Backpacking in Europe

[tvp2003]

I did a search a saw a few related threads with some good info, but I also had a few specific questions:

1. How long is long enough? Is 3-4 weeks good enough to see lots of sights and visit lots of cities? Or is it THAT much better if you're able to do 2 or perhaps even 3 months?

2. How much planning should you do in advance? For shorter trips I normally I like to research quite a bit to maximize the time I have available, but for something like this (more of a relaxing, culture/sightseeing trip), should I just map out specific places of interest, and perhaps some rough travel timelines?

3. Any tips on when is the best time of year to go (i.e. low season, cheaper airfare, less busy, etc.)

Thanks

[Addick]

What a coincidence, I actually started to do some rough planning for my Eurotrip `09 last night. I don`t usually backpack through Europe, but I`m trying not to break the bank with my next trip. As such, my first piece of advice is that even though I find relaxed and incompletely planned trips to be the best, planning your transport well in advance can save you quite a bit of money; especially with the no-frills European airlines (i.e. Easyjet & RyanAir). In regards to when to go, I find the peak times to be during the summer and Christmas periods and this is when things are pricier. While it might be cheaper to go during the off-peak, you won`t get the same atmosphere. So if you`re like me and like to be in the middle of things, you might find paying more justifiable.

If you are really interested in paying less and moving on the fly, be sure to keep checking the airlines and train operators` websites. Sometimes they have really good seat sales and if you are over there and have enough time you can, for example, cancel your €110 flight to Madrid and get a €24.99 flight to Athens. Now, length of stay. Well, it depends on whether you want to: a) Get a taste of Europe, or b) See Europe. A month of backpacking can give you a taste of Europe but if you really want to See Europe you`ll have to spend a longer period of time there and/or take multiple trips.

[getbak]

3-4 weeks is plenty of time to see a lot of things. The thing you need to decide is: do you want to see a little bit of a lot of places, or a lot of sights in a few places? Obviously, even though Europe isn't very big, there is a lot to see. No matter what you do and how long you stay, you'll never be able to see it all in one trip, so don't kill yourself trying.

I went last spring (2007) and took a bus tour through Europe. It was all pre-scheduled and well-structured, and we did 10 cities in 20 days. With about a half day of traveling between each city, that gave us about a day and half in each city. Obviously, that is a very whirlwind tour, and one I wouldn't want to do without the benefit of it mostly being pre-arranged. That said, I got to visit a lot of amazing cities and saw some amazing sights. At the same time, I didn't really get to experience the cultures of each city since there was pretty much only enough time to hit the major tourist sites and tourist sites will never give you the real flavour of a place. The good thing is that in the touristy places everyone speaks English and is generally friendly (except for the pickpockets and guys selling designer knock offs).

If I were to go back and planning on my own, I'd accept that trying to see everything in one trip is way too hectic and ultimately not a relaxing vacation. For three weeks, I'd come up with a rough plan of the top 3 or 4 places I'd like to see and try to come up with a schedule that works for it.

You could pick a few of the big major cities: London, Paris, Rome for example, and just focus on them. You could do an "art" tour, with stops in Paris, Florence, Rome. You could do a beer tour through Germany, Belgium, and the Czech Republic.

If money is tight, the former Eastern Bloc is a budget traveler's dream. Prague is the "expensive" city in the Czech Republic and you can get a pint of beer for the equivalent of 75 cents Canadian. Outside of Prague, the CR is even cheaper. Croatia is directly across the water from the calf of Italy's "boot" and from what I've heard, the beaches are better, cheaper and less crowded than the ones across the water in Italy.

If you're interested in sights of a different type, there are stunningly beautiful women throughout Europe, but I found Paris had, hands-down the best looking women, followed closely by Germany (where the women all seemed to look like either Claudia Schiffer or Katarina Witt - at least, the ones without mustaches). Half the women in Prague looked like super-models, but the Eastern Bloc women seem more dour than Western European women.

One great thing is that with the European Union being in full-effect, traveling around Europe is super-easy. Once you're in the EU, traveling from one nation to another is as difficult as driving from Alberta to BC (i.e. no trouble at all). Also, high-speed rail travel in Europe is great, and there are a couple of discount airlines that can get you from one side of Europe to the other quickly and cheaply. This means that you could, if you wanted, do Madrid, Paris, and Berlin in one trip and not spend a lot of time (or money) going from place to place. Also, most EU member nations use the Euro as their currency, so you don't even have to worry about exchanging money. The only nations I visited on my trip that didn't use the Euro were the UK, the Czech Republic (nothing like paying for something that costs less than 20 Crowns with a 100 Crown note and getting a handful of change back), and Switzerland (by far, the most expensive place I went to - 8 Francs for a beer and 16 for a Big Mac combo at McDonald's, when 1 Franc is roughly equal to $1 Canadian).


I am a thorough planner when I travel, so I could never travel somewhere I've never been without a solid plan of where I was going to be at any one time. On the other hand, if you're traveling on your own, you're on nobody's time table but your own. If you make reservations, make sure they're changeable. You might meet some hot Australian who's traveling to Munich the day you were planning on going to Venice, and well, Munich is a great city (reminded me very much of Calgary).


I went in April 2007 and the weather was phenomenal the entire time. Every time it rained (four times total), I was either in transit or inside. Of the 26 days I was in Europe, I got rained on for more than 5 minutes exactly one time, and it was the day before I flew home. The climate over there seemed to be about a month to month and a half ahead of ours. In early April, the fields were already lush and green and the canola fields were already yellow (I didn't even know they grew canola over there), which doesn't happen here until summer.

Obviously, you can never know what the weather will be like, which is another reason to have a flexible schedule. If you're in Rome and it's raining, go to the Vatican. If it's sunny, go to the Colosseum and the Forum.

A lot of places in Europe have some sort of Carnival celebration prior to Lent (which is a floating date relative to the date of Easter), very much like Mardi Gras in New Orleans. One of the guys I work with went to the one in Lucerne, Switzerland this year, and he said it was one of the craziest times he's ever had (and he doesn't exactly lead a librarian's lifestyle). Venice has the ultimate Carnival, but I think it's more formal than a lot of other places.

[4X4]

The length of your trip should be based on the season you go in. Or vice versa. What is your intention for this trip? To see stuff or to go on vacation? If it's to see stuff, you probably want to go in spring. The weather is perfect for spending all day outside. You wont boil or freeze.
If you're planning to do more of a vacation and hit beaches, obviously you want to go in summer. Just keep in mind that the good beach countries like Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece are ridiculously hot during summer.

I'm not a planner, so I'd just buy a ticket to the cheapest city to fly in to (probably London) and then start talking to my fellow hostelites. Go smoke a doob in Amsterdam, then catch a train to Paris. Maybe a Ryanair or Easyjet flight to Rome, take a train to Amalfi, take another train to Brindisi and then a boat to Greece. Then just take trains up through Eastern Europe and check out the smoking hot chicks in Croatia. Train to Prague, flight to Munich, fly home from there.

Take it as it comes. I was a master at making people stay at my hostel in Rome. So many people arrived thinking they would do Rome in two or three days and then they'd end up staying a week and cutting out a couple other cities. The people who planned their trip down to the day were stressed. The people who were just going with the flow (always the Aussies and Irish) were having the best times.

Another thing to keep in mind is where you're going to stay. If you go in high season, you probably have to book your hostel well in advance. This reduces your ability to just go when and where you want. If you go in spring, you can usually just book your hostel online the night before you head to the next town.
If you arrive in a town without having made sleeping arrangements, there are usually guys at the train station selling beds at hostels. Only pay for one night and then go assess the town to see if you're in a good location. Chat with other backpackers to see where they're staying and how much they're paying.

There is a cool comraderie that develops between backpackers the minute they land in Europe. Everyone is approachable. Just chat someone up and they'll know something you don't know and vice versa.

[Phanuthier]

I think questions like how long and when depend on where you want to go and what you want to see and how tired you might get from travelling. I did 9 weeks in Eastern Europe / Scandinavia / former Yugoslavia and I've done 4 weeks in Western Europe. The first trip, 4 weeks, was really tiring and after 3 weeks I wanted to go home. I was also around touriests running around which really made it chaotic. When you go just before the season starts, you get better temperature and beat the crowds, but not everything may be open.

[Locke]

I agree with most of what 4x4 said, except remember that a lot of hostels reserve a certain amount of space for walk-ins by nature, but that also depends on the season.

I found London to be the least expensive city to fly into, but try and get into Gatwick rather than Heathrow as their airport fees and taxes are lower. But if you're on a budget, then get the hell out of England ASAP, its a pricey country, but also lots of fun.

Word to the wise if you're a football fan, dont wear club jerseys, you're more likely to end up in trouble.

Also, once you're in hostels, invest some time into chilling at the hostel pub, its a great place to meet fellow travelers and find out whats cool, and whats not worth the trip/money.

Sightseeing vs. Vacation is a very important thing to sort out. If you want to see all of Rome for example, while having fun, it could take a week rather than a couple days, and so there goes a third or a quarter of your trip.

You can spend a lot of time on very small places, so really narrowing down what is important to you is crucial.

[4X4]

And one more thing, those guide books like Lonely Planet and Frommers are ok, but they're not overly accurate. At least, not on things that are open to interpretation. Like places to eat and places to stay. I wouldn't put too much stock into their recommendations on those two points.
One thing that really annoyed me about those books is how they slagged the station guys in Rome. I was one of those guys and I knew all the other guys there as well. The giude books went on and on about how the station guys are just trying to take you to the worst hostel in town and jack you for the most money possible. It's BS. The guys that work the station are guys with hostels and they're just trying to fill vacancies. They wait for people to get off the trains and then ask them if they need a hostel or B&B. Depending on what the person wants, the station guys will either put them in their own place or else take them to another guy's place that is more suited to the persons tastes and then collect a commission for filling a vacancy.
It's not a scam, it's a job. I used to stand in Termini all day long until our places were full. Along the way there'd be people that would prefer a different location or maybe a nicer place like a hotel or maybe a cheaper place. So I'd just call the hotels around there and find a vacancy, negotiate a price, and then give the people a map and directions how to get to the hotel. Then I'd collect a commission from the hotel owner one per week.
If the people wanted something like our hostel or B&B, I'd take them to our place and collect the whole amount. Works well. Not a scam. Ask chid. I met her in the station in Rome. Talked her and her friends into staying at my hostel. Now we're teammates!!

[Bagor]

Not much to add to what's already been said but if you're going with the budget airlines (Ryanair and Easyjet) time your travel so you're flying on a Tuesday-Thursday for the best rates.

Also be careful of your baggage weight. They'll have no issues stinging you for a few bucks if you're over.

[4X4]

Travel light. Bagor makes a great point. The airlines give you cheap seats and then jack you for baggage weight. Most cities have a marketplace that will sell cheap clothes and stuff. You should be able to fit everything you need into a backpack, with room to spare for stuff you buy along the way. Your most important things to bring begin and end with shoes. You'll be walking alot and carrying your backpack alot. Good shoes are important. And don't forget to bring flipflops for the nasty showers you'll encounter in hostels.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by 4X4

Travel light. Bagor makes a great point. The airlines give you cheap seats and then jack you for baggage weight. Most cities have a marketplace that will sell cheap clothes and stuff. You should be able to fit everything you need into a backpack, with room to spare for stuff you buy along the way. Your most important things to bring begin and end with shoes. You'll be walking alot and carrying your backpack alot. Good shoes are important. And don't forget to bring flipflops for the nasty showers you'll encounter in hostels.

Very important. Hostels are great, but you get what you pay for, and, at all times you have to watch out for yourself.

A bad foot infection will ruin your trip real fast. Good shoes are a must as well.

[tvp2003]

This is great info -- thanks folks! The trip is very much still in planning mode right now; just looking at what might be feasible at some point in the future. Aside from visiting some of my wife's family in England, I'm thinking we'll just be looking to get a taste of Europe (i.e. 4-5 major cities) to cross it off the bucket list. If we love it we can always go back some day and take a longer trip to soak in more of the "culture"; I don't have a burning desire to visit every single city so I probably won't try to. Interesting info about the local airlines -- I had heard that the train system was pretty good/cheap, but flying might be an option as well.

[Phanuthier]

Trains are defaintely great in Western Europe; not so much for Eastern Europe. Some parts don't really have trains and thus you use buses, like Montenegro. Cheap flights, Ryanair, SkyEurope, EasyJet, Jet2 are all really popular but take note which airport you fly into. You might be flying into an airport that is $100 taxi ride from the city, so you'll end up paying for the difference then.

For 4-5 major cities, if you are just going for the sake of going (ie. not having any particular reason for going), Rome, Budapest, Vienna, Paris and Prague are a good bet. If you do Vienna, Bratislava is 1 hr away. Rome is a pretty quick hop from Florence IIRC. Some have really neat tons around them, like Pecs and Eger are 3 hrs train from Budapest. If you would rather go for less crowded places, Ljubljana is pretty nice and not too too popular. Dubrovnik, same thing and Kotor and Mostar are a hop away as well as the Croatian islands like Korcular, Bol, Hvar, etc.

[troutman]

My advice - save Europe for later when you have more $.

You can live like a king backpacking in SE Asia or South America on much less $.

[Bill Bumface]

Originally Posted by troutman

My advice - save Europe for later when you have more $.

You can live like a king backpacking in SE Asia or South America on much less $.

Eastern Europe is getting expensive fast. I have a friend who grew up in Prague, and since he still lives in Europe he's there multiple times a year. He said the price increases in the last 5 years are unbelieveable.

[WesternCanadaKing]

Originally Posted by troutman

My advice - save Europe for later when you have more $.

You can live like a king backpacking in SE Asia or South America on much less $.

Exactly what I'm doing, after having my money drained so fast after a 3 week trip to Europe last summer I'm not going on a backpacking trip until I have quite a bit of money. Of course there are ways to economise, but it can be sort of ridiculous sometimes (St. Pauls Cathedral in London cost something like 15 pounds to get into).

So yeah, why I'm doing SE Asia, Australia and New Zealand first.

[CGYTransplant]

Originally Posted by WesternCanadaKing

Exactly what I'm doing, after having my money drained so fast after a 3 week trip to Europe last summer I'm not going on a backpacking trip until I have quite a bit of money. Of course there are ways to economise, but it can be sort of ridiculous sometimes (St. Pauls Cathedral in London cost something like 15 pounds to get into).

So yeah, why I'm doing SE Asia, Australia and New Zealand first.

That's odd- I was there two years ago and I just walked in. I remember the audio tour costing $, but the church itself was free.

Buckingham Palace, however, was over 20 pounds to get into, if I recall.

[icarus]

My girlfriend is going backpacking in Europe for two months in 11 days from now. In my travels I was always a poor planner, I would just go with the flow... maybe book a flight, show up in the city, and try to figure things out from there. She on the other hand is the most organised Europe backpacker I have ever seen. She has every train, flight, hotel and hostel already booked for the next month and a half. Different strokes for different folks, I'm just not much of a planner.

[HelloHockeyFans]

2 months, eh? At first, it seems like a long time... maybe even too long, but the one thing I do regret now is not going for a 2-3 month vacation when I was younger. Once you start working or have a family, you can scratch that 2-3 month holiday out of your To Do list 'cause it ain't happening unless you're fortunate enough to work in a career that allows you to take that much time off...

[Berger_4_]

I didn't backpack around Europe (went on an school thing then with the family) but I cannot recommend Prague enough. Absolutely loved that city. If you want to go to a cheaper but still really really nice country, go to Slovakia. The countryside is just beautiful, and lots of cool stuff to see there. Hotels that would cost upwards of 500 bucks a night were maybe 100 in Topolcany. Poprad and Bratislava were a little more expensive but not as bad as everywhere else I went.

Croatia was really nice as well but portions of it could be very expensive (especially in the harbour areas). If you go to Croatia, make sure you take the time to go to Splivice Lakes. They are absolutely incredible. Every lake is just like this...

[chid]

Yeah the more open you are to things the better, its great to have a GENERAL idea of cities you want to go to, but I enjoyed Rome and decided to leave my backpacking buddies for a few days and go back so I could really enjoy it and see everything I wanted to. They stuck to the 'itinerary' but I would have felt disappointed if I didn't go back and really explore on my own.