Planning my first backpacking trip!!!!

[bananna94]

Hi! So I'm planning my first backpacking trip and need ALOT of advice and help. I'll be going for 3 months in spring 2010 (I know its kinda of far from now) and I will be traveling alone. I have a general idea of where I want to go but any recommendations would be great. I want to really experience the culture, see amazing things and meet new people. This is a list of places that I want to go to so far:

Italy: Rome, Capri, Venice, Cinque Terre, Florence, Milan, and Pisa
Greece: Athens, Mykonos
Spain: Barcelona
France: Paris
Netherlands: Amsterdam
England: London

Thanks!

[Eagle]

bananna94, first of all, welcome to the Boards! I have a few initial thoughts and questions regarding your planned trip.

All of the destinations you listed should certainly be possible in a three month trip. It would help to know a bit more about your interests and what parts of the "culture" you most want to see (Museums, Art galleries, night life, etc.)?

It would also help to know where you're from, as it would be easier to suggest a travel route. As usual, I'd recommend open-jaw flights for best efficiency. Also, were you planning to stay in Hostels, or a few budget Hotels as well?

You'll need to allocate more time for the larger cities (London, Paris, Rome) as there's a LOT to see. The normal "ballpark" recommendation here seems to be at least five days in each of those cities.

A few points about your visit to Capri. First of all, be sure you allow adequate funds in your budget as it can be expensive! At the least you'll need enough for the boats to and from the island and the trip to the Blue Grotto if you're interested in that. You can access boats to Capri from several ports. One point to mention is that the Funicular from Marina Grande up to the town can be very busy at times. That's not usually too much of a problem when arriving on Capri, as visitors normally have lots of time at that point. However, if there's a large queue for the trip down to the boats in the late afternooon, be sure you allow enough time so that you don't miss the last boat! That was the case when I was there in May, and I finally resorted to one of the open-top Taxis (a bit pricey, but it avoided the annoyance of a long wait and possibily missing the boat). If you want to visit Annacapri as well, be sure to plan the transportation and Bus times carefully. Were you planning to visit other areas of the Amalfi Coast (Positano, Sorrento), Naples or Pompeii when you're in that area?

I was a bit curious on your reasons for visiting Milano? Unless there's something there you specifically want to see (The Last Supper?), you might want to look at other more interesting areas (I noticed that none of the "hill towns" are on your list, such as Orvieto or Siena?). Also, if you're only going to Pisa to see the Leaning Tower, you only need to budget about half a day for that. Also, are there no cities in Germany or Switzerland that interest you?

You might want to check a few Guidebooks to get an idea on which sites (Museums, etc.) you most want to see in each city. As this is your first trip, I'd highly recommend reading Europe Through The Back Door, as it's an excellent resource for both trip planning as well as learning the best ways of travelling in Europe.

You mentioned this is your first Backpacking trip. If you haven't bought a Backpack yet, it's important to choose wisely. There's lots of information in the "Packing" section here, but if you have any specific questions, let us know.

I'm sure the others will have some comments for you as well.

Cheers!

[pointofnoreturn]

Nov 5, 2008 23:58:43 GMT -5 bananna94 said:

Hi! So I'm planning my first backpacking trip and need ALOT of advice and help. I'll be going for 3 months in spring 2010 (I know its kinda of far from now) and I will be traveling alone. I have a general idea of where I want to go but any recommendations would be great. I want to really experience the culture, see amazing things and meet new people. This is a list of places that I want to go to so far:

Italy: Rome, Capri, Venice, Cinque Terre, Florence, Milan, and Pisa
Greece: Athens, Mykonos
Spain: Barcelona
France: Paris
Netherlands: Amsterdam
England: London

Thanks!

If you are going during the Spring season, it would be wise to have Greece at the end of your trip as the islands don't really open up till end of April to end of May. The best time to visit Greece is May and June as the ferries will start running on regular schedules.

It's just a question of organizing the cities in way that fits according to the season so you can get the most out of it. You'll be spending most of your time in Italy obviously so that would be lovely. Some people question Milan but if you are an art fanatic, then it's not to be missed as it is the home to the Duomo and Last Supper painting. Totally worthwhile although one night was enough for me.

Maybe you can put Italy before Greece as part of your schedule. There are budget flights flying out of Rome and Milan that go directly to Athens. I've ended my Italy trips with Milan because it was convenient and I flew to Athens from there. So an order could be Rome-(Capri)-Rome-Florence/Cinque Terre/Pisa-Venice-Milan...

I dunno, you still have lots of time so maybe going through some of the older threads would be useful to find out how many days to allocate to each place would be a good start....

[bananna94]

Thanks for the advice!

I definitely want to visit other countries as well but need some recommendations. For what I'm interested in...I pretty much want to see a little bit of everything. I'm not really into museums but I do want to go to the really famous ones. I want to see some of the music scene and the nightlife, architecture, beaches/costal towns, beautiful scenery, see the non-touristy part of the country, maybe do a little hiking, etc... My plans are very flexible at this point and I'm up for any suggestions.

I plan on staying in mostly budget hostels. I was thinking about getting a rail pass for getting from city to city.
Oh yea..and I'll be flying out of Washington D.C.

[Eagle]

bananna94, a few additional thoughts....

With three months to travel, you should definitely be able to visit other countries and cities. A few suggestions would be Germany (Berlin, Munich), Czech Republic (Prague), Hungary (Budapest), Belgium (Brugge and/or Brussels) or Switzerland (Gimmelwald and the Berner Oberland, a big favourite on the boards). There are also other areas in Spain that you may find interesting, but I'll leave recommendations on those to herrbert.

You didn't indicate whether you have read any Guidebooks on European travel? I would highly recommend that you have a look at Europe Through The Back Door, as it's an essential "pre-read" before travelling in Europe.

Cheers!

[herrbert]

If you have three months to spend in Europe, than I think only seeing Barcelona is far too little for a visit to Spain.

Take some extra days to see Madrid (talking about famous museums, we have two: the Prado and the Reina Sofia, both have free entrance on Sundays (till 14.30) by the way.) But of course there is muc more to see, and in spring the weather will be perfect for visits to Toledo and Segovia. In my opinion must-sees if you visit Madrid. Also Cuenca can be done as a daytrip but it takes longer to get there.

Also consider making a small tour through the country visiting the most familiar cities: Sevilla (beautiful Cathedral and Alcazar, good nightlife: catch a flamenco show there in the old jewish quarter). Off course visit Granada, and maybe Spain's most famous site of all: the Alhambra. At least take 4 days to visit Madrid and at least 2 for Sevilla and Granada.

Off course there are more places to mention (Cordoba, Valencia, Cadiz, San Sebastian, Santiago), but for a first visit this will be a nice tour to get to know Spain a little bit. If you like it is also possible to get Portugal in the mix (Lisbon, Porto, Lagos), but it depends on how much time you want to spend in Spain and Portugal.