I need help planning a trip to europe?

Question

i am planning a trip to Europe, it's going to be very far off probably a year or so. I was wondering if anyone could give me a ballpark figure on how much it would cost. Its me and two friends spending 14 days. our plan is to travel across Europe. the plan is to hit Ireland, Scotland, England, France,Amsterdam,Germany,Italy,turkey,Ko… and end up in Moscow. I know it will be expensive, but its a once in a lifetime deal. any help would be appreciated

Answer 1

Best Answer - Chosen by Voters

Aine gives you a lot of good advice.
I will add some practical details.

The rail pass for non Europeans is called Eurail, and is good if you spend more time on the train than off it. If you are traveling 14 days and want to be in all the countries you mention, it might be worth it.
I rather cut down on countries and spend more time in the ones I'd visit.
You can find more info on the rail passes and their alternatives on the site of the man in seat sixty-one:
http://www.seat61.com/Railpass.htm

You can work out travel times with the German rail planner in English:
http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.e…

For traveling in a normal speed, about 2 days per city, you will need at least $US100 per person per day, on top of that will come your long distance flight, from the USA that should be about $1000, it can be much less if you search well, but more is not hard either. And your rail pass, or long distance rail tickets. See the seat 61 site for details on that. And remember that exchange rates change all the time and may be better or worse by the time you travel.

I see you have plans for 9 countries, maybe even more as Yahoo cuts out if 'words' get too long and your list of countries got cut.
To see a city you need several days, to get just a taste you need at least a few hours. And traveling from one city to the next will take at least half a day, even with overnight trains you will mostly lose half a day and can not really be in more than one country per day of travel, even when you spend every night, the whole night in a train.
And flying is not going to save you time, as an one hour flight mostly cost 5 hours, with travel to the airport and back to the center of the city.

Realistically you can see 3 countries, 5 cities and a few villages in 2 weeks, if you spend your time very economic and just travel through several countries with no more than a coffee stop when changing trains, you can do as many countries as you have on your list, but not these, as travel from Italy to Turkey to Moscow is going to cost you almost 10 days in the most economical surface travel. Flying would be faster, but not cheap at all.
And traveling that way you will only remember the insides of the trains and/or airports, so it is no use to make all those miles.

Better select 3 countries and spend 5 days in each. 3 in the capital city and 2 more in a smaller city or village. That way you will remember where you have been.
Leave the one country per day kind of travel for people trying to set a record, not for a once in a lifetime deal.

Source(s):

I travel often, in Europe and farther from home. Even with a slower speed of travel I do mix the different cities and only the breaks in the countryside allows me to tell them apart.

Answer 2

All of those places in 14 days? Are you nuts? Do you not realise the distances you will be travelling?

Sweetheart, Amsterdam is a city, the rest are countries. If it's dope you're after, you can get it just as well anyplace in Europe. It's equally illegal everywhere, including in Amsterdam. Ask a native Dutch person.

Here's what I suggest: in 14 days you can visit EITHER Britain, Ireland, the Netherlands (where Amsterdam is located) OR Germany, the Netherlands and France OR Italy and Turkey OR Turkey and Moscow.

No point in laying out all that money if you're rushing so much you don't actually see any of those places. Slow it down and see and experience more.

Answer 3

where are you coming from? which city do you plan to fly into? There are some European airlines that are very cheap and will get you from city to city in Europe. I would say a few thousand, but this greatly depends on how you plan to budget you money.

Answer 4

If you are looking at 14 days, Germany, France and Italy would be what best you can cover provided you spend two or three days each in Germany & France. and spend the rest of the 8 days in Italy. I had not been to Germany and only to Paris in France. But been around a lot in Italy. If you are interested in looking back into the history, Fly into Frankfurt by Lufthansa (assuming you from the US) or to Cologne and do a train journey between these two cities and go to Paris. Spend a few days visting Eiffiel Tower, Louvre, Notre Dame, Arc De triomphe and a few places around there. two days would be good enough for this. you can book your train tickets on http://eurorailways.com . this is a US based company and sends out your tickets.

fly easyjey to (http://easyjet.com) to Pisa . expect GBP 40 - 50 per head. rememebr to checkin online from 15 days to 4 hours prior to departure and get yur boiarding pass printed. or get a GBP 45 per person penalty to get yur boarding pass.

you can do local trains from pisa - florence-rome-venice-milan-zurich. try http://treinitalia.it for train tickets in italy and they are very cheap.

you can fly back from zurich though flights might be a bit expensive from here..

you should try http://hostelworld.com for cheap accomodation. its work doing a dorm if you looking at saving a few quids. privates with en-suites are avaiable on this site as well

good luck

Satya

Source(s):

personal experience

Answer 5

Try looking up all the cheap airlines to get an idea of how much your flights would cost. The main cheap ones we use in the UK are RyanAir and EasyJet, they go all over Europe. Try typing cheap airlines Europe into Google and see what you get. Each country has their own one, like German Wings..(can't remember any more) or try Skyscanner website, it checks them all for you.
A lot of people go 'interrailing' which is get a cheap train ticket that covers certain countries in Europe that you can get for a limited period of time, like a month or 2 months, for different zones in Europe. That leaves you free to go where you want when you want. That's mainly for students/young people though (sorry I'm assuming you're one of those).
Depending on how much money you have - a lot of people stay in Youth Hostels, type Youth Hostelling international into a search engine to get their website. You can check out all their hostels online, and get the prices etc. Although they can sometimes be a bit manky, they are full of young people having a good time and travelling, and you can always get good advice from other people in the same boat as you on what to do where you are etc, from a social point of view they are brilliant (done that loads of times in various different European countries).
The Ryanair website has a link to accomodation, they do things which are better than youth hostels but also reasonably priced if you want something a bit better. I've used that a lot too and you get reviews etc on each place which are brilliant, I'd recommed that.
Another tip is that, especially if you're heading out East, getting the train can be better than flying in the sense that you see so much of the country from the windows that you'd never see otherwise. Eg when I was travelling through Germany from top to bottom, I saw lots of the fairytale castles you see in the picture books, and everywhere the small villages / bits of the centre of cities etc, and also you tend to get talking to people more on the train. Also, trains take you straight into the city centres which cheap airlines don't, it can be hassle getting to where you want to be with cheap airlines because the airports are all mainly miles away from the actual city and you spend hours getting buses / trains to where you want to be.
Good luck, I know you'll have an excellent time and - who cares about the money, you can always earn more money but the memories are something you'll always carry with you and you can't put a price on that.
Hope you have a brilliant time!

Source(s):

Been there done that and have all the happy memories some of the best times of my life.