Student Holidays Ideas

DavidLive

Hey Everyone,

Basically, myself and a group of friends are in 6th Year and we're currently getting ready to do the Leaving Certificate. Before you read on, this is NOT one of these "I wanna go to Aya Napa and get drunk" idea requests, this is different.

Many of our peers are booking their ludicrously expensive "6th Year Holidays", and paying out ridiculous small fortunes for a mostly unpleasant, it seems, trip. I, along with my group of friends, are looking for some ideas and helpful advice.

We're not a quiet bunch of socially limited individuals, far from it, we just want to do our own thing, without breaking the bank. Yes, we would expreience nightlife, party and enjoy ourselves, but we don't need to go as a big gang from a school to a dodgy area to pay lots of money for it.

Because of all this we've been thinking about booking our own holiday to Northern Spain, eg. Barcelona (or similar) or the South of France. We're thinking of going in late June, before the prices shoot up. We think there would be sufficient weather, night-life and good fun to be had here? Are we correct in this assumption? If you've ideas of good places to go, please do mention it.

Our idea is to rent an apartment or chalet/villa based accommodation, for the group which is approximately 6. There would be about 3 or 4 of each gender. We would like access to amenities like beaches, clubs, restaurants, and general interesting things, without the need for a car. We are thinking of getting the ferry from Dublin to mainland Europe France, for example, and use an interrailing pass to get train to destination, as luggage will not be such an issue then.

I ask that you guide us, and if you've advice and tips, please deliver it. All web links and information would be greatly appreciated, and I await your reply with interest.

Many Thanks,

Dave.

peanuthead

you should get an interrailing ticket for europe alright. its by far the cheapest I would imagine. Now Ive never done it myself, but Id say it would be brilliant. Maybe other people can help you regarding recommending places to go, most of my travelling has been outside europe.

But I have visited barcelona, and while i would say it is a must for sightseeing etc.. its expensive so I wouldnt advise you stay too long. Milan is a hole, well I didnt like it anyway, nothing to see, and the city is full of rubbish. Paris you should visit too, and feck it, go to disneyland!! Ive also been to brussells which I found beautiful and very cheap.

how long are you going to go for?

cooperguy

I was under the impression that those 6th year holidays were reasonably cheap. Arnt they just package holidays tone of the canarys or where ever!

Why dont you just fly directly to where you want to go with Ryanair? Dont buy the interrail ticket simply to travel to a specific destination. They are supposed to be used to explore a good few places. It would be a waste of time to go straight to the final destination. If your looking for cheapest transport it would more than likely be Ryanair

Bluetonic

DavidLive wrote: »

We are thinking of getting the ferry from Dublin to mainland Europe and use an interrailing pass to get train to destination, as luggage will not be such an issue then.

Firstly there are no ferries from Dublin to 'mainland' Europe. Secondly you need to decide if it's interrailing or a fixed holiday you want. I don't see how luggage is an issue when flying which of course as pointed out above is by far the cheapest and most time efficient method of traveling.

DavidLive

peanuthead wrote: »

you should get an interrailing ticket for europe alright. its by far the cheapest I would imagine.

The reason we have thought about an inter-railing ticket is because the ease and possible cost-effectiveness of having one ticket, allowing us access onto ALL trains within Europe. This removes the need to pay individually for each journey.

peanuthead wrote: »

But I have visited barcelona, and while i would say it is a must for sightseeing etc.. its expensive so I wouldnt advise you stay too long. Milan is a hole, well I didnt like it anyway, nothing to see, and the city is full of rubbish. Paris you should visit too, and feck it, go to disneyland!! Ive also been to brussells which I found beautiful and very cheap.

how long are you going to go for?

Pity, because being Spanish speakers, and in the quest for fun, nightlife, culture, etc., we though Barcelona would be good. Do you know any other European / Spanish cities that would suit our interests?

And, we're looking at going for over a week. About 10 Days maybe, including travel to and from the destination.[/quote]

cooperguy wrote: »

I was under the impression that those 6th year holidays were reasonably cheap. Arnt they just package holidays tone of the canarys or where ever!

Quite the opposite, it seems. The reason I mentioned price initally was because many of my peers have paid roughly €1500-€2300 each for accommodation and flights only. This is to very poor facilities in the hotspots like Aya Napa and the (new craze) that is Greece, more specifically Zakynthos. More and more young people are paying this sort of large amounts of cash out (a lot, albeit, with "mummy and daddys" money- You know the type).

Why dont you just fly directly to where you want to go with Ryanair? Dont buy the interrail ticket simply to travel to a specific destination. They are supposed to be used to explore a good few places. It would be a waste of time to go straight to the final destination. If your looking for cheapest transport it would more than likely be Ryanair

Yes, but as stated, it seems to work out cheaper, if we are using trains and transport a lot. None of us would be driving. And, from getting the Ferry from Dublin to Cherbourg, we'd be getting train.

The reason we've selected this method is to allow for no baggage restrictions. We're more keen on a simple, fun, and relatively easy travel, like ferry, without baggage worries, and it also adds to the fun dimension.

Bluetonic wrote: »

Firstly there are no ferries from Dublin to 'mainland' Europe. Secondly you need to decide if it's interrailing or a fixed holiday you want. I don't see how luggage is an issue when flying which of course as pointed out above is by far the cheapest and most time efficient method of traveling.

Pardon my confusing place name; I have edited it since. When I spoke of "Mainland" Europe, I meant to France or some connecting country that is alongside other states. For example, Irish Ferries go to Cherbourg. This is in France, which is alongside many other European countries, all connected by rail, roads, etc.

Bluetonic

DavidLive wrote: »

The reason I mentioned price initally was because many of my peers have paid roughly €1500-€2300 each for accommodation and flights only. This is to very poor facilities in the hotspots like Aya Napa and the (new craze) that is Greece, more specifically Zakynthos.

Try and ask them what the real price was because there is no way anyone paid that much for flights and accomodation.

DavidLive wrote: »

This is to very poor facilities in the hotspots like Aya Napa and the (new craze) that is Greece, more specifically Zakynthos.

Ah bless. Young people today invented holidaying in Greece :rolleyes:

birba

I Dave..I'm an italian girl.
I don't like an inter-rail because it's not very cheap( thinking about the frontiers and different trains, you have to increase the price for it), morover you have to bring with you some luggage and in Europe it's not very easy walking by the stations with those on you..I reccomend you to decide about a destination, for exemple Italy, and moving within cities in the same country.
Sorry for my english. Don't hesitate to contact myself

DavidLive

Bluetonic wrote: »

Try and ask them what the real price was because there is no way anyone paid that much for flights and accomodation.

Serious, there is literally over a grand or so being paid. That's why I have mentioned it.

Ah bless. Young people today invented holidaying in Greece :rolleyes:

Pathetic, isn't it! Sure, Greece has never had holiday tourists before... :P

birba wrote: »

I Dave..I'm an italian girl.
I don't like an inter-rail because it's not very cheap( thinking about the frontiers and different trains, you have to increase the price for it), morover you have to bring with you some luggage and in Europe it's not very easy walking by the stations with those on you..I reccomend you to decide about a destination, for exemple Italy, and moving within cities in the same country.
Sorry for my english. Don't hesitate to contact myself

Grazie Molto!

Lei è molto gentile!
Mi piacerebbe visitare l'Italia un giorno di questi!
(Thank you for your reply. It was very kind of you. I would love to visit Italy one day!)

So, what cities would be good in Italy?

Fratton Fred

I had a really good ten days in Italy, we flew to milan and then got the train to Pisa, Florence, Riminy, Venice and Verona. Had a great time.

Anyway, my main point is that I was going to get an interrail ticket, but train travel in italy (And most of Europe) is so cheap it saved us a fortune by just getting tickets as we needed them. We also made it up as we went along. we knew we were heading to pisa for our first night, then just kind of made the rest up.

For island dwellers like us, europe is a real eye opener. I caught a train from Florence to Bologna, that was the Rome to Vienna eurostar. That is a seriously long journey. you can go anywher by train, you can even get to this new fangled place called Greece:D

I would avoid the ferry, it goes from Rosslaire by the way not Dublin, and it aint cheap and takes about 18 hours. it is probably cheaper to fly to somewhere like Nice with Ryanair and then go from there.

You've made the right start though, get ideas from people and then look on travel websites and work out roughly what it is you want to do. you will build up a picture as you go along.

Have a think about island hopping in Greece as well, not Zante or Corfu though, their in the wrong sea. Think more Skiathos, Kos, Skopolos, Santorini etc. There are ferries and hydrafoils between a lot of the islands that are really cheap i believe.

birba

Wow!!! you speak a very good italian....maybe you are...isn't it??
So, I live in the South of Rome, on the sea, and on summer-time there's a lot of people who's come in to visit and enjoing in the night.
The flights are not very expensive (Ryanair) and you don't need the car because there's a train is going 20 min directly to Rome.
Rome is quite different by Milan, and the city is WONDERFUL!!
Anyway, i've been to Barcellona (LLoret de mar) and Ostia, where i live, is closed it.
The north of Europe, like Amsterdam, is lovely but the weather is very like Dublin!!!
3 years ago, I lived in Dublin for 8 months, thaht's i knows what it means!!

cooperguy

DavidLive wrote: »

The reason we have thought about an inter-railing ticket is because the ease and possible cost-effectiveness of having one ticket, allowing us access onto ALL trains within Europe. This removes the need to pay individually for each journey...........And, we're looking at going for over a week. About 10 Days maybe, including travel to and from the destination................The reason we've selected this method is to allow for no baggage restrictions. We're more keen on a simple, fun, and relatively easy travel, like ferry, without baggage worries, and it also adds to the fun dimension.

There is no way that is cheaper. Especially if your only going for 10 days. Also if your only going for 10 days the ferry and trains idea will probably take too much holiday time away from you and you will have no trouble with baggage restrictions on a plane if your only going for that short a time.

Quite the opposite, it seems. The reason I mentioned price initally was because many of my peers have paid roughly €1500-€2300 each for accommodation and flights only. This is to very poor facilities in the hotspots like Aya Napa and the (new craze) that is Greece, more specifically Zakynthos. More and more young people are paying this sort of large amounts of cash out (a lot, albeit, with "mummy and daddys" money- You know the type).

I think you may have been lied to. Sure some (idiots) have paid that much for a pissup holiday but you can pay 25 to 50% of that to get a week or 2 in a resort in the sun so I doubt most people are! Check out Budget Holidays or any of those package holiday companies.

MonsterMob

A week in ayia napia costs about €700-€900 and no more, and Barcelona can be as mad as this place! Rule out the interrailing if you are only going for 10 days, its not worth doing. I went to ayia napia for my sixth year holiday and then went interrailing around eastern europe for 5 weeks the following summer. Enjoy each equally but in a different sort of way. I would recommend going across northern spain and maybe continue up the french coast a bit after biarritz as there is some cool beaches there and you could camp right beside them and enjoy a bit of the nightlife there. You can fly into northern spain by ryanair out out with them again from biarritz (although it could be quite expensive in june).

Try Slovenia too. You can get the train from Trieste where ryanair fly into, and Bled is a seriously brilliant spot. There is a savage pizza spot in the capital ljubljana too which serves the biggest pizza's I've ever seen, can't remember the name of it.

MonsterMob

Pizzerija Foculus is the name of it I think, check it out!

ironclaw

Fair play to you mate! My friends and I are in the same state. We don't want Ayia Nappa etc.

However, before you board the Inter Rail train you have to factor the costs. We looked at it, but the ticket (about €300 ish) and then the flights, your already at near say €600. Then you have to carry all your luggage with you and have hostel and eating costs. Hostels in Europe do vary and there is a huge security factor. It can be very expensive and by our figures it was deemed just too expensive for the 10 days we thought about going.

Email some travel companies. You can get to Thailand, Mexico and the America for sub €2000 for nearly 21 days on some deals. Think outside the box, its what we're doing

What budget are you guys and gals on?