A year in Europe

Dan,

The first place to start is with the Schengen treaty. It limits your visits within the zone (which includes most of Europe) to a TOTAL of 90 days (not 90 days per country) unless you have a visa.

So the first place you'll need to start is with getting a long term visa. From there, look into getting an apartment in each country so that you can cook in your own place and live as a local.

Hope it works out for you!

I haven't gone as long as a year, but long enough to know a few things to keep in mind. You will need some stability, so plan to rent an apartment for longer periods of time in places that most interest you. Say Paris for example: rent an apartment there for a month or two, then take short trips from there using Paris as a base. That way, after a few days away, you can return to a "home" and settle back in for a bit. Plus you have lots of time to explore and let a city soak in. In between apartment rentals, travel in more normal fashion, spending a few days or a week in various cities before settling down again in another major ciy.

The key is to avoid travel burnout. As glamourous as it sounds, it does get old eating out everyday, touring sites everyday, living out of hotels everyday.

Language won't be any greater barrier than regular traveling. And don't forget the visas.

As someone who spent a few years living out of a suitcase, and in and out of hotels every few days...it is exhausting. (And after a few weeks, hotel rooms look the same. There were some mornings where I literally had no idea where I was. I had to look at the phone book to remind myself what city I was in.)

As mentioned in a previous thread it may be best to mix up a longer stay in an apartment with shorter hotel stays.

For Schengen, you're allowed 90 days in an 180 day period. So, you could go to Schengen for 90, leave for 90, return for 90, and then spend the last 90 somewhere else. If you try to mix it up, in and out, the 180 day period constantly gets re-adjusted.

The longest we have stayed in Europe is 5 1/2 months.
What you propose us doable. You can stay for up to 90 days out of 180 in Europe.When the 180 days is up, you have abother 90 Schengen. You have the Balkans (Croatia,Serbia,Bosnia,Albania,Macedonia and Romania and Bulgaria- the latter EU members but not Schengen treaty signatories), in which to take refuge.
England and Scotland are also Schengen-free zones.
North Africa is fine, as well.
It is largely a question of planning when to be where

Laughing at Frank's comment. I too traveled so much prior to retirement and would often wake up in a hotel room and wonder what city and state I was in.

My daughter and I took a 8 week trip to Europe and visited 8 countries. Many times since then we have discuss the length of the trip. We both agree that 8 weeks was too long, even though we enjoyed every minute of our trip.

We still plan to visit Portugal, Spain and Italy and spend no longer than 5 weeks.

People who travel to Europe and end up staying longer tend to do so not because they want to see more places but because they want to stay longer in individual places.

And that approach works actually quite well with someone who doesn't really want to travel on the cheap but can't pay a fortune on good hotels either. Renting appartments for several weeks here and there would give you some great experiences.

You might be interested in a home exchange - our family did this once in Paris and had a great time, in a 4BR apartment not far from Les Invalides for 4 weeks. Because it was a swap with no lodging cost, we didn't mind spending a few nights elsewhere [Mont St Michel, Chenonceaux, Strasbourg]. There has been some discussion of home exchange on the Helpline before, so you may want to search for that thread. HomeExchange.com is one source that friends of ours have used with great success.

Another source of reasonable lodging is the Affordable Travel Club; it's primarily a hosting network but also has some members interested in home exchanges. We've been members for 5 years and enjoyed both hosting and guesting though we have never used the home swap aspect. [After I retire, maybe?] You can stay with a host for up to 4 nights, and the cost is $20-30 per night for two. PM me if you'd like more information.

Good luck and have a fabulous time!

Thanks to all for good advice. curiously, as a young man, i lived in Spain for a couple of years in a small town South of Sevilla. I never really went anywhere except around the local areas. I know it is easy to get comfortable in one place and we don;t intend to move around constantly. The idea of spending 2-3 weeks and then moving on is appealing

For inspiration (and advice) you may want to listen to the podcasts "A Year in Europe," available at http://www.ayearineurope.com/ . Scott and Sheryl, though a bit younger, :-) spent a year touring the continent. I don't recall what they did about visas.... At the very least, their podcasts give good insight to the various places they visited. Available at i-Tunes as well.

I'm envious. 30 years ago I spent 7 months bumming around Europe (the cheap ex-student route) and it's still a life highlight for me. Your budget sounds realistic. Like others have pointed out, you will need to comply with the Schengen restrictions unless you can get a special visa, but I'm guessing you don't want to become a student or get a job ;>0.

Regarding the example of renting a Paris apartment for a month or two, the City of Paris is cracking down on rentals for less than one year (it violates a city law intended to help control housing prices). You might still be able to do it/get away with it, but who knows. Anywhere else such a rental should not be a problem.

Have a great time. I hope to do it myself sometime.

Besides the podcast recommended by the previous poster (which is an interesting listen), check your library or Amazon.com for a copy of "Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long Term World Travel" by Rolf Potts and "The Practical Nomad" by Edward Hasbrouck.

I've traveled for a year, and it's definitely very important to not cover too much ground too fast or you will exhaust yourselves and can wind up getting physically sick. Trust me, it's not fun trying to seek out a hospital in a remote part of the South Pacific and then be told you have pneumonia.

And for your sanity, don't spend 24/7 with your wife, no matter how much you love each other. You need to each take some time and pursue your own interests or you'll be arguing with each other in no time at all. So if you hate art galleries and she hates pub crawls, then fly solo on a few of those activities every now and then.

For longer term housing, check Sabbaticalhomes.com