QUESTION ABOUT BACKPACKING THROUGH EUROPE?

Question

My friend and i are going to go backpacking through europe next summer but we need to figure out roughly how much money this is going to cost us individually,,,

im wondering where the hostils are and what if there isnt a hostil in the place i am supposed to be staying in?

Would it be beter to rent a car for 3 months or just buy a eurorail pass?

i found this peice of information while i was looking into passes::

Visit up to 20 European countries (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland).

Choose from 15 or 21 days or one, two and three month trips. Travel days are consecutive - if you don't use a day on the train, you lose it.

i dont fully understand what this means. Does this mean that the pass is good everyday for 3 months? can you use this pass more than once a day?

What does it mean "you lose it" ? does that mean the entire pass cancels out and it doesnt work anymore?

please try to answer all of my questions but thanks a billion for anyone who answers any of them!!

Answer 1

"My friend and i are going to go backpacking through europe next summer but we need to figure out roughly how much money this is going to cost us individually,,,"

Budget US $75 per day each, not including your flight to Europe.

"im wondering where the hostils are and what if there isnt a hostil in the place i am supposed to be staying in?"

Hostels in Western Europe charge anywhere from $15-30 per person per night.  They usually have rooms with bunk beds - anywhere from 4-10 people per room.  Most hostels have a common room, and some of them also have a small bar, and often the staff can arrange tours for you.  Hostels are a good place to meet other travelers, but you don't get any privacy, and if you're not a sound sleeper there can be noise problems with people coming and going at all hours of the night.

Most large cities or tourist towns have multiple hostels and there's no problem finding a room even at the last minute, in the summer, but in the rare case that there's no hostel or the hostels are all full, you can find a cheap hotel.  Hostels are cheaper than cheap hotels for single travelers, but with two people it costs about the same and you get a lot more privacy.  The only places in all of Europe where I ever had trouble finding a hostel were in Spain, and there are a lot of cheap hotels in all large Spanish cities.

"Would it be beter to rent a car for 3 months or just buy a eurorail pass?"

Definitely don't rent a car.  The car rental and gas are much more expensive than taking the train, and parking can be very difficult in the larger cities.  Also, you will have a hard time finding your way around strange cities by car.  The only time you would want to rent a car is if you want to tour small towns in the countryside in an area with little public transportation.

"i dont fully understand what this means. Does this mean that the pass is good everyday for 3 months? can you use this pass more than once a day?"

If you buy a 21-day pass, once you activate it, it is valid for the next 21 days (i.e. not like 21 different days over a one year period).  If you activate it August 1, you can use it as many times as you want until August 22.

"What does it mean "you lose it" ? does that mean the entire pass cancels out and it doesnt work anymore?"

No - if you use the pass on August 1, and don't use it on August 2, you don't lose the pass, it's still good until August 22.  But you don't get an extra day because you didn't use the pass on August 2 - you lose that one day of the 21-day pass.

Answer 2

Hey, I can't help you with your questions, but I want to recommend a hostel in Berlin. I was there last week and it is not expensive, pretty much in the center of the city, very clean and the staff is helpful. It's the hostel "Singer109".

http://www.singer109.com/

I found this hostel when I was searching on this website:

http://www.hostels.com/

Good luck with the preparations ;)

Answer 3

Train pass:  Much less complicated than you are making it.  If you buy a three month pass, you start it on, say the first of June, and it runs out on the last day of August.  That's all.

Yes, you can use it more than once a day.  You can take overnight trains, and save on lodging.  You can stop in a town, and then change your mind about it, and hop on another train out of there.  

Don't worry about the rest of the wording.  They send you a list of countries, and a map.

The only thing to know is that they often require you to reserve a seat, nowadays, and there are surcharges on a lot of the more popular routes, so you want to figure that in, too.

Also.  DO NOT.  I repeat DO NOT rent a car.  You will do nothing but drive around in circles, it will cost you an arm and a leg!  And you will wind up lost more often than not.  That is NOT how to backpack through Europe, and you do not want the responsibility!

Youth Hostels.  Just check this out:  http://www.international-youth-hostels.c...  You buy a membership on the first night that you stay in them, and you use it for up to a year.  It gets you the best prices per bed.

If there is no youth hostel, you stay in an ordinary hostel or hotel.  No big deal.

Best thing to do is sit down with your friend, and decide WHAT you want to do and WHERE you want to go, and how long you want to stay in each place.  Make a rough itinerary, and start planning from there.  

There are some places where the Youth hostels may seem unreasonably far from everything (I felt that way about Paris) or they are out of the way PLUS no more reasonable than the places in town (that used to be the case in Spain, though the cost factor has changed).  In such cases, you just stay someplace in the center of town that isn't terribly expensive.  You'll quickly figure out how to locate such places.  

Let's Go Europe used to be the bible of backpackers.  Full of good ideas for places to go and things to see, places to eat cheaply, and well, and where to stay.  Go to a bookstore and flip through a copy.  If you think it's still a valid book, buy two copies!!!  (one for each of you...you will want to refer back, and check your pencillings in years to come).

Use common sense, and have fun!

It'll probably be one of the best adventures of your youth!

Oh, and figure on somewhere between $10,000 and 15,000.  You have to check out websites to figure it out best...how much is the train pass?  Airfares?  lodging?

Answer 4

Ok, for the passes, it means that you can travel for 15 (or 21) days during the period you are buying it. This means that, for example, you can only travel 21 days out of that three-month period. If you plan to use the pass for one day, it means you have the right to travel during that whole day, unlimited number of trains. After that day, you will have to use another day of your pass. Watch out with overnight trains, I'm not quite sure how do they count days on them, but just make sure of that.

Make sure that the places included in your pass are places of your interest. You might find cheaper combinations if you do some flights and specific rail passes for precise regions.

What I also did was flying: Low Cost airlines rock!!! Look at the page that I'm citing, and you can find all the low cost carriers in europe with fares. Really cheap, fast, and convenient. Hostels, well, there's a lot of pages, but I used the one that I'm citing. Convenient too.

ENJOY! :D

Answer 5

Just to clarify the whole 15-21 day rail pass thing...

There are two kinds of passes: the unlimited pass, and the "flexi" (or other similar names).  You purchase it according to what you need and what you want to pay.

The flexi-pass allows you to pick certain days on which you want to travel.  Ex: over the space of 6 weeks, you can pick 15 travel days.  (So it's really not all that "flexi.")

The unlimited pass is just what it says - 1, 2, or 3 months of unlimited travel on any day from day 1 to the end.  This is your best bet.  Which one you buy just depends on how long you'll be traveling.

Once you validate your pass on the first day, all you'll have to do is show it to the conductor, no matter how many trains you get on that day.  (But as I think someone else said, you may need to pay for reservations on certain trains.)

Answer 6

If you don't use it one day, it is just saying that you can't add a day to your trip just because you didn't use it. You can use the pass as many times in a day as you want to, and it is good for three months. As for Hostels, you're bound to find somewhere to stay in every place you go, or at least near that place, just ask the locals when you are there. If you figure out the cost and the places ahead of time, it's not called backpacking, it's just called vacationing. The whole point is to avoid having to plan. Just know how much money you'll have, and make sure you don't go over it.