Post-high school Europe trip w/ best friend––any thoughts?

Wow.. that's a lot of info.. whew.. but no worries I am one of those "good for you " when it comes to young travel. My daughter( they are 19) and her two friends are doing something similar this April.. starting out as a group of three for first 6 weeks.. then last 3 weeks on girl has decided she really wants to do Norway , and the other girls don't so they will split up then .
I have the best memories of three months in Europe with my bestie when I was young too.. go for it.

First. DO not buy the Eurail pass until you are absolutely certain its the right choice for you.. its not always a good deal compared to point to point tickets.. and for some longer trips a cheap plane ticket is a good option and can be be budget friendly.
So first.. work on realist itinerary.

So , first for your flights.. it makes more sense to plan your itinerary so you fly into one city and out of another, when checking those prices online you are looking for a "multi destination " ticket.. not two one ways.
This saves you time and money backtracking.. so you need to plan a route that makes sense.

I have no experience with eastern Europe so cant help you there. but will remind you, Austria.. and most especially Switzerland are crushingly expensive.. my daughter and her friends dropped it from their plans.. just because of money.. but you cant have everything. ( NOT suggesting you drop it..)

Paris hotel rates often go down mid to late July thru August.. they are highest in June, September and around Christmas.. so keep that in mind.

Finally.. GOOD hostels book up fast.. so book yours when you have clear plans ( well obviously too early now.. but 6 months out I would get on it.. and because its a longer trip I will over one tip.. in some places a cheap hotel room is about the same as a hostel.. so once in awhile treat yourself to a hotel room.. not having to lock up your bags in a locker for the day, having a private room, and a shower you don't share.. these are really welcome treats if hostelling it for a long time ( yes, hostels have private rooms.. but look at those prices.. the cheap beds are in the dorm rooms with shared toilets)

Finally some "mom" advice.. really , and do not poo poo it.. have fun,, party .. but do not get stinking drunk. You will be a target for pickpockets at best.. and of course.. for other worse things. I am not saying don't party.. I am saying.. keep your wits about you. Keep your stuff safe.. do not accept drinks from strangers.. etc.. all common sense stuff you should know.. but may not , because as a younger American you likely have not been in a lot of bars... drinking age is 18 in Europe.. it will be different. My daughter will be 19.. which is the legal drinking age here , so at least she has had bar experience here.. its a different world.. lol

Since you are both very interested in the eastern countries do those together first to "ease" into a totally new environment. Then you can split up as you've suggested if you still want to. But, you will probably find that your plans will change as the trip progresses so I would urge you to stay flexible and go with the flow as the flow changes. Since you "...want to gain an understanding & appreciation of different countries, have amazing experiences, see beautiful landscapes and towns, and fall in love with new places..." resist the urge to do as much as possible. You can accomplish that by spending at least three (or even four) nights in each stopping place. It almost always takes more time to get from one place to another than anticipated and you want memories of people, places, food, and such rather than just a blurry memory of train stations. With regard to specifics, the first thing to do is get the RS guide books (and others) and rough it out before you start working on the details. Then just let the trip "come to you" as both of you discuss the possibilities. Definitely involve your travel partner even though she "...likes to go with whatever..." or things might not go as well as you'd like. Just food for thought.

Ellierosecarter: hello.

I think your idea is brilliant. I'm an advocate of travel because of the life-giving feel of adventure and cultural enlargement.

I strongly advise something that's appropriate given we're on Rick Steves's travel board: Read his book, "Postcards from Europe." He recounts a months-long visit he started two days after graduating high school. Rick was 18 years old, and his enthusiasm radiates from the pages. He gives great budget-travel tips. He calls it his "Europe through the gutter" trip. However, it's important to keep in mind that Rick and his companion on that trip were men. Don't compromise common sense to save a few bucks.

Consider staying in youth hostels to save some money. You will meet other people from all over the world in hostels. You will have to get a Youth Hostel International card for a nominal charge and learn about how the hostel system works.

The Let's Go travel guide series is written with young people in mind. I also recommend Rick Steves, of course, and Lonely Planet.

Ironically, I was in Poland, Hungary and Austria this summer. Budapest has become one of my three favorite European cities (along with Paris and Amsterdam). Don't go to E. Europe without visiting Budapest. Also, go to Pecs in southern Hungary to visit a wonderfully atmospheric small town with great culture. (See my post on this board about Pecs.) Also, go to Krakow, Poland. See the Oskar Schindler factory and book a trip to Auschwitz. In Vienna, go to the opera.

Your plan to go to France is great. It's a never-ending cultural festival. I've been there twice and immediately felt at home. Your friend's idea to go to Ireland is also a good one. I keep going back there.

Have the time of your lives. Your post makes want to book a trip tomorrow! Cheers.

I understand what you mean by Eastern Europe - former communist countries behind the Iron Curtain. Nowadays the call themselves Central Europe and Eastern Europe is Romania, Bulgaria, Albania, Ukraine, Moldova, Russia, etc.Countries of Central Europe which you want to visit: Slovenia, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland are in these times not that different from Western Europe. But what's different are prices. Generally speaking for the same money you can stay in Central Europe twice as long as in Western Europe. Don't plan every day, don't book all accommodation, train, bus from the US. For that long time you will be there you want to be flexible. You like it somewhere, you want to stay longer, you meet new friends, etc. Book just your first country. The rest you do through your iPad or smart phone as you go. I do it that way and enjoy it more. While I am in Europe I hear about location which I did not know about and want to see. Being flexible I can do that. Another thing; you probably want be able to rent a car because of your low age. Companies usually want drivers to be at least 25. I don't know about any company which would rent to 18 year old drivers. But you can get practically everywhere by bus or train. In the meantime study guidebooks, I recommend Rick Steves because he already selected the cream of each country and you don't have to browse through too much. Young people all speak English. Some of them fluently, some not so. They have mandatory English language at school. On this Forum there are many seasoned travelers who can help you with your questions.

Southern Europe can be hot in the summer, especially in late june, july and early august. Typically Paris (even if it isn't that south), Budapest and Ljubljana will have temperatures in the high 80s F, or low 90s F. In early to mid june there is more likely to be 70-80 degrees F.

My cents and a sketch:

• What about starting with some days in Paris? Plenty of flight opurtinties into Paris. You will get a taste of Paris, while your friend gets her kind of mandatory days in Paris. P
• Then you can head for Switzerland (by train). Geneva, Lausanne and Zurich are cool cities. Or you can have some days on the countryside (or both).
• From Switzerland you can rail into the Alps and the Tyrol state of Austria. Innsbruck is the largest city, but there are also many cozy villages in the Alps with beautiful landscapes. Zell am See and Sankt Johan im Tyrol are good examples.
• If you want to visit Slovenia, it's now time to head a bit south (still in the alps).
• From Slovenia, you can head for Budapest. I don't know very much about Hungary, other than I have been to Budapest.
• Next up might might be heading north and a couble of days through Slovakia. Before heading into Poland, for instance Krakow.
• Prague is in my opinion the natural next stop on your trip. Get there with plane (2,5h + airport time) or train (8-9 hours) from Krakow.

From Prague, your friend can head to Scotland and Ireland, and you can maybe get back to Paris for a week or two in France, or somewhere else in Europe. Paris and France is more expensive than Central Europe.

What about meeting up at the end of your trip for 3 days in London and fly home from there? London is quite expensive, but can be a natural "get-together" location for a flight home.

No matter what your itinerary will end up like, it's gonna be a great vacation in Europe. With that much time, and that few musts, you can really enjoy your trip and travel relaxed without stress.

Check the Lonely Planet website for travel tips from younger travelers.

Good for you! Smart to do your solo travel at the end of your trip, too.

And in small towns/cities where there may not be a hostel, a hotel room or B&B can be about the same price as a hostel in a larger city.

You've gotten a lot of good advice so far, so I'll try to address matters that haven't been, yet.

On renting a car. Many car rental agencies now require renters to be older than 18, so you may not be able to rent a car at all. If you are, note that most cars in Europe are manual transmission. IF you are able to rent an automatic, it will be a lot more expensive than a manual, and you often not get a guarantee that an automatic transmission will be available.

In terms of the central European countries you've mentioned, we've been to Slovakia, Hungary and the Czech Republic. We stayed in Budapest and Prague, and drove in rural areas in all three countries. Lots of people speak English, and many menus will have English translations, because (as a Czech guy told me) nobody speaks our language. So that will be good. Lots of history in those countries and cities! IMHO, not as many museums or art museums as in many western European countries. Though the communism museums in each of Prague and Budapest are very interesting, and both are worth going to; they have different perspectives, as the two countries' experiences during WWII and after were quite different.. Note that Prague and Bratislava are known in Europe as great places for people (generally younger, but not always) to go to drink and party, because the beer is cheap. If you will join in that experience, be safe. If you like a beer or a glass of wine at a cafe and that's it, you can certainly do that and enjoy everything else those cities have to offer.

If you live in a big city, or have traveled within the U.S. to big cities, you should know how to be safer in cities. If not, read up all you can before your trip - Rick Steves (the books and videos) has good advice on that. European cities are safer, on the whole, than U.S. cities. But the "price" you pay if you're pickpocketed on vacation is much higher - you would be out any stolen money, of course, and have to spend valuable vacation time in replacing any stolen documents like passports.

If your trip to Germany/the Netherlands is through a student tour provider, use every opportunity to get out on your own, to familiarize yourself with how to get around, etc. in a foreign city.

Enjoy! (My 20yo son is going to university - all four years - in the UK. He loves it.)

From a European's perspective, you are trying to squash far too much into your timescale. Poland is 2/3 the size of California, so you are trying to cover too much ground. You lose at least half a day in transit, often a whole day. Avoid Switzerland if on a budget. Look at rome2rio.com and manatseat61.com for route planning. The European discount airlines such as Easyjet and Ryanair have had seats available for months for the summer and seats are only going to go up in price.

You need to work out if you are travelling for 6 or 8 weeks, as this will make a huge difference to what you can reasonably cover. Most 18 year olds here travel for the whole summer ie 10 to 12 weeks, if not doing a gap year, so you will not be alone!

You are too young to rent a car (minimum age is 25). There are plenty of hostels throughout Europe, but many of these will already be booked up. This year, with Egypt and Tunisia being out of bounds for Europeans and with many wanting to avoid Greece and Turkey due to the migrant crisis, the cheaper parts of Europe are getting booked up quicker than usual. You will have to book ahead for the busier places you plan to visit, but plan some places more off the beaten track and you will be fine.

Look at stays of 3 or 4 nights to reduce your movement and give you time to soak up your destinations.
Day trip out of town if you run out of ideas. I would suggest 6 weeks starting in Berlin ...
Berlin (4) >> Warsaw (3) >> Krakow (3) >> Budapest (4) >> Vienna (4) >> Prague (3) >> Munich (4) >> Salzburg (3) >> Switzerland (9) >> Paris (5) ... For Switzerland maybe 3 nights each in Luzern, Lauterbrunnen and Lausanne.

As you are both too young to rent a car, you are really going to need to rely on trains and buses to get around. It's easy when you are traveling city to city, but once you get out in more remote areas, it can be inconvenient and tricky to rely solely on public transportation to cover everywhere you might want to go.

You may want to look into some of the companies that offer hop-on/hop-off backpacker bus routes throughout Europe to see if it makes sense to purchase a pass that covers some of the locations you are interested in. The advantage of a hop-on/hop-off is that you will meet other backpackers around your age. You can get off the bus and stay in one place as long as you wish and then decide when you are ready to move on by calling ahead (usually 24 hours in advance) to book some spots on the next bus that passes through town. The backpacker bus companies often assist their customers by helping arrange for accommodation in one of the hostels or campsites that they use as stopovers. This allows you to have a lot of flexibility with your itinerary and make it up as you go along. If you get somewhere and decide it's not for you, you can book yourselves on the next bus out. If you decide you love it and want to stay longer than just a night or two, you can do that as well. The backpacker bus routes also tend to have a number of built in stops throughout the day at various sightseeing places that might otherwise be difficult for you to get to without a car.

As an FYI, you do not need to purchase a Hosteling International card unless you intend to only stay in HI-affiliated hostels. But HI hostels are not the only game in town when you travel. There are a number of really good independent hostels not affiliated that do not charge you a membership fee to use them. Some of the newer "flashpacker" boutique style hostels are great and blow the HI ones out of the water in terms of amenities. But before you book any hostel, always make sure you go online to websites like Hostelworld.com, TripAdvisor, etc. and read through the reviews very carefully. Watch out for ones where the same complaints are being logged multiple times to see if any patterns emerge in terms of the location, cleanliness, theft issues, noise/partying levels, etc. Hostels are a great way to go as you will meet lots of other travelers from all over the world. If you are looking to keep lodging costs low, you might also consider checking into whether there are any local universities or colleges that offer up their vacant dorm rooms in the summer to tourists. Ex. Queens University in Belfast, Northern Ireland or London School of Economics both have this type of accommodation. It's offered in other countries as well - you just need to do some research. The cost for a private dorm room for just the 2 of you is often going to be comparable to getting 2 bunk beds at a local hostel. The perks are similar to hostels - you can meet other travelers, have access to coin-op laundry, kitchen facilities with basic cookware to make some meals, etc.

It's good you traveled some with your friend before, but I would caution if those trips were ones where you had parents or chaperones making sure the logistics were running smoothly and all you did was successfully share a hotel room with your friend for a couple days, then prepare yourself for a different experience when you no longer have that additional layer and you must rely on yourselves to get from Point A to Point B. Set some ground rules ahead of time about how much "together" time you are really expecting. Make it very clear to each other what each of you expects. Sometimes if you throw 2 people together who have never really traveled much outside the country into that situation, you end up with one being needier than the other and expecting you to make all the decisions and guide them every step of the way. This can get tiresome very fast and put a strain on even the best of friends.

Just to add my two cents, Icelandair is a good way to get to Europe and back if you live near one of the US cities they serve. It takes a little longer because you change in Reykjavik, and the food isn't free like on the "big" airlines, but the savings in fares can be worthwhile. As suggested, fly "open jaw," into one European city and back from another, to save time and money backtracking.

I'd stress a point others have made -- try to spend at least several days in each place you visit, so you don't spend too much money and time on transportation and so you get a real feel for your destinations. You're wise to realize that you don't have to "see it all" in just this trip. If you have a good time, as you surely will, more adventures will await in the future. "Postcards from Europe" and "Europe Through the Back Door" would both be worth reading.

Your enthusiasm is contagious, as shown by all the replies you've received with, I think, excellent advice and ideas. I made a similar trip at age 19 (around the middle of the last century!) and have never forgotten it.

if your looking for cheap flights into europe, icelandair is a good way to go, but also check our norwegian. you can get flights into paris for as little as $350.

Wow, thank you for the amount of responses everyone! I really appreciate it.

Some quick things in response/to clarify––
I have been buying used guidebooks left & right, and a lot of them are Rick Steves guidebooks. Europe Through the Back Door has worked wonders for planning (as has the amounts of responses that I've received!) I'm thinking now of starting in Croatia/Slovenia and making our way North and east, eventually going through Switzerland to France. I do know know to fully research the Eurail pass, but we won't be able to rent a car. We plan on staying in hostels in every town unless something cheaper comes up.

As far as cities/towns go, I'd love advice or experience for where we should stay. We both think mixing cities and small towns/countrysides are our best bet. Here's what we have so far––

Croatia–-Split, Dubrovnik
Slovenia––Ljubliana (& day trips from there)
Hungary––Budapest
Slovakia––Bratislava
Poland––Krakow, possibly Wroclaw
Czech Republic––Prague, Czesky Krumlov
Austria––Vienna, Salzburg
Switzerland––Gimmelwald/Interlakken
France––Chamonix (solo), Marseille, Nantes/Rennes/Brittany, Cherbourg/Caen, Paris (as you can tell my time in France is expected to be much longer than the other countries. I also have relatives who live in Dordogne so if I need a cheap place to spend a lot of time that's a fallback). Thanks again to everyone who's helped me out!

" making our way north and east" - I think you meant to say north and west, right?

ellie,

You've received a lot of good advice so far. I'd have to wade through all the replies to see if there's anything I could add. I believe someone else mentioned getting an inexpensive membership in HI Hostels, and that's what I'd also recommend. They have properties in most (if not all) the cities you'll be visiting, and a membership will provide slightly cheaper rates and preferred booking (over non-members). You can of course also stay at independent Hostels.

However one point that stood out in the last Itinerary you posted was "Gimmelwald / Interlaken". My suggestion would be to forget Interlaken, or at best just see it as a day trip. I believe you'll enjoy that area more if you stay in the Lauterbrunnen Valley. You could (for example) use Lauterbrunnen as a base and take day trips from there. It's the transportation hub for that area and very easy to reach either side of the valley from there. Gimmewald could also be used, but it wouldn't provide as much flexibility. Many here prefer Mürren for it's scenery and atmosphere, and also the fact there are more facilities available there.

Ellierosecarter:

Hungary, I would suggest Pecs. It's a relaxed, culturally interesting small town in the southern part of the country.

France: I would suggest Chartres. It has what some regard as the best cathedral in France. Plus, it's a beautiful small town. But you have some great plans for France.

Have a great trip.