Any advice for my honeymoon to Europe?

[AntiFreze]

In October of this year I will be getting married and my fiance and I will be headed to Europe for 2 weeks. We are planning on hitting up Lots of Ireland, London, a brewery in Belgium and stay overnight, a night in a small french town, then the rest in Paris.

I was wondering if anyone had some general advice or recommendations on any of these places. We really want to see Ireland, feel like we should stop in London to see some famous tourist stuff, I require a night at a brewery in Belgium and we want to eat good food in Paris.

Any advice/recommendations would be appreciated.

 

[Jeeebus]

you know the rules.

 

[Descartes]

GTAudiophile posts a thread about European travel each year I believe. You might want to search for that.

Having said that, I've been in all the locations in your list and have a few general points:

1) You can get great Belgian brew all over Belgium. Visiting a brewery is great, but if you're just looking for the hard-to-get stuff you can likely get it in the larger towns.
2) I would give yourself a couple of days in London, at least. The tourist spots will take up a day or two depending on how deep you're wanting to go with it. Also, if you have time, you can catch a train out to Bath, a wonderful little town that would be great for a honeymoon. The stonehenge is also near.

I'm assuming you know about the trains. I wouldn't underestimate the time required to travel even though it seems like you can bounce between countries in a few hours. Give yourself some leisure time, get some rest and consider travel days full travel days, imo. Trying to pack too much travel between countries will exhaust you after a while.

That's really about it. London has some outstanding food too, so don't discount it, especially if you're a foodie into some of the more interesting options.

 

[AntiFreze]

Jessbus -- /confused

Descartes -- thanks for the advice and I'll look for GTAudiophile's post on europe. We are looking into getting the passes for the train since we will get the young person discount (both of us will be under 26). The brewery I want to go to in Belgium is very very special. The brewery is Brouwerij Westvleteren, and they brew the #1 beer in the world (according to beeradvocate), Trappist Westvleteren 12. Quote from the wikipedia page:

"Sales are limited to one order a month per person per license plate and phone number. Also, the beer must be reserved on their "beerphone" (+32 (0)70 21 00 45) beforehand. The monks will never sell you any beer if you just drive up to the abbey hoping to get some. The reason for this is to eliminate commercial reselling, and hence give all visitors a chance to buy some."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brouwerij_Westvleteren

That, and I've never been to a Trappist Abbey

 

[Jeeebus]

Originally posted by: AntiFreze
Jessbus -- /confused

:camera:

 

[DougK62]

I would spend as much time as you can in Ireland, specifically the west/southwest. It's gorgeous. My favorite town over there is a great little coastal place called Dingle (and the entire Dingle peninsula, really). If you're there on a sunny day it is pure heaven.

 

[Gibsons]

If you're into WWII history, the museum at Duxford (not far from London) is worth a visit.

 

[aphex]

Personally, I would cut the locations down by half. Two weeks for 4 countries is really limiting what you'll see in each. Slow down and relax, its your honeymoon, and you'll be more inclined to just take things in slowly, rather than running all over the place.

 

[ViviTheMage]

you want some good brewery action, go to Germany...

 

[AntiFreze]

lol Jeebus, its early - should have known

I'll look into Dingle as well as the museum of Duxford, definitely interested in WW2 history.

Really our trip is two places - Ireland and France. We just figure that London and Belgium are kind of on the way and warrant at least 1 night stay (2 for London).

Vivi - I'm not a fan of lagers or pilsners and I don't agree with the german brewing puritan laws. Maybe you can change my view and recommend a good german beer to pick up at bevmo?

 

[freegeeks]

Originally posted by: AntiFreze
Jessbus -- /confused

Descartes -- thanks for the advice and I'll look for GTAudiophile's post on europe. We are looking into getting the passes for the train since we will get the young person discount (both of us will be under 26). The brewery I want to go to in Belgium is very very special. The brewery is Brouwerij Westvleteren, and they brew the #1 beer in the world (according to beeradvocate), Trappist Westvleteren 12. Quote from the wikipedia page:

"Sales are limited to one order a month per person per license plate and phone number. Also, the beer must be reserved on their "beerphone" (+32 (0)70 21 00 45) beforehand. The monks will never sell you any beer if you just drive up to the abbey hoping to get some. The reason for this is to eliminate commercial reselling, and hence give all visitors a chance to buy some."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brouwerij_Westvleteren

That, and I've never been to a Trappist Abbey

I always have case of Westvleteren 12 at home, good choice :thumbsup:

 

[Descartes]

Originally posted by: ViviTheMage
you want some good brewery action, go to Germany...

Compared to Belgium it's not even close.

 

[oznerol]

Just did the London/Dublin trip last September. Here's a few things:

Ireland
- Don't do the Guinness or Jameson "brewery" tours in Dublin. Both are pricey and neither are actual breweries. They're just the locations where breweries once existed.
- Walk through Temple Bar at night, but don't bother going into any of the places unless you want the photos.
- The island is great for day-trips. See the Cliffs of Moher. Galway is a quaint little town.

London
- I'm usually not big on the whole guided tour deal, but the London Walks are surprisingly good (and cheap). We went on 3 of them - the best being the pub crawl.
- Go to Nando's. It's a chain, but it is good.
- Don't bother with the London Eye unless you really want the photo. It's about $30 a person for 45 minutes worth of looking.

Both
- Eat in pubs. All of the best meals we had were in pubs, not restaurants. Generally you just pick a table, order food (and liquor) at the bar and give them your table number, and they bring it to you.
- As intriguing as it might be, don't get pizza in either place. The places are always packed which makes you think it's good, but I think they're just oblivious. In Dublin, I got a pizza and it had corn on it. And it was served with fries. In fact, just about everything is served with fries over there.
- If you have a Bank of America account - they have a deal with Barclays so you can use their ATMs without a fee.