planning for our first time backpacking

[keith]

Hi everyone I'm new here and my fiance and i are looking to go backpacking through Europe for at least two months. We don't really want to go with a tour we just want to do our own thing. just wondering how much this might be and what we would need to bring with us. any help would be awesome.

Thanks,
Keith

[herrbert]

You have to provide us with some more clues, before it will be possible to give something of an estimate.

Where do you come from? This has an impact on how much your intercontinental tickets will cost.

Where do you want to go and how to get there? Some countries are cheaper than others, other more expensive. Destinations closer together are usualy cheaper to connect to. (although if you go to take a flight, that's not always true!)

Where do you stay? Hotels, Hostels, B&B's? I can imagine that if you go with your fiance that you would like to have some privacy from time to time, and dorms are not what you want.

What do you want to see? Some sights you can visit for free, some are really expensive. At least create a budget for sightseeing.

Eating/Going out? Do you want to eat outside every day, or do you want to cook at the hostel? (if they provide a kitchen), and do you want to get a taste of the nightlife? (clubs, concerts, musicals, etc)

As you see a lot of things can influence the budget that you need. In the currency topic you will find a lof of discussions about money-issues, so take a look there, as well. In the end some people manage to travel around with 50-60 euros a day, and other don't have enough with a 100 euros.

[keith]

we would be traveling Colorado to Heathrow airport. we are hopefully planning on going to ireland for a few days then to England. Then from there to France,Germany,Italy, and greece. We would want to stay in hostels or B&Bs. The sights would be, well everything for i have not been to europe except when i was born in Germany and i do not remember anything of it lol. We would do a little of both eating out and cooking inside.

[WillTravel]

An open-jaw ticket, which is a ticket that lands in one city and departs from another, is probably what you want. Then you can do either train rides or flights between your destinations. Try different destinations for the cities, as it can make a big difference in price. You can then adjust your itinerary accordingly. Getting to/from Greece will likely be expensive. Here are some sites to consider:
www.bahn.de - the German train site, but it lists routes and schedules for most European trains
www.whichbudget.com - budget airline site. But remember that regular airlines can often have good prices too. Budget airfares can fluctuate considerably.