译者

The lights are still on at the Eiffel Tower. They keep ringing up sales at Prada in Rome, and London is getting ready to start partying for about a year and a half, beginning with the April 29 wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton at Westminster Abbey.

All in all, you wouldn't know that Europe has suffered through an economic crisis as brutal as ours, because strong social programs in the social democracies we love to visit — England, Italy and France — keep people at work, which is part of the problem. Governments that don't have the resources to pay for such programs — Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain — have needed bailouts from neighbors, generating ill will and doomsday scenarios about the impending collapse of the European Union. If you think that's of marginal interest to tourists, you've forgotten what it was like to travel on the Continent before the advent of open borders and a single currency.

埃菲尔铁塔的灯还亮着，罗马依然在出售Prada，伦敦已经准备好为威 廉王子的大婚狂欢庆祝了。但是你不知道的是欧洲目前正处于无情的经济危机中，因为像英国，意大利，法国这些我们喜欢去的社会民主国家的保证人们能工作的社 会法案也遇到了问题。葡萄牙，爱尔兰，希腊和法国的政府已经没有钱来支持这些保证，它们需要欧盟成员的援助，这也使欧盟陷入了几近崩溃的境地。如果你觉得 这对你的旅行没什么影响，那你也许不知道在欧盟统一货币，开放边界之前去欧洲旅行也是很麻烦的。

It's worth thinking about as you plan your trip, though nobody expects the EU to unravel this year. "Europe is an evolution, for 60 years going two steps forward and one step back," says Europe travel expert Rick Steves. "We always hear about the stumbles. But I can't imagine the euro zone falling apart."

就像你已经计划好了去欧洲旅行一样，没有人希望欧盟解体。“欧洲在这六十年的发展是向前跨了两大步，后退了一小步。”欧洲的旅游专家Rick Steves说，“我们总是听说欧盟遇到一些问题，但是我不敢想象如果欧元区解体会怎样。”

Here's what you'll need to know about trips to Europe this year:

所以，如果你今年计划去欧洲旅行，你必须知道下面的一些事。

Priced to go

经济旅行

If you've always wanted to visit Portugal, Ireland, Iceland, Greece, Spain, Romania or Bulgaria, 2011 is the year to go. That's because these countries were hit hardest by the recession, forcing some travel providers to "try to create demand through value pricing," says Jerre Fuqua, president of Travcoa, based in El Segundo.

如果你一直很想去葡萄牙，爱尔兰，冰岛，希腊，西班牙，罗马尼亚或者保加利亚，那么今年是个好机会。因为这些国家目前经济衰退最严重，所以它们想要通过降低价格的方式来吸引更多的游客从而获得收入。

At the same time, the governments of these nations are increasing efforts to support tourism, creating new options and incentives for travelers. Iceland, laid low in recent times by a bank collapse and a volcanic eruption, has set the standard, enticing travelers to a once extremely expensive destination by ramping up air and tour package deals, says Jan Rudomina, U.S. chairman of the European Travel Commission.

同时，这些国家的政府也在大力发展旅游业，创造新的景点和选择提供给游客。欧洲旅游委员会的主席Jan Rudomina举例说，冰岛在经历了破产和火山爆发后，为吸引游客，增加了去一个曾经十分昂贵的景点的飞行和旅行套餐，并限制了价格标准。

Hard times in the most economically distressed countries of Europe resulted in protests and strikes last year, which turned violent in Greece, though tourists were marginally affected. "I was just in Athens and didn't feel it was in crisis," Steves says. "For a visitor, I'd say the troubles are almost unnoticeable."

去年在欧洲那些经济萧条最严重的国家，引起了人民的抗议和袭击，甚至在希腊演变为暴力事件，不过旅客没有受到太大影响。“我当时正在雅典，但是并没有觉得身处险境，”Steve说“基本上你不会注意到那些麻烦。”

Hotel prices are rock bottom in Prague, Czech Republic; Budapest, Hungary; and Madrid, with southern European capitals such as Lisbon, Rome and Athens still somewhat below normal, according to Colliers PKF Consulting, a hotel industry research firm. On the other end of the spectrum, rates are sky high in Geneva, Stockholm, London, Moscow and Oslo, Norway.

In other words, hotel bargains are to be had where you least expect them, but not always where you most want to go. As ever, France is the world's favorite travel destination, visited by almost 99 million people in 2010, according to the U.N. World Tourism Organization; in second and third places were the U.S. and China, which bumped Spain off the list last year.

根据酒店业 研究调查公司Colliers PKF Consulting的数据显示，在布拉格，布达佩斯，马德里的酒店价格很快降到最低，南欧一些国家的首都，如里斯本，罗马和希腊甚至低于标准。但是在另 一个极端，日内瓦，斯德哥尔摩，伦敦，莫斯科和奥斯陆的酒店房间价格依然十分高。换句话来说，住上经济便宜的酒店，不总是在你最想去的地方而是你最后希望 去的那些地方。曾经法国一度是世界上最受人青睐的目的地，在2010年有大概9千9百万人去过。美国和中国分别位居第二和第三，而去年西班牙则不在榜上。

Fast trains

高速列车

This year marks the 30th birthday of European high-speed trains, which debuted between Paris and Lyon, France, in September 1981. Since then, 1.5 billion people have traveled on fast TGV (Train à Grande Vitesse) trains in France, and high-speed lines have proliferated across the Continent.

Besides TGV, you'll find ICE in Germany; Eurostar connecting Britain, France and Belgium; Thalys between Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam and Cologne, Germany; AVE in Spain; X 2000 in Sweden; and Eurostar Italia and NTV, a new private rail company putting luxury, state-of-the-art, French-manufactured AGV (Automotrice à Grande Vitesse) trains on Italian government tracks.

今年 欧洲高速列车通车30周年，1982年九月在法国巴黎和里昂两座城市间首次通车。从那时起，大概15亿人在法国乘过TGV高速列车，高速列车线在欧洲大陆 上迅速蔓延。除了法国的TGV列车，还有德国的ICE，往返英国，法国和比利时的欧洲之星，往返巴黎，布鲁塞尔，阿姆斯特丹和克隆的Thalys，西班牙 的AVE，瑞典的X2000以及意大利的欧洲之星。意大利政府铁路上还运行着一家私人铁路公司购买的豪华艺术由法国制造的AGV列车

Europe's super trains travel as fast as 200 mph and have the added money-saving convenience of embarkations and disembarkations in city-center stations, including London's gloriously renovated St. Pancras, with a 100-foot-high train shed that was the biggest enclosed space in the world when completed in 1868.

But Europe's railways aren't just for train buffs and speed demons. More and more, taking a fast train is a principal part of the European tourist experience, especially for Americans who think railroad travel is almost as bad as taking the bus.

欧洲的高速列车以每小时200英里的速度行驶，也给城市中央车 站上下旅客带来了省钱的方便。伦敦在1868年完成重新装修的St.Pancras车站拥有世界上最大的室内空间，100英尺高的火车候车大厅。但是欧洲 的铁路不仅仅是只有漂亮的火车和很快的速度。更多的是，乘坐高速列车带给来欧洲旅行的人们十分不一样的体验，特别是认为乘火车旅行和坐大巴一样糟糕的美国 人。

Even if you book second class, there are roomy, reserved seats, clean restrooms and appealing buffet cars. If you go business or first class, amenities include light and full meal service, Wi-Fi and laptop plug-ins, special check-in counters and waiting lounges, complimentary newspapers and the opportunity to book a taxi that will be awaiting for you on arrival.

And then there are the views of lavender fields in Provence, the cliffs of Dover and Rome's ancient walls.

即 使你预定了二等车厢，也会享受到宽敞的预留座位，干净的厕所和吸引人的餐车。如果你乘坐商务或者一等车厢，还可以享受更完整的车上用餐服务，无线网络，笔 记本插座，特殊登车通道和候车厅，报纸，还有机会预定taxi能在你到达的时候接你。普罗旺斯的薰衣草田，多佛的山崖和罗马的古墙都在等着你。

Recently completed routes include Paris-Stuttgart, Germany (31/2 hours), Madrid-Valencia, Spain (11/2 hours) and Perpignan, France-Figueres, Spain (11/4 hours). The most popular — and my favorite — line is Paris-Avignon, France (21/2 hours), which costs between $100 and $250 one way, depending on class and date of travel. To get the best rates, book early on the line's website (for instance, http://www.thalys.com) or at Rail Europe (www.raileurope.com).

近来，完整的铁路线包括巴黎-斯图 加特（德国西南部城市）（3.5小时），马德里-瓦伦西亚（1.5小时），法国的Perpignan-西班牙的Figueres（1.25小时），单程根 据车厢等级和旅行时间的不同，价钱在100到250美元之间。想要省钱的话，就早一点在这些铁路线的网站上（比如 http://www.thalys.com）或者欧洲铁路的网上（www.raileurope.com）预定。

In the euro zone

欧元区

For a brief few years after its adoption in 1999, the euro was worth a buck. Those were the good old days when converting from one currency to the other didn't take advanced math and traveling in Europe wasn't too much more expensive than living day to day in the States.

Then the euro got stronger, peaking in 2008 at an exchange rate of about 1.6 against the dollar. Europeans like that, but they also know that tourists won't come if the euro gets too robust. The breaking point seems to be 1.4, experts say. If the euro's value breeches that mark, people stay away; if it's under 1.4, they come.

在1999年被采 用后的短短的几年，一欧元价值和一美元还差不多。那是当一种货币变成另一种时没有好好用数学算算，而且那时在欧洲旅游并没有比每天住在这些国家贵很多。然 后欧元开始涨了，顶峰的时候与美元的汇率甚至达到了大概1.6。欧洲人喜欢这样，但是他们也知道如果欧元太贵的话旅客就不会来了。专家表示，平衡点大概在 1.4左右。如果欧元价值高于这个店，旅客就不会来，如果低于1.4，他们就会

The rate stands at the time of writing at about 1.39, which means that the 20-euro lunch you put on plastic at the Café Les Deux Magots in Paris will show up on your statement as about $28, not counting the tip. And transaction fees can add $2 to $5 every time you make a charge.

当时欧元兑美元的汇率大概是1.39也表明了这一点。也就是说你在巴黎 Les Deux Magots咖啡店吃的20欧的午餐会在你的银行账单上显示28美元，并且每次你使手续费大概还会花2到5美元。

Despite the hidden fees, bank-issued credit cards, especially MasterCard and Visa, are a safe and convenient way to make purchases, and they're widely accepted in Europe unless you go way off the beaten track, where merchants may not have the equivalent type of terminal or the expertise to use it. Make sure you have a card with an embedded microchip and a four-digit PIN, a security feature that has replaced the magnetic strip still prevalent in the U.S.

不计那些隐藏的费用，银行发的信用卡，特别是万事达卡和 visa卡，是买东西非常安全便捷的方法。而且欧洲很多地方都接受信用卡，除非你不按惯例去一些很偏的地方，商家可能没有相关的信用卡终端或机器。确定你 有一张植入了芯片的卡和四位数的密码（译者注：欧洲银行卡密码是4位），这样的安全保证已经取代了磁条在美国盛行。

You'll also need euros. The cheapest way to get them is by using your card's debit function, which takes the money directly from your savings or checking account, although a transaction fee may be charged. Ben Woolsey, marketing and research director for CreditCards.com, advises travelers to use established bank ATMs, which are less susceptible to fraud than stand-alone cash machines in shops, cafes and other public places.

现金还是需要准备的。最便宜的方法是直接从你的现金或者储蓄账户取钱，虽然会收取一定的手续费。Creditcard.com的市场研究负责任Ben Woolsey建议旅客用银行里的自动取款机，这样比用那些单独在商店，咖啡店或者其他公众场合的自动提款机安全一些。

Woolsey also suggests travelers:

Woolsey还建议游客：

— Carry a back-up piece of plastic and some extra cash.

  - 带一张备用的银行卡和一些额外的现金

— Keep credit card photocopies while on the road (in a safe place), so you know the card number and how to contact the lost-or-stolen hotline in case of trouble.

  - 复印你的信用卡，这样当你遇到麻烦了你知道信用卡号和挂失中心的电话。

— Call the issuer before leaving home to ask how international transaction fees are calculated, whether there's a daily or weekly limit on the amount of cash you can get from the card and whether it carries any basic car rental insurance. Also, to avoid having your card automatically canceled when charges show up from unfamiliar places, report where you're going.

  - 在离家之前打电话问问你的信用卡发行银行，国际取钱的手续费是怎么算的，每天或者每周是不是对取现金有限额，你的卡有没有租车保险。并且通知他们你要去哪，以防当你在一个不是银行卡常用的地方消费太多后，卡被自动取消了。

Very merry olde England

传统守旧的英国

Europe is a little quiet this year. A big Rembrandt show opens this month at the Louvre in Paris; Germany is lighting 200 candles for the bicentennial birthday of composer Franz Liszt; and all across the boot they're celebrating the 150th anniversary of Italian unification.

欧洲今年比较安静。一个很大的伦勃朗画展在巴黎卢浮宫展出;德国点亮了200支蜡烛来纪念作曲加弗朗兹.李斯特的两百年诞辰；而意大利则再庆祝它统一150年周年。

It's a different story in London, which is about to launch a trifecta of mega-events: William and Kate's wedding; Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee, marking 60 years on the throne (June 2012); and the Summer Olympics (July 27-Aug. 12, 2012), which are making the English capital more tourist friendly than ever.

但是在伦敦就不同了，它想要来一个三喜临门：威廉王子的大婚，伊莉莎白女王二世登位60年的钻石禧年（2010年6月），还有2010的奥运会，预示着英国首都前所未有的友好。

The Olympic Park rising in eastern London, where most of the Games will be staged, is about 80% complete, including a 250-acre park meant to provide space, air and greenery long after the big summer of 2012. Even now, visitors can get a peek at the park from the View Tube to Olympic Park and on official walking tours sponsored by the British Tourist Authority (www.visitbritainshop.com).

奥林匹克公园建在伦敦东部，很多比赛都会在此举行。它已经80%完工了，还包括一个250英亩的公园，在2012的盛夏后能依然给人们提供绿地和新鲜空气。现在旅客就可以在View Tube（http://www.theviewtube.co.uk/）上看到这个公园，或者参加英国旅游局官方赞助的步行参观(www.visitbritainshop.com)。

With London aiming to make it possible for spectators to reach main venues by walking, biking or public transportation, green is clearly the color of the 2012 games. Construction of a high-speed train link from St. Pancras in central London to Olympic Park in seven minutes and a new cable car over the River Thames between Greenwich and the Docklands is underway. Meanwhile, London has instituted a bicycle rental program similar to those already popular among tourists in Paris and Rome, with about 6,000 bikes available at 400 docking stations around the capital.

因 为绿色环保是2012奥运的主题，伦敦想要让观众能通过步行，骑车或者交通工具到达会场。高铁的建成让St.Pancras到奥林匹克公园只需要7分钟， 跨越泰晤士河连通格林尼治和Docklands的新的缆车也正在进行中。同时，伦敦制定了自行车出租的项目，像已经在巴黎和罗马的旅客间很流行的观光方 式。大约在首都附近的400个火车站投入了6000辆自行车供人使用。

Now is the time to get Olympic tickets (www.london2012.com) and to reserve a hotel. London already has plenty of rooms, not to mention some of the highest prices in Europe. The average room rate is $222, expected to double during big events.

现在已经可以在伦敦奥运的官网上预定票和酒店了(www.london2012.com)。伦敦已经有大量的酒店房间，更别提那些在欧洲很昂贵的酒店。现在的平均房间大概是222美元一晚，但是在奥运期间可能会翻倍。

The year of the app

App风行的一年

I'm betting that 2011 is the year we say goodbye to guidebooks in their old familiar form and start using travel applications on hand-held mobile devices. IPhones, Androids, BlackBerries and the like are more portable. And with 17,000 travel apps now on the market — "fly-in" Google Earth maps, flight and hotel search engines, train fares and timetables, live snow reports for skiers, currency converters, talking foreign language translators — the range of things you can learn and do on the road has vastly expanded. But the real boon is that apps harness GPS to find out where you are and provide travel information specific to that location.

我 敢说2011是我们向那些老套的旅游指南告别，开始用手机里的旅游应用程序的一年。Iphone，安卓，黑莓或者其他智能手机使人们出行更加方便。现在手 机应用市场大概有1万7千种旅游应用-谷歌地图，航班酒店搜索引擎，火车价格时刻表，给滑雪者的雪天预报，汇率转换，外语翻译-你在路上可以学习和用的应 用范围极大扩大。更方便的是，这些程序利用GPS能找到你在哪，然后提出关于你所处位置的旅游相关信息。

"It never takes more than three clicks to pinpoint where you are, along with restaurants, sites, shops and things to do in the neighborhood," says Robert Reid, an editor for Lonely Planet, one of the first companies to put the content of its travel guides on downloadable mobile applications. Lonely Planet now offers more than 100 iPhone-compatible applications, including city guides and phrasebooks (priced about $5.99 a download).

“不超过三次点击就能知道你在哪，并告诉你附近的餐馆，景点，商场和可以做的事情。”孤独星球 的编辑Robert Reid说。孤独星球是最先将旅游信息的内容弄成可以下载到手机应用里的公司之一。现在它提供信息给超过100种的Iphone App，包括城市导游和外国语常用语手册（下载大概需要5.99美元）。

The London-based city guide publisher Time Out waited until this year to offer mobile applications because travelers were wary about roaming charges for using Internet-reliant apps on smart phones abroad. "We're on all-you-can-eat mobile plans at home, but when you travel you're charged by the megapixel," says David Pepper, Time Out's digital managing director. "People were coming home with crazy bills."

Time Out's city guide apps — London, Paris, Berlin, Barcelona, Spain, and Zagreb, Croatia — launched to date (about $4 each) use the built-in GPS devices that come with most smart phones to provide location-specific information, without incurring roaming charges for Internet access.

伦 敦的城市导游手册Time Out直到今年才提供手机应用，因为旅客担心在国外使用连接网络的应用程序会带来巨额费用。“我们在家都是用无限流量的手机，但是当出去旅游时流量是按兆 节计算的。”Time Out的数码管理负责人说，“人们回家后往往收到巨额的账单。”Time Out的城市导游应用-伦敦，巴黎，柏林，巴塞罗那和札格拉布-投入了每天付钱使用GPS的设置，可以向许多款的智能手机提供特别地理位置的旅游信息，这 样不会因为上网而带来高额费用。

Quietly, but inexorably, apps are changing the way people travel. Inveterate road warriors can book last-minute hotel bargains while sitting in a taxi at the entrance. For others, it's about having the flexibility to spontaneously change plans, travel without a pre-set itinerary and wander, knowing that wherever you land, there's an app at hand to tell you how to get home.

手机应用悄无声息但是极大地改变了人们出行的方式。传统出行的人或许会在酒店门口坐在车上向酒店预定最后优惠的房间。但是对其他人来说，他们可以随意地改变计划，不用预先想好行程，知道不论你到了哪里，还是会有一款应用告诉你怎样回家。