Hello, <BR> <BR>I am a single male, 28, who is planning a 3 week trip to Europe during the last 3 weeks in September '99. I know I want to see Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. <BR> <BR>These are my main concerns: <BR> <BR>1. How much should I plan to spend on this <BR>entire trip,(ballpark)aiming for clean/safe accomodations. Nothing first-class. <BR> <BR>2. I will be traveling alone. I am interested in finding other single young adults who may be traveling when I am to share stories/experiences. <BR> <BR>Any ideas would be appreciated. <BR> <BR>Thank you, <BR> <BR>Chuck

Good morning, Chuck <BR>Just a suggestion, but why don't you try to tie yourself into a group of young adults on a tour of these countries, a number of years ago, there was a tour company out of London, which took small groups out to EUR on a double decker bus, ran into them in Italy at the time and appeared to be a good group. Surf <BR>around on somne search machines to find. <BR>Richard of Hickory Hills. <BR> <BR>

If you go to www.eurotrip.com, they have bulletin boards for travel companions. Maybe you can find someone with a similar itinerary. <BR>

Try Contikki tours, designed for singles or young people under 35. They have a web site. just use a search engine for Contikki and you will get the info that you need. Have fun <BR>

These are very rough ballpark figures, <BR>but I'd say plan on spending about $50 <BR>a day (not including any major transpor <BR>tation costs) if you are satisfied with <BR>VERY cheap accommodations (ie, <BR>hostels). If you want cheap hotels, <BR>probably more like $75 a day, <BR>then add the airfare and a few train <BR>tickets or a railpass onto that, but a <BR>railpass might be too expensive for <BR>only 3 wks in a couple countries. <BR>I don't have any great suggestions about <BR>really meeting people except to somehow <BR>hang out in the part of city where young <BR>people hang out (you can usually find <BR>it pretty quick)--you may meet a few <BR>similar travelers on trains. You can <BR>definitely meet fellow travelers in <BR>hostels, but I personally wouldn't <BR>be comfortable in one of those, even <BR>when I was in my 20s. Many of them <BR>are very, very dirty, with drunken, loud <BR>college-age kids and sometimes <BR>disgusting facilities, from the reports <BR>I've heard. But, that's up to you-- <BR>if you are willing to stay in them, <BR>you'll meet people easily (although <BR>maybe too young) and a dorm room <BR>will only cost about $20. <BR>Air fares are slightly lower at end of <BR>Sept so that's a good time to go for <BR>budget purposes--if you are from East <BR>Coast of U.S., you might count on <BR>about $400-600 or so RT from there to <BR>Munich, Frankfurt or Zurich, for <BR>example. You usually can't get real <BR>cheap fares to Austria, so I'd either <BR>start in Switz and end up in Germany, <BR>or vice versa. You'll need to figure <BR>out your accommodations cost because <BR>there is a big difference between <BR>merely clean/cheap and 1st class, with <BR>lots of variants in-between. Sounds like <BR>you should look for maybe 2-star <BR>rated hotels, or 2-3 star pensions in <BR>Austria.