I am planning a trip to start in Oslo, Norway & to end in a town near Bailystok, Poland. I was planning to travel from Oslo through the South of Sweden to Denmark, then through Germany to the Czech Republic, before heading to the northeast corner of Poland. I would also do a trip to Vilnius, Lithuania from Bailystok & back. I would probably fly in to Oslo from the Northeast United States and fly back to the US from somewhere in Poland, I assume Warsaw. I have never been to Europe, so I am pretty clueless. The only spots I have accomodations planned already are Oslo & Poland. I am not a starving-college student but I am not exactly high-income either. I am looking for pretty much any advice I get for traveling including finding flights, train or other travel within Europe, places to see, cheap places to stay, etc...
if you are going to fly in to Oslo and fly out from Poland i think you should check Star Alliance, because it is very popular in both countires. If you want direct fly to NYC you can fly from Warsaw and maybe Krakow (LOT) but Lufthansa has a lot of destination to Poland so you can fly out from 6 airports in Poland.
about cheap accomodation try http://www.hostelworld.com/ I always book hostels with them
start with that o-so oldfashioned thing: a guidebook. borrow and older 1 from library to get started, browse in Waterstone, whatever. these to broad general Qs are too wide to answer. OR read/try some searches, use the COUNTRYbranches for more local info. and read those FAQs there too; all about trains, buses, whatever. With this low US$ NO=Oslo will be pepperexpensive, its even for us, EURO-users.
Is Germany-Czech becaurse you WANT to go there - or becaurse you want to travel overland? There are useful ferries from SSweden and Denamkk (directly to Poland). DO you have month for this trip - or will you try to do it in 3 weeks?
First step in planning trains all over Europe: http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en after that - then the homepages of the national railways.
ohh - and to #1: Hostelworld only finds 10 % or less of all hostels -and their rates are sometimes more costly than booking directly at the hostels! (they have to make a living - and real hostels cannot afford a comission).
Example in Denmark they locate 3 hostels! (and some hotels) - there are actually more that 100 hostels (and many very good ones) in the country. The same goes for the rest of Scandinavia - use national lists from citys of countrys national tourist office - search for the hostels on google - or use the HI-site
OP. You've missed out a piece of very important information which people need before they can advise you. How long is your trip? Two weeks? Two months?
Thanks for the feedback. I guess I need to provide a little more info. I think this trip will be 3 weeks, but need to determine some plans at each stop and add it all up, and to do that planning I need to learn a little more about these places. I will have hosts for the Norway & Poland portions of the trip, so I am not worried much about planning those stages. As Bjoern inquired, my route to get from Norway to Poland is not the easiest/most direct. I do specifically want to visit the Czech Republic as it is the source of half of my genetics. (the other half being Lithuania, which is why I want to add that on to the trip as well) The travel through Denmark & Germany, however, is inspired just because of the path to Czech. Not that I have no interest in those places, but I have no connections or knowledge of where to go. The most important thing for me to learn via this post & other research is transportation & lodging options for/through Denmark, Germany, & Czech Rep on the way to Poland. I appreciate the hostel & train links.
Thanks for the info. But I think you need to give us even more info (or actully to do some home work) - there are 1000s (10000s) of hostels and hotels in each country. 100s of places/country worth visiting etc.
And with 7 countries in only 21 days you will have to see VERY little of each country - say 7 travelling days - then 2 days/country!!! - a short visit to a single big city/country.
You must simply make some of the countries simple "pass through" - and then comes ferries and planes into use.
You see it is crazy for ppl. here to start vriting long lists of a fine 3 week holiday around Denmark if you figure out that it is better simply to ferry from Sweden to Germany - or fly Oslo-Prague!
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