A comparison is presented between Eu implanted and Eu in situ doped GaN thin films showing that two predominant Eu sites are optically active around 620 nm in both types of samples with below and above bandgap excitation. One of these sites, identified as a Ga substitutional site, is common to both types of Eu doped GaN samples despite the difference in the GaN film growth method and in the doping technique. High-resolution photoluminescence (PL) spectra under resonant excitation reveal that in all samples these two host-sensitized sites are in small amount compared to the majority of Eu ions which occupy isolated Ga substitutional sites and thus cannot be excited through the GaN host. The relative concentrations of the two predominant host-sensitized Eu sites are strongly affected by the annealing temperature for Eu implanted samples and by the group III element time opening in the molecular beam epitaxy growth. Red luminescence decay characteristics for the two Eu sites reveal different excitation paths. PL dynamics under above bandgap excitation indicate that Eu ions occupying a Ga substitutional site are either excited directly into the 5D0 level or into higher excited levels such as 5D1, while Eu ions sitting in the other site are only directly excited into the 5D0 level. These differences are discussed in terms of the spectral overlap between the emission band of a nearby bound exciton and the absorption bands of Eu ions. The study of Eu doped GaN quantum dots reveals the existence of only one type of Eu site under above bandgap excitation, with Eu PL dynamics features similar to Eu ions in Ga substitutional sites.