Need help in planning another European holiday

Hi all.

I have always wanted to travel, and last year I spent 2 months with a friend travelling across Europe. We did the major centres (London, Dublin, Paris, Amsterdam, Oslo, Stockholm, Helsinki, St Petersburg, Moscow, Berlin, Prague, Zurich, Milan, Venice, Florence, Rome) but I felt it was very rushed and we only spent a few nights in each city. Plus it cost us $20,000 each.

Whilst my previous trip had a large budget for a good period of time, I would like my next holiday to last 6 months. I want the experience of spending time immersing myself in a city and country, not feeling like I am being rushed from one place to another.

In this holiday I was thinking of spreading the holiday out through spending a month in each area. I would like to spend a month each in the UK/Ireland, Spain/Portugal, France/Belgium, and Germany/Netherlands, whilst spending two months through Poland, Czech Republic, Austria, Hungary, Malta and (if my budget allows me) Switzerland and Greece.

I am currently applying for my citizenship in Malta, which will allow me to travel throughout the European Union for this amount of time.

I was thinking of budgeting for about $120 a day, including accommodation and food, would suffice. That would give me a realistic $21,600 target to go towards (plus $2000 for flights, $1000 for transport, and $750 for insurance). I would obviously skew my budget towards the western European countries where it is more expensive to purchase, well, everything.

So, my questions are, does this seem like a realistic plan? How does my budget look? I could increase it to $150 a day spending but that would take me about a further 12 months to save up. And what about the destinations, do they look all good?

Thanks heaps :)

Oh and something else - I'm not really the 'go out and drink' type. I enjoy a drink or two, but would rather just have a couple at a local pub than go out and party every night of the week.

And as for meals, I'd like to try what the locals eat, not what the tourists do.

There are loads of countries that use the dollar so please clarify which one you are using, even better convert it all to Euros.

ASSUMING you are using US$ you will have €90 a day which is a good budget for your trip. You will have to stay in more budget places, but yes very possible on that budget (although if that is Guyanese dollars you are screwed!).

You are trying to cover a very large (and varied) area in 6 months but your plan is certainly doable. I would just not plan too much of a strict itinerary, if you like somewhere stay if you don't move on.

Financially it is possible for sure..its a good backpackers budget.

On the destinations.....why not? Depends what you want to do there,your interests and exactly where you stay..but every country in Europe has some interesting things to see and do.....

Obviously you are not going to see everything there is to see in Spain or Germany in a month,but it is more time than many people give them.

I'd agree with Tryfan to leave it as flexible as possible...don't book those long stays in advance,just move on as and when you want to....

Also...your Maltese citenship will be crucial,as I think you know ;-)

Itinerary looks good to me. Budget is good (I would argue it's not shoestring). As others have said, I too would try to not make any fixed plans in advance. Just fly in and go with the flow. If you love UK/Ireland and want to stay another month after your first one, then so be it.

I don't think anyone called it shoestring Max. It is defintely a healthy backpackers budget that would allow drinks and good restaurant meals along the way. So basically daqua, no need to save the extra 12 months and if you do travel with the budget traveller mentallity you will likely come home with some spare cash as well. K-CHING.

Sorry Max, misread your post. I read it as if there were no brackets or full stop.

I don't think anyone called it shoestring Max.

Mainly referring to the choice of branch.

Always the assumption that all shoestrings are the same size. LOL At 90E per day, I consider that a shoestring budget. It sure ain't a 5 star budget after all. I'd be willing to travel on that budget in W. Europe but I would consider it somewhat confining.

I would suggest the best way to handle it given the time span and desire to spend more in depth time in countries, that you consider finding and renting a place for a month at a time daqua. I would also agree with the above, that you not pre-plan it all but rather head to A and then see what happens after that. If you stay longer in A fine, if not you move on to B etc. It is not that difficult to find a place to rent by the week/month.

It seems to me that you are in danger of repeating the mistake you made the first time and trying to cover too much in too little time. Consider what you wrote. " I want the experience of spending time immersing myself in a city and country, not feeling like I am being rushed from one place to another." Now consider what that actually means.

For example, if you spend a month in Antibes, France you will definitely get a good feel for Antibes and the surrounding area. But if you try to cover from Belgium to Provence in one month, what part will you get a real feel for? It would still be just skimming the surface. To get a real feel you have to think SMALL, smaller, smallest area.

For Greece that takes the form of a month on one island. In Switzerland, perhaps a week in each of 4 towns. You really have to define for yourself just what you mean by immersing yourself. But if you stick to your list of 15 countries in 6 months, guess what. You will not be immersing much more than your toe.

You spent TWENTY GRAND on a 2 month trip????? What the heck do you do for a living??

it is still very rushed - 2 weeks per country. Cut it in half, and then in half again.

hobo @ # 10
game parks in parts of Africa are more than 2 grand a day so doesn't take long to get through 20grand
though it would be interesting to do a budget holiday sometime

Another thread where a new poster has never returned to even acknowledge having read responses. This really is getting to be annoying.

Cowantimmy, what is the relevance of your comment about African game parks? The OP specifically said Europe, a list of cities for a few days each and $20k each. Your comment is irrelevant. Or did you just want to try and impress people that you had paid 2 grand a day?

Is that your answer to the relevance of your comment cowantimmy? ROTFLMAO

it wasn't directed at you so mind your own business
if you are so easily annoyed by nothing you should seek medical help