STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

fashionista L · Coach

backpacking through Europe...

Metric · Gucci

I would suggest flying into a major airport like London, Paris or Frankfurt. See where you can get the best deal to and plan your trip around that starting point.

You should decide...

How long are you going for?

How much you want to spend?

What you absolutley have to see/places to go?

Do you want to take a tour (like Contiki) or just go it alone?

Maddie · Coach

I went to Ireland this summer and ended up hanging out with a lot of people who were backpacking through Europe.

Western Europe is super easy to travel in, especially if you know the language. If you're uncomfortable maybe start in the UK or Ireland as everyone obviously speaks English, or Scandanavia where many many people speak English. Not to mention both those places are easy to travel through because things run on time and everything.

My impression is that people often fly into London as you can often get the cheapest tickets to there. Plus it's an easy place to start. But you could probably get cheap tickets on Lufthansa to Frankfurt or something too.

I guess there are three things I would start with. When are you going, for how long, and what do you want to see? Figure out a budget and then you can make adjustments. If I were going on a trip like this I would visit maybe some major western European sites, but stick mostly to eastern Europe and Greece and stuff. Western Europe is crazy expensive. I would also stay in the same place for a while and hang out as opposed to a rapid fire tour of major cities, but that's a personal preference.

Here are some sites that might be useful...

Gap Year is a site for people taking time off to travel. it's aimed at UKers, but can be useful to anyone. There's a ton of information.

Hostels.com is a site that has tons of hostels all over the world and lets you book online. I would not book too far in advance as you want to be able to be flexible on your trip. But it's good for finding them and budgeting. I would also DEFINTELY reccommend staying in hostels over hotels if you weren't already planning on it. Not only are they cheaper, but it would be impossible not to meet people.

Here's the site for Eurail. It's something to think about getting, but kind of expensive.

Another option for travel is flying. EasyJet has really cheap flights and can be cheaper than a Eurail pass depending on what you do.

kisa · Dooney & Bourke

I would suggest flying with Icelandair. That way you can stop in Keflavik for a day or two and check out blue lagoon and stuff, then they will ship you off to whatever major airport. Also they are really busy (my flight was oversold 3 times) so you can possibly rack in A LOT of free stuff. And the food on the plane is really good. Hehe.

laken1 · Hermes

I have no advice since I've never been to Europe, but I just wanted to say that I'm so jealous that you are doing this - it sounds so fun & I regret not doing something similar when I was younger and had the chance!

chloe · BCBG

I went backpacking around western europe with my friend this summer. We only went for a month and it definetly was not enough time. Everything was really hectic but the trip was the best experience ive ever had. My friend and I were on a really tight budget so we chose our starting point based on where the cheapest flight was to. We used 1800flyeurope to purchase our tickets and took swiss air. We took the plane to Lisboa, Portugal, worked our way north and then back south. We also bought the Eurail ticket which was good for 15 days and used it to travel to about 7 countries. But since youll be traveling for so long that prob. wont work out for you. After a horrible incident where my friends bag was stolen on the train and we lost our tickets, we had to buy a regular ticket from Austria to Italy which cost about 180 euro. But austria and italy are really far from each other which was why it was a bit expensive. I think it was about 50 euro from Nurnberg, Germany to Frankfurt, Germany. Just to give you an idea about how much tickets might cost. The train isnt that bad, although it takes anywhere from about 3-24hrs to get from one country to another depending where you want to go. You should def. stay in hostels which go for pretty cheap. I used hostelworld.com, the one maddie suggested. You get to meet people from all over and alot of them are probably backpacking around europe as well. It was great just exchanging stories and getting to know them. Ooh...sorry for going on and on, i shall stop. Hope i helped! keep us posted on your plans!

Vanessa · Kate Spade

I traveled through Europe quite a few years ago but I still remember how awesome it was. You will not ever regret it! At the time, getting a multi-country Eurail pass was the way to go, but with discount airlines right now, it might no longer be the cheapest way (though it is an amazing experience to travel by train, I really enjoyed it). Check out RyanAir and easyjet for discount flights betwen European countries. To give an example, a flight between London and Milan was 0.01 last week (you have to pay about 6 GBP in taxes but that's still peanuts!). In about 2 weeks I'll be taking a discount flight between Newcastle and Rome for about 20 GBP.

I'd also recommend originally flying to either London, Paris or even Amsterdam since flights will be cheaper and more abundant at the bigger airports. One more thing I'd recommend especially if you plan to do some trekking, is to check prices on multi-city tickets. I don't mean many stops, but flying into one European airport and out of another. It's a common misconception that multi-city trips are a lot more expensive, but I have done this three times and it's never been more expensive than if I were taking a regular round-trip flight to Europe. To give you another example, I'm flying to Newcastle and flying back from Rome in a couple of weeks, yet my flight would have been more expensive if I'd done a Rome round-trip, and the exact same price had I purchased a Newcastle round-trip tix. Yet flying out of a different airport than my arrival one (in this case Rome) makes everything so much easier for me since I'll be there at the end of my trip anyway.

Also, read, read, read! I learned so much just from browsing the internet, going from site to site. Knowledge is power! You have plenty of time. Pick up an issue of Budget Travel (or a 1-year subscription even, it's pretty cheap), or an issue of Conde Nast Traveler. I found that reading through travel websites like Frommers also helped me a lot whenever I've planned vacations. Tripadvisor has a lot of information and real people's reviews on hotels/accomodations all over Europe.

Take a visit to Borders, take a good looks at a map, and pick some destinations. Browse through the travel books. Make a list of cities you'd absolutely love to visit then go from there. Doesn't matter if the list starts out too long or too short. Things have a way of working themselves out the more research you do. I would say Paris and London are must-sees for anyone, but I'd highly recommend Prague, Barcelona, and Oporto for their beauty and history. If you do go to London definitely see a play, their theater is phenomenal.

Most of all, be very safe and very careful. Just like anywhere in the world, there are dishonest people everywhere who'd love to take advantage of innocent tourists. Don't look too much like one. Make an effort to speak/understand a few key phrases in the non-English speaking countries you visit. Natives really do appreciate the effort and are much nicer to people who try.

Hmm, that's all I can think of. Sorry it's all so scattered, I'm at work and didn't have time to proof-read. Take one great camera, there is much to see and you'll want to capture it all. Save as much money as you can too, you'll want to shop to your heart's content, at least I always do!

fashionista L · Coach

Thanks for all your responses, you gaev me a lot of good ideas!!

gingembre1 · Kate Spade

I've lived in Europe tiwce, and did the backpacking thing.

1. Check out www.eurotrip.com They have info about Eurail passes, but I used it for hostel recommendations. My number one hostel rec is a tiny place in the Swiss Alps called Gryon. You can find more info about it on that site.

2. EasyJet is more expensive than Ryanair. Ryanair ALWAYS has AMAZING deals (for example, only pay the tax on the flight, or a flight for 1 euro plus taxes, etc), You can check it out on www.ryanair.com.

3. Be FLEXIBLE! I wouldn't recommend a rigid schedule, but more to have destinations in mind. That's why Eurail is better than flying, because it's so very flexible. If you decide you love one place, and want to stay there longer, it's easy to do with the eurail.

4. Devote some days to just wandering around the city, not always rushing to see the next big tourist site. My favorite memories are often the ones where I just set aside a day to wander randomly around a city.

5. Know the bad areas to avoid in the cities. Most European cities don't have truly bad areas (unlike here, ghettos are in the suburbs, not in the cities), but for example, in France you want to avoid the 13th arrondissement at night, along with the 18th and 19th. Also, the 1st arrondissement can be really iffy at night (even sometimes during the day).

6. I just want to recommend the trains over taking a plane everywhere. First of all, you can watch the scenery, and in Switzerland the trains take you by some GORGEOUS countryside. You don't waste a lot of time in airports. They're usually in the middle of the city, rather than located outside of the city. You can take a sleeper train, and therefore not pay for a night in a hotel, but arrive in your next destination the next morning! You often meet other travelers, or even natives, who are fun to talk to. You can get up and walk around in the train. And don't forget, you could take one of the high speed trains! I definitely recommend taking one at least once...it's a neat experience.

PM me if you have any questions. Especially if you have questions about France.