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Originally Posted by FlamesPuck12
Thanks for all the responses guys, definitely helpful.
I'm also quite surprised about the London responses as well but just looking at the flight prices, it might be worth it to fly into London (it seems to be cheapest out of all airports) and then spend a day or two before taking the EuroStar down to France.
Couple questions for you guys:
1. How difficult is it to cross the border? (We're all on Canadian passports)
2. Any more opinions regarding hotel vs. AirBNB vs. hostel?
I'm a little skeptical about hostel especially because our group is going to be small 2-4 so it might be worth while to just go with a small hotel room or look for something on AirBNB (which I haven't used before either).
3. In terms of booking train tickets and the hotel rooms, would you guys recommend that we do that before the trip or is it not hard getting decent hotel rooms or cheap train tickets as we travel?
Trying to decide if we want to plan the whole thing from the start or go with the flow.
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1. Getting into Europe was super easy for me; I flew into Munich on a US Airways flight. Most people were getting quizzed pretty hard, but they let me through without saying anything. If you are within the
Schengen Area, crossing borders is about as difficult as crossing the border from Alberta to Saskatchewan. However, if you are taking a train across international borders, the railway crew will generally switch at the borders and some major cities so you may need to show your ticket to the new crew members.
2. It depends on your preference. Hostels were great for meeting people. There are people that I met in hostels last summer that I stay in contact with, and one guy from Australia that I met in Budapest is planning to come to visit me in Ottawa at some point this summer. Generally hostels are also a great resource for planning outings, or helping to point you in the right direction. Some are better than others as far as being social is concerned. Some Hostels even have bars inside; I found such bars to be hit-and-miss on my travels.
3. In some countries you can get significant savings by booking train tickets early (France, Germany and Austria among others). If you are going anywhere east of Germany/Austria, you generally don't get advanced booking discounts for most trains that I have seen. I booked everything ahead of time because I was a little concerned about flying by the seat of my pants on my first trip, but I can't see you having much of an issue booking things as you go. I have not used many of the high-speed trains in Western Europe but have heard that they can be fairly expensive at the last minute, and sometimes fill up during holidays.