European travel on points - help!

[Windermere]

DH and I are trying to plan a vacation next summer in Europe. Got 2 weeks set aside and wanted to do Paris and surrounding areas then head down to either Austria or Northern Italy. Anyone have any experience traveling those areas? Any advice? 'Great' places to stay? 'Just ok' places?
Haven't decided on renting a car or just doing the train thing. I guess that would be another question. Are the resorts near transportation or would it be better to rent a car?
Any 'must do' attractions while we're there?

Thanks, Nancy

 

[Lesley]

My loose plan for Europe sometime in the future is to get a Eurail pass....start in London on points, take the train to DLP and stay there on points....and then decide from there where we want to go and what to do....possibly Germany, Netherlands, Belgium...whatever strikes our fancy when we're planning the trip. I'd like to go for a month (lol...okay, I know i'm dreaming there!). We'd probably end up using all our points in London and at DLP....so it wouldnt' be an all points trip.

Have fun planning your trip!

 

[WDWguru]

Definitely go to northern Italy! It's amazing... visited Torino a year and a half ago and just fell in LOVE with it. It's a truly incredible country.

 

[kgforce]

You should consider FLYING around Europe instead of taking the train. Check out these websites for some AMAZING prices (like $30 tickets). Ryanair, for example is offering FREE flights, you just pay taxes. You can read all about this cheap airline phenomenon (think SouthWest Airlines) in the November issue of FSB (Fortune Small Business).

Check out these airline websites:

RyanAir
EasyJet
BMIBaby
Buzz

 

[vernon]

Using points I've only stayed at DLP. While European hotel rooms are generally smaller than US ones, DLP is somewhere between the two and you can fit a family of 4 reasonable well. Given that park tickets and breakfast is included , for a family of 4 it's a pretty good deal. IMHO less so if you are a party of just one or two.

In Italy the offering I saw in the DVC literature all seemed to be "out in the country" so I'm certain you'd need a car to make the most of them. From my own experience, Rome is a fantastic city to visit and really needs 4 or 5 days to get a good taste of it. If possible include at least one day in Pompeii as it is an incredable place to visit, you can arrange a day (coach) trip from Rome although you only really get a couple of hours to roam around the ruins.

While it's tempting to try and fit in EVERYTHING into one trip, for anything less than a month IMHO you spend too much time travelling and not enough seeing the historical things of interest. I would certainly use the train service from London to any of Paris, DLP or Brussels, it is much quicker than going by plane and you get to see some of the countryside of England and France. I wouldn't bother with a car if you're doing "city breaks" in Athens,London, Rome, Paris, Florence, Venice or Barcelona as the traffic in all of those are terrible.

 

[Doctor P]

The other piece of advice that I would give (at least for Austria and Switzerland where I have a fair amount of experience) is that second class rail is quite fine and quite comfortable. We bought an Austrian rail pass rather than a Eurail pass (which only comes first class) and travelled quite comfortably and efficiently at a lower cost. We traveled for two weeks and got everywhere we needed to go by public transportation including trains, buses, subways and funiculars.

 

[normr]

We stayed in both London (Hotel Royal Garden) next to Kensington Palace and at DLP on points. We flew into London and then took the Eurostar bullet train to DLP.

 

[Windermere]

So no one has done any travel in Austria or N Italy ( Chianti area ) on points? Was really wanting first hand knowledge on any of the resorts and the surrounding areas.

 

[Windermere]

Just wondering if anyone has plans for Eupean travel now. Six months after the original post.

 

[disneyberry]

oh, how confusing... your OP was from November 2002.

what specific info were you still looking for now, Windermere?
did you plan your trip for this summer already?

i don't think staying on points anywhere in Europe is really worth it. maybe DLP, but that's about it.
dbf and i spent 5 weeks all over Europe last summer. we'd be going back this year, except we just spent a bunch buying into DVC so it's time to replenish our savings acct again.

 

[vernon]

Windemere, you don't say what plans you have pencilled in. I think most of the points use in Europe is through II , looking at the DVC members area those in Italy seemed to be beautiful resorts and views, but a little distance from areas of interest. It seemed to me they would not be convenient if you wanted to go sight seeing in the big towns and you'd be "stuck" on your accommodation for a week.
In Italy I would suggest Rome (4 days), Florence (3 days), Venice (2 days) and possibly the Amalfi coast ( being a coastal area and near Naples you can do 4 to 7 days here with ease, leave at least one day for Pompeii) as venues. As such using points isn't going to be the most economcal way to get accommodation. I would make a plan and use someone like priceline. There are some great deals about at the moment. If you think of visiting Spain there are some really interesting places to stay called Paradores, these are owned and run by the spanish govenmnet and often are converted castles, monastaries and ancient buildings that would not be able to run as commercial concerns but offer some truly unique opportunities to "live history" . The website for some information is http://www.parador.es but do a search and you'll find other sites as well

 

[kem330]

Nancy- the only place points can be used on a night to night basis is London and DLP. You would have to spend one week at the II resorts which would limit how much you could see of the area. Kgforce gave excellent recommendations on a source for cheap flights- we also like to rent a car to see the countryside a bit. Personally if you've never been, I would not spend a lot of time at DLP- I would stay in central Paris instead. Following your original itinerary- around Paris it is easy to go to the Loire valley (chateaus), Normandy and Giverny. The Northern Italian Lake district is beautiful as is Chianti which is really more central Italy. We stayed at a great inn outside Sienna last summer. Rome is great as well. We flew into Paris and down to Rome and drove up to Sienna. If you need any help email me!

 

[Doctor P]

Actually, unless it has changed, there are a number of resorts in Austria that are available on a night by night basis through the Buena Vista Trading Company option (as opposed to II). I'm sorry, but though I have seen several of the resorts from the outside I can't give you any first hand knowledge of actual quality.