Backpacking

patient
Sun, 01 Oct 2006 01:29:29 +0000

I lived in France for a year during college, and also traveled throughout the country and to Italy, Greece, Switzerland, Holland, Belgium, England, Austria and Germany on various vacations during that year. However, I never traveled alone–always with at least one friend and more often in a group of 3 or 4. We stayed in hostels, homes, cheap hotels–and then there was one memorable night in the Venice train station ;). Sometimes I was with French (new) friends, and sometimes with other Americans.

I also know kids your age who have traveled in similar fashion throughout Europe, although often they had contacts with whom they stayed in the various countries they were visiting .

We used Eurailpasses on the long legs of the trips, and local public transportation and very occasionally we did hitchhike (that was a safer era). Part of our college program included lectures on cultural sensitivity and awareness and we tried very hard not to be “ugly Americans”–the type that are rude and loud. We were treated nicely almost everywhere but I think that we were nice, too. It’s funny that we traveled in the era before computers, cell phones, faxes, etc—our parents never heard from us except via post card or the VERY occasional call home!

In those days, the “Bibles” for traveling in the world were the Harvard student guides (e.g., Let’s Go: Europe). We read them before we went anywhere and took them with us. If you go, educate yourself about the places you will be traveling and do watch travelers’ advisories, etc. I think now Lonely Planet is also very good. We also used Frommer’s a lot–their inexpensive hotel picks were often really great.