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California to Eurrope

Hey Im a 23 year old male from LA California , I graduate school on June 12th and plan to leave shortly to Europe.Europe. I'm planing to visit Ireland, Scotland, Holland, Switzerland, Germany, London were I have family, and I would like to visit other places like Spain , Portugal, France , Italy, Greece and maybe turkey.
I was planing on flying to a country and then use the rail from traveling around,the 24 country pass is pretty affordable around $600 for a month , Do if anyone wants to join me on my adventure that would be great . Specially someone from the US
Travel dates June 15th-July 15th

Posted by
15807 posts

Congratulations on your upcoming graduation, izhaak -

First things first? 11 (12 counting England for your London stay) countries are far, far too many for 30-31 days. You would only have a couple of days in each one, and no time to really see anything but train stations and airports. Do you know what locations (cities/towns/etc.) in these countries you want to go to?

Just curious: what pass are you looking at buying? And what sort of budget for flights, accommodations, food and fun have you set aside?

Posted by
3 posts

Ok so I have family in cork Ireland, Glasgow,London, Amsterdam, Berlin and bern
planing on going to those places for sure .maybe except Glasgow. other than that Barcelona , Rome,
Paris, maybe Athens and istanbul.
im looking at the 1 month continuous pass US$ 681.
other than that not including flight I have around $2500 saved up
in the countries with family i will stay with family

Posted by
14507 posts

You qualify for the Youth Pass, 2nd class. The discounts continue until 30 April if bought on-line.

Posted by
15807 posts

Ok so I have family in cork Ireland, Glasgow,London, Amsterdam, Berlin and bern
planing on going to those places for sure .maybe except Glasgow. other than that Barcelona , Rome,
Paris, maybe Athens and istanbul.

That's still 11 cities in 11 different countries in 30 days: that's too many, Izahaak. You'd just get unpacked and have to pack up again before you even got your bearings. Keep in mind that every time you have to make a move between countries, you lose the better part of a day or more, depending on distance and method of transport.

You're young and have the rest of your life to go back to Europe: don't try to do it ALL at once or it'll be one big blur when you get home. I'd cut Barcelona, Athens, Rome and Istanbul for sure (too far out of the way) and concentrate on a more compact area: Cork/Glasgow/London/Amsterdam/Berlin/Bern/Paris (not necessarily in that order) with some day trips. For instance, you could easily go to Edinburgh for the day from Glasgow. Trains between Paris and Amsterdam go through Brussels, Belgium so you could spend a little time there. Get the idea? Make a smaller, circular route and see what's close to your base cities or along the way to the next. But look at the TIME it's going to take from base city to base city, and subtract that from your 30-31 days.

Posted by
15807 posts

Izhaak - this thread might be helpful:

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/general-europe/finally-first-time-to-europe-itinerary-advice

It's another young person planning their first European backpacking trip, and you may find some of the suggestions there to be useful when planning your own. Notice how he ends up breaking his itinerary into number of days sightseeing each place plus number of days set aside JUST for travel?