I’m hoping to travel to Europe later this year on business, but have decided to treat myself to a 6-8 week holiday (first one this millenium!) Now, I haven’t been out of the antipodean hemisphere for 20 years, but even back then I became aware that the European summer was chaotic for tourists wrt accommodation, and that the worst times were when school holidays for one country meant a huge influx into another. For instance, I made the mistake of holidaying in Spain during the French (and maybe Italian) school holidays. As a consequence, Spain was full – I had to sleep on beaches more often than not. The Greek islands are host to half the population of Sweden during their holidays etc.
Now, I know many of the longterm Loungers live on or frequent the continent, and I’m basically wanting any tips to avoid a problematic holiday. I’m hoping to arrive when the summer mayhem is dying down – last July/ early August? But this is flexible. I’ll be “based” on the French Riviera, where accommodation is taken care of. From there, I’m hoping to travel within France and Italy – possibly Spain (which I missed last time I was there) and Portugal. Maybe elsewhere time permitting. I think there’s also a possible hop across to London, so maybe a quick refresher course on the UK.
So any of those handy tips for travelers, straight from the mouths of the locals, would be appreciated.
Alan
violin when you need it!
The last “holiday” I had was trekking up the east coast of 
for 6 months, trying to find a “just right” place to live (criteria determined by other half). We scoured about 2000km of coastline and finally found “it” about 5km from where we were in Melbourne. Before that, it was basking in a Middle East “hotspot” courtesy of the DoD in 1992. I deserve a holiday with all expenses paid and no luxury too extravagant!
Stephane. That’s the kind of really helpful information I was after. June is a possibility – possibly a better alternative – go pre-invasion rather than post-skirmish. Although things should be taken care of (at least logistically) at the Riviera, I guess the influx would also affect the rest of south France, where we wouldn’t have established accommodation.
in the 80s and when they got to places like the Greek islands, where a bottle of beer was cheaper than a bottle of Coke or Aqua Minerale, together with the embarrassingly high exchange rate from Kroner to Drachma… well, you can imagine the result. It seemed to become a “mission” for some to get as much ingested as possible in the limited time available. Kinda like mad bargain hunters at annual sales.
s remember the bodyline series… every cricket season against the poms, my elderly father-in-law brings it up as if it happened 3 seasons ago). I know and can relate to my weight in stones & pounds, but kilos mean nothing to me. And mph? …bring it on. With a quick refresher on bushels, pecks, perches poles & rods, I think I’ll be able to survive it.
but it might give me an idea of chaos & mayhem hot spots.
