Going to Europe in March but can't limit myself on sights.

Hi Jeremiah,

I say, go for it. You have this opportunity, but once in a lifetime, so do it.

(I'm much older and life tends to get in the way. I envy you the opportunity.)

With that said, just counting up what you want to see, yes it would be doable, but it's a lot of traveling. I'm no expert, so I'll await others to chime in.

But, I give you a hearty YES. You will remember this the rest of your life and I say, do it before your life and responsiblities get in the way.

Hi,

It looks like a very interesting trip for about 9and 1/2 weeks...my last one this past summer was 67 days.

Definitely get the 21 country Eurail Youth Pass if you're under 25. I would suggest cutting Lisbon and Madrid from the itinerary listed. To get full use of the Eurail Pass which I have had in almost all of my trips, be willing to take a night train from time to time, such as from Paris-Berlin, Berlin-Vienna, Amsterdam-Berlin, Berlin-Munich, Amsterdam-Vienna, or vice versa on any of these.

What are your overriding interests, cultural, historical, landscape, etc. I think to go to Madrid/Lisbon and Provence is pushing it, depending on your interests, cut one of them, or cut Bern.

Again your interests...Switzerland and Provence don't interest me; decide what you want to see specifically in each of the places listed,...a specific museum, the architecture, landscape, monument, the beer (always a reason), a birth house, etc. You may want to get two Eurail Passes. Happy Travels

Jeremiah,

This this is your first trip to Europe, my first suggestion would be to read the Guidebook Europe Through The Back Door. That will help you with things like Itinerary planning and "rail skills" (which is important).

In planning your trip, remember Rick's advice and "assume you will return". There's no reason you couldn't continue travelling even after you "start in the real world". If it's important to you, it will happen!

In looking over your list of proposed destinations, it appears that you want to visit 28+ locations (which doesn't include the "many small towns") within a 70 day period. That averages out to 2.5 days in each place. I didn't see any allowance for travel times between locations, which will be significant in some cases. Realistically, I believe you'll have to drop some of the places you listed and priortize on those that are most important.

"rent cars to get to the smaller towns that I want to see"

You didn't indicate your age, but keep in mind that some rental agencies have restrictions on those under 25. Also, rental cars are not too cost effective for one person.

I'm sure the others will have lots of suggestions. It would be easier to suggest an Itinerary once there's a more workable list of cities.

Good luck with your planning!

Jeremiah,

The situation you describe is pretty different than most others here see. You don't have a set time frame or budget. You basically want to see everything, of course. And you have a professional agenda as well.

That means there is little specific that we can help you with other than saying "go for it".

It makes sense to me that you establish a starting point that is a good fit for your top interest, a cheaper flight, and a logical starting point geographically. If you don't want to get stuck with an expensive take-it-or-leave-it flight back, then you should book that, too.

What happens in between ought to be as flexible as possible. Given that you have never done this before and hope to make professional contacts as well, you want to arrive in a city with the flexibility to stay for a few hours or a few days. Stay in hostels unless you are wealthy or travelling with a friend. There are good ones in every city and many towns, too.

It's very possible that point-to-point rail tickets or bus (too many people forget that busses run everywhere, too, including places trains don't go, and generally almost as fast) will be as cheap or cheaper than rail passes. Keep in mind also that many trains require reservations and suppliments to the rail pass, making them less of a good deal that they might seem to be.

The one thing that I would strongly advise, is that you not limit your exposure to Europe to just the big cities. That's what many college backpackers do and it's a shame. Unless nature gives you the creeps, make sure you set your feet on the ground in rural areas, too, not just seeing it from the window of the train.

Read Ricks "Europe Through The Back Door" and "Best of Europe"

Good luck

This might work for you:

http://www.couchsurfing.org/

My flight is from New Orleans to Rome arriving March 12th with 1 stop in Frankfurt. I got a great deal on it($300).

I also said Bern, but I was just generalizing the Alps...poorly. Gimmelwald is more likely my destination.

I was thinking of cutting Lisbon and Madrid anyway. Provence is interesting to me because it is small towns with history.

I am interested in history. I love ruins and unique and important structures as well.

Thanks for your advice.

Because you are young and on a tight budget, check out the "Let's Go" series of travel books.

Always assume that you'll go back. I got the Europe "bug" after my first trip and go as much as I can now. That being said, this is the time for you to spend as much time as you can over there, before you get tied down with job, rent, car payment, those kind of things.

How much planning are you doing before you go over? Are you making all your reservations or doing them on the fly? If you go equipped with a ballpark plan and good guidebooks (as was said before, the Let's Go series may be better, it's more suited for the travel you're doing), you can make reservations while you're there and change your plans as you like. If you fine a place you like, you can stay there. If you don't like it, you can move on.

You'll have opportunities to go to Europe again, but probably not for this length of time. Your other trips over will probably be limited to one country or area, as you'll probably only have a couple of weeks.

You might want to check out the Andy Steves (Rick's son) website, http://www.andysteves.com/, geared toward people like you.

And for my two cents - GO! Have a wonderful time. I have few regrets, but one is that I didn't take this kind of trip when I had the freedom and time to do it. You will create a lifetime of memories that will be a great basis for your future travels (fewer, and farther, between I'm afraid).

Four weeks after my 16th birthday I Interrailed from Germany to Paris, Madrid, Lisbon, Barcelona, Nice, Corsica, Lyon and back (also including many, many smaller towns and villages alonge the route) and I just loved it. My recommendation to you is to also subscribe to the newsletters of all the relevant no frills airlines like Ryanair, Airberlin.com and easyjet (all three of them are huge all across Europe) plus Transavia, Aer Lingus, Flybe, Clickair, Wizzair... You can easily get a roundtrip from e.g. Frankfurt-Hahn or Brussels to the South of Spain incl. luggage and fees for €40, if you're flexible and savvy of the specials. Also, for starters, try to locate three base cities around which you'd like to start discovering Europe: One in the UK/Ireland, one in Central Europe and one in the South...

What I would do, Jeremiah, is use the Deutschbahn site to figure out your most efficient connections, travel duration and times.

For example in 2005 we flew Ryanair from (Venice) Treviso to (Paris) Beauvais. We left the hotel in Venice 2 hours later & arrived at our hotel in Paris 1 hour earlier than if we'd taken the train...so for us it really wasn't worth the hassle of flying and getting to the mroe distant airports.
Another year we wanted to get from Paris to Florence without taking an overnight train, so we stopped off in Aix en Provence for 3 days, then Monterosso for 2 and then Florence.
I think you will love every minute of your trip if you can accept that there will be challenges!

Hi.

If it is history you're aiming for, you picked a good number of the right places: Paris, London, Prague, Amsterdam/Haarlem, Vienna, Berlin, Munich...these are also the exact cities I saw on my first 2 trips in my early 20s, like you.

As for keeping down expenses, get a HI youth hostel card; with it you can eat at the DJH hostels (Ger.) for under 6 euros, which is a dinner buffet, without having to stay there. I know I did it in several of the DJH hostels in this last trip in the summer of 2009. Not all the private hostels, however, serve a hot dinner.

Eat at the train stations where you can get hot plate food and at these Asian stir-fry places there; in Germany they're called Asia (Schnell) Imbiss...they're everywhere. Also, eat at the university cafeterias called Mensa in Germany...they're open to the public, such as in Berlin. Instead of staying at hostels all the time, try the university dorms, which may be available too.

Check at a travel agency while you're there to see if you qualify for youth fares if you decide to fly, assuming you are under 25. But your biggest savings will be traveling by rail with the Eurail Youth Pass.

Ok. Here is my plan.

I arrive in Rome at 2:15 pm. Hopefully I will sleep on the flight so jetlag won't be so much of a problem(My flight is 8 hours from DC to Frankfurt so if I can sleep on there It will be like normal...i just have to fall asleep at 7pm).

Friday:
When I arrive, I plan to check in to wherever I am staying(hostel, hotel, couch...whatever) and then get the Roma Pass and use the transportation card to make my own hop-on hop-off tour of Rome to get accustomed to the city.

Saturday:
Vatican City in the morning then find a random activity to fill my time in the afternoon. Maybe go to Gladiator School or something silly like that.

Sunday:
First thing in the morning. Go to the Colosseum, Palatine Hill, the Forum, and the Pantheon. After a good late lunch, try to get as much of the National Museums in as possible before they close then eat a late Dinner.

Monday will likely be a travel day for me but I do not know whether to take a Daytrip to the Blue Grotto in Capri, get to Firenze for the next leg of my journey, or take a flight to Athens(found a round-trip on easyjet for less than 100 dollars which would be cheaper than going to Capri).

What do you guys recommend?

I'm not normally an advocate of not planning so much, but I'd recommend not planning so much. Take a big thick European guidebook, call ahead to your next hostel the day before each new stop to book a bed, and just go. It's great to do the advance research and know what you want to see but don't stress over it and don't lock yourself into a schedule. You're traveing in the off season so you have the luxury of winging it.

While it's ridiculous to say you'll never be back until you're old--people who want to travel figure out a way to travel, whether they have budget restrictions, kids, whatever--it might be true that you won't be able to travel with this much freedom your whole life. Traveling with friends, girlfriends, kids, traveling when you start wanting nice hotels, when you can't deal with not having reservations....all of these things make being footloose and fancy free harder. You're young and solo now, just relax, don't worry about planning everything in advance, and you'll have an amazing time. You might be able to do your 28+ stops or you might be miserable with that kind of itinerary in a week; you might meet people you want to travel to an unexpected place with, you just don't know so don't set anything in stone (except your first night). Have fun!

I agree that I don't want to lock myself in too much, but I think that a roundtrip to Athens for about 80 bucks is an excellent deal. The prices are only that way for that monday and tuesday with the return trip on Saturday. If I leave any closer to Easter, the prices skyrocket to 150 each way.

I really need to get a phone that will work in Europe...I may just buy one when I get over there or on Ebay because they are a huge ripoff in America.

Another question. I have a relatively small computer and am wondering should I pack it along or just go to internet cafes everywhere. My family wants me to keep them updated via Facebook.

I have a pretty new notebook(less than 4 months old), but I think it would be a good idea to give my computer to my brother and buy a new netbook.

My notebook only gets about 2 hours without a charge, but most netbooks seem to get about 5 hours which would be huge while traveling. Thanks for the advice. I wasn't sure how common wifi was in Europe.

Also, I will be getting a phone on Ebay. I was thinking about going phoneless but that would be a poor choice.

Jeremiah- consider waiting on the phone until you are in Europe. If you start in London- you could get one there.

Just remember that if you get a mobile phone in London, you'll have to purchase one plug adapter so it will work elsewhere in Europe, and a second plug adapter so you can plug it in here at home. British-style plugs are "unique," to say the least.