Considering Scandinavia

Denmark/Sweden/Norway all easy for a single female traveler. Driving is easy and other drivers are in the main polite and by golly people obey the traffic laws. Language is not a problem. Most people under fifty speak at least one other language, frequently English. Certainly this is true in the cities although we found the farmer's in the countryside of Sweden spoke excellent English when we stopped for directions (we have a habit of wandering off the main route and getting wonderfully lost). Sweden is expensive and Norway is really really expensive when it comes to eating out (& I'm talking cheap take out here). Food in the stores is not unreasonably priced but there is a huge luxury tax on things like cars, restaurants etc. I'd go back in a heart beat.

We have traveled to Denmark and Sweden. Both countries were very easy for travel - great train transportation and very easy to drive if you get a car. Not that much traffic. Most people we encountered spoke English. In Denmark we were primarily in Copenhagen with day trips by train outside. In Sweden, we were in Stockholm, but then traveled by car throughout - really wonderful sights.

I've traveled Norway, Netherlands, Belgium, Poland and Czech Rep.although the latter two were with a tour. I would say that Norway and Netherlands were by far the easiest because I found English spoken to some degree by everyone I encountered. In the Netherlands there is a wonderful public transporation system that goes just about everywhere. It's easy to base yourself in Amsterdam and day trip from there. We rented a small apt. near a tram line so we could be out our door, on the tram to the train station, and on the train to where ever we wanted withing 30 minutes. In Norway I did rent a car for a few days and found the driving quite easy. As others have said there is little traffic once you get into the "back country." I'm working on plans for a trip to Denmark/Sweden/Finland for next year now and will probably use a rail pass for that. In Belgium and the Czech Republic many young people speak some English at least in the cities. In Poland I found fewer English speakers. p.s. I'm an older woman who often travels alone as well.

I am a huge Scandinavia fan... love, love love. I also love Belgium! Have never been to the Netherlands or Poland or the Czech Republic. So my one comment will be limited to not speaking Danish/Swedish/Flemish/Dutch: I've never encountered any trouble speaking only English in any of the places in Scandinavia and Belgium that I have visited. So if that is one of your worries, and you choose one of those destinations, you shouldn't have to worry about it! I suspect - but have no evidence to back me up - that fewer regular folks in Poland and the Czech Republic speak English - at least, once you get outside of major tourist areas and in to smaller towns.

As the others have mentioned, you'll find it "easier" to travel and communicate in Benelux and Scandinavia than Poland/Czech. Scandinavia costs about as much as visiting Paris or London and if you limit alchohol and book hotels in advance you can get by fairly economically. Poland/Czech will be the cheapest option though Prague is no longer a value and is on par with the major European cities.

Traveled to Denmark in 2010. Everyone we met spoke English. People are very friendly. Wish we had more time to spend there( we were there for four days.)