Please let us know when you return which material you prefer – vinyl or faux felt. You will become familiar with both on your night trains.

Yes, so true Hope….

Italy does offer a wonderful selection of various Pleathers for your resting comfort.

Countries such as Slovenia, Croatia, etc. offer the finest in felts that are reminiscent of a funeral home.

Some Polish trains offer the same comfort you would find if you attached a wooden board to your ass and bend down in a position imagining you had a chair without one for the duration of a 5 day atlantic crossing

-A

What hope and auher are trying to say is you’ve got way to much happening for a two week trip. Either you need to narrow down the number of countries you want to see, or you need to extend your time in Europe. If night life is important and you want to stick with all of these countries, expect to head to the pubs for about an hour each night before catching a train to the next place. It won’t work. Take a look at a map… Ireland to the UK to Spain to Italy with stops in between is an enormous distance. You need to narrow your list down and decide which countries are most important for you to visit. Also, with all due respect to your ability to stay up all night – it won’t happen while your traveling. And Paris is a city, not a country.

I wouldn’t worry about the criticism – go and have fun.

http://www.worldtrav… has quick and dirty write ups for each country with some destinations, tips and facts, and may be helpful.

I would definately suggest that traveling on train at night is a good idea. Seeing that many places in that much time is possible, but sleeping while moving to the next city would help your time crunch a lot.

Good luck!
N….

I appreciate the advice, Nimiety. Since everyone else was so critical of my plans, I just want to reiterate that we don’t have set plans yet. The reason I started this post was to get advice on planning, not to hear about wooden boards attached to travelers’ asses. Thanks for the visual though, auher. After speaking with people who have made this trip before, it looks like we are going to cut out a country or just pass through one and stay three to four nights in the others. We are planning on flying to cover the long distances (Ireland->UK,UK->Spain,Spain->Italy) and using the rail pass for travel within the countries for the most part (especially Italy) in order to spend more time IN them, not traveling TO them. We are going to be there for three weeks and have since replaced Germany with Amsterdam (I know it’s not a country trylent, but we will only be there for a couple of days so we won’t be able to see any more of Netherlands). So now, if anyone has good information instead of criticisms, it would be welcome. Thanks.

Hah, actually I’m not criticising. I’m prob. one of the biggest proponents of seeing lots of places in a short time, by using night trains. I’ve done it alot, and find it to be cost effective & interesting. There is something fun about night trains.

My comments literally were about the trains and how the seating materials are diff. by countries & how I find this funny. You’ll see what I mean. Really !!!

But really…..I think you’ll have a great time

-A

Don’t sweat it, I’m pretty good at dishing it out and taking it. I am probably one of the most sarcastic people you can ever meet. Thanks for the train tips. One question though…I was told that night trains cost extra and since we are going to take at least one of these (and probably more to save on hostels and daytime traveling), I wanted to now if a "sleeper" is worth the extra $50-$100 for a long trip (10-15 hours)? I have no problem sleeping in crazy tight spaces, but I don’t want to wake up with a broken neck or sore ass (I mean from the seat).

And which spots are known for theives? I have heard horror stories about Naples mostly, but I would like to know where I need to be extra careful with my stuff. Not that I will be careless anywhere (I’ll have a money belt), but just so I have an idea what countries I will need to check my pockets every so often.

quote: I have no problem sleeping in crazy tight spaces, but I don’t want to wake up with a broken neck or sore ass (I mean from the seat).

See what he was talking about?……huh……with the sarcasm…….I got it.

As for sleeper/chair I’ve gone both ways and dont personally think its worth the extra $ as long as you think you can get a good nights sleep in a chair. Last nighter I took in a seat was 14 hours…….it was a plush red felt for those wondering…….and they even gave me, free of charge, a complementary little romanian dude to sit next to me in an empty train to talk to me all night.

quote: And which spots are known for theives?

All the spots the tourists go to. Watch out for those night trains in Spain and Italy. You’ll probably get gassed.

quote: And which spots are known for theives?

Nadrazi pretty much answered this, but I’ll expand. Pickpockets/thieves like tourist spots because there tend to be lots of people with cash and many are distracted by admiring the sites. If you are thinking about 15th century architecture, you might not be thinking about your wallet.

The best advice is to be smart about it. If you are careless, you are more likely to have something stolen. I’m sure somewhere else many of these things have been writtenm but here’s my advice.

1) First step, don’t bring a lot of jewelry/valuables on the trip.

2) Invest in a money belt or necklace that you are comfortable wearing. Keep some money, credit cards, passport in here.

3) I also carry a wallet with just some cash and small change so I don’t have to go digging when I’m paying for a admissions or something at a stand. Keep it in your front pocket though.

4) Make a copy of your passport photo page and leave it with somebody you know (stateside) or keep it seperate from where you keep you passport. If you identity does get stolen, it will make things a little easier.

This isn’t meant to scare people, but just stress to be smart. It’s more fun to relax, visit sites and enjoy yourself than have to deal with some of your stuff being taken. The only cases I’ve heard about theft while in Europe have dealt with somebody putting a purse/bag down on the ground while taking pictures and then seeing it gone when they are finished.

In other words, use discretion and common sense.

It’s amazing how many people have neither.

My friend and I sat ona cafe on La Rambla and across from it was a small plaza with a band playing. There was a large group of tourists standing there and we could just watch the thieves going back and forth LIFTING the shits right out of their oblivious back pockets. Too funny!

No sense.

That said, Ive never had shit stolen from me in any country – ever… well besides a beer or two from ine sweeping.

Generally speaking, common sense and awareness, particularly in crowds or other vulnerable places, can go a long way.

I would suggest a pouch you can wear under your shirt and against your skin – you can’t pickpocket what you can’t see. Another traveler mentioned sticking an emergency supply of money, say 50 Euro in your sock underneath the sole of your foot. That way, if you are every completely screwed, you still can rely on that.

In some countries, it’s recommended that you bring copies of your passport and travel documents, but I would say that isn’t necessary in most of Europe, particularly the places you are travelling.

I had gone on a recent trip in Europe from France through the Basque part of Spain and into Pamplona, then up through Andorra, around the Mediterranean to Nice, through Monaco into Italy, up to Switzerland, and back to Paris… You’d be surprised at the things you’ll see by taking things easy.

If you can afford it, rent a car, and you can tag team the driving. The draw backs are the toll roads will be costly depending on the length of road you cover (from a Euro or two to twenty). The advantage is you can go at your own pace, sleep and eat when you want (and avoid any train problems), plus take as many detours as you want. We did our trip by car and had a blast.

Anyways, if you can make it to Europe for the second week in July (around July 7th – 10th) you can catch the Sam Fermin festival – the running of the bulls in Pamplona, Spain. It is definately worth seeing, even as only a spectator.

Good luck!
James…

but if you’re in Pamplona, why not jump down with the bulls too? that’s one thing I’ve never been able to do that I really want to.

Yeah I would love to at least see the running of the bulls, but if I were there, I would definitely want to experience being one of the tourists running for their lives. Unfortunately, I will be in Thailand during that time. It’s going to be a crazy summer with all the traveling, but when I get back, graduate school starts so I want to have as much fun as possible before having to hit the books full time. I guess now is the time to do it.

Thanks for all the advice about pickpockets. I have heard some horror stories, but I have been to parts of Mexico where you need to be extremely careful with your stuff so I have picked up some of the tricks (wallet in front pocket, money belt, etc.). The copy of the passport is a good idea too, thank you ricecloudnine.

Nimiety, it sounds like the trip you took is similar to the one I am trying to plan, but probably in a much shorter span of time. Was that trip you rented a car for? I hear gas prices are ridiculous and we already bought our 15 consecutive day train pass (they actually just arrived as I was typing this..I’m getting pretty excited even though the trip is not for another four months) so I don’t know if it would be a good idea. This trip is going to be more expensive than we thought, but I’m sure it will be well worth it.

@trylent – I did! It was a blast… My brother wrote down most of the details: http://www.worldtrav… although I did post about tips on running with the bulls here: http://www.worldtrav…

@first_timer – that was the one, alright. We landed in the airport and drove out an hour later in a Mercedes (we upgraded for a few extra euro). It was nice, until you try getting a 6’7" guy to sleep in the back seat.

The gas prices didn’t scare us too much (too many problems trying to convert liters to gallons and back, or Euro to CAD in our heads) – it was definately the toll roads. More than once we scrambled through our pockets to find a few extra coins to get the right amount until we learned to carry more around with us.

Good luck – either way, you will have a blast!
N…

quote:
We are planning on seeing several different countries in the limited time we have (Ireland, U.K., Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, and Paris)….

when the hell did Paris become a country?

Wow, people won’t cut you a break!
Sleeper trains are a great time saver and they only cost about 20 extra euros for a reservation with a eurail pass. It varies in cost depending on the city you are going to.
I think it may be in your best interest to fly into Paris…that is where cheaper flights go…and start from there. (I think you should drop the British Isles this time around and do the mainland.) You could save money on plane fares to put towards your sleeper car reservations and a more flexible eurail pass.
Paris is great and a perfect city to bookend your travels. Then you could go south to spain and over to italy and back up to switzerland and then germany before heading back to france.
You could cover a lot of ground if you did it this way.
Do your eurail pass research. You seem like the kind of person that could benefit from a flexible pass that costs more money but lets you jump on and off all the trains you need to get to your destination. That is what I had and it really paid for itself…in a matter of two days I made 10 one way trips, believe me…that is expensive out of pocket.
GOOD LUCK and HAVE FUN!

It looks like our trip is almost set. Flying in to Dublin for two days, then flying to London for three, then flying to Spain for three or four more days. We bought the flex pass for the next 15 days so we have the ability to travel within the countries we are in without worrying about spending tons of cash. Then we will either fly or take an overnight train to Italy for four days, take a train to Amsterdam for a few days, Paris for two nights, then to Dublin for two nights before heading home to beautiful California. I know it’s a ton of travel, but we have already dropped a couple of countries from our agenda. After we land in Spain, we really don’t have set plans until we fly out of Paris so we are flexible, but we really want to hit the other two countries (maybe even squeeze Switzerland in there after Italy). Does anyone have any idea which country we should spend the most time in? We are 25 year-old males who have never been to Europe. Any advice is welcome. Even the criticisms.