Visiting Europe for a month this summer

[mwalsh2020]

are there no castles anywhere near Berlin, Frankfurt, or Hamburg?

[Arnfinn Madsen]

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are there no castles anywhere near Berlin, Frankfurt, or Hamburg?

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There are plenty, but won't be so much history besides that. I haven't been to any, so I don't know what is nice, but I remember seeing some nice ones west of Frankfurt.

[Arnfinn Madsen]

Here you can probably find a nice one west of Frankfurt:

Castles

[ArturiusX]

Anyone have any information on Moscow? I'm flying in there for 4 days, I have no hotel at this stage, and need to apply for a visa. Any advice?

[Chillee]

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How did you come up with the 100-200 dollars of museum entrances per city? Is this a very rough estimate or is there no chance we can really do it any cheaper?

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That was the estimate we had for museum entrances, transport to/from the airport, and public transit within a city. Those were the exact prices for Paris ($100) and London ($200).

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This seems to be a bit much to me regarding Paris.
The Louvre cost 10€/day/person, and almost the same for Musée d'Orsay.

[mwalsh2020]

We are now going to a German city called dortmund, and I was wondering if anyone has any specific recommendations for stuff to do there. Also, visiting Prague for a few days and would love recommendations, thanks.

[1957 Chevy]

I've spent time in most of the cities you're visiting, but out of all of them, know the most about Amsterdam. You mentioned you were interested in "getting ridiculously high". Here's a quick rundown on some coffeeshops, from my perspective:

Amnesia: Between Leidsplein and the Dam Square, it's my favorite coffeeshop. Very chill spot. Great for spending afternoons. Nice clientile full of friendly regulars, board games constantly being played, and some great organically grown weed.

DampKring (spelling?): Up the street from Leidsplein just past the Flower Market. Really cool atmosphere with crazy East Indian/Alice in Wonderland?? kind of decor. HUGE menu with all organic weed. Awesome music all the time and a full bar. I would buy all my weed from there if I were you. Only downside is it gets VERY crowded, especially at night.

La Trujillo: Close to Amnesia. Good coffeshop for mornings/early afternoons. Family owned with a great sandwhich menu.

The Grey Area: Just around the corner from Amnesia. Amsterdam's only American owned coffeeshop. Extremely small. Only visit to chat with one of the owners (who are very cool) and buy an "American style eighth".

The Dolphins: Just off Leidsplein. Not as good as it used to be, but still fun with cool decor. Don't buy weed from there though, it's no good. I may just have a sentimental attachment to the place, because it was one of the first coffeeshops I ever visited. But it's worth a stop.

If you're staying in the Bulldog, you'll be close to the Red Light District. A fun night is starting at the bottom (northeast end) of the Red Light and working your way southwest through all the bars until you make it to the Dam Square. While you're there make sure you catch a Live Sex Show at the place that has a giant "penis" fountain in the front (can't remember the exact name). It's not as sleazy as you'd think. It's more of a "show" than actual sex (although the definitely do have sex onstage). It's a bit pricey (30 eruos), but you can watch for as long as you want (they repeat the shot over and over with slight variations) so you can get your money's worth.

The Rembrandtplein is also a cool, often overlooked area of the city with nice affordable restaurants and cool bars. While you're there, check out the Ice Bar. I can't remember what the actual name is of the bar, but it's in the middle of the square and basically it is a room that is below freezing. Everything is made of ice. You are given a parka and gloves and served drinks in giant blocks of ice. Pretty fun.

Definitely visit the Van Gough Musem and Reijksmusem. If you want it to, that could take three days in itself. Skip the TroppenMuseum, but give the Zoo a visit.

Quick Tips: Buy a 15 eruo stripcard right when you get there. You use it for trams. Don't stamp it unless you're asked to (which is rare), and that will take care of your public transportation for the length of your stay.

The trams stop running around 12:30am so try and make your way toward your hotel so you can walk home at the end of the night. Otherwise you can take a night bus which costs 3.50 euros to take you pretty much anywhere in the city.

Don't order a glass of water in a restaurant. It comes from a bottle and will cost, on average, 4.60 eruos. A big beer in a restaurant usally costs 4.50, so just drink that.

Be alert when walking through the red light disctrict late at night, and try to avoid cutting through one of the many alleyways.

Leidsplein is overrated, but an easy place to go for an always active nightlife.

Don't buy weed at the Bulldog, even though it'll be easy because you're staying there. Their weed sucks.

When you go into a coffeeshop, you can smoke your own weed, but you have to order a drink (not a law, just the code of ethics). Order a pear Looza (juice). They're awesome.

Have a blast and take pics!

[TheMetetron]

There are Ice Bar's in other cities as well. I've been to the one in Stockholm. It was interesting once, but a fairly big waste of time in general.

I'll keep your other recommendations in mind. I have a feeling we will go a bit more towards the psychedelics than marijuana in our drug choice though. Some "hard drugs" may or may not be on the menu depending on our mood.

[Kneel B4 Zod]

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Beauvais is outside Paris a bit, the main way to get there is via shuttle bus which takes about 45 min and costs about 10 euro.

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yes, but keep in mind CDG isn't exactly in downtown Paris either. if I was backpcking these days, I would do RyanAir and Easyjet for all long hauls. it also makes going to southern Italy/Greece/Scandinavia much easier to get to from the standard Paris/Madrid/Munich central Europe itinerary

[TheUsher]

dude i'm in the middle of a europe trip right now for a month and i could def tell you that any sort of strict plan is dumb. it's ok as a general guideline on what you'd want to do but things come up where you might want to extend/shorten your stay in a city.

i'm travelling w/another 2+2er right now and we'd both admit that having no plan on what to do is one of the most satisfying feelings ever. it's fun being able to do whatever you want and randomly getting into weird situations while in another country. think of it like this.. if you could pick the easy way to do something or another way where it might still work out.. which would you rather do? so far we've been picking the latter option and it's been amazing.

oh btw, wtf, $750 for 25 nights in hostels? we're getting owned then for what we're paying per night in the places we've been at so far.

i'd def be worried though bout what type of places you're staying in because even a regular room in decent hotels here is 8x8 or something insanely small w/no space to walk around.

oh and also.. budget for europe? that's no fun. it's going to be hard to stick to. you're going to be shocked when you see some of the prices for stuff here. like in london it's 2.3x+ the cost of what it might be back home.