Two College kids do Europe (3 weeks) Help/Advice appreciated!

hey touchy
first thing do you have your passport? second get a guide book of germany and read what your want to see, hoping to see and dates where you will be. don't understand your "across europe" mean, after departing from your friend you only have 9 to 12 days then fly home. look at train schedules, better to buy cheaper fares early. you are traveling during cold of winter so be prepared for all that it entitles, do your homework and research, get a plan together then come back here. lots of people travel for the holidays so places will be busy.
aloha

I took my 20 year old daughters to Europe during this same time frame--12/29 thru 1/24. We had a great time, tho weather in most places is a crap shoot that time of year. We had heavy snowfall in Munich and Salzburg. It was blustery/chilly in Vienna. It was pretty snowy and when we could see the mountains, Switzerland was amazing. Paris was brisk but very enjoyable and manageable. We spent about 9-10 days in Barcelona and surrounding area, and for us, the weather was quite lovely. (We are from MN) I traveled to Iceland once, but it was end of September. I LOVE Iceland, but winter in Iceland, is again, a crap shoot. I don't want to, in the least, discourage you from traveling this time of year. In fact, I did I short trip with my sons, mid January about 6 years back. (Vienna, Budapest, Prague, Munich). Traveling that time of year can save you money and there are far fewer people. In Germany, it is to your benefit to book train travel in advance, except possibly for Bavaria. Bavaria has a Bayern train ticket which can be quite economical, but I'm not sure if it works for non family members. Often you can get train discounts if you are under 25. (I think that is the cut off). Do not use RailEurope. In general, I try to use the train website for each country--DB for Germany, OBB for Austria, sncf for France (tho that may have recently changed). For Spain, its RENFRE and they are not my friend. ;) I used LOCO2. Also, many places will give you a discount with a college student ID. Bigger cities are easier to manage in the winter because activities are less weather dependent. Some places are cheaper than others--Budapest and much of Spain is less expensive than other places.

Did you get the plane tickets first already? The trains are easy. Based on your specifics, I recommend you look at Wow Airlines secure your flights asap to save money. It is an Icelandic based airline that has 7 days a week direct roundtrip flights from Chicago to Reykjavik, the Capitol of Iceland.

https://wowair.us/

They also have a direct flight from Reykjavik to Frankfurt, Germany that puts you close to Friedrichshafen. You would have to take the train from Frankfurt to reach Friedrichshafen.

Once you get your flights in order then look at the trains. Get a guidebook or look online to determine where you want to go in Europe based on your own interests.

There are lots of good options for regional train travel with a small group like yours. But leave that for later once you have an itinerary.

What city is your friend going to live/study in?

Although most close just before Christmas, you can still catch a Christmas market in the city of Speyer (to the south, not far from Heidelberg and a convenient distance from the Frankfurt International Airport area.)

https://www.speyer.de/sv_speyer/de/Tourismus/Veranstaltungen/Weihnachten/081211Weihnachtsmarkt%20Klaus%20Venus.jpg

https://en.romantic-cities.com/cities/speyer/

You might spend a first day/night (or longer) in Mainz after arrival at FRA. Mainz is only 25 minutes and €5 each by local train from the airport. Then take the regional train to Speyer (€34 total for 3 on a Rheinland-Pfalz ticket/day pass.)

Hey, congratulations on planning your first overseas adventure!

My sense from reading your post is that you're a little too early in the planning to be asking for help. It's hard to know what advice to give you right now because you have so many decisions to narrow down.

You will need to decide on some details of your itinerary before you start thinking about the cheapest way to book trains. Some trains are cheapest 90 days out, and others you can buy the day of the trip. Whether you will do better buying a railpass is dependent on how many trains you'll be taking and where, and which railpass makes the most sense depends on what countries you are visiting.

You have a lot of research to start doing. And a lot of us on this forum can offer a lot of good tips. But I guarantee we can be so much more helpful once you've made some decisions about your itinerary.

I have written an article on my blog that offers advice for planning a trip like this. Let me know if you're interested and I can share the link with you via private message.

You're in luck. Chicago is not the best international airport, however the budget airline Norwegian Air Shuttle is now flying to London-Gatwick. From there, EasyJet.com flies to just about everywhere in Europe really cheap--except Friedrichshafen (down on the Swiss border.) But EasyJet does fly to Munich, and you can catch a train there.
Your friend there should have ideas on where to visit. You are traveling in the height of the winter sports season--skiing. If you guys are young bohemians, Munich, Salzburg and Vienna or Budapest would be great stops.
That time of the year, weather can be an issue anywhere. I tend to stay south in winter after freezing my tail off skiing in Austria.
You might want to go to the library and checkout some travel books, like Rick Steves, for the areas you would like to visit.

Some basic tips for traveling to and in Germany:

• Language: In city centers and touristic areas you will find people speaking English but not everywhere. To get sure have for example Google Translate App on your mobile with German as downloaded language (means it works offline)
• Navigation: It is meaningful to have an app with offline maps. I use Sygic but there are lots of other apps. Most precise map material for Germany has Here WeGo.
• Mobile and data access: If you are using offline navigation and do not need to talk / write / post permanently stuff WiFi is enough. German hotels / restaurants and other locations normally offer free WiFi. If you need a SIM in Germany either ask your US provider for a add-on plan or get one online before traveling to Germany. Buying one in Germany is not so easy because there is registration needed with ID and fixed address in Germany, even for prepaid.
• Currency and payment: Curency is Euro and in Germany not all locations accept cards. Therefore you shall either ask for acceptance at a location or have some Euro cash available.
• Domestic travels: Traveling between cities is easy posible by train (www.bahn.com) or by bus (http://global.flixbus.com).
• Safety: Nearly every place in German cities is safer than cities in the US. There is no no-go area in Germany. In cities and at touristic spots be aware of pickpockets.
• Climate and weather: Germany has a significant summer / winter climate, also with shorter daylight in winter. For a basic indication what to expect at date of travel climate tables can help. Weather forecasts are in Germany reliable 3-4 days before, not longer. Official weather forecast is done by DWD: https://www.dwd.de/EN/Home/home_node.html
• Itinerary planning: Get a first overview at website of official German Travel Board http://www.germany.travel/en/index.html

As someone written above a recommendation for places depends very much on your interests.

Europe's biggest NYE party is at Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. Berlin has also a lot of other sights (https://www.visitberlin.de/en) and good prices for hostels. Plan 3-4 nicghts there if you go. So may be start here and travel by train down to Friedrichshafen to meet your friend. Bamberg and Munich are cities on the way that can easily be reached by direct fast train connection (no switch of train needed).

Hope that helps. Good luck.

Most Europeans fly long distance these days on low cost airlines. Train travel is only used for shorter distances (4-5 hours max). Why? Because it’s cheaper and faster.

@Emily: Your statement of "most Europeans" is not fully correct. They travel by bus and train, not by plane. See an example of holiday travels here (German language): https://www.goeuro.de/reisen/weihnachten_europa. By the way: One of the most used ways to travel (by own car) is not listed here because it does not need booking.

In some cases it is really a question of possibility and of time. People form Iceland, Ireland, some nordic regions but also from and to islands need a plane because ferry lasts for them too long and / or is too expensive.

Interesting article by Deutsche Welle:
https://www.dw.com/en/trains-vs-planes-whats-the-real-cost-of-travel/a-45209552

Good luck with your trip.

I recommend you take up Lane's offer and I think you should also read Rick Steve's advice. When you have narrowed down your locations (please be realistic and keep it under three more locations) we can give much help on details.

MarkK - I beg to differ. Your link to a German travel agency is not very convincing. The romantic notion of long distance train travel in Europe is long gone. Group bus tours and car travel are, of course, other modes of transport, but not really ideal for college students.

Emily, one example of a travel agency is more convincing than no data from you to underline your statement :-)

If you have concrete numbers from a good source I am curious to see. I doubt that even the flight capacities are enough to compete with cars, trains and buses in Europe.

For European visitors to Germany there are numbers published by German Travel Board (page 14):
https://www.germany.travel/media/pdf/ueber_uns_2/DZT_ZahlenFlyer_April_2017_EN_RZ_WEB.pdf

Readers shall be aware that these numbers are before breakdown of AirBerlin, a major tourist flight carrier from / to Germany.

Would be happy to see such an overview for whole Europe.

For a briefing on trains in Germany read this: https://www.seat61.com/Germany-trains.htm
And the rest of that excellent website for other countries. The annual timetable change is in early December, times for your dates may not yet be available, but assume they are 95% same as at present.

Congratulations on your first trip, you have a steep planning and learning curve, but have fun.
Late Dec early Jan is not the best time. You miss Christmas (ends on Christmas Day), but get the worst weather and shortest days.

Friedrichshafen is in southern Germany, on a lake called Bodensee near the Swiss and Austrian borders, so include these as options in your planning. The nearest airport with transatlantic flights is Zürich, so you could fly there. Train from Zürich to Friedrichshafen is possible (train from anywhere to anywhere is possible!)

Next step - planning and choose where to visit.

MarkK - Fair enough, here's an article - https://www.forbes.com/sites/geoffreymorrison/2015/09/29/by-train-or-plane-across-europe/#8f3869c4279b. I would also add that, as this is a forum, personal experience also counts for something. Anyway, I am not completely discounting travel train. It makes sense for shorter distances, but for, say, a trip from London to Rome, a flight makes so much more sense - especially if you are short on time and money. Night trains have faded for a reason.

Keep in mind that in Iceland mid January, the sun is up only 5 1/2 hours. Sunrise around 11 am and sunset at 4:30 pm.

Right now, I am seeing nonstops on United to Frankfurt Dec 26, return from Amsterdam Jan 18 for $601 pp. The only thing cheaper is with Air Canada through Montreal, with a nonstop return (United) for $526. These are pretty good prices, so a quick decision is in order. These deals can disappear in a heart beat.

Emily, thanks for article - also very personal opinion. Away from numbers my experience is that very often the door-to-door calculation is a very different one than the calculation made in the article which is imo a very blue-eyed comparison. If you compare total times and costs airports like Munich, London-Gatwick, Oslo-Gardemoen, Paris CDG etc. lose a lot of attractivity.

Sure, if you are a well trained business traveller you can optimise "up in the air" :-) I made Darmstadt - Berlin door-to-door in 3.15 hrs by flight but that was really fully optimised, means for example not to use the normal security check in FRA.

Furthermore companies like Deutsche Bahn destroy their already little damaged reputation very much by getting down to 75% in schedule accuracy. On the other side a lot of companies deny to allow domestic flights on distances such as Frankfurt - Munich due to environmental reasons, same for Madrid - Barcelona. Earlier flight connections such as Berlin - Hamburg or Berlin - Hanover completely disappeared due to excellent train connection.

From my side I changed my travel behaviour a lot from flying to train or totally avoiding business travels. It is nice to be a HON but it is more honorable to be nice to our environment :-)

This might interest you. Russ just posted that the German Rail Pass has just announced a discount for the pass for travel completed by Jan 31, which is right in your wheel house. You can get a 7-day out of 30 day 2nd class Twin Flex Pass for 340 EUR. That will cover 2 people traveling together. Comes out to be less than 25 EUR per person per trip. Trips at those prices can only be got booking advance nonrefundable ticket, so you can maintain flexibility. It is also good for trains to Amsterdam on the Hanover corridor, Venice from Munich using the EC train, Copenhagan from Hamburg, Brussels from Cologne on ICE trains. It is also good for other international trips using IC buses to Prague from Munich or Nuremberg, Milan from Munich, Krakow from Berlin.

Now I assume your friend in Friedrichshafen is already there on a student visa. Technically, he is a resident in Europe so not eligible for the pass, but he will not be travelling the whole time, and he probably knows some other travel deals he might have access to.

Skyscanner.com allows you to search for flights to any destination, so you can run all your dates and find the lowest fare to get over there, then make your connections. Of course, you don't have to fly into and out of the same city, so planning your flights over and back can help shape your destinations within Europe. I second Seat61.com. Great resource. Also take a look at Wolters World. He has a lot of videos that are informative, fun to watch and aimed at your age group. There is a site called, I think, Couchsurfing.com, for free places to stay. For light packing, there are about a million YouTube videos on this subject. Bottom line: don't pack three weeks' worth of clothes; do laundry a couple times. Don't think there's anything you MUST see. There won't be a test. Focus on experiences that are of interest to you. Have a great time!

No, there will be a test for students :-)
https://www.tatsachen-ueber-deutschland.de/en/fancy-doing-facts-quiz

Will the students have the option of taking this in German or English?

I traveled around Spain with my wife and two college kids this summer. We purchased our flights via studentuniverse.com. My daughter bought them with her student email and I paid for them. Great prices. I used TripAdvisor Vacation rentals for lodging which can be far cheaper than hotels and even hostels. The TripAdvisor app will link to Hotels.com and Booking.com as well as others. Read the reviews and find places which are near transportation like buses and subways (Ubahn). I found great city center apartments and hostels for under $100US. We tried to find places that would have kitchenettes which permitted us to save money by preparing 1-2 meals a day in our rental.

There is a wealth of information in these forums posted by seasoned travelers. We (my wife and Me with our two daughters) travel light and we never regret it. One daughter studied in Spain for a term with a backpack and her 21” roller. She gets it.