Hi everyone,

To start off, I am a 21 year old male and I will be graduating this May from my University. I am planning a 1 month trip to Europe with my brother, none of us have done any traveling just on our own so as you'd imagine I have plenty of questions and need advice. I have not booked a flight yet but plan to fly in to either Madrid or Lisbon on 6/1/16.

First off, I will list my current itinerary.

Lisbon (2-3 days)

Madrid (2 days)

Granada (1 day)

Barcelona (2-3 days)

Amsterdam (2 days)

Berlin (2 days)

Munich (?)

Prague (3 days)

Venice (2 days)

Florence (3 days)

Rome (3 days)

Naples (??)

Sorrento (??)

Fly out of either Italy?? or make way back to Madrid?

What do you guys think about my current itinerary, I am open to any suggestions or advice! Ideally I would like to keep this trip under $7000 if possible, I plan on staying in hostels the entire time, and maybe try my luck with some couchsurfing.

I have some questions about hostel bookings and rail bookings. How early in advance should I be booking hostels and rail tickets, I know I am going during prime tourist season but I also currently don't know exactly how long I want to stay in each city? Do I need to book all my hostel reservations because I get to Europe?? Also, I heard it is significantly cheaper buying rail tickets ahead of time, should I also purchase these before I arrive in Europe? Also, any thoughts on the Eu rail pass are much appreciated. And with regards to couchsurfing, I have never done it before but would it be easy to find places to stay using couchsurfing, if we are two 21 year old males?

Thank you!

I'm too old to have an opinion about a 21 yo's itinerary. However, I will offer you an addition to your couch surfing thought, hospitalityclub.org with which I've found fascinating hosts and free beds around the world. Yes, do it. And sign up now as the site is run by volunteers and it may take a while to complete your registration and before you can contact hosts.

You seem to have forgotten that it takes time to get from place to place. Normally, you lose at least half a day, sometime most of the day in transit. You have to figure from the time you check out of your lodging in one place until you are settled in the next. So if you want 3 days in a location, you have to spend 4 nights there.

Moving around so much wastes time - and money. I think if you cut half of the destinations you list, you'd be in the ballpark of a good trip. I always consider the balance between transit time and time in places I want to visit in considering my itinerary.

Do plan to fly into one city and out of the last city you visit rather than backtracking - again, it will save you time and money.

Once you have a fairly firm itinerary, you can figure out whether a rail pass makes sense or whether point to point tickets are better.

Too many places, too little time

As mentioned above already... you aren't allowing travel time. When you have "2 days" followed by another "2 days" in far apart cities, you need to subtract the time you lose getting to & from train stations, checking in and out of hostels/hotels/apartments, etc.

Yes definitely try to fly "open jaw" (into the first city and out of the last city) if it isn't overly expensive, to save time and money backtracking on the ground at the end of your trip.

Have fun!!!

Wow! Way too many destinations! You need to cut out about half of them, I'd say. You'll need half a day to almost a full day to check out from your hotel, travel to the new destination, and check in to you new hotel.

Assume that you'll be back. If you're like most of the folks on this board, you'll get the travel bug and will return to Europe many times.

I usually allot at least 3 days per city, but on my last trip, I made the rookie mistake of not taking into account the seven-hour bus ride from St. Petersburg to Tallinn, which meant that I had basically 2 days in Tallinn, instead of 3. I didn't see all that I wanted to see.

I also suggest that after you finalize your itinerary, you arrange flights--into one city and out of a different city.

Whether or not your itinerary is doable depends on why you are going to each city and what you want to do. Is there something specific you want to see in each city or do you want just want to hit the top 2 or 3 tourist sites.

The tighter your schedule the greater chance you will miss out on something you really want to do or see (i.e. a tour or event) because of plane or train delay. Not saying it will happen, just something to consider.

In some instances it is better to fly rather than take a train to make the most of your time.

As for booking rooms ahead, if you only have two days in the city do really want to spend part of that time looking for accommodations during the height of the tourist season? Booking ahead will also give you better control of your budget since you will know before you leave what your lodging costs are. I am a book ahead type person, people who book a day ahead while traveling can give you better insight on a good strategies.

Hey guys,
thank you all for your great advice!! General consensus, seems to be too many cities, so I will definitely work on cutting that down since this is only a rough itinerary right now. I am not very well traveled and would appreciate advice on which cities you guys think would be the best to cut out first.

Thanks!

Too many cities.

When I was 21, I traveled around the US. Took 12 flighs to visit 14 cities in ... one month.

I loved it.

I wouldn't do it anymore.
It is your trip, just do what you want, but
- get yourself a map
- pinpoint where you want to go
- write down the travel time from each place to each next.
(with time to check out, time to go to airport etc, safety checks (in my time, there was none, I just arrived 30 min before my flight...), time to deplane, customs when needed etc).

No idea about your budget : internal flights can be very cheap as are trains but pay attention to luggage (I didn't have much at the time but I smelled at the end, or so my mother told me). Add a line on that map you'd be building.

Ps : if you are not oldfashioned like the vast majority here, you can check your itinerary on your computer ;-)

All the cities you mentioned are nice (never been to Sorrento nor Granad though).

<i> First time traveler, 1 month Euro trip during June!
Posted by: Principes on Jan 15, 16 at 2:08pm
Posted in: Europe
Tagged: Germany , Italy , Portugal , Spain </i>

As noted by others this is a hurry-up trip, but it can be done. My daughter graduated last May and did something like this with her best friend, using trains and planes and staying in hostels. I suggest a minimum of two nights in any city to allow a full day on the streets.

Night trains, where available, can save you a day of travel and help keep your expenses down. A second class couchette on most trains will run about $30 per head in a 6 bunk cabin.

For an illustrated introduction to using the trains in Europe have a look at http://www.enjoy-europe.com/hte/chap17/rail.htm. Get a rail map and plan your trip with the help of schedules available at http://www.deutschebahn.com/en/start-en.html.

A good budget guide book is invaluable. The best and most accurate is Lonely Planet's Europe on a Shoestring.

I do not see Paris on your itinerary. You will be passing through if you go from Barcelona to Amsterdam. I would give Paris three nights. Also, put Prague between Berlin and Munich. Check the map.

June is not yet "prime tourist season" in Europe. It gets busy in mid-July. Start shopping for flights now using something like http://www.kayak.com/flights. The best time to buy is 60 to 90 days before wheels up. Use the tracking system to monitor prices.

<which cities you guys think would be the best to cut out first.>

The ones with question marks by them, for starters! I'm going to assume you have some reason for picking the cities that are on your list? A particular reason(s) for going there??

Way too many places in 2 little time. My DD, 19, did a 6 week trip with friends 2 summer ago and they stayed in 8 different places. With day trips they still felt they didn't have enough time in some places. (And they spent about $8K each plus air from/to the US.)

There are a coupe of things you are not calculating:

Two nights in a city is ONE day of sightseeing

Getting from one city to the next (from hostel in city A to hostel in city B) will take 1/2 a day on average. So for 13 cities you are using at least 7 or 8 days just getting from A to B - meaning your trip is really 22 days - not 30.

To really organize your itinerary you need to lay it out day by day and for each list where you will start, what travel you will do and where you will sleep. Then you will know what time you have for sightseeing - and if it's in city A or city B (so if you will have a 7 am train or one in the evening).

As for reservations - yes, the decent hostels fill up far in advance and you don;t want to be stuck in one of the dumps - where cleanliness is dicey and theft not unknown.

As for trains - for high speed trains you need to buy tickets 90 (or 120 I think for Italy) days in advance to get discounts. These tickets are fixed times and are less than 1/3 of what you pay if you wait and buy when you get to the city. Having complete flexibility is possible but it's very expensive.

This could be a fantastic trip or it could be a very expensive and exhausting blur. Your planning now will determine which.

I would start by killing Lisbon, Madrid, Granada, Munich , Naples and Sorrento for a start. For me this is based on level of liking (Lisbon and Madrid), Munich is OK for a trip to Germany but Berlin is much better for young people and you just don't have time to add Naples and Sorrento (which is just a place to stay, not to do things). (If you want to do Pompeii, Capri and the AC you can stay in Sorrento but you need to allow 4 nights for this - so it means cutting something else.)