going to the Europe.....but where? - TravelPUNK Backpacker College Student Budget Travel Message Boards!

atarinox · 10-15-2003, 04:06 PM

Myself and 3 other friends are flying into London (maybe, it appears to be the cheapest) from the states this coming June. We plan on staying and traveling for about a month....though our schedules are relatively flexible. We currently have 2 friends/relatives who would be willing to host us for awhile, one in England, the other in Sweden. We are on an extremely tight budget, and would like to focus on a few countries rather than rushing every other day to a new location. Sweden and England are pretty far away from each other, so I was thinking we should probably pick one host or the other to stay with for a short while. The remainder of our trip would be spent staying in hostels i believe.

So the question is....should we fly into Sweden travel north to Norway and perhaps go to Finland (these areas sound pricy)? Should we fly into England and travel to Scotland, and perhaps to Ireland? Should we fly into Sweden, stay with the host there, then travel through Denmark, the Netherlands, and back to the UK, and fly out of London?

We are all going to Europe for the first time and can't really decide on where to go. We are still considering skipping the host families all together and travelling southern France and Italy by Eurail -- apparently it's beautiful and Italy is relatively cheap.

Any suggestions regarding anything would be greatly appreciated.

thanks

**travelpunk** · 10-16-2003, 12:56 AM

atarinox, WELCOME TO THE BOARDS!

Sounds like you have a lot on your plate! London usually is the cheapest to fly into since, it's such a busy hub. That may be your best bet to saving money. From there, you can jump on some cheap flights, as most discount air lines fly out of there. $10 flights to Ireland and such. I don't know much about Scandinavia, or the rates to go there, but if you had a Eurail pass, you would be covered in every country that you mentioned.

You will be covering a lot of ground in a month, that you probably won't really get a chance to fully enjoy any one city at all. You listed 10 different countries that you're thinking about traveling to. Depending on you mode of tranportation, that could take 5,6,10 days of just traveling from country to country, leaving you only 3 weeks (21 days more or less) left for sightseeing, relaxation, and hosteling.

I think it was Worldwidemike that said he tries to spend at least 3 days at every other city, to get settled in, do laundry, relax, get to know, and fully enjoy the experience in that city. Or something like that. It's a nice rule of thumb to go by. This way when you look back at your trip, you won't just be thinking about all the train/bus/plane rides you took.

If I only had a month, I'd do half of those countries. But that's just me. I like to kick back meet the locals, experience the nightlife, parks, museums, etc...It's hard to do that when you're constantly on the move. Meeting people and getting invited to local parties and hangouts are things that most travelers don't get to experience because they're always on the go. those people that you meet will make your trip unforgettable. You simply can't develop relationships with the locals on 1 to 2 days per city.

At the end of the day, when you come home from your trip and remember the incredible sites that you saw in the 10 countries that you visited, will indeed be a good feeling.

Coming home and saying "I spent a week in the south of France and met this incredibele person and shared some romantic nights on the Mediterranean, ate some unbelievable local cheese, she/he took me to the local farmers market, we relaxed together over cafes each day, met and had dinner with her/his family and friends, and went to the favorite pubs and places of the locals that had no other tourists," will simply be an extraordinary feeling B) .