Need help deciding on destinations for Eurotrip next year

rduarte,

welcome and congrats.

you realize you and every other kid maybe on spring break also?

since you will have europe in your backyard, where you go will depend on what you want to do/see/experience which you dont say.

to me, if i was in your boots, i would be going everywhere whenever i could. you may want to say what your likes/interestes are so others can give some input. if not, i would just say jump on a train and see where it goes.

happy trails

Since you're going from London, you can catch budget air carriers just about anywhere. Low budgets work best in the countries to The East.

How about flying to Greece, and then heading north through the countries that used to make up Yugoslavia? You could end up in Budapest, a great city for young people. Then Vienna and up to Prague--another fine place for bohemians. Munich is another great city for fun. Berlin also has less expensive accommodations than other large cities.

I had a young friend take a 6 week trip of Europe that started in Kiev. He said the quality of the young adults there caught him completely off guard, and he stayed there two weeks--and didn't want to leave.

There are just so many great cities in Europe for 20 somethings.

Spain/Portugal and Eastern Europe (Czech Republic/Hungary etc.) are cheaper destinations. You could easily spend a month tootling around either. Easter week in 2014 is April 13-20 and is high season in parts of Spain, perhaps in other places too. Southern Spain and Italy are likely to have the best (warmest/driest) weather in early spring.

krakow, Budapest, and Prague are some of my favorite cities and all very budget friendly for student travelers. That being said, I really think you can make any city in Europe pretty cost effective (and still safe and enjoyable) if you plan for it- meaning staying in hostels, buying food from markets and making a picnic, etc. I studied abroad in Rome in college so I know where you are coming from! And I know you can make great memories on a student budget.

I think the first question to ask yourself is what you want to see most. The second question is to determine your budget. And I would divide your budget into what you want to spend on travel expenses (planes/trains) and your total per day expenses (how much you can afford on lodging, food, yours, souvenirs, etc). To give you a starting point, Rick Steve says, in his books, you can do any city in Europe for 150 a day. and some of them you can do much more cheaply. i think once you narrow down those things, you can get a lot more specifics from everyone on this website.

It may be tempting to pack in as many things as possible in those four weeks. I would recommend against that- for one, constantly changing locations adds a lot to the expense. Secondly, you WILL be back. I have yet to meet one person who quits traveling after his or her first trip. And I think it is better soak up one city for a few days than to be on the move constantly.

Good Luck!

Kristen

Your best friend for travel will be a guide to budget airlines: www.whichbudget.com or www.skyscanner.com Bought far enough in advance, tickets on these planes are extraordinarily cheap. Bought on a whim two day before departure, expect no bargains.

Your best friend for travel will be a guide to budget airlines: www.whichbudget.com or www.skyscanner.com Bought far enough in advance, tickets on these planes can be extraordinarily cheap. Bought on a whim two days before departure, expect no bargains. Inter-country trains also offer deep discounts for advance purchase. The encyclopedia for train travel is www.seat61.com Student I.D. often extracts lower prices for many things in Europe.

In your shoes I might fly down to Seville, hit a couple more places in southern Spain such as Cordoba and Granada, train or bus up to Madrid, train to Barcelona, then head into southern France, such as Carcassonne/Avignon/Nice/Monaco. Then train to Italy, perhaps Milan, then to Venice, then down to Florence, Rome, Naples. You could hit plenty more towns in Italy if you chose.

Then I might look at getting a cheap flight from Naples or Rome up north to Vienna, Munich, Prague, or Berlin, and using your remaining time to hit some of those great cities.

Of course the greatest destination near London is Paris, but if you have say a three day weekend before your big break I would hit Paris then via the Eurostar.

Budget wise: a few years ago I did a thirty day trip through Spain, southern France, Italy, and Croatia. Stayed in hostels and cheap hotels, and had at least one decent restaurant meal a day. It cost me about $3,500 including intra-Europe transportation.

Wow, thanks for all the responses everyone! To answer you Keith: they're actually just called academic terms, but since they're three-month academic terms I just called them trimesters.

This is a rough draft of a route we thought of:
London
Paris
Lisbon
Madrid
Barcelona
Nice
Cinque Terre
Florence
Vienna
Prague
Berlin
Amsterdam
Back to London

I believe almost all of this route can be done on train. We're thinking of taking a cheap flight from Paris to Lisbon, then all trains again until getting to Cinque Terre, which I think might be by bus, but then it’s all trains again. Is this correct?

Any thoughts, comments or recommendations on this route are welcome!

Lisbon and Madrid are not well connected by train. There's a direct night train, but it's more luxury type and quite expensive. A budget flight is your best bet on that route.

Barcelona to Nice is a long haul by train, 9-10 hours. It might make sense to get a cheap flight to Marseilles and continue by train from there. I though I read that direct TGV's from Barcelona to Marseilles had started, but I don't see those currently.

Nice to the Cinque Terre is about 6 hours by train; CT to Florence is 2.5 hrs. No buses needed.

Florence to Vienna is an even longer haul, 10-11 hrs. Looks like there are some direct flights on Air Berlin for around $215. A discount train fare could be substantially less than that.

Vienna-Prague-Berlin-Amsterdam is easy with trains. Amsterdam to London is probably best done with a flight; training to Brussels and catching the Eurostar would probably be a lot more expensive.

rduarte:

Your proposed go everywhere, see everything itinerary would be very difficult. Many of the places you want to go are just long, long distances apart. Many prefer to travel in straight lines to places that are easier to travel between.

Since you can fly cheap virtually anywhere out of London, fly to one of the far away destinations mentioned above, and work your way back to London without any set plans. You might not want to leave a city like Budapest.

You will get a lot of input on this itinerary. I agree with the others that have said this seems like a lot. in your first note, you said you wanted this trip to be a month. If you do the math, that leaves you 2-3 days per city not counting travel. And some of those train trips will be LONG. even if you do flights for some of those, you will lose half a day, even for short flight.

To allow yourself a little more time in each place, I would cut out a region (like Spain/Portugal or Czech Republic/Germany/Austria. There are some regional train passes- maybe you could look up the cheapest train travel options and use that to make your decision.

With the cities you listed, I would leave out Spain/Portugal and hit that on your next trip. I would fly to Florence, work my way by train back to Paris and fly or take the train back to,London.

Kristen

That's true. This does sound like a very ambitious plan now that I think about it more. Thanks for the input everyone! I'll discuss things with my friend and come up with another route plan!

Budapest and Prague are great cities with plenty to do and see on a budget. Both have plenty of sightseeing and great nightlife for a twentysomething, along with cheap food and beer. I would recommend staying at Sir Toby's hostel in Prague and Home Made Hostel in Budapest if you end up going to either of these. Both of these hostels are inexpensive, well-located, and awesome places to stay whether or not you're on a budget. Getting there should also be inexpensive on a budget airline - a few years go, I caught a flight on WizzAir from Brussels to Budapest for 15 Euro.

I agree it would be a bit tight with four weeks, but why not go for the whole six week break, and get back just a couple days before the new term? All those destinations are unforgettable world-class places. And six weeks of carefree travel is awesome-- in your future working life you'll be straining to get two weeks at a time. Go b*lls to the wall, I say.

Since you will be passing through Italy, it would be a shame to miss Rome. In Italy they have a saying: Roma, non basta una vita - For Rome, one lifetime is not enough.