First tip to Venice would be to reach there before sundown and get a map! It's really difficult to look for the hotel once it gets dark especially if it is not along lited areas. We had much difficulty rolling our luggage on stone pavements, carrying it through bridges, searching for the hotel and on top of that, in the dark! It felt like we have gone back to a different century.
In Venice, you can either walk or ride the water bus. And if you are interested to take the water bus, it would be advisable to get the Tourist Travel Card or else it would cost freaking EUR7 per trip.
You don't need to plan much for Venice. Just make sure you make your way to the main tourist attraction, St Marks Square, where the Basilica, Bell Tower, Museum and Clock Tower is. Right next to that is where the shopping is. You should just talk a stroll around even if you are not interested to get anything. And of cos, like what everyone says, you should experience getting lost in Venice. That's not difficult at all! The alleys looks the same everywhere and this is one place where the map comes in very handy. You may even stumble upon some hidden gems on the way, like the Rosa Salva cafe! Their lasagna is absolutely delicious! And oh! Please try hot chocolates in Venice too! That's where I fell in love with hot chocolate drinks.
Anyway, 2 days 1 night in Venice is definitely do-able, if you are just interested to go around the island.
Jungfraujoch, Top of Europe, a must-see tourist attraction in Switzerland.
My #1 advice to Jungfraujoch would be to please check the weather online or with the hotel front desk before buying the tickets there. You don't want to be end up paying for such an expensive ticket just to look at fogs.
Realising this, we stayed in Grindelwald for 3 days in case the weather was foggy on the very first day, we can still hope to catch a sunny day the next day. And yes, we were lucky enough!
We used the Swiss Half Fare Card to get 50% discount on the ride to Jungfraujoch or else it would have costs us CHF177 each for a return ticket. The journey from Grindelwald to Jungfraujoch took about 1 hr 20 min (Grindelwald - Grund - Kleine Scheidegg - Jungfraujoch), with a train change at Kleine Scheidegg. The journey itself was very scenic. Some of the train carriages at Kleine Scheidegg are reserved for travel tours, so just make sure you don't accidentally hop into the wrong carriage and get kicked out!
Once at Jungfraujoch, maps are displayed to direct you on where to go. The place is pretty organised and it's quite impossible for you to get lost there. It took us about 2.5 hours to cover the place. And if you are thinking whether you'll be starving up there, fret not...there are 2 cafeterias there, one serves Indian cuisine and another serves Swiss. However, another alternative is to bring cup noodles along! We were drooling over Asians who were having their soupy cup noodle in the cold weather!!! *slurps*
On the ride back, we took an alternative route (Jungfraujoch - Wengen - Lauterbrunnen - Zweilütschinen - Grindelwald) to check-out the different towns and stopped by Lauterbrunnen to check out the waterfalls.
It was indeed an experience to be surrounded by greeneries and nature. We will definitely visit again!
If you intend to claim for VAT refund from all of the shopping done in Europe, I would advised not to make Switzerland, Norway and Turkey as your last stop unless if you are flying there. Why? That's because those countries are not part of the European Union (EU). So, if you shopped at a EU country, you would need to get EU custom stamp on the VAT forms before finally arriving at a non-EU country and vice versa. And the only way for you to get EU custom stamp would be at the airport or train stations at the border of Switzerland.
My friends who were not able to get their refund due to this has warned me about it and that's when I researched on it. I stumbled upon this website, http://thetravelersblog.wordpress.com/2012/01/15/vat-refunds-in-europe/ and look at the number of comments/discussions on it. Wow! So, I tried searching for a similar route that I will be taking (Stuttgart, Germany to Bern, Switzerland) from that looonngggg thread of comments/discussions and ta-dah! I found it! The nearest EU Immigration Office would be Lake Konstanz.
Off to Lake Konstanz we go, a 3 hour drive from Stuttgart, together with our claimable items and passport. The immigration officers would usually want to check on the expensive items (refunds > EUR100). Lake Konstanz's immigration office is located at the main train station (Hauptbahnhof) which was easy to find. Then, we saw an A4 paper stuck at the entrance which shows a picture of a train with a tick custom stamp and picture of a car with a cross custom stamp. Uh-oh....really?! They must have changed the rules to only allow those on the train and passes by this station to have their VAT refund form stamp. Oh nooo....We still went into the office with our thick skins to clarify the situation....
Me: Hi, we actually drove down from Stuttgart to get a custom stamp for the
VAT refund. Would it be possible for us to get it here?
Officer: You came by car?
Me: Yes.
Officer: No, we can't. You have to get the stamp somewhere else.
Me: But I researched and that this is the nearest custom office to Stuttgart
unless you know of any?
Officer: Hmm..I'm not sure.
Me: I hope you can help us out here. We deliberately drove from Stuttgart to
get this stamp and we are leaving to Switzerland directly from Stuttgart
tomorrow by train. There is no way for us to get the stamp.
Officer: Hmm....
Me: Please....
Officer: OK...OK...pass me all your forms.
Me: OMG! Thank you so much!!
If I could hug the officer, I would!
So, everyone, you can give Lake Konstanz a try but I'm not too sure whether you will be fortunate enough to meet a considerate officer like me.
I'm the sort of traveler who prefers to plan for my own itinerary whenever I travel. It gives me the flexibility to choose where and when to visit the place without needing to follow a tour group. However, during my first trip to Europe, I learnt that you must allocate queue time especially for popular tourist attractions.
During my amateur itinerary planning days, I had timings on when to wake up, have breakfast, time to reach each of the locations and etc. I still remember my husband saying "I only have half an hour for breakfast?! What if I need to go to the toilet after??". Haha...The trip finally came and obviously, all the timing was off!! That was because I totally forgot to consider the duration to queue or search/walk to the location. Accumulation of 10-30 minutes of walking/queuing could set the itinerary to go haywire. :P We even needed to queue up for 45 minutes to get up to the Eiffel Tower! Due to that, we had to skip one or two art museums. Oh well...we can't cover everything that we planned for, can we?
Conclusion, make sure you allocate enough time to queue/search/walk to yr destination!
This blog has been on my to-do list for about a year now. And finally, it's published!! Woo hoo! *popping champagne*
Here is my channel in sharing travel tips. Hope it helps all travelers out there!! :)
