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This blog is started as an online storage for the places we have visited and also to serve as information for those who wants to travel, hope that this blog will help, thanks for reading :)

Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Europe Fall 2013 - Costing and planning

Our first Europe trip and it surprises everyone why we chose cities/countries that are not so popular as our first time (e.g. Paris, Rome, Swiss, London)... We chose, Munich (Germany), Salzburg (Austria), Prague (Czech) and Amsterdam (Netherlands)
Some never heard of Salzburg... (-_-);

We spent 2 nights per city.

Below is the costing breakdown:
  • KLM/MAS return tickets (2pax) - RM4227/pax (yeah... we bought it at a rather high price although this price includes KL-Amsterdam return, Amsterdam-Munich, and Prague-Amsterdam)
  • Transportation (Note: the Munich-Salzburg train is an open ticket, meaning you can hop onto any train, any time on the same day)
    • Main 
      • Munich-Salzburg train - €140 (€35/pax/way) - booked via OEBB
      • Munich-Prague bus - €58 (€29/pax/way) - booked via DB
    • Additional - €320 (€20/pax/day) - its more than enough (the cab from Prague hotel to the airport was €28, other ticket prices are available when we go to the specific days)
  • Food - €1260 (€70/pax/day) - its more than enough (we bought mineral water, Evian is the cheapest!)
  • Tours (Note: there are additional fees for rides and some entrance fees)
    • Salzburg - Berchtesgaden/Eagle's Nest - €45/pax - booked via Bob's Special Tours
      • Obersalzberg Bunkers - €3/pax
      • Eagle's Nest - €16.10/pax
    • Salzburg - Hallstatt - €90/pax - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED! (Tour guide was Rosemarie) - booked via Bob's Special Tours
    • Amsterdam - Anne Frank Huis - €9.50/pax - booked via their official website
    • Amsterdam - City Tour + Volendam, Marken and the Windmills - €50/pax - booked via Viator
  • Hotels - €800 (€100/night) - there are cheaper alternatives, we chose this price because its our honeymoon :)
The weather was not that great as it rained 75% of the duration we were there! Asked the locals there and they said it was surprisingly wet this early autumn... its supposed to be cool and sunny!

NOTE:
For all the restaurants that we have visited for dinner, we emailed them and made a reservation a month before the trip. Most of the popular ones are packed and they will directly turn you down without prior booking. You wouldn't want to be looking for another restaurant with a noisy stomach :P

Special note for Prague
  1. Be aware of money changers as some charges a very hefty fee/commission (if their rates are too good to be true, they most probably are!)
  2. Most restaurants and tourist shops here accepts Euro, of course the conversion rate will favour them. Just convert some Czech Korunas (maybe around €50-100) for transportation, etc just in case you need to buy something and that stall/shop doesn't accept Euros
On the below comparison, there are a lot of money changers. The left one does not charge commission, try look for this company, ensure that they do not charge any commission before converting with them: