Should I book my hostels in advance or when I’m there?

How do you plan to move from city to city--train? bus? other? Are you planning to use a rail pass? If so, have you already purchased it? If not, do you qualify for the youth pass?

Which cities do you plan to visit?

You should be fine not booking in advance unless you plan to stay in small towns. Most cities have multiple hostels and if one is full there will be another one. That said, the better ones fill up first - there are some REALLY grotty hostels out there so make sure you've done your research so you don't get stuck in one. Prices vary wildly as well - some are not cheap! With your cell phone you should be able to just book a day or two ahead as you decide where to go next. That's what I would do. My husband and I traveled around Europe for many years with no reservations - it should be fine especially in spring and early summer.

this is from my own experience of 10 years staying in hostels:

when you book in advance it is one less thing to worry about e.g. you will not have to waste time and energy running from hostel to hostel in case one is already full, especially in a city where do not know your way around. also you can just cancel if you change your mind at minimum costs

you also are more likely to find a better choice room configuration e.g. some hostels have quads with a toilet in the room versus a room with 20 people and the bathroom down the hall; some also have single rooms toilet down the hall, these are the 1st to sell out

if you go to Amsterdam for sure book that in advance. I showed up one time with out a reservation and ended up having to lock my bag at the train station locker without a room to go to after partying all night; not a good experience

Thanks for the advice so far. I’m 18 so I’m buying the youth Eurail Global pass for 2 months continuous. My plan is to start in Paris, go to Lyon, Bern, Milan, Venice, Florence, Rome, Naples, Athens, Bucharest, Budapest, Vienna, Munich, Prague, Berlin, Amsterdam, Brussels, London, Edinburgh, Dublin, and back to Paris (in that order). I’m new to this whole backpacking thing, but I’ve been to all 50 states, canada, and Mexico so I’m not too new to traveling (at least basic airport travel). But this is my first time doing something like this completely solo for 2 months and I’m trying to make sure I make the right decisions while I’m planning it all out.

well since you have a set schedule I would reserve space in advance and make changes as I go as necessary.

How "long time ago" was your co-worker's backpacking trip ? Things may have changed if she/he travelled in pre-internet days. I did a less-structured call-for-hotel-reservations-from-the-prior-town trip 10 years ago, but now travel with someone who prefers to have everything pre-booked so we know where we will be sleeping every night of the trip before we leave home.
It's a tradeoff. If you book cancellable rooms you can flex a little. Make sure you have at least your first night(s) booked ahead.
You don't have to carry more money, just have it available via ATM as you need it (and/or carry credit cards.) Maybe make sure your parents know how to transfer money into the checking account your ATM is linked to, just in case you have to email home for more funds.

Hi,

As pointed out nowadays a city or town may have several or numerous hostels, the private, independent ones and those belonging to Hosteling International, ie the HI hostels or in the UK the YHA hostels. On carrying more money: be advised that the private hostels do take a credit card, same with HI hostels, at least in the big cities.

I still stay in hostels, depends on which one and where it's located. Close to the train station, all the better. The most recent trips I didn't book a room or bed in a hostel. I would advise booking some hostels in advance, not all, since you want to keep some degree of flexibility. It is also true that hostels book up. In Vienna there were several times I heard the Rezeption tell the caller or those walk-ins that the hostel had no room for that night or those they inquired about. This was at Wombats.

Bottom line, lots of people stay in hostels, young and old, solo travelers and families, different nationalities, everyone speaking English, unless you want to speak the local language. The main difference in guests is that at private, independent hostels you won't see school groups.

part 2..I see on your proposed itinerary these cities: Budapest, Munich, Vienna, Berlin, and London. In each there is a Wombats hostel, in Vienna actually 3 of them.

The ones in London and Budapest are the newest, well located in Budapest, In Vienna they are in the Westbahnhof area, which is where I always stayed with Wombats, ie, across the street on Mariahilferstraße. In Munich it's located ca. 4 mins from the Munich train station. In Berlin it's located in eastern Berlin, a stop beyond Berlin Alexanderplatz.

cody,

I'd suggest pre-booking all your Hostels as that will provide more choice in terms of location, price and room configuration (ie: 4/6/8 bed dorm). While there are often several Hostels in large cities, some of them are located somewhat distant from the city centre so you'd have to spend more time and money getting in to see the sights each day. Some of the popular Hostels can be fully booked months in advance, so early bookers get the room.

You'll have a choice of chain hostels or independent hostels in many cities. You might consider getting an inexpensive HI Hostels membership as they have properties (sometimes several) in most cities. The membership provides preferred booking over non-members and slightly better prices. I've found that they're well run and somewhat consistent from one location to the other. You could consider staying in a few budget hotels at intervals during your trip, just to provide a break from "communal living". There are good, reliable hotels in various price ranges listed in the RS guidebooks.

For stays in Hostels, be sure to pack a towel, soap, flip-flops and a small but robust Padlock (for the Lockers). DON'T use the cheap TSA luggage locks for that purpose.

One other point to mention..... You mentioned that you'll be using a Rail Pass. Note that a Rail Pass does not include the compulsory reservation fees for express (fast) trains in Italy or France. You'll have to pay separately out-of-pocket for those. Do not be caught without valid reservations for the train you're riding on, especially in Italy, as you'll face hefty fines which will be collected on the spot! Your Rail Pass doesn't cover local transportation such as Metro, Buses, etc. and the same fines apply on those if riders don't validate (time & date stamp) their tickets. Finally, your Rail Pass will not cover rides on private rail lines such as Italo (Italy) or others.

As this is your first trip to Europe, I'd highly recommend reading Europe Through The Back Door prior to your trip. After that use the country or city-specific Rick Steves guidebooks to plan sightseeing, local transportation, etc. You should be able to find copies of all the guidebooks at your local Library or local bookstores. Most of these are available as E-books in several formats as well.

If you're planning to travel with any "technology" such as smart phones or whatever, you'll need to check the power supplies to ensure they'll operate on 240VAC, and pack some Plug Adapters specific to each country you'll be visiting. The group here can provide more information if you need it.

Rather than Bern, you might consider the scenic Berner Oberland (Lauterbrunnen Valley). There are some good Hostels there. That area is a big favourite with many here. You could also look at the beautiful city of Lucerne. For travel in Switzerland, be sure to budget accordingly as it's expensive.

Also, rather than returning to Paris (which will have a cost in time and money), you might consider booking open-jaw flights. While it might cost slightly more, it's a more efficient travel method. If you're going to be using budget airlines in Europe, there are few caveats to be aware of. If you need more information, post another note.

Since you will have a rail pass and won't generally need to make reservations for the trains (there may be exceptions, and you should figure that out ahead of time), I hope you'll be able to remain flexible about the amount of time you spend in each city. I stay in hotels, so I have a lot more possible lodgings in each city, but I make most of my reservations only a few days ahead of time. And I travel mostly between May and September.

If you do not reserve ahead, it is important to be sure you are not inadvertently hitting a city during a major local festival that will tie down all the hostel beds far in advance. I don't know what might be happening during your travel period, so have nothing in particular to warn you about. At least you are not going to hit Semana Santa in Spain, the running of the bulls in Pamplona, or Oktoberfest in Munich!

Brace yourself for some comments on your itinerary...

Assuming you arrive in Europe on April 14th and depart on June 16th, you have 62 days in Europe, but April 14th will be a partial, jetlagged day, and on June 15th you'll have to get back to Paris, so really you have 60 days. You list 20 cities. The days on which you change base cities will often provide just a few hours of sightseeing time, sometimes none. Most of us don't really count those days when we calculate how much time we'll have in a city; we figure 3 nights (which is what you have on average) equates to just two days. Two days will probably be sufficient for some of your smaller destinations if you push yourself, but others (London, Paris, Berlin, Rome for starters; most likely also Budapest, Vienna and Amsterdam) are really large and would justify much longer visits.

If you're planning to take a lot of night trains to maximize your daytime sightseeing time, be sure there are still night trains on your planned routes, and understand that some people find them exhausting. Be sure you're not scheduled to arrive at your destination at 4 AM, don't have a long layover somewhere in the middle of the night, etc.

The Balkans and Greece are fascinating, but you are going to spend a huge amount of time on extremely slow trains plus a ferry (I assume) to get from Naples, to Athens, to Bucharest, to Budapest, with seemingly no time to see any of Greece except Athens, any of Romania except Bucharest (few people's favorite Romanian city), or anything at all of Bulgaria except what can be observed from the train.

I encourage you to take a hard look at the transportation schedules for that part of your trip. Use the Deutsche Bahn webpage for the trains to see how much time you'll spend on the move as opposed to actually being able to experience a fascinating part of Europe. I suggest that you instead fly from Naples to Budapest--though you'd have to be willing to lock in the timing of that leg by buying a budget-airline ticket soon (prices are under $100, not counting baggage charges).

Plan to see Greece on a later trip when you can enjoy more of the mainland and some of the islands.

If you want very much to see something of Romania on this trip, I recommend the interesting and pretty city of Timisoara, which is where the revolution began. It's not terribly far from the Hungarian border; there's a train that takes only 5-1/2 hours from Budapest.

The majority of travelers to Belgium (which I have never visited) seem to consider Brussels less interesting that Ghent, Antwerp and Bruges. I believe Brussels is also very expensive, so you might consider staying in either Ghent or Antwerp instead. (Bruges is very touristy.)

Even if you eliminated Athens and substituted the more convenient Timisoara for Bucharest, I think the remaining destinations would still be too much for 60 days. I'd also recommend cutting out Dublin.

Thanks for the advice. As far as changing the schedule, the places I definitely want to visit are Paris, Athens, Munich, and Dublin. I have pretty much a week in each of those. As for transportation, I’ve made a map with the stops featured on Eurail’s website, along with travel times. I’m also planning on flying on Ryan Air from Rome to Athens, Athens to Bucharest, London to Edinburgh, Edinburgh to Dublin, and Dublin to Paris. I’m really only planning on one night train, and that’s from Bucharest to Budapest. So far the transportation set in stone is my flight from LAX-Paris at the beginning, my flight from Dublin-Paris 3 days from the end, and my flight from Paris-LAX at the end. I was originally going to fly Dublin-LAX, but it ended up being $200 cheaper to get a Ryan Air flight from Dublin-Paris and then a Norwegian Air flight from Paris-LAX.

I didn't realize you were planning so many flights; it sounds as if you've done your homework, and I know how time-consuming that is. Flying will definitely help in getting to Athens and Bucharest. But with 4 weeks allocated to 4 cities, that leaves only 32 days for the other 16--or two days each, including the travel time. I guess it's something you'll have to test out for yourself.

I suggest that you consider taking the train rather than flying between London and Edinburgh. If you buy the rail ticket early it can cost as little as 25 pounds, and the trip can take as little as 4 hr. 18 min. By the time you include the time to get to the airport and get through security, flying will take longer, and you won't see anything along the way.

Be sure you know which airports your flights use. Budget airlines often use inconveniently-located airports, and there can be additional expense involved in getting to them, even by public transportation. You can take the tube to London-Heathrow, but I think for Luton and Gatwick, ground transportation is more costly, making the train an even better deal.

I'd say:

1. Book lodging for any days just after a flight - especially the long one. You don't want to try to find lodging when you are jet lagged.
2. Leave as much lodging unplanned, meet people in the hostel and go with the flow.
3. Book lodging near the airport before any flight - especially the long one. You don't want to miss a plane because you are stuck in a train behind an accident or strike.

Enjoy your trip - even if it doesn't go as planned. I find that improvisations and even accidents make the more memorable trips :-)

acraven has given you some really good advice. I'll add a few thoughts . . .

First, flying round-trip Paris is inefficient. It's best to plot your trip in a straight line (well, as close as you can get) and fly into one end and out of the other. Second, divide your destination list into must-sees and wanna-sees. Book hostels for your first and last stops for sure. It's a good idea to book at least a couple of the intermediate stops, just to keep yourself on pace.

Have you considered how long it will take to get from place to place? For instance, Naples to Athens without flying takes close to 24 hours (I used rome2rio.com to find that) and includes a bus and a ferry (probably not included in a rail pass). If you need to fly, you'll pay huge fares if you wait till the last minute, and you may even find the flight you want is sold out. You can get train schedules at bahn.com. When you get to a new town, you'need to drop your bag at your hostel first. Note that some hostels are closed from mid-morning to mid-afternoon, which means either being stuck with your stuff or paying for a locker at a train station. Unless you schlep you stuff around with you (and hope you can enter sights with it), you need to allow time to pick up and drop off your backpack first. That means less sight-seeing time. So add that time to the actual travel time - and a little extra for traffic and finding your way around the city and finding/boarding your train.

You said you like having things planned out. So if you feel more comfortable planning things out, do it! I have a good friends who travel often, and have done so for many years. He insists on allowing for lots of flexibility in his trips, like refusing to book trains in advance because he might want to change his itinerary. His wife shrugs and smiles . . . according to her, he's never changed a plan once they're on the trip. You are 18, this is your first European adventure, not your only one. In most places, if not all, you are more likely to find you didn't have enough time than the opposite. Work on the assumption that you'll be back to see the places you skipped on this trip.

I'm a little confused about your comments on budgets and money. Booking a hostel in advance doesn't usually require paying for it in advance - though some will require a deposit. On a two-month trip, I would be very hesitant to pay in advance for hostels because if something happens, you face a potentially large loss. Also, most of us don't recommend carrying a lot of cash around ever. You should travel with an ATM card to withdraw money as needed and a credit card to pay for some things. Budget - keep in mind that sights cost money and in some countries, only citizens or residents get student discounts. Exchange rates fluctuate.

Lastly, I'll reinforce Ken's excellent advice - get a copy of Europe Through the Back Door - even an older edition from a library or a used book store and read it cover to cover, twice.

Sounds like your coworker traveled in the pre-internet, pre-booking.com days. Times have changed. Since you are flying so many places, you really don't have flexibility. I also don't think you want to waste precious vacation time running from hostel to hostel when you arrive in a city. It can be time-consuming in a new place, especially in a new country where you don't speak the language. Book your hostel in advance.

Booking.com lists a lot of hostels, that site might be useful in plotting locations and seeing photos, a nice research tool, even if you book directly with the hostels.

It totally depends on the hostel. Some of my favorites (e.g. Burg Stahleck, on the Rhine, and the Mije, in Paris) book up very early. If you have your heart set on those, book well ahead. If you prefer flexibility and just want to avoid homelessness, you won't need reservations - maybe call ahead the morning before you arrive to put you at the front of the line.

I know there are often centrally located hostels available--I've walked past them often enough. But some hostels are in rather obscure locations (lower real estate cost), and you really, really don't want to have to zigzag back and forth across town, possibly wearing your backpack, trying to find a bed. Please set up your lodging at least the night before your arrival in each city. And I agree that once you have purchased a flight, you're locked into that arrival day in that city and should go ahead and make a reservation, at least for the minimum number of nights you're sure you'll want to stay. But don't prepay; there's no reason to put more money at risk than is necessary. Things do change; your airline might cancel the flight.

And , of course , consider that hostels come in different incarnations and there are some best avoided , like this - https://youtu.be/TyFBVSylnR0 ( Credit to Ken for originally posting this ) ; --)

Don't plan your trip exclusively around the big cities that are highlighted on a map. Smaller towns can have a much different character, be more affordable, etc. This is where a guidebook can help, or see summaries on this site under Explore Europe. It's focused on real travel highlights, not transport hubs. For instance, Bern is an easy place to find on a map but Muerren is a much better place to stay for an Alpine experience and train travel to Muerren is not necessarily via Bern, depending on your direction of approach (see actual train schedules).

You have a few points of the trip that are more firmly planned then others and that's normal. Build out from those in each direction, for instance by booking lodging around each flight that's been booked. Stops in between can be worked out later, including as you go. There's rarely a great benefit to booking 6 months ahead that you wouldn't also have one month ahead. The internet/telephone revolution doesn't only work for planning from home, of course, it works on the road.

A longer trip like this offers more room for flexibility and almost demands it. Flexibility means being willing to choose from the options that are available at the time without being too picky. And being willing to drop a destination when you find that original plan is too ambitious.

Hi,

There is a YHA hostel St Pancras on Euston. If you land at or depart from Gatwick , the Thameslink train goes St Pancras-Gatwick for 8 GBP using the Oyster card, ten GBP without. The duration is one hour. I did it in Oct. since i stay at Kings Cross-St Pancras.

One of the great things about staying in hostels is that you will learn about interesting places to see, some of them nearby, and you may be invited to join folks planning to go somewhere that sounds intriguing. If you retain flexibility, you'll be able to jump at chances like that.

I totally agree with Laura about trying to include some smaller places. My first trip (age 20) looked a lot like your itinerary, though I had a bit more time and fewer destinations. I didn't try to go to Greece, Scotland or Ireland, and I didn't get as far south as Rome. But it was mostly capital cities--basically, places that had chapters in "Europe on $5 a Day". It was on my second trip that I learned how much more "European/foreign" the smaller places can be as long as they are not like Rothenburg odT and chock-full of other American tourists. You'll find out about some of those less-swamped places if you look at single-country guidebooks.

To me, it's very important to allow time to wander through neighborhoods away from the top tourist sights. Much as I love art museums, a place like the Prado doesn't make be feel all that much like I'm in a foreign country. I get that from just wandering down back streets in the older parts of town, smelling the local smells, trying to read the signs in the markets, etc. What the big-name cities have, in spades, is world-class museums and famous buildings you've seen on calendars. They're fine, but I don't want a trip limited to that kind of experience. Non-touristy, foreign-feeling neighborhoods are just as available in smaller (and less costly) cities and towns, and you don't have to travel 300-500 miles to a new country for the sake of variety.

Someone mentioned booking.com...I use them all the time since you can cancel your booking up to 24 hours in advance with no penalty! Super convenient for how you want to travel.

I use booking.com most of the time myself, but not all lodgings allow cancellation up to 24 hours before arrival. I've had reservations on which I had to give at least 72 hours' notice.

True, acraven, cancellation window on booking.com varies. And the lowest prices are not cancellable at all, so be sure to hit the correct button. You can also get last-minute deals, but as someone posted earlier, it's a good idea to have a hostel or room booked the day before you arrive.

I was 32 when I first traveled alone. I am a man traveling alone. I have taken 3 trips so far. I stayed in a total of 5 hostels so far. (All were indepndent hostels, not Hosteling International hostels). I booked all of my hostels 3 to 4 months in advance, on Booking dot com. (I read a lot of reviews and made my best guess based on price and I choose rooms with no more than 4 beds, me and 3 strangers). It would not occur to me to travel without making reservations for hostels (or any kind of loging place) in advance. I don’t like the concept of “go with the flow”. Each time I travel, I get better at planning my trips. I wrote myself a day by day itinerary before my last trip and took it with me. Print all of your confirmations of your reservations, put them all in a ridgid plastic folder, and right away, put the folder in your travel bag or other luggage so you remember to take it. Chances are, just saying your name and possibly also showing identification will be sufficient, but I prefer to have the confirmation papers with me just in case I need to show evidence that I have a reservation. When I made my reservations, I choose the option of being able to cancel upto a certain time before my reservation, and I chose th option of paying in cash when I arrived. I have never taken a trip lasting more than 15 days. Have a good time and we would be interested in you summarizing some of the highlights of your trip for us after you return.

@ codyw...On my first two trips in 1971 and 1973, I stayed as a solo traveler exclusively in hostels, all HI hostels since private ones did not exist. Never reserved in advance, just showed up as everyone did at check-in when it opened up. Keep in mind hostels take credit cards too.

You can still do some of that, ie, winging it, going with the flow, if you are not picky on where to stay. The private hostels do get sold out, most likely on week-ends, (I've seen that in Vienna at the hostel across from Westbahnhof more than once), but around the train stations are lots of small hotels which you can show up as a walk-in depending on your budget.

You have 62 days...fantastic. Stretch that out by taking night trains. I would. The longest I had was the first trip at 84 days, the second longest was 67 days.