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Posted on 1/13/25 at 3:49 am to FormerPokeCenter
For a two-week trip to Europe, I’d suggest focusing on a few key cities to avoid feeling rushed. Start with classics like Paris and Rome for their rich history and culture. Then, consider Munich—it’s a great mix of old-world charm and modern vibes, plus it’s well-connected to amazing day-trip destinations like Neuschwanstein Castle and Salzburg.
When I traveled to Munich, it was one of my favorite stops. Bummelwelt.de helped me plan affordable day trips from Munich. I found great deals for castle tours and train tickets, which made exploring the area so much easier and cheaper.
As for a tour operator, it depends on your comfort level with planning. If you’re new to international travel, a tour operator can simplify things, but planning on your own can give you more flexibility and potentially save money. Either way, Europe is an amazing place to explore!
When I traveled to Munich, it was one of my favorite stops. Bummelwelt.de helped me plan affordable day trips from Munich. I found great deals for castle tours and train tickets, which made exploring the area so much easier and cheaper.
As for a tour operator, it depends on your comfort level with planning. If you’re new to international travel, a tour operator can simplify things, but planning on your own can give you more flexibility and potentially save money. Either way, Europe is an amazing place to explore!
This post was edited on 1/14/25 at 8:40 am
Posted on 1/15/25 at 5:47 am to lsu4life77
Our first trip to Europe was the same length of time and we did London, Amsterdam and Paris. We landed at Heathrow around 8 AM on an overnight flight from Atlanta, took a cab to our hotel where we stored our luggage and started sight seeing by 930 that morning. We would leave whatever hotel we were staying in by 7 AM every morning and would not return to the hotel until at least 11 PM. We did all of the "must" see sights, on our own, and had a BLAST! There wasn't much we did not see and we did not see much of anything LOL....but we had a BLAST. We did not stay in Hostels but we did stay in hotels which weren't much more than hostels. We flew from London to Amsterdam on a budget airline that no longer exists, it cost us about $20 all in. We took a train from Amsterdam to Paris. We flew home from Paris. We probably walked 8-10 miles a day.
Here is the truly amazing part of this trip. This was in 1991. Our airfare from Atlanta to London and Paris to Atlanta cost less than $150 each. We spent 16 days in Europe and airfare included we spent less than $2000. I know we spent less than $2000 because I had a credit card with a $2000 line of credit and that is all we used on this trip. It wasn't maxed out when we got home but it wasn't far from it.
If ya'll are young and healthy and active and do not mind staying in cheap hotels and eating cheaply and running around like you are on a forced march this is pretty typical of most people's first visit to Europe. It is not ideal but its what most people do. We had a ball doing it....
Here is the truly amazing part of this trip. This was in 1991. Our airfare from Atlanta to London and Paris to Atlanta cost less than $150 each. We spent 16 days in Europe and airfare included we spent less than $2000. I know we spent less than $2000 because I had a credit card with a $2000 line of credit and that is all we used on this trip. It wasn't maxed out when we got home but it wasn't far from it.
If ya'll are young and healthy and active and do not mind staying in cheap hotels and eating cheaply and running around like you are on a forced march this is pretty typical of most people's first visit to Europe. It is not ideal but its what most people do. We had a ball doing it....
Posted on 1/15/25 at 6:20 am to lsu4life77
After our first trip to Europe we were fortunate enough to live in Germany for nearly 7 years and during that time I was fortunate to have a job which required I travel most of central Europe. Our base was in Bavaria but I spent weeks at a time from Finland to Turkey. It was an incredible experience and one that few people from my walk of life are ever afforded. For the first year of this period I was "retired" and traveled extensively across Europe. All on a budget....part of the allure was to do it as cheaply as possible, not affordably but CHEAP - I am talking fixing a sandwich at the motel breakfast for lunch cheap. We traveled all over Europe with a child (and a second child toward the end of this period) and in 6 years we probably spent $100K traveling. Sounds like a LOT but to put it in perspective we had friends come to stay with us for a month during this period. 6 of them. 2 Adults, 3 kids and the grandmother. They flew to Frankfurt from Austin. We traveled with them from Scotland to Rome and London to Prague. There was not much of central Europe we did not do with them. They spent less than $7k on this trip. 6 people, a month in central Europe, during the height of the travel season in Europe, and all in they spent less than $40 a day and there is not a tourist sight in Central Europe that they did not visit. This would have been in 2009.
I provide that information to say this....traveling across Europe can be EXTREMELY expensive but it is not complicated....it is very easy to do it on your own and experience it at your pace and not pay to be herded around like cattle. There is nothing wrong with that if that is what you want. What we did was far more interesting. About 20% of the time we would be completely lost without a clue as to where we were other than more or less knowing what country we were in. What this provided was an over night stop in an Italian ski resort where we spent the night in our cars and woke up to about 3 inches of snow....in July. We found ourselves on a self propelled log ferry across the Oder River in Poland. We wound up spending the night in a salmon fishing lodge in Scotland for free because it was dark and the owner did not want us driving back to Inverness. Or the three nights we spent in a brothel in Rome (as it turned out an illegal brothel as brothels are not legal in Italy) In my opinion this is the only way to travel - on your own with almost no idea where you are headed other than a general direction.
To do this we used trains, budget airlines and our own vehicle. Depending on how many people there are together renting a car is the only way to get around. If its just 2 people trains are probably the most versatile but nothing beats the costs of budget airlines in Europe...if you are risk tolerant there are some truly CHEAP airfares between major "cities" in Europe. Cities in parenthesis because the budget airlines typically do not fly into London, for example, but instead Stanstead, 90 minutes outside the city center. Most of the budget airlines use secondary airports 90 minutes to a couple of hours away from the actual city. Ground transportation can add up but in most cases if you look you can find a way to do it very cheaply. The disadvantage is it may cost you a lot in terms of time.
Lodging is an area where its possible to save a lot of money. Being in the city center is most convenient but its also incredible expensive. Being close to a major train station is the most affordable AND its also convenient to transportation into the city center. The down side is it may take an hour or so to make the trip. I prefer this because it provides a taste of the actual location and not just the city center but it is time consuming.
Eating and drinking is a HUGE expense. We ate at what amounts to food trucks and took advantage of grocery stores and had a lot of picnics...and of course took full advantage of the hotel breakfast LOL. We would usually splurge on dinner a couple of times a week but for the most part we ate like locals and drank from the bottle like locals.
When I was traveling for work I was paid a per diem and if I could find lodging and meals for less than that I kept the difference. I stayed in a lot of areas that most folks would consider dodgy and ate and drank like a local....it was a blast but not everyone would enjoy it.
I provide that information to say this....traveling across Europe can be EXTREMELY expensive but it is not complicated....it is very easy to do it on your own and experience it at your pace and not pay to be herded around like cattle. There is nothing wrong with that if that is what you want. What we did was far more interesting. About 20% of the time we would be completely lost without a clue as to where we were other than more or less knowing what country we were in. What this provided was an over night stop in an Italian ski resort where we spent the night in our cars and woke up to about 3 inches of snow....in July. We found ourselves on a self propelled log ferry across the Oder River in Poland. We wound up spending the night in a salmon fishing lodge in Scotland for free because it was dark and the owner did not want us driving back to Inverness. Or the three nights we spent in a brothel in Rome (as it turned out an illegal brothel as brothels are not legal in Italy) In my opinion this is the only way to travel - on your own with almost no idea where you are headed other than a general direction.
To do this we used trains, budget airlines and our own vehicle. Depending on how many people there are together renting a car is the only way to get around. If its just 2 people trains are probably the most versatile but nothing beats the costs of budget airlines in Europe...if you are risk tolerant there are some truly CHEAP airfares between major "cities" in Europe. Cities in parenthesis because the budget airlines typically do not fly into London, for example, but instead Stanstead, 90 minutes outside the city center. Most of the budget airlines use secondary airports 90 minutes to a couple of hours away from the actual city. Ground transportation can add up but in most cases if you look you can find a way to do it very cheaply. The disadvantage is it may cost you a lot in terms of time.
Lodging is an area where its possible to save a lot of money. Being in the city center is most convenient but its also incredible expensive. Being close to a major train station is the most affordable AND its also convenient to transportation into the city center. The down side is it may take an hour or so to make the trip. I prefer this because it provides a taste of the actual location and not just the city center but it is time consuming.
Eating and drinking is a HUGE expense. We ate at what amounts to food trucks and took advantage of grocery stores and had a lot of picnics...and of course took full advantage of the hotel breakfast LOL. We would usually splurge on dinner a couple of times a week but for the most part we ate like locals and drank from the bottle like locals.
When I was traveling for work I was paid a per diem and if I could find lodging and meals for less than that I kept the difference. I stayed in a lot of areas that most folks would consider dodgy and ate and drank like a local....it was a blast but not everyone would enjoy it.
Posted on 1/15/25 at 6:33 am to lsu4life77
Germans is the closest thing to the USA in Europe and is what most Americans think of when they think of Europe. Munich, Nuremberg, Stuttgart and Frankfurt are almost identical to the Mid West while still offering a Europrean experience. In my opinion the UK is more "foreign", as an American, than Germany. If it weren't for the language difference Germany is almost a carbon copy of the US, or vice versa. You would not go wrong spending 16 days in Germany - from Frankfurt to Nuremberg to Munich one would be hard pressed to find more of Europe anywhere in Europe and it is less expensive and less "foreign" than most of Europe.
Italy and Spain are FANTASTIC but both are very frustrating in that nothing is done efficiently. It can get VERY tedious when you are on a tight schedule. It is charming if you have plenty of time.
France can be overwhelming. The UK can also be overwhelming although the language makes it less intimidating.
Eastern Europe is usually a no go for tourists on a tight schedule.
Denmark to Austria is the sweet spot for tight schedules and tight budgets.....its plenty foreign enough to get the feel that you ain't in Kansas while being very familiar to Americans. You could spend a life time in Southern Germany and not make it to all of the "must see" sites.
Most people think of London, Rome, Paris and Amsterdam when they thing of Europe. If they are really upscale they may have Berlin on that list. What they are actually looking for, however, is Rothenburg. This is true for many Americans....southern Germany is a very compelling area and one that would satisfy almost anyone's idea of what Europe is.
Italy and Spain are FANTASTIC but both are very frustrating in that nothing is done efficiently. It can get VERY tedious when you are on a tight schedule. It is charming if you have plenty of time.
France can be overwhelming. The UK can also be overwhelming although the language makes it less intimidating.
Eastern Europe is usually a no go for tourists on a tight schedule.
Denmark to Austria is the sweet spot for tight schedules and tight budgets.....its plenty foreign enough to get the feel that you ain't in Kansas while being very familiar to Americans. You could spend a life time in Southern Germany and not make it to all of the "must see" sites.
Most people think of London, Rome, Paris and Amsterdam when they thing of Europe. If they are really upscale they may have Berlin on that list. What they are actually looking for, however, is Rothenburg. This is true for many Americans....southern Germany is a very compelling area and one that would satisfy almost anyone's idea of what Europe is.
Posted on 1/16/25 at 5:29 pm to The Pitts
quote:
Pick a good central location and take day trips by train.
This! I had an unexpected free day in Vienna and we ended up taking a 1.5 hour train to Bratislava. Brought a Rick Steves guide book and gave ourselves a tour of the city which only took about 3-4 hours and we were back in Vienna by evening. Got to knock another country off my list that I never would have really sought out otherwise.
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