Female traveling alone in Europe; Where to go?!?! Help? Anyone? Please?!

lbudnick4, I sent you a private message.

From London, Paris is convenient on the Eurostar and an obvious choice. Flights from Paris on the smaller carriers such as Easyjet are fairly inexpensive. Italy would be my choice to round out what would be a great first trip to Europe, perhaps Florence and Rome with an overnight in Orvieto in between. Fly back from Rome to London for your return home.
As others will undoubtedly recommend, Rick's "Europe through the back door" is a good starting point and his guides are a safe bet on where to stay and eat. The advantage for a solo traveler following Rick's suggestions is, you will come in contact with many fellow travelers on the same path. You'll have people to talk to about your experiences and not feel alone.

lbudnick4, congratulations, this is an exciting time! first of all I can say that you can travel in confidence and have a great time.

I think the idea of looking at the overall travel guiding book Europe Through the Back Door is very helpful. It is practical and inspirational all at the same time, and will give you the feeling of "I can do this!"

Only you can decide where you really want to go and what you want to see - and the best thing to do first is to look at a map that puts things in perspective (I imagine that Ricks ETBD book may do this too?). Then you'll get the idea that a train from Italy to Spain would be verrrrrrry long and that if you're covering distances like that, you'd be better off flying.

I agree too that Paris is a natural and easy progression after London- although you could also simply fly to Rome or somewhere further afield and then work your way back little by little. You could of course spend 15 days just wandering around Britain between city and country sights- I wouldn't have problems filling up 15 days there at all!

So basically you need to kind of read up on the "top" European sights and see what really sings to YOU - and then figure out what makes sense to string together, keeping in mind that each travel day between different cities generally takes up half a day or so (and sometimes more).

Good luck with your planning, and when you have some more specific ideas, hopefully we can be of additional assistance.

Traveling solo is great fun. You have total control over where you go and what you do. I do find that sometimes it can be hard to meet people and I long for some conversation. One of the ways I deal with this is to take a day tour. So, for example, I signed up for the Sound of Music tour in Salzburg and had a great time chatting with the guide and my fellow tour mates.

1. What is your overall Budget?

2. Do you already have your air tickets yet? If not you can rethink this. For this type of travel you’ll benefit from flying into one place and flying back home from a different airport. It’s called an open jaw flight.

3. Length of travel: You say you have 15 days but may stretch to 18 days. Does the number include travel days to and from Europe? Decide now if it will be 15 or 18 days?

4. What areas of Italy do you want to see?

5. You need an itinerary. Take a lined sheet of paper. List the places you wish to visit.
   Then place the number of of nights you will stay in each area.

Sample Itinerary could be:
Fly to London 1

London 4

Fly to Rome-Rome 4

Train to Tuscany base town-stay 4

Train to Florence-Florence 3 nights

That equals 16 days. Add a day to return home and that is now 17 days.

1. What is your budget per night for lodging? Book these as soon as you book your air tickets.

2. Do you have any travel guide books or read up on these destinations? If not then I suggest you get to the library, bookstore and get on line to know what may be of interest to your travel.

3. Air tickets: You’re late to the party here but use search engines to find flights. Try Kayak for flights from US to Europe, and Skyscanner for flights within Europe. Reserve a seat as soon as possible. To understand specific seats use SeatGuru.

Use this website. Click on travel tips and you’ll find necessary information to plan a good trip.

I’d save Spain and Budapest for another trip. Or substitute Spain for Italy. You’re late in planning but it’s still doable.

PS, Welcome to the female world of solo travel. Bravo!

Congratulations! I'm sure you will have a great time! I guess the biggest question is - what do YOU like to do? Do you like nature? Museums? Big cities? Small towns? Art and Architecture? July in London will be great from a weather perspective. Rome will be very hot and crowded. Paris is an easy train ride from London and is a great destination. I went in July 2012 and the crowds were not too bad and the weather was hot. Italy is fantastic but there are so many different places that you will have to make some hard choices. Venice, Florence and Rome are great. The Cinque Terre, Tuscany/Umbria and Amalfi Coast are all vastly different. The French Riveria will be crowded but at least you have the beach! Normandy is a good destination if you are a WWII buff. If you don't like hot weather, stick with England, Scotland and Wales.

lb,

For travel in July (peak season!), it would be a good idea to get cracking and get some accommodations booked soon! Also, if you're planning to use budget flights to Italy (or wherever), it's a good idea to get those booked soon as the prices generally increase as the flight fills. Finally, EuroStar tickets will also be much cheaper if booked well in advance. I'm assuming your flights to / from London are already booked?

For choosing "safe" lodgings, I'd suggest using the RS guidebooks as they have a range of places listed in each city in different price ranges. You should be able to find copies at your local Library. As this is your first trip to Europe, it would also be prudent to have a look at Europe Through The Back Door as that has a LOT of good information on "how" to travel well in Europe.

I would highly recommend getting some kind of plan and some destinations figured out SOON! Europe is going to be hot, crowded and busy in July, and according to recent reports this is going to be an exceptionally busy year. July is not the best time to be "winging it". Travel by train from Italy to Spain is not a good idea, as it will be a LONG journey. A budget flight would be better.

One route that you could consider......

• Flight inbound London (4 nights should allow time to get over jet lag).
• EuroStar to Paris (3 nights)
• Train to Switzerland ( 2 nights - I'd suggest Lucerne as it's a larger city and has a good range of accommodations; also a reasonably easy trip from Paris)
• Train to Florence (4 nights which would allow some time for day trips to Siena or other locations)
• Train to Rome (4 nights, again with day trips)
• Flight back to London to connect with your flight home (check easyJet as they operate flights from Rome / FCO to London / LGW and also Luton but you'll need to be quick as the website indicated 115 people currently looking at that route)

Budapest is certainly possible, although it's somewhat in the opposite direction to the other locations you mentioned, so some compromises will be necessary.

Once you get your locations somewhat finalized, I'm sure the group here can help you put it all together fairly quickly. It would help to know where you're flying from?

Good luck with your planning!

With 14 to 18 days, I suggest picking 2 or maybe 3 cities of interest and doing day trips from those. That will minimize the number of days you waste traveling from city to city and settling in and orienting yourself in a new city. Fly into your first city and home from the last.

I would increase the number of days you spend in London, so that you have time for some day trips by train. There are lots of options, depending on your interests – Windsor, Kew Gardens, the Cotswolds, Cambridge or Oxford, York, etc. London Walks offers a number of low-cost tours within the city of London, as well as day trips.

I would then fly to the city of most interest in Italy. Look at skyscanner.com for low-cost flights – and buy as early as possible to get the best price.

If you want to do 3 cities, then select another city in Italy (and travel by train), or fly to Budapest.

Do day trips from each of your cities. The RS guidebooks identify some. I also find the Eyewitness guidebooks to be helpful, with broader coverage than RS and lots of photos.

I stay in budget hotels and have never felt unsafe. Booking.com has reviews by people who have actually stayed at the hotel; tripadvisor does not have that requirement. In Italy I usually stay in convents, which are very safe (but also very simple, and usually with a curfew between 10 and midnight, and with no/little English spoken); the website monasterystays.com lists many options. FYI, my lack of italian, while lamentable, has not been much of a problem.

I think you will have a wonderful trip on your own. I prefer solo travel – being to set able to set my own pace and choose what I do. Also, I find I meet more people when I travel on my own.

Hello Ibudnick4. If you will fly from an airport in the U.S.A. to an airport of London in England, and you will fly from an airport of London to an airport in the U.S.A., I recommend : be at England several days. And ride in a Eurostar train from London to Paris. That is the lowest cost transportation for travelling from London to Paris, if the ticket is purchased at the internet website of Eurostar, two weeks before the travel date, or earlier ! I suggest : in this trip, go to England and France, only. In an other trip, in a future year, you might fly to an other country in Europe, not located near England. That trip could be to Italy only. Or Italy and Switzerland. Or Vienna and Budapest. In this trip in July, you could fly from London to Rome (if an airline ticket is available for you). But I generally recommend, for most people going on their first trip to Europe : if you will be at England, see England ! And Paris, if you will have time for it. And you should be aware that the weather will be very hot at Rome in the month July. And huge crowds of people at Rome, and in Florence. Paris will have huge crowds of visitors in July. I think I would ride in Taxi cars in Paris. Well, actually, if it were my trip, I would not go to any big city in the month July. Many thousands of American persons are at Paris in July. I might fly from an airport located at or near London to a small airport located somewhere in France. And ride in trains in that area in France.

Thank you for all the suggestions and ideas! Very helpful, and gives me a lot more to think about, and apparently not much time to do that! To answer a few questions; I have already booked my flight to & from London. (for 15 days. I was thinking would possibly change flight home & extend a couple days to be able to see all I would like to) I live in Seattle, but am flying out of Vancouver, BC. as it was several hundred dollars cheaper! As far as my budget, it is not endless, but I don’t want to spend all of it on hotels. But that being said, feeling & being safe is worth it. I want to see it all. I love to learn about the history of Europe, the people, the sights, all of it! I don’t usually like being the traditional tourist (if there is such a thing) so that part is going to be tough for me. I hear that this summer apparently Europe is going to be ‘the’ place.... which also gives me pause. But I am determined to have an amazing time! Especially with your suggestions! Again, thank you for taking the time to help me out!!!! If anyone is going to be there in July, let me know!! “ )

Hello Ibudnick4. You said you want to see it all. You can not see it all in 15 days, or in 18 days. I recommend : be at England and one other country, in this trip in July. You probably will go on another trip to Europe, in a future year.

Oh, you will have a wonderful time!

Since you are from Seattle, consider how you will tolerate the heat in Italy in July. I've been in May and September and could almost not manage in Rome it felt so hot to me. I do have 20 years on you but take into consideration how much experience you have had in hot weather with no AC in public buildings and weak AC in your hotel.

Also, since you may be bound to the in/out of London flights, do plan to be back in London the day before you fly back home. Be cautious about flying in to London on a separate ticket or trying to take the Eurostar from Paris on your departure day.

I sent you a PM now that I know your travel arrangements and days. Hopefully it helps you sort through lodging options and other useful information you'll need.

Congratulations! I have been traveling solo for many years, I love it.

Get a good guidebook and a map. Watch some of the Rick Steves videos to help you decide where to go. London, Paris, Rome would be a classic first trip, perhaps add a couple of nights in Florence or Venice.

Schedule in terms of nights, not days; a night is a night, a day can be a couple of hours of available time if you are traveling a long distance.

This won't be your last trip.

Look at the London universities for relatively cheap accommodations. They rent out student housing during vacations. The locations are central, the rooms are basic (no tv, no maid service, for instance) but many have private bathrooms and kitchen privileges.

Anywhere you are likely to choose to go in Europe will be safe. You just need to take reasonable precautions (like using a money belt, not leaving a camera sitting on a table at a cafe, etc.). It's pretty late to save money on the early purchase of flight or train tickets. Hostels are usually cheaper than hotels and almost all have single rooms, usually with a shared bath, though you won't be sharing with more than a couple other people - dorm rooms have their own baths, and some have double rooms with private baths. There aren't many and they do get booked up. A lot of cities have Ibis hotels that are pretty well located. Usually they are less expensive and offer discounts for 2-3 night stays with prepaid non-refundable booking 3-4 weeks in advance. The rooms can be small but fine for a single person and there's usually a double bed.

Since you have a round-trip ticket from London, wherever you go, you'll have to use at least 1/2 day (and $$$) to get back to London. And you'll want to spend your last night there to get to the airport for your flight home. Given all that, I'd recommend Paris. You can tack on Belgium or the Netherlands. Ghent and The Hague are good options to stay. You can take day trips to nearby towns and cities (like Bruges, Brussels, Amsterdam, Delft) while staying in much less expensive hotels. I think Budapest might be a little more daunting for a first-timer, though if you can get flights that fit your budget, it's cheaper and has great museums and lots of other sights too - add a couple of day trips and a week will fly by. If you do that, I'd say just Budapest and England. There's a lot to see besides London. And plenty of day trips from London too.

I think your chances of finding reasonable accommodations in Italy are not great, so I'd leave that for your next trip, which you'll undoubtedly start planning as soon as you get back home.

We layover in London pretty frequently on our way to Budapest. If you fly out on BA or American they didn't use to penalize you for making the connection to Budapest in London three or four days later. If you are interested in Budapest then let me suggest:

1 Depart the US
2 Arrive London
3 London
4 London
5 London to Bath
6 Bath to London
7 Fly to Budapest
8 Budapest
9 Budapest
10 Budapest to Eger
11 Eger to Budapest
12 Budapest
13 Fly to Paris
14 Paris
15 Paris
16 Paris
17 Train to London
18 London to Home

My son did sort of this exact trip last Christmas when he came to visit us in Budapest. But go where it interests you the most. London, Paris and Budapest are all incredibly safe for a woman or for anyone for that matter. The only advantage to Budapest, other than it being the most beautiful city in the world, is that can help you plan that part with the intent of making you comfortable with the decision. Others can do the same for other locations. I hate to say this and I will get ramed for this, but I wouldn't let my daughter travel to Rome or Spain alone. Any place else mentioned here so far, but not Rome or Spain.

You also might want to visit the various country forums here and try and get an idea based upon the questions being asked and the responses. I think its pretty insightful.

Funny, James, I was street harassed far more in Paris than anywhere in Spain. Or anywhere else I've been, for that matter.

Ignoring the offender or a firm NO works well if you come across such harassment, lbudnick.

The only time that advice didn't work for me was in Paris. Strange how that works out ;)

I am guessing you are speaking about street vendors and beggars? I consider them safe, but inconvenient. My time in Paris has been pretty limited so maybe I need to pay more attention. But now that you mention it, on all 3 of my trips to Paris I saw pick pockets at work. But again, inconvenient, but not dangerous. But I will stand corrected (she is still not going to Barcelona or Rome).

I remember when I traveled as a student and ended up making an unplanned solo trip to Greece. We messed up on the connections. I stayed longer in Greece as I had heard such horrible stories about single women in Italy and Rome particularly for young, long-haired, blonde American women. But I went and I was fine. I did end up traveling with some friends, but I also went solo and I survived. My worst experience was on my last day waiting at the train station for an early morning train from Reutlingen to Stuttgart. I was very pleased with the way I told the harasser where to go and how quickly, auf Deutch! I think that the same phrase and tone in English would have worked too, though.

There is another thread about a 17 year-old wanting to travel solo in Europe. I am much, much more leery about that situation. It's amazing how much growing up you do in one year of college or full time work. I don't think I'd want 17 year old son or daughter traveling solo to Europe. Traveling and staying with family/friends or on a study trip, okay. Solo, not really at that age, unless some how they have proved themselves as the most mature 17 year-olds on earth. :)

Ibudnick4, "flying in and out of London, but I haven’t decided where to go after 3, 4 nights in London? "

One important thing to know; once you get out of London and into the countryside, hotel costs drop drastically, to perhaps one-fourth of what you'd pay in London.

You could have a great trip just doing England, Scotland and Wales. From London, you could take the train north to York, stay a couple of nights, then on up to Hadrian's Wall. Then train up to Edinburgh for several days. Then train across to Glasgow, train south to the Lake District of England for several days.

Then train to Wales to see a couple of castles. Then train to Bath for several days. Rent a car, spend time in the Cotswolds, see Warwick Castle. Then you've still got all of the southern coast of England to explore. Then you could return to London and take Eurostar train to Paris for a couple of days.

Return to London and stay there a couple of days. There are always more sights to see, pubs to visit.

I have always though that first-time travelers short-change themselves, thinking there is not more to see in London than a couple of days worth. There's a lot more to England than London, too.

"This summer apparently Europe is going to be "the" place".

Yes, apparently, you will have a ton of company in the usual tourist stops in Europe.

If I had to do Europe in July I would do Krakow the high country of Slovakia and then Budapest. Or possibly Budapest and the Romanian Carpathians to escape the heat and tourists. Or Slovenia and northern Croatia along with Budapest of course. The goal is to escape the heat and the worst of the tourism crowds. You understand Europe can get pretty warm and they don't have air conditioning any where close to what amerikans are use to.

How exciting for you! I just returned from traveling in Europe by myself for the first time and I loved every moment of it! You might consider Amsterdam, I did and loved it. It is extremely easy to get around in, most people speak English and there are numerous fun/interesting things to see. I never once felt unsafe or even uneasy anywhere in Amsterdam. It is easy to get to Amsterdam from London or Paris and numerous day trips are easily available by train throughout the Netherlands and even into Belgium. I spent a day in Brussels and even took a chocolate making workshop, which was so much fun and the results were delicious! Where ever you go, have a marvelous time!

I was also going to suggest (train) London-Paris-Amsterdam. If you hit these places, you'll be seeing a lot. From Amsterdam, you could hop a flight to Edinburgh, spend a day or two. Then train down the eastern side of England, with a stop in York, and back to London. Stay in London a couple of days at the end of your trip, do day trips out of London to see castles and other sites of interest.

Italy, Spain and Budapest are far flung given you have locked yourself into flying in and out of London already rather than booking an open jaw ticket. While you can catch a budget airline to any of them, you are spending a lot of time in transit. Italy and Spain, while perfectly fine places for a solo female travelers, are also pretty hot during July - if you go, make sure you don't cheap out on lodging and book yourself a room with a/c. Personally, I'd suggest you look into countries that are accessible to each other by fairly short train trips. For a trip that is 15 days (including arrival & departure days), I would say London for 4 nights, Eurostar to Paris for 4 nights, train from Paris to Belgium and base in one city (Brussels, Bruges, Ghent or Antwerp) as other Belgian cities are easily accessible via commuter trains so you can do a day trip without having to change lodgings, train from Belgium to Amsterdam for 3 or 4 nights, train back to London for one night before you fly home to Seattle. That's four countries you can get a quick taste of. You aren't going to see them in depth in the amount of time you have - but it's enough time to see some of the highlights. All of the cities mentioned are really easy for a solo female to get around, even if you don't speak another language. I also recommend university lodging when available, Ibis hotels for budget rooms with A/C, or hostels for single rooms or a spot in a small dorm room (2 to 4 beds max) if you don't mind sharing with strangers - note that many hostel dorms can be co-ed unless specifically stated in the description that it is a female-only dorm room. I don't recommend staying anywhere with a "curfew" or "lock-out" - no matter if it is a hostel or a convent/monastery stay. Particularly in Italy or Spain (if you do go there) as locals eat dinner fairly late. But if you want to eat dinner early with the other tourists and avoid crowded restaurants, or you like being in bed by 10-11PM, maybe you would not be adverse to a curfew.

"I have 15 days which I might stretch into 18 days, in July. I’m flying in and out of London, but I haven’t decided where to go after 3, 4 nights in London?"

If you mean THIS July, and not July of 2016, you'd better make a reservation at a London hotel for your first 3 or 4 nights, pronto.

Give us an idea of your budget, and we will begin making suggestions for a London hotel.

I've been to Europe 3 times and absolutely love it! I'd recommend going to Amsterdam for 3-4 days. There is so much history and culture there, not to mention that it is one of the most safe cities that I've ever seen. It gets a bad rap for drugs, but it's no worse than any other place. Anyhow, London is my favorite and I'm sure you'll love it there. I stayed at the London School of Economics dorms last year and it was fully furnished, more like a complete apartment & 70ish GBP per night. Just a warning though, the addresses are completely out of order and it took forever to find it.
I would pick 3-4 cities and stay 3-4 nights in each one. If you're like me (a travel junkie), there is no way 15 days will be enough & you'll want to come back again and again. Check out AirB&B for cheap accommodations. As mentioned above, take flights instead of the trains for long distances. Riding a train for 3-4 hours is no fun in my opinion. Flights are very cheap and quick. I used WizzAir to fly from Netherlands to Poland and back for 120 euros. Oh one last point, the euro is much lower than the past few years, at $1.10 so your timing is perfect. It was $1.35 his time last year. Well, best of luck to you!! If you have any questions, just ask :)