European adventure

Hi Suzanne. Do some research and find some places you might be interested in visiting, with regard to cost. Note that Scandinavia and the UK are more expensive than Eastern Europe, for example. Your question is so broad that it's hard to suggest anything.

Where in Poland? I would probably draw a line between Gdansk and Krakow and work west of that line. This is too general of statement but east gets pretty flat. Krakow is a great college town with unspoiled charm. Gdansk has a great medieval Royal Way plus the roots of the Solidarity movement, if you like 20th century history. Malbork castle (called Marienburg in it's day) was home base for the Tuetonic Knights in their Crusade against the Lithuanian Pagans. It was built in the 1200's and was the center of power in the region until, I think, 1410 when it was lost. There is also a large area for hiking in the west, but I can't recall the name right now. Train tickets, lodging and eating are cheap compared to most of western Europe.

I used to be a big fan of Austria. It was like a super cheap (and somewhat more rustic) version of Germany. The price advantage went away when Austria adopted the Euro; now prices are essentially the same as Germany.

Poland. It's fun, not expensive and still has a little adventure left since it's not overrun by tourists (yet).

Where in Polland ? I'm not a fan of big cities. Hiking, biking, castles ,Boating?

if you're looking for hiking, biking, castles...maybe a trip to Germany. You could start in Munich and tour Bavaria
there is some beautiful countryside in the area, castles, lakes, hiking.

Suzanne, If this is your first trip to Europe, I'd highly recommend reading the Guidebook Europe Through The Back Door. That will not only provide some excellent information on "how" to travel in Europe, but may also give you some ideas on places you'd like to visit. Unfortunately, finding a "not expensive" location could be a bit of a challenge. Most of Europe tends to be a bit "pricey", and as someone else mentioned that's especially true in the U.K. and the Scandinavian countries, and to some extent in Switzerland. What type of budget are you considering? What type of "fun" are you most interested in? Are you looking for adventure sports (whitewater rafting, hang gliding) or Bars & Pubs? Also, is there something in particular that prompted this desire to visit Europe? If so, that may provide some indication on which country to visit. A few thoughts that come to mind are Ireland (Dublin is great for Pubs and music, and there may be some bargains there with the current economy) or Germany (Berlin is a "happening" place right now with lots of activities and fairly reasonable prices, and of course Munich has lots of Beer halls and is a good location for day trips). Good luck with your planning!

If you are looking for inexpensive, beautiful, exotic, and a great mix of countryside and great cities try Romania. The Transylvania area is a mix of castles, farming areas and small villages. I have a slideshow on my website where you can see some of my photos of my trip. terrykathrynlawrence.com . I had a great time there and was pleasantly surprised at the great food as well as the friendly people. You will not find a ton of American tourists there either but there are a num ber of college towns where the bars and night-life appeared to have a young crowd. Its really easy to drive there and have an adventure. From Romania I dropped my car in Timosara and took the train to
Budapest. Beautiful and not as pricey as other major cities in Europe and also lots of young people.

Dive Croatia! http://www.croatiatraveller.com/Activities/Diving.htm

Also ask on the Thorntree (travel forum) of Lonely Planet. They are geared to the 20-something traveler looking more for outdoor adventure and more on a budget.

Bratislava, Slovakia is a lovely city I visited last Fall. It was quite cheap compared to other parts of Europe, and provides easy access to castles (Slovakia has the highest number of castles/chateaux per capita out of any country) including the Devin Castle which you could reach by boat on the Rhine (or maybe train/bus), and you can take a day trip into Vienna, Austria which is just an hour away by train.

Well, you can get to Devin Castle from Bratislava by boat but not on the Rhine. It is the Danube (Dunaj) River there. To visit Slovakia would be a good idea. They are on Euro and prices are cheap. Bratislava is nice, very close to Vienna, Budapest about 3 hours by train, Prague 4 to 5. If you like hiking go to High Tatra mountains, it's like condensed Alps. From there it's easy to get to Krakow. In two weeks you can do little bit of the Czech Republic, too. Advantages: lower prices than in the West, especially outside Prague, very good public transportation, relatively short distances. Mountains, highlands, lowland plains, historic towns, castles, chateaus, lakes, famous breweries, in the southeast of the country wineries, many festivals, including folklife festivals and wine festivals. Eastern Europe (former communist countries) are cheaper than western Europe. Generally: the farther east the cheaper. The most beautiful countries in Eastern Europe (IMHO): Bulgaria, Romania, countries of former Yugoslavia, Slovakia, Czech Republic.

It would be helpful to know what "not expensive" means. For a first trip to Europe you are going to spend a bit of money no matter where you go, air fare alone is a big expense. Even though you say you don't like big cities...I'd give Paris and Rome a lot of thought. They are like no big cities you have ever seen and will probably change a lot of your views. They can be done less expensively, especially at your age. Youth Hostiles and convents and a lot of planning are reasonable ways to save money.

Our parents are paying our airfare and most of our expences for the week we are with them in Germany, then we leave them in Munich and are on our own . There are three of us(one will have just graduated college ) None of us have much money,( maybe a thousand or so each) but we are looking for adventure-- not wild adventure,but stories we will tell our friends (maybe not our folks) .We love nature and beer, etc.

If you all love Beer, Belgium and Luxembourg are a great destination. Not too big to get lost, plenty of beautiful sites, castles, waterfalls. Luxembourg is 200sqm smaller than Rhode Island. My parents and I will be going to both places in June.

Beer and nature. You cannot go wrong with the Czech Republic. It is closer to Munich than Belgium and Luxembourg, beer is much cheaper and IMHO better tasting but I am not saying that the belgian beer is not good. You can take an opportunity of group Bayern ticket and for 29 Euro get to Passau, nice town on confluence of Danube and Inn rivers. From there to Heidmuehle by bus, then walk one mile across the border and in Nove Udoli get on train and after a short ride you are in Cesky Krumlov. Then nearby Ceske Budejovice (German name Budweis) and among others you can tour the original Budweiser brewery. Then in Plzen (in German Pilsen) you can tour another famous brewery. And then you are one hour from Prague by train so why not to visit. So many top quality beer pubs and all this old architecture around. Although there is plenty of beautiful nature in the Czech Republic itself I would recommend overnight train from Prague to Poprad in Slovakia and you are in the High Tatra mountains-jagged granite peaks, very alpine. Plenty of hikes from easy to strenuous.

Sounds like a great plan Ilja. Thanks for all the detailed info.

Ilja's trip suggestion does sound like an adventure! But it's a long one just to get to Cesky Krumlov. It's 2+ hours by train from Munich to Passau, 1.5 hours by bus from there to Haidmühle (note correct spelling), and nearly 2 hours by train from Haidmühle to Cesky Krumlov. As you can guess, this is not a major transit route; downtime between connections is probably substantial, so I'd plan on at least 7 hours. That's about the same time it would take to reach a place like Brussels, or Maastricht, in Belgium, even though Cesky's much closer as the crow flies. Beer, nature and fun are pretty much spread out all around Europe. The good thing is that you are starting off in Germany, where the "Bayern Ticket" Ilja mentions will get you all over the place in Bavaria very cheaply, and where you can start a journey into another country very cheaply with advance-purchase tickets. Let's say you decide on Amsterdam - party central. Well, it's just 39€ each with one of these tickets. Vienna? 29€. These discount tix can be had 92 days in advance - and they go fast: http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en

(cont.) But Bavaria is a great place for outdoor and beer adventures too. Use the Bayern ticket to go to gorgeous Bamberg for the Rauchbier. http://www.munich-touristinfo.de/Bavaria-Ticket.htm Or stay just south of Bamberg in the Aisch River valley: The "Beer Road" there connects towns with small breweries, and you can bike from town to town. See map below: the orange line from Bad Windsheim - Neustadt - Uehlfeld is a bike path, blue dots are breweries. http://bierstrasse.de/uploads/pics/karte_2008.gif http://t3-kundenserver.de.dedi661.your-server.de/typo3/tourismusserver/cms/index.php?id=832 You don't have to bike; the train connects Bad Windsheim and Neustadt, the bus connects Neustadt, Gutenstetten, Pahres and Uehlfeld, all brewery towns. The Bayern tickt gets the 3 of you between all these towns and to nearby Nuremberg, Bamberg, and Rothenburg (well-known old walled town.) Cool open-air museum in Bad Windsheim: http://www.stripes.com/military-life/travel/bad-windsheim-time-travel-at-franconian-open-air-museum-1.102354 We stayed in Neustadt at this apartment - 32€ for 3 per night. Beat that! http://www.accommodation.de/48003.htm Official HI Hostels in Bavaria are all over. They will cost more and may have noisy kids but they're still inexpensive and you can find them here: http://www.jugendherberge.de/en/hostels/search/map/index.jsp?ID=2 BTW, you can buy decent beer in stores like Aldi, Norma, Edeka, and Penny Markt for around $.50/bottle + deposit.

I would also recommend Poland as a fun and relatively inexpensive option....except it's co-hosting the European Cup this summer. Matches begin in June.

When in June? If you're there near the end, and you like a crowd, you might like to join the biking fun on the Rhine River. 60 km of roads are closed to cars on June 24 and tens of thousands of bikers and rollerbladers take over the whole valley; the route takes you past castles and vineyards and is dotted with wine, beer and food stands along the way. http://www.ruedesheim.de/cms/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2211&Itemid=283 Book your beds in advance. Hostels on the route: Bingen, Oberwesel, Bacharach (castle-hostel), Kaub, St. Goar (old villa below castle.) http://www.jugendherberge.de/de/jugendherbergen/suche/lvbkarte/index.jsp?ID=9

Just a note about correct spelling of Heidmuhle. If you don't have a feature for two dots over "u" then you put "e" behind "u" so it's Heidmuehle and it is also correct spelling. Another example: Muenchen, etc. Russ is right that it takes few hours from Muenchen to Cesky Krumlov, I know, I did it. But the trip itself is a great adventure. Take a break in Passau, nice walks around, maybe overnight there, then scenic bus ride, beautiful walk to Nove Udoli. The ride by train to Cesky Krumlov through the Sumava mountains is very scenic. You can stop in Stozec (first stop after Nove Udoli), there are many pensions there, you can rent a bike and pedal around, it's a paradise for bicyclists.

I think that Russ was noting that the first vowel in Haidmühle is an "a" rather than commenting upon the umlaut.

Mea culpa, Russ and Nigel, I overlooked that.

Would it be quicker to go to Prague and take a bus down?

It would not be quicker neither cheaper.

Slovakia would fit the requirements quite nicely. start in Vienna and finish in Budapest or Vienna. My suggestion for a very varied trip would be Austria Vienna a couple of days (Nat. Hist. Museum, Museum of Art History, Hofburg and it's museums, Belvedere, Schönbrunn, lazying in the parks, icecream, theaters, concerts). Then off to Bratislava via Carnuntum (roman ruins) Slovakia Bratislava Trencin Zilina Martin (Slovak village museum) Bojnice Castle Poprad as a base for the High Tatras (the smallest high mountain range in the world) with Strebske Pleso Tatranska Lomnica Spis Castle Levoca Slovak Paradise Slovak Karst caves Banska Bystrica Banska Stiavnica Hungary Budapest again for several days (Aquincum, Parliament....) then back to Vienna via The area offers great history (Roman ruins, some of the best castles in Europe, folk architecture, baroque, renaissance, etc) Great outdoor stuff, good wine, good beer, good food. And all that in a rather small area. PS: I shamelessly stole from my earlier post.
PPS: in 2 weeks it's a bit of a rush, so weed out some places or add a 3rd week.