Need opinions and help please!

[RebelHawk]

My first solo trip to Europe at age 19 created one of my fondest travel memories. I met a couple of locals while in Brussels that recommended their favorite local restaurant. Wandering into this small pub where the only people there were the bartender and one patron neither of which spoke English. My French is non existent so we played charades for items on the menu. What a fun experience and proved that spoken language doesn't have to be a barrier for travel. Of course these days there are apps that will translate anything you could need.

 

[sayhello]

Not only that you can use it without an Internet connection if you download the very small translation files before your trip! I used it to play a message for a food vendor more than once on our cruise.

I didn't know that! I'll have to look into that for my next trip. Thanks!

Sayhello

 

[Woodview]

Yep, go ahead and be rude. You'll never see them again. What strange advice!

Sayhello

Note I do not eat Fish or chicken or turkey so I always have to check the Menu & this works for me

Rude never ... will you see passing strangers again ?

Try it sometime & see what happens .

 

[AinsleyLM]

Well we bit the bullet and booked with Adventures by Disney for Prague and Austria for next fall! The price hurts, lol, but I am very excited! Thank you all for your opinions about traveling to foreign countries. Now if anyone has any recommendations for on your own time during this trip, I would love to hear them! I’m thinking we are going to go a day early to be safe in case of flight issues and I want to go to the Jewish Quarter, but that’s all I know for sure right now.

 

[sayhello]

Well we bit the bullet and booked with Adventures by Disney for Prague and Austria for next fall! The price hurts, lol, but I am very excited! Thank you all for your opinions about traveling to foreign countries. Now if anyone has any recommendations for on your own time during this trip, I would love to hear them! I’m thinking we are going to go a day early to be safe in case of flight issues and I want to go to the Jewish Quarter, but that’s all I know for sure right now.

Congrats! Just one thing I'm going to mention, because it totally didn't occur to me, is that the Jewish Quarter in Prague is totally shut down on the Sabbath (Saturday). You can walk around & see the outside of the buildings, but that's it. So make sure you don't plan to do the Jewish Quarter on a Saturday. You will be very disappointed.

I did a walking tour of Prague through The Naked Tour Guide (no, they're not actually naked!) and it was really wonderful.

Sayhello

 

[AinsleyLM]

Congrats! Just one thing I'm going to mention, because it totally didn't occur to me, is that the Jewish Quarter in Prague is totally shut down on the Sabbath (Saturday). You can walk around & see the outside of the buildings, but that's it. So make sure you don't plan to do the Jewish Quarter on a Saturday. You will be very disappointed.

I did a walking tour of Prague through The Naked Tour Guide (no, they're not actually naked!) and it was really wonderful.

Sayhello

I read that somewhere on this board, but thank you for the heads up! I will have to look at the naked tour guide! I’m still nervous about traveling to Prague and Austria, but I am hoping that once I am there, I won’t be, if that makes any sense. Do you have any other suggestions or must sees for Prague and Austria? I just read your river cruise trip, looks like you had an amazing time!

 

[OhanaCuz]

Great choice. I loved Austria so much on our cruise.

 

[AinsleyLM]

Recommendations for OYO time in Vienna?

 

[OhanaCuz]

Schönbrunn Palace, the zoo at Schönbrunn Palace (oldest in the world), The Hofburg, Austrian Gallery Belvedere

 

[rhinodadz]

Well we bit the bullet and booked with Adventures by Disney for Prague and Austria for next fall! The price hurts, lol, but I am very excited! Thank you all for your opinions about traveling to foreign countries. Now if anyone has any recommendations for on your own time during this trip, I would love to hear them! I’m thinking we are going to go a day early to be safe in case of flight issues and I want to go to the Jewish Quarter, but that’s all I know for sure right now.

We're departing on this trip later this week . Will post a trip report when we get home.

 

[Confianza]

Recommendations for OYO time in Vienna?

There‘s a lot depending on the interests of your travel party. In addition to the above mentioned, there are great museums (e.g. Art historic Museum, nature historic Museum, Albertina for art, Madame Tussaud‘s, Time Travel Vienna,...). With kids you might consider „Haus des Meeres“ in case of bad weather, an aquarium, where you can stroke fish.

You could have traditional „Sachertorte“, a chocolate cake with apricot marmelade and chocolate coat at the traditional Hotel Sacher or one of the Cafés for which Vienna is famous.

You could visit the „Stephansdom“ and stop by the famous Shopping districts nearby.

I am living near Vienna, so if you have any questions, don‘t hesitate to ask.

 

[Bobo912]

Demel for something sweet to eat. And this will probably sound weird, but the Hapsburg Imperial Crypt, which is somewhere between The Albertina and St Stephen's. It's located beneath a smaller church and very easy to miss. It doesn't take long to tour the crypt and it's oddly interesting.

 

[Woodview]

We're departing on this trip later this week . Will post a trip report when we get home.

A Reminder .... Do not forget a Travel Adaptor for charging things

AND your Swim Gear ..... And ATM Chip & Pin cards

 

[rhinodadz]

A Reminder .... Do not forget a Travel Adaptor for charging things

AND your Swim Gear ..... And ATM Chip & Pin cards

Thanks @Woodview! All of those items are in the on-deck circle for packing. Along with a credit card that has no foreign transaction fees and enough local currency to get started with.

Had to laugh out loud at the swim gear comment - I may have forgotten to pack swim trunks for a DCL cruise once upon a time My family never lets me forget that!

 

[pjacobi]

Rick Steves has a number of tips about communicating in Europe in various travel shows on TV. Here's some tips to get you started:

https://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips/sightseeing/language-barrierhttps://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips/sightseeing/creative-communication
You don't have to be fluent in French to travel around France, but you do need to make an effort to at least learn a few words of the language. That will make the locals at ease of helping you with their knowledge of English which is far, far better then my knowledge of French.

Any large city in Europe will always have someone to help you in English. You just need to be polite.

I've only had language problems in remote areas or bi-lingual boarder areas.

There are many langauges spoken in Europe far from what we know as standard French, German and Italian. Lucky for us, English is the international standard.


-Paul

 

[Rapunzellover]

You don't have to be fluent in French to travel around France, but you do need to make an effort to at least learn a few words of the language.

This goes for any foreign language. Always learn hello, goodbye, thank you, please, where's the bathroom, etc. Also, if you can learn to say, "I don't speak_______. Do you speak English?" that's super valuable.

 

[AinsleyLM]

Thank you all for your suggestions!

 

[wdwtheplacetobe]

Before our first ABD, My Hubby had traveled all over the world for Scuba. I wanted to travel, too and because of schedules, could not go with him. He said we could go anywhere, and I opted for Disney because they would do it "Right". After the first ABD, we were hooked. Now he gets to go on a big Dive trip every other year and we both do ABD every other year. Win-Win for him!

 

[wdwtheplacetobe]

Before our first ABD, My Hubby had traveled all over the world for Scuba. I wanted to travel, too and because of schedules, could not go with him. He said we could go anywhere, and I opted for Disney because they would do it "Right". After the first ABD, we were hooked. Now he gets to go on a big Dive trip every other year and we both do ABD every other year. Win-Win for him!

Google translate is a good tool. You can actually use the phone camera to translate signs and menus.

We used Google Translate for ATMs in Prague and Spain...works great!

 

[wdwtheplacetobe]

Well we bit the bullet and booked with Adventures by Disney for Prague and Austria for next fall! The price hurts, lol, but I am very excited! Thank you all for your opinions about traveling to foreign countries. Now if anyone has any recommendations for on your own time during this trip, I would love to hear them! I’m thinking we are going to go a day early to be safe in case of flight issues and I want to go to the Jewish Quarter, but that’s all I know for sure right now.

Make Sure you eat Trdelniks (ask your Guides)!!! They are available in the Old Town Square and Cesky Krumlov.