re: Backpacking Europe

I'd focus on about 4 countries that seem most interesting to you. I've done 2 trips with that kind of allotted time. Did England, Scotland and Ireland on one and Germany, France, Italy, Czechoslovakia, and Austria on another. Both great trips. Stayed at hostels mostly. Good luck

watch

LINK

What about women doing it? My daughter and a couple friends are discussing it for the future and I know a lot do but as a father I have safety concerns. I've been to Europe as an adult but not enough to have a handle on this type of travel with staying in hostels and moving rapidly.

Girls should travel as two or more if they are backpacking. I met many girls (couples) on my trip and I think they felt safer traveling together. It's really a matter of common sense and street smarts. Her best bet would be to make friends at the hostel she is staying at and go out as a group. She will have more fun and also be protected.

I backpacked in 2005 for two months and it cost me about 4000K. Do I regret it..hell no. Eat up the culture and stay in hostels. Meet folks from all over the world. Shop the local produce and cook if you have an available kitchen in the hostel you're staying at. As cliche as it sounds, get the Rick Steve's "Europe Through the Back Door" book. Some of the coolest stuff I saw came from this book. The main idea I had when I traveled (please do not take this to heart if you do not agree) was that I was not going to have an agenda or an itinerary. I was going to enjoy my trip and let my conscience be my guide. I did that and I thoroughly enjoyed my trip.

Lots of good advice in this thread. I did it with 3 friends in 2006 and it was one of the bet experiences of my life. Flew into Amsterdam and out of Madrid with 5 other cities in between.

quote:

---

Wow...great advice from a ton of people. Very much appreciated, everyone!

As of now, I have one friend on board with me. Working on one more. So most likely will be 3 friends backing through Europe.

I've spent some time thinking about where I'd like to visit and off the get-go France, Italy, and Netherlans/Nordic region is on top of my list at this moment (obviously,can alternate the more research we do)

Does anyone have any preferences, one over the other? Another area of concern Is financially (no surprise here). To those who have been, realistically, how much am I looking at needing all in all? I've heard $3000-$4000 for a 3 week journey. I'd love to get that down to $2500-$3000 without having to sacrifice too many great moments. Dare I ask, is that realistic?

---

I am a numbers guy, so I suggest building out a basic Excel sheet to model out the cost. Here are what I would say when building it - do a high-low assumptions model. Same formulas with bare minimum and upper maximum possibilities to get a reasonable range (this will say whether your 2500-3000 is even remotely possible).

The things you need to build in:
Airfare - This depends a lot on the city you fly out of, what time of the year, and what city you fly out of.

Major tip: Design your trip around the cheapest flight into and out of Europe that you can find. Ideally, the inbound and outbound flights will be in countries that are pretty far apart...this allows you to wind your way through the continent from your entry point to your exit. Savings on airfare are instant savings into your pocket or monies you can spend elsewhere during the trip.

Lowest you will be able to fly is about $850 and high prices would be $1500...I would expect you will pay $1100-1300.

Hostels - I did a crazy amount of research here. I used both hostelworld and hostelbooker to inform me on every place we stayed. Hostels are terrific and I highly recommend them...if you do your research and stay at the right places. For my brother and I, we prioritized a few things - safety, location and price (in that order). Safety and location were our primary concerns and we were willing to pay an extra bit to be in the exact location (for example, Academy Hostel in Florence we woke up in the shadow of the Duomo and paid an extra 5-10 euro a night for that kind of convenience).

Based on my experience, you are can expect to pay between $20-45 dollars/night/person for a safe, well located hostel. Take this number and multiply it by the number of nights on your trip minus the number of nights you sleep on a train (but you will want to get the little bed on the train and we paid about $50 for that anyways...so it nets out to about the same as a hostel for the night).

Food - Varies some by location...overall not too expensive, especially if you go into markets and eat fresh food instead of fancy dinners/prepared food. This is a place where you have to know yourself...this can bust a budget depending on how you want to do it.

Transportation - Logistics is what made my trip go off so well. Everything worked out perfectly, we had buffer time and got to cities when we needed to get to them. Research cities you want to see and then figure out the most logical transport to get there. Most likely, a rail pass will be needed...and then sort out which version of the pass is most valuable to you. There are a few options...I think I settled on 4 countries, 6 days because I didn't need the unlimited pass. My pass was a half the cost of an unlimited. Plan $500-1000 for transportation depending on the number of cities you want to see.

Extras - budget some money for random activities over the course of the trip. Things like bike tours are awesome and only cost 10-15 euro...show the entire city and lets you meet great people. Highly suggest them.

quote:

---

or just wing it and have an awesome adventure (not to take away from the excel spreadsheets and such)

---

I would love to wing it if I would have had more time. 10 days isn't enough time to wing it, IMO, so we went the planned route.

With that said, we only planned logistics (transportation/sleeping) and pretty much winged it in the cities we visited. We had some things in mind to see but no set plans.

A big factor is how much alcohol and beer you drink and how many nights you go out. That can do serious damage to your budget

quote:

---

As a working man now I appreciate your approach. This makes a lot of sense on a tight schedule.

---

Exactly. If I ever do a full time MBA program, then I am taking off work a couple of months early and touring Europe without a concern in the world.

After college, you have all the time and no money. When working, you have money and no time. I am ready for some equilibrium in this equation prior to retirement