Backpacking through Europe in 2012

Old Sep 15th, 2011, 08:55 AM
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Backpacking through Europe in 2012

Hi all-
I graduate in Dec and am planning a 1.5 month long trip backpacking through Europe with my boyfriend.

My question is this: We do not care where we fly into and where we fly out of. We have a list of countries that we want to see and are planning on taking the eurail around and getting one of their passes. Is there a website where we can be this flexible and choose our departure airport (Chicago- O'Hare) but say "ANYWHERE!" for our destination airport? Every website I have gone to I have to choose one place, but I really do not have a place in mind where we should start (like I said, we are flexible!!). Any ideas?

Or does anyone have tips of how to get the cheapest flight out there? Or cheap cities to fly into?

Thanks
kareebear is offline  
Old Sep 15th, 2011, 09:08 AM
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You cannot choose anywhere for your destination as plane tickets are priced by flight. How would the airlines know what to charge if "anywhere" is a destination. You need to choose a specific city to fly into. If you have a list of countries you want to visit why don't you start with cities in those countries.

There are a number of airline consolidators such as Kayak.

Parts of December are peak season because of holidays so you may pay more for tickets than you would in January.

Eurail is a train pass but there is no train called Eurail. People will not understand what you mean if you go to Europe and ask for a Eurail station when you mean train station.
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Old Sep 15th, 2011, 09:19 AM
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I understand that I cannot just type in "anywhere", I understand how the flights work, what I am saying is that I would like to find a list of just general airports because we are flexible. I have done the "search 30 times using 30 different airports" thing, I am just looking for an easier way to do that and looking for some advice from past travelers.

Kayak does not do what I am looking for, all they do is show me different airline prices (which most websites do), unless I am looking in the wrong place.

We are planning on going Mid March 2012 until May 2012, since that is not peak season I am hoping that will be a good time to go and do it a little more cheaply.

As for the Eurail, I am aware of how that works. Sorry if I came across sounding like I know nothing, judging on your response that is how I sounded. I was just giving more information.
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Old Sep 15th, 2011, 09:23 AM
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I would starting thinking about your route. You may find that flying into one airport and home from another may be best, depending on your list of cities (for example into Helsinki and home from Lisbon).

After you have a rough idea where you are going - just spend the time looking at fares coming and going into/out of different cities. http://matrix.itasoftware.com/ is a good place to do it (click on the "Multi-city" tab to start). It won't take as long as you think - less than an hour to check all the different city options.

Of course, you may find a loop will work better for you - in which case a simple round-trip may work. This also requires some advance thinking about your overall route. Again, go to itasoftware to check options (only this time, click to "round trip" tab to start).

It all depends on where all you are going and how long at each home base. Can you share that with us?
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Old Sep 15th, 2011, 09:29 AM
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Brussels, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Munich, Madrid, Paris, and London tend to be less expensive hubs to fly into/out of. But don't get lulled into a sense of false economy. An open-jaw flight may still give you better overall value.

Also, for some reason, Warsaw can be very inexpensive from Chicago (but not from elsewhere in the US).
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Old Sep 15th, 2011, 09:39 AM
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You need to think about time of year and locations. Mid March is stil winter in a lot of places (si season in the apls and very expensive) and chilly/rainy a lot of places. If you are going that early yuo should start inthe south - where you hae abetter chance of decent weather and then hed north.

I hate hot weather and we do Spain in April and Italy in May to have pleasant weather and still not be high season. For farther north we do May or Juen to get nicer weather.

As for flights - there is no site that does what you want. You need to start somewhere (have you read any guidebooks, looked at any tour brochures - and have SOME idea of where you want to go - and what you want to see). No web site can figure that out and then tell you plane fares.
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Old Sep 15th, 2011, 09:39 AM
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OK, obviously not real busy at work right now..

Here is an open-jaw for $830/person TOTAL (includes all taxes/fees) with one stopover in Warsaw each way. Fly into Amsterdam and home from Rome. It has a 17 hr layover in Warsaw on the return flight but you can reduce layover time if you willing to pay a little more...

DEPARTURE
Chicago (ORD) to Amsterdam (AMS) - Tue, Mar 13
LOT Chicago (ORD) to Warsaw (WAW) - Tue, Mar 13
LOT 4 Dep: 10:55PM Arr: 2:20PM 9h 25m Boeing 767 Coach (W)

Layover in WAW Wed, Mar 14 2h 25m

LOT Warsaw (WAW) to Amsterdam (AMS) - Wed, Mar 14
LOT 267 Dep: 4:45PM Arr: 6:55PM 2h 10m Embraer RJ-175 Coach (W)


RETURN
Rome (FCO) to Chicago (ORD) - Sun, May 13
LOT Rome (FCO) to Warsaw (WAW) - Sun, May 13
LOT 314 Dep: 4:20PM Arr: 6:45PM 2h 25m Embraer RJ-175 Coach (W)

Layover in WAW 17h 25m

LOT Warsaw (WAW) to Chicago (ORD) - Mon, May 14
LOT 1 Dep: 12:10PM Arr: 3:20PM 10h 10m Boeing 767 Coach (W)
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Old Sep 15th, 2011, 09:43 AM
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Now I understand what you're looking for. Without knowing where you want to go I would suggest Lisbon.

Another way is to find out which airlines have Chicago as their hub and fly that airline from Chicago to a European hub. For instance, I fly from Newark and it's a Continental hub. Frankfurt is another Continental hub so it's easy to find lots of flights from Newark to Frankfurt and find some inexpensive ones.

You could also try Icelandair which flies to Luxenbourg although I don't know if they fly from Chicago.

Once you determine what airlines use Chicago as a hub, call the airline and they will work with you to help you find a low air fare. I did this last year with Lufthansa; the agent looked until she found a better price than I could find on the internet.

Travel planning is a lot of work and takes a lot of time.
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Old Sep 15th, 2011, 10:35 AM
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Wow you all are AMAZING! Thank you for all of your replies. I have spent the last hour sort of pulling together a VERY rough itinerary. This may be a silly question- but what does open-jaw mean? Bardo1 what website did you use to get that information?

Here is my extremely extremely rough itinerary- pleasee bear with me because I have not done a ton of research at all and I was just throwing dates down so I am well aware that some places will need more time (I did not properly account for travel time)

1. Fly into Athens (2 nights)
2. Fly to Rome, Italy. Travel Italy spanning Rome, Pisa, Florence, Venice (7 nights)
3. Train to Ljubljana, Slovenia (2 nights)
4. Train to Salzburg, Austria (2 nights)
5. Train to Prage, Czech Reublic (2 nights)
6. Train to Berlin, Germany. Visit Munich. (4 nights total in Germany)
7. Train to Amsterdam, Netherlands. (2 nights)
8. Train to Paris, France. Travel France spanning Paris, Lyon, Avignon, Marseille, Bordeaux (7 nights)
9. Train to Spain. Travel Spain spanning Barcelona, Madrid. (5 nights)
10. Fly to England. Last leg of trip, I have a few friends there who will take us around. (5 days).

Is this completely unrealistic? I have not been to Europe before, I know it is bigger than the maps go to show so I feel like most places will need more time/allotted travel time. What do you all think?
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Old Sep 15th, 2011, 10:57 AM
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"his may be a silly question- but what does open-jaw mean?"

Not silly. Open Jaw is where you fly into one airport and home from a different one. Like in to Athens and home from London. Or to Rome and home from Paris. This is called 'multi-city' or similar on most airline websites.

As for your itinerary --you haven't factored in how far apart they are and how long it takes to travel between cities.

Count of 1/2 to one full travel day each time you move
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Old Sep 15th, 2011, 11:00 AM
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didn't mean to click submit . . .

2 nights in a city does not = 2 days there. 2 nights could mean only one full day if you don't arrive until late afternoon/evening.
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Old Sep 15th, 2011, 11:18 AM
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www.backpackeurope.com

www.eurocheapo.com

2 great sites for you...

usually cheapest to fly ORD LON cheapoair.com RT

Open jaw lots more www.airtech.com good values sometimes

Then train point to point pass almost always a rip

www.eurolines.com bus pass makes sense if you are

going all over... Have a look at Schengen rules

you are only allowed 90 days so paln accordingly...

columbusdirect.com backpacker insurance a good idea...

Have Fun!
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Old Sep 15th, 2011, 12:26 PM
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You're calculating your itinerary by the nights in each place. Now, you need to do some research into how long those train rides will be and whether some of your destinations will be worth the brief time you'll have there.

For example, the journey from Venice to Ljubljana is 5-7 hours (depending on the train combo you select), so it will take the better part of a day to get there and you will have only one full day to explore before you get back on the train for the 4+ hour journey to Salzburg where you will have, at most, 1.5 days before you train 7 hours to Prague. You'll have only one full day in Prague (not nearly enough time IMO) before you spend 5-6 hours on the train to Berlin. Some of these routes will have overnight trains, but pay attention to the number (and type) of changes you might have to make throughout the night. Overnight trains from Prague to Berlin, for example, involve at least three changes and waiting several hours in the middle of the night between some trains.

Considering the time needed to travel to all of your destinations in France, I doubt you'll be spending more than one full day in Paris. Again, not enough time IMO.

BTW, check a map. You should visit Munich between Salzburg and Prague.

You can check train timetables throughout Europe here:

http://www.bahn.com/i/view/DEU/en/index.shtml
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Old Sep 15th, 2011, 12:31 PM
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I'd cut out about half of your destinations.
Flying to Athens is expensive, as I've tried to go there several years and have never found a good airfare.
Italy, on the other hand, might be more promising. Pisa is often a great deal. There are many sales direct from the airlines in March, but they may not be applicable for a return in May.
Keep thinking about where you want to go the most, then pick some places to keep checking in a east - west or north - south direction. For example, Frankfurt-London. If you narrow it down, you can add some smaller towns in there--which are cheaper and offer a little something different than all cities. A good rule of thumb is 3 nights per place though. Good luck!
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Old Sep 15th, 2011, 12:53 PM
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You should consolidate your trip and not travel far for only a couple of days.

Here are my suggestions:

Cut out Athens and save Greece for another trip when you have time to see the islands and some other things on the main land.

Cut out Ljubljana (I wasn't crazy about it - not enough to see to warrant a trip there).

Add Vienna between Salzburg & Prague.

Add much more time to France or cut out a few destinations. Paris is worth at least 5 days. Choose either Lyon (easily accessible from Paris) or Avignon. Cut out Bordeaux and Marseille.

Also save Spain for another trip.
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Old Sep 15th, 2011, 01:31 PM
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You might want to read the Let's Go guide books which you can get from libraries. They're great for students and others with tight budgets. I would get the country-specific guides rather than one for Europe as a whole as the country guides have much more information in them and cover more smaller towns/cities.

You should also join the Thorn Tree forum which is geared to younger people.

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntree/index.jspa
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Old Sep 15th, 2011, 02:29 PM
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karee,

Here's where I found the website. Click on the "Multi-city" tab and select +/- 2 days on each end.

You'll see when you start playing with it that Athens is one of more expensive cities to fly into, if that matters.
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Old Sep 15th, 2011, 02:30 PM
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oops - here it is

http://matrix.itasoftware.com/
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Old Sep 24th, 2011, 08:34 AM
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Thanks everyone! I've been doing a lot of research and I'm thinking I am going to buy our tickets soon! I really appreciate all of your help.

Now for another question- can anyone recommend a good backpack to use for both me and my boyfriend? I've been reading reviews and know that everyone has their own personal tastes, just wanted to see what you all have used and what you think are the better ones. Thanks!
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Old Sep 24th, 2011, 08:45 AM
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hi karreebear,

my comment on your plan would be that as well as spreading yourselves very thin, you are simply planning too much in advance - not something you'll read often on fodors!

the beauty of backpacking is that you can turn up somewhere [ a list of hostels and possible couch-surfing possibilities is a good idea] stay as long as you like, and then take off elsewhere, usually using a railpass. if you look at for example the lonely planet guides, you'll see that they give very detailed information about how to get from one place to another by bus and train.

this will be more successful if you travel at a time when accommodation is not overfull, and transport not reduced ie after Christmas and the New Year.

that is not to say that you can't book your whole trip ahead, if you want to, but that is not usually the point of this type of trip.
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