Wisconsin

Europe

Does anyone know of any good travel agencies in the Milwaukee area that specialize in European vacations?  Anyone you've used before/had expirience with?  TIA! 
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Re: Europe

  • edited December 2011
    I guess I should be a little more specific ... we're looking at western Europe.   
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  • edited December 2011
    I lived in Germany for a while. What kind of vacation are you trying to do? You may want to try planning a vacation using a guide like Rick Steve's.
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  • edited December 2011
    I've never used a travel agent when traveling to Europe before.  I prefer just to buy guide books and plan my own stuff.  Rick Steves has great recommendations.  We found GREAT restaurants in Rome using his book.
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  • edited December 2011
    Thanks so much! I've never even heard of him, so I'm definately going to look at his website.  We're looking to spend 2.5-3 weeks there, and we're thinking of starting off in England, then from there we'd like to hit France, Germany, Italy, and Spain for sure.  I don't know if we will have time for anything else, but if we do I'd like to check out Greece as well.  I'm just nervous about planning it on my own because niether of us have ever been there before and with language barriers and all of that on top of having no clue where we are, it makes me uneasy.  I'd like to sit down with someone and map out the whole vacation based off of the things we really want to see/places we really want to go.  Thanks for the information though.  I'm going to browse his website now.         
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  • edited December 2011
    Hmm, I might consider scaling that back a bit, particularly if you've never been.  5-6 countries in 2.5-3 weeks is FAST.  When you build in travel time, you'd ultimately be looking at 2.5-3 days in each place.  I know some people love trips like that, but it's NMS.My suggestion would be this: check out some Rick Steves and Lonely Planet books from the library and peruse them.  Then think about what kind of vacation you want.  When I was younger, I did the fast and furious see-everything-as-quickly-as-possible kind of thing.  When we went to Rome (granted it was our honeymoon), we really enjoyed having time to linger over a long lunch or a multi-course dinner.  I liked stopping for espresso or gelato and not worrying about missing something.  We spent six days in Rome, which is really more than you need, but I think it definitely deserves four.  London alone could easily be four days, and that doesn't even count any side trips to Oxford or Bath or elsewhere.  Same goes with Paris.  Heck, just the Louvre could take up half or even a whole day if you wanted.You may decide that you want to go to as many places as possible, and that's fine.  If it were me, I'd probably try to plan about a five days to a week per country, perhaps a little less if I were planning to stay in a single major city in a given country.
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  • edited December 2011
    Yeah, I think you're right.  I just spent the last hour looking at stuff online, and even the Rick Steves tours have you spending about 3 days in each country.  I think we're going to have to take one out of the mix :(  That might be pushing it, and while I know we aren't going for a R&R vacation, I don't want to be running around like a crazy person everyday.   
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  • edited December 2011
    I agree that you will need to pick your favs and really enjoy them.  The books they suggested are great tools which I have also used in the past.  You could also go to AAA.  The membership for a year is $70 with road side assistants but they are also a travel planning place.  You will be deals on flights, stays and advice about your trip.  They give out maps and highlight "must-see" places.  It is worth looking into.  We used them this last March on a month long trip and found it incredibly helpful.  I am also going to France this April and I am planning on revisiting them for any help they may have for me.  Hope that helps.
  • edited December 2011
    Thank you, thank you!!  I'm going to look into that too! 
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  • toniinzeotoniinzeo member
    First Comment
    edited December 2011
    I hate to say this because I LOVE London...but I would take London out. You could fly into France, then take an overnight train when you leave Paris to Berlin, which then could take a train down to Munich if you want more of a Bavarian feel of Germany, then I would go to Venice, then Florence, then Rome (now if you want to go to Greece you can take a train from Rome to Bari where you catch an overnight boat to Patras, where you catch a train to Athens, where you can catch boats to the Islands.) Then from there I would head back towards Paris as you can get to Barcelona in like 2hrs by train from Paris. NOW...all that being said, I would DEF compare the prices of flying from city to city vs. train (for instance just FLY to Athens from Rome) to save time, and chances are...the price might be better!! We learned that depending on when you are going/where you are going flying within Europe can actually be cheaper than training it. The train is really fun, but you obviously can get more in if you fly. I wish i could say that all the places you listed weren't amazing, but they are! I just did a month of 12 countries a couple summers ago, and i agree...Rick Steves is SUPER helpful...also, just get online! Another thig to consider would be do Paris, then head to the South of France and do Monaco, and the South (nice beaches) then I would go either the Spain Route (you could even hop a boat to Moracco from Spain) or go the other way and do Italy, Greece, and Croatia. Croatia is STUNNING!!!
  • toniinzeotoniinzeo member
    First Comment
    edited December 2011
    Ooooo...Prague is really amazing too! Very Romantic...and don't over look Amsterdam, very fun, and amazingly pretty.
  • edited December 2011
    Oh my gosh!  I definately need to get a travel agent lol.  Thanks for your help :)  I really appreciate it! 
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  • jenickjenick member
    First Comment
    edited December 2011
    We had Lisa Pease plan a Europe trip for us last summer.  She was great!  She works out of Cedarburg.  We told her what were were looking to do and what we wanted to spend and she delivered! I can't say enough good things about her!!lpease@gocwt.com
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  • toniinzeotoniinzeo member
    First Comment
    edited December 2011
    Question about your pic Saraevh-Did you do your ceremony at Villa Terrace, or just go there for pics? If just for pics, what did they charge you to come in and do them??
  • edited December 2011
    We had our ceremony at Villa Terrace.  I'm not sure how much they charge to just do pictures there.  Check out their website.  It might say on there? 
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