30 Days in Europe - 29 y/o male
 

Hey everyone!

I've done some searching and found great information so far and am looking for some final suggestions on my first trip to Europe.

I'm a 29 year old male and am looking for amazing nightlife and restaurants and some great historical sites to visit. I really enjoy urban exploration and immersing myself in a culture to get a feel for how locals live. The million dollar question: If you had 30-35 days to spend in Europe and wanted to party, eat, dance, and explore, what 4-5 cities/areas would you pick?

I'm currently planning on 7 days in each of the following cities:

London
Paris
Madrid
Rome

I'd like suggestions on possibly one more city to add or a city that you think I should replace one of the above with. I've heard great things about:

Porto
Barcelona
Florence
Amsterdam
and so many others!

If you're a young adult and looking for a good time, I immediately think about Munich, Prague and Budapest. Then fly on a budget air carrier to Paris and take the train to Amsterdam. You could visit London if there's time.

Amsterdam's nightlife has something for everyone and more! Especially for your age - Madrid is an outlier compared to the others in option A - I'd replace it with Amsterdam and Barcelona, much closer to Paris than Madrid.

Thanks for the suggestions. If you had to eliminate two cities from this list, which would go first and second?

London
Paris
Rome
Barcelona
Prague
Amsterdam
Budapest

I'd have to 2nd Munich. It is a great bohemian place that you just don't find anywhere else.

Many if not most cities in Spain have great nightlife.

The only reason I'm leaving Munich off this list is that I have a good friend here in San Diego who is from Germany and I'll have an opportunity to go visit Germany with her in the next year or two.

If I were you (and I'm not, but I get your parameters), I'd eliminate London and Barcelona and add Munich.

I'd eliminate Paris, Rome, and Barcelona and leave it at four cities, if your main interest is nightlife. In central Rome, there's very little nightlife apart from drunken northern Europeans. Roman youth party outside the center, and I think it would take too long to find the scene. Maybe I'm wrong, and I'm certainly past the age, but I don't think of Paris as a big party city for young people. And, based on accounts of Italian young people, I have the impression that the night life in Barcelona can be a bit risky.

Be very careful about partying in strange cities, especially if you tend to drink a lot. All of the recent really bad things that I've heard of happening to young tourists have involved drinking, especially pub crawls. A young Australian fell over a wall along the Tiber in Rome while on a pub crawl, and his buddy was so drunk he didn't even notice he was missing until hours later, too late to do anything for him. A young Italian in Barcelona left a party with Mr. Oh-so-very-wrong and came home to Italy in a box. A young Brit drowned in a canal in Venice. I could go on and on, but you get the idea. In a strange city, you aren't able to pick up on the vibes as easily as you do at home. If you get disoriented, you don't know how to get back on track.

I lived in munich for 13 years. Munich is great and if i ever return to germany, it would be one of the two cities i would want to live in. But, a 29 yo male looking for nightlife and urban exploring will have much more fun in Berlin. It is THE place, actually for you.

I thought of Berlin, too, but Ofasho says he's planning a future trip to Germany, and doesn't want to go there on this trip.

I think it would be a shame to cross the pond for the first time and miss London. You could always spend 3/4 days there and then move on to the European cities.

For nightlife London is great and especially so since you and them all speak English!

You should read online about the nightlife in the great cities on your itinerary.

We're going to Budapest in 3 weeks. They have event companies staging huge Saturday night parties in a couple of Turkish Baths. It's quite a sight to see with fog machines, laser lights, DJ's and hundreds of barely clothed thoroughly intoxicated people.

Thanks for the replies everyone!

So far I've booked 6 days in London, Amsterdam, Prague, and Madrid. I have 8 days to fill in now and I'm thinking 4 in Budapest and 4 in Rome.

well those six cities are far removed from each other - how are you planing to get between them - even flying can take most of a day - did you figure in travel time - overnight trains can be nice especially for younger folk and you save on a hotel as well. If going by train to all those cities look at some kind of railpass.

there are night trains between Amsterdam and Prague for example at least last I knew.

One option you may consider is the overnight ferry between London and Amsterdam. We have done it twice and thought it was a very efficient use of our time, and a fun adventure!

You can read all about how to do it and what it's like in our trip report

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...-adventure.cfm

Can I come with you?

"wanted to party, eat, dance"

Ibiza

overnight ferries for young folk IME can be a lot of fun indeed - party and dance the night away - IME many younger folk stay up most of the night in the pub area! Saves on a hotel and you can get some nice discounts by booking online far in advance -

http://www.stenaline.co.uk/ferry-to-holland

You can take 'boat trains' from London Liverpool Street Station to Harwich Port right at the boat I believe and then in Holland trains will be waiting at Hook of Holland to take you to Amsterdam or other Dutch city.

I think you can buy good deal all-incousive tickets for trains and boat.

Thanks again for the additional help. I wish I would've known about the overnight ferry before I booked my flight from London to Amsterdam!

I considered Ibiza but after doing research, April isn't a good time of year to visit as apparently most of the main clubs and parties aren't happening at this time of the year. It's the top destination for my next Eurotrip in the summer months along with the Greek Islands.

I also added Berlin to my trip based on the recommendations here and my research.

Here is my final city list and how I'm getting between them

NYC > London (6 days)
London > Amsterdam via air (7 days)
Amsterdam > Prague via overnight train (6 days)
Prague > Berlin via train (5 days)
Berlin > Budapest via air (5 days)
Budapest > Madrid via air (5 days)

If anyone has any unique experiences, restaurants, bars and/or clubs in these cities that aren't easily found, please reply!

One of the biggest parties in all of Europe happens in Amsterdamned on Kings' Day (formerly Queen's Day - rock concerts on Museumplein - beer flowing everywhere - fun for folks of all ages but especially younger ones.

https://www.google.com/search?q=king...=1600&bih=1075

Happens every April 30 - not sure you will still be in Europe but if so organize your schedule around this!

Also in Amsterdam at anytime check out the Paradiso for pop music for 20 types and the Melkweg - same concert hall type place but with several other aspects as well - youth centers both run by the city of Amsterdam on a non-profit basis. Legendary places for decades now.

Ofasho, I think flying to Amsterdam is a good choice. I guess the ferry trip is quite long and if you are not a good sailor and the sea is choppy...... not nice:(

The ferry is overnight...you get on board around 9ish I think, you can grab dinner then the ferry leaves at 11...you can stay up it go to bed and they wake you up at 6-7am so you don't notice how long it is. Very fast. Than the train is waiting and you are in Amsterdam by 10am and it saves a hotel. There is a bar and a restaurant and a theatre on board.

The ferry is so big and the crossing is actually smooth a majority of the time except in stormy weather. My dad gets sea sick but found the ferry fine it was so smooth. Obviously if there was horrible weather it could be choppy but from what I have read that is not usually the case.

I second PalenQ's comment on Kingsday. Wife and I completely lucked into a few years back (when it was still Queensday). It is an event like no other, and well worth planning around if possible.

In Amsterdam pick up a free copy of Uit Krank (sp?) a free paper distributed in hotel lobbies, tourist offices, etc that lists all events for younger folks and all ages monthly - parts in English so you can find a place playing your kind of music - jazz, classical, pop, reggae, etc. Sorry I can't remember the exact name but it is all over the place.