Hello,

I am going to travel in Europe for 40 days with a 30 days Eurolines bus pass, I am 22, travel alone and on a budget. I want to travel by overnight bus between each cities(except UK), so that I can save the money in a hostel. I have experiences on overnight bus and they were fine for me. As the Eurolines bus pass can only used on internation travel, that means I can't go from Rome to Florence or Berlin to Munich... etc... This will be my first time to travel by bus and keep on changing countries...

Here is my plan:-

London(1 day) - Oxford(1 day) - Cardiff(1 day) - Edinburg(2 days) - Glasgow(1 day) - Leeds(1 day) - London (1 days) - Paris (4days) - Venice (2days) - Strasbourg ( 1 day) - Rome (3 days) - Marseille (2days) - Brussels (1 day) - Berlin (3 days) - Lille (1 day) Prague (5 days) - Munich (1 days) - Florence (3 days) - Vienna (3 days) - London.

Please give me some comment, I am leaving next week.

Welcome to Fodors leilashina. Now, that is the end of the good news. I don't know where to start. You simply must re-think this crazy plan. There is really not much more to say unless you are open to a completely new itinerary . . . .

Is this a joke? Sorry, don't mean to be rude, but as janis said, this itinerary is insane.

My only advice to you is to stay home.

This is the most awful idea I have ever heard! Sleeping on buses night after night, then spending a few hours looking at a city (where will you put your luggage - carry everything all day?) then getting on another bus?

I can appreciate being young, a student and not having much money - but you really need to work, save etc and get a decent amount of money together before taking off for europe. If you can;t afford anywhere to sleep you have no business leaving home. It sounds like you will be stranded halfway through and have to beg someone to wire you money to get home.

PLEASE do not do this.

If this is real--how about keeping the UK part and ponying up for the hostel fees so that you can stay longer in each stop?

I don't know who advised you on this particular bus pass, but on a strict budget, the Eurrail train system would have been the better travel deal and given you preferrable overnight accommodations.

By the time you get to a place, you will have already used up a day or two! Go to a travel agent immediately and ask for help before you leave for London.

You have my deepest sympathy if you actually do this.

If you don't already have your bus pass, get a railpass instead. If you can trade it in, do so.

Next get a good map and a Let's Go Europe Guidebook. You can get a free Europe Map from AAA if you're a member. Hopefully you're listing places and not expecting to see them in the order you've listed. They don't make sense. You're crisscrossing back and forth all over the place. If you're doing that to make your bus pass work, it's just not worth it.

Also, please read the forum at Lonely Planet to see if others are familiar with using Eurolines.

Hi L,

I hope that the order in which you listed your cities is not the order in which you will visit them.

Is their a compelling reason to go to Lille?

I would normally say that you live with what you have. But in this case. . . . .

I suspect the itinerary is written in the order it will be done to change countries.

I'm trying to think what I would have done at that age. I'm also trying to think of what I would do if you were one of my kids.

If I'm looking at this correctly, you expect to save about 12 nights of hostel out of a 40 day trip.

I would eliminate 4-5 destinations, save a bit more money and then rework it.

Also, there was some good advice about looking into a train pass instead.

"Nytraveler" has obviously never heard of left luggage lockers. Leaving your luggage somewhere while you explore a city will not be a problem.
Apart from that, this itinerary really is absurd. The cities seem to be in a random order, suggesting that "Leilashina" has not looked at a map. If you look at Brussels-Berlin-Lille-Prague-Munich, for example, this itinerary is obvious nonsense.
Europe has a wonderful rail system. Long-distance buses may be OK in poor countries, but there is no need to travel around Europe this way.

Let's see here...I wonder whether you even looked at an atlas when designing this trip. (I also wonder whethter this is a legit post!)

London(1 day) - Oxford(1 day) - Cardiff(1 day) - Edinburg(2 days) - Glasgow(1 day) - Leeds(1 day) - London (1 days) - Paris (4days)

Up to here, it's OK, although personally I wouldn't travel all around the UK sleeping on a night bus to spend 1 day in each city.

Here's where it gets a bit insane:

Venice (2days) - Strasbourg ( 1 day) - Rome (3 days) - Marseille (2days) - Brussels (1 day) - Berlin (3 days) - Lille (1 day) Prague (5 days) - Munich (1 days) - Florence (3 days) - Vienna (3 days) - London.

Why would you go to Venice, then back up to Strasbourg, only to go back down to Rome, and then schedule in Florence at the end of the trip?

Why would you go east from Brussels to Berlin, only to go back west to Lille, and then head east again to Prague?

If this trip is for real, I say you've got some major reworking to do so that you get something out of it. Lots of luck.

Is anyone placing bets that we never hear from leilashina again?

I suspect the intinerary itself will soon exert the right amount of pressure and there will be a change of plans. Fortunately traveling on a pass should give you the flexibility you'll end up requiring.

I hope whatever happens that your trip is a good one.

IF you already purchased the bus pass and cannot change it, so you must hop country to country every stop... at least, please cut out about 1/2 of the places, that might make this wacky itinerary slightly more do-able.

Ditto to nearly every post on here & no Neo, they won't be back...

What kind of comments are you expecting?

No-one here's going to check the small print of Eurolines passes, or put the effort you've put into seeing if there's a less painful way of exploiting the Eurolines system.

And clearly, to judge by some of the comments above, few posters have bothered to read your post properly anyway.

Personally, I think 12 nights out of 40 on a bus is a bit much on what's meant to be a holiday. At your age, I'd have regarded about 8 or so to be about my comfort level, and this summer seems a lot hotter than European summers were 30-40 years ago. But then I've always been a wuss, and you say you know yit'll be OK for you.

I'd certainly dump the journeys to Lille and Strasbourg. Neither are that interesting - and they'd have to be spectacularly wonderful for the length of detours you're planning. I'm not sure what you're going to get out of 2 days in Marseille, and I'm puzzled at the absence of Amsterdam.

Otherwise, your plan's no nuttier than many people's late adolescent summers, and a damn sight more interesting than some of the over-protected candyfloss trips people boast on this board about taking. Go to the thorntree Europe site for more informed advice. And don't be too proud, if you decide half way through you'd just as soon spend more time in a real bed, to change your plans substantially.

First, purchase a map...

Flanner: For once I agree with you and am sure the OP will appreciate your feedback.

I wonder if this person knows whether or not Europeans don't drink ice water because the ice waters it down.

Hey dude, you do plan on a daily shower? Right? None on buses that I aware of.