Travel&Vacation

Seniors on the Go

What’s the best approach to visiting Europe this summer, if you can stay a month or more and want to see quite a bit, but you don’t want to spend too much money or stay at the worst bottom-end hotels? That’s the challenge a senior couple recently posed. And although it’s extremely broad, I can provide some general guidance.

To start, if your image of a cheap European hotel is a dingy six-floor walkup, you’re 20 to 30 years behind the times. As in the United States, European budget accommodations are increasingly at modern budget chains. The bottom-end chains are a bit plainer than any we have here, with very small rooms (around 100 square feet) and maybe a bath across the hall, but the next tier up is much like Motel 6, Super 8, and other U.S. budget chains.

If you plan to stay as long as four to six weeks, however, my suggestion is that you settle down for a week or more in a particular place and do your sightseeing by day excursions rather than switch hotels every day or two. And that means renting an apartment or cottage, rather than using hotels. You’ll probably pay less, you’ll enjoy a bit more space where you can hang out comfortably, and you can prepare some of your own meals. You have two basic options:

• Settle down in a major city apartment and do your sightseeing by public transportation.
• Settle down in a countryside cottage and do your excursions in a rented car.

In your shoes, I’d do some of each—maybe a week or so in two cities and a week or so in two countryside areas.

Just about any major capital and commercial center would do for city-based stays. My first choice would be Paris, as it has lots to see and do and excellent local and regional public transportation. As an added plus, rental apartments for the summer are fairly plentiful in Paris because so many Parisians go away for a month or more. Also good: Either Milan or Rome for Italy; Amsterdam, Brussels, Berlin, or Frankfurt for Germany; and just about any sizable city for Switzerland. I’d add London except for the low-cost constraint.

To keep costs a bit lower, you might consider some time in Eastern Europe—a city such as Budapest, Prague, or Warsaw—or the countryside. However you’ll find fewer rental choices and you’ll probably find it a bit harder to cope with shopping and the other details of daily rental life.

Whatever city you stay in, you’ll be taking a lot of short day-trip excursions rather than a few long trips. I suggest you avoid rail passes and instead look to everyday senior deals for your train and transit requirements.

For a countryside stay, I’d say, pick out what you like. France, Italy, and Spain have a wider selection of rural rentals than other European countries, but you can find options just about everywhere. I’d stay away from Provence and Tuscany, because rentals there are so over-publicized that prices are high and availabilities are tight in the summer season. And in midsummer I’d also avoid seaside areas, since the locals grab up those rentals.

Whether for city or countryside, the Internet is full of sites that list European vacation rentals. Among the bigger are Vacation Rentals by Owner and HomeAway, both of which provide listings prepared by property owners and link you to those owners. If you prefer to deal with a U.S.-based agency that actually visits and evaluates its properties, start with At Home in France for France and Spain and Vacanza Bella for Italy. Those are just two of dozens, however, and you might want to do (or have your travel agent do) some more extensive searching. And if you live in a U.S. location Europeans might consider desirable, consider a home exchange through a site like HomeLink International.