Back-to-back trips?

[mathgeek]

Has anyone done back-to-back ABD trips? Specifically I was looking at Norway and Iceland, but the dates don't seem to match up well to do this. And they both seem to be colder/similar locations, so maybe not the best ones to match up.

Or would it be better to cruise those locations?

 

[jimmymc]

I haven't done two ABD trips back-to-back, but I did an ABD trip after already spending more than a week on a different vacation. I loved it and would happily do it again. ABD really takes away so much of the work and stress normally involved with a trip, so you just get to enjoy it while someone else is dealing with any problems that come up. If you'd like to do two trips in Europe, I recommend it.

For ABD vs a cruise, those are very different vacations. Cruising to Norway and Iceland doesn't give you a lot of time you see the countries. You can do one or two excursions each port day, plus a day or two of scenic cruising. But on an ABD, you'll be doing the equivalent of 2-3 excursions every single day of the trip. Cruising is nice if you feel that you'll need downtime in between big excursion days, but ABD shows you more of the destination in a limited amount of time.

 

[sayhello]

I've seen people do this. They figure if they pay for & spend the time to go that far, they want to do as much as they can.

It's my understanding that unless you book your airfare with ABD, that they do not "assist" you in getting from one ABD to another beyond taking you to the airport at the end of your first ABD and picking you up at the airport for the start of your next ABD. I know that personally, I'm usually pretty pooped by the end of my ABDs. But if I could afford to do 2 at a time? I still might do it!

Sayhello

 

[abdgeek]

Has anyone done back-to-back ABD trips? Specifically I was looking at Norway and Iceland, but the dates don't seem to match up well to do this. And they both seem to be colder/similar locations, so maybe not the best ones to match up.

Or would it be better to cruise those locations?

I did the DCL Norwegian Fjords cruise in 2016. At that time, the cruise left from Copenhagen, Denmark and returned to Dover, England. The stops we made were in Oslo, Norway, Kristiansand, Norway, Bergen, Norway, Akureyi, Iceland, Reykjavik Iceland (two days), Kirkwall, Scotland, and Invergordon, Scotland. I was able to see everything that was on my bucket list for the areas visited. Oslo (National Gallery with “The Scream”, Vigeland Sculpture, Park, Olympic ski jump); Reykjavik (The Golden Circle, Blue Lagoon); Akureyi (Myvatn Baths, Godafass); Kirkwall (cliffs at Yesnaby—too cloudy to see Old Man of Hoy, Ring of Brogdar, standing Stones of Stenness); Invergordon (Cawdor Castle, Urquhart. Castle on Loch Ness). The only thing I didn’t get to do was walk on a glacier and snorkel the tectonic plates in Thingvellir.

Unfortunately, it looks like the itinerary has changed. I enjoyed the cruise because it allowed me to see several countries at once. I would like to return to Iceland and Scotland, but if I don’t I’ve seen just about everything I wanted to. To determine which would be best, you’d have to know what you want to see in each country and see if the ABD or the cruise tours would allow you to see it.

If you are interested in doing back to back ABDs, I would suggest looking at how easy it is to fly between the two starting cities or asking ABD for ideas on which itineraries are best for this. I initially wanted to do Peru and Costa Rica BTB until I researched flying between the two on a US airline—I would have to fly back to the US to come back to the other country. Based on the online reviews, I didn’t want to try flying the local carrier. Good luck with your decision.

 

[mathgeek]

I haven't done two ABD trips back-to-back, but I did an ABD trip after already spending more than a week on a different vacation. I loved it and would happily do it again. ABD really takes away so much of the work and stress normally involved with a trip, so you just get to enjoy it while someone else is dealing with any problems that come up. If you'd like to do two trips in Europe, I recommend it.

For ABD vs a cruise, those are very different vacations. Cruising to Norway and Iceland doesn't give you a lot of time you see the countries. You can do one or two excursions each port day, plus a day or two of scenic cruising. But on an ABD, you'll be doing the equivalent of 2-3 excursions every single day of the trip. Cruising is nice if you feel that you'll need downtime in between big excursion days, but ABD shows you more of the destination in a limited amount of time.

Thank you for the perspective. I appreciate it. I have done several ABD trips and DCL cruises (as well as the embedded ABD DCL Med cruise - which was the best...I really wish they'd bring those back!), so I do understand the difference between the types of trips. But with the upcoming ship emissions restrictions for cruising the Norwegian fjords, I'm concerned I might not get to see the fjords from a cruise ship since I have my 2024 and 2025 travel plans pretty well mapped out (Amazon & Galapagos 2024, Holland/Belgium river cruise 2025, plus a cruise on the Treasure and two to Lighthouse Point). I will have to look closer at the itineraries to figure out what I really want to see and which would be a better fit. I do like the more immersive experience of the land ABD's with the opportunities to see more of the culture and the countries and not just the port cities. These two were just further down my bucket list than the ones I've done recently (Egypt and South Africa).

I've seen people do this. They figure if they pay for & spend the time to go that far, they want to do as much as they can.

It's my understanding that unless you book your airfare with ABD, that they do not "assist" you in getting from one ABD to another beyond taking you to the airport at the end of your first ABD and picking you up at the airport for the start of your next ABD. I know that personally, I'm usually pretty pooped by the end of my ABDs. But if I could afford to do 2 at a time? I still might do it!

Sayhello

Yes. I figure if I'm going that far, I might as well do both. Maybe I spend a couple days at DLP between trips?
I am doing the Amazon Escape and Galapagos together, but that was the intent of those trips. So ABD is getting me from one trip to the next.

I did the DCL Norwegian Fjords cruise in 2016. At that time, the cruise left from Copenhagen, Denmark and returned to Dover, England. The stops we made were in Oslo, Norway, Kristiansand, Norway, Bergen, Norway, Akureyi, Iceland, Reykjavik Iceland (two days), Kirkwall, Scotland, and Invergordon, Scotland. I was able to see everything that was on my bucket list for the areas visited. Oslo (National Gallery with “The Scream”, Vigeland Sculpture, Park, Olympic ski jump); Reykjavik (The Golden Circle, Blue Lagoon); Akureyi (Myvatn Baths, Godafass); Kirkwall (cliffs at Yesnaby—too cloudy to see Old Man of Hoy, Ring of Brogdar, standing Stones of Stenness); Invergordon (Cawdor Castle, Urquhart. Castle on Loch Ness). The only thing I didn’t get to do was walk on a glacier and snorkel the tectonic plates in Thingvellir.

Unfortunately, it looks like the itinerary has changed. I enjoyed the cruise because it allowed me to see several countries at once. I would like to return to Iceland and Scotland, but if I don’t I’ve seen just about everything I wanted to. To determine which would be best, you’d have to know what you want to see in each country and see if the ABD or the cruise tours would allow you to see it.

If you are interested in doing back to back ABDs, I would suggest looking at how easy it is to fly between the two starting cities or asking ABD for ideas on which itineraries are best for this. I initially wanted to do Peru and Costa Rica BTB until I researched flying between the two on a US airline—I would have to fly back to the US to come back to the other country. Based on the online reviews, I didn’t want to try flying the local carrier. Good luck with your decision.

Yeah, the itineraries have changed so much over the years for the DCL Europe cruises. It sounds like you had a pretty amazing one. Norway and Iceland were much further down on the bucket list for me, but now they're getting closer as I've started to get through some of my higher priorities. I may end up doing the ABD's only because of the upcoming emission restrictions for cruise ships in the Norwegian fjords. But maybe it's not something I try to do all at once.

 

[aggiedog]

There is so much more to Iceland than the Blue Lagoon and some waterfalls. I would absolutely recommend a land based trip over a cruise. Many of the ports on an Iceland cruise are tiny villages with no intrinsic tourist infrastructure, leaving you stuck with a ship's tour, seeing what is just in the immediate vicinity. As there are no good ports on the south coast, which is one of the highlights of the country, most cruises completely skip that part of the country.

 

[mathgeek]

There is so much more to Iceland than the Blue Lagoon and some waterfalls. I would absolutely recommend a land based trip over a cruise. Many of the ports on an Iceland cruise are tiny villages with no intrinsic tourist infrastructure, leaving you stuck with a ship's tour, seeing what is just in the immediate vicinity. As there are no good ports on the south coast, which is one of the highlights of the country, most cruises completely skip that part of the country.

Thank you for this insight. I do love cruising, but when I looked at the Iceland excursions, this is pretty much exactly what I thought. I wasn't sure cruise excursions would be enough.

 

[jimmymc]

Thank you for the perspective. I appreciate it. I have done several ABD trips and DCL cruises (as well as the embedded ABD DCL Med cruise - which was the best...I really wish they'd bring those back!), so I do understand the difference between the types of trips. But with the upcoming ship emissions restrictions for cruising the Norwegian fjords, I'm concerned I might not get to see the fjords from a cruise ship since I have my 2024 and 2025 travel plans pretty well mapped out (Amazon & Galapagos 2024, Holland/Belgium river cruise 2025, plus a cruise on the Treasure and two to Lighthouse Point). I will have to look closer at the itineraries to figure out what I really want to see and which would be a better fit. I do like the more immersive experience of the land ABD's with the opportunities to see more of the culture and the countries and not just the port cities. These two were just further down my bucket list than the ones I've done recently (Egypt and South Africa).

That's true, the ability to take a Fjords cruise on a larger ship may be coming to an end soon. For me personally, the ferry ride you get as part of the Norway trip is probably all the scenic cruising I need from a trip. But that's different for everyone.

 

[sayhello]

I am doing the Amazon Escape and Galapagos together, but that was the intent of those trips. So ABD is getting me from one trip to the next.

Oh, you are right. The Escapes are different that way. I should have added that as a caveat.

Sayhello

 

[Donalyn]

I haven't considered back-to-back trips, but mainly because I also enjoy self-guided travel, and the odd museum or attraction that would never make it onto an ABD itinerary. And I have found that the starting and ending points of ABDs likely could use more time to explore than they get with ABD, with a few exceptions.

For instance, for our last trip, we were in Europe for basically two weeks, one week on the ABD. But we did two nights in advance in Basel (at the start of the Rhine river cruise) and 4 additional nights at the end in Amsterdam. There is so much to see/do in Amsterdam and you really see very little on the cruise, in my opinion. And I thought that Basel was charming.

And with our Italy trip - we did a pre-night in Rome and after the end flew to Paris to see DLP (and a little of Paris for the kids who hadn't been there before).

I also concur with others about how exhausting back to back ABDs would be. On our post-days, we definitely go a little slower and sleep in a little more. But all families have their own travel style. (For us, the ABD matches my style, while the rest of my family likes a more laid back touring style - so best of both worlds to mix an ABD with on our own.)

For our next trip - Danube River cruise - we are planning a number of days in Munich on whatever end of the cruise is in Germany and maybe one night in Budapest.

Good luck planning.

 

[mathgeek]

I haven't considered back-to-back trips, but mainly because I also enjoy self-guided travel, and the odd museum or attraction that would never make it onto an ABD itinerary. And I have found that the starting and ending points of ABDs likely could use more time to explore than they get with ABD, with a few exceptions.

Good luck planning.

Thanks! At this point my thinking is probably to do them at separate times, possibly separate years, and do the land ABD adventures instead of trying to fit in a DCL cruise.

As a solo traveler I do not enjoy self-guided travel that much in new places. I prefer the security of being with a group, which is why I do these types of trips to begin with. But once I've been someplace, I'm usually willing to go back by myself (probably not Egypt though).

So much travel I want to do, and not enough time off from work!

 

[Donalyn]

So much travel I want to do, and not enough time off from work!

Mathgeek - I hear you!

Got me thinking. That would be a great thread - everyone's current top 5 travel destination list for now.