Obviously im gonna hit up all the must-see places. Anything that I wouldnt find in a guidebook? Or good places on the internetz where I could find odd places to see/things to do?

London-Paris-Amsterdam-Mainz-Munich-Venice-Florence-Rome

anyone on here going btw? its the senior trip thing with state/

5/10/2007 12:20:09 PM

http://www.channels.nl/amsterdam/rookies.html

5/10/2007 12:29:45 PM

London-Paris-Amsterdam-Mainz-Munich-Venice-Florence-Rome is the 'beaten path'

5/10/2007 12:55:25 PM

they have sand dunes in mainz

5/10/2007 1:03:28 PM

Bled, Slovenia is one of the prettiest places on earth

5/10/2007 1:06:04 PM

^^^ i realize that. doesnt mean it's not worth seing at least once, and i never been to any of those. sounds like we are going to be having quite a bit of free time in addition to all teh organized sightseeng to do something different.

[Edited on May 10, 2007 at 1:09 PM. Reason : ^^do they have dune buggies too ]

5/10/2007 1:08:22 PM

the cemetary in Paris is pretty cool, but it's hardly off the beaten path.

my favorite place was southern Germany (Bavaria) really nice people, good food/drink, and tons of places to explore.

5/10/2007 1:11:30 PM

The south of France (along the Mediterranean Sea) is my favorite, but I'm partial since I grew up there.

5/10/2007 2:25:01 PM

how long are you gonna be in england? i thought all the canals and the lock system were really cool, i lived/travelled on a long boat for 2 weeks out of my summer there.

i think the big thing in any place is to just get out and walk around. stay off the tourist things, they purposely keep you in certain areas. except for maybe to see the bigger/main attractions. rent a car/moped or something if you can.

amsterdam is easy... just do everything that's legal there but illegal here.

[Edited on May 10, 2007 at 2:32 PM. Reason : .]

5/10/2007 2:32:10 PM

get too far off the beaten path and you miss out on a lot of things that matter. also depends what part of the continent you want to go. that said, here's some suggestions:

Sagres in the Algarve region

Figueres, Dali's town, just outside of Barcelona

Naxos in the cyclades, a stone's throw from Mikonos

Tallin, Estonia (not to be confused with Talin, Armenia)

Riga, Latvia

Vilnius, Lithuania

Dubrovnik, Hvar, Pula, and Split in Dalmatia

Kerry and Cork in the Emerald Isle

Leiden and Nijmegen in Holland

i don't know if these are off the beaten path enough for you. they are more emerging destinations than they are remote. worst case, when people start talking about these new hot spots, you can say you've already been.

5/10/2007 2:40:56 PM

In Paris, try the Wine Museum: http://www.museeduvinparis.com/english/

5/10/2007 2:59:18 PM

I recommend my favorite city in Italy other than Rome...Orvieto.

Quote :

"Orvieto is a city in southwestern Umbria, Italy situated on the flat summit of a large butte of volcanic tuff. The site of the city is among the most dramatic in Europe, rising above the almost-vertical faces of tufa cliffs that are completed by defensive walls built of the same stone."

Which is home to this beautiful Duomo with zebra-like strips on the side. The facade is AMAZING, but the stripes are very interesting.


There's also a very deep well that you can climb down. Nearby there's a beautiful park to sit in and soak in some Italian sun. There's an Etruscan tomb site right outside of Orvieto as well.

It's about an hour and half by car. So probably about 40-55 minutes by train.

For those that know me, this is the city I got my "keg" or "accordion" purse from.

[Edited on May 10, 2007 at 3:24 PM. Reason : ]

5/10/2007 3:20:57 PM

well, the way it works is i will have at least a day, maybe two of free time (in addition to a day or ttwo of guided tours to see the big attractions) in all of those cities i mentioned. so i would have to do something in the city or within the proximity. also it has to be within the UK or the EU since i only have those visas. so what ssjamind suggested will not work for this particular trip (although i'm def gonna try to visit some of those locations within the next couple years.) but looks like you guys have some good ideas, keep it up

5/10/2007 5:44:01 PM

cinque terre, italy

try the sciacchetra

5/10/2007 7:05:45 PM

my bad, i didn't even read your original post. just started rambling

5/10/2007 7:06:52 PM

My g/f and I did pub walks in London. They aren't tourist traps at all (probably like 4-5 couples and some randoms on each one with MAYBE one other one that was not English) and they go through some really cool old parts of London's to some real neighborhood pubs. My favorite one was the 'Old Chelsea' one... They aren't your typical tourist pubs and a lot of them are hidden away so only locals know where they are. We met some really interesting people and the pubs were really cool in and of themselves.

The 'guide' gives you a history of the area that you go on the tour of and you stop for like 20-30 minutes each at 4 or 5 pubs each walk..

[Edited on May 10, 2007 at 7:16 PM. Reason : x]

5/10/2007 7:14:25 PM

i don't know if it's always at this time, but when i was in london, they raised the tower bridge at 6pm. i was watching it from the shore of the thames, and it was pretty neat

5/10/2007 7:24:53 PM