claredemoda

I'm planning a backpacking trip to Europe with 3 of my other girl friends in July this year.(we are all females so we are very concerned about safety) We need help in fine tuning it since it is our first time backpacking! Hope if anyone of you would be so kind to advise us! Not sure if it will be too rushed, or could there be a better way of allocating our time so feel free to share your opinions with us here! As first timers in Europe, we wish to see a macro view of Europe, that's why we are opting for city to city kind of way of traveling!

OUR BUDGET IS 60 EUROS a day( Accommodation is around E18/day)
Fly in to Paris 3 nights
fly to Amsterdam 3 nights
fly to London + day trip to Bath + day trip to Cambridge 4 nights
fly to Rome 4 nights
Train to Florence+ day trip to Siena and/or Pisa 3 nights
Train to Venice + day trip to Murano 3 nights (Feel like visiting Lake Como on the way i.e. Venice>Lake como> swiss but will it be too rushed? Worth it?)
Train to Swiss 3 nights (thinking of Berina express from Tirano>Chur but it looks very time consuming if I were to go Lake Como)(Any recommendations where to stay in swiss/Lake como?)
Train to Munich + day trip to Nuremberg(maybe) 4 nights
Train to Salzburg + day trip to Hallstatt 3days (Or shd I stay in Hallstatt?)
Train to Vienna 3 nights
Train to Prague 3 nights
Fly to Stockholm for farm stay 14 days ( how many days shd we allocate after farm stay to visit the basic must-visits?)
Fly to Belgrade 3 nights (If we are extending our stay in Stockholm then we must shorten our stay here)
Sleeper Train to Sofia 3 nights (If we are extending our stay in Stockholm then we must shorten our stay here)
Sleeper Train to Istanbul- staying for 4 months

Looking forward to recommendations/ advice on our mini trip! It could directed to the question I posted, or any advice for other day trips is also welcome!! We are so excited!!! Will really really appreciate any of your advice!

P.s 2 of us are planning to visit Budapest AND Cyrus AND GREECE AND hopefully Croatia AND EGYPT during our 4 months. Most probably 3-4 days trip to each place since we are schooling.
Opps, I know we may be a bit too ambitious in the last part to visit so many countries during our stay in Turkey! But do u guys think think otherwise?

bvlenci

What does the €60 per day include? It sounds rather optimistic. You won't always find decent lodging for €18 per night, even staying in hostels. In many places, you'd pay less if the four of you share a quad room in a budget hotel, rather than staying in a hostel, but €18 a day will not be enough in many of the places you want to visit.

Is your transportation between countries already taken care of? You'll also have to consider transportation to and from the various airports, and local transportation in the cities you want to visit.

With the number of countries you want to visit, I'm sure that your major expense is going to be for transportation. You could save a lot of money by cutting back on the number of places you want to visit. I assume you're all young and this will probably be only the first of many trips to Europe you'll be making. Why don't you focus on a macro view of one part of Europe? Maybe northern Europe (UK, Netherlands, and farm stay in Sweden)? Or central Europe (Germany; Austria, and the Czech Republic), or Switzerland and Italy?

If you could spend a bit more time in each country, you could really get a feel for the country and its culture. You'd also save money, so you could afford to eat more than potato chips.

claredemoda

Hi bvlenci,
Thanks for thr insights! 60 euros will consist of accomdation, food and entry tickets. We are setting aside approx 700 euros for transportation, air travelling will cost 300 euros already, so the rest will belong to extra expenses like expensive train tickets, or sky diving. Haha!

For accomdation, we have found lodging that may exceed a little more than euro18 at airbnb so thank god!

Haha hmms.. I guess we have already cut down a few places already, and extending our time in most places like say in Italy we are spending 10 days! And in London 5 days! Austria- 9 days! So we feel that it may be sufficient

ashwinb

I can speak about Austria and Prague. Although Halstatt is brilliant, your budget may not get you a place, in that case Halstatt done as a day trip from Salzburg works well, use the boat however, it's beautiful.
And 18 EU should get you a hostel in Salzburg.
You can have a look at my trip report on Vienna, Salzburg,Prague and Munich here: http://ashwinbahulkar.wordpress.com/...ia-and-prague/
Take the bus from Vienna to Prague, its much cheaper than a train(unless you get a cheap ticket) .
From Munich to Salzburg, get a Bayern ticket, it's really cheap.

ashwinb

And 10-12 EU for an average meal,10-12 EU for a major attraction a day, so 60 EU is not bad. Classical concerts could be around 30 EU or so.

mamcalice

From Paris to Amsterdam and from Amsterdam to London, I suggest the train rather than a plane. You really aren't spending enough time in Paris. And finally, have you checked on visa requirements for 4 months in Istanbul?

claredemoda

Hi Mamcalice, a train would take much longer than plane i think, that's why we wanted to take plane. May I know if there a reason to take train instead? haha Yupp, we are going under student for studies purpose so it should nt be a problem

dotheboyshall

For the trips mentioned the train will be as quick if not quicker than flying

ellenem

The actual plane ride may be quicker than the train ride, but airports are located far out of cities.

When calculating trip times, don't forget to add in the travel from the center of Paris to the airport, required advance check-in time, time to go through security, wait for boarding, and then add on the time to get out of the airport and into Amsterdam--you will have added at least 3-4 hours to your time for flying.

Train stations are in the center of cities, so the trip is easier and shorter. You can arrive minutes before the train departs. This adds a little time to the actual train trip, but not as much.

janisj

Yes, for the journeys mamclice mentions, trains are faster, and definitely more convenient.