9 countries, 42 days (Itinerary for Europe!)
 

Hi guys,

I'm finally getting my act together and taking a break as I planned to months ago.... in August! I just made an itinerary (its 5am... productive sleepless night!:mf_w00t2:) and would be grateful for general pearls of wisdom or any form of love/abuse/opinions/ridicule/etc from some seasoned travellers. I'm flexible when it comes to adding/subtracting days to whatever. See what you think...

Rome - 5 days
Venice - 2 days
Vienna - 3 days
Dubrovnik - 4 days
Budva - 4 days
Belgrade - 2 days
Budapest - 5 days
Krakow - 4 days
Prague - 5 days
Berlin - 5 days (including a day trip to Dresden.. feasible? Always wanted to go ever since I read slaughterhouse 5!!!)
Bruges - 2 days
Brussels - 1 day
London - HOME!

Does this even make sense?? Any cities I should try and add? Also, any advice on factoring in travel time between cities? (besides time=distance/speed, duh:lol:). With about 30 euros per day (excluding travel), think I can make this happen?

This looks pretty feasible. I see you've allotted 5 days to the fabbbbb Budapest. Make sure you check in with the boards so you can stay in my hostel in Budapest (opening soon). :cheers:

Hi sampy,

My main comment regards what you mentionned yourself: traveltime between cities. You need to count a whole day, which will take out a few days of your plan as far as visiting in concerned.

Night train is a good way to save on travel time, but it is exhausting so count on this solution only for one or two times. I'm thinking to get to Budapest, or between Prague and Berlin would be good options for night train.

Dresden might be a bit off to make it a daytrip. Why not stop over on your way to Berlin ?

Budget wise, 30 Euros is pretty tight ! Western Europe requires around 75, depending on how much you fancy museums, restaurants and bars.... In Central/Eastern Europe, you get your way with 40-50 Euros.

Will you get a europass to travel ?

I spent 4 days in Krakow and was bored to tears, even after a day trip to Oswecim to see Auschwitz... but perhaps that was just me...

Elizabeth, yeee heard good things about Budapest! Whens your hostel opening??

Esterina, thanks for the heads up about Dresden!
And ye, I have considered travel times... Since I'm not sure how long it may take to get between places it's hard to figure out exactly what I should factor in! Is there anywhere I can find that stuff out?
And the 30 euros was suggested by a friend. I see how it may work if I wanted a suuuper budget trip but I don't think I can do that to myself haha!

I'm definitely going to get a interrail pass. I'm trying to get my head around it but to no avail! Since I'm going for over a month will I need to get 2 passes?

Hmm..

General rule of thumb is trains in the Balkans are slow as hell and sometimes the bus is better. In fact I believe Croatia does not have a well developed train infrastructure so its probably a train to Zagreb then a bus to Dubrovnik.

Rome - Venice ...half to a full day depending on if you want the fast train or the slow train...you can see the times on the trenitalia website

venice - vienna...night train

vienna - dubrovnik...maybe a train plus bus

dubrovnik - budva...judging by the map, half a day

budva - belgrade....seems like a night train or night bus

belgrade - budapest...7 hours...can be done in the day or night

budapest - krakow...I recommend the bus...its cheaper and faster, but can be done on the train

krakow - prague...night train but may also be cheaper/faster by student agency bus

prague - berlin...can be done in half a day

berlin - brugges...unsure but I think this is a night train

brugges - brussels...a few hours

brussels - london...If you're doing the eurostar thats like 3 hours

Hopefully my hostel will be open sometime btwn the middle of May to the beginning of June. I will keep you and the boards updated. Lets just say the property I have lined up is pretty sweet :mf_w00t2:

^^^and to the travel time, you need to add the time you take to pack, check out, get to the train station ahead of departure; then arrival, getting to the hostel...

That's why you kind of waste a day, even for a travel that lasts only 3-4 hours. So you just need to take this into account when you build your itinerary.

Great selections of places btw !

You can do nice daytrips around Prague and of course visit Auschwitz from Krakow.

Don't know about the pass, sorry, I've never used one.