The way it used to be

Considering how much planning I do now (and throw out the plan as we travel and use the Interweb to change things on the fly) my first trip to Europe on my own that was in 1970 and very much seat of the pants. My tools were: 2 month 2nd class youth pass and associated map IYH International Youth Hostelling membership card and associated map and book a metal frame backpack and sleeping bag top notch hiking boots
pre-trip visits to national tourist offices in NYC $1000 US to buy the plane tickets and pay for everything else for the two months; stayed with rellies for the last month in England No: tours, guidebooks, phone, etc. Communication was an occasional postcard from me and I checked Poste Resante (sp?) and the American Express offices when I arrived in cities. I also would turn up at the station and just look at the clacker board and go where looked good. Sometimes I spent the night with friends or acquaintances or (more usually) their relatives, or at Youth Hostels, or in a seating compartment of a train at night (as opposed to a Night Train) either to the next town or half way and grab a train back in the middle of the night to my starting point. I was younger then...

My first trip was as a student in the 70's. I called home once in 6 months and that was after I had written my parents telling them that I hadn't met up with my friends in Greece, but it was okay. I was learning to like traveling solo and was headed for Italy. ; ) We did write a lot. I too have those letters somewhere in my mom's house. The blue aerogram letters where you crammed as much on a page as you could. I never crossed my lines like they talk about in the real olden days, but I cold fit a lot more on a page than I can today! And indeed there was less planning. I did plan the Greek trip and look what happened! But in those days parents gave you letters of reference to locals with whom they had a connection. I had one for Greece and I connected with the grandson who helped me out. The only other planned trips were a school sponsored trip to Berlin (I've been thinking about that trip as I read on the other thread about people who wished they had been there before the wall came down. It was gray in the East and colorful in the West.) and a stopover in England and Ireland at the end of the trip. All other trips were "impromptu, but not really as there was a constant exchange of who went where, what they saw, how bad was the hostel, which bus to catch to get to the museum. But hey, I like my iPad and my iPhone and I agree with whoever said that they thought those tools can let you be free to explore. At least you're not exploring by horse and buggy--unless you want to! Pam

Young people still take long trips without hard and fast itineraries...just look at the travel partner forum here. But they now have tools to help them out. There's something very predictable in the "good ol' days" mindset. It's human nature but it's very often romanticizing the better stuff and glossing over the problems.

Having done both, I have no "good old days" mindset. Although we had a lot of fun back then, I am now firmly in the Internet camp. I discovered how useful the Internet can be when I was planning a trip to England in 1999. I remembered a small pub near Stonehenge where my friends and I and I spent a delightful evening in 1967. Won't go into nostalgic details on that, but I did want to find that pub and return. I knew the name but not the location- it could have been anywhere within a half-day's drive of Stonehenge, as far as I could recall. But an Internet search found it quickly-the Wheatsheaf Tavern in Middle Woodford, near Salisbury. We rented bikes in Salisbury and rode out there, stopping for lunch, and then rode on to Stonehenge. Started using the Internet as my main travel resource the following year, 2000. I wouldn't go back to the old way, no way.

I envy all of you who started traveling abroad when you were young! How lucky you all are! I didn't take my first trip until 10 years ago at the age of 41. I guess I should be glad we didn't put it off til retirement! What I did do right was to introduce all of my children to the joys of traveling abroad. My now 17 y/o has been to Europe 9 times, and chooses not to go with his parents this summer. He wants to do it on his own in the next few years:) I'm sure he will travel with technology in hand! It's hard for me to imagine planning a trip now without the use of the internet! This one website alone has helped me enormously with planning several of those trips! I do prefer to travel with minimal electronics though. I think it's a generational thing, but unlike Sarah I don't really use technology while there to aid in planning - only for entertainment, and to keep in touch (minimally). I know my 30 y/o daughter uses her iphone while out and about for on the fly info.

I didn't have a phone card,, 1985 in Greece, , I went to the post office and had to go to the counter, they would then set a phone up in a booth for the call. We used paper maps, and paper train schedules( and yes, they were confusing,, we did alot of gesturing and throwing ourselves on the mercy of train staff to help us!)

In many ways a whole lot easier than today. I see so many postings where someone wants to have everything and I mean everything pinned down to the last minute. Unfortunately, now you can do that with the internet. The day of spontaneous travel is long gone replaced by the throngs of over planned, over anxious tourists. And then they wonder why the didn't get the European experience.

Oh, and I forgot, every country had their own currency. You actually had to go into a bank and exchange it when you crossed the borders. Back in the days when there were borders. And to travel between the UK and the continent, you either flew or took a boat. And flying was not cheap.

When I was a study abroad student in Salzburg in the 1970's, there was no email. We waited for actual letters from home - and they had to stop writing at least a week before we came home in order to give the letter time to arrive. We got occasional packages from our home school of several recent copies of the school paper to keep up with what was going on on campus. And like Pat, we had to go to the post office to make an international call home - which always had to be early morning at home because of the time difference. Now it must seem like they aren't even away, with constant contact via cellphone, email, and internet.

"and flying was not cheap".... no, but it was more of an 'experience'. Most of us didn't fly all that often, and airlines seemed to actually value their customers. Meals were served with REAL cutlery and REAL glasses on china plates with linen napkins.
Ah well, there's always a trade-off....

I'm glad I barely remember those times (I just reached age 30). I simply wouldn't know how to live unplugged without Internet more than 3 days, let alone a whole trip. Regardless of nostalgia some might feel, I think travelling independently is much, much more easier today than 30 years ago when my parents were travelling overseas. It's like we've got control of our own decisions in regard of transportation, lodging etc. Being myself a person who prefer 100% to read and search for info online (be it restaurant tip, directions to reach a hotel, buy any ticket) than asking someone for it, I couldn't be living in better times than now. Of all middlemen I could cut, the random stranger I'd have to ask for directions is the one I'm most glad to get rid from my life. However, I've known a couple people (relatives and some family's friends) who resent how we, the ones who grew up with computers since young age around us all the time, would be so "full or ourselves" because we always think we can solve problems logging in and searching information. In my family context this is rather interesting, as over the years a "raft" of the "plugged" and "unplugged" have surfaced in events like "is wi-fi essential to a place for a family reunion" or "how dare you send me a facebook message that you are pregnant instead of telling me in person". I probably wouldn't travel as much as I do if I couldn't gather as much info as I do now, online. The idea of letting a travel agent handle my schedule annoys and angry me, for instance.

Our first trip to Europe was in 1990 - four weeks in Italy. Even then we flew open jaw: flew into Milan-out of Rome. I did all the planning with guide books (used mostly Fodor, didn't know about RS guides yet). We made absolutely no reservations for hotels or trains, no car. I don't think that we even bought a phone card. We simply arrived at the various hotels and asked if they had any vacancy. We did one night in Milan, a few days in Venice, then Florence and finally Rome. We carried all our travel money using travelers checks with no way to get more. Our worst accommodation was Venice (a dump with the bathroom down the hall). We needed to get a feel for prices and to make sure that our money will last us all of the four weeks. It got better after that. We didn't skimp on any sights, however. Hence, saw and experienced a lot. And we did have money leftover at the end.

I studied in Germany in 1967. The guidebook was "Europe on $5 a Day" and we often did better than that. And somehow we managed to meet up with friends in distant cities just by planning it and showing up at the right time, no cell phone or email needed. I was there for 6 months and called home once. My mother saved all my letters ( I wrote home twice a week) and I still have them. It's fun to go through and read them.

Living in Europe in the 70s, we called home twice a year, Christmas and a birthday, and we watched the mail every day for blue aerograms filled with tiny writing or real letters that could contain photos, newspaper clippings, and news from home. I'm writing this as we wait for the instant results of the first round of the French elections, watching TV5 Monde, while our French friends in Paris are sitting in front of their televisions at the same moment. Times have certainly changed!

but to get to Europe did y'all have to go uphill, in the snow, in both directions or only one?

Heck, I still have paper money and coins from the pre euro days stashed away in some drawer! My fight from San Francisco to Amsterdam was the 2nd of my life. I was 21. Postcards were your means of keeping in touch, travel agents made your hotel reservations, people smoked on the planes, you carried a polaroid or Kodak instamatic camera, used traveler's checks, and to meet up with friends mailed letters to them C/O the American Express office. That trip was a whirlwind. Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Bremen, Munich, Vienna, Geneva, Zurich, London. Paris was on a return trip where I met up with some college buddies. 5 of us in one apartment with a fantastic view of the Eiffel Tower. Recall that I was reading The Exorcist and couldn't put it down. Stayed up all night, then left the apartment to walk over and under the Tower and then along the river as dawn broke. You called home on Sunday to let the folks know you were okay. Only had to worry about the X-ray machines at the airport ruining your film rolls and what book you were going to take on the flight to you keep occupied.

Sarah---actually, flying across the pond was a whole lot more pleasant back then. No uphill both ways in the snow at all.

Yes, Sarah, it was uphill BOTH directions! First trip...1973...an American Express tour, Madrid, Paris and London. 14 days, $450. Including airfare! We chose the budget accommodations as opposed to the moderate lodging. I think the difference was $100. A city tour was the only thing escorted unless we chose to pay for optional tours. No meals except breakfast in the hotel. We didn't call home during that time, and I don't think we even wound up sending post cards! I think we had the aforementioned $5/day for food suggestions.

The best hotels I've stayed in were ones that I found just by showing up in town in the afternoon. One was perched high above the donkey trail in Santorini with patios looking out over the caldera. Now it takes reservations on-line, costs twice as much and is booked solid.

Call me glad. Most people saved their whole lives for their one big trip to Europe, did most of their touring on big buses, stayed in the hotels their travel agent picked out for them and mainly went to tourist venues with other tourists, watching some show put on just for tourists and thought this was how things were in good old Europe. Today, people explore, and invest more time in seeking out the places and things to do that interest them the most. It is so much easier and frankly, a lot more fun. By being able to seek out bargains, one can travel more often. I still don't call home much, and I don't care if I have my i-phone with me or not, but if it is there, I make good use of it. Not using the "new-fangled" tools that we have at hand is kind of silly. Did people ask this with the first airplane trips, if it wasn't perhaps better to go by ship to Europe? Writing instead of a telegramm or a phone call?

I'm with Jo. I'm old enough to have done a bit of trip planning when the Internet wasn't widely used (obviously it still isn't in some places), and traveled pre-smartphone, pre-digital camera, etc, and I LOVE these inventions and the way they make trip planning and traveling easier. In some ways devices can assist, not take away spontaneity. I used to have to research trips obsessively because I didn't want to be stuck in an unfamiliar area without knowing what the good restaurants, hotels, etc were. Now I can wander, pull up an app in my phone, and find what's good nearby. I actually plan less for short city trips because of that ability. It also means I'm less reliant on guidebooks which will give a tourist perspective and more able to follow advice of locals. And I love that the Internet makes it easier to research and plan and travel independently. I've never regretted doing too much online research.

I am 67 years old; my first trip to Europe was 47 years ago. I sit here in a restaurant in Shrewsbury, England reading the Travelers Helpline with my iPad. I've also brought all my friends along on Facebook by posting pix every day and chronicling our adventures. Can't say I feel particularly nostalgic about the "good ole days" with regard to travel.

Ah,, but therein is a difference, and who can say one is better then the other unless they have done both. Travelling pre internet meant more a bit more "adventures",, getting off the ferry in Paros and simply being approached by locals holding cardboard signs saying "rooms " ,and looking at the photos they had,, then haggling down to 7 drachmas a night each,, now, that was kinda fun! It meant arriving at the train station discovering the next train leaving for where you wanted to go was in two hours, but there was a train leaving in 15 minutes for somewhere else, and just deciding to "go for it". It meant not knowinng that the neighborhood you have found a hotel room in was predominately very ethnic,, ( hey they found you a room that met your budget at the tourist office so you took it) and having a whole other view of a city then staying in the pre ed hotel you find on the net,, complete with google street view , so no suprises at all! I don't know if more people travel now or then,, perhaps more older( middleaged) people do,,but there were tons of young folks like me travelling around back in the day too( for me that was 1985). Will agree back then people my parents ages were on more bus tours, more preed by a travel agent packages etc. but young folks sure had a lot of fun . We were away almost 3 months, had the loosest of itinerary, and phoned home twice .. the feeling of being really out on your own was fun( unlike nowadays where it seems people feel the need to phone home on their cells every two days) .

I think one has to concede that part of the allure of travel is the sense of adventure - of seeing/doing something that many people have not, and probably will never see or do. It's safe to assume that those days are behind us - at least in regards to Europe. However, modernity in all its forms has made travel so much easier that it would be foolish for anyone to really yearn for the "old days". I for one, would probably not be traveling to Europe with my family in tow if the only way to do that was to hook up with a travel agent and pick out some glossy brochures.

We didn't even bother to think about calling home on my first trip. Not sure I even knew about calling from post offices or using a telephone calling card. I was just unreachable. The one thing that stands out to me was that I traveled light by putting everything in a Jansport napsack. I still have the pack and cannot for the life of me figure out how I fit everything in. I took two pairs of shoes and at least one pair of the pants I took was a pair of blue jeans. I packed enough clothes for a two week trip because I hadn't considered washing as I went. The only thing I didn't have was electronics of any kind. Still . . . I really don't know how I did it. I really work at traveling light now but what I carry today wouldn't fit in that pack. Maybe I was smaller back then. (I certainly weighed a bit less.) As for re-living the adventure of a European trip pre-Internet age, I assume going to the third world might capture some of that uncertainty. Your cell might work as a cell phone under the right circumstances, but you'd be left to your own devices to a far greater extent. At least that is my assumption.

Stage 1 - - We lived under a dictator (Franco), left Budapest when the Russian tanks rolled in, heard on the BBC that the Suez was shut down the same week. We got to europe by boat since airplanes had to multi-leg it. Guidebooks where Michelin Red and Temple Fielding. Dad did the travel planning on the back of an envelope. There was no CDG, LGW, or RER. If you went to Athens or Istanbul it was on a DC-3 out of Rome. Stage 2 - - Paying my own way, barely. Still no CDG, LGW, or RER. Jet engines had been hung on civilian airplanes, steps went to the top of the ET for about two-bits. Five bucks a day was a piece of cake.After an internship in Japan, hopped a freighter to Korea and eventually made it back to Japan for less than fifty bucks. Yen was going at three-sixty per dollar. Planning was on the back of an envelope. Stage 3 - - Somebody had built some more airports. With a wife and three kids, two grand was enough for a month. Somewhere along here transatlantic crossing number two hundred probably happened. Planning was on the back of an envelope. Stage 4 - - Last twenty years. Costs have gone up. Tried a computer and a gps a couple of times. Never tried reservations or a money belt. Planning is still on the back of an envelope. And for everwho said no cell phone in the third world - - the only places I have to reach for the satphone is in the middle of the Amazon Basin or the Gobi or someplace similar - - places where there ain't no population to speak of. Nothing seems to change.

No nostalgic feelings for me. Planning is so much easier and so much more fun with the intranet. For me it makes things less stressful when I'm there. I don't use a lot of technology while I am away, so there is not a huge difference there. I do like to check in with my kids a couple of times. I never checked in with my parents (only gone for two weeks). I plan to take my new iPhone this year, but I hope to use it sparingly.

Not really romanticizing, just not mentioning the "hard" stuff (though none was really that hard, and clearly survived it): Finding out in Athens that my emergency family was out of town on holiday and nearly crying. (Saved by the Greek Super whose daughter spoke English.) Having a friend sprain her ankle badly on a fall from a moped in Greece. Getting her to the hospital, getting her back to the hostel, figuring out how we could get the moped back, and how to catch our boat to Brindisi and they wanted the crutches back. (Picture 5'10" girl with broken ankle between a 5'4" girl and 6'1" boy hopping through Rome.) Picture the tension as we wait for the boy to get to the port in time to catch the ferry having taken care of the moped. No phone to call, just rising tensions and friendly Greeks ready to battle with the Italian ship captain. No rooms in Paris because it is is Easter, so having to go to the Youth Hostel that was known throughout Europe as the most disgusting. And it was. Planning a trip to Vienna and having the friend back out so having to wing it. Taking a night train to Amsterdam, layover in Cologne, and then on to Amsterdam. Pickle jar rolling around all night in our compartment. Hitchhiking and not getting rides. Hitchhiking and getting rides. Telling the Algerians that, Non, je ne voudrais pas couch and wondering if I was now going to have to walk home as my girl friend seemed interested in "couchezing/" Pam

Cont... Blowing every fuse in the B&B with the hot rollers. Being elbowed out of the way for a drinks between acts in London by every man in the theatre and the bartender totally ignoring us. Walking in pouring down rain from Sligachen to Portree after hiking 10 miles. Dragging those crazy suitcases all over Inverness because at 24 we didn't want to look like students any more and so skipped the back pack. Getting really irritated with my sister, because she refused to suggest things that she wanted to do. She is not like that any more. ; ) If I think really hard, I may come up with more, but I don't think so. Pam

1st trip to Europe at the ripe old age of 16 in 1972. For the mind numbing price of $799.00 for 3 WEEKS! Including everything except souvenirs. It was a tour group: American Youth Symphonic Band and Chorus, and yes you did have to audition to get in. Included 2 days in Geneva Switzerland, 2 days in Venice Italy, 2 weeks on a Greek cruise ship touring the Med. from one end to the other including the Holy Land, Greece, Yugoslavia, and several islands, then 1 day in Venice Italy, and 2 days in Paris France! Of course, everything was planned ahead for us, so no worries about where to eat, sleep or what sight seeing to do. It took 34 years to get back to Europe, and have been there three times since....2 days in London and the balance in Ireland. Someday when I get my fill of Ireland, I will sample Scotland, Wales, and then Italy...in depth. So little time, so many places to travel to! I do like to use the internet these days...takes a lot of the anxiety out of the planning and the trip. Dan

Pamela,, that is hilarious,, my friend and I dragged suitcases around europe too, we were 23 and had this weird mindset too about not wanting to be "back packers" .. and this was before suitcases had wheels( routinely) .
Also remembering having to stay in a place in Amsterdam that literally had large fungi growing in the shower room, and a place in Greece where we shared the toilets with 3 other rooms, were not allowed to flush ANY toilet paper, and the waste basket was see through wire,, ( think about it, you get to sit there and look at everyones tp)...lol Sure it IS easier now to do alot of things,, I much prefer the ability to research and book accomadations online. But I still don't need to bring a lap top or cell phone ( I have however got an apartment booked that supplies a laptop!)

"...uphill in the snow...." No, in the summer of 1971 there was a heat wave in Europe,... went over solo on 16 June on a DC-8 charter flight from Oakland, Ca., landed at Gatwick to start the 12 week trip that would include 5 countries, stayed in HI hostels. There were no independent private hostels back then. No breakfast buffets either, you ate what was given to you...no choices. You basically brought with you the passport, Eurail Pass or Youth Pass, traveler's checks, youth hostel ID card, or visas for East Bloc countries. "How did we do it?" Yes, with none of this electronic gear. I went to a tourist office, no travel agent, was given a ton of brochures, read through more than half of them, studied the rail map and booklet that came with with my 2 month second class Youth Pass, didn't use a guide book for the 1st two trips in the early '70s. As others have mentioned, you went to a post office to make a trans-atlantic call, the connection was done for you, then was told to go which phone booth number. Yes, you went to a bank to cash the travelers' checks or hit the Amer. Ex. in the big cities. In way it was much simpler then, but in a way it's more convenient with internet cafes, ATMs, etc. Spontaneous traveling, winging it, can still be done as long as you're not too particular at which hotel, Pension, B&B, hostel, or your accomodations you wind up staying at, regardless of price.

In all my trips to Europe, I did not bring any of the electronic things mentioned by Frank II. I did not ever use a Travel agent. My first trip to Europe was to Germany and Austria. For that trip, I did not reserve a room in any hotel before I departed from the United States of America. My first day in Germany, a tourist information office person reserved a room in a hotel for me. No fee. The room was in a hotel that I had read about in a travel guide book. In Europe, I telephoned to the next hotel, to reserve a room, a few days before I arrived there.I got the hotel information from a travel guide book that I acquired in the United States. That trip to Germany and Austria was totally great. In the year 2004, I reserved a room in a small hotel at Florence in ITALY, by telephoning from my home at the United States. In the year 2009, I reserved a room in a beautiful small hotel at a good location in Paris in France, by telephoning from my home in the United States. I paid 20 Cents per Minute for talking via telephone to ITALY and to FRANCE. Those hotels do not receive communication via the internet.
In the 1980s and earlier, a Rail Pass for Europe (30 days of unlimited train travel to most of the countries) was not very expensive. Now, I can not afford to buy more than a five day rail pass).

Like some other posters here, I'm a bit too young to know what travel was like before the digital revolution. I'm not a technology person so I'm kind of envious of travel in those days. At the same time, I know technology has made a lot of things easier. I don't have to go to a travel agent to find a flight, book hotels, figure out transportation, etc. I have AT&T so my cell phone (not a smartphone) works in Europe, which is great for quick calls or texts home. For my upcoming trip in the fall I'll take my (previously owned) iPod Touch, the first time I'll ever have traveled with a personal Internet-connected device. I'm slowly being dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century. :)

I trip down memory lane reading these posts! My first trip to Europe was for two months the summer I graduated from college in 1978. I can't remember the price of the ticket but remember that my parents, sisters and both grandmothers saw me off at the gate! I had $800 to last the entire time to pay for everything, room, board, food, entrance fees, everything!. My first passport is full of stamps from all the countries - mostly crossing borders on the train - which by the way, you either got a student Eurail pass or a first class for 1, 2 or 3 months that was good just about everywhere. I find the options today almost overwhelming. We only had a rough itinerary and never had a room reservation, just got room through the TI at the train stations. When leaving a country, we'd exchange any bills we had for the next country's currency but used the change to buy snacks for the train. How we did it all without the internet? I don't know, but we did and we got along just fine. (P.S. but I love all the internet info!)

I am in the 55+ set but won't sugar coat the past. It wasn't great smelling like stale cigarettes for 2 days after you got off the plane. I didn't like paying a quarter per picture (cost of film and processing) but not knowing if they turned out until you got home. It was no fun for me standing in lines for info or services. I could go on, but if anyone misses the good old days, don't use the internet to plan, leave your cellphone at home and don't take a credit or debit card. That should remind you of "how we did it" and give you lots of opportunities for "real travel."

Leif Erikson and Columbus didn't have 2012 technology when they first traveled to this continent either, but let's face it, those days really sucked. Seriously, who laments the days of the Commodore 64 and renting your phone from AT&T? Traveling back then wasn't somehow better than now.

"The day of spontaneous travel is long gone replaced by the throngs of over planned, over anxious tourists. And then they wonder why the didn't get the European experience." i am positive that zero people who used the internet to plan their perfect trip came home and wondered why they didnt get the european experience. i sometimes read this board and scratch my head at some of the comments made about how others dont get the european experience because they overplanned, because they dont waste four hours of vacation time sitting in a cafe during lunch, because they didnt spend more time in a place that they had no interest in spending more time in, etc. maybe i am just truly ignorant to what the european experience is. to me, it is simply going to europe and doing what you want to do whle there. perhaps im missing something. i am an over planner. that doesnt mean that when i get there, i am going to miss out on anything. in fact, it means quite the opposite.

Went to Europe in the summer of 1964 right out of college and lived there 2 1/2 years. The best memory I have of that time is the lack of tourist compared to the present, and the lack of the "americanization" of Europe. Back then it was really a totally different world. TC

OK, Pamela, to see it from your POV, I also remember: A young boy running down the aisle of the Lufthansa Boeing 707 and tackling the lady who in those days we referred to as Stewardess, causing the tray of drinks she was carrying to fly heavenwards and some of the contents landing on me - Lufthansa gave me a check or something to clean the clothes. and Running for a moving train in Aachen and having several non-English speaking railway police detain me in a compartment and threaten to fine me and detain me in a cell in Koeln. I conveniently forgot my nearly fluent German and that I understood every word they said and eventually they gave up and let me go before Koeln. and arriving by train in Paris from Nice not aware it was Bastille Day; no hostel space, no pensions; I gave up and went back to Koeln without ever leaving the station. It was to be over 30 years before I returned to Paris - much more happy. I'm now confused because Nice would normally be G de Lyon and I'm sure I didn't leave the station and found a train to Koeln; I don't remember changing trains but may have - I suppose I must have been at G de l'Est. I think the train from the south may have been a T-E-E. I wonder? and I was traveling with a metal framed tall backpack, the kind where the sleeping bag attaches to the frame below the rucksack part, also providing a place to tie boots. I arrived in Vienna, realized that my pack wouldn't fit in any of the lockers at the station, had a coffee across the street and got back on the train, probably to Munich. That was a whole day of train travel - a long way. What a waste. Happy days...

Yes...those metal frame backpacks of 40 years ago. Whenever you saw a backpacker having one of those on his/her back, you knew automatically that this person was from either the US or Canada with or without the Maple Leaf flag. The European kids did not have these "tall metal frame backpacks."

I flew in a "charter" plane to London and stayed in the only place I had reserved for that month-long trip. I crossed the channel by ferry, and used a Eurail Pass for train travel in half a dozen countries. I never made a reservation, just got on whichever train was going where I wanted to go. Mostly I found cheap lodging near train stations. This was 1969 and EUROPE ON $5 A DAY was the travel bible. My entire trip including airfare was way under $1000. It was something like $700.

I do remember some of those experiences because I went to Europe for two months out of High School. Took forever to receive letters, had a phone call every Sunday from my parents. Had no idea what there was to see and do, so depended on my pen friend to take me places. Same for travel in the 80s and 90s. Used Frommers or Fodors, knew very little still, had to put up with smelly cigarette scent on flights. I would not go back to the old days. They were not better, they were different from today. I am older than Andrea in NL, but totally understand her use of technology and love of it because I adore modern technology. It has saved me many times, including health wise whilst abroad. The difference in the old days and modern times is this. We have options now. One could still seek a travel agent. Any of our 40+ crowd who might look down on those who want to take an iPhone, iPad, Kindle, GPS or whatever, could choose to do it the old way instead. The modern way does not take away from the experience. What is that experience anyway? Haven't you all noticed that Europe is right up there with technology also? I was in the castle in Vianden last year (Luxembourg) and shocked to see a large, flat screened TV in the kitchen, and glass doors no less.

My last trip to europe was in '97 and although I did a bit of online researching through list-servs (remember those?), most of my research was done with guide books. I did a true "Rick Steves" style experience, with few advance reservations and lots of flexibility to hop off trains and look for accommodation on the fly. Without the internet to warn us, we didn't know about the gondola worker's strike on the Italian side of Mt. Blanc, and that we couldn't ride the cable car over the mountain into France as we'd planned. We also didn't know there was a music festival of some sort in Courmayeur and all accommodation was full. Nor did we anticipate that the short train ride from Aosta would turn into an all-day ordeal of delayed trains due to more striking. When we finally arrived in Courmayeur late in the evening, there was no gondola, the buses and trains had stopped running, and no beds were available to us, anywhere. We walked around town for hours, begging for a place to sleep. We were treated rudely and with anger by most everyone we asked for help. We camped in the station until kicked out by security, then crashed in a field, unprepared for "camping." The next morning the gondola workers were still striking, so no Mt. Blanc for us. For my upcoming trip we are avoiding rail-strike-prone countries (no more Italy for us!), have reservations for all accommodation made in advance, and plan to reconfirm bookings and check for schedule changes with a smartphone. There will probably still be some surprises along the way, but I feel much less stressed with a real plan. I'm older now, have young children along for the trip, and do not want to do any unplanned camping this time! Knowledge is power, and technology can help us be informed travelers!

I wasn't waxing nostalgic implying travel was better than these pre techno infused days. Lord knows my Mac Book Pro is a constant when planning a trip. Frank II's question was how we did it, not was it better. BTW the thing I do miss most about those days, less Americanization. To this day one of the saddest sights for me was walking from the train station up the hill to Windsor Castle and seeing KFC, Burger King and Pizza Hut enroute. However, what sent me over the edge was Bud Light making headway in Ireland. Sacrilege!!!

Claudia, if there wasn't a demand or interest for American fast food, it would not have succeeded. Clearly Europens were interested. Besides, I am guaranteed, like so many other tourists, free wifi and a toilet! The biggest pet peeve of mine is not having enough toilets. You can't imagine the number of times I've praise a higher one for having numerous McDonalds to choose from in those wonderful European cities. The relief!

This has been amazing. I read many of the postings on the Travelers Helpline and so many are about using all of the technology available to us today. So, I made a statement that we didn't have this years ago and then asked a simple question: "How did we do it." Did I really want to know how it was done, or was it a philosophical question as to how did we do it back then without all the things we have today to make it so much simpler, or was the question simply........rhetorical? It's amazing how this was interpreted by so many people. If I had to answer it would be: We did it that way because that was the only way we knew. In 20 years, I'm sure there will be newer, and perhaps better, technology used for trip planning. And we might, just might, look back at today and ask: "How did we do it?"

I'm with Jennifer from Brooklyn on this one...scratching my head at some of the Those Were the Days comments. Particularly the ones by Baby Boomer era Ricknicks waxing poetic about the "lack of tourists" in the 60s and 70s and that evil "Americanization" of Europe. Places like the Louvre, Eiffel Tower and Vatican have been attracting tourists long before Helpline posters were born. Wasn't the whole premise of "If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium" (which was filmed in the 60s) or "Summertime" (filmed in the 50s) about American tourists in Europe? As for "Americanization"...that demand by Europeans for all things American was happening way before Starbucks moved in and started offering free wi-fi and toilet breaks with the purchase of a caramel macchiato. I still remember being a kid and following my mom out of baggage claim as she cursed up a storm because she was asked to pack an enormous suitcase full of Levi's jeans and cartons of Marlboro cigarettes for the European relatives and now she had to haul it through the airport (that was in the 70s).

Life and travel in Europe is beautiful and easy right now. So connected. Daily e-mail/Skype contact with friends and family back home. Lots of people speak English! You can watch CNN and BBC in your hotel room every evening. Check Facebook and your favourite websites daily. No fumbling with 10 different currencies... no losing money every time you exchange it. Easy access to cash via bank machines. No borders to speak of. It is fun and easy. Really. And it is still 100% Europe. That having been said, allow us geezers our fond memories, even as you will one day cherish memories of your youth. Independent travel back then did have a certain exotic and foreign feel to it, if only because English was not so ubiquitous and different currencies abounded and border crossing was a bit more ceremonious. I crossed into East Berlin through Checkpoint Charlie. Pretty memorable. I needed to be able to fumble through some basic phrases in several languages. I had long hair and a backpack and a leather slouch hat that I bought in Spain. I had the 2 month unlimited rail pass and spent a summer wandering from Athens to Oslo and East Berlin to Algeciras. Ah, to be young and free in the endless summer of 1976. (I was 17!!!) Whole thing cost me no more than $1000 once I was on the ground. No reservations were needed for anything. It was romantic in its way. That trip influenced and shaped a whole lot of my future and is no doubt responsible for my living where I live today. Bottom line: both eras are good in their own ways. I'm tremendously enjoying the here and now. How we did it? I don't know, but I wouldn't change a thing. (O.K. maybe travellers cheques. They were a hassle.) I think I'm gonna be humming "our last summer" all day now. Rats.

I was just curious about prices in the "good old days." This is a simple answer but $1,000 in 1970 is about $5,400 today. Given the exchange rates and willingness to forgo certain luxuries (like private bathrooms) I can see how $1,000 could last a month or more in 1970. (I'll add my earning power was far less in 1970 as well, even adjusted, so $1,000 would have been a lot to me then.)I. I suspect a fair number of students could spend a month in Europe today for $5,400.

Very true! Of course, back then I was living at my parents' house rent free and eating there for free too! So my job clearing tables at the golf-course restaurant (plus tips!) went straight into the travel jar. Although I was oblivious at the time, in later years I did remember to say "thank you, mom and dad!"

1992: no reservations. You could work in hostels for a week and stay free (payment for a couple of hours painting).Youth hostels and a pre-paid eurail. Night trains to save on accommodation. Pre-Euro money, so a trip back from Hungary we just threw our Florints out the window of the train, they were useless when we got to Vienna. The whole experience was mind blowing. I remember travelling thru Eastern Europe in those days was like another world, it still felt very much connected to the post-war period. CCCP was written on the metro trains and the police and passport control people were no joke! scary in some situations. Trains used to stop in the middle of the night and ex-Russian guards would get on the train and physically wake you up. Two long haired boys from Australia were often viewed with suspicion. These days the whole thing is a breeze and logistically easier, maybe a little less edgier. 1992 holds very fond memories that will never leave me.

On "How did we do it?" Answer the question rhetorically, if you so choose, or literally with specific evidence. On those prices of yesteryear...in the spring of 1971 when I bought my ticket for the charter flight on the DC-8, the price for 12 weeks was $ 275, the maximum stay. The 2nd class 2 month unlimited Youth Pass was $125. That was essential for rail travel. Within the first two weeks of the Pass I had make two lengthy trips from south Sweden (Malmö) to the north, scheduled duration was 20 hrs, to and fro. But northern ride must have been longer since the train stopped for a time somewhere in the field. Those two rides must have paid for my Pass or most of it, and I still had six weeks left on it for a ten week trip. One more item that was part of traveling pre-internet, pre-all this electronic gear, aside from Travelers'Checks, various currencies and coins in your pocket, rail Pass of some sort, HI hostel membership card, etc., you shot for film, if you chose, slides, tons of slides, since they were much cheaper to develop than color prints.

Does anyone remember "Europe on $5 A Day?" My first trip to Europe was when I was 19. I remember traveling with no hotel reservations and yes, having to exchange money in a bank. Also, taking the "cheap" ferry from Dover to Calais. What a ride. However, one of my fondest memories that we still talk about to this day.

This thread brings back lots of memories! My mom came to the US from England so we traveled back to England and Europe quite a bit to visit family, my first trip I was less than a year old. I also member the Pan Am bags they gave us for the flights and we dressed up for the flight. These days I use the internet heavily for planning and my gadget junky hubby must bring every toy he can with us. I'm still working on getting the hubby to pack lighter with each trip! Some things are so much easier now, some of the nostalgia for traveling in the past will always stay with me, mostly because of the places and people. Losing a tooth in the hotel in Majorca shortly before my 6th birthday and the tooth fairy leaving me a US $5 bill and all the staff at the hotel making a huge deal of my birthday are some of my earliest memories of travel. Whether for good or bad, there sure have been a lot of changes!

Yes, travel fashions have changed over the years. I don't remember my first trip to Europe as I was two years old, but my mother says she wore high heels, a dress, and a hat. She was travelling by herself with my four year old brother and me, and had at least one layover each way too.

Hey Frank, I'm enjoying this thread no matter which turn it takes. ; ) Here's a few more comments as someone who traveled to Europe in the 70's as a college student. And BTW someone whose parents went to Europe in the early 50's on a delayed honeymoon. Now that was a trip! McDonalds opened on the Champs Elysee the year we were in Germany1973. I tried to quickly check my dates and couldn't, but I'm pretty sure that's when they opened. We were excited. We'd been in Europe for three months and were ready for a burger. Our fellow students in London had Wimpy's, we had nothing. ; ( Wow, the 2nd class 2-month Eurail pass for students was $125 in 1971? It was $200 in 1973. I feel ripped off nearly 40 years later. And, it was my parents who would have been the ones ripped off. Other costsit was an extra $500 to have two terms in Germany rather than two terms in Appleton WI. Of course, that Student Rail Pass and all other travel was extra. It did include a trip to Berlin and East Germany. In 1977, a few years later, we were averaging 6-8 Pounds a night for B&B's in the UK. And those aluminum framed backpacks sure did nail you as student from North America. My dad told me to buy a backpack in Europe and not to bother bringing one with me. That meant I had this oh so very cool backpack with an internal frame. I thought I would look soooo European, except when I wore the plaid Bobby Brooks wool pants. ; ) The Backpack is in my mom's basement even as I type. Pam

Pamela: I worked in London in the 60s and tried Wimpy - you did not miss much not having it. Certainly didnt taste much like meat. Coulnt undertsand why the Brits liked it when we could have had a decent pub lunch

Must have been desperate if Wimpy rang your chimes of jealosy.

Narvik...now that's an interesting place to be. I almost did that when I was in north Sweden in June 1971 using my Youth Pass to cut across Sweden and Norway to get to Narvik. Maybe I wasn't in the mood for another multi-hour train ride. Yes, those were the days.

Well....I wouldn't have been spending my siesta time in Guatemala checking out the RS website....back in the good old days.... Although I have my little Acers with me for downloading images I still only stay somewhat connected to life in the US...phone for emergencies, that sort of thing...but I still tend to travel pretty much the same way I did before all this. A few loose plans, always open to serendipity, don't do too much research as I like the surprises (good or bad). Internet does help though for the plans you need to make. Camera equipment is where the big change has come in. I used to carry 2 Hasselblads, a 35 mm, a polaroid camera as well as a variety of filters, professional tripod and loads of film... Now, I grab a 35 mm, a few sd cards, my
Acer and I am good to go. I used to have a backpack full of film as we could not find the 120 or 220 Fuji film, nor the boxes of polaroid and never the infrared....so that has all changed for me and I do not want to go back to the good old days of film. Photo life is now pretty easy.

Qh, we were indeed getting a bit desperate. During the week we were served breakfast, lunch and dinner at Herr Woern's in the Eninger Hof, the Inn that the school had put us up in. We students were the only residents. The best food was the Wiener Schnitzel, which we fondly called Schnitz and Fritz as it always came with French Fries. We often had yogurt for desert, which was new for us. Back then Dannon didn't exist. I loved this new thing called yogurt. We had great potato salad and a green salad with a very tasty dressing. The spaetzle was wonderful Then, there was the crock of meat in a sauce that you served over the spaetzle. We never were quite sure what was in that crock, but we were 19-21 year-olds so we ate it. But that's what made us long occasionally for a burger. Oddly, I don't remember having much Wurst, and you would think that we would have. I do remember very well the broetchen (I can't do oomlauts) and the pretzels and the himbeer jam. Yum. Pam

I was on the first Freddie Laker flight from NYC to London. $100 flat. I quit my job and sold almost all I owned to generate $2000 for the trip. It was September 1977. I started in the north and headed south as it got colder. I had a Brit Rail pass and a Eurail Pass. I carried a tiny duffle and a cross-body bag. My packing list was as limited as the most restrictive lists you see on this site. I replaced the duffle with a ski touring backpack in Amsterdam and ditched the things that wouldn't fit in it. The backpack was tear shaped heavy nylon with padded leather on the back. It was the most comfortable pack I have ever had and I've never seen anything like it since. I thought my money would last for about 2 months, but it lasted for over 4! I called home twice from special international phone options available back then. My Eurail Pass ran out in Florence around Christmas, but I kept going on through Italy and to Greece. My funds started getting low in January, so I took the Magic Bus back from Greece through Yugoslavia to Amsterdam. Then it was on to London and back home by the end of the month, on another Freddie Laker flight. My gradually ripped apart copy of Let's Go Europe was my bible. It was hostels and shared B&B rooms and cheap food all the way. No reservations. As a single woman traveling alone at the advanced age of 31, not to mention quitting my job and selling my stuff, my friends and work colleagues thought I was nuts. Maybe so, but it sure was fun, and corny as it sounds, life-changing. I think that trip 35 years ago made it possible for me to accept, adapt to and deal with almost any situation I might encounter in my travels today.

Lo, I really agree. These were life-changing trips and I really hope that the 20 somethings (even the 19-year-olds) and 30 somethings that are having these adventures are also finding their travels equally life-changing. I suspect that they are. I have two young people20 somethingssleeping on my aerobed here in NYC this week. One is has spent a little over a year teaching English in Hungry and her friend is from Greece. He's making his first visit to the US. They were off to the Met and the Staten Island Ferry and maybe a bit of Chinatown today. Talking with them, I can tell that they are having the adventures that we did. They are similarcoming back from Serbia to Hungry, they got stopped by a border control who could differentiate between an issued date and an expired date on a Greek ID. The train went on without them! No Serb currency, no ATM, no train for over 8 hours. The bus got them into Hungry where they had currency, but they missed the connection and hitchhiked. That story could totally have happened in the 70's. ; ) Back in the 70's (even the mid 70's) women didn't become sales reps. I'm convinced that my experiences of traveling solo in Europe eased the fears of sales managers who were uneasy about hiring woman who would have to travel and spend the night in hotels and eat all alone. We have indeed come a long way. Pam

Yes, there is something about traveling alone, whether for two weeks to two months or to that Schengen limit of 90 days, that makes it an uniquely different experience and life changing. You find out about yourself, learn about yourself in how to adapt, deal with encounters and situations, etc. In Aug-Sept 1977 I was over there solo at 27 for just about six weeks, stayed in hostels, at an university dorm, and small hotels, had the Eurail Pass, and felt afterwards that on this trip I could have done better and more.

The only things I really miss are affordable rail passes and getting lots of passport stamps (instead of just one). I also long for airport security the way it used to be, before 9/11 - leaving my shoes and jacket on, carrying-on my swiss army knife.

What fun to read these replies! Great memories of those phone booths at the PO, heaps of useless coins, and student backpacks. I think every young person heads off on their first adventure abroad full of excitement and matures through their adaptation to a new land and the unexpected glitches of travel, regardless of their prefered techology. I am surprised no one has mentioned my first guidebook love affair (pre-RS): LET'S GO EUROPE!!! Whatever Let's Go said, we did. That and the standard issue Eurail pass map were the only travel literature I used (this was mid-80's). It was a blast! But you know what, it's still a blast. I love using the internet. I love my digital camera. The mod cons just give us new ways to experience the adventure.

Done it both ways, like both ways. But I do feel like the constant presence of technology makes me want to fill every moment with something, because I can find out so much more to do. Stopped buying the Frommer guides when they hit $80 a day. I remember writing to the country's travel office and waiting for the big brown envelope with brochures so I could plan my own trip. Never used a travel agent, although I briefly wanted to be one. I remember the hotel-finding desk at the train stations, they'd make a call to a place in your budget range, give you a slip of paper with the hotel name and address, and off you went. Letters from home setled at "Posta Restante" until I arrived to pick them up (the post office would hold mail for 30 days). It was more seat-of-the-pants traveling, coming into a town and just looking around before deciding to stay. Now all my reservations are done before I go. I don't have the patience to look around for a place I want to sleep in. Although even the online reservations can be a little sketchy sometimes - but at least there's some adventure left! But what I really miss is the feeling of being in a place where I'm not connected to anyone and have to depend on myself - and occasionally the kindness of strangers (the latter sometimes still happens - thanks for the ride, Davide!).

Ah, yes. We could now start a trail of posts thanking people! That was certainly a huge part of that first trip. ; ) I would thank Marko and all the porters at the Corfu town Ferry port. LOL Pam