<p>Hey I was wondering if any of your sons/daughters went on a trip to Europe with their friends after HS/in college. My school usually goes on a trip, but as my friends and I compete at a high level in sports we are unable to go. We were thinking going for about three weeks, do you have any suggestions on where to go or if we need more/less time. </p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>My son is looking at an organized 3 week trip with his friends shortly after his college graduation next spring. Not sure who is running it (some organized tour group), I’ll see if I can find out and PM you.</p>
<p>Okay thank you.</p>
<p>Does anyone have any ideas on how to transport from city to city (train or plane) as well as which cities to go to.</p>
<p>Trains are definitely the best and cheapest way to get from city to city in Europe.The train service is much, much better in Europe than it is in the US; trains run frequently and go to every major city. Short-hop plane trips tend to be very expensive in Europe.</p>
<p>Buy a Eurail pass before you leave the US. (You can’t get them in Europe.) There are several different types, depending upon how many different countries you will be traveling to and how long you will be in Europe. You can get info here:</p>
<p>[Eurorail</a> Tickets, Europe Train Tickets & Europe Rail Ticket | Eurail](<a href=“http://www.eurail.com/]Eurorail”>http://www.eurail.com/)</p>
<p>RyanAir, Aer Lingus, and others offer cheap intra-European fares.</p>
<p>My nephew went with a buddy for two weeks, too short. My DD did around a month and seemed happy with that amount of time.</p>
<p>My nephew took a 2 week European trip after high school graduation with 3 other guys. His parents used frequent flyer points for the plane ticket, gave him the Eurail pass for his birthday and he paid for the rest. The boys stayed in youth hostels and had a wonderful experience while back-packing around Europe. They saw lots of cool places and did lots of cool things! All hostel reservations were done online. A longer trip would have been nice but they needed to get back for summer jobs and earning money for their textbooks, etc. Best way to plan such a trip is to sit down with a map and decide where you want to go. I’d suggest planning your trip based on the city with the cheapest air fare. These boys say their favorite stop was Nice–the beaches awesome! They flew in and out of Frankfurt and did not travel to the UK.
Have fun!!</p>
<p>I highly recommend trains from city to city… make sure you look at your tickets so you are at the right station. Just because your train from X to Paris got in at station A, doesn’t mean that your train from Paris to Y is leaving from the same station.</p>
<p>in 3 weeks, you can see plenty. Can you see all of Europe in 3 weeks? No, obviously. You can almost always justify spending more time on a vacation to anywhere. You can spend 3 weeks in London… or you can spend 3 days.</p>
<p>You should map out your budget… you will need a plane ticket, and a Eurail pass. You can stay in hostels… a lot of them are really quite nice. They have great amenities. The “downside” is that there will probably be more than just you guys in each room. But, this is also a really good way to meet other travelers.</p>
<p>You can do the trip on $75/day. That is how much my trip cost summer of 08 when the exchange rate was worse (around $1.55 to the Euro). That said, some places are more expensive. riding gondolas around the Alps is not cheap. Eastern Europe is less expensive, but it’s a little harder to get around. When I did the budget traveling, I ate at grocery stores. You buy some bread, meat and cheese, and some fruit, and you are good to go. The people at your hostel can tell you where the closest ones are located.</p>
<p>What are you interested in? Do you want to go hiking in the swiss alps? Do you want to see the Vatican? Do you want to see ancient ruins? Do you want to get to Auschwitz/Birkenau (or Dachau)? Do you want to see Neuschwanstein (the castle that Cinderella’s Castle is modeled after)? Do you want to sleep all day and drink all night? If you are going right after HS, I recommend you stick to Western Europe, just because it’s easier for a less experienced traveler. I also recommend that you don’t go to Europe and drink every day, because you will be able to do that in College (I’m not saying get wasted every day in College, but it makes no sense to buy a plane ticket and a Eurail pass so you can get drunk).</p>
<p>I’ve been to Europe on a group trip and backpacking with one of my college roommates… I’ve hit London, Paris, Berlin, Trier, Rome, the Vatican, Luxembourg, Lichtenstein, Geneva, Montreux, Interlaken, Zurich, Vienna, Innsbruck, Praque, Krakow, Amsterdam, and Brussels… as you can see my list is sadly missing Spain and Portugal, as well as Northern Europe (Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland).</p>
<p>So, if you have questions, feel free to throw them into this thread.</p>
<p>Are you going to fly into and out of the same city? Then realize you will need to make your journey in a circle-ish pattern. You could go something like: Paris -> Rome -> Venice -> Interlaken (Swiss Alps) -> Berlin -> Paris.</p>
<p>You can book hostels on sites like [Hostels</a> Worldwide - Online Bookings, Ratings and Reviews](<a href=“http://www.hostelworld.com%5DHostels”>http://www.hostelworld.com) and [url=<a href=“http://www.hostelbookers.com%5DHostels”>http://www.hostelbookers.com]Hostels</a>, Youth Hostels & Cheap Hotels at HostelBookers<a href=“I%20only%20used%20the%20first%20one,%20but%20met%20some%20people%20on%20the%20trip%20that%20were%20using%20hostel%20bookers%20and%20had%20no%20issues”>/url</a>. Make sure you take a few minutes to read the reviews before you book rooms (and note the locations!)</p>
<p>I don’t agree that you should limit yourself to Western Europe as the above OP suggests. Central and Eastern Europe is beautiful and lively, and by no means more difficult to navigate than the West. </p>
<p>I went interrailing last year for a month. Trains are certainly the cheapest, easiest and most exciting way of travelling. The best thing about using train passes and staying in hostels is the freedom to alter your plans along the way. There were a few times we changed our plans after chatting to fellow travellers who told us about good destinations. Once we decided at the last minute to go to Dubrovnik in Croatia rather than Barcelona. My advice would be not to make too rigid a plan, make room for some spontaneity.</p>
<p>My route: London>Paris>Amsterdam>Copenhagen>Berlin>Prague>Budapest>Dubrovnik>Rome>Bologna>Munich>London</p>
<p>The only thing I will say is that you need to be weary of people in the train stations, they see foreigners and are quick to assist in helping, but then they expect a tip…kind of like car window washers in NYC. </p>
<p>I would stay away from Milan. Venice is great. Also Brugges and Belgium are fantastic. (you can take the foil from London to Belgium in a matter of hours). Brugges is known to be the Venice of the North.</p>
<p>One of my favorite train rides ever was from Edinburgh to St Andrews. Edinburgh is rarely ever suggested, but it is a beautiful city. I lived outside London, and I still love London, but hands down Edinburgh is ten times that place.</p>
<p>My other suggestion is to figure 1 day travel, 1 day sightseeing, 1 day travel. 3 weeks might seem like a lot, but if you try to do 8 cities, you are cramming too much in. I would not think about doing more than 5 maybe 6. You can get in at 5, and if you have to leave at 3 the next day, you really are just scraping the tip. See one or two less cities, and experience the cities you see. There is nothing better IMHPO than getting off the tourist trail and seeing the city for itself.
As others have stated get the Euro Rail. You can go very quickly from one area to another. It isn’t like Amtrack here.</p>
<p>Thanks guys. If we were to do 2 weeks, how many cities do you think we could go to?</p>
<p>You might take a look at Rick Steves’ web site. He gives alot of good ideas, sample itineraries, etc. He even has a sample 3-week itinerary in there. His site is a treasure, especially for travelers going to Europe for the first time. There’s even a forum, in which you can ask specific questions (after doing searches first, of course.)</p>
<p>Traveling takes ALOT of time, so if you’re only doing two weeks, would be best to just pick several locations, unless you want the ‘if it’s Tuesday, this must be Belgium’ trip.</p>
<p>Also, read up on the scams. Pickpockets are rampant throughout Europe, and the ‘is this your ring?’ scam is still going on. Another one we saw recently in Paris was someone coming up with a clipboard, saying “Sign for peace,” and once you sign, they say you just signed that you owe them 40 euro. Their ‘friends’ come out to enforce it if you object. Some great threads here on CC re: different scams. Would be worthwhile that they get some idea of these before leaving.</p>
<p>I second using Rick Steves as a resource. His books are great and are geared to the younger traveler. </p>
<p>I’d also suggest that you allow yourself some flexibility. A group of kids I know hung out with some kids they’d just met for an extra day in Paris. Looking back that was one of the highlights of the trip because they were able to get to know new people from a new culture. </p>
<p>Also, this doesn’t have to be the only time you go to Europe–better to enjoy parts of the continent than feel as though you should be seeing more. Make it a goal to go back and see/do more rather than cram the whole thing into one trip.</p>
<p>Only YOU and your group can decide what you want to see!</p>
<p>well, I stand by my statement that Eastern Europe is harder to navigate. There is more room for potential issues to come up, help is farther away, fewer people speak English, etc.</p>
<p>I also recommend Rick Steves.</p>
<p>You can also travel on trains overnight in sleeper cars (extra reservation cost in addition to Eurail) and wakeup in a new city!</p>
<p>If your train leaves at 10:17… it leaves at 10:17. Don’t show up at the train station at 10:15 unless you want to watch your train leave without you.</p>