Posts Tagged With: Europe

Lodging Review: Best Western Hotel Hebron, Copenhagen

Posted on November 26, 2024 by 2btravel

Introduction: Late Summer in Scandinavia
Flight Review: American Airlines B737-800 First Class, MEM-DFW
Flight Review: Finnair A350-900 Business Class, DFW-HEL
Flight Review: Finnair E190 Business Class, HEL-CPH
Lodging Review: Fairfield by Marriott Copenhagen Nordhavn
Our Time in Copenhagen
Lodging Review: Best Western Hotel Hebron, Copenhagen
Lodging Review: Next House, Copenhagen
Lodging Review: Story Hotel Studio Malmö
Our Time in Malmö and Ystad, Sweden
Lodging Review: IKEA Hotell, Älmhult, Sweden
Our Time in Älmhult, Sweden and High-Speed Train to Stockholm
Lodging Review: Motel L Älvsjö, Stockholm
Our Time in Stockholm
Flight Review: SAS A320neo Economy Class, ARN-OSL
Lodging Review: Comfort Hotel Grand Central, Oslo
Our Time in Oslo
Lounge Review: SAS Lounge, Oslo airport
Flight Review: Lufthansa A320-200 Business Class, OSL-FRA
Flight Review: Lufthansa 787-9 Business Class, FRA-MSP
Flight Review: Delta B737-800 First Class, MSP-MEM

Best Western Hotel Hebron (credit: Agoda.com)

Location & Transportation

The Best Western Hotel Hebron is about a 6-minute walk from the main train station, Kobenhavn H, or about a 4-minute walk from the Kobenhavn H metro stop. Be aware that many of the sidewalks in this area are cobblestone so rolling a bag across them is always “fun”. My friends took the train from the airport directly to the main train station. As I was coming from the Fairfield, I took the M4/Blue metro train to the metro stop.

How This Stay Was Booked

We booked this stay directly through the Best Western website and chose to pay a slightly higher rate upon arrival so that we could each pay separately. This not only allowed us to each earn credit card points while paying, it was one less thing we’d have to worry about reimbursing someone for later on. Our rate was about $191/night for a room with two twin beds and a daybed.

Check-in

I had to check out of the Fairfield by 11 AM and my friends’ flight landed shortly thereafter. I arrived at the hotel between 10:30 and 11 AM. I didn’t expect the room to be ready and it was not but I was allowed to work in the courtyard and use the WiFi there while waiting for my friends to arrive. The room was finally ready about 1:30 PM, still well ahead of the published check-in time. We were able to split the payment for the two nights we had booked, which was nice. Trouble is, we’d miscalculated and really needed a third night! Unfortunately the hotel was booked and they didn’t have a room for us for our final night. While we put ourselves on the waiting list, later that night we booked another place, which I’ll review in the next installment. Continue reading →

Categories: Best Western, Denmark, Europe, Hotel, Lodging Review, Trip Report | Tags: Best Western, Denmark, Europe, Hotel Review | Leave a comment

Our Time in Copenhagen

Posted on November 25, 2024 by 2btravel

Københavns Museum

As I’d arrived a day before my friends, I wanted to spend the afternoon doing something I knew would not be of interest to them so that once they arrived we could do something we all enjoyed. So I went to the Københavns Museum (Museum of Copenhagen) to try to get a sense of the city’s origins and history. In retrospect this was probably not the kind of place I should have visited after a night of no sleep and hustling through airports. I confess I didn’t get a whole lot out of it but at least it wasn’t very expensive. Continue reading →

Categories: Award Travel, Denmark, Europe, Trip Report | Tags: Award Travel, Copenhage, Denmark, Europe, Trip Report | Leave a comment

Introduction: Late Summer in Scandinavia

Posted on November 18, 2024 by 2btravel

Welcome to my next trip report! This year’s big international trip was to Scandinavia, which was the choice of one of my two main traveling companions. We spent about a week in Copenhagen, Denmark and in southern & central Sweden before going to Stockholm where we were joined by our German friend. We spent a few days there before winding up our trip in Oslo, Norway.

We were gone for two weeks and covered a lot of ground so I have lots to share! It was also a lesson in trip planning and how to adjust on the fly.

On this trip I only got to try one new-to-me airline but stayed at several new-to-me hotel brands. I had two positioning flights in US domestic first class, two two-segment international flights in business class and one short international segment in economy.

I’ll review Finnair’s A350-900 long-haul business class as well as their Embraer 190 short-haul business class along with Lufthansa’s A320-200 short-haul business class and long-haul B787-9 business class. I’ll also review a short SAS A320neo economy flight.

As far as hotels, we were all over the place on this one. We ended up using points for some hotels and paying cash for others due to various factors.

I had intended to review five lounges on this trip but that did not work out as expected and I’ll have just one lounge review.

Why Scandinavia?

I have a couple of friends I often travel with and we have a deal that whoever has a birthday ending with a “0” or a “5” gets to pick the destination for that year’s big trip. This year’s birthday girl picked Scandinavia as the destination. Our next task was to narrow down the things we could reasonably see in a two-week period. We realized that we wouldn’t be able to see all of the region so unfortunately we’ll have to save Finland for another trip. As we plotted things out we realized that Copenhagen and Oslo would be our starting and ending points, we just had to figure out which direction to travel. And that was based on finding award space. Continue reading →

Categories: Award Travel, Denmark, Europe, Trip Report | Tags: Denmark, Europe, Norway, Scandinavia, Sweden, Trip Report | Leave a comment

Travel Tuesday photo: A Hawk in the Museo Egizio

Posted on October 29, 2024 by 2btravel

A hawk (?) at the Museu Egizio in Turin, Italy

Categories: Europe, Italy, Picture of the Week | Tags: Egyptian Museum, Europe, Italy, Picture of the Week | Leave a comment

Travel Tuesday photo: Marmokirken

Posted on October 1, 2024 by 2btravel

The Marble Church in Copenhagen, Denmark

Categories: Denmark, Europe, Picture of the Week | Tags: Denmark, Europe, Picture of the Week | Leave a comment

Our Time in Venice, Italy

Posted on January 5, 2024 by 2btravel

Trip Report: Athens and a Mediterranean Cruise
Lounge Reviews: The Club CLT and Centurion Lounge Charlotte Airport
Flight Review: Lufthansa A340-600 Charlotte-Munich
Lodging Review: Academias Hotel, Autograph Collection, Athens
Our Time in Athens, Part I (Acropolis and Museum)
Our Time in Athens, Part II (Roman Agora, Hadrian’s Library, Ancient Agora)
Our Time in Athens, Part III (Kerameikos, Temple of Zeus, Panathenaic Stadium)
Our Time in Athens, Part IV (Restaurants and Observations)
Ship Review: Viking Neptune
Our Time in Ancient Olympia (Katakalon, Greece)
Our Time in Corfu, Greece
Our Time in Kotor, Montenegro
Our Time in Dubrovnik, Croatia
Our Time in Zadar, Croatia
Our Time in Venice, Italy
Flight Review: Iberia A330-300 Madrid-Chicago

As is usual on Viking cruises, they try to sell you on another cruise while you’re on the current one, offering special incentives to do so. My friends and I have a system for selecting our international vacations: whoever has a birthday ending in a 5 or 0 gets to pick the destination. That covers six out of every 10 years, so it works for us. 2025 is my choice and I’d had my eye on Viking’s Passage to Eastern Europe river cruise which runs between Budapest, Hungary and Bucharest, Romania. When we checked with the on-board travel consultant we learned that we could book this cruise for just $25 down and it didn’t have to be paid off until six months before the sailing. That was huge for me as normally the cruises have to be paid off in 2-3 months. So we went ahead and booked this cruise for $25 and that gave us 18 months to pay. When we added in our past-traveler discounts and our on-board booking discounts, that took another $600 off the price. Plus we got shipboard credit for our current cruise and additional shipboard credit for the one we’d just booked. Want to join us? Click on the link at the top of the page for more info.

Since we’d had an overnight port of call in Venice on our previous Mediterranean cruise back in 2008, our original plan was to skip the included tour and just wander around ourselves. That was something we’d really enjoyed doing the first time around. But now we had shipboard credit to spend. We could have stuck to the plan and used the credits to cover crew tips and some small purchases but where’s the fun in that? Instead we used it to book The Island and the Abbey tour, which took us to the island of Murano and then to the Church of San Giorgio Maggiore as we’d not visited either of time in our previous time in the area. Continue reading →

Categories: Cruises, Europe, Historical Site, Italy, Tours, Trip Report, UNESCO World Heritage Site, Viking | Tags: Cruise, Europe, Italy, Murano, Tours, Trip Report, UNESCO World Heritage Site, Venice, Viking | Leave a comment

Our Time in Dubrovnik, Croatia

Posted on January 3, 2024 by 2btravel

On our prior Mediterranean cruise in 2008 we’d also had a stop in Dubrovnik so this was our second visit. My friend enjoys gardens and such so we’d signed up for the included city tour in the morning and the afternoon tour called A Renaissance Garden & Views. Apparently not many people signed up for either the morning or afternoon session of this optional tour because they combined us into a single morning tour and swapped out our city tour tickets for one in the afternoon.

A Renaissance Garden and Views Tour

Slano

We drove about 45 minutes northwest from the port, on a road bordering the Adriatic, until we reached the small town of Slano. Here the terrain slopes down from the hills above to the sea.

Beginning in the 14th century this area became a significant commercial port with two shipyards, salt warehouses and markets for salt, livestock and grain. The name “Slano” means “salt”.

It’s hard to get lost in Slano

Continue reading →

Categories: Croatia, Cruises, Europe, Tours, Trip Report, UNESCO World Heritage Site, Viking | Tags: Croatia, Europe, Ocean Cruise, Tours, Trip Report, UNESCO World Heritage Site, Viking | Leave a comment

Our Time in Kotor, Montenegro

Posted on January 2, 2024 by 2btravel

On the Tuesday of our cruise we checked off a new country, Montenegro. The country’s name comes from the Venetians mangling the Serbian words “Crna Gora” for “black mountain”. The mountain in question is Mount Lovćen which was covered in dense evergreen forests. Over the centuries this area has been controlled by the Illyrians, the Slavs, the Serbs, the Venetians, the Ottomans, an independent country, occupied by Austria-Hungary during WWI, part of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia then after WWII one of the republics of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, then the smaller Federal Republic of Yugoslavia along with Serbia and finally regaining its independence in 2006. Continue reading →

Categories: Europe, Historical Site, Montenegro, Tours, Trip Report | Tags: Europe, Historical Site, Montenegro, Tours, Trip Report | Leave a comment

Our Time in Corfu, Greece

Posted on December 30, 2023 by 2btravel

An Unexpected Twist

After we returned from our shore excursion in Ancient Olympia we were informed that one of our shore excursions for the following day had been canceled. Our excursion was to take us about an hour away to hike Mt. Pantokrator and then to visit Old Peritheia, Corfu’s oldest village that was once a hideaway from pirates. We had been proactively booked on the afternoon included tour, which was Panoramic Corfu & Old Town Walking Tour. While we hated to miss seeing cool sites, our feet were actually not all that upset. We heard it had rained in the area the day before we arrived and can only speculate that it made the conditions unsafe for the hike. As someone who was injured last year when an excursion took place in the rain instead of being canceled, I was fine with the way it was handled.

But that meant we now had a significant amount of shipboard credit to spend. We decided to make the best of it by getting massages in the Nordic Spa. We were able to schedule them for first thing in the morning, giving ourselves plenty of time before our afternoon tour. It was a very welcome treat after all the walking we’d done in Athens over the prior few days. The tour was scheduled to last 5.5 hours so our credit was enough to cover a one-hour massage and a little bit of the tip.

Exploring on our own

It was about a 200-yard walk from our ship to the Cruise Terminal. We didn’t notice it at the time but there are actually buses that run between the cruise terminal and the ships, so if that’s too far for you to walk, just wait for one of these free shuttles. Once you reach the cruise terminal you’ll exit through the building and then you can catch one of Viking’s shuttles into downtown. Unfortunately we didn’t pay attention that these shuttles were available so we just set out walking. There is not much in the immediate area of the cruise terminal other than a small row of shops across the street. But we just followed the trickle of people both from our ship and the giant one docked next to us and headed east along the coast road.

Port in Corfu

Continue reading →

Categories: Europe, Greece, Historical Site, Tours, Trip Report, UNESCO World Heritage Site | Tags: Corfu, Europe, Greece, Historical Site, Trip Report, UNESCO World Heritage Site | Leave a comment

Our Time in Ancient Olympia (Katakalon, Greece)

Posted on December 29, 2023 by 2btravel

Our ship departed Athens at 6 PM on Saturday evening and it took us the rest of the night and all of Sunday morning to reach our first port of call, Katakolon, Greece as we had to sail around the Greek peninsula.

The included tour at this port was called Ancient Olympia and there were optional tours that included not only Ancient Olympia but a visit to the Magna Grecia olive estate, another where you can learn Greek folk dancing and a Flavors of the Greek Countryside tour. We stuck with the included tour but because we were in the cheaper staterooms we had to settle for the last tour of the day, which didn’t leave until 2:15 PM.

Port of Katakolo(n)

That wasn’t all bad. In Katakolon, the dock is not far at all from a tourist area with several restaurants and loads of souvenir shops. So after our ship docked at 12:30 PM we had time to go into this area and get our souvenirs purchased before the tour. I find it interesting that Viking refers to the port as Katakolon when all the local signage (and even Wikipedia) refer to the port name without the final N. From what I can see online the names appear to refer to the same place, it just seems odd!

Town of Katakolon as viewed from our ship

Continue reading →

Categories: Europe, Greece, Historical Site, River Cruise, Tours, Trip Report, UNESCO World Heritage Site | Tags: Ancient Olympia, Europe, Greece, Historical Site, Olympics, Tours, Trip Report, UNESCO World Heritage Site | Leave a comment

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Posts Tagged With: Europe

Lodging Review: Best Western Hotel Hebron, Copenhagen

Location & Transportation

How This Stay Was Booked

Check-in

Our Time in Copenhagen

Københavns Museum

Introduction: Late Summer in Scandinavia

Why Scandinavia?

Travel Tuesday photo: A Hawk in the Museo Egizio

Travel Tuesday photo: Marmokirken

Our Time in Venice, Italy

Our Time in Dubrovnik, Croatia

A Renaissance Garden and Views Tour

Slano

Our Time in Kotor, Montenegro

Our Time in Corfu, Greece

An Unexpected Twist

Exploring on our own

Our Time in Ancient Olympia (Katakalon, Greece)

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