zacr
Junior Travel Member
Posts: 1
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Post by zacr on Jul 8, 2008 13:41:23 GMT -5
Ok so me and my friend are planning a backpacking trip through Europe, we have no experiance backpacking and are looking for some help with our itenerary, like what we could to do make it cheaper, reduce travelling time, and spending the right amout of time in each country/city. Right now we are planning to go for one month, maybe longer if we can afford it, and plan our trip properly, so as of the moment we have choosen to go to these countries: England, France, Italy, Netherlands, Greece, Germany. The first four our definatly places we want to go, others we could do without. We were thinking of flying from Toronto (home), to do a roundtrip, England, France, Italy, Amsterdam. We Priced this out and it will only cost $2500 to fly to each city and home. Or would it be cheaper to fly to one place, then take a train around, or bus? If we do the rountrip we would be at each place for a week, in that week we would rent a car in some cities, or take a train, bus to go see all the smaller cities, for example fly to Rome then travel to Venice, Naples, etc. Is this a bad idea or should we look into flying to one place then then taking a train to the next country? I know Rail passes can get expensive. Hostels are easy enough to book and plan, what else should we consider? how much money should we expect to spend each day?( food, site seeing, entertainment, BEER yes we are going to party and have a good time). should we go into detail and plan day to day were we are going to be, or go to a main city and wing it.
Just give us some feedback and help us out
thanks
zac
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Post by pointofnoreturn on Jul 8, 2008 15:33:28 GMT -5
A good place to start would be to sift through posts in the Pre-Travel Planning and Post Your Itinerary forums to find itineraries you'd be happy with in an one-month frame.
Open jaw tickets are a good bet but sometimes doing a circular route is beneficial and can save you money so you'd only have to pay a round trip ticket. It depends though - when are you planning to travel? A good place to get open-jaw tickets at charter prices is Zoom Airlines. Google them if you haven't heard of them. I've used them with success and would gladly recommend them to anyone looking for budget options.
Keep in mind that you listed six countries in an one-month frame. If we knew when you were planning to go, we'd help you out more because certain countries aren't the best places to be at certain times of the year (i.e. Greece). I think for a starter trip, sticking to three or four countries would be better in an one-month frame.
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Post by herrbert on Jul 8, 2008 16:28:24 GMT -5
As PONR already told you, it would be good to know at what time of year you will be travelling.
Also you need to be more precise, when you say you want to visit England. For one person this will mean visit London, and continue, but for others visiting England, also includes visits to e.g Liverpool, Cornwall, Lake District (or some of the other destinations), the same for the other countries you listed. Only when you know where you want to go, you can decide how you need to get there.
Usually it will be a combination between Trains and Planes that make the best way to get around. my own general rule in this is, that if a journey by train takes more than 4-5 hours, I'll start to look for airlines.
As a budget count on about 70 euros a day a person, that you will need for hostel, food & drinks (if you party add more for drinking), attractions, and local transport. (metrotickets). Some countries are expensive others are still cheap(ish). Roughly the further South you go = cheaper, and the further East you go = cheaper. On top of this budget, you need a budget for transportation between the cities, which will depend on where you go, availability of cheap airlines etc.
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Post by pointofnoreturn on Jul 8, 2008 17:02:16 GMT -5
P.S. This thread should be directed to the Pre-Travel Planning forum... once an itinerary is written, it can be posted here  |
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Post by Eagle on Jul 8, 2008 17:42:00 GMT -5
PONR, good call! The Pre-Travel Planning section is more appropriate for this Thread at the moment. zacr, Welcome! I have a few comments and questions to add to the others. First, regarding flights. In addition to Zoom Airlines as PONR suggested, you might also look at Air Transat (another charter airline), as I believe they also operate out of Toronto. Occasionally, Air Canada has seat sales also, so be sure to check their web site or the travel section of the local papers. The most efficient travel method is to use "open jaw" flights - fly to one city and fly home from another. While the cost for these is often a bit higher than a normal "return" ticket, this avoids the time and expense of returning to your starting point so it's usually a better deal. You might want to speak with a travel agent for a more detailed explanation. As suggested previously, planning to visit six countries in a one month time frame is a bit "ambitious", to say the least. I'd suggest that you drop Greece this time, as it's a bit farther away from the other locations you'll be visiting so the time and cost to get there and return is a factor. With careful planning you should be able to visit one or two cities in each of the other countries you listed. It would help to have some idea on which cities you're most interested in seeing, and also what sights you're interested in (Museums, historic sites, etc.)? The "usual" method of travel for most of us is to use train or budget airlines (or Bus in some cases) to get around after arriving in Europe. You won't be able to plan your travel methods in any detail until you've decided on which order you're going to visit the various cities. In some cases a Rail pass is a good value, but that depends on circumstances. Once you've established a reasonably logical travel route, enter the details into www.railsaver.com and the web site will make an "educated guess" on which combination of Rail Pass and point-point tickets is the most cost effective. Be sure to allow adequate travel times between cities. Regarding your plans to "rent a car", that's not usually a good idea, as there are numerous potential problems. To begin with I believe most rental firms have restrictions on drivers less than 25 years old. There's also the issue of Collision Damage Waiver insurance, which can be expensive. Finally, some travellers in Italy have discovered the dreaded "Zona Traffico Limitato" zones, which use automated cameras to take a photo of license plates, and the drivers then receive a ticket in the mail a few months after they return home. Having a car in the larger cities (London, Paris, Rome) is most definitely not advisable (London has a "congestion charge", again using automated Cameras). I rent cars on occasion, but only for travel to very specific areas which aren't well served by public transit and where time is a factor. Once you have an approximate idea of which cities you want to visit, I'm sure the group here can help you work out the details. Cheers!
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jessus
Senior Travel Member
Posts: 63
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Post by jessus on Jul 16, 2008 23:48:28 GMT -5
Yipes! That's a big transportation cost. I'm just working on the plans for my own trip (and I'm also coming from Ontario), I'll let you know what my plans & costs were! ... all quoted in Canadian dollars!
#1: The Big Flight: I'm booked on Air Transat, flying from Toronto to London, then 2 months later back to Toronto from Dublin. This cost (all taxes and everything included) $835
--> Zoom has similar prices, as does Globe Span [though Globe Span leaves from Hamilton] - but note: I don't believe either of these has flights outside the May-October window.
#2: The Railpass: I'm getting a 5-country, 10 travel days in 2 months pass - since I'm under 26 years old this is $569
#3: Within Europe budget Flights - I booked 2 of my longer treks with one of the budget airlines in Europe (Ryanair)
- Rome to Barcelona: $85 (and that's including everything.. as long as my bag isn't too heavy... !)
- Paris to Dublin: $66 (also with everything)
In total, my costs werre $1555.... so with all my "big" transportation costs in there, it's still about $1000 less than you had originally planned!
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Post by herrbert on Jul 17, 2008 2:00:23 GMT -5
#3: Within Europe budget Flights - I booked 2 of my longer treks with one of the budget airlines in Europe (Ryanair) - Rome to Barcelona: $85 (and that's including everything.. as In that case also check on transportation, as the Ryanair flights don't go to Barcelona, but Girona. Add at least 1,5 hours extra travel time. |
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jessus
Senior Travel Member
Posts: 63
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Post by jessus on Jul 19, 2008 3:17:43 GMT -5
#3: Within Europe budget Flights - I booked 2 of my longer treks with one of the budget airlines in Europe (Ryanair) - Rome to Barcelona: $85 (and that's including everything.. as In that case also check on transportation, as the Ryanair flights don't go to Barcelona, but Girona. Add at least 1,5 hours extra travel time. Ooh. Thanks for that. I missed that bit. |
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Post by herrbert on Jul 25, 2008 11:36:01 GMT -5
In that case also check on transportation, as the Ryanair flights don't go to Barcelona, but Girona. Add at least 1,5 hours extra travel time. Ooh. Thanks for that. I missed that bit. If you booked Paris - Dublin on Ryanair, also check your transport to the "Paris" airport. It's a good two hours away. (they use Beauvais airport, and I wonder how anyone can call this Paris) |
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