Okay, so I’m teaching this year which means I will have two months of summer holidays. I was thinking of doing the JET (Japan English Teaching) program but now I think I might hold out longer in my newfound job and travel during my summers. I’d love to hit Europe and do the backpacking thing. What do you need? How much does it cost for the Eurail pass? I’m sure it’s a good time. I’d budget 4-6 weeks of time there for myself. What experiences did you have?
If you are backpacking and staying at hostels, you can figure approximately $1,500 USD per six weeks (for lodging, eating and other expenses.)
The Eurail pass is not a must; it depends where you go–point-to-point might be more cost effective. Sometimes cheap flights work better. Regardless, if you do get a Eurail pass you have to purchase it before you leave.
You need a good backpack, good shoes and an adventurous attitude. A guidebook would not be amiss–at least look at one before you go. You need at least a vague itinerary.
Travelling solo is empowering; the experience of meeting locals in other countries as well as fellow travelers is incomparable. “Life-changing” is not too strong a word.
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Wow that sounds great… I just wish it were true.
I did the hostelling thing across Europe back in the last ice age (about 25 years ago, actually, when I was a student.)
It was fun, it was better than working at McDonalds and ,yes,it was more enriching than spending the same month visiting Yellowstone and Grand Canyon (which I had also considered). But life-changing is a bit over-dramatic.
Things were really really primitive back then.There was no internet , not even the Lonely Planet books. So I bought the Let’s Go guide and the "Europe On Twenty Dollars A Day " guidebook. And in each youth hostel, I found another 50 American/British/Australian kids with the same guidebooks. Total strangers, we shared experiences about good museums, great artwork, meaningful historical sites we had seen, and then quietly asked if anybody had any pot. Then 2 days later, grab a Eurail to the next city and do it all over again.
Do it!!! You won’t be sorry.
(But don’t expect to find the meaning of life, either)
How much you should budget depends on where you go – I’ve spent everything from $65 USD a day (Great Britain) to $25 (Bosnia-Herzegovina). In general, though, I’d suggest taking significantly more money than you think you’re going to need. Unexpected stuff happens, and if it doesn’t, it’s always nice to have those few extra Euros for a bottle of wine or a really nice meal.
Make sure you can make a Eurail pass pay before you buy one. I can’t stress this enough. Check the costs of point-to-point tickets on buses as well as trains.
Stuff to take: A week’s worth of socks and underwear; layerable clothing that doesn’t show the dirt easily; powdered laundry detergent in a tightly closed container; guidebook oriented toward budget travel (Let’s Go or Lonely Planet; travel journal; water bottle (incidentally, regardless of what anybody may tell you, the tap water is fine to drink).
Stuff not to take: Any shoes in which you cannot walk comfortably; large amounts of makeup / haircare products; anything that would be irreplaceable if you lost it.
Well, I guess you get out what you put in.
Following the backpack herd, drinking beer or toking on hash while perusing your Let’s Go is fun. I like to think that people who go on a backpacking trip might, in between the binge drinking and the doner kabobs, appreciate our planet, their place in it and Earth’s many other inhabitants just a bit more <cue Louis Armstrong’s Wonderful World> 
My first solo backpacking trip was about 25 years ago, too. I had spent the summer working in Spain and then traveled afterwords.
My life was probably not dramatically changed by my trip, but then I was a jaded airline brat who had been traveling basically since birth. That first trip certainly enriched my life.
For those who have never left their home country, perhaps never even left their state or region, attempting to speak/learn another language, navigating the Greek Islands, walking through Culloden or visiting Pompeii can be quite an enlightening experience.
Add an invitation to a English family’s home for dinner, Hogmanay in Edinburgh or a major soccer victory in Germany and you have unforgettable memories which can indeed change one’s attitude and perhaps even one’s life. YMMV
I’ve done it twice, but only for a month each time. The main lesson I learned from the first trip to the second is: only take a minimum of stuff with you. The first time I had a huge rucksack, packed to the gunwales with lots of extraneous clothing. Just take a good sturdy pair of boots (break them in first!), a pair of tennis shoes or sneakers, two or three pairs of combat trousers or cargo pants (don’t take jeans - they are heavy and take forever to dry), and enough socks, T-shirts and underwear to last you three days. You can always wash your smalls in a sink or in a shower every couple of days. Take one warm jacket (a fleece is ideal), and something waterproof - a kagoule is not fashionable, but is light and will do the job in an emergency. Trust me, carrying too much stuff will quickly become a major annoyance when you are getting on and off trains and subways. (The first time, I had to dump some clothes).
I’d recommend getting a money belt, and keep your passport and cards in there. Don’t bother with travellers cheques or changing money at bureax des changes. Just use your ATM card - this gives currency exchange at the inter-bank rate, but you might have to pay a transaction fee - at any rate this will be the handiest and cheapest way to change currency. Check if your bank has reciprocal arrangements with EU banks - Canadian banks almost certainly will with UK banks at the very least, and this will save you the transaction fee. Make sure your bank is in the Cirrus network, and you’ll be fine. If your PIN isn’t four numbers you will have to change that, and let your bank know you will be using the card abroad so that they don’t cancel it due to suspicious activity.
Don’t assume that you will be able to use credit or charge cards. Many establishments will only accept cash. You will be able to use say, a Visa card, in an ATM to withdraw cash, but you will be charged for this.
EU countries typically do not have reciprocal health-care arrangements with Canada. You will need insurance in this regard. (Although a Canadian relative of mine fell and broke his leg while visiting here in Scotland and needed pinning to set the leg properly. He spent four or five days in the hospital before being discharged, and no bill was presented despite his pointing out a few times that he could pay. I wouldn’t rely on this however!)
Oh and keep a journal! If you do a lot of hopping about it’s surprising how much of a blur it will become afterwards. And one last thing - I like getting stamps in my passport, but you will not likely come across many immigration officials, if you do though in my experience they are perfectly happy to stamp a passport for you.
All good advice - but I think the truth is, whatever you can afford, take with you. If your budget is tight, you will live on a tight budget. It is amazing how cheaply one can live if you have to - but realistically, I think under $50 per day would be cutting it a bit close and you might be sleeping on streets or whatever. With the Euro exchange rate the way it is now, I think $100 per day would be a realistic bare-bones minimum, allowing for disasters to happen and also allowing for those occasional splurge nights out drinking with the group you hook up with.
Regarding Eurail pass - it is only good if you travel a lot, and I mean almost every day! Each day you don’t use it is a waste of the pass. One trick, pay a bit extra for a sleeper on the car and you save a night’s fee for a hostel. So get on the late night train in Amsterdam and sleep to Berlin. Then get on the train in Berlin and sleep to Paris, then get on the night train and sleep to Munich…get the idea? Just make sure the trips are long enough to catch a good night’s sleep. Of course, you will need to use a hostel for showers, etc. but this does save a few nights room costs.
Have fun, and I think a trip like this is life altering…shows you how well you handle a crisis, allows you to meet all kinds of people, you will see things you have never seen before and you will return with an outlook that says, “keep an open mind.” Personally, I think every person on earth should spend some time abroad just to learn what is out there.
What DMark says is very true. I wouldn’t commit yourself to a railcard that you will have to use a lot in order to justify the cost of the card itself. Pick a handful of countries in advance, get the cheapest flights to wherever you can (Even if it’s Schipol, CDG, Brussels Frankfurt or one of the London airports) and just go for it. Unless you want to keep maximum flexibility, of course.
If I were you, I think I’d go south. See Italy (Certainly Florence and definitely Rome - don’t bother with Venice or the Cinque Terre, both of which are great but both are horribly overcrowded and expensive), and head on south via Napoli to Brindisi. You’ll get a very cheap ferry from there to Corfu, and you will have the best time in your life island-hopping.
And planes - www.whichbudget.com is a useful resource.
It was life-changing for me. I went in '99 solo; left the day after I graduated high school. It was the most empowering, fun, and interesting time of my life. Definitely do it. I spent about $40/day, including air fare and Euro-rail pass. One thing about the eurorail pass is that it takes some of the stress out of traveling. Even if it doesn’t save you a ton of money (and it did save me some), it’s nice to be able to just get on a train to anywhere anytime and get off wherever you want, and if you miss your stop or something no big deal, just hop another train. You don’t have to stand in line to buy tickets or research the cost of train vs. airfare every time you go anywhere, etc. My pass included the ferry to the Greek islands, which I recommned. I wouldn’t recommend the flex-pass, the people who had them didn’t like them.
Other than that…try not to arrive at a new city late in the evening on a Friday or Saturday, if you want a bed. I would get a Lonely planet guide book, if only for the maps.
Synthetic clothes are light and dry fast and don’t wrinkle.
I didn’t really have an itinerary, which was made easier by the Eurorail pass. I just kind of went wherever I wanted. Be as flexible as you can.
The lonely planet website has a message board called the thorn-tree. I would take a look at that and make notes before you go.
Have fun, you will never regret going.