Travelling through Europe (backpacking?) this summer, need advice/help

[jaustin]

So, I'm in the extremely early stages of planning a trip through Europe with a friend this summer, and was wondering if anyone has any helpful advice or thoughts.

This post isn't going to be very well-organized, but I'll try to go back and make it more readable after I finish typing.

Background: I'm a sophomore at NYU, and I'm planning on taking six weeks of summer class here, and then flying to Europe some time after June 22, probably staying there for between 4 and 6 weeks. The friend I'll be going with is a senior in high school, and one of my closest friends from home, named Mike. I have another friend, Tiago, who will be in London all summer doing an internship program through BU. His ex-girlfriend, Laia, lives in Barcelona, so we also have a hook up there. I haven't talked to Mike yet, but I'm sure he knows some people in Europe as well (he's been there before, I haven't) who we could stay with.

We haven't done any planning at all, basically just tossing this idea around, so I was wondering if anyone who's done this sort of thing before could offer us advice.

How should we get around while we're there? Eurailpass? I think we'll be trying to hit as many countries as possible, while still enjoying them all thoroughly. I don't know how ambitious we'll try to be, but I'd guess that France, U.K., Spain, and Italy will all be "must-visits."

As far as languages go, Mike and I both speak Spanish (albeit poorly for me, but I'm sure I'd start picking it up once I'm immersed). Mike may also speak some French, but I'm not positive.

Should we try and find someone to stay with everywhere we want to go, mixing in hostels and such to fill in the holes? On this note, anybody who lives in Europe and would like to offer us a place to stay, this would be incredibly appreciated (we could PM each other and do myspace/facebook so you know you're not going to get robbed or anything).

Since we'll probably be spending more time in London, with Tiago, than anywhere else, does it make the most sense to fly in and out of London? Would flying in and out of a different city be cheaper? Also, the trip will probably start in late June, and we'll have to be back by the beginning of September. Given this narrow window, are there any dates that would be cheaper to fly (e.g. Flying in mid-July saves $200 over leaving in late June, etc.)?

For people who have done this before, should we plan extensively, scheduling where we'll be each day? or just go with the flow, stay a week in one city if we're compelled too, etc.?

Since this is just the planning thread, I won't get into much great detail, that will come later.


Thanks so much for any and all advice, help, suggestions you may offer

[Thremp]

I'll also be in Europe though our trips will overlap for 5 days.


Get your tickets now. Our plane was almost sold out 2 months in advance.

Use the Eurail pass. You'll wanna book alot of your dates in advance since you are going mega peak season.

[Badger]

I'd plan a basic schedule of places you decide you are positively going to see. Leave yourself some flex time in between. This will make things a lot easier on you. It might make it harder to decide which rail pass to get however. You're not going to see as much as someone who plans a city a day, but you'll probably have a more enjoyable time. Don't treat this like a grocery shopping list, i.e. I need to see these 25 cities. This is a good chance to get a feel for countries/regions that you might want to come back and spend more time in one place. Some of my best experiences were when I decided to just stop and chill out in one place.

I saw a lot of people that wasted money by buying a much more expensive rail pass than they needed. If you're planning on seeing more of Spain than just Barcelona (which I definitely think you should) you'll probably want to take buses over trains. Spain has an excellent bus system.
This was 5 years ago that I went and I was pinching every penny I could. I had some success bargaining with hostel owners in Spain- you're gonna save money finding ones that aren't in Let's Go! or Lonely Planet.
I didn't book anywhere in advance, and Amsterdam was the only city that it was a pain in the ass to find a room. It ended up working out really well for me though. I stayed at a hotel that was cheaper than a lot of the hostels.

Good luck and enjoy.

Editted to add: Although I didn't plan ahead, if I had a good recommendation on a place to stay I would call ahead to the next city sometimes.

[pokeraz]

It will be the time of your life.

I spent 10 weeks backpacking Europe in '86 after graduating college. I went with no plans allowing myself the luxory of staying or going wherever and whenever the notion struck me. I was shocked at the number of times I was invited into people's homes and fed and often given a place to sleep. So shocked, that I refused for a while at first, until I realized people truly wanted to do it. They seemed to be more fascinated by me than I was of their country. When I needed to stay at a hotel, I never had a problem finding places at the last moment.

I don't know how much it has changed. It has only been a bit more than twenty years.

The real charm is off the beaten path. I wish I was doing it again.

[jaustin]

I think our plan will be to make schedule very loosely, so that we can spend plenty of time in any city we choose to. There are a few "must-see" cities, but definitely not so many that it will interfere with our spending plenty of time in just one place.

If anybody has particular advice on places to see, restaraunts, hostels/hotels, etc. please post them here, so I can start making a list of things to do. As mentioned in the OP, we'll def. spend a decent amount of time in London and Barcelona, and I think Italy will be another long stay.

Also, if any European 2+2ers want to feed us, house us, party with us, holla.

[Daddy Hoya]

Yeah, my girlfriend and I are backpacking through Europe this summer too. I have no clue where we are going, I am letting her plan everything.
I know we're going to England because that's where she is from, but other than that, i think we're going to Germany and Amsterdam.
I guess we'll see...

[mscags]

Congrats dude, you will have the time of your life, Europe is awesome. I'm in Valencia, Spain right now for the semester. As far as getting a Eurail pass or not, it really depends on how many different cities you want to see. If you are the new city every 2 days type of person, than you might want to look into it. If you are more like spending 3 or 4 up to a week or so in one place, than I would just recommend flying. If you somewhat plan out where you want to go now, you should be able to buy some plane tickets for fairly cheap amounts. The longer you wait however, the more expensive everything will end up being. If you have any questions about Spain or anything else feel free to shoot them my way.

[caguma]

I'm going this summer to Europe as well. I've got for our miniterm (May) in Bordeux and Paris and from there I'm heading to Germany, the Swiss Alps, Italy, and Greece.

For flights, I'd try to find the STA travel or other travel agency at your school to book the tickets. They'll get you a good deal most of the time. Also, you could look into flying into one city and out of another, it's a little more expensive but it'll save you having to make a return trip to a city you've already been in.

I don't know how much traveling you're doing, but for my rail pass I'm going to go with the 15 days in two months flex-pass. It may not cover all the days, but I think it works out cheaper picking up shorter trips that don't cost as much rather than buying the full-blown unlimited pass.

[caguma]

Anyone here gone from Italy to Greece and know anything about taking the ferry? I hear its a long trip but I'm leaning towards it because scheduling a flight could be a pain. Any thoughts?

[mscags]

I would just look into alitalia, i think they are pretty cheap