Barnes and Nobles is my heroin...

As much as I still am carrying a torch for tripadvisor, there's nothing quite like turning the pages of an actual book and seeing pictures, maps, tips and tricks, etc. Everything is being graded on the same scale in a travel book, because the same writer (theoretically) has visited all of these places, looking for the same things and grading them against each other.

This is not always the case with tripadvisor. Some people (I've learned) are way more demanding on a hotel than others, and reviews of the same place can vary wildly.

I have spent countless hours over the last few months looking at an entire smorgasbord (or smörgåsbord, whatevs, spell-check) of travel books. Lonely Planet, Frommer's, Fodor's, Let's Go...I saw them all, I flipped through them all, and ultimately I put them all down in favor of (drumroll, please) Rick Steves' series.

Rick Steves' does Europe through the "back door," and his witty writing style and pithy reviews are great for forming a general "plan of attack" for an area that you may have never visited. I like the way he organizes "sights to see" based on area as well as ranks them, making it easy to find something close to where you are that would be worth taking another half hour detour for.

He also writes with the budget-conscious in mind, which I appreciate.

Considering that I'm broke. Or will be after this trip.

The only bummer about the Rick Steves' books are that they are so big! Well, not big compared to other travel books. They're actually pretty compact, comparatively speaking. It's just that with the limited amount of luggage space and a very strict packing list (Rick Steves is HUGE on packing only the essentials and packing very very light) I don't really have the room to lug around 6 RS books.

Some people have advocated slicing out the pages I need with a razor blade. While that would be easier and lighter, I suppose, I am so anti-book destruction (they're so pretty) that I just can't bring myself to do that. Plus, they're not exactly cheap. Plus, what if I want to use them again, and the whole section on Rome just happens to be missing?

So, what I have done is photocopied only the pages I need out of all six books and had it spiral bound at Kinkos. It only cost me about $5 to put a cover and back on it and have it bound, and while it is still a pretty good size, it's only one book. And I'll have no compunction about tearing some pages out of this particular book, should the need arise, to lighten the load or make it more portable.

Just a few thoughts. Counting down to Europe!

This ain't no one night stand!

I have a confession to make....

I have recently entered in to a torrid affair. I'm addicted. Morning, noon, and night, I can't stay away. And it shows no signs of slowing down.

Well, that's not entirely true. It will probably slow down about a week or so after my return from Europe.

No, my affair is not with a hunky Italian Stallion named Paolo, or Giacomo, or something equally as Italian. It's with tripadvisor.com. Tripadvisor has been my saving grace in this quest to plan the perfect adventure for Ashley and myself. It's helped guide me through the perils of pickpockets, unreliable trains, and bed-bug infested hostels.

I love that you can get all sorts of unbiased reviews on the site about where to eat, stay, and play. I like that they have user-uploaded pictures on the site, so you can see what the bathroom really looks like (a weird closet with a short toilet) and not what the hotel wants you to see (a tiled wonder that would be more at home in a palace than in an albergo). I love that they rank things. Lists are very important to me.

And please believe that I will be reviewing each place I stay for other people who are having as much fun hanging out with tripadvisor as I have been to read, process, and learn from.

For now, here are the links to where we'll be staying.

This is our hotel in London.

This is our hotel in Munich (I talked Ashley into ONE hostel, but we got a private room. COMPROMISE).

This is our hotel in Salzburg (It looks so cute!).

This is our hotel in Venice (I was willing to take a risk because we're only there for one night).

This is our hotel in Florence.

We're staying in furnished apartments in both Rome and Paris (see the previous posts). We found the Rome apartment on VRBO (it had great reviews) and the Paris apartment on...well, eBay (my affair with that website will NEVER die), but it was corroborated by another rental website catering specifically to Parisian apartments.

Check back for my reviews and pictures!

Apartments vs. Hotels

I have to say that I love to cook. I've always loved to cook. I've made some pretty stellar meals in a microwave. Once I was even able to make a yummy pasta primavera thing on a Bunsen burner.

So when I go on vacations, I get a little bummed out. Hotel = no kitchen. Now don't get me wrong, I love to eat out, especially in new and exotic places. I like to get a flavor for the culture, and the best way to do that is to liberally sample the local cuisine.

But my hips definitely DON'T like me when I get back from vacations where I do nothing but eat in restaurants. I've never been able to order just grilled chicken and steamed veggies when there are so many other delicious things on the menu for me to try.

Which is why, when you're staying in a new place for a week or more, maybe even five days, you might consider renting a furnished apartment for your trip.

There are a lot of perks that come along with having your own place while traveling. You get full access to a kitchen, of course, and a place where you don't have to worry about somebody coming in and looking through your things. Often times these apartments are a little set back from the main tourist areas, so you get a good feel for the local flavor of your destination. You get more sitting area room and more amenities (phone, internet, tv, etc) than you would at a hostel or a budget hotel, and often for only a few more euros/pounds/dollars/pesos/quetzales (what, you don't travel to Guatemala that often?) per night, depending on the length of your stay.

Sure, you might not get maid service every day, but wouldn't it be worth it to have some privacy and room to spread out in? (For me, this answer is yes. I have a lot of stuff to spread).

And it's really NOT that expensive (would I lie to you?). For example, a hostel in Rome would cost (on average) 22 euros per person per night, to sleep in a dorm style room with at least 10 other people on a bed that's been turning over once every few days for years. For a four night trip for two people, the cost of a lowwwww budget hostel would be 176 euros, not including any taxes or booking fees or linen rentals, etc. etc. For the same period a budget hotel in Rome would cost between 230 and 275 euros.

In contrast, a furnished studio apartment in Rome costs 250 euros, all inclusive!

You can get great deals on apartments all over the world by looking on sites like VRBO.com. Next time you're planning a week-long getaway, try seeing if an apartment wouldn't fit better into your budget. I'm willing to bet you'll find something that gives you a bigger and calmer home away from home that still won't break the bank!

Staging Area

So....I'M GOING TO EUROPE. For you, this might not be such a big deal. But for me...wowza. Not so much that I'm traveling somewhere, because I go places all the time. It's the whole I'm going to a totally different continent without parental (or psuedo-parental) supervision for the first time.

Now, most people get over the handholding stages in their teens.

My mom, however, is a little more paranoid than most.

I mean, I grew up literally thinking that a rapist or kidnapper or child slaver was going to burst through my window some night when I was sound asleep and steal me away. I survey the exits to pretty much any room before I enter...because my mom told me that some day I might get trapped in a room and need to know an alternate way out.

So here I am, 23 years old and I've always had some sort of supervisor to report to on a trip. Parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts, teachers...the only places I've gone entirely alone are places like Disneyland and Las Vegas (because really, who wants to take their mom to Vegas?That's just a BAD idea).

And I'm over it.

So right after Thanksgiving my friend, Ashley, and I decided we were going to assert our independence in a cultural experience -- three weeks of a European summer adventure.

At first we thought about maybe going on one of those you-don't-need-to-think-about-anything tours. We hop on a bus, hop of where they tell us, take a few pictures, and move on to the next place. I've had friends who have gone on and loved these tours. But then I realized, "What kind of independence is that? That's not a post-college adventure! We should be backpacking and staying in hostels and meeting cool people! Let's do this RIGHT."

Turns out Ashley is not the "hostel" kind of girl.

(It's okay, I'm fine not getting on a first-name basis with any bedbugs, personally)

So rather than follow some guide with a smile superglued to their face through the European "wilderness," we decided to do this on our own.

Now, I'm a planner. I've always been a planner. I like having things sewn up nice and neat know where I"m going and what time I'll get there, and have at least three emergency contact numbers in the area (well, I am my mother's daughter). And it turns out that a trip to Europe makes me even MORE intense.

So that's what this blog is about. It's about research I'll be doing, places I'll be staying, sights I'll be seeing, and the new experience I'll be having. I'll update from the road (once I get out there, I mean, it's still two months away), and I'll make sure to take LOTS pictures!