Need advice for our backpacking trip through Europe.

[abentwookie]

After we finish college, Sean and I plan to spend around a year back-packing through Europe and recently we decided to start planning our trip early. Right now we are working on the logistics. We want to get a general idea about which cities we want to visit, how we will get from place-to-place, how much money we will need, etc... If anyone has backpacked around Europe or lives there and has any advice, feel free to speak up.

We already have a general idea of the main countries and cities we want to see.

* We want to visit the United Kingdom Glasgow, Liverpool and London are on our list.

* I want to spend a pretty decent amount of time in France.

* We want to visit the Netherlands, beginning with Amsterdam. No, we don't want to go there for weed. I want to see the canals, museums and Vondelpark. We also want to stop in Apeldoorn and visit the Monkey sanctuary. Monkeys are free to roam around the park and interact with people so this could be very awesome.

* We want to stop in Germany along the way and Berlin seems like the best place to visit.

* Prague is on the list as well. I want to see the architecture and visit the museums and Prague Castle, among other things.

* We want to visit Hungary (Budapest) briefly.

* I definitely want to see Athens, Greece.

* From there we will fly to Naples, Italy. This is the country where we will be spending a two or three months because there are several cities I want to visit, such as Rome, Manorola, Florence, Venice and Burano.

* Spain (Barcelona and Madrid) is also on the list. The last stop on our trip will be Madrid. I have relatives who live nearby in Toledo so we will stay with them while we're seeing the city.

There is one specific problem we have encountered when researching this trip. The U.K. only seems to allow you to stay for 90 days before you have to wait 180 days to come back. This seems like a ridiculous law because it makes backpacking through Europe extremely difficult if you want to see multiple countries. Unless you only spend like a few days in each city of course. We're looking into ways (legal) around this so if anyone has advice, feel free to let me know. :|

As far as the budget is concerned, my parents are paying for our tickets to Europe and giving us some extra money as a graduation gift so we should have a pretty decent budget. However, we are still going to try to find ways to cut some expenses. A friend recommended Work Away as a option so I was curious to see what people think about something like this. I'm not sure if this is a viable option (depends on a few other factors) yet but I'm looking into it.

http://www.workaway.info/

This seems like a potentially good opportunity for an interesting work experience and to help reduce some of the cost for our trip. A lot of hosts seem to be looking for couples and offer a place to stay. I thought maybe we could do something like this a few times during our trip. I'll admit I am a little wary about this though.

We're also looking for interesting attractions that aren't as well-known as the main tourist spots. We want to see as much as possible while we are there.

[Minimalist]

Make sure you bring a bee keeper suit



in case you wind up in one of those muslim no-go zones that FOX is always yammering on about.

[Nope]

Would hostels be an option for you? There is a website called, I think, Hostelworld that lists different hostels and their reviews.

Southeast Asia is supposed to be inexpensive.

Please start a blog so that those of us who want to travel can get some ideas from your experiences.

[Neo-Scholastic]

My advice is to please do everyone a favor and actually bathe. In my travels, every post-college European backpacker smells to high heaven.

[Marsellus Wallace]

cuz the Euro is cheap now ? Oh you

[Ravenshire]

There is one specific problem we have encountered when researching this trip. The U.K. only seems to allow you to stay for 90 days before you have to wait 180 days to come back.

(emphasis is mine)

Did you mean E.U? Because I don't think the rest of Europe would give a crap about a U.K. rule like that.

[abentwookie]

My advice is to please do everyone a favor and actually bathe. In my travels, every post-college European backpacker smells to high heaven.

Sounds like my trips to San Diego Comic Con every year.I always get stuck in line behind someone who hasn't bathed in three weeks. Don't worry, we both bath daily.

Would hostels be an option for you? There is a website called, I think, Hostelworld that lists different hostels and their reviews.

Southeast Asia is supposed to be inexpensive.

Please start a blog so that those of us who want to travel can get some ideas from your experiences.

We already plan to do a blog and video updates as much as possible. Yeah, we will probably stay in some hostels in several of the countries to cut expenses a bit.

Make sure you bring a bee keeper suit



in case you wind up in one of those muslim no-go zones that FOX is always yammering on about.

Considering that I am allergic to bee stings, that would probably be a good idea for me in general.

---

There is one specific problem we have encountered when researching this trip. The U.K. only seems to allow you to stay for 90 days before you have to wait 180 days to come back.

(emphasis is mine)

Did you mean E.U? Because I don't think the rest of Europe would give a crap about a U.K. rule like that.

lol Yes, I meant to say E.U. I don't get it. I could understand having a 90 day rule for individual countries but not the E.U. as a whole. That makes touring Europe extremely difficult unless you want to rush through it.

[rexbeccarox]

I found this website; the article I linked is about loopholes in the Schengen region to help you extend your stay. Looks like a pretty good travel blog, too.

I was thinking also: I wonder what would happen if you left the Schengen region for another country for a small time, and then went back in; it might just start your 90 days over. I did that when I was living in Australia and wanted to extend. I would have been able to do that for a year. I think it's like that if you fly into France.

[Alex K]

I've never done it on that scale, but it sounds very exciting!

[pocaracas]

What? No Portugal? Geez....

---

Lisbon:





Tomar:



Porto:

And that's just a sample

---