Well the first half was great. My plan was spend half a day in London, a night in Lyon, 4 nights in Nice then 4 nights in LLoret (Costa Brava, Spain). LLoret was a very cheap all inclusive deal. My budget for all this was around £400! but spent £450.
My first day went fine, my train arrived into London on time, spent some time on Oxford St doing last minute holiday shopping, then arrived into Victoria Coach Station in plenty of time. Time to head for Weatherspoons for my evening meal and a pint to calm my travellers nerves. Sadly it was Friday night and the pubs in Victoria were all too busy, and the other more local pub were too expensive for food. I had a pint in Weatherspoons then a some fast food before my coach.
Coach was ok, was a French service owned by SNCF, but the first driver to Paris was quiet rude playing loud music all night to try and stay awake while passenagers were trying to sleep. It only took 90 minutes from London to get to Dover so we had a lot of time hanging around at Dover.
Customs was straight forward and at 2:20am we finally got on the train to Calais. I wasn't sure if there would be any more customs stops when we arrived into France so I couldn't really relax. Once the coach hit the French motorways I relaxed and tried to get some sleep before we arrived into Paris. Was in Paris for an hour and a change of driver before hitting Lyon.
Spent the night in a cheap Ibis Budget right next to the train station for my 7:00am direct train to Nice. So far everything went perfectly, I had managed to get from Manchester to Nice on all land for £55 was very pleased with that.
I really enjoyed Nice, went to Monaco and enjoyed the expensive but not much worse than UK prices night life. Four days later had a mammoth journey into Spain and I was very prepaired for problems with this as my plan was to a train to Montpelier then a coach to Girona simply because there was no trains from Montpelier until 4:30 which would have got to Lloret for too late. It did mean I only had 1 hour 10 minutes to get my coach and to get a quick tram ride to coach stop so I knew in my mind I may have to still get that train.
So I get to Nice station at 6:30am for my 6:53 train to Montpelier. So far everything is fine then on the board "Retard 10" - 10 minutes late :( I am now worrying as getting that coach is looking less likely, ten minutes passed still no train now retard 20, then retard 30, finally retard 60 :(. The train turned up an hour late, but then broke down on the way due to overhead power problems and finally hit Marseilles (where I had my connection to Montpelier) two hours later than scheduled. I went to to the ticket office to make sure I could get a later train than mine said, when I realised the next train went to Perpignan and it turns out as it is a slow TER train the ticket to Perpignan was cheaper than going to Montpellier then getting the train from there. So I split ticketed and finally hit Perpignan at 4:30.
I am now close to Spain but I still have to get to Girona, now the Spanish AVG trains have to be pre booked. If all the seats sell then you can't get a ticket. Got to the ticket office and say said have all sold out on the next train, but the train after that got me to Girona way after all the buses have stopped running to Lloret. I saw on my SNCF app that there was still a first class seat for sale, so I bought that, ticket woman was saying it is very expensive 30 euros instead of the usual 13, but I insisted I don't care if it costs me 100 euros, I need to be on that train. Finally got the ticket and hit Lloret at 8:30pm.
I enjoyed Lloret, although I found it tacky and wished I had gone to my usual haunt of Calella just down the road. The hotel staff were very helpful though and I managed to stay out till 5:00am one night as the bars all shut at 6:00am there!.
Finally on Monday it was time to go home, got to Girona, then my AVG train to Perpignan then my night train to Paris which was a bit learly at times, although once it hit Toulouse the unsavoury characters had got off to met with police and SNCF guards. Hit Paris at 7:30am, my Eurostar was 11:13 so plenty of time. Got a bus to Gare De Nord, had some food etc and checked in to Eurostar. It ended up being over hour late so I missed my connection to Manchester :(. Cheapest train ticket was £160 for a single!, so I ended up getting the coach which was a nightmare as the toilet was flooded and the M6 was congested due to the weather and an accident. Finally got home at 10:30pm after none stop travelling from 3:30pm (UK time) the day before.
I now to need to fill in compensation from SNCF, I get some money back due to missing my coach and having to then buy more rail tickets. With the Eurostar because it was so late I am entitled to a free single journey so need to get that form filled in. I need to find out from next time what the law is in the UK if I miss a UK train due to a late Eurostar it is a bit vague. I know in France SNCF will generally let you catch a later train but in the UK it is much more complicated.
Would I do it again? Yes but next time I will allow a few hours for each connection at critical points. I know a lot about French trains, the routes and general idea of time tables in he cities I have travel through and the Geography to this made my delays less of a problem. If I was in a country I wasn't familiar with then the delays would have been a lot worse.
Next time as well I will stick to one destination and not try and do silly things. The French trains are centred around Paris, and although Nice to Costa Brava is only about 350 miles away there is just no direct routes.
One of the interesting things I always find is that the railway stations especially on the French/Spanish border towns I always bump into British people doing exactly the same as me.
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Well done Rattle on coping with stuff. In reality its pretty usual, but that doesn't stop it being worrying when its actually happening.
That should help to increase the confidence for further trips to farther locations.
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Sounds fun, I'd be jealous if I hadn't been on holiday then too... The Spanish trains are fantastic - I did Madrid to the south and back aren't they. Run according to time, lots of space etc. etc.
As I was flying back from Madrid, I saw this and thought of you: fearlessflyer.easyjet.com/ (I got to Madrid for £30, and back for £22 (plus £18 of UK train fares) and didn't have to worry about connections...)
One of the interesting things I always find is that the airports I always bump into British people doing exactly the same as me...
Last edited by: Mapmaker on Thu 17 Sep 15 at 14:29
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hey rats nice travelogue, what were your impressions of how the others live in the countries you have visited.
Thought it be a road trip by giving your panda a italian tune up, and filling it up full as petrol cheaper there.
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I was exhausted just reading that. Glad it worked out in the end. More or less.
I quite enjoy travelling abroad, especially on trains, but preferably covering long distances inter state in my friends pick up. Friends of mine are currently planning a three week rail trip around Europe, staying in five interesting cities for a duration of 3 or 4 nights in each. I suspect the planning is as much fun as the actual trip, rather like my cross country backpacking trips.
It makes my normal overseas trip LBA>AMS>LAX or PDX or SEA> SMF sound like a walk in the park. Which actually it is, figuratively speaking.
I know plenty of trips which went far more wrong than yours. I've been in a couple of them!
Where next?
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>>I know plenty of trips which went far more wrong than yours.
Pretty early yesterday morning I got a frantic message from one of my cousins in Cumbria. Apparently the 22yr old daughter of friends of hers had arrived in Chile alone as part of her world travelling.
She'd arrived jet-lagged, and got robbed of all phones, tablets, cameras, credit cards and identification and was now alone at a Police Station.
I went down there and got her to bring her back to my place. Began to reorganise her life, get replacement cards & phones and stuff shopped from England, replacement tickets and documents and just getting things sorted out when the Earthquakes hit.
And this morning she has woken up with a thick cold.
Now *that's* a trip going wrong!
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>> >>I know plenty of trips which went far more wrong than yours.
>>
>> Now *that's* a trip going wrong!
>>
My Son in law was in Chicago for the 9/11 attack. He was stuck there for a week, fortunately on expenses.
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My son is self employed and gets paid per hour.
He was in Gabon and through no fault of his he was delayed for some 3 days due to the wrong plane being used (smaller capacity) - no daily flights. He finally got off and made it to Paris just in time to miss the last plane to Aberdeen.
When away the agreement was - all travel time (inc sleeping) @ normal rate, 12 hours per day when working.
Biggest ever month for his invoice - 1.5 days flying out, approx 4 days back x 24 hours + 5 days @ 12hrs = Billing under 200 hrs approx for 11 days away from home.
The client paid up but subsequently changed the rules that a maximum if 12 hours (travel or work in any 24 hour period).
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I realise mine could have gone more wrong, I am always extremely careful about being robbed, but I suspect most European countries are safe in this regard unless you do something stupid. I have witnessed attempted theft on the night train last year though.
I always enjoy the planning, especially trying to beat the booking systems. The novelty of going to endless train stations does wear thin a bit though after a while!
Sajid I have been to both countries before so I didn't make that many observations. The French locals were very friendly in the Nice area. The bus bus and tram services in Nice were all in English which was odd. "The next stop is....." etc.
One motoring observation I made was in France they don't seem to be as image obsessed with their cars, most cars there are just middle of the road Euroboxes. Now I am sure the French have as much disposable income as us, they probably just spend it on better things than having 4 rings on the front of their car.
I've always loved Spain and especially the Catalans and never had much time for France, but this trip has made me really like France apart from Paris.
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What are you like on boats Rattle? As bad as airplanes or you don't mind them?
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Sounds like you had a good time. Done journeys on buses, anywhere from 4 to 20 odd hours (not through choice) and you're a better man than me. Just felt so slow to get anywhere. But main thing is you enjoyed your trip. Got any more lined up?
Last edited by: sooty123 on Thu 17 Sep 15 at 20:38
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I actually enjoy crossing the channel on the ferry, much prefer it to the tunnel although Eurostar is my preferred method due to speed (two hours London to Paris).
The reason I went to Lyon by coach was more due to timings than money, the Eurostar option meant a night in London which would have cost a small fortune. I am a big fan of night coaches and trains as it allows plenty of times for the connection and it gets you to the destination early in the morning. I can cope with little sleep for the odd night.
I have travelled to Spain directly from Manchester by coach, is actually very relaxing, get on Manchester, get off in Spain although it is boring.
I have thought about the ferry to the Basque region but it is very expensive and it quickly sells out. I booked my rail trip only in July and August.
I will do this again next year, hopefully using some credit from SNCF and a free Eurostar journey! This time though I will book it well in advance, get a cheap Travelodge in Kings Cross, get the 7:00amish direct train to Lyon and then also stay there night.
Also want to do a UK trip next year again as there is still parts of the south coast I need to explore.
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And are you still set against long distance car journeys? Especially on the other side of the road?
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>> Also want to do a UK trip next year again as there is still parts
>> of the south coast I need to explore.
Use your car
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Further to trips going wrong....a certain CA girlie I know, and three of her friends, booked a cycling holiday in Tuscany this summer. Supposedly intelligent people, but not well travelled outside the USA. They left the flight booking to one person, never checked and arrived at Sacramento to find it had flown 5 hours earlier. Which means you lose the lot if you so much as miss a leg, of which there were three in each direction. So, $1800 poorer each, they then had to rebook flights whilst at the airport, and suffer the most convoluted flights in order to meet up with the cycling holiday.
Another $2000 later they finally arrived in Tuscany. A cock up doesn't even begin to describe it.
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What a complicated life you lead Sheikha. Makes my head spin.
Oh and by the way, USE THE DAMN CAR BEFORE IT DISSOLVES IN A HEAP OF RUST ON YOUR DRIVEWAY my dear fellow, sorry for shouting don't know what came over me...
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It's worth bearing in mind when travelling overland in France that SNCF's previous reputation for reliability and punctuality has been shot to pieces in recent years.
Good luck with the refund application.
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>> Further to trips going wrong.... Supposedly intelligent people, but not well travelled
>> outside the USA.
I understand from my (English) mate who lives and works in the US that some quite senior people in his company can book hotels and similar online using the US system for dates.. rather than the one everyone else uses.
So booking a hotel for 03/04/15 the hotel thinks they are turning up on 3rd April... whereas they turn up on 4th March.
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I think what happened in this case ( and am not 100% certain) is that one person volunteered to sort the flights and the others never checked for flight changes. And the big mistake was booking through a third party agent. For long haul I always book direct with the airline, and check for flight time alterations on a regular basis. On my next trip there have been three to date, nothing major, plus seat number changes due to an alternative aircraft type being used.
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>>Now *that's* a trip going wrong!
Seriously?!
Waif arrives in Chile having eaten nothing worthwhile and barely slept for weeks. Gets picked up by fairy godfather, given warm bed, food and suddenly relaxes so cold comes on. Has safe haven for earthquake.
That's a trip gone right! Particularly given earthquake should imagine parents are saying prayers of thanks that she lost her phones etc. when she did.
One evening last week in Spain I received a text at 10.30pm "Hi, I'm at the airport, which bar are you all in?" My response was to say "Err, you're 24 hours early, we're in a different city... but give me 5 minutes with hotels.com!" We can't remember how lucky we are with modern technology which can rescue us from any problem.
BTW 'replacement tickets'? Don't you just reprint them from gmail account accessible anywhere in the world?
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>> BTW 'replacement tickets'? Don't you just reprint them from gmail
>>account accessible anywhere in the world?
Including bus tickets to Atacama. So no, not really.
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I always print back up tickets where possible and put them in my luggage. I also empty an account, and put that debit card with my luggage so if I get pick pocketed I can always get money transferred into that.
Time permitting as well I avoid busy underground stations where pick pockets targets. Confused rushing tourists stand out a mile and are easy pray. In Paris I had 3 hours to get from Gare De Lyon to Gare De Nord so I took the bus. Was very less hassle and only took 30 minutes so probably no slower than the metro by the time you faff about with all the stairs and escalators etc.
Travelling is a wonderful thing, the only problem is you need a holiday when you get back to recover from it!
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Well done for going, it's nice to get away on your own at times and just wander to your heart's content.
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Back from my travels - This time didn't go to plan - No FM2R
