Entries about planning

Hi all, so it's now just over a week until I leave, hahaha I'm not counting down the days or anything (10 to be exact) and i thought I would take the time and outline exactly what I have booked and all the research and planning that has gone into the trip.

Firstly I will list our hotels, now they are not the flashiest of all places but basically we just wanted somewhere clean, comfortable and close to public transport, in all honesty we won't be spending a lot of time within the hotel and just needed a bed to lie our weary heads on at the end of a long day. My only requirement was that they offered free wifi so I had the opportunity to keep in contact back home.

London: the Imperial Hotel in Russell Square.

Paris: the Kyriad Bercy Hotel on Rue Baron Le Roy.

Berlin: the Citadines Ber Kurfurstendamn on Oliver Platz.

Prague: the Hotel Carlton on Taboritska.

Rome: the Kennedy Hotel on Via Filippo Turati.

All hotel rooms also have Included breakfast which I thought was good, saves us purchasing a meal each day. We pre booked the accommodation with the travel agent as well, we thought that was the best option for us, maybe not the cheapest but at least if anything goes wrong it's on their heads not ours and we have someone to contact if anything does goes wrong. All accommodation is for two people and for the entire three week stay for the two of us cost us just under $3000 aud.

Now it terms of travel we plan on taking public transport such as the metro, tube and bus as often as we can and all train tickets for travel between each city has been paid for and booked in advance. I used www.eurorail.com.au where I could book all the tickets in one place. I know it would have probably been cheaper to book each ticket independently through each company but I found this super easy and the tickets arrived in hard copy only 3 days after I booked them.

London - Paris (eurostar)

Paris - Berlin (first class over night sleeper on the nightline)

Berlin - Prague

All three tickets for the two of us including the first class sleeper cost us just over $600 in total.

Now a list of things I have pre booked in advance, I tried to do this where I could to save us time.

• Tickets to "rock of ages" at the Garrick Theatre - booked through www.londontickets.com

• Booked our afternoon tea in London straight from the hotel website. (29 pounds)

• Eiffel tour dinner booking booked through their website (70E per person) 3 course meal plus a bottle of wine (I know expensive but mostly for the experience as we are not climbing the tour).

• our concentration camp tour in Berlin- booked through insider tours and cost 15E each.

• Vatican museum tickets booked through the vatican city website and cost 19E each.

• coliseum tour booked through italy tickets website and cost 22 E (I think) each.

• we also booked our flight from Prague to Rome through west wings airlines and cost $120 aud each.

While we are in London we are going to take advantage of their 241 offers on their major tourist sites by purchasing a 7 day travel ticket. Although we are only their for 4 days it still saves us money and is a lot easier if we obtain the 7 day ticket. In Paris we plan on obtaining the 4 day Paris museum pass as we are seeing a lot of the sites included and also has the bonus of skipping most of those nasty entrance lines.

I have notified my bank, copied my passport and insurance papers, printed all our confirmations, had extra passport photos taken and all my money has been exchanged and organized by the MasterCard cash passport travel card which I ordered via their website. Their exchange rates were good and you don't get any fees with redrawing or topping up your card. I am taking in equivalent of about $3300 aud for the three weeks.

So that's what I have done and that isn't even the itinerary lol but I didn't want to share all that cos that would ruin the surprise somewhat I have trolled the trip advisor forums for months obtaining lots of great information and tips (would suggest any traveller to check out their forums if you are in the planning stages, it is a godsend) and the occasional rookie question.

10 days and counting!!! Bring it all on already !!!