Couple Traveling

[Frizzle]

Hey quick question from an inexperienced traveler. My wife and I, we're 23, are thinking about spending a several months, 6 or so, backpacking through europe. Are there special considerations we need to be aware of?

Are private rooms difficult to come by in Hostels? Will we be able to save money that way or will it be more expensive? Have any of you also traveled with your spouse and have some advice? We're newly married and want to experience some of the world together.

Thanks!

[jennifer]

Well, I think Kim would be the best to answer this question, she'll surely pop in soon!

[Kim]

Here I am!

Yes, private rooms are very difficult to come by in a hostel - you will need reservations. The reason behind this is most hostels only have a couple private rooms, if any.

For the most part, it will be more expensive for you to do it this way as opposed to two dorm beds. In some places like Prague or parts of Spain, it might work out to be the same so you will need to do your research before hand.

If you do want to stay in private rooms, I suggest you have an intinary and not wing it. We started out trying to wing it and quickly had to change to an intinary in order to get any cheap double rooms anywhere.

I travelled for 7 months with my now husband (we weren't married then) and let me tell you, it's EXPENSIVE. Just know going into it that it will probably be the same as a downpayment on a house for the two of you to travel for 6 months in Europe. If you are OK with that, then that's cool.

Kim

[WillTravel]

I concur with Kim, although I have not visited hostels with my husband, but have with our kids. I have on occasion tried six months in advance and not succeeded in getting a private room.

A hostel that has private rooms is giving up extra dorm beds. So typically a private double room for two will cost about the same as three or four dorm beds (the ratio varies, but this is close). And a private room in a hostel typically has two twin beds, not a double bed, which is great when traveling with kids, but not for most romantic couples.

In some cities, you may be able to get a hotel room for the same price or cheaper than a hostel double room, but these places often fill up quickly too. There are some cheap hotel bargains to be had away from major cities. And from what I've read, there are cheap bargains in eastern Europe and Turkey.

On the other hand, if you are really interested in major western European cities (I certainly am), I wouldn't cut them off your itinerary just because the lodging is more expensive. I personally would prefer a shorter trip where I got to see the places that are of most interest to me.

[dougj]

hey, I just came back from a month honeymooning in europe. we mostly stayed in hotels and paid between 40 and 60 euro a night for a double private room (shared bathroom most of the time), except for venice where there was a film fest we didn't know about (sent the prices sky high). the way we did it was we booked online a couple days before we left each city. there were a couple of times we had to stay in a city because nothing was available in our price range but overall doing it that way worked out well. depending on where you're going you shouldn't have much trouble getting a double room.
my advice: bring a credit card (most sites won't let you book online without one), find out what's going on in the next city you're going to (any kind of special event can drive the prices up) and research research research. personally for me I don't think I could do 6 months, by the end of the month we were both starting to feel a bit dragged out.