Europe adventure
Hi everyoneI've been doing a fair amount of research on here and have already picked up quite a lot of tips and advice so thanks to everyone already!
My wife and I are moving from Australia to the UK next year but are planning on spending 2-3 months on a holiday in Europe before settling down. We're both mid-late twenties.
We are conscious of trying to see too much so we think we'll focus our initial holiday to France, Italy, Spain & possibly Portugal if there is time and see other parts of Europe on shorter holidays while we're living there. We'll be using a combination of backpacking via trains and busses, driving ourselves in a small campervan and going on an longer organised tour for a part of it as well (probably not Contiki but perhaps one of the other ones - topdeck, intrepid etc).
My question is out of the above 4 countires which is best known for each of the different styles of travels? i.e which has the best rail/bus network to get around in and which is the easiest to navigate if driving ourselves?
Unfortunately we don't speak much of any of the languages for these countries (although we have just bought a couple of CDs to at least try and learn the basics) and I guess we're a little aprehensive about finding out way around - but we know that this is still a part of the adventure!
Thanks for your help and if you need anymore information from me just let me know.
Thanks
Michael
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My question is out of the above 4 countires which is best known for each of the different styles of travels? i.e which has the best rail/bus network to get around in and which is the easiest to navigate if driving ourselves
You cannot really distinguish the countries on the basis of these questions. Partly, it is a matter of where precisely you want to go and what you want to do. It's more than easy to travel around any of those countries with the public transport system (train/bus). As far as navigation is concerned, I suspect that will have more to do with your own navigation skills -- all countries have networks of main roads/expressways down to the one lane routes connecting small villages. So it will come down to the A to B to C destinations as such, not countries as a whole.
The relatively higher density of traffic and peculiarities of local driving habits might be more of an issue for someone from down under (again, depending on where you're from, driving situations you're used to).
As far as the campervan is concerned, view the mode of transport as an end in itself -- which is what the local population probably does. Some people want to travel that way, that's it. They'll likely be wanting to stay away from big cities and focus more on the countryside. The country is less relevant an issue.
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Just remember that if you do 3m (90 days) of travelling in Europe before settling in UK you won't be able to travel to the Schengen area again for another 90 days - unless, of course, you both have UK or any other EU country passports.
