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Old 09-11-2015, 08:45 AM
 
10,839 posts, read 14,677,694 times
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One week and please do yourself a favour by staying in one country.

I fail to understand those who do "Paris + Copenhagen" sort of trip. Is there really nothing in France that is worth seeing and you need to fly all the way to Denmark? What about Mont St Michel? Strasbourg? The great city of Lyon which is 2 hours away? The Loire Valley? The magnificent Provence? Dordogne? Only sticking to those famous capital city is very weird. What the hell is in Copenhagen? It is expensive and there is little to see.

If you want your budget to stretch a bit further, go to Spain or Portugal. Croatia is another great option.
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Old 09-11-2015, 09:23 AM
 
2,149 posts, read 4,144,864 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by botticelli View Post
One week and please do yourself a favour by staying in one country.

I fail to understand those who do "Paris + Copenhagen" sort of trip. Is there really nothing in France that is worth seeing and you need to fly all the way to Denmark? What about Mont St Michel? Strasbourg? The great city of Lyon which is 2 hours away? The Loire Valley? The magnificent Provence? Dordogne? Only sticking to those famous capital city is very weird. What the hell is in Copenhagen? It is expensive and there is little to see.

If you want your budget to stretch a bit further, go to Spain or Portugal. Croatia is another great option.
Question for you and others: is there any reason not to fly w/Icelandair? I'm not trying to be cheap, but $900 one way certainly beats the 2 grand that we would have to pay with any other airline. It seems like the only con is no food, but we could probably just get snacks or something.
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Old 09-11-2015, 09:36 AM
 
556 posts, read 943,880 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by botticelli View Post
One week and please do yourself a favour by staying in one country.

I fail to understand those who do "Paris + Copenhagen" sort of trip. Is there really nothing in France that is worth seeing and you need to fly all the way to Denmark? What about Mont St Michel? Strasbourg? The great city of Lyon which is 2 hours away? The Loire Valley? The magnificent Provence? Dordogne? Only sticking to those famous capital city is very weird. What the hell is in Copenhagen? It is expensive and there is little to see.

If you want your budget to stretch a bit further, go to Spain or Portugal. Croatia is another great option.
I fail to understand those who blindly dismiss a city they have never visited. I chose Copenhagen because it someplace I always wanted to see - and like I said, it's an amazing and amazingly underrated city. There is actually a lot to see, especially for anyone interested in royal history, architecture, literature, or design. Paris was a matter of convenience. I was able to save a little on airfare with an itinerary that included a long stopover in Paris. It was my third trip to Paris, so I didn't feel the need to see lots of specific sights - it was more about strolling around the city and enjoying some great food.
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Old 09-11-2015, 09:37 AM
 
10,839 posts, read 14,677,694 times
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Originally Posted by DomRep View Post
Question for you and others: is there any reason not to fly w/Icelandair? I'm not trying to be cheap, but $900 one way certainly beats the 2 grand that we would have to pay with any other airline. It seems like the only con is no food, but we could probably just get snacks or something.
If you can save 1000$ by flying Icelandair, do it by all means. Why do people care about food? You can by a great meal for $20. Most plane food is just crap anyway.

Although there are other options. I flew to Lisbon for $499 RT earlier this year via SATA. They fly to Spain too, usually under $1000. Only a few days ago, there was a deal allowing you to fly to Florence RT for under $550 (Canadian dollars, which would be $410US).

One has to be really smart about air fare and grab a deal when you can. A friend of mine just spent $1800 RT on an open jar UK/Germany. I was speechless. I'd rather not take that trip.
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Old 09-11-2015, 09:42 AM
 
556 posts, read 943,880 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by DomRep View Post
Question for you and others: is there any reason not to fly w/Icelandair? I'm not trying to be cheap, but $900 one way certainly beats the 2 grand that we would have to pay with any other airline. It seems like the only con is no food, but we could probably just get snacks or something.
By all means, by the airfare that is best for your budget, and pack a picnic for the plane if needed, but why are you looking at one way fares? Two one-way tickets generally going to be far more expensive than a round trip - sometimes a single one-way is as much as or more than the round trip. If you're already planning for next May, you should be able to get a round trip on a full service airline for less than $1000 per person, especially if you are flexible about the destination and travel dates. If you aren't familiar with the ITA Matrix, take some time to play with it - you can set a search with all of your feasible departure airports, all of the cities/airports in Europe you would consider visiting, and the number of nights you want to stay. Then you can search for flights that meet those specifications throughout the month you want to travel. It's really a great tool if you are tight with money but flexible with time and open minded about the destination.
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Old 09-11-2015, 10:02 AM
 
Location: Niceville, FL
13,258 posts, read 22,752,433 times
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What you want is not two one way tickets, but a single ticket booked as an "open jaw" or "Multi-city" that will send you into, say Paris and then out of Amsterdam on the way home. (Some flight search engines bury multi-city options under 'advanced search' or something like that) Cost of booking open jaw is generally within 10% of how it would work out booking a similar flight round trip unless you hit some odd fare rules or unpublished fare sales.

Nothing wrong with Icelandair if you can depart from one of their North American gateways. Any airline that operates in both the USA and EU has to meet fairly high safety standards and they've been around long enough to develop a reputation for being a solid and affordable option if their schedule and route map works for you. I've also heard good things about their Iceland stopover option.

But no need to rush with booking a ticket for late spring/summer right now. Set up some fare alerts from places like Airfare Watchdog and that major airlines (you just missed a substantial KLM transatlantic fare sale), keep an eye on the "good deals'-Mileage Runs section of Flyertalk, and do a search at ITA Matrix every few days (if you accept cookies, Matrix remembers your search parameters, so it's literally one click to do that) and give yourself until mid-January to find something in the $900-$1200 range round trip depending on your starting airport.
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Old 09-11-2015, 10:24 AM
 
Location: Victoria TX
42,579 posts, read 86,764,762 times
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Originally Posted by Sickandtiredofthis View Post
A week isn't long enough.
For what? If I spend one week in Europe and you do not go at all, have we both had the same experience? How would you respond to a child who said "one piece of cake is not enough"?
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Old 09-11-2015, 10:27 AM
 
Location: Omaha, Nebraska
10,348 posts, read 7,936,317 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by DomRep View Post
Question for you and others: is there any reason not to fly w/Icelandair? I'm not trying to be cheap, but $900 one way certainly beats the 2 grand that we would have to pay with any other airline. It seems like the only con is no food, but we could probably just get snacks or something.
I've flown Iceland Air, and they're fine. Economy class is economy class. Why not save the $1100 bucks?

(And if you have a long layover in Reykjavik, you may be able to spend a little time at the Blue Lagoon, which is wonderful.)

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Old 09-11-2015, 10:30 AM
 
Location: Omaha, Nebraska
10,348 posts, read 7,936,317 times
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Oh, and consider splitting your week between one city and the surrounding countryside. After a few days in a large, bustling city, the slower pace of the countryside can be very refreshing, and Europe has things worth seeing outside the largest cities, too.
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Old 09-11-2015, 10:31 AM
 
2,149 posts, read 4,144,864 times
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I get what sickandtiredofthis is saying though, one week isn't enough. Just like 14 days this past May wasn't enough for us, but as another poster said, we have jobs.
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