I’ve never traveled by myself or been outside the US before and I plan to spend 2 months solo backpacking across Europe after I graduate. This is a basic itinerary I came up with:
Week 1: Great Britain
>Spend a few days in London, walk around, visit free history museums
>Spend a few days in Scotland, visit Edinburgh, hike in the Scottish highlands
>Visit some other cities in England
Week 2: France, Belgium, Netherlands
>Spend a few days in Paris, see WW2 sites in Normandy
>Stay in Brussels, visit Antwerp, visit historical sites in Waterloo and the Ardennes
>Spend a few days in Amsterdam, visit The Hague and Groningen, go to the beach
Week 3: Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland
>See WW2 sites in the Netherlands, visit Cologne and other Ruhr area cities, Frankfurt
>Spend a few days in Switzerland, visit Zurich, Geneva, hike in the Alps
Week 4: Italy, Slovenia
>Visit Milan, Genoa, Florence, Rome, Naples
>Ljubljana and Lake Bled
Week 5: Bavaria, Vienna, Prague
>Stay in Munich, visit Zugspitze, Neuschwanstein, Eagle’s Nest, Innsbruck
>Spend a few days in Vienna and Prague
Week 6: Berlin, Poland
>Spend a few days in Berlin
>Visit Gdansk, Warsaw, Krakow, see WW2 sites in Poland
Week 7: Hungary, Romania
>Stay in Budapest and Bucharest, visit historical sites and museums
Week 8: Bulgaria, Turkey
>Spend a few days in Sofia and Istanbul before flying home
Does this seem good for 2 months? I plan to get a 2-month Eurail pass and do most of the traveling by train. As for accommodation it’ll probably be mostly hostels.
thats an ambitious schedule my man. I'd give yourself at least another 2 weeks
Cut the number of destinations in half but keep it 2 months long.
Waaaaaay too many places in such a short amount of time. Italy and Slovenia in one week really stand out to me. Same with Vienna and Prague.
My rule of thumb for me is 3.5 nights per destination, I think you'd need a hell of a lot longer to do this itinerary. I recommend cutting it off at Italy, the first "4 weeks" you have would likely take 8 weeks minimum. That or make a list of the top 20 destinations you want to go to and work it down from there.
Like all here said, too much in too little time.
You have 6 locations in week 4. Thats one city a day, not counting transport. It would cost a shittone too.
Also, to hike in the highlands you need a car or it's 6h on buses from Edinburgh. Going back and forth is already half a day. Not to mention the 6 hour train from London to Edi
As others have said, your schedule is impossibly packed. Travel by bus/train is slow and it'll eat up more than half of your time.
Ditch the classic burger Eurotrip idiocy and focus on just a couple countries. Less is more.
Why do Americans(I'm American too) always turn visiting Europe into such a massive thing? You can take 1 or 2 week trips to start out jeez. This would be rough for a first time OP.
They think that Europe is the size of Texas so they can visit the whole continent in two or three weeks.
Same thing happens to Europeans who think they can visit most of the Lower 48 and squeeze in a quick visit to Canada because the US is only one country.
It's really just the flights. It'd be worth it to do shorter trips, if it wasn't a transatlantic flight for us.
You took too much man... I would fly anywhere to Europe in your place and go where my legs will take me. It is not a problem to get a train ticket and accomodation in twenty minutes in most places. To make a list of 35 locations which you definetely need to see is stupid, you can watch it in TV if you want to spend like 30 minutes anywhere before ou need to catch next bus
Skip Antwerp unless you want to get blown up by a grenade, go visit Ghent instead
OP, these tards:
never left their thoroughly fart soaked rooms. Hopefully you know what their "advice" is worth.
I'm from Belgium you mong, Ghent should be visited over Antwerp every time.
>>Stay in Budapest and Bucharest, visit historical sites and museums
You are doing Romania Wrong.
Romania has one of the best place in Europe to visit. Danube Delta. One of the wildest in Europe.
One week for Budapest and Bucharest is too much. Both are shitholes that you can do in 2-3 days.
If you're gonna visit the worst part of France, better just skip it.
Agreed, go to Biarritz/Bordeaux, maybe even Lyon for the food.
>see WW2 sites in Normandy
FYI, you're missing Normandy by 200km and specifically Omaha beach by 400km.
Go from Vienna to Budapest. Cut out Berlin and Pooland. Dont bother wasting time in the Netherlands and Belgium.
London isn't worth more than 2 days unless you're interested in the history in the areas around it, no interesting cities in England, only small towns.
Edinburgh is nice but full of tourists in summer, highlands can be nice but check the train times
>I’ve never traveled by myself or been outside the US before and I plan to spend 2 months solo
I wouldn't do that in my first solo trip. Take a weekend for travelling alone and see if this is your thing.
Also, there are 23 stops in your route and it seems you want to know all Europe at once. Take that same length and focus in some specific region: Western Europe, Mediterranean, Central/Eastern Europe, Balkans, etc.
Finally, with 8 weeks you could focus on two main ones: UK/France, France/Germany, France/Italy, etc.
I fixed it for you
I did a backpacking trip in Eastern Europe some years ago, from Helsinki down to Istanbul, and I planned to spend two months. I didn't get to Istanbul in time, I only made it to Bucharest, and even then I felt I had spent too little time in the countries I visited. I had very little travel experience, just like you, and I overreached for that reason. In hindsight it made the whole trip a rather poor experience. Now, your itinerary is longer than mine was, and includes more interesting places than mine did, but you've planned the same amount of time as I did. If you want to just rush through places just to say you've visited a lot of countries, then that's your call, but I personally find it much more interesting to listen to someone who spent two months in Italy, than someone who spent two months in 16 countries. I say figure out which of these destinations you are the most excitied about, and plan around that.
>Week 4: Italy, Slovenia
>Visit Milan, Genoa, Florence, Rome, Naples
>Ljubljana and Lake Bled
This will not be possible in one week. Rome is 2-3 minimum, you'll lose 1-2 days travel between them; even if you blasted through those cities in a day each there's not much of a chance to enjoy any of them and this is coming from someone who did all of Europe at a moderate to at times fast pace. Skip Genoa, it's pretty boring - Cinque Terre is probably the only worthwhile thing that way. Milan is okay, and you'd be better off experiencing Pompeii/Sorento/Capri instead of Naples. Venice would be good too if that's your thing, but it is crowded as frick. Lake Bled/Ljubljana is best enjoyed in a relaxing couple of days at least.
Brit here, London is really shit man and I wouldn’t waste your time going there, instead i’d suggest going to York or Chester. Chester has a rich Roman history with really nice museums, and so does York but for Viking history as it was the capital of the Danelaw.
Trust me bro, you will regret going to London over the above.
Any advice for an Australian thinking of moving to the UK?
I've an uncle in London who may or may not be able to provide a room, but also wouldn't be opposed to a flatshare.
Don’t.
Any particular reason?
Well you already live in Australia, there’s a good one.
The weather is mostly terrible (always cloudy/gloomy) apart from the summer/late spring.
The infrastructure is terrible (roads, public transport, healthcare etc)
Our Governments are always fricking moronic
Crime
If you still want to move here, just don’t move to London or anywhere in the South.
I mainly want to use it as a temporary stop for future plans on the Spanish coast.
If it’s temporary then save yourself some money by staying in the Midlands/North of the country.
If it's temporary why chose one of the most expensive countries in Europe, which on top of that is neither a member of Schengen nor the EU?
Do you have a UK passport?
Alright a few thoughts
Week 1: Fine
Week 2: If you pick Antwerp as a visit, i would not mind showing you around. If you happen to stay longer in the region i would also advice to visit Brugge, Ghent or Leuven.
Week 3: I would honestly skip Cologne and the Rurh altogether. Do heidelberg and focus more on the Black Forrest area or the Alsace region.
Week 4: on you way to Milan, you ABSOLUTLY have to check out the lakes first. Como, Lugano, lake magiore. absolutely must see.
week 5: fine
Week 6: Tbh i would not spend allot of days in Berlin. Nothing but boring Block after block after block.
week 7: fine, Budepest is based.
Week 8 fine.
also try not to overstretch yourself. Just as
said you cram allot into a week. No crime into staying a couple of days longer in 1 city instead of doing multiple cities as fast as possible. Danger of putting stress on yourself and not really getting a feel for the city besides the obvious tourist sites.
This is a moronic trip. Just stay in one country or one region. Benelux or france and iberia. Italy czechia and germany, etc. you’ll have a way better time if you stay in one city per week at the least
When I do this I stealth camp in the woods outside major cities
This OP,
20 cities in 2 month ?
Kek Nice "visit", or when you're going to tell your friend that "visited" europe don't the name of the country but the name of city and that's it.
Travel isn't some kind of fast-food you get in and out quick.
tips on stealth camping? i've only done it in japan
Does your Amerimutt employer only allow you one vacation per decade so you're trying to visit all of Europe in one go?
Everybody is saying this is too much, and that's true. But seriously consider what you are wanting to see, especially since a lot of this stuff WW2, battle sites, are outside of the city and a real pain to do. For example I'd almost skip seeing Omaha beach, and that corny boomer stuff, and just going to the military museum at Les Invalids in Paris. Also travel, assuming you're using a rail pass, is going to take a lot longer than you're accounting for. From Budapest to Bucharest is a full day of travel for example. Going from Naples to Ljubljana would take a full day. Consider swapping stuff around, like Prague for Bratislava. For this at minimum you better max out your 90 allowed days. That or you better stick to one region which will be a lot easier. For example Central Europe only. Come back next year and do your France, Belgium, Italy, Switzerland block. It will be miserable otherwise sitting on a train platform at 5AM, spending half your trip literally traveling and not actually seeing anything.
Please just bring a fricking suitcase or a small backpack, and not these huge fricking hiking backpacks and another backpack on front. You take yo all this space just to roll up three identical outfits in the bag, you aren't even hiking, you aren't camping, and you aren't special or unique or enlightened, just use a travel suitcase. I fricking hate these people so fricking much.