports at an reasonable additional cost.

For more information about their cruises, please spend some time on our website at www.TeamEdwardsTravel.com to look at the videos. Then, click the banner and it will take you to the Viking River Cruises website where you will find more information about their cruises. We will be happy to make your reservations for you.

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Turning Dreams into Memories,
One Vacation at a Time.
Bon Voyage!!!

As you might guess, this document is a compilation of information from our travels as well as from other travelers. I hope it has been of value to you. Check out the important links below.

Don’t hesitate to email us when you return from your trip with any suggestions that will make this document better for you and your fellow travelers!

You may also want to visit our Facebook page, www.Facebook.com/TeamEdwardsTravel

Planning The Trip of a Lifetime, A European River Cruise

Have you ever dreamed of taking a European River Cruise? You see them advertised on TV more and more these days. We have been on large ocean cruises, but wondered what it would be like to take a river cruise.

I did my homework and finally decided that my wife and I would have a wonderful time celebrating our 20th wedding anniversary on a Romantic Rhine River Cruise. I checked out all of the various companies that cruise this waterway looking for the one that I thought would best meet our needs. I also talked with friends who have taken river cruises and was not surprised that they all had their favorite cruise lines. Some recommended Viking, some AMA Waterways and some Avalon.

We got more recommendations for Viking than the others combined. I then went to several seminars at our local travel agency office that were put on by the river cruise companies before finally deciding to book our trip of a lifetime on Viking River Cruises. Of course, making that decision was the easy part.

Now, we had to decide what we really wanted to see, when was the best time to go to see these sights, how much time we wanted to travel, if we wanted to do a before and or after cruise add-on that we could purchase from the cruise company, which airline, etc… The other things to plan ahead were train tickets, having Swiss Francs and Euros in our pocket before the trip, and of course, learning about the tram or subway systems in the cities we planned to visit. It was almost getting to be too many things to think about, but as they always said when I was a Boy Scout, “Be Prepared”; so I always plan ahead.

Our other consideration was that if we were going to spend the dollars to fly that far, we were going to get more out of the trip, so we planned for three days in Zurich before the cruise to deal with jetlag and then three days in Amsterdam so that we could visit Keukenhof Gardens and see the sights. We added 5 days in Paris to really make it a trip of a lifetime. So, back to the first question. What did we really want to see? I love flowers and gardens, so I wanted to see the Keukenhof Gardens in Amsterdam. And, my wife wanted to go back and taste a real Belgium waffle. So, of course I included that in our itinerary!

After doing my homework, we decided that we needed to be in Amsterdam there before Mother’s Day if there was a late spring, and a week or two earlier if it was an early spring. The next thing was to decide to utilize the cruise line’s before and/or after cruise offerings. Since we wanted to have a less structured trip, other than the cruise, we chose to put together our own before and after cruise itinerary.

If you are less adventurous or if you don’t really want to have to lug your suitcases around as you go from air travel to train travel to subways or taxis, etc… I would suggest that you opt for the cruiseline’s before and after the cruise offerings. Friends that we met on the cruise did both and we have exchanged emails since returning home and they had nothing but wonderful compliments to Viking Cruises for their experiences before and after the cruise.

We booked the cruise from Basel to Amsterdam, which meant that we would fly in to Zurich, Switzerland and spend a couple days there seeing the sights and getting over jetlag. We then made our way to Basel on the train to start the cruise.

Also, since I did not want to have to carry 3 weeks worth of clothes, during the planning process I found a laundromat in an area of Amsterdam that we wanted to explore, then booked a hotel in that same neighborhood. We really wanted to stay in local hotels rather than in the big hotels for a better feel of the local area. Upon our arrival in Amsterdam, we disembarked and walked to the hotel. After dropping off most of our luggage at the hotel, we took one suitcase full of dirty clothes to the laundromat.

We were pleasantly surprised when we found that it was also a full service laundry. We left our dirty clothes and enjoyed lunch and a walking tour of Amsterdam, and picked up clean clothes for the rest of the trip later in the afternoon. After three wonderful days in Amsterdam, we caught the high speed train to Paris. What a wonderful way to travel! Since we made sure to visit the Centraal Station before it was time to leave, we knew exactly where to go to catch our train to Paris.

We had reserved seats so it was as easy as flying – other than putting our own luggage on the train. We arrived in Paris and took the B2 line south to the subway that took us to our hotel. We stayed in a cute 1 bedroom apartment near the Grinnel train station. Again, another smaller hotel that also had apartments in a nice neighborhood close to a farmers’ market. We chose this location because there were 3 trains that used that terminal, so we could go almost everywhere from there.

We spent 5 days seeing the sights in Paris before reversing directions, taking the B3 train to the airport to fly home.

While you are in the process of planning your trip of a lifetime, or any expensive trip, make sure to get travel insurance and do at the beginning, the day you pay your deposit for your trip. Why, because the insurance will cover you for pre-existing conditions if you do it at the initial booking stage. If you wait to do it just before you leave, and a medical issue causes you to cancel, you won’t get your money back if it was a pre-existing condition. Some of us are getting up in years and you don’t want a health issue to rob you of the trip along with the money you already spent. It would be bad enough to have to cancel the trip, but to lose all that money too, that would really hurt.

One of the great planning tools that you should use is the availability of videos of your travel destinations. I went online on my Blockbuster account to search out travel videos. Hard to find because they are included under a separate category. (Yes, I know that you cannot use Blockbuster anymore) I also searched my Amazon Prime Account. If you look in the index you won’t find Travel videos there either; but if you search “Documentaries” you will find the travel videos hiding there. For Paris, we viewed the following videos: Cities of the World, Paris, France and Modern Times Wonders, Tour D’Eiffel and Burt Wolf’s France. Finally, for France, we viewed these last videos: The Greatest Journeys on Earth, France, The Journeys of the Sun King, On Tour… BLUE DANUBE CRUISE WACHAU A Journey Through The Middle Ages and Paris France, The City Of Magic: A Dream Vacation Tour. We also viewed the Burt Wolf; The Rhine and The Danube, and the Burt Wolf; Holland and Belgium. Yes, I do know that the Danube is a different river, but I was thinking ahead to the next river cruise.

In the next several blogs, we will share more about our trip and what we learned along the way. Hopefully, you will be able to learn from our mistakes so that your trips will be trouble-free!

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Turning Dreams into Memories,
One Vacation at a Time.
Bon Voyage!!!

As you might guess, this document is a compilation of information from our travels as well as from other travelers. I hope it has been of value to you. Check out the important links below.

Don’t hesitate to email us when you return from your trip with any suggestions that will make this document better for you and your fellow travelers!

You may also want to visit our Facebook page, www.Facebook.com/TeamEdwardsTravel

Turning Dreams into Memories, One Vacation at a Time. Bon Voyage!!!

Turning Dreams into Memories, One Vacation at a Time. Bon Voyage!!!

Turning Dreams into Memories, One Vacation at a Time. Bon Voyage!!!

Turning Dreams into Memories, One Vacation at a Time. Bon Voyage!!!

Turning Dreams into Memories, One Vacation at a Time. Bon Voyage!!!

Turning Dreams into Memories, One Vacation at a Time. Bon Voyage!!!

Turning Dreams into Memories, One Vacation at a Time. Bon Voyage!!!

Turning Dreams into Memories, One Vacation at a Time. Bon Voyage!!!

Turning Dreams into Memories, One Vacation at a Time. Bon Voyage!!!

Turning Dreams into Memories, One Vacation at a Time. Bon Voyage!!!

Turning Dreams into Memories,
One Vacation at a Time.
Bon Voyage!!!

Turning Dreams into Memories,
One Vacation at a Time.
Bon Voyage!!!

Turning Dreams into Memories,
One Vacation at a Time.
Bon Voyage!!!

Turning Dreams into Memories,
One Vacation at a Time.
Bon Voyage!!!

Turning Dreams into Memories,
One Vacation at a Time.
Bon Voyage!!!

Turning Dreams into Memories,
One Vacation at a Time.
Bon Voyage!!!

Turning Dreams into Memories,
One Vacation at a Time.
Bon Voyage!!!

Turning Dreams into Memories,
One Vacation at a Time.
Bon Voyage!!!

Turning Dreams into Memories,
One Vacation at a Time.
Bon Voyage!!!

Turning Dreams into Memories,
One Vacation at a Time.
Bon Voyage!!!