Need Advice for 1st Backpacking Trip in Europe - 22 Days

First backpacking trip: is this your first trip to Europe?
Allow some time for mistakes to be made, your initial itinerary is too jam packed and leans more to accomplishing a "been there, but not done it" mentality. Examples: One week in Italy with four destinations allows bare minimum time in any one place. Suggestion: toss out Pisa and Siena. Spend three nights in Rome and three in Florence.
Keep in mind you are traveling in peak tourist season and it will be hot. Have you checked on availability for hostels?

Travel order: fly to Madrid and spend three days in to Madrid take AVE to Barcelona (use RENFE for advance ticket purchase) spend four days in Barcelona (relax and spend half a day on the beach and swim in the Med), take a great hiking day trip to Montserrat. Then take high speed train to Paris. There is a great website called The man in seat 61 http://www.seat61.com for researching train travel.

Three days in Paris then onto Frankfurt (my preference would be Munich and the surrounding area; including a visit into the Alps).

From Germany into Florence and then to Rome where you would fly home.

Allow time to absorb the places you visit, especially the people. Count on travel stress consuming precious time and when stress occurs, find an outdoor setting an relax with a glass of (beer, wine, sangria). In other words, make some adult lemonade.

Pack less, a lot less, no even less than that! Lugging a backpack, at any age, can be a hassle. Have you already purchased your walking shoes and started to break them in? Start now!

Forthrightly there are a lot of ways to make this trip and I am confident many folks will help you. But, it appears you have a lot of research and preparation to conduct and June really is around the corner.

Good luck! Meet people. Make memories!

Is your arrival day #1 of the 22? Is your departure day #22 of the 22? If so, both those days are likely to be lost. The first due to jet-lag and getting to your final destination of the arrival day, the last because you will likely be getting on the plane for home early in the day. Plus or minus a day or 2 can make a difference in your planning. You must have gotten a deal or bought your tickets already to be flying RT Frankfurt. You don't mention flying from Frankfurt to Italy anywhere...? If you don't have your tickets already, you might check into flying into Paris, Rome or Madrid and back from one of them, i.e. "multi-city" or "open jaw." It would save you precious time.

A week is not very long to cover all the cities you list in each country. If you keep them all in, you will have to be very selective in what you see and do. On my first backpacking trip to Europe so many years ago, I spent 5 weeks in Italy alone and 3 of them were in Florence. But your interests are likely different.

• I think you need to do some prioritizing here. Define what you want to see where, then decide if you will have enough time to do that. You have grouped things nicely, but you might find out that it would be worthwhile to drop a country. I've been all the places you list and you can't go wrong with any of them. It will be a tough decision.
  
• Take a look at available hostels where you want to go. Remember that they, and most everything else, will be crowded in the summer.
• Flying is a good choice if needed. We've flown from Madrid to Florence in the past on a small European airline.
• Use the DB Bahn website (http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en) to find train routes, schedules, stops, train changes, travel time and especially a map of the route so you can learn what you will be seeing as you make your way from place to place. You can't buy tickets from them for any of the countries you listed (unless maybe the trip starts or ends in Germany), but I think it's the best option for seeing where you will be going and how long it will take. Be sure to pay attention to the fast trains if you want to cover some ground in a short time, often taking less time than flying would.
• Go to the Man in Seat 61 (http://www.seat61.com/) to learn whether or not a pass would work for you. I think it would be a waste of money, but he's the expert.

However you work this out, you are going to have a great time. If you do choose Barcelona and 2 cities in France, I'd pick someplace on the Mediterranean/Provence area. It's about 5 hours from Barcelona (using a fast TGV train plus a regional one) with lovely scenery between, and you can take another fast TGV train from some TGV stations in the area to Paris in 3 hours or less.

@ Marbleskies

Thank you for the reply… No, it's not my first trip to Europe. I've been living in Germany for the past 2 years, which is why I'll be starting and ending my trip in Frankfurt. I have been checking out hostel availability and will make reservations as soon as I know exactly where I'm going. Packing light is something that I've learned to be good at, I did a dry run and my pack weighs close to nothing. I have several pairs of hiking shoes and boots to choose from as well. 22 days is really not a lot of time and all of your suggestions make sense. I sincerely appreciate all of the advice and will definitely take everything you said into consideration. Thanks again.

@ Lo,

Hello and thanks for the reply… As I said to Marbleskies, I live in Germany, so I have a bigger time window to work with on that first and last day. I was planning on taking a train down to Florence to start my trip because I have a DB card, unless flying ends up being cheaper or I don't purchase a Eurail pass. As with any other advice I receive on here, I'll think about everything you said. I've done some traveling so far, but nothing extensive or backpacking. I appreciate your help, thanks again.

Do you have a residence permit for Germany? If you have officially lived there for more than six months, then you'll have to look into Interrail pass options instead of Eurail. (But if you live on a military base, then you still live in USA.) If you have a Bahn Card with Rail Plus feature, it should at least give you discounts on the trains to/from Germany, which are two of your longest, most expensive routes (and may also combine with advance-purchase discounts). Barcelona-Paris by TGV is another route worth booking soon ahead for a better price; see tips at http://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips/transportation/trains/france-rail-passes#ticket-tips; or can be cheaper to fly.

• Rail passes often do not save you money, so if you can narrow down your schedule and can buy some of the longer trips in advance, that will probably be a better bet.
• I agree with the person who said to skip Pisa/Siena, just stay in Rome and Florence. Now, if you really want to see either Siena or Pisa still you can take a train and make a day trip of it, but there's no reason in moving all of your stuff from hostel to hostel. Use Florence as your base to see Tuscany. (Remember, with 3 nights in each city that's only two full days in each).
• If you want to see Madrid, Toledo and Barcelona - consider making that stay a little over a week (9 nights, so you get 3 in each) and then spend 5 nights instead of 7 in Paris. You can always take a day trip out of Paris while you're there.
• Bring a lock with you. Many hostels will have lockers, but not all will offer locks. I've never had a problem with people messing with my stuff in hostels, even when I didn't lock it up, but it's something to consider when you're doing that many hostels.
• I'm assuming you're thinking of flying a budget airline between Rome and Madrid. Just make sure to factor in the cost of checking your bag (and possibly paying for the weight) if it is too large/heavy to be a carry-on according to the airline.
• If you take the train from Frankfurt to Florence, it's 10 hours. Do-able, of course, but a long ride. You may want to spend the night in Bern to break it up. But that means taking a day away from Italy or another part of your trip, so that may not be worth it to you. The other option would be fly from Frankfurt into Italy. Ryanair flies Frankfurt Hahn (the airport is far out of the way and tiny, I know) to Pisa and I'm seeing prices as low as 23€ (though remember extra fees as mentioned above). You could see the Leaning Tower and make your way to Florence by train.

Hello beaconj015. If you go to all of those places, transportation between some of the cities is likely to be expensive. I do not recommend buying any rail pass for this trip. You said you want to travel to Italy first. I do not recommend traveling in trains from Germany to Italy, as that would take a long time and it could be complicated. I recommend : fly from Frankfurt to Rome. Train from Rome to Florence, and train from Florence to Rome. Fly from Rome to Madrid. Train to Barcelona. Fast train from Barcelona to Paris (a six hour trip), trains from Paris to Frankfurt (probably via Strassbourg in France, and Baden Baden in Germany). I suggest : when you are in France, do not travel a very long distance from Paris. Of course, when you travel in a train from Barcelona, you could go to another town in France, and go from there to Paris. But I think it would be more simple to ride in the fast train from Barcelona to Paris. And you could go on an overnight trip from Paris to an other town in France, such as Blois for visiting royal Chateau at the Loir Valley. Or, go from Barcelona to Paris. When you leave Paris, ride in a train to Strassbourg, and stay at that area for two days before riding in trains to Frankfurt (via Baden Baden).

Toledo doesn't need three days. Most people do it as a day trip, with perhaps an overnight to see the different character of the town after the daytrippers go home. You could use the time better in Madrid or Barcelona.

Everyone has different travel styles - some folks like to linger in one place while others prefer to move along - both are fine and result in two totally different experiences.

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As far as the rail pass goes it requires a little homework and then making an informed choice . Do you qualify for a youth pass or an interrail pass? When pricing point to point tickets use the rail site for each country.

1. Determine which pass & its cost
2. Price your itinerary for advance purchase tickets (these will be locked in for a specific day/train usually NOT refundable)
3. Price your itinerary for same day of travel point to point tickets ( this would offer flexibility in your schedule)

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I might do something like this:

• Florence 3 nights
• Travel to Siena via stop in Pisa for a few hours - 2 nights in Siena
• Rome 4 nights
• Madrid 4 nights - day trip to Toledo
• Barcelona 4 nights - you might consider flying Bar to Par - earlier trains are more $$ than later trains - 6 1/2 hrs by TGV
• Paris 5 nights with day trip to Versailles, perhaps Chartres or Reims for champagne cellar .

Have a great time what ever way you decide

I haven't been to all those places but less is more for sure. I always have to plan trips telling myself it won't be the only time I'll visit those places or I try to fit too much in. Two things - I found that the Eurorail was not a good deal unless it perfectly fits your travel plans. I found that mostly doing a mix of trains and flights where the best bet to save time and money. I would check out Ryanair to see if there are flights that work with your itinerary. Their flights only go on certain days but are great deals especially if you are traveling light. I would also look into night trains - saves time and money as you don't have to pay for another night at a hostel and spend your sleeping time traveling. Sleeping in the 1st class isn't that much more but MUCH more comfortable and worth it. Do you already have your airline tickets? If not open jaw is a great way to not have to double back - or again look into Ryanair to get back to Frankfurt (although the airports are about an hour from each other). Otherwise you eat up time with unnecessary travel. Good luck and have fun!!!

@ everyone who replied to my post…

Thank you all for the insight and recommendations. I read every single one of your posts, multiple times. I wish there was a function on this website so that I could reply to each post individually. Anyway, after considering all that was said and some revisions, I think I came to a good itinerary. I cut out a couple of places and will not be spending less than 3 nights anywhere. I've narrowed all transportation down with the exception of flying from Germany to Italy. All there's left to do is make ticket reservations and purchases. Once again, I appreciate everybody's help, thank you very much.

Sincerely

My advice is to not over plan this trip. Speaking from experience gained a long time ago, have in mind three or four places that you definitely want to get to. Then head out and go where the winds take you. Your time is pretty brief for a backpack trip, however you will most likely decide to alter the itinerary as you go along.

June isn't the peak travel period in Europe as you know so you should have no difficulty finding places to stay at the last minute. Overnight train travel is a good way to compress places into a shorter time frame.

I disagree with the notion that "less is more" on a trip such as yours. If you have the energy for it, see as many places as you can. I've spent 10 daylight hours in places I didn't have longer for that I wouldn't have gotten to otherwise.

Book train tickets as soon as your dates are firm.. cheapest tickets sell out first.. they get pricier closer to date of travel. I have already purchased train and inter europeon plane tickets for our late july trip. Missed a few deals already! I use Easyjet and Vueling, and will be using Ryanair this year for first time.. but only after careful consideration of which airports they use.. I know I would not choose to use Ryanair to fly to Paris as they use Beauvais Airport for Paris and its a pain in the butt to commute to and from.. 90 kms away and no direct train.. train and bus needed.