Backpacking in europe


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for true backpacking and experiencing more interesting cultures and people, backpack eastern Europe.
... top picks will be Marrakesh, Cinque Terre (Italy) and the greek Islands. I also loved Prague for its old cities, extremely charming. I would recommend Norway, but it's not in Europe and it's quite inconvenient and expensive. You would be able to catch the midnight sun during this period.

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Wow, was there a catastrophic seismic event that pushed Norway away from Europe?
 

Before we send him the wrong direction, some interesting comments in the posts above:
Norway is definitely part of Europe
Marakesh is part of Africa (Morocco)
and most importantly: Octoberfest is in Munchen and not in Berlin (and to make it confusing: it takes place in September...)


Wow, was there a catastrophic seismic event that pushed Norway away from Europe?

ease off with the sarcasm.

My bad. I don't associate it with Europe because I always refer to the countries as Scandinavia rather than Europe. It's also not part of the EU.

Yup Marrakesh is part of Africa, very close to Spain. It's not part of Europe, but very very close. It's definitely worth a visit for anyone who's going to visit Spain. What Dennis said is all correct. Oktoberfest is in Munich and starts from September to roughly 10th October.

cheers
 

Europass agent here in SIN is Dynasty travel. Budget airline like easyjet/ryanair can just book online...QUOTE]

Dynasty Travel is but just one of em.

I suggest going to

http://www.collyers.travel

they were from Travelex in Caltex House last time, most people went to em before other travel agents start doing it. Anna is one nice experienced lady whom have been on the trips herself to be able to book stuff for you nicely. i should have gone earlier to her instead of thinking tripadvisor and other websites will yield all the info i need.

am leaving for London tomorrow, driving up northwards...followed by a flight to Brussels and train to cities in France, Germany, Austria and Italy...2 overnight sleepers.

pickpockets are everywhere in the world...be extra careful of people distracting you in say Paris and Rome...horror stories of blades going thru your bags/jeans...babies thrown at you...

still thinking whether to bring a tripod... :\
 

I'll be going to Europe soon.. Can't wait to capture as many shots as possible.. I'll be heading to London, Rome, Florence, Pisa, Venice, Barcelona and Paris over 2 weeks.

Here are some of the recommended websites that I've used to plan my itinerary:

Reid Guides
TravelAdvisor

Good luck in your planning ;)

lol same except for Barcelona, am going to Munich BMW Welt instead.

tripadvisor forums is just awesome
 

Actually, it is quite fun to drive around in Europe & not exactly that expensive. Language can be a problem though but not impossible.

I went to Italy in 07 & flew there without planning but brought along a guide book & did in-flight reading. I then planned my trip as the days went, took trains, boats, walked & rented a car to drive from Florence to Bologna & several nearby cities. I didn't even have a GPS & relied on map reading but my navigator was a woman who couldn't read maps! :sweat:

It was fun though. You can go anywhere you fancy & parking overnights are done undergrounds or carpark companies for about Eu15+/- a night in cities. Remember to pay for tolls & some countries like France have very strict speeding rules. Oh, rent diesel! They're cheaper to run & you should be able to get over the LHD syndrome soon.

U can buy an international driving license @ AA along River Valley but most of the time those car rentals didn't ask for it but merely your orig. license where they make a copy & remember to buy insurance as well.

Take some instant passport photos here (cheaper here than EU) & bring them along for your train tickets etc.

Swiss trains leave on the minute so you'd better be punctual. You can visit almost the entire country with their Swiss rail & do take note that Swiss is split into three zones of languages as well.

If you're in major cities like London & Paris, Metro & Tube are very convenient/cheap way with complex interchanges (they are over a 100yrs old) but you'd want to walk as they are beautiful cities to topo so bring your most comfortable & durable shoes. In fact, most EU cities have their buses & rail under one ticket. Buy a few days pass for it @ the railway stations.

For F&B. It is generally 2x our prices here due to the currency & standard of living depending on cities. If you can't live without chilli, please bring along those mini packs as they don't have chilli there & most charge you for tomato or tartar! Bring along a good alum. water bottle & refill it from your room every morning. B'fast can be boring....

Almost all hotel rooms can be booked via internet but there are those locales that are never on the net waiting to be discovered by you.

If you're a student with a pass, you get discounts in almost all places of interests.

Enjoy & Ciao!
 

wow, this is way too broad
europe is like, enormous

don't know if europe is a broad, but my atlas shows it as 6inch x 8 inch... does not look very enormous
 

here's my plan

im heading first to frankfurt
then travel to prague3days, followed by greece 4days, venice2days , rome 3days, paris 1-2day amdsterdam 1day and back to frankfurt

is there any place of interest between rome and paris? its quite a long journey over

another thing for eurail, comparing first class and 2nd class what is the difference?
 

wildsoyabean

i am going to advise, less places, more time each place

but people will never listen, when you cover a place more intimately, it is so different from the usual singaporean style of touch and go. i spent 4 days in a place like valencia, i had the time of my life. and you are going to do places like paris in 1-2 days? greece in 4 days??? venice in 2 days?? :eek:
 

true there will be added cost on traveling to the airport... so have to plan what is the most cost effective... as least for me, budget airlines is way cheaper... most of my airport transfers are no more than a bus ride or a underground service...

Be careful though, some of the UK budget airlines haven gotten into trouble for saying they fly to 'x' when they in fact land and some small town 'y' and hour on the bus from 'X'.
Research.


buying rail pass online cheaper ?? well i did all my research, even try to book online... the reservation confirmation was a nightmare especially the night train... i finally well down and buy on the spot... and its not in any way more expensive...

My wife likes to know where she's sleeper so have pre-booked every place we are staying a night. So we always know where we will be each night.

Every time I've looked up those rail passes, it turns out ordinary advanced booking were cheaper for France and Germany - they have some really good advance purchase fares. So can the UK, although some what harder to work out.
In Italy the train fares are just plain cheap.

I wouldn't try to cover to much territory too fast. You really need to spend a week in a region to get a decent feel for it.

One of my wife's colleges takes this to an extreme - he doesn't visit any where for less than a month, preferably longer. He spent a month in Paris, a 3 months in Florence, etc. He really likes to get a feel for the local culture than you can't get on a wirl-wind tour.
 

I agree with night86mare's advice.

Too many places, and too rush...especially since the cities are pretty far from each other.

Prague - i havent never been there, no comments
Greece- I dont like the city, but love the islands....I had spend 3D2N n Mykonos, 3D2N in Santorini and 1D in Athens
Venice - 2D?? You will regret big time!
Paris - 1D or 2D?? You will regret big time again!!
Amsterdam - 1D?? You cannot cover such a a beautiful city in a day

just my opinion, but 2D1N per city is not possible.
 

Something on Euro Pass. If you are student then getting the pass in singapore is worth it. Else for adult you might need to buy first class tickets and you need to top up for tickets. This would end up the same pricing as when you buy the tickets there.
 

haha...i found it susicdal as well..

heres a revised plan

flying to athens
6days greece
6days italy - 2.5 days rome, 1 day pisa, 1 day florence, 2days venice
2 days austria - vienna
2 days prague
1 day berlin
1.5 days frankfurt (visit family + head back to SG).

hows this plan? or should i spend more time in venice?
 

Wah..wat a good plan..so u plan to take train or drive?if u take train, i can tell u most of the time u r rushing for train..n ur plan have to plan according to the train timing..i have also plan a 11day trip to italy.But if u wanna save n dare to drive in italy, u can rent a mobile house and drive to the location. U can save on the hotel as hotel is not very cheap here.. Btw i am currently leaving in sweden..

After travel to few parts of europe, i personnally feel tat norway is a place to go if u wanna take natural Landscape photo..i really wish to go back there to take the photo of the glarice and fjord again..it is really breath taking..
 

Sounds like you are a refugee ....

I prefer to spend more time in each place than to adopt this "Chan Bros" style trip....



Eg I spent a good 6 days in Berlin and immersed myself in the place.

You do not have to spend so many days, but a day is rather short... you will spend a lot of time on the road or travelling, esp since the countries are not 5 mins away you know...

Cheers

haha...i found it susicdal as well..

heres a revised plan

flying to athens
6days greece
6days italy - 2.5 days rome, 1 day pisa, 1 day florence, 2days venice
2 days austria - vienna
2 days prague
1 day berlin
1.5 days frankfurt (visit family + head back to SG).

hows this plan? or should i spend more time in venice?
 

hey bro,

May I suggest that you skip Pisa, not sure if anyone else share my opinion.
I was there before, and regretted wasting my time...(would have spend another day in florence, no doubt).
Leaning tower is interesting, but I think taking a photo of it with another few hundreds people crowding around it is sickening..I felt stupid the moment, I was surrounded by so many tourists.

Use the extra day in Florence, spend time at uffizi museum instead. It is a great museum!

If not, use the extra day in Venice visit Murano and Burano instead. I find much more photography opportunities there than Pisa.

I adopted your "touch and go" style when I backpacked europe much earlier, and realised that I did not feel and understand the cities at all. It was just mad rush!

I do understand your thoughts, as you have already travelled so far and hence, want to squeeze in as many countries as possible.
I felt the same way last time too!
Maybe you can still carry on with your itinerary, and revisit Europe again on a more leisurely pace next time. :)

No matter which way you are going..enjoy yourself!
 

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I prefer to spend more time in each place than to adopt this "Chan Bros" style trip....

I agree with u Pete. Having to rush from one city catching a train and checking in / out in europe is pretty exhausting and takes a toll on the short duration of time allocated for each city.

It would be gratifying to get to know a city better, and live and imbibe their culture and way of life. the photographic yield might even be better as well.

That is one reason why i dun like getting in a tour group. Planning the itinerary itself can be fufilling as well.

Ryan
 

haha...i found it susicdal as well..

heres a revised plan

flying to athens
6days greece
6days italy - 2.5 days rome, 1 day pisa, 1 day florence, 2days venice
2 days austria - vienna
2 days prague
1 day berlin
1.5 days frankfurt (visit family + head back to SG).

hows this plan? or should i spend more time in venice?

6 days in greece - where ? greece quite big, few islands
6 days in italy - suggest 4 days in Rome and 3 days in Venice
2 days austria - vienna - 2 days a bot pack...
2 days prague - not enough - i spend 4 days there just to cover most of it...
1 day berlin - at least 2 days...
1.5 days frankfurt (visit family + head back to SG).
 

6 days in greece - where ? greece quite big, few islands
6 days in italy - suggest 4 days in Rome and 3 days in Venice
2 days austria - vienna - 2 days a bot pack...
2 days prague - not enough - i spend 4 days there just to cover most of it...
1 day berlin - at least 2 days...
1.5 days frankfurt (visit family + head back to SG).

for italy 3days rome 3 days venice is all i can afford.

as for austria 2 cos it a train up to prague i will by pass

which do u advice is better 4days in prague or 4 days in austria?
or 3days prague 1 day austria.

since im travelling to germany i will somehow by pass these places.

for greece we would only be in athens and 1-2 of the islands.
 

for italy 3days rome 3 days venice is all i can afford.

as for austria 2 cos it a train up to prague i will by pass

which do u advice is better 4days in prague or 4 days in austria?
or 3days prague 1 day austria.

since im travelling to germany i will somehow by pass these places.

for greece we would only be in athens and 1-2 of the islands.


Your latest revised iti, still looks like refugees being herded from camp to camp. You will be spending alot of time transporting yourself from one place to another.

6 days Greece, Athens and 1-2 island, is stretching it.

3 days Rome and 3 days Venice is doable, but then, Venice is aruably one of the most expensive place in Italy, and during summer, it's packed like a sardine can.

Prague is then again far far away.

well, if touch and go, a snap shot here, I have done it, is your objective, you can do it.
 

we gonna rough it out sleep on overnights train...so transport will be cut down as much - guess thats the fun part abt bag packing- roughing it out.
can only do this while you are still young and energetic...haha...before i get too old.

thats another reason i thought of cutting venice down to 2 days...as its $$$$. by train from venice to prague gonna take too long. and since it will by pass austria thought of just droping down have a look rest and travel up to prague again. makes the journey less painful

another thing...is pisa worth the visit? if im cutting down venice to 2 days i comtemplating between extending rome or detour to visit falling(leaning) tower of pisa
 

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