Planning a Backpacking Trip to Europe.

Are you planning an exciting backpacking trip to Europe, but not sure where to start, then the below advice will hopefully help?

Critical Items

1. Decide the route that you want to go.
2. Decide your means of travel - Train, Bus etc.
3. Decide if you are going to do a circle route or fly into one city and fly out from your final city.
4. Decide how you want to lodge - Hotels, Hostels, Bed and Breakfast etc.
5. Decide and confirm your budget.
6. Confirm if you require any Visa and also if your passport is still valid.
7. Decide when you want to go - weather can be a crucial factor especially in Europe.

The St. Bartholomew's chapel on the Königssee in Bavaria is a popular tourist destination.
Copyright: M.tesch at de.wikipedia

Important Items

1. Electronic copies of all important travel documents and booking confirmations.
2. Email critical documents to an email account that you can access while you travel.
3. Take a couple of certified photocopies of your passport long as well as passport size photos in case you lose your passport and you need a new one urgently issued.
4. Keep a Facebook account updated with progress of your travel so that family and friends know your last whereabouts in case they lose contact with you.
5. Decide how you want to keep in touch with family while travelling. Mobile costs can be expensive.

Sample Itinerary

I decided to do a backpacking trip from Paris to Rome. I had +-18 days available and decided to travel as follows:

I decided to use the European Rail service and bought my Rail Pass on www.eurail.com.
I used the www.hotelscombined.com website as it offered the best price comparisons and cheapest hotel rates I could find.

You can click on each city on the itinerary to see some great hotels, B&B's and Hostels available in these cities.

• Start in Paris - stay 3 nights
• Travel to Geneva - Stay 2 nights
• Travel  to Nice - Stay 3 nights
• Travel to Venice - Stay 3 nights
• Travel to Florence - Stay - 3 nights
• Travel to Rome - Stay - 3 nights
• Fly Home

Map of Sample trip above.

Take Note:
Read as much as possible about the places you will be going to during your research phase, so that you can build your itinerary before you start doing any bookings. The reason for this is also to ensure that you don't get to Europe unprepared and in the end waste money by not using the time to see some great sites.

On a personal note:
If your ancestors were from Europe, it is always an idea to go back to where your family originated from and walk in their ancient footstep. This can be very, very rewarding.

I will be expanding further in subsequent posts on how to expand this European itinerary and save lots of money.