European vacation questions

You know, we just thought of a problem. Im actually going to UK for about 7-10 days and then going to South Africa for another 14 days. While in london we will likely have 5+ full size pieces of luggage, is there any sort of place we could store it in/around Heathrow? Dont want to lug all that luggage around.
 
How about this: go to London, take a tour and look around for a few days, take the train to Cambridge, Bath and/or Newcastle for a few days, then take the train to Paris and do the same as in London.

Alternatively, you can go directly from London to Paris and go to Venice for a few days after that. There are luxury and fast trains available, even with sleeping compartments. And reasonably cheap as well.

After that, you can take the plane to South Africa from there.

Luggage stores are available on every station.
 
Epic,
Too bad you and your company decided on going to London; I would have suggested Oslo instead.

I've been to London several times in the summer, assuming it isn't also raining on top of everything it's generally noisy, often dirty and smelly, and pretty much ALWAYS crowded. You'll almost have to elbow your way along even when alone, I can't imagine what it must be like in a party of four with two baby strollers on top. It will be stressful.

Driving in London is more like shuffling along narrow streets at slower than pedestrian speed while the car in front of you farts (diesel) exhaust in your face.

Oslo, while being a major city, also has a bit of congestion of course, but not nearly on the same level. The city itself is simply beautiful, growing up the surrounding hills along the fiord, with lots of nice shopping streets and notable tourist attractions, including the Karl Johan Street with the Royal Palace, the Vigeland Park, the Colosseum cinema and the Kon-Tiki museum to mention but a very few.

Norwegian nature is striking, it's a quite mountainous country and offers many breathtaking views once you gain some elevation, and going for a spin in a car can be an experience in of itself as you drive along the curving road of a steep valley.

Oslo's not a cheap city, but then again you're planning on going to London so that must not be an issue for you anyway... :p
 
Alternatively, you can go directly from London to Paris and go to Venice for a few days after that.
Though beautiful and fascinating, Venice is not a place to push a small child in around in a pram/stroller and is quite a hike from London & Paris.

An alternative, which is just a "small" deviation from the Eurostar route is Bruges which is a must see city.
 
As much as I love Norway, Oslo pales in comparison to Stockholm, which is a really, really beautiful city. Not that I see epic going there in this journey, but out of Oslo, Kopenhagen and Stockholm, the latter is my favorite by far. It's also called Venice of the North, and justly so.

However, the nature is fantastic. My aunt lives just 80km above Norway and I've gone there plenty of times, and just the village she lives in was always enough of a holiday resort for me, but you can cruise into the mountains, see the fjords, go to the swamp highlands near the Swedish border and so on. It's a great place to be.

Italy is also amazing for driving through it, if you know where to go. There are a great number of tiny villages that are so beautiful and charming and if you go in the right season, it's almost heavenly. I hate the Italian mob and Italian politicians for making Italy a place that some Italians are ashamed to live in, when it is otherwise such an incredibly beautiful country with such a beautiful language to boot. (I agree about Venice by the way)

Europe is really a lovely place with so much to see and it's all so nearby. It's a shame that so many Americans have so little holiday time over the year (at least that's what I've heard - I've got six weeks every year, for instance).

Maybe we should make a list of Beyond3D people that are willing to help out U.S. travellers and maybe even board them up for a day or so, so that long time members can make some amazing trips (and maybe vice versa, the U.S. has a lot of amazing places to see also of course).
 
Maybe we should make a list of Beyond3D people that are willing to help out U.S. travellers and maybe even board them up for a day or so, so that long time members can make some amazing trips (and maybe vice versa, the U.S. has a lot of amazing places to see also of course).

Well, if anyone's coming to Stockholm I might be able to show you around.
 
Yes Stockholm is a gem of a city! Luckily it's just a ferry trip from here :)
I have nightmares of that ferry trip.

/dead of winter
/only entertainment was kids karaoke singing finnish folk songs

Stockholm, however, was very nice. We stayed on a small sailing ship/hotel in old town. Very neat.

We went out for curry & got so drunk we didn't realize why our 2-day tube passes stopped working after midnight on our way back to the hotel.

Ahhh, good times.
 
Maybe we should make a list of Beyond3D people that are willing to help out U.S. travellers and maybe even board them up for a day or so, so that long time members can make some amazing trips (and maybe vice versa, the U.S. has a lot of amazing places to see also of course).

Well if you are coming to pittsburgh :)

Doesn't sound too appealing eh? Our house is a fixer upper though so it is an appalling mess, but I would seriously not mind someone crashing for a short time. Too bad we don't live somewhere more exciting.
 
As mentioned, if you want to do two places, then Paris/London is the easiest as the Eurostar is fast and efficient.

If you want to do just one, well, the options are enormous and too little time and too much to see. Decide whether you want beautiful nature, beaches, mountains, historical sites, big cities etc. Also budget is important, some of the places are downright absurdly priced (see eg the Cote D'Azur)

Keep in mind it gets muggy during the summer and there are mostly tourists in the big cities (the euros are on extended vacation on the beach somewhere).
 
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