Top Sights to See

Kayla, places become "touristy" because they are worth going to. So if your research tells you about "top touristy places" that's where all your fellow travellers have been going.

I understand, I was more implying about attractions within these touristy cities that people lookover seeing, even though they are equally as fun to explore.

You can see everything worth seeing in Dublin in three days.

People will tell you what they like. That doesn't mean you'd like it. Read abuot things to see in each city and ask yourself if it would interest you.

As an example...I know people who love to go to every art museum, and others who hate art museums.

Here's a suggestion....why not look at Rick Steves tours and see what he takes his groups to see. Those are usually the top sites.

Hi, Kayla. My favorite sights to see in Dublin were actually outside of Dublin. One was the town of Avoca (though if you haven't seen Ballykissangel, it might not hold much appeal), and the other was Malahide Castle in the town of Malahide. I think it was about a 30 minute train ride from Dublin.

In Rome, I absolutely loved the Vatican ... which is obviously a highly touristed place. But my favorite bit of the Vatican was the tour of the Scavi, the excavations underneath the basilica. Check the Vatican's website for information. There is a charge (I don't remember that it was an awful lot of money), and you must have a reservation. I also liked the Crime Museum, but I guess that's the sort of thing that has to be up right your alley.

Your interests will be different than everyone elses. When you hit town, go to the Tourist Information Office and pick up the folders which interest you. Also ask about walking tours and bus tours. I find them worth while.

Paris - allow time to walk & see the city itself. To me, Paris itself is the top attraction. I love the cafes for resting between museums/sights. Be sure to view the Eiffel Tower at night at the top of the hour. For 10 min, the lights blink (like Christmas lights). You might think the tower is too much a cliche, but it's my favorite sight. When you see it you know you're in Paris. As far as the sights, look thru RS's book & pick out the ones that interest you most. Unless you run yourself ragged, you'll never see it all in 3 days anyway.

http://troi.cc.rochester.edu/~tdip/tomsguidetoparis.htm

Kayla, the above link is helpful to many. If you have questions about Paris that Tom's Guide does not answer, email Tom. (He lives in Paris). bon voyage!P

Dublin is weak for sights you could easily add more days to Paris. It is a blockbuster as is Rome.

Kayla,

Most travellers often have different ideas on what constitutes "top sights" based on their interests. Could you provide a bit of information on what you're interested in seeing?

A few suggestions for each of the locations you listed:

Dublin - Kilmainham Gaol (very significant site in Irish history), Temple Bar district is fantastic on Friday & Saturday nights just for the atmosphere and "people watching", also check into day trips from Dublin. I wouldn't bother with the Guinness Storehouse.

Paris - definitely get a Paris Museum Pass (although I think they only have 2 and 4 day versions). If you want to visit the Louvre, limit your visit to the Denon wing (Mona Lisa, etc.). I'd also highly recommend the Musee d'Orsay (beautiful old building that used to be a train station, and a GREAT collection of impressionist art). Of course, the Eiffel Tower (but be prepared to queue if you want to go to the upper levels).

Rome - where to begin! Four days is NOT enough, but you'll probably want to visit the Colosseum (use Rick's suggestion about buying a combo ticket on Palatine Hill, which will also allow you to visit the Forum, etc.). St. Peter's is incredible also (you might not have time to visit the Museum as well - depends on your priorities). Capitoline Museum, Pantheon? You might find it worthwhile to spend a few hours on the Red Bus "hop on/hop off" tours, to get an idea of the "layout" and attractions of the city. Check Rick's books for his "Rome Walks" touring ideas.

Barcelona - no suggestions at the moment. What are you most interested in seeing?

I'll give this some further thought, and add another Post if I have any other ideas.

Happy travels!

NEW PLAN!

Thank you for all your ideas. Maybe having this new updated itinerary will allow for some more ideas.

We're cutting out Dublin. We're now just going to Paris, Barcelona, and Rome.. and then going back to London to stay with my friend for a while.

We're thinking:

Rome - 5 days

Barcelona - 3 days

Paris - 4 days

As for my interests which has been requested by a lot of people who have responded on my question, here's a list:

Art

Social Places

Dancing

Pubs

Live Music

Water - rivers, lakes, ocean, anything!

Flea Markets

Farmers markets

Wine

History through architecture

Museums

Meeting people

Shows/operas

Theatre

Street Performers

Downtown areas

MOPEDING

Greenery

Castles

the list continues, but those are the main ones!

I really appreciate your time and input. This is my first trip to Europe and any advise would be wonderful!

Thanks a lot,

Kayla

Unless you want to shave a few years off your life, I'd humbly suggest that you forgo "mopeding" in any of your destination cities. It's chaos in Rome in particular - stick to the sidewalks and subways, it's just safer (and even then, they drive on the sidewalks too!).

As for your list of desired activities, Rome, Paris, London, and probably Barcelona (I've not been) offer a little bit of each one of them. You're getting good suggestions on this site - add their suggestions to a list, brainstorm with your travel mates, make a longer list, and then narrow it down to your top 5 or so choices. You won't have enough time to do everything in each city, it's just not possible in your time frames. Try and spread things out so you don't hit 5 museums in one day. Most of all, plan to have FUN, and remember you can go back again some day.

Not that I have ever done this but I am going to Paris in September and I found some cool things to do.

*Why not try a Segway? I don't know anyone thats done it but there are tours online that I found. They also do bike tours too. Cool thing about it is that you can do it day or night. Here is the website:
http://www.citysegwaytours.com/paris/

*River cruise and dinner: we signed up for this and plan on dressing up. I know someone who did it and loved it. Here is the web stie:
http://www.lecapitainefracasse.com/

*Champagne: why not try the real stuff? My favorite is vueve clicquot (yellow label, which goes for about $50 here). We are going to do a tour and tasting. Its in Reims which is about an hour outside of Paris. Web site below.
http://www.veuve-clicquot.com/

Again, I've never been so these are the things I am going to try. I want to see all the normal things but I also like the idea of doing the weird and off the wall things I wouldn't do here. I don't think I would ever do a segway in Seattle, but in Paris it sounds pretty cool. Can't wait to see everyone elses suggestions!

AUDRY,

I'm one person that's done the Paris Segway Tours. It was a lot of fun and a very unique travel experience. They seemed to be quite an attraction for other tourists, as we were photographed numerous times during the tour. The Guide, Ryan (who was from the U.S.) was fluent in English, French and Spanish and provided a very interesting tour.

One thing to note is that they require a credit card deposit in case of any "damage" to the Segway (as I recall, it was about €400). No one from our group had any problems, but anyone considering the tours should keep that in mind. The credit card slip is shredded if the unit is returned in good condition.

Cheers!

I just looked at pictures online at Versailles and WOW. We are going there for half a day for certain! Gorgeous.

Kayla,

I know you don't have much time in Paris but you must take a short train ride to Versailles, it's unbelievably beautiful inside and out, you can rent a golf cart and tour the outside gardens. The twinkle lights on the Eiffel at night are also a MUST see, I've been to Paris twice and visited the tower a few times and each time the twinkle lights come on people always gasp and sometimes clap.

Have a wonderful trip.

ROME---the Colosseum (take the self-guided audio tour), Palatine Hill, the Mouth of Truth (if you are a fan of "Roman Holiday"), and the Vatican (take a tour).
Worth all the walking.

And beware the city busses...pickpockets abound and they are VERY good at what they do.

Barcelona:

Las Ramblas, La Boqueria Market, Gothic Quarter, daytrip to Montserrat, stick your feet in the Mediterranean, tapas, La Sagrada Familia

Looks like a great trip! Here are some gems that we love in/near each city:

Dublin: Chester Beatty Museum (free!); Kilmainham Gaol; Glendalough (out in the countryside)

Rome: The Borghese Gallery is stunning, then row on the pond at Villa Borghese; take a picnic to the Appian Way & walk a few hours

Barcelona: An hour outside the city by train is Montserrat Monastery up in the mountains. Awesome experience!

Paris: Riding Ferris wheel near the Louvre at night, &, of course, the Louvre & Notre Dame

Yay! Thank you all SOOO much. My traveling partner and I are making a huge list of all your helpful ideas and then narrowing it down to our top choices!

More ideas for Paris and Barcelona would be great!

And..

Does anyone know much about SHANNON, IRELAND?

Kayla,

Shannon is the best airport to fly into to visit western Ireland. From there, it's a reasonable drive to Galway, Cty Clare (Cliffs of Moher, Burren), the Dingle and Ring of Kerry Peninsulas, Killarney, and the souther coast.

Are you considering Ireland again as one of your destinations?

Ireland was kind of a random choice because RyanAir doesnt go from Paris to London.. so we're spending two days in Shannon.. it looks beautiful! So time there is limited, but I'll definitely look into the ideas you posted, thanks!!!

Kayla,

With only two days, I'd choose between Dingle, Cty Clare, and Killarney. You don't really have time for anything else.

I'd head to Dingle myself. It's one of the best places to experience the real Ireland.

Paris - Here are my favorite things to do: the Eiffel Tower, both in day and night. Take a river boat ride at dusk. Visit a street market - Bastille is great. The Rodin Museum if you have a short bit of time, just visit the garden if time is short. Notre Dame of course. Grab lunch from a grocery or sidewalk stand and eat in a park or under the Eiffel Tower and just relax a bit.

Kayla,

Shannon really isn't much of a city. There are like two grocery stores, a pub that we found served Chinese food and one other pub. If you're going to stay in Shannon, I suggest you get out and explore the surrounding area/towns: The Burren, Ennis, Galway, etc. There really isn't much to Shannon. But if you'd like to stay in Shannon, we found a great B&B: http://www.avalonbnb.net/index.html.

Limerick is very close to Shannon Airport and is an interesting small city. Limerick has been made very attractive in the past 20 years. Frank McCourt and his brothers grew up in the slums of Limerick; he wrote about it in "Angela's Ashes." The slums are gone now. It is a short bus ride from the airport and there is a train station there. From Limerick it would be possible to take a daytrip by train to Killarney, another of my favorite Irish cities. Then there is Bunratty Castle, between Shannon and Limerick, with its medieval banquets and the adjoining folk park, which is worth visiting. Bus and coach transportation are plentiful in that area.

We were in Paris this spring. I agree with other posters who suggest Paris itself is the attraction; it is a beautiful city that has much to offer to the person who only walks down a street. As for museums in Paris, beside the Louvre, I really liked the Cluny (medieval Paris and the FANTASTIC Lady and Unicorn tapestries) and the Picasso Museum, located in the Marais. The Cluny is on the Left Bank and a short walk from Notre Dame. Have a great trip.

I loved Rome! Very walkable! My travel buddy and I divided the city in quarters and spent 4 days seeing the "sights" and one day just shopping and soaking up the city. I would reccomend this way of seeing Rome because I allows you to get a taste of everything and there really are sights around every corner. There are excellent tourist maps available there that you can mark your walk route on each day as you go. We found that eating out at lunch time saved money (and honestly the food is only so-so in Rome) and it allowed us to use the restrooms at mid-day. We picked up fresh food for dinner in our hotel/hostel each night this was a nice treat because it is hard to get fresh veggies when you eat out. You can drink from the fountains (the water is really good) so just buy one bottle and fill it up as you go! There is a pub crawl that starts on the Spanish steps every Saturday and Thursday night, but there is very little "nightlife" in Rome other than that. Enjoy!

My favorite things in Rome were climbing up St. Peters dome, what a view! and even climbing it was cool, and being in the coliseum and the forum. This was so, oh I don't know, just being there where history was made, walking in the footsteps of Julius Caesar, and so on. We had a great guide too, but I cant remember which company, just one of the ones that was outside the coliseum. This was Feb. though and wasn't the height of the tourist season. Heck, I even liked the cheesy gladiators. They were just so funny. In Paris, we liked climbing the Sacre Cour (sp?) Again, the view was great and no one else was climbing it. We had the place to ourselves. (this was in July) and we loved Bastille Day. What a party! It was well worth going to Paris in July just for that. I have to say we were disappointed at the produce markets we went through, we thought our open markets in Frankfurt were way better, fresher produce and cheaper. Sorry to all you folks who think France has the best produce.

Glad to see some people decided to answer your question! Again, the negativity comes first. You were simply asking fellow travelers to share their
favorite, not to miss sites! Yes, we all have activities we prefer and some we don't. That's a given, just answer the question posed for heaven's sake. Those very opinionated folks have so much to offer if they could just forget the attitude, really!
I say there are must sees for every place visited.
I would leave museums, in most cases for the next visit. Versailles is more than a half day to me. I saw it on my 3rd visit to Paris. The exception might be the Musee d'Orsay, a old train station, made into a small museum. Eiffel Tower and river cruise would be great choices and Montmarte is really fun and offers a beatiful view of Paris. Sit in cafe or park and just people watch. Notre-Dame is also fun to see and if you climb the tower, you will get another beautiful view of the city. I loved the Gallerie Lafayette, on the first floor in the cosmetic department, stop and look up to the ceilng, it is incredible. There is also a very cool market on the top of the GL men's store, across the street.
Just fun to see if you are into food and who isn't?
I could go and on but I have been to Paris many times and still have much more to see and experience!

For Barcelona, I agree with poster, fabulous suggestions.
I say walk and walk because you run into things and people that will interest you this time or a time in which you may return.

Happy Travels!

You need to rent the 1969 film, "If its Tuesday, it must be Belgium" staring Suzanne Pleashette. A group of travelers from the United States race through seven countries in 18 days. Included in the group are Samantha Perkins a lovely young miss who finds time for some romance with handsome Britisher Charlie Cartwright; Jenny Grant is an elderly lady with energy to spare; Harve and Irma Blakely are a married couple who get separated; and John Marino as an Italian-American who almost gets married off while visiting relatives in Venice."
That will put you in the mood to race thru several cities trying to see everything in a short amount of time.

Almost forgot, we loved walking through the cemetery in Mont Marte (sp) It was so unusual, but peaceful too. Hope that doesn't sound too morbid! It wasn't the one with Jim Morrison, but that was ok.

Out of three visits to Paris, I will never forget the Musee d'la Orangerie which displays Claude Monet's floor to ceiling water lily paintings--breathtaking! It's a small museum so it takes only the time you will stand viewing these paintings and a few other artists. Look it up in Rick's book. As others have said, Musee d'Orsay is also not overwhelming in size but a must-see for it's work of art. My son and husband have also seen the catacombs and have been on the Paris sewer tour--also in Rick's books. I have enjoyed getting out of the city and travelling to the town of Chartres (for the cathedral) or to Amboise (for Leonardo d'Vinci's museum located in his home and the hands-on displays in the gardens). While in Amboise, we also went to a chateau--can't remember which one.

In Rome, I enjoyed the Borghese Gallery. I had the hotel get me a reservation for 5 p.m. No one was there at that time. I was right in front of the works of art. Have fun!

Barcelona-
Las Ramblas- and just off, any direction, which has great small cafes and restaurants.
La Sagrada de Familia, La Boqueria Market- if you eat at a restaurant make sure to check the price before you order!
All things Gaudi, and fantastic tapas.

While in Paris, the catacombs are a MUST! They are very eerie, and dirt cheap. They're a bit difficult to find, but well worth the time!