Travel EUROPE: Travel Tips & Tricks

[chunkylover53]

Whats a normal budget for backpacking europe for 3 months? June-September.

I'll be starting in Spain and heading up through France, through to amsterdam, berlin, prague, krakow, budapest, zagreb then sail croatia. (thats the plan anyway, I doubt I'll be sticking to it)

 

[stewie griffen]

Nice plan. Going to do much of Germany? Or just Berlin.

 

[chunkylover53]

Nice plan. Going to do much of Germany? Or just Berlin.

I'll be on exchange in the UK from September-December.

and apparently it's easy to travel while being on exchange, so while I'm in the UK studying I might spend some time in Munich at Oktoberfest.

 

[stewie griffen]

Nice. If you do want to get to Oktoberfest try and book a hotel/hostel early, it can get booked out pretty quickly, and prices can be reasonably expensive. I was on exchange in Germany a few years ago and basically travelled the whole country, good times.

If you are going to head to Europe from the UK, Brussels is a decent place to visit and Ghent and Bruges are worthwhile if the whole medieval architecture vibe is your thing.

You have a nice list of cities tho, from the France side, I spent a couple of months in Lyon, its awesome as well.

 

[chunkylover53]

Nice. If you do want to get to Oktoberfest try and book a hotel/hostel early, it can get booked out pretty quickly, and prices can be reasonably expensive. I was on exchange in Germany a few years ago and basically travelled the whole country, good times.

If you are going to head to Europe from the UK, Brussels is a decent place to visit and Ghent and Bruges are worthwhile if the whole medieval architecture vibe is your thing.

You have a nice list of cities tho, from the France side, I spent a couple of months in Lyon, its awesome as well.

Sounds awesome. I was in Dusseldorf this year for a few nights which was very cool I thought.

I'll be heading to the UK from Europe, so I'll be travelling June-September then heading to UK mid-September to start exchange until December.

Definetly want to give a lot of France cities a visit. Personally from the places I've been in Europe, Spain is my favourite but I've only been to Barcelona, I can't wait to do Madrid, Seville, Valencia, Bacrelona (again) and San Sebastian. Will head up to Marseille from San Sebastian I'm thinking.

 

[stewie griffen]

Yeah Dusseldorf is alright too, Leipzig and Dresden are well worth it. Berlin is one of my favourite cities, Cologne and Hamburg are good too. Had an absolute ball in Germany.

If you get the time try and hit a few of the smaller places. When I was in Lyon i headed out to Annecy just south of Geneva, a canal town set on the lake with a backdrop of the Alps, just absolutely awesome. There's also heaps of cool villages in the Swiss and Austrian mountains, and some of the smaller towns in Germany like Wurzburg and Braubach are well worth a visit. But it all depends what kind of vibe you are after tbh.

The wife and i headed over to Brussels last year for a conference and came back thru Prague, Vienna, Budapest, London, Bruges, Paris and Amsterdam... damn I wish i was heading back

 

[Dirty Bird]

Spending money in London.
How much a day?
I'm there for 8 nights (Arrive morning of the 3rd, leave lunch of the 11th)

Accomodation is the only thing paid for.

 

[treefingers]

Can anyone recommend any hostels and activities/tours in Amsterdam?

 

[stewie griffen]

The van Gogh museum in Amsterdam is worth a look. There's always the sex museum... cheap and good for a laugh. Ann Franks house is meh imo, but the Heineken tour is well worth it.

Hostels I cant recommend, we stayed in hotels and it was pretty damn expensive.

And on spending money in London..... lots Depends on what level of sightseeing you like, but you can pick usually grab a curry for 5 or 10 quid for dinner. If you are going to hit the tourist things then it adds up, from memory the Tower is around the 30 quid range, plus you'll want a day trip on the tube (or whatever pass you can get) to get around. There's lots of free stuff to check out if you are going to cruise Camden, Oxford St, Harrods and the like. At a guess I'd say 50 quid a day would be the minimum, but the more you budget the more you can do. Hope that helps a little

 

[Dirty Bird]

Found (and paid for) the London Pass thingy today.
$180 or so and that covers entry to a lot of stuff.
Wembley Tour, Emirates Stadium Tour (2 things I was going to do)

It also covers stuff like Tower of London, HMAS Belfast, Chruchill War Rooms etc.

 

[Ed_Gein]

Found (and paid for) the London Pass thingy today.
$180 or so and that covers entry to a lot of stuff.
Wembley Tour, Emirates Stadium Tour (2 things I was going to do)

It also covers stuff like Tower of London, HMAS Belfast, Chruchill War Rooms etc.

Sounds like you got a good deal to be honest.

 

[chunkylover53]

anyone got some killer backpacking europe stories to get me excited?

 

[Dirty Bird]

Sounds like you got a good deal to be honest.

This is the full list. Free entry to: http://www.londonpass.com/london-attractions/index.html#.Uih9jEAiPIU

Was always doing Wembley (16 quid), and Emirates (17.50 quid)

Then there were a few others I wanted to do. Churchill War Rooms (15.45 quid), HMS Belfast (13.50), Tower of London (19.50), Jewel Tower (3.90)

Getting this pass for $191. ($186, but I went and paid AMex for extra FF points )
And the 6 things I wanted to do cost 85.85 quid ($146)
So for $40 I get to do other stuff that I might enjoy. A free movie? Ten Pin Bowling/Ice Rink? Zoo?

Certainly worth it

 

[kaiserchief13]

Can anyone recommend any hostels and activities/tours in Amsterdam?

Heineken Museum. Coffee shops.

 

[moomba]

Spending money in London.
How much a day?
I'm there for 8 nights (Arrive morning of the 3rd, leave lunch of the 11th)

Accomodation is the only thing paid for.

Remember to allow for tube tickets. London is pricy, but it really depends on what you want to do. Check out things like groupon, normally have some good deals for tourist attractions. You can spend a day or two walking around westminster/southwark but if you want to go on tours and stuff you will pay for it.

Cant remember if you've got time away from London, but don't spend the whole trip there. Much more to see in the country.

 

[moomba]

Can anyone recommend any hostels and activities/tours in Amsterdam?

I liked the Anne Frank tour, well worth it IMO. But the main thing to do there is just walk around the red light district. Plenty to see, plenty of bars, pubs and "coffee shops" if youre that way inclined.

 

[treefingers]

I've ended up choosing Berlin for the week, but thanks for those recommendations will keep them in mind.

Whilst I'm in the thread, anyone know of places that show the Grand Final in Barcelona?

 

[TheStinger]

I've ended up choosing Berlin for the week, but thanks for those recommendations will keep them in mind.

Whilst I'm in the thread, anyone know of places that show the Grand Final in Barcelona?

There is an irish pub in a alley off of La Rambla. They normally show all of the big sporting events. I'll see if I can get the name for you. There is an Aussie pub here but it is really bad and I'm not sure they would even show the game anyway.

 

[Lion for Life]

Ok, just returned myself from a 3 and a 1/2 month tour of Europe and I can confidentally say it is the most amazing thing I have ever done.

To plan I started off with 5 music festivals that I wished to do and worked the rest around them. For me Contiki is just awesome, it gives you the chance to squeeze in as much activity and destinations into a short amount of time all the while hanging with a young crowd partying, socialising and making friends for life, and the women!! It is just amazing the pulling power that Aussie accent can give a fella, I kid you not!!

So, my first lasted 25 days around continental Europe and took me to Paris, Beaujolais & Nice in France, Barcelona in Spain, Florence, Rome & Venice in Italy, Vienna & the Austrian Tyrol in Austria, Munich, Heidelberg &The Rhine Valley in Germany, Luzern & the Alps in Switzerland, and topped it off in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

The Second was for 16 days around the UK & Ireland and took me to Liverpool, York, Carlisle & The Lake District in England, Edinburgh, Loch Ness, Oban & Glasgow in Scotland, Dublin, Belfast, Derry, Galway, Corke & Kilkenny in Ireland.
The extras in between on both was just awesome, I got to see so much!! I couldn't recommend it any more.

For the festivals 2 were in Derbyshire and the other 3 took me to Belgium (Dessell), back to Germany (Hamburg) and the amazing Slovenia smack bang in the middle of what is one of the most incredible places I visited, Tolmin & The Soca Valley, I also took in Ljubljana which in itself is a beautiful place, just incredible, Slovenia is a must for anyone travelling over there, highly recommend. Any time in between was spent in London.

It was an absolutely jam packed 3 and a 1/2 months of sightseeing, partying, music and meeting a ton of new people. I'd love to elaborate more on each place but it would take 100 pages to do so, just take my word for it, everywhere I visited was well worth it.

 

[The Dice Man]

Remember to allow for tube tickets. London is pricy, but it really depends on what you want to do. Check out things like groupon, normally have some good deals for tourist attractions. You can spend a day or two walking around westminster/southwark but if you want to go on tours and stuff you will pay for it.

Cant remember if you've got time away from London, but don't spend the whole trip there. Much more to see in the country.

Seriously brilliant suggestion... Can get half price dinners, tours, deals etc from here. Its a MUST!

 

[twce13]

guys what spending money do you think is appropriate per day in europe?

I'm going in late November (7 weeks) and will be visiting holland, london, paris, prague, munich, lucerne, rome, macedonia and istanbul. Do you think 150 aud a day (per person) will be enough?

Accom and travel transport has already been taken care of.

 

[Lion for Life]

guys what spending money do you think is appropriate per day in europe?

I'm going in late November (7 weeks) and will be visiting holland, london, paris, prague, munich, lucerne, rome, macedonia and istanbul. Do you think 150 aud a day (per person) will be enough?

Accom and travel transport has already been taken care of.

Just came back myself and with the exchange rate as low as it is, i would say No, 150AUD would not be enough, but this would depend on what you would spend it on (food, booze, memento's etc.) if you want to do it without the constant worry of running short I would say 180-200AUD as a minimum. If you plan to drink and party often then that would increase again, I was there for 14 weeks and going through an average of 300AUD a day, total of about $30,000+ in total, but I did barely go a day when i wasn't drinking and livin' it up

 

[twce13]

Just came back myself and with the exchange rate as low as it is, i would say No, 150AUD would not be enough, but this would depend on what you would spend it on (food, booze, memento's etc.) if you want to do it without the constant worry of running short I would say 180-200AUD as a minimum. If you plan to drink and party often then that would increase again, I was there for 14 weeks and going through an average of 300AUD a day, total of about $30,000+ in total, but I did barely go a day when i wasn't drinking and livin' it up

cheers for the reply.

I would say I'll probably drink maybe 2 nights a week. About half the trip (10 days in Holland, 10 days in Macedonia -- these weeks will be when I drink the most) we will be staying with family so that time frame might not be as bad. The rest of the trip is just me and the girlfriend so we probably wont go crazy drinking.

Plus I don't really like shopping much, maybe just souvenirs and the like. I was thinking of planning a budget of close to 8k for spending money whilst I'm there which would be roughly 180aud a night.

 

[Dagless]

guys what spending money do you think is appropriate per day in europe?

I'm going in late November (7 weeks) and will be visiting holland, london, paris, prague, munich, lucerne, rome, macedonia and istanbul. Do you think 150 aud a day (per person) will be enough?

Accom and travel transport has already been taken care of.

A mate just did 4 months, 8 grand with good conversion over last Winter. 150 is plenty.

30 grand is just stupid...

 

[The Dice Man]

150 a day IS plenty if your accomodation is sorted. No problem at all.