I am heading to Europe for the first time with a friend of mine. We are starting in Dublin with friends and then the two of us are off to experience all that we can (on a budget) in the remaining three weeks of our trip. It will be late November into mid December. We are two 24year-old women. Any suggestions on the best places to be at this time of year? You should know, we haven't bought return plane tickets yet, so we are pretty open for options.

You bought one-way plane tickets already?

Those are usually *significantly* more expensive. First thing you'll want to do if you haven't already (forgive me if you have thought of this) is price one-way tickets home from Europe. Often they are as much or even more than a round-trip fare (with an open date).

If you only have a one-way plane ticket and are backpacking it's highly unlikely you'll even get into europe - or on the plane (the airline doesn't want to have to bring you back for free).

When they see young people with backpacks the things Immigration Officers generally ask before admitting you are

to see you return or on-going plane ticket

to see your hotel reservations

to know how much you have in funds and credit cards

They may also ask about jobs or school that you will be returning to.

(They're trying to avoid illegal immigrants just as we are.)

good suggestions thus far. I would add that you should pick just a few cities that interst you. Use them as a base. Find fair priced trasportation between the cities. allow a day for travel in between and use searches on this forum to identify budget hotels. That said, and your desire to experiance all that you can might then mean you should pick some of the 'Big" capital travel cities: London, Amsterdam, Paris Rome .... but that's lot of ground to cover. Or, pick a few important but lesser cities. Aer Lingus has a great sale on tickets from Dublin to the continent (use their site). So how about, Dublin, fly to Venice (EU38). Train to Munich, Train to Strasbourg (catch the Christmas market), train to Paris or Amsterdam and then fly home. The potential combinations are endless, ultimately you have to pick the cities that may interest you.

ontimeferry: Unless you are leaving out some details, you may have quite a problem.

If you only have 1-way tickets, backpacks, and limited funds, as nytraveler says, it is pretty darn likely you won't get to Dublin let alone to other parts of Europe.

If you do get as far as Ireland - I'd play it safe and stay in Ireland and the UK.

That makes sense. We will make sure to book a return flight within the week before we leave for Dublin.

Any more suggestions on where to go? We are interested in a lot of places, but don't want to stretch ourselves too thin. Definitely London, Paris, Rome, and Venice, though we would like to see Berlin, possibly Munich, maybe Barcelona or Madrid, and are considering Amsterdam and Switzerland. Suggestions?

IMHO you need more than just a return ticket. Like at least get a map of Europe. 3 weeks is just about long enough to visit London, Paris, Rome, and Venice. You can forget Berlin, Munich, Barcelona, Madrid, Amsterdam and Switzerland.

You don't want to stretch yourselves too thin, and then you list 9/10 cities in seven countries (not counting Dublin) for what I assume is a 3-week trip. And you're on a backpacking budget.

I suggest you look at your wish list again and pick 5/6 cities (including Dublin) taking into consideration how you're going to get from place to place and what that will cost.

Three weeks or so to visit Dublin, London, Rome, Paris, Venice and possibly Berlin, Munich, Barcelona, Madrid and Amsterdam as well as the country of Switzerland.
I must say that I am fascinated by this proposed itinerary on a budget which includes one way tickets from outside Europe. You must post a trip report.

That's why I am asking for suggestions of just which cities and/or areas we should visit.

You have really answered your own question. &quot;<i>Definitely London, Paris, Rome, and Venice</i>&quot; is about all you will have time for. Maybe one other city - but that is about it.

Every time you move from one city to another is uses up 1/2 to 1 full day and a fair amount of your budget.

In 3 weeks you should do 3 or 4 cities (each can be in a different country if you want - but I would stick to 2/3 countries). This will let you see at least a little something in each one - and possibly include a day trip.

Can't imagine how you're going in late November since you done absolutely no planning - and seem to have no idea of logistics or budget.

Each time you change places takes most of a day and a significant sum of money.

Have you even started to put together a budget?

(Even a bed in a hostel will be at least $40 or so minimum - so $900 just for a bed. Then food, local transit, sights (entry to sights can easily be $20 each, even for students).

Since you already have tickets to Dublin I would tend to do Dublin, London, Paris and perhaps a city in Switzerland (to get a true taste of winter) traveling by train and fly back from Geneva or Zurich.

Trying to fit in more will be not only extremely expensive - but also leave you little time to see much but train stations, airports and transit in and out of the various towns.

Remember too that we have very little daylight at this time of year, so seeing things by daylight will be severely restricted, certainly in Dublin, London and Paris. By the end of November the sun has set at just after 4 pm in London, and rises at about 7.30 am.
In Paris it rises at just after 8 and is gone just after 5 pm.

I will just echo who several other people have said. You can't conquor all of Europe in three weeks. Pick two or three of the big attraction cities (London, Paris, Rome, Venice, Amsterdam, Munich, Barcelona) and go enjoy them. When you get back you can start making plans for the new trip to see what you missed.

So Dublin, London, Paris, Rome, and Venice, are &quot;definitely&quot;.

even those make for a very ambitious itinerary for only a 3 week trip (that's barely 3 days per city).

Try to buy your homebound ticket out of Rome to avoid backtracking.

You can't add Berlin, Munich, Barcelona or Madrid, Amsterdam and Switzerland to the above (that is 11 cities/countries in 21 days!)...

But you could switch it around.

Because they are closer together I think Dublin, then Amsterdam and Paris (for example) would make a MUCH more reasonable 3-week trip.

IMO, the trick is in planning the most logical/inexpensive/practical routing.

If you haven't bought tickets yet, I'm tempted to consider open-jaw. KLM/Air France definitely let you use Amsterdam/Paris combo as gateway cities. London is also a good starting point because of many airlines flying from N.America (assume that's where you're coming from?) and less language barrier.

You can use budget airlines like Easyjet or Ryanair, though they tend to use airports further away from city centre, which adds transportation costs and some travel time. (Not to mention their restrictive check-in time and luggage policies).

Starting form Dublin, flights to London are not that expensive. You can travel between London-Paris/Brussels on Eurostar--though I recommend booking well in advance and try to travel during the weekdays.

You can spend the first week in Dublin/London, the next week to 8-9 days in Italy, then the remaining 5 days or soin Paris.

It would also be a bit more helpful if you can let us know your interests--history, arts, nightlife, food, natural beauty etc?

Dublin to Liverpool By ferry boat Train to London Train to Portsmouth Ferry to France. Not that difficult will be pricey. Try doing all long trips once on Continent at night, this cancels paying for a room. I have done these trips several times costs due have a way of creeping up sometimes but traveling smart and flexible will pay off. I have done Munich to Belfast in two weeks and Rome to Amsterdam in two weeks. Sometimes you miss things that others deem &quot;important&quot; but the unique and individual experience that you have can certainly make up for not seeing another moldly church in France.