Europe and Euro 2012 READ FIRST POST!!!

southafrica2010

hi,

i am thinking of travelling around europe over 10-12 weeks next summer. now that ireland look odds on to qualify for euro 2012 in poland / ukraine it would be great to take in the tournament.

has anyone any ideas for a good route to take around europe in summer 2012 starting late may / early june? euro championships starting 08/06/12

many thanks

Mod Note:
This thread is to discuss travel to Euro 2012 only, any discussion on ticketing or teams/games etc should be posted on the Soccer Forum, subject to the Charter.

PCPhoto

if you are planning on being in Ukraine/Poland around the time of euro 2012 I would suggest you book accomodation well in advance.....prices will be expensive (if they have not already gotten expensive)

as regards a route .... just get an interrail train ticket/pass and travel wherever you want (that their trains go !)

M5

Rzeszow (Poland) is relatively near Lviv, might be a good cheap way into a few games, Its about 3 hours away but the border crossing may be a nightmare with the increased traffic. Your also about 4/5 hours from Krakow

hevvs

Problem with the interrail ticket is that it doesn't cover Ukraine. But for travelling the rest of Europe it's your best option. Thinking of doing the same myself.

GoonerMark92

I also want to go over for the group stages at least but until the draw is made and we know what group we're in, it's hard to make any serious plans for it. I mean, as most of you may know, certainly those who are football fans, the four groups are split where Groups A and C are in Poland and Groups B and D are in Ukraine.

If we get drawn in Group A or C, the whole thing becomes a lot more straight forward in terms of travel; you're one direct flight away from any of the four cities. I'm sort of hoping that Ireland are based in Gdansk, it seems to be a fantastic city from what I've heard and the pictures I've seen, plus Ryanair fly there.

Looks as if Group B would be the most impractical in terms of travel. The two host cities for that group are Lviv and Kharkiv; around 1200km apart, with Kharkiv being over towards the Russian boarder. With no direct flights, and the interrail tickets not being valid in Ukraine apparently, it seems that it would be quite a difficult and expensive trip to make.

With Euro 2012 being hosted by two countries, specially the size of Poland and Ukraine, it makes it very difficult to just pick somewhere to fly to and work from there. If it was on in just the one country, or two smaller countries like Switzerland and Austria '08, it would be much easier to just pick a specific city to fly to and know that no matter where the Irish are drawn, you're only two or three hours away on the train.

Ideally, I'd like to book flights to Gdansk early, as they're not madly expensive right now, but obviously that would work out to be a bit of a problem if two of Ireland's games end up on in Kharkiv, with the other in Lviv. Anyone know what the trains are like between Poland and Ukraine? How much do they cost, how long would it take to get around Ukraine on train, etc? I don't think I'll be getting the train around Ukraine, but I guess you gotta keep your options open until we know exactly where Ireland will be based.

M5

GoonerMark92 wrote: »

I also want to go over for the group stages at least but until the draw is made and we know what group we're in, it's hard to make any serious plans for it. I mean, as most of you may know, certainly those who are football fans, the four groups are split where Groups A and C are in Poland and Groups B and D are in Ukraine.

If we get drawn in Group A or C, the whole thing becomes a lot more straight forward in terms of travel; you're one direct flight away from any of the four cities. I'm sort of hoping that Ireland are based in Gdansk, it seems to be a fantastic city from what I've heard and the pictures I've seen, plus Ryanair fly there.

Looks as if Group B would be the most impractical in terms of travel. The two host cities for that group are Lviv and Kharkiv; around 1200km apart, with Kharkiv being over towards the Russian boarder. With no direct flights, and the interrail tickets not being valid in Ukraine apparently, it seems that it would be quite a difficult and expensive trip to make.

With Euro 2012 being hosted by two countries, specially the size of Poland and Ukraine, it makes it very difficult to just pick somewhere to fly to and work from there. If it was on in just the one country, or two smaller countries like Switzerland and Austria '08, it would be much easier to just pick a specific city to fly to and know that no matter where the Irish are drawn, you're only two or three hours away on the train.

Ideally, I'd like to book flights to Gdansk early, as they're not madly expensive right now, but obviously that would work out to be a bit of a problem if two of Ireland's games end up on in Kharkiv, with the other in Lviv. Anyone know what the trains are like between Poland and Ukraine? How much do they cost, how long would it take to get around Ukraine on train, etc? I don't think I'll be getting the train around Ukraine, but I guess you gotta keep your options open until we know exactly where Ireland will be based.

Trains are pretty much non existant across the border! the poles rarely use trains within because the service is so bad. I would hope they worked on both for the championship

finbarrk

Interrail was fine the last time we qualified for this tournament. I'll be flying this time though as these countries still haven't caught up.
Suppose it might be allright in Poland maybe?

Zebra3

Trains between the two countries ae on different gauges.

Causes huge delays at the border crossings.

Marcin_diy

Did you think of renting a Camper van? - you can drive from place to place when you want, you can stop and sleep when and where you want
it will be quicker than travelling by train and cheaper than plane.

The only thing is that best place to rent a camper is France or Germany.

M5

finbarrk wrote: »

Interrail was fine the last time we qualified for this tournament. I'll be flying this time though as these countries still haven't caught up.
Suppose it might be allright in Poland maybe?

Driving is faster and safer in Poland, but I assume an effort will be made to improve for the tournament

shiibata

Marcin_diy wrote: »

Did you think of renting a Camper van? - you can drive from place to place when you want, you can stop and sleep when and where you want
it will be quicker than travelling by train and cheaper than plane.

The only thing is that best place to rent a camper is France or Germany.

Have looked at the campervan option and the only 2 sites I looked at yet, collecting the van in Germany, it says travel to Ukraine, FORBIDDEN:(

Dodge

M5 wrote: »

Rzeszow (Poland) is relatively near Lviv, might be a good cheap way into a few games, Its about 3 hours away but the border crossing may be a nightmare with the increased traffic.

Took that route in July. Was closer to 5 hours travelling and that was with a private bus with a driver who spoke Polish/Ukrainian and handled pretty much all our immigration and customs issues.

Public transport involves getting a train, walking a mile to border, crossing it on foot and then getting bus to Lviv. Takes a bit longer.

Others flew into Krakow and took that route (train to border, pedastrian crossing, bus to Lviv)

Roads were horrendous but they were working on them. Locals explained they expected all the main roads to be finished in time for Euros.

Lvin itself was a lovely city. Bright, modern and very, very cheap. I'd expect it to increase in price next year

munchkin_utd

shiibata wrote: »

Have looked at the campervan option and the only 2 sites I looked at yet, collecting the van in Germany, it says travel to Ukraine, FORBIDDEN:(

just checked europcar Germany and they bar you from bringing in a hire car of any sort to all former soviet states along with bulgaria and romania and other non EU countries .
Poland ok though for small to medium sized cars.

I think this is going to be the case for pretty much all rental places.
Poland Ok but Ukraine not ok for driving into.

Looked at flights from Munich(where I live) for the first game in Lviv and its 1050 return on the direct flight already for economy class even BEFORE the draw is made.
If I ever hear anyone whinging about Ryanair/ aerLingus profiteering from the football I'll slap them!! The old airlines like SAS and Lufthansa are the masters of shocking expensive tickets!!!

Dodge

Lviv is a small airport too. Think its closed on a Tuesday. Really only a couple of Lufthansa flights land there from the West, so they'd be expensive enough

shiibata

Have a few options of flights from Dublin to Kiev for around €300 return, that would be ok if they were to stay at that til the draw. Use the sleeper trains from Kiev then to the other cities, travel and accommodation all in one.

finbarrk

Good idea. Seat 61 has some good info on Ukranian rail travel.

http://www.seat61.com/Ukraine-trains.htm

M5

Dodge wrote: »

Took that route in July. Was closer to 5 hours travelling and that was with a private bus with a driver who spoke Polish/Ukrainian and handled pretty much all our immigration and customs issues.

Public transport involves getting a train, walking a mile to border, crossing it on foot and then getting bus to Lviv. Takes a bit longer.

Others flew into Krakow and took that route (train to border, pedastrian crossing, bus to Lviv)

Roads were horrendous but they were working on them. Locals explained they expected all the main roads to be finished in time for Euros.

Lvin itself was a lovely city. Bright, modern and very, very cheap. I'd expect it to increase in price next year

You can get a bus from Janow Lubelskie that takes 3 hours, leaves early though (7am IIRC). Its a public bus though, pretty old but does the job

Dodge

M5 wrote: »

You can get a bus from Janow Lubelskie that takes 3 hours, leaves early though (7am IIRC). Its a public bus though, pretty old but does the job

Yeah, we had looked into it, but with a flight arriving about 9pm, it was no use to use

pbowenroe

Has anyone any advice on camping in a tent in these countries? I read in the Irish Times today that there would be campsites around all the cities where group matches are taking place; would these need to be pre-booked?

pbowenroe

Also, where do you think would be the best place to fly into before knowing where Ireland's group games are on?

finbarrk

I have a flight booked to Lodz for the Thursday. Cheap.

Dodge

pbowenroe wrote: »

Also, where do you think would be the best place to fly into before knowing where Ireland's group games are on?

Its retty hard. Rceszow (in Poland) is probably the middle but thats 1,200 miles from Kharkiv

pbowenroe

I was thinking Lodz myself. not sure tho

shiibata

pbowenroe wrote: »

Also, where do you think would be the best place to fly into before knowing where Ireland's group games are on?

I would opt for Rszeszow as its only a short trek to the Ukranian border if we end up there(hopefully not), if one wants to take a chance that were in Poland, Lodz looks the best option alright. Am waiting for the draw myself as want to limit my holidays to go the day before the 1st group game and back day after last one.

pbowenroe

Cheers. And yeah, hope to fuk we don't end up in Ukraine.

finbarrk

I'd say we will be in Ukraine as we have our luck used up at this stage. Accomodation looks expensive there.

Cill Dara Abu

Please God we get Poland, everything seems cheaper there and I'm told its a nicer and friendlier country than Ukraine.

Have our tickets booked, around 6-8 are going, probably flying hopefully the flights won't cost more than €300. Anyone have any idea what accommodation costs?

Dodge

finbarrk wrote: »

I'd say we will be in Ukraine as we have our luck used up at this stage. Accomodation looks expensive there.

Lviv wasn't last year. About €60 for the room in the http://grandhotel.lviv.ua/

munchkin_utd

Dodge wrote: »

Lviv wasn't last year. About €60 for the room in the http://grandhotel.lviv.ua/

All this talk of hotels might lead people to think that there are enough hotel rooms in these cities!

Austria/ Switzerland & Portugal & Germany & France & Belgium/Netherland who were the last Countries in europe to host football finals are a different stratosphere in facilities for tourists than Ukraine in particular.

from last week

Platini points to shortcomings with accommodation of guests at Euro 2012
Nov 15 at 19:50 | Interfax-Ukraine
UEFA President Michel Platini has said that there remain problems with the accommodation of fans and guests who are to come to Ukraine and Poland for the matches of the Euro 2012 European Football Championship.

"It's necessary to take into account the fact that the two countries were badly affected by the economic crisis. The only problem so far is accommodation, as it's difficult to build a hotel in just ten months," he said at a press conference in Milan after receiving the Giacinto Facchetti International Prize, the Ukraine 2012 Information Center reported.

http://www.kyivpost.com/news/nation/detail/117000/

This is from a different press release last week

Fans will be offered accommodation in university lodgings, bed and breakfast rooms and camping sites where there are too few hotels.

"It's OK, it's clean, it's safe. It's not so different as the last Euros," Kallen said.

A shortage of 4- and 5-star hotels in Donetsk in the industrial east of Ukraine likely means fans and guests attending scheduled quarterfinals and semifinals matches will fly back to Kyiv to find rooms, Kallen said.

http://www.tsn.ca/soccer/story/?id=379966

finbarrk

The more I investigate it I hope it's Poland.

kensingtondell

shiibata wrote: »

I would opt for Rszeszow as its only a short trek to the Ukranian border if we end up there(hopefully not), if one wants to take a chance that were in Poland, Lodz looks the best option alright. Am waiting for the draw myself as want to limit my holidays to go the day before the 1st group game and back day after last one.

I'm looking to limit my days as well so flying would be my first choice to a point where flight prices aren't ridiculous!!
With flying as first choice what would the best option be for Donetsk and Kharkiv?

Im thinking of using Rszeszow for Lviv and Kyiv where a train/bus would complete the journey.