Trip of a lifetime - PTR About This Page:

[Alaskan Mom]

Hello everyone!
I only have 2 months until this trip begins and I've been wanting to start a PTR but have been trying to finish my DLR trip report plus take a class for my degree and working! but I want to talk about my trip so bad so here I am to share with you.
How this trip came about: I've wanted to travel to Europe and United Kingdom for the longest time. Being a history teacher and avid reader - I read and study about places that I really want to experience myself. I've just never had the funds and a travel partner (DH is not interested unless something specific to him) to make this trip happen until now!! I think it was 2 years ago when I asked DD (now 18) if she would like a trip to Europe as her graduation present. Of course she said yes, she's always been interested in Greek Mythology, big cities especially Paris and London. She wants to live in London some day. This is a fairly expensive present however, it's more than just DD's grad present, it's my trip of a lifetime...the first time I get to travel outside of the U.S. (other than Canada) Can you tell I'm excited?

The travellers - me! Bonnie, mom of 2 (my baby's 18! granny of 3, teacher,
I've traveled much of the U.S. even Hawaii, and Canada, and discovered at 50 that I was a Disney freak
My DD, (18) her name is Beth and she's a senior this year and also taking college classes through a Washington state program. She's artistic, loves to sing, paint,
draw, loves Disney, and has become my travel partner and navigator. She is calm when I am anxious, more laid back than me but willing to follow my plans because she gets to see and do more then.

When - Leaving Seattle Thursday June 29th and returning July 30. This will be the longest trip I've ever taken

Where: well this could be a post in itself because originally I tried to get in so many more cities than is on our final list. I wanted Istanbul, Israel, Germany, the Netherlands, DD wanted Prague and St. Petersburg, we both wanted Italy but we are neither rich nor have a year to travel and see everything so...
our final list is as follows
June 29th fly to New York City, spend the night
June 30 fly to London, spend the night
July 1st Fly to Athens, Greece
July 5th Fly to Paris, France
July 10th, Train to Disneyland Paris
July 14th, Euro-star to London
July 26th, Fly to New York City
July 30th, Fly back to Seattle.

My passport (first ever) arrived last week and DD already has hers so we can officially travel!

Meets? Yes! I am going to meet a real fellow passporter, very exciting

Up next, Flying in stages

[Grammy Grumpy]

Outstanding!!! So excited for you both. Can't wait to hear all about your plans and to virtually be there for your adventures.

[xwewhisper]

How wonderful that you get to take such an amazing trip! We loved London and I've been to France several times now too. You're going to have a blast!


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[MayraLR]

Wow!! It truly is a trip of a lifetime!

[pamcarey]

Fabulous!! This sounds amazing!!


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[Cam22]

What a great trip! Can't wait for more!

[SuperDave]

Sounds like a great trip and I'm one who loves Europe having eight trips there under my belt! Hope I can be of help.

As you'll be there a month, perhaps you can visit more cities as it seems you have very long stays in Paris and London. Easy to get around Europe with short flights, driving and especially Rail Europe, which is the way to go. Just ask me and many here as many of us know Europe well and you probably know who they are! I'll let them offer their services.

When buying Raileurope tickets. buy them on the USA site and not Europe as they are generally cheaper.

[chezp]

Your plans look amazing!

As Dave said, you can easily pop over to other cities if you want to - we've flown up to Edinburgh for a day trip and the same with Dublin and we've taken the Eurostar to Brussels for the day as well. So many places are within easy reach - about an hour or's flight.

[Colexis Mom]

Great start Bonnie!

[Alaskan Mom]

Originally Posted by Grammy Grumpy

Outstanding!!! So excited for you both. Can't wait to hear all about your plans and to virtually be there for your adventures.

Thank you. That's a great thing about TR's - to be able to live virtually through another's adventure

Originally Posted by xwewhisper

How wonderful that you get to take such an amazing trip! We loved London and I've been to France several times now too. You're going to have a blast!

We are excited. Thanks.

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Originally Posted by MayraLR

Wow!! It truly is a trip of a lifetime!

It is!

Originally Posted by pamcarey

Fabulous!! This sounds amazing!!
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I think it sounds amazing too, I'm still surprised that I'm going

Originally Posted by Cam22

What a great trip! Can't wait for more!

Thanks!

Originally Posted by SuperDave

Sounds like a great trip and I'm one who loves Europe having eight trips there under my belt! Hope I can be of help.

As you'll be there a month, perhaps you can visit more cities as it seems you have very long stays in Paris and London. Easy to get around Europe with short flights, driving and especially Rail Europe, which is the way to go. Just ask me and many here as many of us know Europe well and you probably know who they are! I'll let them offer their services.

When buying Raileurope tickets. buy them on the USA site and not Europe as they are generally cheaper.

Wow, 8 trips - that is amazing. Thanks for the info. I'll look forward to your insights.

Originally Posted by chezp

Your plans look amazing!

As Dave said, you can easily pop over to other cities if you want to - we've flown up to Edinburgh for a day trip and the same with Dublin and we've taken the Eurostar to Brussels for the day as well. So many places are within easy reach - about an hour or's flight.

Thanks Cheryl, I will consider those - especially since Brussels was one place in the original plan that was taken out and I was thinking about Scotland and DD mentioned Ireland so that gives us some more possibilities.

Originally Posted by Colexis Mom

Great start Bonnie!

Thanks!

[Alaskan Mom]

If I haven't mentioned it before, I am claustrophobic. It really flares up if I am flying for a longer flight, especially if I am short on sleep. Because of this, when I was trying to decide about how to get to Europe or United Kingdom, the first idea I had was an Atlantic crossing on the Queen Mary. The problem with this was timing, there weren't crossings when I could leave and it took 7-8 days out of my time. Although a transatlantic cruise is still something I'd like to do.

So this meant flying. I looked at many possible routes. Length of time on the plane was the biggest factor. I knew there was no way I could handle (and still be sane) a 15-16 hour flight unless I flew first class and could lay down to sleep which was not planned into the budget!

One other factor that affected my decision was that we wanted to visit New York City. My family is originally from New York state and I have visited there a few times but never made it to the big city. My dad once asked why I'd want to go there - it's just a city. Well, I want to see the statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, central park, see a play on Broadway, to experience being there. He wasn't too impressed with my answer but it's because he has been there - he used to drive big trucks through NYC - so I can imagine he doesn't have pleasant memories of the city.

DD loves the ideas of cities, she likes to go into Seattle just to 'be in the city'. She wants to live in a big city someday. I would rather live in the country with access to a city. Anyway, since I knew NYC was a stop on the itinerary - I figured we would round trip flights to Europe/U.K. from there. The first plan was to fly to NYC and spend a few days there because I know how humid it is there and wanted as early in the summer as possible but because we had snow a couple of times here this winter and I had 3 days of school cancellation for snow which were tacked onto the end of the year; I had to move the NYC days to the end of the trip. At first I was going to just adjust everything a few days and keep the same order, however, while all this was going on I made a goof.
I had put on hold an hotel apartment at Val 'd Europe which is just outside of Disneyland Paris. I was still toying with the idea of staying on site but hadn't made my final decision; when I went to change the dates due to snow days, the booking site confirmed my date change to a non-refundable booking. This meant that now my hotel and DLP days were set and I had to work everything else around them or lose all the money for that hotel.

If that made sense, this this why NYC days had to be moved to the end of the trip but since we are still going there I thought that we could fly that far (just over 5 hours) sleep, then fly to London (7.5 hours), sleep and finally on to Athens (3.5 hours). I know that is a bunch of traveling over 3 days but it is in stages and I get to sleep in between which helps. I am concerned about all the time changes since we are moving forward in time 3 hours at our stop in NYC, 5 more hours at our stop in London, and another 2 hours forward when we arrive in Athens. So that is 10 hours, my brain keeps trying to process that and think about - if my DH is eating dinner at home at 6pm and I am in Greece, it will be 4AM which is driving me crazy. I need to stop that. Any tips you have for jet lag would be appreciated. I'm hoping that traveling over the 3 days will help our bodies adjust a little bit.


Up next: Philosophy of travel

[pamcarey]

I think your "flying in stages" approach sounds like it will work well both for your claustrophia and for adjusting to the time changes.

[Colexis Mom]

I like the flying in stages approach. No jet lag tips here!

[chezp]

One thing I would say is don't think about the time zone you will be on it will seriously mess with your head. I do that on the way over to the States and usually I'm like "great, it's currently 3:00am in the States" and that freaks me out at the start of the day.

When you board the plane, immediately put your watch forward to the time zone you'll be travelling to, so you can try and acclimatise to it. You may find that makes you want to sleep. As you've got quite short flights as well consider eating before you board in NYC and then try and sleep as much as you can on that flight - I assume it will be a red eye? You may not want to sleep, but do try, as it may be the last sleep you get for a while...

With NYC, I'd thoroughly recommend the 9/11 memorial and museum, if it's something you feel you can handle. I can understand some people may not want to, but it was amazing and very humbling.

As far as Scotland or Ireland goes, have a look at Easyjet's website to see what their prices are like. They may be extortionate, as it's during the school holidays, but start there, then give British Airways a go. Ryanair is an option, but they are seriously, seriously low budget and charge for all sorts of extras, so we avoid them and a lot of their flights go from places like Stansted, which won't work for you.

Easyjet fly from Gatwick, which would be doable for you, a couple of Tube journeys to Victoria and then take the Gatwick Express. The tube (Piccadilly line) runs all the way out to Heathrow. British Airways fly out of terminal five.

I hope you're able to fit Scotland, Ireland or Brussels into your itinerary...

[Alaskan Mom]

Originally Posted by pamcarey

I think your "flying in stages" approach sounds like it will work well both for your claustrophia and for adjusting to the time changes.

I hope so

Originally Posted by Colexis Mom

I like the flying in stages approach. No jet lag tips here!

Thanks anyway.

Originally Posted by chezp

One thing I would say is don't think about the time zone you will be on it will seriously mess with your head. I do that on the way over to the States and usually I'm like "great, it's currently 3:00am in the States" and that freaks me out at the start of the day.

I know I shouldn't think about time zones, I will try not to because it drives me crazy. I'll have DD help me.


When you board the plane, immediately put your watch forward to the time zone you'll be travelling to, so you can try and acclimatise to it. You may find that makes you want to sleep. As you've got quite short flights as well consider eating before you board in NYC and then try and sleep as much as you can on that flight - I assume it will be a red eye? You may not want to sleep, but do try, as it may be the last sleep you get for a while...

I moved my clock ahead when we went to Florida so I'll do that for this trip too. I wish I could sleep on planes. We are not taking a red eye between Seattle and New York because neither DD nor I can sleep on planes. I've tried everything under the sun. I have to be laying down to sleep. Oh well, we'll just do the best we can.


With NYC, I'd thoroughly recommend the 9/11 memorial and museum, if it's something you feel you can handle. I can understand some people may not want to, but it was amazing and very humbling.

I will look into that, it is something I'm interested in but I'm not sure about DD.

As far as Scotland or Ireland goes, have a look at Easyjet's website to see what their prices are like. They may be extortionate, as it's during the school holidays, but start there, then give British Airways a go. Ryanair is an option, but they are seriously, seriously low budget and charge for all sorts of extras, so we avoid them and a lot of their flights go from places like Stansted, which won't work for you.

Easyjet fly from Gatwick, which would be doable for you, a couple of Tube journeys to Victoria and then take the Gatwick Express. The tube (Piccadilly line) runs all the way out to Heathrow. British Airways fly out of terminal five.

I hope you're able to fit Scotland, Ireland or Brussels into your itinerary...

I was researching this today and it would be doable for at least one place. I've talked to DD and she is interested in seeing more of England so we are going to look at all our options and then decide.