If you go to Naples and the Amalfi coast, everything is expensive. That’s expected, but do not for any reason use the trains. Gangs will rob you, possibly worse.
But do go. Sorrento is lovely but very commercial. Find the small towns where the Italians go.
And visit Pompeii, it’s extraordinary.
EDIT - I may be wrong about the trains, please see the further comments in the thread.
Public transit seemed relatively safe to me, when I was there 2 years ago. The Amalfi coast is no that great though. Rather go to Naples, use a day for small boat trip to either Capri or Ischia, one day to take the commuter train to Herculaneum. After that take the train from Naples to Salerno, which is a good bit less touristy and ceaper than the real Amalfi coast. Perhaps take a boat from Salerno to look at the Amalfi coast from the sea (more beautiful that way anyway) or enjoye some of the beaches that are reachable with public transit nearby. In Salerno you can also take a train or Bus to Paestum, which is a UNESCO world heritage site has some greek temples from 600 BC.
Bullshit
Really? I took the circumvesuvian railway a couple of years ago and it was just a regular commuter train.
I was warned off by locals and they did look very dodgy. It’s entirely possible they were referring to a different, more specific line, but I didn’t get that impression and I wasn’t about to find out for myself.
Apologies if I’m wrong, I’ll edit my comment.
Those trains sure look dodgy, in a post-apocalyptic kind of way. Sometimes people jump to conclusions that it must be full of crime
Usa
Avoid coming, because i hate you
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CDG airport. I hate that place so much.
Heathrow, Schiphol and Frankfurt are all so much easier to navigate.On a serious note though: I’ve never bern anywhere in Europe that I straight up disliked. Sanremo was probably the «least friendly» with locals all pushing us towards the casino at every oportunity. The city was also surprisingly worn down.
The local market was awesome though.
Sanremo is a joke town, the only thing keeping it alive is the yearly Italian music festival (the one that inspired the Eurovision Song Contest). Also, don’t go there in February because that’s when the festival is taking place.
I wouldn’t say at all cost, but Montenegro isn’t fun. Russians have built massive hotel resorts on the beaches there, the locals are unhappy that they’re there so they don’t like tourists. They’ll try to fight you on the beach because you’re not local. Get hassled by the cops because you’re not local, but you’ll be able to buy your way out of your problem if you’re lucky. People don’t want to talk to you, everyone is pretty cold and borderline rude. Go to a bar for a drink and you get a glass nominally washed/rinsed in tubs of soapy water behind the bar that the previous 100 glasses went through and hasn’t been changed out. The landscape is beautiful in a hostile sort of way, but there’s just not much reason to visit. It’s not even particularly inexpensive. The hotels will try to charge you for everything, including a scuff on the wall that you didn’t do, a chip on a planter on the balcony, etc. ridiculous money grabs.
idk about the process in montenegro, but it’s pretty normal in america for bars to use a three compartment sink with a christmas tree scrub brush stuck to the bottom of the first sink, which is filled about half full with soapy water, a rinse water mixture in the next one and a sanitizer water mixture in the last one.
it’s a fast and safe way to do dishes by hand, especially glassware if you always inspect for chips afterward (which you should be doing anyway!).
I understand there’s a right way to do it, but allow me to assure that the two murky trays behind this bar were not acceptable by any means. I didn’t want to get too graphic, but glasses went from the customer hand, a quick slosh and a rub in liquids that would make any civilized health department shriek, wiped “dry” with a filthy rag that had just wiped the bar top, filled with the next drink and handed to the next customer.
This is the kind of stuff where you see it in a movie like so: the scoundrel hero walks into a dive bar in the spaceport, orders a drink, the camera makes sure you see the pustulent, greasy alien clean the vessel using the above process. The alien pours a questionable liquid into it, and slides it to the observing hero who has been keeping a stone-faced expression but for a hint of discomposure as he receives the drink. After the briefest pause in frame to let you know he questions what he is about to do, he downs the beverage. You can’t help but cringe along with the hero and think licking the alien might have been safer.
(Am not comparing or suggesting Montenegrins are in any way shape or form like the hypothetical alien)
That gave such Space Quest vibes and I’m here for it. Just needs the narrator: “Don’t lick that! It doesn’t know where you’ve been!” Lol
Places where you only order highballs due to health concerns ftw.
avoid Malta at all costs.
Why?
aside from the weather (which is nicer in Sicily), it’s an archipelago that pretends at all costs to have a relevant European history while offering no way of exploring that history whatsoever. The rampant touristisation of La Valletta has turned it into what’s basically an all-ecompassing sprawl of luxury hotels and discos where prices are inflated. I did not have a nice time there and would not go back even if I had the chance.
Canary Islands. Great place, but the mass tourism is actually killing them, provoking skyrocketing rent and shortages of power and water.
how is rent related to tourism?
Think about it for a second, no, half a second and see if anything occurs to you.
I assume because demand outstrips supply, the “value” of the rental units is inflated and landlords can charge more, pricing out locals
Airbnbs/rentals drive up the cost of housing.
They should just make short renting of apartments illegal.
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Indeed. My girlfriend lives there, last time I was over we went to the big demonstration against mass tourism. I felt a bit sick at the airport listening to all the north European pensioners talking about how they rent a place year round for 800€/month just to spend the odd week now and then there. While many locals working in tourism make minimum wage, around 1300€/month I believe.
Hey that’s exactly what my rent / wage split was in the UK last year. The only reason anything got better is that minimum wage went up while my rent hasn’t yet.
Olten
Feel free to cross post to !yurop@lemm.ee , a laid back discussion community for Europeans
is there a good or suggested community for people looking to move to europe who are looking for advice? or is that place welcome for such discussion? dont want to intrude.
This is definitely a discussion that can take place over there!
France.
I have read of tourists coming to Vienna and thinking there is anything worth seeing north of the Danube.
Unless you count the UN headquarters, there isn’t. All of that is a completely unstructured and boring mix of industrial, commercial and residential zones mostly built after WW2 like you find anywhere in the world.
I visited Vienna in 2015 and that’s one of the places where I’d gladly move if I could.
In Sweden/Stockholm:
Avoid Akalla/Hjulsta/Kista
They are all boring and sees a lot of gang crime.
The worst thing of Copenhagen is that you can see Sweden from there
I don’t think many tourists would head out to the far away suburbs by subway. My recommendation is to avoid Drottninggatan and “City” with the exception of some architecture or particular places of interest because it is just really too much busy people and pickpockets and hot asphalt and concrete and glass and tourist traps and chain stores.
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True, but Göteborg has its own areas to avoid. Hjällbo comes to mind…
Both Stockholm and Gothenburg are really nice cities - they’re pretty safe too unless you seek out drug lords or park your bike without a decent lock. Just don’t come here during the winter - you’ll be depressed by the lack of daylight.
Not a European, but I’m going with dark alleys.
Well, yeah, in some places, but there’s countries where that’s a far worse idea than in Europe.
If you used that rule in US cities, you would both stay alive, and miss out on some really cool bars.
There’s one here in the US that doesn’t have any signage at all. Just a lightly pink door. It opens down into one of the coolest restaurants and live performance places in the city. It has become pretty popular.
Yea, Philly has a few like this.
Not a place in particular, but if you’re driving, avoid any border crossings during peak holiday seasons. Specifically when you’re crossing from the EU into non-EU countries or crossing from Schengen into non-Schengen area. During peak times you might be waiting at the border for hours.
For driving tunnels in the Alps are the worst. The Gotthard tunnel or the Karawanken tunnel on the first days of the vacation period were the worst traffic I have ever seen.
Don’t drive! You’re in Europe… trains go fucking everywhere!
It seems like you’ve never been to Germany
Wanted to say that too. I mean, technically the train network is pretty well connected but it’s so underfunded that trains oftentimes don’t drive at all or they’re late and then every train after that is also late. It’s mostly fine but it happens way too often. I had to stand in freezing cold for an hour or longer too many times in the last three years where I took the train daily.
I don’t know, maybe it’s just particularly bad where I live, but I regularly have to the the god damn Schienenersatzverkehr, and even this god damn fucking bus that is supposed to replace the train is always like 20 minutes late. Like how the fuck do you even mess that up DB? HOW?!
Yeah, I had to take a SEV for a while too because there was construction on the train tracks and I came late every single day because apparently nobody at DB thought that 2 full trains (and with full I mean that people always had to stand because there weren’t enough seats) couldn’t just fit into one bus. That bus was always completely full (people standing in the middle up to the front door) and a lot of people still just wouldn’t fit in.
Average DB experience
But I’m sure it’s gonna get better if the FDP keeps taking away funds to use them for autobahns
Things get less well connected in the more eastern nations, especially heading down to Greece.
Well, there are some exceptions. This year, I’m travelling by train to all my holiday destinations, but the last connection I will fly because the trains run in such a stupidly way.
Yea - my statement is generally accurate for Western Europe. Eastern Europe, especially the Balkans, is awful for high-speed coverage.
In my case actually Western Europe, but a very specific connection that would either need to go through the alps (which means slow speeds and switching trains a lot) or take a huge detour via Paris.
The high speed Internet coverage is quite the opposite though.
Just to note, this doesn’t apply to the UK. Our trains are generally useless and expensive.
Any reason in particular? I would have thought that the UK would be all over good rail transit.
One word: privatization
