15

As to #9 .. Well I wanted to stop by and do some exploring in some of the smaller places on around the large cities, to be completely honest I had gotten a little lazy and didn't specify.

Very interesting article, the only reason I've been looking at the contiki tour for references is to see their travel route around Europe, which vineyards they visit in Paris, it was a bit of a cheat sheet I suppose. Like I said before, $5000 dollars Canadian and 2 months stay isn't set in stone. It was more of a rough draft/ basis to wrap my head around. I'm young and going with a friend, were going to be staying in Hostels, I've just been to Thailand and stayed in what you can barely call a house. Point being, I don't need a 5 Star hotel, I'm going to see the sights, not the 50 inch screen TV.

Sorry about the rant. However Make sure you build in some slack to stay in a place a day longer only to stay in bed longer than usual, to have a few cups of coffee in a local café or outdoor terrace, or to read a book in a park. that is brilliant, your right I don't want to be rushing around all the time. I do want to see most of these places, but I can't exactly be in Europe for 5 months to see every single museum in every city.

So should I cut some of the places I want to go to? I'm thinking no Turkey, I can do Eastern Europe another year.
Thank you again for all the help and awesome replies!

16

I might just suggest that you rethink your trip slightly. It's pretty common for newbies. The thinking among many newbies is this: "I have a relatively large amount of time to travel, so I'm going to try and see everything I want to see in Europe." That's fine I suppose, and you can go and do the trip you outline and probably have a relatively successful trip. I might advise you to rethink your trip in this way: Assume you will be back. You appear young, and you will have plenty of time in your life to get back to Europe to see a city or country you missed this time around.

If you were to take my advice on this, and listen to some of the comments above, it might lead you to focus a bit more on particular countries, or regions. For example, you list three cities in Italy, but you are only visiting large cities. Some of the great charm in Italy is in its rural areas and small towns. I'd say you could probably travel there for an entire month and not see everything. I'm not necessarily saying you should do that. But maybe you could take two full weeks, and see a bit of a broader expanse of the country. This will allow you to slow down a bit, and see some things other than the large, popular tourist cities.

I personally don't think I would take the time and expense to travel all the way to Dubrovnik just to see Dubrovnik and nothing else in Croatia. Also, they might look close on a map, but traveling between Croatia, Greece and Turkey is not easy. Here's one idea: Reserve everything in the southeast part of Europe for another trip, so save Greece, Croatia and Turkey for another trip.

I have traveled to Europe many times. Given my experience, if I had 60 days to organize a trip, I might start organizing it by picking the top four countries that I really want to see, and spending two weeks each in them.

One advantage to this way of traveling: You will save a ton of money. Whether you have a rail pass or just pay as you go, the further and longer you go, the more money you will spend. (Even with a rail pass you'll need a more comprehensive, and more expensive, pass.)

If you insisted on doing a grand tour of cities throughout the continent, I'd still probably eliminate Croatia, Greece and Istanbul. That will save the time and cost of travel to/from these countries. That would give you more time to see some more rural places.

Also, given that you have two months to travel, I'd recommend not planning everything in advance. Just go with the flow, and if you are really enjoying a city, stay an extra day or two. If you're getting tired, just head to a beach for a day or two. Don't let your itinerary dictate every movement you make.

Hope this helps. Good luck!

17

Oh my god!!
And for some idiotic reason I forgot Prague!!! Thats a huge one for me. Wow shows I was up at 4am.

18

#16 This has helped greatly!!
Thank you very much. Your right I should focus on less places. I guess I've been so excited about this for so long that I can't help but pull the newbie card and want to see it all. I'm thinking I should just cut out Greece, Turkey, even though I REALLY want to go to Croatia is is a bit on the side. I'm thinking, England, France, Italy, Germany, Czech? What about Barcelona? Think I should cut that one out?

Also, given that you have two months to travel, I'd recommend not planning everything in advance. Just go with the flow
I love this. That was also what I was wondering, should I just book a one way? And should I just book a couple of Hostels? So many questions. I appreciate it.

19

In May and June, you should be fine booking hostels/hotels as you go. I have traveled in the heart of summer (July and August), and the most I do is get online a day or two in advance and book using a site like www.hostelworld.com. You can usually just show up and find a place, but it's nice to have it locked in, and know exactly where you need to go upon arrival.

You might consider booking a little further in advance in cities like Venice and Paris, where there always seems to be travelers. Booking earlier will simply help you get in a better location or better hostel.

When you ask "should I just book a one way?" are you talking about your airline ticket? If you know when you need to return home, I'd probably book a round trip ticket because it's likely to be quite a bit cheaper than two separate one-ways.

20

Were it me, I would save England for another trip, probably same with France. You can visit places like London and Paris for a week at later points when you only can take a one week vacation. There is lots to see and do in these countries.

When the suggestion is made to focus on a smaller area, most people here see that as meaning Germany, Czech Republic, Poland or Southern France, Spain and Portugal or the Balkans, etc. Traveling to Italy or Spain, which are peninsulas, means backtracking or flying.

When it is suggested that you go with the flow, that usually means one of several things. One, that you will book a round trip and figure that you will spend two months going with the flow in a circuit that takes you back to your start point, two, that you will travel to the farthest point and take a budget flight back to your start point or three, that you will book an open jaw ticket from point A->B and then C->A and travel from B->C.

Ruth

21

You looked at Contiki to see +which vineyards they visit in Paris+??

There is only one very small vineyard in Paris on Montmartre hill and it faces north. Given that it's the only vineyard close to Paris, they do make a big deal out of it but I wouldn't base a trip to Paris on this. There is a wine festival in Paris in October but all the wine comes from elsewhere.

22

#19, thank you very much, that's nice to hear I wasn't sure if I had to book everything months ahead. Do you think I should bring a small laptop or do you think I'll be fine with my I touch? I brought my I touch to Thailand and it worked generally really well.

#20 interesting points, there's still lots of planning to do and where I want to go. That's given me some thoughts though!

As for #21 it was just an example. Of why I was looking at contiki tours, I wasn't saying that what I'm exactly doing it was just to prove a point.

23

Most hostels have computers that you can use to plan you next hostel stop or research places. Your iTouch should work as well. You don't need a computer. I carry an iPad now a days but I keep in touch by email with lots of people.

Ruth