Hello fellow travellers,

I'm planning on doing a tour of Europe, & could do with some suggestions.

When: Around mid-March 2017
Budget: Not very flush at the moment, so do have a small budget (£500 & under).
Destination: Plan is to see as many European countries as possible in 15-30 days.
Starting point: London.

Any advice on routes, itinerary & budget will be great.

Thanks!

Sorry, but your question is so incredibly broad I don't think anyone can help. You need to do your homework - read guidebooks, study maps, figure out what appeals to you and what doesn't. We don't have a clue.

With 15-30 days you can reasonably expect to see about 4 countries (and just a few places in each).

If the 500 GBP is meant to cover everything from getting there and back, accommodations, food, ground transport, and sightseeing, you had best call the trip off right now. It's simply inadequate.

Not very flush at the moment, so do have a small budget (£500 & under).<

per day or per week - certainly not for the whole trip?

So starting in London you have £500. You have to get across the channel then I guess plan on £25 per night in a hostel and £25 for food per day with transport say another £20. If I set off from London I might do

France, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia and fly back from say Dubrovnik

That would allow one night in each stop and a cheapo flight back for 8 days.

You might try Thorn Tree website if they can do better

Thanks bilboburgler, interesting idea

Are you female? If so, join 5W, womenwelcomewomen.uk today to find hosts with whom you can stay free. Based in the UK you might even call to get your directory faster to plan. Loads of members all over Europe & the world. Not free but small cost considering.

Male or female, join hospitalityclub.org. Also do it today as it takes the volunteers a while to get you onto the website, free. Takes a bit of searching on this one to find good matches but I've used both and have met some terrific people all over with whom I've stayed.

This is a troll . . . Bilbo and the OP are on the same wavelength

"Plan is to see as many European countries as possible in 15-30 days"

This is an untenable proposition. If you were a traveling salesman you could set foot in every European country in that timeframe, but that's not tourism, is it? And your measly budget would be blown long before the end of the "trip".

Regroup, rethink, re-plan - (if you're for real in the first place).

Even bilbo's very modest budget, times the OP's shortest trip (15 not 30 days) it comes out at over TWICE the £500 - and that doesn't count getting to or from.

£500 and 15 days impossible (unless you can stay for free as MmePerdu suggested).

If this isn't a troll how could anyone even think that was close to doable.

Your budget is nowhere near enough for a 15-30 trip.

Obviously you can't get around Europe seeing "as many countries as possible" on 16 BGP per day. Or even 33 BGP per day.

You could maybe see a couple countries in 7-10 days if you go the shoestring/backpacker route.

Buses can be really cheap and often go overnight - saving on accommodation - check Eurolines and other bus sites -not nearly as frequent or comprehensive destinations as trains but can get you where you want to go.

Avoid Switzerland and Nordic countries as they are so expensive.

PalenQ~ But a bus or train ticket alone could easily wipe out an entire days' budget, with the figures we've been given. Even if they sleep on the bus, I think they'll need to eat something.

Well it is a total unrealistic hope -perhaps janis is onto something?

Considering the OP is already in the neighborhood, I see no reason why with free places to stay, a few bus rides and groceries, they couldn't manage a couple of weeks seeing some of the places closest to the UK. Not a grand tour, to be sure, but a few places. Why say it can't be done? Maybe not in the style to which most here like us to think they're accustomed, but in a very modest way. And if they find themselves closing in on the bottom of the budget, go home. Seems pretty simple to me.

500 quid or about $650 for two weeks - $ 40 a day - can only be done by sleeping on park benches and eating the cheapest supermarket food -no museums -no restaurants - maybe even no pay toilets! And only by biking or thumbing it. Plus swimming to Continent and back?

Maybe a week to ten days in a few places but not places like Paris or Amsterdam or any tourist city.

<<Why say it can't be done?>>

MmePerdu~ I did not say it could not be done if they stay for free, stay close to the UK, and eat from the grocery store, and are only on the road a couple weeks.

But that wasn't the question here.

They said they plan to see "as many European countries as possible" on a 30 day trip and with a 16 GBP per day budget.

Two very different things.

Agreed. And what if something unexpected happens? Sure, the OP is probably young and energetic (and that means needs a lot to eat, probably), but people do get sick, need to pop into a pharmacy for a bad cold, eye infection, injury, whatever...and plans, like free lodging, can go awry at the last minute.

OP simply does not have enough of a budget to do what s/he wants.

msinbox -missing - you still there -whaddya think?

Despite stating an enthusiatic hope, msinbox also asked for suggesting for "15 to 30" days, not 30 days. So I suggest not going so far, finding hosts for free stays and, in general, cutting back to the 15 days to make it conceivably possible. Isn't that what we're here for, to see what can be done with what they have as resources? My feeling is a trip can be done on that budget and I think that's better for the OP than simply suggesting it isn't possible. And if something does go awry, as mentioned, home is close.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I remember being young and setting out with far less than that and thousands of miles farther from home. I live to tell the tale (thousands of miles from home).

People living in the UK generally know what things cost . . . Total troll