Public and Other Transportation Stories, Good, Bad, and Ugly
2018 (c) Sondra Singer
I've had interesting changes of "direction" the past few years, as I've learned how to best get around cities in Europe. Much depends on the city, it's volume of traffic, availability of public transportation, etc. as well as who we are and our comfort level with each mode of getting around.
Driving?
We don't do well driving in strange cities, even here in the U.S. So, you can bet we don't rent cars in foreign countries! If you're daring enough to do it, let me know how that works for you. We like to leave the driving to those who know where they are going! Especially if we are in a country that drives on the "wrong" side of the road! We get lost easily enough when we are driving around the U.S.!
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| Drive? I don't think so. Let the locals do it! |
On/Off Buses and Tours?
I used to think that I HAD to get the "lay of the land" first by taking some kind of tour, like an on/off bus, early in a trip. That is changing based on experiences and the layout of different cities.
My first trip, 4 years ago, I went with 3 other people who had varying degrees of mobility. For that group, in at least one city,
Vienna, the Hop On Hop Off Bus was the best option. However, Vienna is the only city so far, where that was my main and best mode of transport, because the company we used knew the city well, had well-laid-out routes that ran frequently, and had frequent connecting points for different routes. So, even though I was limping around with a cane and still in recovery from a broken ankle, the buses got me close to my destinations, and also got the rest of the group around to drive by the sites they wanted. I wanted a more in-depth experience than they did, and that bus company served us all well. We also stayed in the Museum District, which gave us excellent access to those buses, with a stop just down the hill from our hotel.
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| Street in Vienna from the Hop On Hop Off bus |
However, on that trip, we also did a day tour (not an on/off bus) in London, and that tour was a
complete disaster. Had it been a Monty Python movie, it would have been funny to watch, but it was real! The tour guide obviously hated his job, hated tourists, and had a generally BAD attitude. For example, even though we had older people and less mobile people on the tour, he made no allowances, and often threatened to leave people behind. He'd walk up ahead fast, speak fast, then move on again, never waiting for people to catch up. At both the Tower of London and Buckingham Palace, where we actually got off the bus, I'm sure he left people behind intentionally. We were supposed to have a guided river tour as part of the day. However, he put us on what turned out to be a commuter river taxi, with no commentary,
no guiding at all. He brought us on board, then went to the bar until it was time for us to get off. If you decide to do a tour like this, ask a lot of questions first. We trusted our travel agent. Perhaps in this case, we were just unlucky enough to get a guide who wanted to get fired, so did everything he could to make that happen!
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| From the river taxi. Our guide was in the bar, so this was the only site we recognized... |
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| Yes, this is the man who should not be a tour guide...in front of where we had a lovely High Tea...without him... |
More Recently...
Do your research. Read reviews, and talk to people who have gone to the cities where you are traveling, as well. In Paris, last year, we had a bad experience with an on-off bus company there, Open Tour. I booked through Viator, which I will avoid in future. Open Tour was not good that week in April, 2017, in part because of the intense traffic in Paris, in part because the buses just didn't run regularly. They apparently decided after we booked, to run winter hours when we were told (and the website stated) specifically that by the time we arrived, they would be on summer schedule (later and longer hours). It finally made sense when we saw hastily posted signs that they were running winter hours for an additional week. No explanation by those hawking the buses on street corners. Plus,the routes themselves were lackluster. We had to give up on using them by the 2nd day of 3 that we'd paid for. We couldn't even use the voucher for the Seine River cruise from that company after waiting an hour to board, and ended up having to buy a different cruise.
In Paris, public transportation is a much better option. Same with London. And, in Dubrovnik, you have to walk. Period.
Our Favorite Option to Get Around
I changed my expectations and planning in Paris last year, when we discovered
Google Maps. As long as there is Google Maps on my phone, this is now the best option for us to get around easily in many cities. If you know what you want to do on a particular day, after researching your travel books, you can get to your destinations with ease using Google, especially in cities that are spread out, have a lot of traffic, and have good public transportation.
It knows where you are, right? So, when you plug in your destination, it will let you know several options for getting there, depending upon your starting point. In both Paris and London, it will give you walking, public buses, and public train options, including estimated time for each leg of your journey. You can choose based upon your preferences. You get options for walking, walking to stations, etc. and you can even drill down to how long it will take to get through each leg. You may have to change trains, but it will show that, as well.
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| Google Maps example. Just put your destination in your smart phone, and you'll get options for getting there. |
In Paris last year, we used the Metro more, but also found that a public bus was a better option on one journey, getting us to within walking distance to our hotel. On that little jaunt, we had a fascinating discussion with a woman on that bus about politics and religion! I know, we shouldn't have, but we did anyway. That, I've noticed, is harder to do on a train. Maybe we were just lucky, but I think that discussion got us all out of our "bubbles" and getting to know a person from a different country a little bit. It was close in time to their Presidential election, so it was enlightening hearing from a woman who had different political leanings than we did, what she was thinking. It was all innocent conversation, and very cordial. If you can keep your conversations friendly, I recommend this.
We didn't have any such conversations on London public transport, but perhaps it's because we didn't ride a public bus there.
Car Services
The other modes of transport, obviously are cabs, car services, and Uber. There is a lot of controversy around Uber in London at the moment. After seeing how potentially contentious this was, and also seeing that there was really no difference in cost between Uber and a car service, we used Adams Car Service to get from and to the airport. We could have taken the Underground back to the airport, but it was unclear how much walking we might have to do to our terminal (you have to do a lot of walking just to get to and from a flight at the international terminal at Heathrow already). So, we decided to make life a bit easier and take the same car company we'd taken to get into the city.
Plan to do a lot of walking, if you are able-bodied. You'll see more and have more options, as well. Plan to be somewhat adventurous and flexible, as well, if you travel a bit extemporaneously, as we do. It's also much cheaper to walk than to pay for any other form of transport. Especially in London!
The Metro and the Underground
On that front, Paris was expensive for some things, but not for transportation. The Metro is cheap compared with the London Underground. In both cases, you can buy tickets ahead. In Paris, you can buy books of tickets and use them as you go. In London, you buy an Oyster card (a 5 pound refundable deposit gets you going) and it's easy. You just reload that with money when needed at convenient ATM-type machines in the stations. It's just more expensive to get from point A to B in London, no matter what. However, you can get refunded up to a point when you're ready to leave, and it's all on easy-to-use machines at the stations.
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| Paddington Station in London |
Dubrovnik
I was in Dubrovnik 4 years ago. There were public buses to get to destinations, then you walked. Since Dubrovnik central is a walled city within the city, there are no cars. It's not that big, but with a recovering broken ankle, I just took my time and rested a lot.
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| Approaching the walled city in Dubrovnik from the public bus. |
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| Walking above the walled city of Dubrovnik. |
Outside The City
If you want to go outside the city, that's another story. I know people who rent cars but that's not us. I generally don't like tours because they never give you enough time at each destination. But, that's what we did to go to Stonehenge and Bath.
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| Stonehenge in the Rain |
I chose a Premium Tour to just these two destinations because it seemed to give enough time - morning at Stonehenge, afternoon at Bath. But, in fact, in neither case was it enough time to explore, shop and also eat in a restaurant. Thankfully, we brought snacks from our hotel, and just toured what we had time for. In future, I might do more research on taking trains and buses, but my concern was that we wouldn't get up early enough in the morning to have enough time at the destinations anyway. So, for us, the tour was good enough this time. More on those destinations in a later post.
I hope you find this helpful as you plan your trips, Boomers, and others who want to travel As Cheaply As Possible!
In Service,
Sondra
