*Where in Europe Would You Travel for a WP Meet?*

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Unfortunately, I was just realising, July probably isn't the best time to visit the South of France, or Italy either, ( perhaps not even London ), because of the heat, and the huge numbers of people choking the motorways, trains and hotels, as you said on Greentea's thread, ManErg.

The Festival of Avignon is wonderful but it is true that it gets very busy and when it's hot that's not such fun.

So September, ( which is one of the two "when-to-go" poll favourites ), or June, ( but that isn't so popular ), would be better for those places.

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I voted for London, because I plan to go there for Autscape anyway, so it would be easiest for me to combine Autscape with a WP meeting within the same trip.
Otherwise, I would vote for either:
* S. Germany; The Black Forest and Rhineland.
* Austrian Alps.
* Eastern Europe; town/city in Slovenia or other E. European country.

So far London and central Southern France are in the lead with 8 and 5 votes respectively, ( followed by Scandinavia and Northern Italy with two votes each ).

It might be worth having two meet-ups if both London and S. France continue to attract the most votes.

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Yup, definately. Something like S.France in late june/early july. And London in september/october. I have a leaning towards Arles, after looking at wikipedia, it seems to have enough history & cafes to keep me busy for weeks! As you are our unofficial SE France informant, Ouinon, have you ever been there?

Yes, several times, both for several days at a time, and for day visits, and it is both very beautiful and interesting.

It is perhaps the least convenient for transport, ( compared to Avignon, Montelimar, and Nimes ), having neither airport nor TGV train connection, ( though it is about equidistant from Nimes and Avignon airports ).

It is also the furthest south, ( apart from Nimes ), on the borders of the Camargue, which is hot and flat, though famous for its wildlife.

Arles itself has the advantage of being mainly on a promontery, ( with breezes ), with amazing views from some places in the town; the foothills of Provence start there too. And it is half encircled by the river. There is good camping there too for people who would prefer that.

It's true its size would be easier to manage than Avignon and Nimes, both of which are unfortunately surrounded by lots of modern urban development, and it is more interesting, ( tourist wise ), than Montelimar.

I think there is a photography and short-film festival there in September.

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It is however not easy to find cheap accomodation there. The cheapest that I have been able to find are:

Youth Hostel Dormitory, ( no rooms listed ) 15€
Camping ( nice place, and not far from town centre ): 17€ the pitch, and prob something extra for each extra person.
Premiere Classe chain hotel close to town centre: 44€ for single or twin or double room
Etap Hotel chain: 42/43€ single or 47/48€ double/twin
Hotel Constantine: 49€ double/twin, no single price given

And Avignon prices are similar.

In Montelimar, probably because it is less "chic"/exceptionally beautiful, I was able to find a couple of cheaper places;

Hotel Pierre: 29€ - 42€
Auberge la Pignata: from 35€ double
Formule 1 chain hotel ( rooms not en-suite though ) : 35€ for single/double/twin

All prices are for June

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Your poll is biased towards London and Paris. By grouping every thing together you have concededly decreased the chances of going to Paris or London, because every over result is increased. For example, if the poll was different and the results where:

London - 37
Paris - 25
Holland - 18
Brittany - 33
Other attractive area/town in N.W. France - 22
Berlin - 28
Other interesting town/city in N. Germany - 19
Avignon - 35
Nimes - 20
Arles - 30
Montelimar - 21
Other beautiful town/city in S. France - 17
S. Germany The Black Forest and Rhineland - 23
Austrian Alps - 34
Scandinavia - 24
Stockholm- 32
Sweden - 27
Beautiful town in N. Italy - 26
Eastern Europe - 31
Slovenia - 29
Other E. European country - 36

then we would clearly be going to London, since that is the most popular.
If apply those results to your poll, however, we get a somewhat different outcome. The results would be:

London - 37
Paris - 25
Holland - 18
Brittany or other attractive area/town in N.W. France - 55
Berlin or other interesting town/city in N. Germany - 63
Avignon, Nimes, Arles, Montelimar or other beautiful town/city in S. France - 123
S. Germany; The Black Forest and Rhineland - 23
Austrian Alps - 34
Scandinavia; Stockholm, Sweden, etc - 83
Beautiful town in N. Italy - 26
Eastern Europe; town/city in Slovenia or other E. European country - 96

meaning that we would be going to either Avignon, Nimes, Arles, Montelimar or another city in South France, even though more people would want to go to London.

Votes are currently so few that any preference only leads by a small margin anyway, but if the results continue this way we can decide to have two meet-ups, which would please both sets of people.

If we had included Manchester, Liverpool, and Birmingham, ( which were all mentioned in Greeentea's thread ), separately, London, currently the only choice in the UK; would probably have far fewer votes. As you say the poll is weighted in favour of London, because it is the only one for the UK, whereas Germany and France have two/three options each, which splits the votes for those countries.

But it gives us a good idea of how many people are prepared to travel outside the UK for a meet.

PS. Your imaginary votes do not remotely match those so far in the poll. Which are currently 9 for London and 5 for S. France.
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Last edited by ouinon on 14 Feb 2009, 11:10 am, edited 1 time in total.

It's surprising how simply changing the poll options will make such a big difference.

You mean that if we had included the two/three other options for the UK that would have reduced the lead London has over everywhere else at the moment to nil? No, I don't find that surprising.

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I just realised we should have included an "anywhere" option when we were planning the list, ( and a "nowhere" one too ! )

Damn!

If you are interested in a meet, and don't mind or care where it is please post to this effect in the thread.

Thank you.

Keep voting anyway ; it will give us the best idea how to structure our next more precise and final poll. Thanks.

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I voted London as it's the most convenient and it's got something for everyone,but I'd
be happy enough to travel to the continent if that's what the majority wanted.

I haven't voted because 1) I'm not sure I will be attending and 2) many options are quite okay while my favourites (Germany and Austria) seem not going to make it anyway.

If I'd come I would favour a smaller place though, in that respect I would prefer Arles over London.

Some advices, take it or leave it:
- As mentioned before, Arles is very hot in this time of year so it would be better to do London in late spring or summer and Arles in early spring or early autumn.
- It might be smart to replace Arles by Avignon. Reachability of Avignon by TGV is much better, and it's more touristic so with accomodation there is probably more choice and more competitive pricing.

My previous post seems to astray - apologies if this is already on one of the other meet up threads.

Anyway, yes, the poll isn't perfect as it stands. However it's been useful to keep the interest going and to get a broad idea of opinion. I'd like to restate that the original idea was to TRAVEL somewhere NICE for a relaxed few days. The London vote has been skewed by the convenience factor. From their comments, nobody has stated that they actually want to travel to London because it's such a wonderful place. They want to go because "they'll already be there or thereabouts". Basically, it's convenient. Which is a perfectly valid reason, of course!

It's good that there seems enough support for two meetups. That's a better option than going for one and immediately alienating the half who wanted the other option. With the other poll on favored months, we can have a few days in the south of France at end of June/early July. Then another one few days in London in September/October. Surely that would be as close to "something for everyone" as we're going to get for a bunch of rugged individualists such as ourselves?

Although only 4 people chose the S.France option, I assume we'd actually get closer to 10 when you add in those who would go anywhere within reason.

Will we need any more polls? Let's have a poll to find out I'd love to do some research on places to stay etc in S.France, however (jumping to conclusions, I admit) I assume Ouinon would 'take the lead' as she knows the area and can help us avoid renting rooms above the only crack-dealing den in Avignon, for example

It would be good for someone to take the lead on the London meetup, too. If nobody volunteers, we'll have to have yet another poll!

I suggest that we count the S. France destination settled for a small group sometime in late May/June, ( from the first day of July you run into the driven/desperate french holiday-feeding-frenzy ). And I will carry on looking for good(ish) deals. What sort of budgets are people on?

But I think that we should maybe run another ( date pref and/or restrictions ) poll for the London meet, because it looks as if it may be a sizeable contingent, and we will need to be pretty sure of numbers when looking for "cheap" accomodation.


I would love it if you looked too, because it's not going to be easy to get anything for under about 45€/night in Arles, or Avignon, for instance. If budgets do not allow for that then we would need to look either at something more isolated in the region, a village/small town, etc, with buses to Arles or Avignon, or go for the relatively cheaper Montelimar.


Yes, someone actually in the UK, preferably near or in London, who knows it well enough to help with choosing a good district to stay in etc. Although of course we don't have to hold it in London itself. It is just that it represents a convenient central meeting point as you say, and so something 10 minutes on a train or tube line into Surrey, Kent, or Suffolk might be ok.

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