I am going to have a little over 3 weeks to backpack in Europe during late March to mid April. I am not totally sure where I am going to go.

Will it be too cold to do much backbacking during these times? I will be going alone so I want to make sure there will be other people for me to meet. I know there wont be as many backpackers as in June but I dont want to be totally alone. Where should I go during this time?

I've been all over Europe during those times and it's GREAT. :) The weather isn't hot enough yet to be miserable but it's not necessarily cold either. You'll also be able to take advantage of lower airfare prices and possibly lower priced / definitely more available hostel/hotel beds. There are still plenty of other people out and about though. :cheers:

And a word to the wise: If you're planning to be traveling during the week leading up to Easter, BOOK YOUR ACCOMS IN ADVANCE. Seriously. :unsure:

southern europe will definitely be in the throws of spring, plenty of sunny days in spain, italy and southern france, it will still be crap in the UK, showers and clouds, and the nights will still be cold.
you get the benefit of not having to queue to get into the major sites and not paying ridiculously high accommodation charges. Easter is busy, plenty of :pope: going on, particularly in the catholic countries. there are backpackers still travelling but not in huge numbers, you will still get to meet people and probably more than likely they will be European backpackers. it will be colder in places like switzerland, germany and Poland, my friends in austria had snow and were skiing up until only 5 weeks ago. but these places are drawcards in themselves during this time.
interlaken, salzburg, berlin, paris rocks in the spring, venice without the humidity, florence without the crushing crowds, barcelona anytime of the year is popular. london will still be good for nightlife and seeing the important stuff, its all indoors anyway. you will still meet plenty of people to share a few :cheers: with.

It's an awesome time to travel, but heed the warning about Easter crowds. Most schools let out for two weeks at Easter, so it's a popular time for family holidays, and a lot of schools that don't have holidays use that time to make school trips, so there can be large groups of kids in the hostels. This can be unpleasant.

One other consideration - a lot of accommodations and some transportation (we noticed this most in Greece) are seasonal and do not begin operating on their usual schedules until April 1 or Easter, whichever comes first (keeping in mind that Easter comes later in Greece). So if you're planning to visit a particularly isolated Greek island, make sure that the boats are running before heading down there!

But overall, we love traveling in Europe in spring time, and most of the people you'll meet in the hostels will be other Europeans, so you could make some useful contacts for other parts of your trip.

:tumbleweed:

Don't worry I'll be in Europe around the same time, you can hang out with me. Ya Know!!!!