City trip [def] : trip usually done over the weekend or a very short period of time. Time spent in one city for a short holiday.
City trips are a new way to enjoy your days off. This blog aims at giving tips to Europeans who want to make the most of the Schengen Area.
Why?
Because it is now possible to take a train/plane/car to another city in Europe without having to go to a Bureau de change everytime you plan to take a few days off abroad. Thanks to the Schengen agreements, you can also enjoy going abroad without wasting time at Customs to get your passport checked.
What you need to keep in mind when city tripping is that the distance makes a difference. You don’t want to take a flight to Moscow for 2 days if you’re living in Lisbon. This would end up being expensive and frustrating as you won’t get to really enjoy the Kremlin or the Red Square –or even worse: that’s all you’re going to see in Moscow! That is quite exotic but you really want to make the most of your trip.
Tips before you plan your city trip:
-check if the country you’re planning to visit is part of the Schengen Area
-check if you can enjoy enough of the place you’re visiting in 2-3 days
-check how long it takes to get there
Why are these things important?
The only drawback of city trips is that you won’t have enough time to really enjoy the country you’re going to. All the pieces of advice given above should help you keep that in mind.
That’s why you need to make sure you don’t waste time at Customs. If that’s compulsory, then see if you can’t take an entire week off and visit the country, not just city tripping to one place.
Of course, it’s also really important to be able to enjoy the place you’re going without being frustrated. Travellers are always a bit let down upon getting home because there’s always things they didn’t have time to see. There’s a healthy degree of frustration that comes from curiosity about the place you’re visiting. The unhealthy degree of frustration is feeling you only had time to see the aiport/station and the city center. Be careful when planning the trip!
For example, I wouldn’t advise visiting Paris in a weekend: it’s going to be packed with tourists wanting to see the main monuments, and you won’t have time to visit the Louvre properly. (I’ll write more later about visiting Paris on a tight schedule)
And of course, you should keep in mind that planning a city trip means wasting time travelling. We all love taking a train/plane to a faraway place. What you don’t want is a 10h-round trip when you only have 2 days to visit. Either you forget about sleeping and you get back to school/the office wasted, or you will be frustrated and you’ll soon be known as “the Grumpy Colleague”. This is obviously not something you want as I’m sure you planned the city trip to feel refreshed upo going back to your daily routine.
