Help me plan a trip to Europe

In My Humble Opinion
1

After hearing of an associate of mine jetting off to Germany to go see the World Cup, I thought about how I’ve always wanted to travel outside the country, but kind of got rooted in the paralysis of 'I don’t know where to even BEGIN on this". So, knowing how well-traveled Dopers are, I thought I might get info that would help me on a trip next summer.

-What kind of price ranges would I expect to pay? I’m sure it really depends on what parts of Europe I visit, and for how long. But I was hoping people here could give some suggestions on where to go/what to do based on their own experiences.

-What is it like staying in a hostel? How safe is it to go ‘backpacking’ in Europe?

-Language barriers: I’m not multi-lingual by any stretch. How do other monolinguists like myself communicate? French/German/Italian-English dictionaries? Tag along with someone multi-lingual?

-Are credit cards in the US (like Visa) good in other countries? Can I use a credit card for something that is in foreign currency? How does that work?

-I’m planning this over a long term, I want to go sometime next summer when the high school district I sub in has summer vacation. Therefore, I can use that time to prepare for things such as getting a passport and any other necessities I can’t think of off the top of my head.

-I had heard of some Americans passing themselves off as ‘Canadians’ because of Anti-American sentiment in parts of Europe. I’m kind of skeptical on just how much vitriol europeans have toward Americans (maybe I’ll sew a Bear Flag Republic patch on my backpack and let them stew on that! :stuck_out_tongue: ) Is it really that big of a deal, though?

-Any good placces to go? Any places to specifically avoid for whatever reason?

Any other info/advice/anecdotes would be greatly appreciated.

2

The Lonely Planet forums are a good place to start for advice about budgeting a trip like this. Some countries (Britain, Ireland, Germany) are going to be much more expensive than others.

A mixture of a bit of phrase-book work, plus plenty of English.

Visa is the most widely-accepted credit card. All the currency conversions etc. will be done automatically (but check your bank doesn’t then add a fee for each one). However, using credit cards for small sums isn’t really the done thing, and some countries don’t have a culture of them being accepted everywhere (e.g. Germany). Take a debit card as well, to use ATMs, because the exchange rate will be much better than exchanging cash.

We’ve been wise to the maple leaf trick for a long time. And no, there’s no ‘vitriol’ towards Americans. Maybe some Americans mistake vitriol directed towards American politicians and foreign policy as a personal slight, but it’s not the case.

3

Don’t make the mistake that is seems so popular with American and Japanese tourists. Don’t try to visit a different city somewhere across the continent every day because you want to see every single tourist attraction during your vacation. You will just spend half of your trip driving and probably you can’t even enjoy the rest properly. Relax a bit. If you really get bored, you can always add a day trip spontaneously.

4

Not a traveler, but a European doper checking in:

Generally, Eastern Europe and Southern Europe are cheaper than Northwestern Europe. Don’t travel in Juli/August - it’s the middle of the season, so everything’s most expensive, everything is crowded, and it’s probably too hot. If possible, go either in the pre-season (May, early June) or post-season (Sept. and October) - both can be very mild and warm, or cold and showery, depending on your luck.

If you have an international youth hostel card, and go to the recognized youth hostels, it’s clean and comfortable, but depending on the comfort category, not so cheap anymore (at least in Germany). If you are a guy, or travel in a group, backpacking is safe, and with young tourists, during tourist season, not uncommon. Not everybody who works in the tourist trade likes backpackers, because they equal cheap, but whenever I travel with a big backpack, I’ve never heard bad comments or had trouble because of it.

Most countries you’ll get along with English. You should try and at least learn the most common phrases (Please, Thank you, Good day), because that allways help to show you aren’t an ignorant, arrogant tourist. :slight_smile:

More commone in Europe is the MasterCard, if you can get that. As has been said, your bank converts the foreign currency - Euro, most likely - into Dollars, plus a service charge, I guess. If you stay in central Europe, I’d advise changing cash into Euros, because that’s most practical.

Long-term planning is always good. You can compare travel prices, maybe get an early booker discount, you can look on the internet for backpackers that travel a part of your journey to team up (and save costs)…

Ummm… there isn’t Anti-American sentiment in Europe against normal American tourists. What were you planning on doing, waving the US flag while shouting insults? :smiley: Otherwise, as long as you don’t mention politics and don’t act arrogant, you shouldn’t have a problem. (That is, if you’re white. If you look black or asian, I’m sad to say that there are certain areas where it’s not safe to go - some parts of East Germany, where skinheads rule. But it’s colour, not nationality, that’s dangerous there.)

I’d generally just not sew any flags on your stuff, because we don’t do it. Unless you sew city flags (of where you have been), not national flags. (Though personally, this would remind me of the square people who have stickers of exotic cities on their luggage to brag, or people who visit a city because its famous, not because they like it. Pretentious, in other words.)

In all of Europe? You’re kidding, yes? I could recommend towns to visit and scenery to see in my country alone for 4 weeks, not to mention all the other cultural highlights!

5

Jeez, lot’s to go over, but I’ll take a shot. First I commend you on your choice. I think all americans should not only travel, but visit europe in particular.

  • How much to pay. Airfare is a biggie. I would recommend checking the Sunday Travel section ads for those cheap fares (likely SF to somewhere). You can find both 1) long lead time deals, and 2) last minute deals (although you are gambling a bit here. Since you want to go in the summer, you are probably better off trying to set up a long lead deal (like 6 to 9 months in advance).
    Prices vary a lot across europe. In general the former eastern bloc countries are much cheaper than the other countries. It’s been a little while since I’ve been to some of these, but in general I found
    England to be most expensive,
    France probably next,
    Italy, Austria, Germany, and Switzerland around the same,
    and Spain the cheapest.

  • Never did the hostel thing. But in talking to people, it sounds like 1) they are generally much nicer than hostels in the US, and 2) also vary from country to country and place to place (the more popular/large the city, the nicer the hostel). I stayed at B&Bs throughout England, and those were great. You might consider those as an option between hostel and hotel.

  • Language. Never a real serious issue. In a lot of countries, english is spoken. Probably the most notable exceptions in my experience were Italy and Spain. You learn to point to a lot of things on menus.
    A phrase book might be good as “insurance” (in case of some emergency situation), but not necessary. I would take the time to learn how to say some basics in whatever language of the countries you’re visiting:
    Thank you
    Yes/no
    Hello (good day)
    Excuse me
    Please
    These will go a long way. You may not speak the language, but politeness seems to count more.

  • Credit cards. Not only will your Visa (and Mastercard) work for most major expenses (hotels, meals, tickets), the biggest change in the last 10 years or so has been ATMs. Don’t bother with traveller’s checks (except maybe some for dire emergency), and rely on using your ATM card. The ATMs in the cities are as convenient as they are in the US, and you also get a better exchange rate in getting cash this way.

  • Anti-americanism. Although I might be more likely to be confused as coming from asia (being that I’m japanese), I have never experienced any anti-american sentiments. My philosophy (and this applies to the “ugly american” syndrome as well) is that you get back what you put out. If you go around bragging about america being the greatest country on the planet, then you will likely get some anti-american sentiment in your face. If you keep to yourself, soak in the local culture, you will be fine.

  • Places to go/avoid. Rather than get into specific recommendations (you will get plenty of that), I would prefer to point out that europe is big and varied. There is a lot to see. So given that, if you change your mindset from “I have to see all the ‘best’” to “I’m just starting out”, PLAN for this to not be your only visit to europe. That is, you don’t have to hit it “all” in one trip.
    One option is to go on a tour (as is very popular). And though there are variations to these, the classic is the every-day-a-new-country style. You will cover a lot of ground and hit many of the most popular highlights. But from my experience, it is not only exhausting (to the point of not being able to keep track of just which attractions you saw in what city), but is kind of like watching a bunch of “previews” instead of the whole movie itself.
    My advice is to pick a country, or maybe two (depending on how much time you want to take), research all that interests you in that country, and focus your time there. Set up a tentative itinerary, but allow for it to be flexible.
    The big attractions are great, and well worth experiencing. But I have had some of the best experiences just exploring on my own. Taking walks through smaller towns, etc… You come across pleasant surprizes, and for me, you get a better feel for what life is like.

In so many ways europe is very different from the US. There is so much more history (the difference between being just over 200 years old and 2000 years old). You pretty much can’t go wrong anywhere you were to visit. You’ll also find that as you travel, though it seems large on a map because there are so many countries cramped together, it is really not that large of an area (not counting russia). That is, it does not take all that long or all that much to get around. So once you realize this, you can start planning on what you’ll do on your next visit.

6

I strongly second this. One reason why American tourists (and Asian= Japanese ones) have the clichee of being both ignorant and arrogant is the “see 12 countries in 14 days” tour attitude - tourists who have to look at their itinerary to know which country they are in come across as being too arrogant and ignorant t bother to learn the most basic information about the country, or even knowing why Switzerland and Austria are different countries from Germany, and why that’s important to the natives. If you take 10 days at least for each country, time to immerse a bit into each different culture, learn the local language at least rudimentarily…

Of course it’s difficult choosing among so many interesting countries, with wonderful scenery, local customs, centuries old culture…

7

Darn, my first response was eaten…

Yes, B&B is a good option in England, but not very cheap in Germany.

When you want to use ATMs, your PIN shouldn’t be longer than 4 digits.

If your finances allow it, I strongly second cormac’s suggestion of picking only a few countries, and returning again for the next ones.

As for airfare: I thought the prices had dropped because of all the competition and last-minute-tickets on the internet? Over here, tickets are cheaper depending on which airport you use, which day of the week, whether direct or with stop-over. I don’t know - you’d have to look on the net - if buying tickets from a European cheap airline would be cheaper than from an US airline.

I also second going off-track to discover the interesting parts of a city/country. I live in Munich, Bavaria, and sometimes it does bug me that all the tourists apparently only want to see the Hofbräuhaus and Neuschwanstein, when there’s so much more. Depending on your friends (i.e., is that all they will ask about?), I’d recomment skipping both of these “typical” attractions alltogether. There are other castles, and other beergardens. You can even visit a brewery on the outskirts of Munich (Aying), instead of drinking with a lot of other tourists in the Hofbräuhaus…

8

Actually, you can often talk about politics and not have a problem. But this does depend on you understanding that Europe, to generalise ludicrously, is way way to the left of anything in America. And Bush isn’t a point of debate but a universal figure of ridicule. And we speak our minds. If you can cope with that, then bring up politics :wink:

9

Well actually, America is far, far to the right of the (sensible) European position :wink: I thought it best not to talk about politics because (judging by the internet) most Americans don’t get what you pointed out - exceptions, of course, are always welcome! (There are enough Germans I know who also don’t “get” some things, so I avoid talking politics with them, too.)