- Introduction: Five Country European Adventure
- Review: KLM Business Class Boeing 787-10
- Review: KLM Business Class Boeing 737
- Review: Bank Hotel Stockholm (SLH & Hyatt)
- Review: SAS Plus Airbus A320neo
- Review: Four Seasons Grand-Hotel Du Cap-Ferrat
- Review: Hotel Fiester Hannes Burbach-Holzhausen
- Review: Hyatt Regency Mainz, Germany
- Review: Waldorf Astoria Amsterdam
- Review: Aegean Airlines Business Class Airbus A321
- Review: Grand Hyatt Athens, Greece
- Review: Emirates’ Disappointing 777 Business Class
Welcome to my next trip report series, covering our trip to five countries in Europe back in July 2021 (this was separate from our trip to Greece in May). I apologize, as I’m obviously a bit late with this trip report, though on the plus side this is the last series I’m behind on, so my reviews should be close to “live” going forward.
In this post:
The basics of our trip to Europe
We ended up spending most of July in Europe, and while it wasn’t planned this way initially, we ended up visiting five countries. To give a general overview of how we split our time:
- We started our trip in Stockholm, Sweden, where we spent four nights; Ford has a close friend there he wanted to visit, and I do love visiting Northern Europe in summer, when there’s endless daylight
- From there we flew to Nice, France, where we spent three nights; this was primarily to check out a hotel that had been on our radar
- From there we flew to Frankfurt, Germany, where we spent 12 nights; my mom and her partner met us there, so that we could visit family in the area
- From there we drove to Amsterdam, Netherlands, where we spent three nights; what’s not to love about Amsterdam?
- From there we flew to Athens, Greece, where we spent four nights
Hopefully that’s a useful basic outline of our trip, so let’s get into a summary of the flight and hotel reviews you can expect from this trip.
The flights I’ll be reviewing
Here are the flights we took on this trip:
- We flew from Chicago to Amsterdam to Stockholm on KLM in business class, with the first flight on the Boeing 787-10, and the second flight on the Boeing 737-800; I redeemed Air France-KLM Flying Blue miles for these tickets
- We flew from Stockholm to Nice on SAS in the “Plus” cabin, on an Airbus A320neo; I booked tickets with cash, as there was no award availability
- We flew from Nice to Frankfurt in Lufthansa business class, on an Airbus A320neo; I redeemed Air Canada Aeroplan miles for these tickets
- We flew from Amsterdam to Athens in Aegean business class, on an Airbus A321; I redeemed Air Canada Aeroplan miles for these tickets
- We flew from Athens to Newark in Emirates business class, on a Boeing 777-300ER; I redeemed Emirates Skywards miles for these tickets
I’ll be reviewing all of the flights, with the exception of the Lufthansa flight from Nice to Frankfurt, since I’ve reviewed Lufthansa business class so often.
The hotels I’ll be reviewing
Here are the hotels we stayed at on this trip:
- In Stockholm we stayed at Bank Hotel, which is a Small Luxury Hotels of the World property that partners with Hyatt; I booked this using World of Hyatt points
- In the South of France we stayed at the Four Seasons Grand-Hotel du Cap-Ferrat
- In Germany we stayed at the Hyatt Regency Dusseldorf; I booked this using World of Hyatt points
- In Germany we also stayed at the Hyatt Regency Mainz; I just paid cash, and booked a Hyatt Privé rate
- In Germany we also stayed at a small independent guest house near where my aunt lives
- In Amsterdam we stayed at the Waldorf Astoria; I booked this using Hilton Honors points
- In Athens we stayed at the Grand Hyatt; I just paid cash, since paid rates here are quite reasonable
I’ll be reviewing all the hotels except the Hyatt Regency Dusseldorf, since I reviewed that property in late 2020, and nothing had really changed.
Bottom line
We had a great trip to Europe in July. The highlight was being able to spend time with my mom and our family in Germany, though we also had some nice side trips from there, which we enjoyed.
I’m excited to publish these reviews, because some of the flights (including the Emirates 777 in business class) and hotels (including the Waldorf Astoria Amsterdam and Grand Hyatt Athens) left me with rather strong feelings…
Thanks for reading, and stay tuned!
The photo of the Emirates 777 Business class made me throw up a little in my mouth. Is that finish called faux baby poop gold? The Playboy Mansion circa 1988 called and wants its chairs back.
Glad to see trip reports coming out again. We missed you, Lucky!
Nature is healing. Don’t listen to the naysayers who will undoubtedly call this “unsafe”. You took the precautions & followed the rules.
Excited to read your GH Athens review... What an underwhelming place that is!
What are traveler and flight points to redeem? This was in my Google reading list and I understand nothing.
I am envious young man. One of your destinations have provided substantial memories for this old man and the others are still on my horizon. I would have hit Nice with a Viking Cruises 15 day Frances Finest river cruise and a 3 day extension to Nice, but the pandemic came. Nice was my Uncle's favorite city in the world and he was in it when he perished in Nice. He was an excellent Uncle...
I am envious young man. One of your destinations have provided substantial memories for this old man and the others are still on my horizon. I would have hit Nice with a Viking Cruises 15 day Frances Finest river cruise and a 3 day extension to Nice, but the pandemic came. Nice was my Uncle's favorite city in the world and he was in it when he perished in Nice. He was an excellent Uncle and taught me about fine wines, cooking with spices and travel, especially Europe. Amsterdam is a wonderful place and I need to return. Thanks for sharing this post.
Mike Hinshaw
Nomadic Texan
Can't wait for the rest!
Those 2-3-2 Business seats on Emirates 777-300ER are so old and outdated, to say the least.
A couple of years ago I got stuck in the middle seat of the 3, due to a last minute sub of a 3 class to 2 class. Being bumped from 1st to Business sort of set the mood for the trip.
The claustrophobic wedged-in feeling is like no other comparable 3 seat configuration on any other...
Those 2-3-2 Business seats on Emirates 777-300ER are so old and outdated, to say the least.
A couple of years ago I got stuck in the middle seat of the 3, due to a last minute sub of a 3 class to 2 class. Being bumped from 1st to Business sort of set the mood for the trip.
The claustrophobic wedged-in feeling is like no other comparable 3 seat configuration on any other airline.
The crew were very flustered at dealing with the sub, being 100% full, and service was not much better than Economy.
Definitely near the top of my 5 Worst Flights Ever.
I've missed living vicariously through you Ben... :)
Finally! I saw you at the Waldorf in Amsterdam in July and was wondering if you were ever going to post a review. Hoping you enjoyed it as much as I did.
Not the most stirring trip, but at least it's something.
Actually, I find Amsterdam to be one of the duller European cities.
Glad to read that you are returning to some normalcy!
Hope you can plan and share an exciting and interesting itinerary in the near future.
Excited to see reviews of KLM and SAS after a long time, and to see how they have updated with the times. It’s also especially nice to see a proper review of Aegean, as I believe that A3 is as good in reflecting Greek culture in its service as its Star Alliance partner TK is in reflecting Turkish culture. I’m especially interested in the small independent guest house that you stayed at in Germany to...
Excited to see reviews of KLM and SAS after a long time, and to see how they have updated with the times. It’s also especially nice to see a proper review of Aegean, as I believe that A3 is as good in reflecting Greek culture in its service as its Star Alliance partner TK is in reflecting Turkish culture. I’m especially interested in the small independent guest house that you stayed at in Germany to see whether it can match the level of hospitality of big hotels. Still thinking of your trip to Romania before the pandemic where you stayed in small hotels and guest houses!
Looks like the Hyatt House in Dusseldorf closed? But any reason why you didn't try The Wellem this time around, or is the Regency that good? Asking because I may be stopping by there for a couple nights and thought the Wellem would be a better spot.
Hyatt House has rebranded as the The Wellem. It's the same hotel.
Exciting!
Very much looking forward to this series! Particularly curious about the Grand Hyatt Athens, since I *almost* booked it on my trip to Greece a couple of weeks ago but changed it last minute because someone told me that the location was less than ideal. Also curious about the Emirates J review (also almost took that flight as well but our F upgrades cleared).
Request: The table you introduced for purchased miles/points is really helpful. Could you make a table for your trip summaries where it shows how you booked each piece? I.e.
KLM business NYC-AMS: 74,000 Flying blue miles + $5
Four Seasons Paris: $989++ booked through Ford
Hyatt Park Hyatt: 30k
Etc.? I feel like that would be really helpful, and I'm often sifting through to find how you booked each piece.
Ben - sneak preview - did you experience the new dolce&Gabbana pool cabana??
Looking forward to the reviews! @Lucky Even if things don't change too much, maybe throw in a link to your old review and say updated and not much changed? That way we know that everything is about the same with a date. Glad you got to adventure so much!
It is not safe to travel right now. And it is quite selfish to do so for non-essential reasons like tourism. Remember that you can still get and transmit the virus to others, even vaccinated, especially coming from a COVID hot spot like Florida. Please stay at home for a few more years until Joe Biden can get this pandemic under control.
Hahahah I hope you’re being sarcastic if not please stop reading this kind of articles cause you’ll be torturing yourself for a few years to come :)
Lol