First time traveling abroad!!!

Where to go? Why, right here on this website, where there are plenty of suggestions just waiting for you to explore. Use the menu on left, Explore Europe, to get to the Paris France pages. A good browse will give you a framework for asking questions.

What are your interests? For me, as a Beatles and football fan, Liverpool was a perfect first choice for me.

If Europe to you means café societies, strolling along the Champs D’elysees, and the Louvre, by all means go to Paris.

I’d suggest finding some YouTube travel vlogs. Plus, Rick has videos for just about all of Europe, there’s st least 3 for Paris.

Either London, Paris or Italy.

Totally depends on your interest. If you’ve always dreamed of going to a particular place, go even if it’s not a common first timer destination!

In general - you mentioned Paris so I’ll start there. How long will you have? If it’s a week, Paris and day trips (Paris can easily fill a week!) OR Paris and London. 2 weeks? London, Paris, and Rome is classic for a reason. OR dig further into France - Paris, Provence, etc.

Most important - don’t try to squeeze too much in. One or two night visits are not enough for almost anywhere. Aim for 3-5 nights (or more!) per city, 2 is ok for a smaller town.

If you go to different places, fly into one and home from the other. So fly into London and home from Paris, or vice versa. Use “multi city” booking and it won’t be much more than a regular round trip.

Rick Steves has a book called Europe through the Back Door which is excellent for travel skills. Trains, money, packing, choosing hotels, all the logistics that can make or break your trip are covered. Seriously, get this book.

I’ll mention while there’s a lot of good information in Europe through the back door, some of it is pretty dated. I really hope someone on Rick’s staff does a compete rewrite.

Because of the French transportation-labor strikes situation, I personally would not recommend France for a first-timer. Start in countries will more dependable, efficient public transportation systems: Germany, Switzerland, Austria, to name a few. Obviously, the UK is great, as there's no language issues, and if there are no strikes on the French horizon, you can Eurostar to Paris.
Safe travels!

You have so many choice. Not limited to Europe. South America, Egypt, Israel, Japan, China, Australia, these are all great places in addition to Europe.

Make a list of five places that you have discovered in books and/or movies, or studied in school.
Go to TripAdvisor.com and put in the name of the place and things to do. You will discover a sampling of key things to do and see there. Perhaps that will help.

I was lucky to find an overseas job that allowed me to travel a lot outside the USA. Travel is wonderful, but do your research first.

Paris is a great place to go, but there are other wonderful places.

What do you like the most?
1) Historical places Key historical places are London, Paris, Rome, Florence, Athens, Egypt, Jerusalem for example/
2) Places to see art and culture Rome, Florence, Paris, Madrid, London, St. Petersburg, Russia
3) Scenic places Hawaii, Norway, Alaska, Around the Horn of South America,
4) Places to explore or relax (some overlap with 1,2, and 3) Caribbean beaches, Hiking in Peru to see Machu Picchu
These are the four main reasons that people travel outside their country.

No one's asked, so, what amount of traveling you have done, period? I cannot tell where you are from, presumably the US. When are you thinking of going overseas?

I found it overwhelming at times all the planning, parsing out the useful advice from, well, the not so useful advice. You'd need to plan ahead with enough lead time if you want Global Entry, if necessary a debit card that either charges no fees for ATM withdrawals or one that refunds those fees.

Kind of hard to know what further advice to offer from the scant information the OP provided.

My first question to those who want to go overseas is where do you have an interest. My first trip overseas was to London simply because I was an anglophile and Holmesian and wanted to see all the sights I read about and saw in the britpop music videos.

My friend visited Germany because she took German in high school and had an exchange student live with her family.

There should be somewhere you've seen that interests you. After that, it's how long and how much to spend for vacation. Planning is the fun part.

Go to the Our Tours section and choose the tour that interest you the most. You will learn so much taking a Rick Steves tour, not only about where you are going but how to travel. The whole website will teach you lots.
I hadn’t traveled in over 25 years (to Ireland) and took my first RS tour in May with several days before and after on our own.

Watch Rick's European Travel Skills videos: there are 3. Here's a link to Part One: https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/video/tv-show/european-travel-skills-part-1 Sooo helpful for your first time to Europe!

He talks about, in Video 2, how to create an itinerary.

How long do you have to visit? If you have, say 10 nights, you might do 4 London, 4 Paris, and 2 Amsterdam. Those cities are connected by easy, high-speed train (London to Paris on Eurostar; Paris to Amsterdam on Thalys).

If you have no idea where to start, look at Rick's tours. Even if you want to travel by yourself, this gives you a good idea of the top highlights in the major cities; e.g. his 14-day Best of Europe Tour: https://www.ricksteves.com/tours/europe/europe-14-days

Personally I think London is the perfect city to ease into Europe for Americans - same language, but quite different enough to make one really feel that they are "across the pond."

Let's try to narrow it down.

1. How many nights will you have in Europe? Usually that's one less than the total days away from home - fly out on a night flight and arrive the next morning, return on a morning flight and land the same day, is typical.
2. What's your budget - general parameters - very tight, moderate, expansive. Some places, like Paris, are pretty expensive, others can be a lot less. If it's tight, are you okay with staying in a hostel in a dorm room with 4, 6 or 8 beds?
3. What time of year? Some places are better in winter, not very good in summer, some it doesn't matter. Budget does. High season prices can be double low season prices.
4. Do you have a special interest in art or history, or something else?
5. What airports are near you? It's okay to tell us where you live. Non-stop flights are better, shorter flights are better. Your budget may play a part in the decision too.

Chani breaks it down nicely. Everything she says is an important consideration. To me the most important thing is what would you most like to see? Start there and don't try to see too much. A whirlwind tour produces a blur rather than great memories.

If you have no idea, watch the videos on this site. Which one stirs your imagination (and of those you're traveling with) most? That's the place to start for you.

There is so much to see, it will literally take an entire lifetime. After a few multi-country trips I now try to focus on one country/language/culture per trip.

Research can be your best friend. If you've always wanted to go to Paris then that's a good start to build a plan around. Now ask yourself why you want to go there and start researching...it can be fun. This forum and this entire website is a wealth of knowledge. Horsewoofie suggested looking through the Rick Steve's tours, even if you don't want to go on a tour, the itineraries are excellent for listing potential sites to visit. Someone else suggested the RS Europe Through the Back Door which I found very helpful. Head to the library and check out the travel section. When I'm starting to plan a trip I prefer the Eyewitness and Insight guides as a starting point. They give a broad overview of the sites. Then I move on to the Rick Steves guides for logistics.

As a solo traveler my first choice was London for 6 days--felt familiar and was a great way to see how I felt about travelling alone; turns out I love it, and London, and have since returned 2 more times. Paris seemed daunting to me and was the focus of my 6th trip, once I had worked up more travel skills. Pick somewhere you have always wanted to go and the good people of this forum will help you!

Hi,

I would suggest London and Paris, or you could do as I did the first time over, depending on the time factor,.....London, Berlin, Vienna.

Be aware of your interests, plan accordingly.

I don’t know you and have no idea what you dream of when you think of traveling overseas.

People above have given you all kinds of recommendations but only you can decide where your passion for travel is.

It has been two days since you started this thread and yet you haven’t commented on anybody’s suggestions. The only person who knows what areas of the world fascinates you is still only you.

You might decide that the ocean you want to cross is actually the Pacific and Bali could be calling you.

The sky is the limit!! we can make so many suggestions but they are mostly personal. So my suggestion would be:
- research online read/watch so you have have a feel what area in the world you would like to see
- how long can you travel?
- budget
- what would you like to do? nature, museums, fun
Once you know where you like to go, let us know so we can help you more!!

A few thoughts:

Go to YouTube and watch some of Rick's "Travel with Rick Steves" shows. They're great! Take note of places you learn about that seem most interesting to you.

Also, Rick has recommended that if you're a first time abroad traveler, consider if starting in a place where people speak English is important to you. If so, perhaps the UK or Ireland is a good first stop.

Have fun!

It's been about a week since the OP wrote their single post on the forum and s/he hasn't commented on our suggestions or answered our questions.