Advice on Europe Back Packing Trip

Yucca

Yucca

Yucca

Associate
Joined
20 Nov 2004
Posts
2,209
Location
Nock/Leicester
Guys

Me and a friend have decided to take 3 weeks off in August and back pack around mainly western europe using an inter rail pass (they do a 22 day one).

However narrowing down destinations and planning an order is harder than expected. Here are our chosen destinations, any advice on order of travel or what country we should miss out based on logistics would be very much appreciated.

Finally, we can fly from UK to first destination if that speeds things up.

ITALY - Naples, Rome, Florence, Venice, Milan

France - Paris, Bordeaux, Nice, Cannes, Marseille, Strasbourg

Spain - Barcelona, Madrid

Germany - Berlin, Munich

Austria - Vienna

Hungry - Budapest

Belgium - Brussels, Ghent, Antwerp, Bruges

Would love to fit in some ferry action to an island or two if possible also (ideally Ibiza so we can check out the clubbing scene).

Any advice is most welcome!
 
Woah woah woah, that is way too much for 3 weeks! That's like a city a day - it's totally not feasible. You could spend all three weeks just in your Italian locations and get more out of it.
 
Nitefly said:
Woah woah woah, that is way too much for 3 weeks! That's like a city a day - it's totally not feasible. You could spend all three weeks just in your Italian locations and get more out of it.
Click to expand...

Yes mate I do agree its to much I think we need to cut out about 30% not much more as we really want to see as much as possible and don't mind running around to get it done.

The countries that we want to do 100% without question are Italy and France the rest is optional. All depends on the route we plan as well I suppose as we don't want to be training around in circles.

What do you suggest?
 
I have a plan!!!!

How about we fly down to Naples in Rome and then work our way up to Rome, Florence, Monti Carlo, Venice and Milan.

Then go to France to Cannes (long ass train ride here), Nice, Marseille, either Strasbourg or Bordeaux (both really long train rides and in the wrong direction) and then to Paris.

From Paris we can tube it home.

What do you think guys?
 
Yucca said:
I have a plan!!!!

How about we fly down to Naples in Rome and then work our way up to Rome, Florence, Monti Carlo, Venice and Milan.

Then go to France to Cannes (long ass train ride here), Nice, Marseille, either Strasbourg or Bordeaux (both really long train rides and in the wrong direction) and then to Paris.

From Paris we can tube it home.

What do you think guys?
Click to expand...

Forget about Milan its not worth bothering with IMO try somewhere like Siena
 
Skip Milan and Naples (do sore to instead if you want), other good Italian destinations are Padua, Verona, the lakes, etc.
skip nice and marseille, get to smaller Provence places like six or the really small medieval towns (hire a car).
 
Pick 7.

Florence, Venice, Paris, Barcelona, Berlin, Budapest, vienna. These cities are all amazing and deserve at least 3 days.

Edit: actually Florence and Venice only need 2 days
 
Way, way, way too much stuff. I did Prague, Budapest, Vienna, Innsbruck and a few one night stops on the way there and back and it only just fitted into a similar timeframe and I had the benefit of my own car as well. By rail it'll be fantastic but you really need to cut out at least half of those places or best case you wont enjoy it, worse case you'll run out of time.

Prague, Budapest and Vienna all make perfect sense as they are very close to each other.
 
Yucca said:
I have a plan!!!!

How about we fly down to Naples in Rome and then work our way up to Rome, Florence, Monti Carlo, Venice and Milan.

Then go to France to Cannes (long ass train ride here), Nice, Marseille, either Strasbourg or Bordeaux (both really long train rides and in the wrong direction) and then to Paris.

From Paris we can tube it home.

What do you think guys?
Click to expand...

That's a very different trip! I'd say try to take in an extra country at least. Switzerland is right there and so beautiful, even if you don't stay there! Take a train from Italy to Zurich and back down to the Riviera - the ride will be breath taking.

Handy tip: www.bahn.de is an invaluable resource - you can look up ANY train in Europe, get times, stops, even arriving and departing platform numbers. Plus if you need to reserve a train, you can write down the service number and present it to the person in the ticket office.. It gets you right past the language barrier as you're helping them out immensely.
 
Yucca said:
Yes mate I do agree its to much I think we need to cut out about 30% not much more as we really want to see as much as possible and don't mind running around to get it done.

The countries that we want to do 100% without question are Italy and France the rest is optional. All depends on the route we plan as well I suppose as we don't want to be training around in circles.

What do you suggest?
Click to expand...

I'd say you would have to cut out 70% at least. There is absolutely nothing fun about spending 5 hours or more travelling a day, factoring in hotel check-in faff. You really won't see anything, it would be a complete waste!

For ~20 nights, you are better off picking 4-6 destinations. Remember, 2 nights means one full day in a city. I'll be back later to post my suggestions.
 
[TW]Fox;24592562 said:
Way, way, way too much stuff. I did Prague, Budapest, Vienna, Innsbruck and a few one night stops on the way there and back and it only just fitted into a similar timeframe and I had the benefit of my own car as well. By rail it'll be fantastic but you really need to cut out at least half of those places or best case you wont enjoy it, worse case you'll run out of time.

Prague, Budapest and Vienna all make perfect sense as they are very close to each other.
Click to expand...

Agree on the number of places but using trains you don't necessarily need to cluster your locations - night trains are almost like using a teleporter. On one of my month long trips I spanned Morocco to Stockholm to Prague and Cornwall, with plenty of places in between and started in barca.
 
Im not sure if this advice will help you, as obvoiusly you have to go to places you want to, but i did a similar trip a few years back. We went for 28 days, with 21 days of travel..

The Route we did was.

Sofia (bulgaria) > Belgrade (serbia) > Split (Croatia)

Then Spent a bit of time on one of the little islands off Croatia (dalmantion islands?)

Split > Ljubljana (slovenia) > Veince > Rome > Munich > Berlin > Amsterdam

Then the way home was (1 days travel)

Amsterdam > Paris > Calle (ferry to dover) and Train home. :)

That was such an awesome trip..

I wouldn't try and cram too much into it..

PLaces like serbia, slovenia and bulgaria will suprise you, they are amazing. :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom