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Originally posted by ArtsieAng
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Switzerland is a wonderful country. I spent a few days there earlier this year and took the extremely scenic Glacier Express excursion train. It is not an inexpensive country, however, as the Swiss frank is stronger than the euro. A Big Mac meal at McDonalds will set you back over US$12, for example. I did get an internet rate on a 4* hotel for a bit under US$100. in Lausanne, but most hotel rates I looked at were considerably more than that. -
Croatia uses the kuna, and has not even agreed to adopt the euro in the future at this point, but probably will when it decides to join the EU.Originally posted by bigfrank View PostComment
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Croatia is a great country and good value these days. I love the Croatia Tourist Boards ads they run on CNN Europe with the slogan ''The Mediterranian the way it once was'' (never mind that they are technically on the Adriatic). I have been there several times on non-timeshare trips, and have an exchange there this August through DAE to Split. The Dalmatian coast offers a lot of interesting cities and towns, the two best being the walled city of Dubrovnik, formerly the independent city-state of Ragussa, up until the Napoleanic Wars, and Split, the old city of which is built inside the still-standing walls of Roman Emporer Diocletian's palace. The Istrian peninsula is also very scenic with several beautiful old towns and cities, including Pula, which has an ancient Roman coliseum that is more complete than the one in Rome. Several LCC's fly to Split, Dubrovnik, Pula, and Zagreb from various places in Europe. From Zagreb, you can take a train to Split.Originally posted by ArtsieAng View PostThanks Pat!!! That's encouraging.
I don't know anything about Croatia, so I'll have to look into it. I do see availabilities in So America, as well as Croatia in II, so that's also a possibility.
What about the various Islands. How does the dollar stack up to their currency?
One thing I like about the DAE resort is that it is on the mainland just outside Split, which makes it easy to get around. RCI's resort there is on Hvar Island, which itself is nice, but you have to take a ferry to the mainland to go anywhere else, which makes getting around more difficult. Hvar Town itself is a jet set destination these days, and I enjoyed it when I visited, but I would rather be on the mainland where I can get around to more places. Mostar, Bosnia is also a possible day trip from Split or Dubrovnik.Comment
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Some other thoughts on eastern Europe destinations
Here are a few other places to consider where your dollar will go further:
Hungary - Budapest is a great city, but I don't think I would spend an entire week there. There are some good day trips by train from there like the old royal palace at Godollo and the baroque Danube town of Szentendre, as well as Lake Balaton. Hungary has some decent timeshare availibility through RCI. I have been there a couple of times this year, and prices and still fairly reasonable outside the tourist traps on Castle Hill. Using intenet rates, I found 4* hotels in Budapest for less than $70. Hungary uses the forint rather than the €.
Poland - This is a country I would move around rather than staying in one place. Warsaw and Gdansk / Danzig were bombed to oblivion in WWII but had their old towns recreated after the war from photographs. Walking through them today, it is hard to belive that they are not as old as they look. Krakow, Torun, and Lublin are the real McCoy with authentic medieval old towns. Breslau / Wroclaw is also interesting. When in Danzig, you can take a train to the adjacent beach resort, where Kaiser Wilhelm II's surprisingly modest beach house is now a hotel and restaurant. This is East Prussia and did not become Polish until after WWII. Poland uses the zloty rather than the €. There are a couple of timeshares in Poland, but I would rent a car and move around.
The Baltics - The capitals of each are superb. Tallinn is best, followed by Riga, and then Vilnius. Tallinn still has most of its medieval walls and towers surrounding a medieval old town. South of Riga, the Runsdale Palace, summer residence of the Dukes of the old pre-Napoleanic independent Duchy of Courland, is magnificent. It was built by the same designer who built some of the Romanov palaces around St. Petersburg. All use independent currencies, and prices have gone up from what they once were, but still beat most of western Europe. No timeshare.
The western Balkans - Montenegro, long an independent principality, the only one in the region to succesfully defy the Ottoman Turks, and from 1910 to 1918, independent kingdom, is the star here. It is very reasonably priced. Its capital, Podgorica, is not very interesting, but the medieval coastal town of Kotor is magnificent, and the old royal capital of Cetinje with two royal palaces, an old monastery, the old pre-WWI embassies of the great powers of Europe, and a good history museum in the former Government House, seat of both the parliament and administrative offices of the principality / kingdom, are well worth seeing. There are also several beach resort towns, some with smaller but interesting old towns. One can fly in by LCC either to Belgrade, Serbia and take a train (scenic ride through the mountains) or directly to an airport in coastal Montenegro. Belgrade, Serbia is also worth a day or two and there are several trains a day from Podgorica. Sarajevo, Bosnia can be reached by overnight train from Belgrade, and is well worth a day or two. Serbia and Bosnia use their own currencies, the dinar and convertible mark, respectively, and costs are reasonable. Montenegro does use the € but prices are not bad at all. When Montenegro was still hooked to Serbia in the rump Yugoslavia, they seperated themselves from the politically orchestrated instability of the dinar by decreeing the the German Deutsch Mark would be their currency instead. When Germany replaced that with the €, Montenegro had little choce but to follow suit, but the then depressed Balkan economy kept prices from jumping like they did in western Europe. There is a good bus network through the parts of Montenegro that are interesting to tourists. No timeshares here.
Romania - A few things worth seeing in Bucharest, but not worth more than a day. The medieval Saxon cities now called Sibiu, Seigheshoara, and Brasov in Transylvania, are Romania's best attractions, and in the area, the magnificent royal summer palace of Peles and medieval Bran castle are also well worth seeing. The trip through the Carpathian mountains by train or car is also scenic. Romania has some okay Black Sea beaches, but those of Bulgaria are better and neither are anywhere close in ambiance to the Adriatic beaches of Croatia and Montenegro. On the Romanian coast, one can dine or in one case stay in the residences of two former leaders. Former King Carol II's seaside palace is now a hotel and Communist dictator Ceaucesceau's beach villa is now a restaurant. Having eaten at both, I would recommend the food at the latter. DAE usually gets three or four weeks deposited each summer at a large country residence near Sibiu called ''The Priest's House'', which if memory serves is a 4 or 5 BR house. That is the only timeshare option in Romania. In medieval Seigheshoara, one can eat in the house where Vlad III Tepes, the historical Dracula, was born, which is now a restaurant and is to the left just inside the main city gate. Vlad's tomb is in a monastery on the island in the middle of Lake Snagov north of Bucharest, and there are boats over to it in summer. Prices have gone up in Romania from their ultra-cheap level of a few years ago, but it is still much more reasonable than western Europe. The currency is the lei. Several western European LCC's fly into Bucharest, and there are two homegrown LCC's, Blue Air and Carpatair.
Bulgaria - Some interesting mountain areas, both in the south and in the center around the ancient capital of Veliko Turnovo, and okay beaches which are better than the Black Sea beaches of either Romania or Ukraine, are the main tourist attractions. There are lots of LCC flights from western Europe to both Sofia and the coast. Sofia has a number of interesting medieval and even pre-medieval churches, a decent museum in the old royal palace, and a few other sites, but nothing that is worth much more than a day or so. Plovidiv is worth a day for its old town and its ancient Roman amphitheatre which is still in use for performances. Veliko Turnovo has a 10th century castle that was the seat of the kings of the era and an interesting old town. Other than beach or mountain activities, Bulgaria is a country it is better to move around in. Sofia, Plovdiv, Veliko Turnovo, and the coast are well connected by inexpensive trains, or one can rent a car. The currency is the lev, which is pegged to the €, but prices are not bad. The only timeshare availible are apartments both on the coast and in the mountains that are deposited by their British owners with DAE.Comment
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I know Hungary and Poland aren't exactly noted for the quality of their food. What's it like in Croatia? Any local dishes worth trying, or avoiding?
From your experience how much would be the average cost of a decent evening meal, bottle of wine and pint of beer. You can see where my priorities lay
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US territories
There are always US territories like Porto Rico and St. Thomas.Comment
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Carolinian .....Thanks so much for all the good info. I'm considering perhaps Prague, or Croatia.
Prague sounds nice, and if we can drive to other close by locations, that would work for us. I'm going to do some research, and see what I can find out.
Thanks again for all the great info!
Angela
If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.
BTW, I'm still keeping track of how many times you annoy me.
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I would not drive in Prague. While the driving itself is not all that bad, parking is extremely difficult in the city. It is best to see the city, and then pick up a rental to drive around the rest of the country. Karlstein Castle, not far outside Prague, is great. Cesky Krumlov is probably the best medieval town. The spa towns of western Czech Republic are well worth seeing, particularly Karlovy Vary / Karlsbad, although when I have visited, I liked to stay in the medieval town of Loket / Elbogem just outside. Loket was a favorite hangout of German writer Goethe, and on my first trip there I stayed in the hotel (White Swan, if memory serves) that he always patronized. On my second trip, it was closed, awaiting renovation by new owners.Originally posted by ArtsieAng View PostCarolinian .....Thanks so much for all the good info. I'm considering perhaps Prague, or Croatia.
Prague sounds nice, and if we can drive to other close by locations, that would work for us. I'm going to do some research, and see what I can find out.
Thanks again for all the great info!Comment
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The food differs depending on the part of the country. Zagreb's food is very close to Hungarian, but on the coast, such as Istria and Dalmatia, which were part of the terretory of the Republic of Venice until the Napoleanic Wars and then Austria until WWI, there is more of an Italian influence, and being on the coast, seafood is also popular. A beer or a glass of wine was around $2, and a good evening meal was $15-20Originally posted by Keitht View PostI know Hungary and Poland aren't exactly noted for the quality of their food. What's it like in Croatia? Any local dishes worth trying, or avoiding?
From your experience how much would be the average cost of a decent evening meal, bottle of wine and pint of beer. You can see where my priorities layComment
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Gotcha. It all sounds wonderful!
Question.....We might only have 10 -12 days to travel, and we really like to see as much as possible. Do you think it would be doable to go to both Prague & Croatia? Maybe fly into Prague, stay for 3-4 days in Prague. Then do one or two day trips outside of Prague, and fly to Croatia?
Also...1 US dollar = CZK Czech Koruna 16.11301 What the heck does that mean?
Originally posted by CarolinianAngela
If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.
BTW, I'm still keeping track of how many times you annoy me.
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I have never looked at the air connections, but I would think that CSA Czech Airlines probably flies that route, as may Czech LCC Smart Wings. It would be better to fly into Split or Dubrovnik, but you could fly into Zagreb and take the train on to the coast. They used to have an overnight train with sleeper cars on that route, which was very convenient, but I don't believe they still do the overnight run. Between Split and Dubrovnik, there are frequent buses, and if you catch the schedule right, also a long distance ferry that runs down the coast, but only certain days of the week.
As to day trips outside Prague, there is an easy train connection to Karlstein Castle from the city, but it is a long uphill walk to the castle from the train station. There are locals, however, who earn a living using horses and carriages to take tourists from the station up to the castle, and when I was there several years ago, their fee was not too bad.Comment
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We have friends where the DH is from Croatia. They are very, very cosmopolitan and have traveled all over the world--and the wife tells me that Croatia is the most beautiful place she has ever been, a wonderful place for a vacation.
If you're up for a long flight, Hong Kong was wonderful and very affordable for restaurants, sightseeing, and shopping. I don't know how high the cost of lodging is, but the exchange rate was about 13 cents to the Hong Kong dollar when I was there in February. Super-luxury designer stores were everywhere, but I didn't think the high-end items were significantly less expensive than they are here. Watch the weather--it's very hot and humid there in the summer; we had fantastic weather in February.Comment
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II has two resorts listed in Croatia. One of them is on the Island of Brac, and the other in in Novi, Vinodolski. 50 minute ferry ride from Brac to Split.Carolinian
One thing I like about the DAE resort is that it is on the mainland just outside Split, which makes it easy to get around.
They do.I have never looked at the air connections, but I would think that CSA Czech Airlines probably flies that route,
I think I can work something out with points, where I first go to Prague, and then on to Croatia. Most flights are going to Zagreb, tho.
Thank you again for all the great info! You have been such a huge help. Can't tell you how much I appreciate it.
I've been doing some research, and it seems many share your friends opinion.Wacky
We have friends where the DH is from Croatia. They are very, very cosmopolitan and have traveled all over the world--and the wife tells me that Croatia is the most beautiful place she has ever been, a wonderful place for a vacation.
This is so exciting. I had absolutely no idea this morning, that I would be even considering a trip to Prague, and Croatia. I think this might actually work. Now, all I need to do is convince DH that that's where he wants to go. 
Angela
If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.
BTW, I'm still keeping track of how many times you annoy me.
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Originally posted by buff View PostI have gone to Punta Cana every year for the past 6-7 years and usually stay at the Paradisus. The beaches are awesome!Originally posted by bigfrank View Post
As far as going off the resort, I have done so many times without any hesitation, but only in Punta Cana. You have to have all inclusive because there are very few places to eat outside of the resorts. The Jellyfish restaurant is supposed to be good.
Samana is supposed to be gorgeous, very affordable. You could still get a nice hotel for about $50/day. I would stay away from Santo Domingo...I also would not drive in DR.
I heard Croatia is very nice also, but I have never been there.Comment
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