Backpacking accross Europe - Need Advice

[bluck]

Hey CP! Well I think the time has come for me to make my first ever journey to Europe! I will be traveling alone for the first time and I have absolutely no idea where to start or how to get this trip going.

I know that when i reach Europe I have to buy a U-Rail pass which will let me get across the various countries.

I basically need some general advice on how to get going, where to stay (hostels) I'm assuming and generally how to go about this. Appreciate any and all comments/suggestions

Cheers!

[kipperfan]

Firstly, buy your Eurail pass before you go, I am fairly sure you cannot buy them in Europe (as a non EU citizen), and if you can they cost way more. You can order one online and they deliver it to your house in a couple of days.

With regards to hostels and "getting the trip going", I would firstly decide how many countries/areas/regions you want to/have time to visit, then decide which ones interest you the most. If you're going in the summer/fall you're probably going to want to book all your hostels in advance, if you wait till you get there you will stay in crap holes and won't meet many cool people. The nice thing is you can book online, and worst comes to worst and you want to change plans you can cancel and only lose the 10% deposit you had to pay. With regards to which hostels to pick, I always choose one that is highly rated both on hostelworld and trip advisor, I also try to to find places that have bars onsite. I've done three trips through Europe alone and I've found a hostel bar is the single best place to meet new people and make friends.

[getbak]

Buy your Eurail pass before you leave. They're specifically designed to sell to non-Europeans (you can't use one if you live in an EU country), so they're actually easier and cheaper to buy outside of Europe.

Buy it online here: http://www.eurail.com


If you know exactly where and when you're going, you can buy a pass that is good for only the countries you're visiting and the dates you're traveling. If you're not going with a set agenda, you can buy a global pass that will be good for any country for the time that you're there (there are different options, so you'll need to figure out what's best for you).

[Kybosh]

If you're traveling alone, you have to be smart. Don't take unnecessary risks and fall the trap where you think everyone has your best interests in mind. Have fun, but don't be dumb.

Also, traveling has never been easier than with the new smart phones. If you can, get the hostelworld, expedia, trip advisor apps. You'll be able to research and book rooms a couple days in advance from a wifi hotspot. Hostelworld has been good to me over the years, but I'm graduating away from hostels now.

[Sylvanfan]

Depending on your budget, a few nicely planned night trips on the train can get you some extra money to use another day. As an example, a trip from Paris to Berlin is an overnighter. Same with Zurich to Budapest. Rather than spend awake time traveling, you can wake up repositioned to get going the next day, and often that's a good day to do your laundry as you wait to check into the hostel.

If you have enough in a group, occasionally a cheaper hotel type room isn't a bad option. Usually nicer than a hostel, and some privacy where you don't have to lock up all your stuff. But if you are going to be there late June to early September, reserve as many rooms as you can.

[Notorious Honey Badger]

Use condoms everytime.

And use a lot of them.

[skudr248]

Hey buddy, I'm actually in France studying abroad so I can give you some info... Trains/Buses, really to be honest, book on advance for everytrip (plane) it will be actually cheaper than taking god damn trains, and ALOT cheaper, and obviously its quicker to get to places, for example, taking the Train from Nice to Paris is 125 euro 1 way, flying in about 70 euro roundtrip, Sites that we use here are easyjet.com / transavia / blu-express / ryan-air, those are your best bets. Hostels, hostels are easy to get, many to choose from, and cheap, I just took a weekend trip to Rome and stayed at an awesome one (45 euro's total for 3 nights), Ive stayed in many good places all over so just send me a pm if you want me to give u the names and where they are. Where to go.. all really depends on what you want to see, do, etc, I live in Nice, France which is in the French Riveria, check this place out, beach city, such an awesome nightlife, and many tourists here, if your heading down this way (south france) there is ALOT of places to check out, for example, Monaco/Monte Carlo, Cannes, St Tropez, St Rapheal, just to name a few, other places.. Rome, all I gotta say is WOW, awesome city, stay the hell away from Upper Italy AKA MILAN, garbage place everybody here hates it, Amsterdam was awesome, in June you want to be there. Check out Barcelona, Ibiza, Paris, Florence, Berlin, London, Lisbon, Sardinia, I'd say Athens, but its not good there right now, Crete, mykonos, Best place in the World for Pizza is Ventimiglia, small town 1 hr from where I live. If you mentioned when ur coming here I could tell you the festivals to check out, like tomorrowland in Belgium in July, gueens day, sensation white is like every month in a different city, and other festivals you can just google them. Hoped that Helped, have a good trip man, I'm loving every minute of it... and the cheap alcohol from the supermarket hahah

[Lt.Spears]

Originally Posted by Notorious Honey Badger

Use condoms everytime.

And use a lot of them.

Damn, you beat me to it.

Lots of condoms, girls love traveling guys for some reason.

[Sylvanfan]

I started out in Amsterdam, but you can also start in London, than make your way to the mainland after that. I think there are some good deals on flights to jump the Channel. Frankfurt I think is still one of the cheaper fly in destinations, and really the first day and a half is spent recovering from Jet-lag, so spending a couple days there before you acclimatize a bit won't ruin you either.

Yeah as a solo traveller, hostels are a great way to meet others that you can opt to go along with if you like. Plus as the others mention, those out traveling tend to be quite accepting of a short term fling.

Had I won the lottery in my late teens, early 20's I would have blown a fair chunk of it on backpacking around the world because of those benefits.

[afc wimbledon]

Remember fat chicks are cheaper than hostels and will feed you and show you around town as well.

[flamingreen]

If you are traveling alone stay at hostels. Very, very easy to meet up with people to see the sights and then hit the bars at night. However, they are not as cheap as they once were and it is nice to stay a night at a proper hotel once and a while.

Bring condoms, don't be dumb.

Eurail can be great value if you are going to do a lot of train travel. However, if you take overnight trains there will be a cost over and above the Eurail pass, those prices can range all over the place. If you are traveling in the summer it is a smart idea to reserve your seat out of a place the day you get there. It sucks to be stuck in a place because the trains are full, trust me.

[3 Justin 3]

Screw condoms, go bareback. Get as many women pregnant as you can, then go back in 20 years and harvest all your children and create your own personal army.

[Kybosh]

Originally Posted by 3 Justin 3

Screw condoms, go bareback. Get as many women pregnant as you can, then go back in 20 years and harvest all your children and create your own personal army.

An army of Europeans? When has that ever worked out?

[Notorious Honey Badger]

Originally Posted by Kybosh

An army of Europeans? When has that ever worked out?

[flylock shox]

Some good advice so far.

I'll add that hostelbookers is a better site than hostels.com or hostelworld.

If you're super cheap, buy a swiss army knife so you can make your own lunches. I lived off of bread, cheese, and jam sammiches when the funds started to run dry in Switzerland.

If you're in a beachy area and traveling alone, buy yourself a waterproof folding bag that will fit in the pocket of your swim trunks. That was about the best $10 I ever spent, as it stored my camera, credit cards, cash etc. and came in the water with me so I had nothing to worry about back on the beach. Actually, buy two of these.

And spend some time in Germany. It's not really looked at as a tourist destination (other than Oktoberfest) but it should be. Berlin particularly.

Go to Western Europe first as it's by far the priciest (Northwestern Europe particularly), and then work your way East and South towards cheaper destinations.

[The Big Chill]

London is a great place to start if you have never been to Europe before. The flights can often be found for a reasonable price (I paid less then 800 last time I went) compared to other countries, and its nice to not have to deal with a language barrier at your first destination. The language thing isn't often a problem in most European counties, but it can still be a bit intimidating to get off the plane by yourself and not see much English.

Other then that, stay at hostels, eat at grocery stores, and make sure that you book a hostel a few nights ahead of time if you are going to be in a big city on a weekend during tourist season.

[octothorp]

Don't try to do too many locations, and try to get out of the cities as well and spend some time in the countryside or mid-sized towns here and there.

Fully agree with flylock's advice about a swiss-army knife (or equivelent). You can make a lot of great lunches just by going to markets and buying great fresh produce. I used to get a couple peppers, a couple tomatoes, a couple cucumbers, and a bit of feta cheese and sausage cut up the cheese, sausage, tomatoes, and cucumbers, stuff them in the peppers, put each in a ziploc bag, and then I've got a great, nutritious meal that I can take out and eat anywhere.

Make sure you read up on whatever tourist scams are going on in the regions you're travelling to, but they're typically pretty easy to spot.

[cmyden]

Here's a spreadsheet with the ~31,000 'Things to Do' listed on TripAdvisor, from all European countries, sorted by review score.

http://www.2shared.com/file/f3NcZ6MS...do_europe.html

People really seem to like that Statue of David.

Hope you can check a few off the list!

[Eric Vail]

Eurail passes are overrated. Most of your longer travel times you can fly for much cheaper and faster then the train. For the shorter routes, the train doesn't cost that much.

I'd never buy a Eurail pass again, not with the cheap charter airlines in Europe.

[3 Justin 3]

Originally Posted by Eric Vail

Eurail passes are overrated. Most of your longer travel times you can fly for much cheaper and faster then the train. For the shorter routes, the train doesn't cost that much.

I'd never buy a Eurail pass again, not with the cheap charter airlines in Europe.

True, but to get the really good deals you have to book far in advance (then the tickets are like $20 to cross Europe). Not to mention you'll have to buy a bus pass to get from the Airport to the city (which is a 45 minute drive usually).

Depends on where he wants to go, Ryanair and the other ones (I forget the names) don't go to a lot of places.