I spent a considerable amount of time planning this trip and the result was a very satisfying itinerary.
The first thing to do in planning a trip is to prioritize your goals. To me, the order is 1) safety, 2) cost, 3) content and 4) comfort. Because I care about safety, I ruled out the much-recommended option of taking night trains, which also increased comfort. Because I care about cost, I chose to stay in hostels, instead of hotels, whenever I could. Because I like art museums more than night clubs, I kept a tight daytime schedule while reserving most nighttime for sleep/recovery.
Next I had to decide where I would visit in this trip and how. Use maps from here to help you decide. There were two cities I wouldn't miss for the world: Paris and Roma. So I reserved four and three days, respectively. Then I tried to cram as many cities as possible in between. The main means of transportation was, of course, by train because of its great convenience and low cost. But when I needed to cover a long distance like from Roma to Bruxelles, I would take a flight to save time, the scarcest resource. For train tickets, RailEurope is the one-stop gateway for all your needs. But do check out individual country and/or rail company's website for specials and promotions.
One of the most frequently asked question about travel in Europe is whether to buy a railpass or not. Depends on your itinerary, a railpass may or may not save you money. Here is a great site for you to make an informed decision. For my trip, it turned out that I'd be better off with point-to-point tickets. I bought some of my tickets in advance either to make a tight connection or to take advantage of some promotions.
Then it's time to book hostels. Good hostels offer great value in terms of comfort-to-cost ratio and are sold out very fast. They are usually located right in the city to save you a lot of time and transportation cost. My favorite website is HostelWorld for its low booking fee and good one-page printout, which contains the vital information of how to reach the hostel from the train station. If I can't find a bed there, I would check out HostelBookers and Gomio. If I am unlucky and can't find any decent hostels, I would try something like RatesToGo for a deeply discounted hotel room.
For general backpacking trip tips, see this. The three most important things for a backpacking trip are "Travel light!", "Travel light!" and "Travel light!" Use your judgement in unpopulated places and assume it is *unsafe* to put anything valuable in a hostel.
For museum hopping, check out their websites to see if there are any free admission days to take advantage of. Buy tickets in advance for popular museums to save precious time, even at some costly fee.
For visa application tips, read instructions on the embassy's website very carefully and prepare accordingly. To save some bucks on photo, try this.
That's all, my friends. Hope it helps and have a nice trip!
-Fin-
The first thing to do in planning a trip is to prioritize your goals. To me, the order is 1) safety, 2) cost, 3) content and 4) comfort. Because I care about safety, I ruled out the much-recommended option of taking night trains, which also increased comfort. Because I care about cost, I chose to stay in hostels, instead of hotels, whenever I could. Because I like art museums more than night clubs, I kept a tight daytime schedule while reserving most nighttime for sleep/recovery.
Next I had to decide where I would visit in this trip and how. Use maps from here to help you decide. There were two cities I wouldn't miss for the world: Paris and Roma. So I reserved four and three days, respectively. Then I tried to cram as many cities as possible in between. The main means of transportation was, of course, by train because of its great convenience and low cost. But when I needed to cover a long distance like from Roma to Bruxelles, I would take a flight to save time, the scarcest resource. For train tickets, RailEurope is the one-stop gateway for all your needs. But do check out individual country and/or rail company's website for specials and promotions.
One of the most frequently asked question about travel in Europe is whether to buy a railpass or not. Depends on your itinerary, a railpass may or may not save you money. Here is a great site for you to make an informed decision. For my trip, it turned out that I'd be better off with point-to-point tickets. I bought some of my tickets in advance either to make a tight connection or to take advantage of some promotions.
Then it's time to book hostels. Good hostels offer great value in terms of comfort-to-cost ratio and are sold out very fast. They are usually located right in the city to save you a lot of time and transportation cost. My favorite website is HostelWorld for its low booking fee and good one-page printout, which contains the vital information of how to reach the hostel from the train station. If I can't find a bed there, I would check out HostelBookers and Gomio. If I am unlucky and can't find any decent hostels, I would try something like RatesToGo for a deeply discounted hotel room.
For general backpacking trip tips, see this. The three most important things for a backpacking trip are "Travel light!", "Travel light!" and "Travel light!" Use your judgement in unpopulated places and assume it is *unsafe* to put anything valuable in a hostel.
For museum hopping, check out their websites to see if there are any free admission days to take advantage of. Buy tickets in advance for popular museums to save precious time, even at some costly fee.
For visa application tips, read instructions on the embassy's website very carefully and prepare accordingly. To save some bucks on photo, try this.
That's all, my friends. Hope it helps and have a nice trip!
-Fin-
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