also, i read on another site, that it can be feasable to ‘fly by the seat of ur pants’ more or less (soyouwanna.com), like arriving in a station and deciding where to go next… how much truth is there to this, because i have no problem with just going wherever as long as i know how to get back to my airport to go home.

that make any sense?

tia!

mac

A 21-day Eurailpass is an expensive option, but it does allow a lot of flexibility (on the continent that is – it won’t get you to or around the UK.) Since you don’t have a lot of time and in 3 weeks could do quite a bit in just the UK, the Benelux countries, and France, you might check out the 8-10 days-in-2-months selectpass options for 3-5 ocuntries for the continent portion of your trip – they’ll cost $300-$400 for the youth passes. I personally think that limiting your travel days in this way is a good choice – the train is enjoyable, but you don’t want to get into that "we have a pass for 21 days, let’s use all 21" pattern of thinking – you’re supposed to be seeing Europe, not the inside of a train.

Also, with your London-Paris-Brussels-Amsterdam route, you could consider going with the Eurolines bus. They offer some fixed-route "mini-passes" between these cities that include ferry or chunnel passage, and you can pick the days you travel as you go. A route like London-Paris-Amsterdam/Brussels-London will cost only about 55 British pounds. Go to www.eurolines.co.uk and click on &quotasses" at the top. Then, if you had extra time and wanted to take some side trips from Paris or Brussels to the Normandy beaches or Luxembourg or into Germany, you could just purchase regular train or bus tickets on top of your mini-passes. This strategy will work fine money-wise as long as your side trips aren’t too long-distance, of course. You and whoever you are with will want to get a little more specific about your destinations before you decide.

June is a great month to see Europe – it’s rarely miserably hot/humid in the northern countries you’ve mentioned in June.

how big of a group do you think is appropriate? i was thinking no more than 4, but then again, i have been told that no more than 2 is really a good idea

I just got back from Europe on Saturday. We went to Amsterdam and the surounding areas, Rome and Pompei. I went with 2 other people and thought 3 was a good number. In case one of you is tired and wants to stay in the hostel the other 2 can still go out. I think 3 or 4 people would be good. I agree with Russ that the Eurorail pass would be a really pricy option. Trains are great but they waste time. We did out trip like this…

28th Amsterdam
29th Amsterdam (day trip to surounding areas)
30th Amsterdam
31st Amsterdam
1st flew to Rome on Virgin Express for around $130 round trip
2nd Rome
3rd Day trip from Rome to Pompei
4th Rome
5th Rome/Vatican flew back to Amsterdam at night
6th Amsterdam
7th Amsterdam
8th Amsterdam flew home

We had time to go to Burgge but opted not to due to one of my friends feeling under the weather.

If you wanted to see London, Amsterdam, Brussels and Paris I think you could do it but it would be a really busy schedule. Perhaps leave Paris out of the loop and take a trip to Italy or something like that. You could fly into London, take a cheap flight (www.easyjet.com or www.mobissimo.com or www.virginexpress.co…) to Amsterdam. From Amsterdam take a day or two side trip to Brussels by train as it really isnt that far away. Then you could fly to Rome or if you really wanted to Paris. Paris is the only city on your list that is way out of the way. In my opinion if you go by train from Paris to Amsterdam you would be wasting valuable time you could save by taking a cheap flight.

For hostels check out

www.eurotrip.com of course
www.bugeurope.com
www.hostelworld.com

Hope this helps! Let me know if there is anything else I can help out with!

My first trip to Europe included a 21-day Eurailpass. I began in London where I spent 7 days, and then I flew to Amsterdam. There, foolishly, I activated my Eurailpass for the 20-minute train ride from the airport to the Central Station; I say foolish, because that caused me to lose the initial days of the 21, since I was staying in Amsterdam for a bit.

So what is possible in 21 days? Amsterdam…Brussels…Brugges…Salzburg…Vienna…Paris…Bordeaux …Nice…Cologne…Geneva…Zurich…Bern…Lausanne…Rome…Florence …Naples

Admittedly, a foolishly filled schedule that tired me out by the 15th day, but this does illustrate the ease with which decisions can be made about where to go next with a Eurail pass. Also, some of those train travels included a night train, saving me needing to search for a place to stay in the next city. Evening in Vienna and too tired to look for a hostel? Get right on the train and head for Paris.

Later trips to Europe told me to spend spend significant time in various locales rather than go with the rushing grand tour I did the first time around. Hopefully, you will learn from my error-filled experience and the suggestions of others to organize things better for most of your days.

I’ve done it both ways: trying to do a TON in 21 days on the seat of my pants and focusing only on a single country/region with planning. There’s a lot less stress in the latter. I guess the most importnat thing is this: will ever you come back to Europe?

If you think you might, then pick two or three countries that you’d most like to visit and focus on them. You’ll save money by getting a less expensive railpass and you’ll be able to appreciate the countries so much more by truly exploring them. Point: I lived in Belgium for a while. You never would understand Belgium by only seeing Brugge or Brussels. Ghent, Ostend, Antwerp, and the Ardennes all are worth a visit, for the beer if nothing else.

By focusing on France, Belgium, and Holland, you can keep your travel costs low and your interest high. Then you can see a different part of the continent on your next trip.

And when planning this sort of thing, always budget time to sit in a bar and talk to people.

Cheers!

hey folks, thanks for all the replies, ill chew on it for a bit, and if i have anything new to add will do so, you are all great help!!!

may be shootin a few of u a couple emails in the near future

hiya…sorry I’m a bit late on this one. I took a trip around Europe in 2002…we went in june as well and traveled for about 3 and a half weeks. We got the Eurorail pass for 21 days and I think we added one country…might have been the UK…anyway, our plans changed a bit while we were there due to train strikes, but this is generally what we did.

Oxford, England 2 days
Bath, England – 1 day
London – 3 days
Amsterdam – 2 days
Frankfurt, Germany – 1 day
Venice, Italy – 2 days
Florence,Italy – 2 days
Rome, Italy – 4 days
Nice, France – 2 days
Barcelona – 6 days (was supposed to be 3. We had to cut Madrid)
Marbella, Spain – ended trip (stayed in friends time share fro 1 and a half weeks before flying home)

I would recommend going to Paris, Berlin, Prauge and Madrid if possible though…our trip was mostly focused on Italy. We missed a lot of the larger cities that are great for your first time to Europe.

Good luck!

hey Adam784, i am actually going to europe this summer also with a friend to go backpacking for the first time, probably end of june to beginning of august- and i am from chicago as well! when did u say that u were going and what part of europe?

I was hoping to go like early june to end of june. thinking about 3 weeks. I want to focus my trip on some northern europe stuff, so here is what i am thinking so far. Now i just need ideas on how long to stay places, (as far as what there is to see). I do enjoy the arts and whatnot. But i would really like to just see the areas, and maybe meet the people… of course i will go to the eiffel tower for example if im in paris, but i don’t need to go to 100 museums, i enjoy archetecture/art (i.e. outsides of buildings and sculptures). Any more advise would be saweet!!!

ok, so here is what im lookin at so far:

Ireland (dublin) (due to my irish descent)
London (not sure why, seems popular)
Paris/Versalles
Amsterdam/Haarlem(?)

IF i would have time i wouldn’t mind seeing italy, but i hear Rome is a very tiring city and not really worth more than a day. Maybe some time in the mountains? (swiss) Vienna?

something in germany maybe, Rhine, Rothenberg (anything going on here?)

I don’t htink that ill be able to fill my 3 weeks with just dublin, london, paris/versalles, and amsterdam/haarlem without getting bored. Do you guys/gals think i should head down toward italy, or where else should i spend some time? (if i went south to italy, thought i could fly down from amsterdam, and maybe get an open flight into london to start and out of italy somewhere)

well, thats a very skeletal view of my trip, it’s shaping up from the first post i had

Jane, where you headin? maybe we’ll see each other in a hostel

I lived in Frankfurt Germany for a while. Rothenberg is a pretty cool city to visit…has a good torture museum if I remember correctly…but traveling down the Rhein is amazing! You can get on a boat that takes a four hour cruise and in different towns you have the option of getting off to visit castles, etc. It’s beautiful.

As for Austria or Switzerland — I’d say Luzerne, Lugano, Geneva, Garmish, Vienna are all cool places.

You could also consider the south of france which is beautiful.

Good luck!

hey adam, i am probably going to focus on paris, barcelona, madrid, french riviera, london, amsterdam, milan, venice and rome- and then anywhere in between. are you going to be traveling with anyone? also, if u want to talk more in depth, then u can email me at Jane413908@yahoo.com

HI. I’m traveling in europe during the begining of june to begining of august. Since you all gave such good advice to adam, do you think you can help me out on finding the best way to travel from the south of italy to greece when i get there. Thanks Riley

PS- since i’m going for two months, i would love to here some idea’s on what is the best places to see.

riley- what parts of europe are you going to be in and is this your first time going?

quote:
riley- what parts of europe are you going to be in and is this your first time going?

Yeah its my first time going. I’m going with my buddy. We’ll be flying in to dublin going to england then starting in europe probably- paris, all around spain, itally (traveling south), cross to greece, up through eastern europe, amsterdam, leaving from dublin.

you?

Oh yeah i would like to see the tour de france, but its in late july early august, so i might have to swing back to the south of france near the end of the trip.