Foreign Perspectives

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

You’d never consider trying to “do” Rome in a day, would you?

Well, that’s exactly what I did and it turns out that it is possible, although you can’t hang around and watch life go by from one of the cafes: lunch on the go is the only way.

We did it as a flight plus tour trip although to fit everything in we needed to abandon the formal tour about half-way through as the afternoon segment was basically taking you to the shops as quite a lot of these “in a day” type tours end up doing. If you are getting off the bus before the tour is over, one thing to be very careful about is that you know where to catch it later in the day or you’ll end up missing your trip home.

Detailed preparation for such a trip is essential as there really is no time to be messing around wondering where such and such a place is whilst you’re in the midst of the day itself (bring a compass or satnav to avoid guesswork). For that you can generally get a quick overview on WikiTravel but the way to get the most out of these daytrip events is to get the appropriate Dorling Kingsley guide which, in this case, is the one for Rome: not the “Top 10″ version as it’s too condensed and not the one for Italy as it’s not detailed enough.

So what did we manage in the day? Well, this might sound a bit unbelieveable but we packed in the Trevi Fountain and the Colloseum on the bus tour then St Peters, the Vatican Museum (the Sistine Chapel is fantastic), the Pantheon, the tomb of the Unknown Soldier and the Forum. We’d also have managed the Spanish Steps but I was over-ruled (”We’ll miss the bus!!!”). Even with moving along at a brisk pace, you always find unplanned things along the way like the Swiss Guard in the photo.

Although that list sounds like a “blink and you’ll miss it” type of trip, in fact it allowed us to have quite a reasonable amount of time at each of the stops on our trip. Where we saved time was in the little things like eating on the go, knowing ahead of time the route from A to B (that’s where the 3d maps in the DK guides are brilliant) and concentrating on what we wanted to see rather than the things in between.

In reality, most people do the above over the course of three or perhaps four days. That obviously allows for a much more leisurely approach to things with a lot less pre-planning required although you’ll get more out of your trip with a certain amount of planning ahead.

On the three-day jaunts, you’ll obviously need somewhere to stay. Booking systems have moved up a rung in sophistication lately and the top one at the moment seems to be Hotels Combined which scans all the other listings sites and brings you an enormous list of possible options. For Rome that amounts to nearly 1800 offers at the moment which is more than the total number of hotels in Rome as most hotels will be listed a number of times and, usually, at different prices so you can sometimes pick up a fantastic offer.

When should you go? Well, we went the week after Easter basically because that was when the daytrip offer was on rather than because of any grand plan. However, that’s quite a good time to go (or after any major religious festival) as the crowds have thinned out considerably and that was one reason we were able to pack so much into such a short time. Surprisingly, we didn’t even need to queue much to get into the Vatican Museum which is where we expecting to lose a lot of time.

Popularity: 23% [?]

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

What should you pack to go on a short trip?

One thing’s for sure: don’t think that you can just replicate your packing for a full-scale holiday because you’re just going to run up a bill for excess baggage for no reason at all. If you’re going for a long-weekend it’s just being silly to even consider a full-sized case that needs checked in: carryon is the only way to go.

What should you bring though?

In terms of clothing, that depends on the temperature difference between where you live and where you’re going. Clearly if it’s Winter at home and Summer at the destination (or vice versa) that will dictate you having an extra change of clothing above what it would otherwise.

Essential items should be trimmed down to the minimum. That minimum should include:

1. passport;
2. driving license (even if you don’t plan on driving);
3. plane tickets (or their electonic equivalent ie the booking number);
4. electical adaptor for foreign electrical sockets (get a “world” version rather than just a “european” one to cover all the bases);
5. guidebook (sometimes they’re not available locally in English)

And, of course, personal items such as contact lens solutions, glasses, sunglasses, womens items, and the like.

Ideally, all the stuff you’re taking should fit in a supermarket carrier bag. Any larger, and it’s definitely too much for a weekend break!

Popularity: 18% [?]

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Short-break holidays tend to be quite different from normal holidays in a number of key areas and hence it’s best to plan them differently too.

By “short-break” we mean a holiday that is anything from two to five days in duration. Less than two days and you’re talking a day-trip which is quite different; more than five and you’re edging into the territory of normal holidays. 

In that they’re short, clearly any time lost in getting to and from your destination should be minimised. There’s little point in considering a short-break holiday that involves a flight of more than a few hours as that will mean that your first and last day will be lost in travelling to and from your holiday location.

Ideally, you should choose somewhere that you can get to by way of a morning flight and return on an evening flight as this can add up to a day to your time at the holiday destination at no extra cost. That’s not possible for all destinations and therefore should be a factor in your choice of holiday destination.

Where should you consider going? Clearly in a short-break time is of the essence and you should avoid places that would require long journies when you get there. So, regional holidays are out. Yes, you could fly to Rome and do Florence, Pisa and Venice at the same time but you’d end up travelling between the cities all the time. Bear in mind too that chances are you’ll lose most of the first and last days so your notional “5 days” is really only 3 days.

This being the case, it’s usually best to look at holidays based in a single location. In many cases you can easily fill three days in a single city: Barcelona, Berlin, London, Paris, Prague and Rome are ideal for this. Don’t rule out travelling out of the city though as, for example, Versailles is an easy day-trip from Paris. Likewise, if you just want to hit the beach, do that rather than trying to see the whole region.

In that the flight times are a critical factor in the planning, it’s best to get a regional guide book such as the Rough Guide Europe or Lonely Planet Western Europe to begin with. However, once you’ve chosen your destination, the best guides for cities are those from the Eyewitness guide series or, where they don’t cover the city/region, get the Lonely Planet guide covering the region you’re going to. It’s always best to get the guide covering the smallest possible area so, if you’re heading for Montpellier, get Lonely Planet Languedoc-Roussillon rather than Lonely Planet France.

As far as choosing flights go, SkyScanner is by far the best tool for the job. To get some ideas, you can put in point of departure as UK, “London Any” and click search. This will pull up a list of all the flights departing from any of the London airports in ascending order of price. Outside of the main holiday periods, you’ll usually find that return flights including taxes start from around £20. Whatever you do, don’t continually check prices on the Ryanair site as this will cause the Ryanair computer system to raise the ticket prices (checking via SkyScanner doesn’t do that unless you click “up to date price” constantly).

What about somewhere to stay? Before you book the flights you should investigate the accommodation options. For instance, whilst flights to Venice cost as little as £30, accommodation there can easily run to £200 per night. On the other hand, flights to Berlin are similarly priced but accommodation can be had from £30 per night. Don’t overlook apartments as many are quite cheap and, of course, it’s usually a lot cheaper if you do your own cooking or get takeaways.

For accommodation, I find that Booking gives pretty comprehensive coverage but you can sometimes get lower prices on HostelWorld (which covers B&Bs through to five star hotels these days) or on HotelClub however of these only Booking doesn’t have a booking fee.

If at all possible, it’s best to avoid car rental on a short break as that adds even more lost time in picking up and returning the car not to mention parking and, of course, all the costs associated with those. However, if it can’t be avoided, HolidayAutos always seem to have the best rates if you book a few days ahead (more in peak periods).

As far as packing goes, forget the suitcase and think carry-on only. That saves you more time on packing, you avoid the lengthy wait for luggage too and it’s cheaper as well. We’ll be covering what to pack in our holiday planning series shortly.

Money? You’ll certainly need some; see our holiday money guide for a comprehensive review of how best to take it with you.

We’ll be covering a number of short-break suitable destinations on Whole Earth Guide over the coming months.

This is part of our series on holiday planning.

Popularity: 16% [?]

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!