50 days backpacking itinerary

[amylkie]

Hello everyone,

I'm new here-just stumbled on this site whith such amazing advice!

My boyfriend and I are heading to Europe for 50 days next summer (May-June 2010) and would follow this itinerary (every line= a day).

Depart Montreal arriving Dublin
Dublin
Dublin (day tour of Wicklow mountains and Glendalough)
Dublin (half day trip to Howth) train to Galway
Galway
Galway (Cliffs of Moher)
Galway (Aran Islands)
Travel Day to London
(Here I have two choices: flight to London from Galway with Aer arann or train back to Dublin to catch a flight to London
I didn't find many flights from Galway and a return train ticket Dublin-Galway-Dublin is cheap )
London
London
London
Train or flight to Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam (cycling day tour to the countryside)
Train to Bruges early morning
Bruges
Train or bus to Paris (staying at a friend's house for the week)
Paris
Paris
Paris
Paris (Versailles)
Paris
Paris-flight to Rome
Rome
Rome (Vatican)
Rome
Rome-Early train to Cinque Terre
Cinque Terre
Train back to Rome to catch a flight to Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona (Sitges or Monserrat)
Flight to Granada
Granada
Granada
Train to Seville
Seville
Seville
Seville
Train or bus to Cordoba
Cordoba-late train or bus to Madrid
Madrid
Madrid (Toledo)
Madrid(Segovia)
Flight back to Montreal!

For a total of 50 days

I'm having trouble trying to plan according to our budget, about 5000$ canadian dollars each, minus 1000$ for transatlantic airfare. Which means 80$ per day,only 52 euros a day each, based on 50 days...ouch.

To have 75 euros a day, we'd have to cut travel days to 34-35.

We will sleep in hostel dorms, prepare our own food most of the time, and couchsurf maybe (probably in London where we'd do mostly free activities).

So... is this itinerary doable? What should I cut to stick to the budget? Going to Galway and Cinque Terre involve some backtracking, so maybe remove those... but it breaks my heart. I'll see what you have to suggest...

Thanks a lot for your advice!!!

[herrbert]

I think that this looks very well planned. There are always suggestions to be made for other destinations (like in Ireland Dublin or Killarney), but if you are happy with this I wouldn't change too much.

I would make one small change in Spain. If you take the train at around 10 a.m. in Granada, you are in Sevilla around lunch/siesta, which allows you more or less a half day of exploring. When you do it like that than 2,5 days is enough, and I would leave one day earlier than planned, and stick that day to Madrid. Because you have two daytrips planned from here, you might find that time is running out in Madrid.

Sometimes a little bit of back tracking can't be avoided, and when it saves you money it's not such a big deal. For a flight to London, you can check out flights from Shannon, which is a bit south of Galway. Maybe it means altering your initerary a little bit, but maybe that's possible. (spending a bit of time in Kerry, and less around Galway.)

I would suggest that you try to raise a little bit more money. 52 euros a day is not much with all the traveling that is planned. At least have some back-up funds in case it turns out too little. As you have until next year to save, it must be possible to come up with ways to raise the budget a bit.

[amylkie]

Thank you herrbert!

I see there are very cheap flight between Shannon and London Heathrow with Aer Lingus if I book in advance, and it's easy to get to Shannon from Galway by bus for 10-16 euros (with bus Eirann or Citylink). So a detour to Shannon is definitely a great idea!!!!! Backtracking to Dublin didn't please me much. Great tip.

As for Madrid, I once ended up there to take a flight and stayed 2 days, but I must say I didn't really like it... Maybe it was because it wasn't a planned trip (I didn't know much about the place) and that my bank account was frozen for most of the time (this happened to me twice in Spain! aaaargh).
I loved Toledo though. So I'm giving Madrid one day for the main museums, a stroll through the city and a bit of partying at night, the rest being for Toledo and Segovia. But I might still take out a day in Seville to help cut travel days.

I'll have backup money for sure, and I'll save more in the year to come to have a more comfortable budget. I'll also probably book most transportation for the first part of the trip (let's say from Dublin to Amsterdam) in advance to reduce travel costs, leaving us more flexibility for the rest.

Thanks a million! This forum's great, I'll tell my friends to come here for advice to plan their trips...

[herrbert]

If you have already seen a bit Madrid, I can imagine that you don't need all the time here.

And if you give her a chance the city starts to grow on you.

[amusedcoconut]

This might be irrelevant, but trains in Ireland are known to be quite a rip-off and buses tend to be cheaper if you can spare the time. I suppose another pro of taking the bus is that you would drive through all the towns in the Midlands as opposed to a couple of hours of cows (though you'll get those on the bus too! There is a journey planner on www.buseireann.ie (for trains it's http://www.iarnrodeireann.ie).
I wouldn't have thought that Howth merited a day trip... Galway / The Burren / Cork are always popular tourist destinations, as well as Wexford in the South East which is much closer to Dublin. Alternatively Wicklow (Glendalough perhaps) - Wexford/Waterford - Cork - Shannon could be quite scenic!

On other topics in London I would highly recommend The British Museum (think it's free), Tate Modern, the V&A, Science Museum (right across the road, pretty sure both are free), and the Tower of London. Obviously this isn't ground-breaking stuff, just ones i particularly enjoyed.

Barcelona is one of my favourite cities! Anything Gaudi will be great, though they're expensive to visit- just do not miss the Sagrada Familia! In Madrid I have pleasant memories of the whole area around the Plaza Mayor, and of course the Reina Sofia and the Prado.

Good luck!