Back Packing
 

Hello all,

My best friend and I will be backpacking across Europe this summer. We would love to start in southern Italy, travel to northern Italy, then from Nice, France to Paris and back to London, which is where we are flying in and out from. We will be there in early to mid September.

I was wondering the best mode and cheapest mode, since we both are still in college, of transportation and some where some great hostles are, and the best things to see in the wonderful countries.

Thanks so much for your help!

Get copies of Let's Go travel guides which are geared toward the budget/student/backpack traveler. They have great recommendations for lodging and food. Plus their guide books have very good general travel information and information on the sights.

This forum is mostly for older travelers and others who do not backpack. Check the Thorntree site for good info on backpacking.

You will have to do your own research and compare rail passes with point to point tickets. seat61.com is good for train information.

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntree/index.jspa

Did you already buy your airfare? If you haven't, fly into Rome (if you want to start in Italy) and then out of London. Prices for these open-jaws are generally similar to roundtrips.

My daughter did a similar trip last summer with 2 friends. They mostly flew between major destinations, but did use the train a couple of times. These airlines (Ryanair, Easyjet, etc) that fly between European cities are very reasonable, but you also have to consider transportation to/from the airport and whatever other fees may be involved. They started out thinking they'd do the train thing, but some of the train routes were far more complicated and lengthy than they thought (for example Barcelona to Rome is around 20 hrs including a train change).

One thing to keep in mind, the better hostels do book up, so you may want to book some of those in advance.

The Lets Go book was invaluable. Many of the hostels they stayed in were recommended in that book.

Here's a thread about my D's trip: http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...or-6-weeks.cfm.

I'll also see if I can find the hostel names for you.

I just found some of the hostels:
Athens - Pagration hostel
Berlin - The Circus
Prague - The Czech Inn
London - St. Christophers Village Youth Hostel

Don't just go the the big cities, Also get out into the country. In some countries (for example, Germany), you can get a room in a small B&B for the price of a bed in a HI Hostel. Check out Bavaria Ben's recent trip in Germany (www.bensbauernhof.com) for some tips on an inexpensive trip in Germany.

I agree Lonely Planet's website forum called The Thorn Tree is where you want to be for backpacking style travel information.

Also guidebooks such as LP's, Rough Guides, and Let's Go.

Train is the best way to get around. Whether you want to buy a 'pass' or some sort, depends on exactly where you're going and how often you'll be traveling (sometimes they are good value, sometimes point-to-point tickets work just as well).

I agree with the idea to fly into Rome and out of London, if the tickets haven't been purchased yet. Often time "open jaw" is similar priced and so much more convenient.

You need to get one of the guide books suggested first--on thorn tree they also prefer if you come to the table informed. On some days you will be reprimanded and on other days someone will take the time to sketch it all out for you, it just depends. Once you know exactly what you are doing, you can determine if you need a rail pass or not. Important: how much time? You say summer and "early-mid September."

Well you could go READ on Thorn Tree before posting. There's tons of information already there, answering the questions you are asking.

I was just letting the OP know they will get better responses at TT if they do their homework. I agree that is the place to send them, not trying to slight the good advice.

Besides all the good info you've received above -- you say >>early to mid September<<. That would seem to indicate 2 weeks or less. Right? If so, don't try to cover the whole continent. Even backpacking and traveling light, things take time. From London to Southern/Northern Italy, South of France, Paris, and back to London is a pretty aggressive plan unless you have a month.

My D's trip was 6 weeks. When they started planning, they had far too many destinations, all over the map. They did eventually cut back (I STRONGLY encouraged them to) and I think they did a pretty good job of covering a lot of territory, without feeling like they were spending half their time in transit and settling into new places.

At that time of year, I would start in the north and head south. You might also check the budget airlines as it can be cheaper to fly between some cities than taking trains.
www.whichbudget.com
www.skyscanner.net

I agree that including how long your trip will be is very important for people to help you out. For example, if you mean you will be in Europe only 2 weeks... you have too many places on your itinerary to be practical (in my opinion).

Thanks for all your responses. I guess I really should have specified. From your input we decided to fly into Paris and fly out of Rome. we want to go from Rome to Florence to Venice, to Milan to the Cinque Terre, to nice then up to Paris. Our Problem is we don't know what would be the best place to get from city to city. In addition we don't want to go to just main cities, we want to see the small villages as well. Is this still too ambitious of a task?


Thanks again, and Ill be sure to read through the other posts to find some of the answers!

You still haven't told us how long the whole trip is -- that is very important info if we are to give you and useful advice.

You can take trains to travel within Italy. I'm not an expert on trains (we've rented cars), but others who post here are. Start a new post asking about traveling within Italy, including smaller towns. There are many people who will be able to give you specifics.

If your trip is 2 weeks (you haven't specified how long) then 7 places is too much in that time. If you divide 14 days by 7 cities/towns then you will only be in each place 1.5 days (you need time to get to the next place which can mean a half day travel time.

Now you want to add small towns outside the cities to create a longer list of places to see. Unless you rent a car, it is often difficult and time consuming to get to small towns.

You have already indicated you are looking for a low budget trip. Every place you add to your itinerary will make your trip more expensive.

If your trip is 2 weeks I would concentrate on Italy. Fly to Rome and home from either Venice or Milan.

Or see Paris and the Riviera. It's easy to get to the towns along the French Riviera by train or bus. You can either take an inexpensive flight between Nice and Paris or the train.

We will be there 16 days, I guess it is very ambitious, we also wanted to walk the 18 KM path through the Cinque Terre.

Day 1 will probably be "jet laggy" and day 16 is mainly just packing and getting to the airport to fly home. Then you need to subtract approx 1/2 a day every time you move from one city/destination to the next.

So figure you have about 12+ days free - use this to calculate how many cities you want to visit. There is no right or wrong answer - only you know how fast you want to move. But I'd personally try for a minimum of 3 days/nights per city. And longer is better IMO if possible. Cities like Paris, Rome and London are huge w/ masses of things to see/do.