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Picking our backpacking through Europe routes also reduces potential mishaps throughout your travels. When I first started traveling around the world, I hated the thought of having an itinerary.
However, soon I learned the importance of at least having a rough backpacking through Europe routes.
It helps you reduce mishaps, book accommodations, and lets your loved ones have a rough idea of where you are heading.
A backpacking itinerary allows you to preview your upcoming trip and eliminate as many costs and travel nuisances as possible.
Preparing one should encourage you to book accommodation, tours, or rail passes beforehand, which saves you from extra fees and headaches after discovering the hostel you spent an hour searching for has just filled up. The process also enables you to research and predetermine exactly which cities you want to visit. There are many aspects to consider when planning a backpacking Europe itinerary, including the logical route, the relative season, and your time frame. Traveling is Trying – First and foremost, physical well-being is the foundation for any backpacker’s ideal venture. Overexerting your body by constantly being on the move without much sleep is a recipe for fatigue and a risk for being bedridden and set back several days. Traveling Slower Lets You See More – Extending your stay in one city will also allow you to immerse yourself in the area and become more familiar with what it has to offer. Even if you can cover the main tourist attractions in one day, try spending some time off the beaten path andwith the locals; it might prove to be even more of an enriching experience. I would recommend visiting one country (potentially two if you have a structured backpacking Europe itinerary with targeted destinations). Have a Budget -I assume fellow backpackers are also familiar with that sense of anguish over a strained wallet, and the pressure to keep walking every time you come across a kabob stand. So it might go without saying always to consider your backpacking Europe budget and set it early on in the planning process.
I personally found it helpful to follow a daily budget that represents the average cost of one day’s hostels, meals, transportation, plus some wiggle room for miscellaneous costs. Don’t forget to take into account the pesky costs of ATM fees, cab rides, exchange rates, etc. Anticipate unplanned spending as well- you might need to replace lost or stolen belongings, or “need to” splurge on that overpriced souvenir. For Example some pre trip expenses you have include when planning your backpacking Europe Itinerary include.
An itinerary is essentially a series of destinations plotted on a timeline (with an obnoxiously looming budget). As I mentioned before, this list would be tailored to you and the kinds of experiences you are seeking.
For example, if you are eager to see some world-renowned city lights, you might make stops in Paris and London.
If you are looking to enjoy scenic views and go swimming in natural bodies of water, you might want to stop along some beautiful Croatian towns. Make sure to conduct thorough research to find out what various European cities have to offer. Once you’ve drafted a list of destinations, the next step is to fill in the gaps: how you will be getting to each city.
Depending on your time frame, you may have to narrow down your list of destinations remember to consider spending at least 3 days in each city to embrace it! Even if you somehow manage to avoid any planning or traveling setbacks, you might fall in love with Rome and use an extra day relaxing in front of the Trevi fountain or catching the sunset at the Colosseum. Trust me when I say to avoid stacking back-to-back activities or booking consecutive overnight buses. Despite that exhaustion will make it difficult to enjoy outings, you would also be at a higher risk for missing a flight or bus with a tight schedule.
Unexpected mishaps occur too often when traveling so for comfort it’s crucial to account for possible delays in your backpacking Europe itinerary. If you have Europe backpacking itinerary for 4 then I would recommend visiting no more than 2 countries.
Three countries could also be practical if they are neighboring, or you travel using budget airlines. The longer you have to travel, the more flexibility you have with your backpacking through Europe routes.
If you have a Europe Itinerary for 3 weeks to travel Europe, it is practical to see 1 country or 2 neighboring countries.
Remember when crafting our backpacking Europe itinerary we don’t want to over extended yourself.
I once talked to a lady who was telling me that she had a friend with Europe Itinerary for 3 weeks. Make the most of your time and do not rush around keep this is mind when planning your backpacking routes through Europe. Remember to think through little details such as affordability of transportation tickets or the distance from your hostel to the train station. And just as a rule of thumb: the shorter period you have to travel, the more thorough your backpacking Europe itinerary should be.
Once this planning process is out of the way, you can go back to fantasizing about your upcoming Euro Trip- this time without any stress or nagging voice in the back of your head! Keep in mind that the length of your trip has a huge impact on how much of an itinerary you’ll need. Note: I tried to present these steps in a logical order, but it is impossible to document exactly how to choose your itinerary.
Don’t forget that there are a lot of good day trips that can be taken while in big cities.
Step Ten: Go back through all the steps above (in no specific order) until you figure out your itinerary.
It is important to remember that this isn’t about planning every second of your trip.
Just because you’re backpacking through Europe on a budget doesn’t mean your trip has to be anything less than a trip of a lifetime.
We planned to spend $8,000 per person, including our flight, for a two month backpacking trip through Europe and one year later, it remains one of the best purchases I’ve ever made. The flight, which we purchased a few months in advance, was a weird round trip flight (San Francisco to Rome, Italy and then home, from Madrid, Spain, back to San Francisco). We budgeted $80 total (so $40 per person) per night and for the most part we were able to stay within that or even drastically lower than that. That being said, it would be certainly worth it and fun if you are on your own and looking for friends to travel and hang out with. I have only wonderful things to say about our experience in AirBnB apartments and savings or not, I would highly recommend this method of traveling. Last but not least, on two separate occasions we were, unfortunately, not able to lock down a place to stay through AirBnB before we needed to leave our last place.
In the end, with nowhere to stay that night, we ended up booking a spot through Hotel Tonight. We did purchase Tupperware that proved exceptionally useful and allowed us to sometimes pack leftover pasta for lunch the next day. In Paris we cut costs a bit by seeing both the Musee D’Orsay and the Louvre on the “free for young people” night, which was great. Glacier National Park backpacking trails offer backpackers some of the best scenery and rugged wilderness in the country.
Backpacking through Europe has been a favorite tourist activity for many people for a long time. Don’t get discouraged by the words, “planning” and “itinerary” or let them dull your excitement!
When planning your Europe Itinerary, you can also use websites like Tripscan to compare routes and itineraries.
Therefore the first, and personally the most exciting step is to research and nominate the destination cities.
I would also suggest leaving room for last-minute changes and giving yourself an extra day or two for flexibility. It can be very difficult to narrow down exactly where you want to visit and a lot of travelers can really struggle with the decision. You start by assembling the border (your arrival and departure dates) because it is the easiest. I think these steps will get you about 70% to where you need to be, but you’ll have to figure out your own system to do the rest. Your dates are usually determined by your budget or available free time—probably a combination of the two. I would make three lists – 1) Places you 100% want to see, 2) Places you really want to see, 3) places you could live without. You can easily fly in and out of Paris because you can design your travel so you go in a loop with Paris being at the end of the journey. These can be good option if you plan on traveling a good distance away from your arrival airport. An open jaw ticket could cost a lot more, so you might have to adjust your trip based upon that factor. Are you going to take the train (buy tickets or use a Eurail pass), are you going to take planes, rent a car, or maybe use the bus? That’s why we created The Savvy Backpacker — an independent resource to help give you the skills and knowledge to travel through Europe on a backpacker’s budget. Backpacking around Europe you’ll find more than enough to do so we’ve compiled a list of the top 10 cities to visit when backpacking through Europe on a budget. Amsterdam – This city offers much more than the famous red light district it is well known for. Barcelona – This beautiful Spain coastal city is the perfect location for a beach holiday. Paris – Vibrant nightlife, French cuisine, and designer shops dominate the landscape. Cornwall – Probably not on most people’s top list of things to do while backpacking through Europe on a budget. Florence – If you’ve spent time backpacking around India and other great international hiking locations then you’ll appreciate the rich history Florence has to offer in the form of art and architecture. Copenhagen – This Scandinavian city on the coast has something for everyone, and the food is the best.
I actually ended up going a month earlier to Rome and then purchasing a round trip ticket that flew from Rome to Entebbe (Uganda) and then back to Rome.
This is one place where traveling with a significant other makes a big difference as we stayed in AirBnB apartments all over Europe and almost always shared a bed. We did stay in a hostel in Switzerland (Zermatt!) and while the sleeping experience still sucked, we had a great time hanging out with a friend we made there. Some of my absolute favorite experiences were through our hosts: We had a homemade breakfast and espresso and I practiced my Italian with the sweetest Italian lady that could have been our mother in Florence.
It was usually a combination of a lack of planning on our end and some bad luck (leaving Italy we attempted to book at least three different places in Switzerland, but each turned us down – they were out of town and had forgotten to update their calendar, plus it was Easter, so bad timing on our part). Mostly, we ate whatever the hell we wanted to, whenever the hell we were hungry. In Italy, we had gelato every day.
In a few places we got granola and yogurt or something simple to stick in our apartment fridge.
We mixed in some hikes (free!) and plenty of just wandering around the cities and famous parks (also free!).
In Appenzell, Switzerland, our apartment rental included a pass for a free ticket to some of the local attractions, which was a fantastic deal.
Along you’re journey you’ll meet many new people, make lasting memories, and learn a lot about the country. It takes a lot of creativity and you’ll probably spend many hours trying to nail down your itinerary.
Anything under two weeks should be planned out in-depth, trips 2-4 weeks require a little less planning and anything over a month can mostly be planned as you travel (although you should still do some planning ahead of time). Without planning you waste a lot of time on trivial stuff that you could have easily done at home and you end up missing a lot of great things. The list below indicates the minimum amount of days that I think you should spend in each city. So this is another reason to slow down and to spend more time in each of your destinations. There can be a huge price difference between airports, so you might have to base you trip around that factor too.
Aside from being one of the greatest cities in the world, it is foreign enough to be interesting, but similar enough to not be overwhelming (it also has excellent links to the rest of Europe). But don’t go to sleep in the middle of the day either because this will really mess you up. Whether you like shopping, night life, art, history, culture, or the outdoors you’ll never be bored in this landmark city.
There’s plenty to do for the whole family and the seafood is some of the best in the world. People backpacking through Europe on a budget will enjoy the interesting shops, pubs, and landscape. It proved massively cheaper (by about $1,000) than flying “directly” to Entebbe (the flight would have gone through Eastern Europe anyways, so it didn’t make much sense) and then on to Rome. The way it works is that you pay a flat fee based on the number of travel days you want in each region or country and then you can use those for a single day of train travel.
We had the greatest home cooked Italian dinner with our host and her sister in Venice, complete with wine and new friends, PLUS two extra tickets to a private concert in a historic church that’s closed to the public usually were dug up and we got to go. These two nights were some of our most expensive travel nights, but I’ve worked with Hotel Tonight in the past and so we had a leg up with some pretty big discounts from them. Overall, I found this method of eating while we traveled to be fairly healthy, definitely delicious, the right amount of food, and within our rough food budget.
That being said, there are obviously plenty of things that you must pay for and are totally worth it and we certainly picked museums and attractions that we knew we really wanted to see in each country and city. Overall, do the things you came to do and make sure to see the wonderful historic and artistic attractions, but for sanity and budget, don’t do every little possible attraction that you possibly could if you went page by page through Lonely Planet. There are multiple strategies for traveling and it is up to you to find the one that works the best for your journey. Sometimes you have a few chunks assembled, but it takes a lot of trial and error before you complete it.
It takes 10 minutes to book a hostel online, but it can take you an hour or two trying to find one randomly in an unfamiliar city. Naturally, you want to see as much as possible, so you end up trying to jam a million things into a short amount of time.
This way you’ll ease into traveling before heading off to non-English speaking countries. Everybody that we say this to who is a few decades older than us is a little bit shocked (hostels used to be cheap, I guess!), but for the most part we were massively surprised by the high cost of staying in a hostel. We spent just over $8,000 each, but I’m rounding it to exactly $8k, United States dollars. It takes like a hour to research a city to find stuff that looks interesting, but showing up in a city without any clue to what it has to offer can be a disaster. Think about what kind of stuff you’re interested in seeing — Do you want to see castles, beaches, WWII sights, major cities, nature, etc? Most of our trips were on the larger, pay extra trains, but we were able to use the regional trains for a stop in Pisa and a few other little trips that it was nice to see, but probably not worth a whole train ticket’s price. It’s a trendy thing to do and you certainly pay for the quintessential backpacker experience.
These two ended up being two places where the hostel actually was cheaper than anything else or where we couldn’t find another good option. Part of the thing we loved about going to Europe was the food and we weren’t about to leave without trying things. Average that out and we spent $111 per person, per day, factoring in the round trip flight from the US to Europe. You’ll spend all your time wandering and you might not find anything that is really interesting to you.
Click Here for the Best Travel Guidebooks and Travel Guide Websites for Budget Backpacking in Europe. Without the flight, the trip would have been about $6,800 per person, which comes out to $95 per day. It will make your trip extremely stressful and you might get to the point where you hate traveling. The verdict is that staying in the guest rooms of locals through AirBnB saved us money and helped us have a wonderful time. You don’t have to plan out every second of your trip, but a little homework really pays off.
