Traveling abroad, need some advice

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’m going on something of a journey. I’m going to be backpacking western Europe for about three months and I need some advice. My first question is whether I need to book hostels in advance or if most of them will have vacancies in the winter months, which I read are much less busy? My second question is in regards to internet. I have a laptop that I am considering taking with me. Are free wifi hotspots as prevalent in Europe as they are in most major American cities? I’m also considering not lugging the laptop around and taking a smart phone instead, like the Blackberry Storm. What kind of usage costs am I looking at if I go that route? Lastly, if i forgo bringing any tech, how much do the cyber cafes cost and how hard to find are they?

Thanks very much for your help.

2

The “Lonely Planet” series of guidebooks are quite good. Shuffle on down to your local bookstore.

3

WiFi is everywhere but is not often free. Keep in mind that you are only allowed 90 days in the Schengen zone which includes most all of Western Europe except the UK. There should be no need to book in advance by more than a day or two and you’d be really unlikely to not be able to find a room on the spot in most places.

4

In my experience, you’re mostly fine without booking hostels in advance, with a few caveats:

  1. Know when the local events and festivals are. You’re very unlikely to be able to find a place to stay in Valencia if you show up during Las Fallas, for example. Also, big cities on weekends can be tough, although calling a day or two in advance is generally early enough.

  2. If you have your heart set on staying in a particular place, or a budget so tight that you absolutely MUST have the cheapest bed in town, book ahead. If you have several viable Plan Bs, you’re generally fine.

That said, I spent a lot of time traveling around Europe by the seat of my pants when I was in grad school, and I was never unable to find a place to stay – but I had enough money to spare that a hotel room for the night wouldn’t break the bank, and a high tolerance for schlepping my backpack around strange cities and going home with random old ladies from the train station. YMMV. For what it’s worth, the toughest cities in which to find a place to stay were Paris, Amsterdam, and Rome (and I was in Amsterdam in March, which is definitely not high tourist season).

5

Regarding the internet, consider leaving the laptop home. You can usually find an internet cafe nearby that’ll take care of your needs, and their rates are usually cheaper than paying for a hot spot.* One less thing to worry about breaking or losing.

If you must bring your laptop, you can get WiFi hot spot monthly access cards from the big carriers for their own hot spots. It could be a good plan if you know for sure you’re going to be within convenient reach of one company’s hot spots. An alternative here in England is “mobile broadband” with pay as you go rates. Plug in a thumbdrive-sized USB modem and you’re off. No need to find WiFi hot spots or sign a lengthy contract. Maybe another Doper can verify that this is available on the Continent.

Down to the phone. If your phone is unlocked, you probably would do well to buy a SIM in Europe once you arrive. I don’t do data, but T-Mobile here in England has “pay as you go” data plans, priced daily, weekly, and monthly. If T-Mobile is doing it here, you’ll probably see others elsewhere doing it, too.

Shop around for rates and ask questions. It sounds like you’re going not going to stay in the same country your entire visit, so be absolutely sure to ask what happens when you cross the border. I got a SIM with $0.08/minute calls to the US. But only when I’m in England. When I’m in Germany, it’s much more expensive, like $0.45/minute. Don’t feel you must keep the same SIM the entire trip. Pick up a new one if you can find better rates.
*Rant: What is the deal with that? In any fleabag in America high-speed internet is free. Pay $150 a night here then still have to pay another $20 for WiFi. Fie on that. Or $4 for 30 minutes. Poop on that.

6

The smaller cities that are popular tourist destinations (I’m thinking Dublin as an example) are PACKED at the weekends. You will probably need to book.

Winter is the football/rugby season- you’ll need to check if your visits co-incide with any major games, if they do you’d better book a hostel well in advance.
Otherwise, if you’re not fussy, just turning up is often good enough.

Personally, I wouldn’t take the laptop. Too much of a “hey rob me, I have stuff” thing, and you’ll have to have it sitting out in your hostel to charge… not safe!!! Also, do you really want to spend that much of your time on the internet?

The Blackberry is better because you can easily put it in a pocket or safe or at the bottom of a backpack, but it won’t be cheap.

You absolutely do need a phone, if you don’t need the extras, get a really basic model that you don’t care if you lose or have stolen, preferably a Pay As You Talk you can top-up online rather than a contract, so you can keep track of how much you’re spending on it. If your phone is unlocked you’ll be able to pick up a disposable SIM card for about £10 in any country you go to.

Internet is available in many hostels for about £1/$2 an hour and there are often internet cafes in the touristy areas- hostel staff will often be able to tell you where to go to get a good deal.

If your main planned use of the laptop/Blackberry is GPS or maps, here is some re-assurance- I’ve got around 12 European countries fine with just tourist brochures and the maps in the Lonely Planet. Lo-tech location finding is perfectly do-able even when you don’t speak the language.

Second the Lonely Planet books, but make sure you get the most up to date editions.

Take a warm coat and take a sleeping bag or blanket- hostels and public transport are not renowned for their heating systems.

If you’re going to use the trains, get a big train timetable book like this so you can plan well in advance.

7

Well, I bought lonely planet’s “Europe on a Shoestring,” and started browsing through. I also bought a Eurorail pass, 10 days of travel over two months to any city. I booked my flight to Paris with miles, and now all I need to do is put together my itinerary and budget.

I have a few other questions though:

Has anyone done a backpacking trip solo and in the winter like I am? Any thoughts about it? How is easy is it to find places to store my pack? If I’m not checked into a hostel yet will major museums let me leave it in an attended coat room, are there places to lock it away? It’s obviously too big to fit in a standard train station locker.

8

Just exactly how big is this backpack? It gets old real fast hauling so much extra weight all the time. I blush when I see my fellow Americans in airports. They’re the ones who talk loud and struggle with the biggest suitcases. [chuckle] I ask because you really don’t need a lot of clothes. We have coin laundries in Europe and stores, too, for almost anything you might need.

Here’s my suggestion on packing: Three pants (at least one not shorts or cargo), 5 shirts (a couple of T’s, a couple of long-sleeve button downs), 5 skivvies, 5 pairs of socks, another pair of shoes, possibly flip flops for the shower, one or two light sweaters, and a medium weight jacket. Layering is your friend. If it’s cold, put a sweater on under the jacket. If it’s really cold, put on both sweaters and another pair of undershorts.

Cell phone, iPod, notebook (paper not computer), 3 pens, Sharpie marker, travel-sized toiletries, comb/brush, a few empty plastic grocery bags to hold soiled clothes. Add a travel clothesline, packets of Woolite, and a couple of wire clothes hangars if you decide to wash your shirts or pants in a sink instead of the laundromat. Undies and socks can definitely be sink-washed.

Choose clothes that don’t need immaculate pressing to be presentable. Roll them tightly instead of folding to minimize wrinkling and minimize space in your backpack. To keep things compact and easy to pull out of the backpack, gallon-size zipper bags for the pants and shirts, sandwich size for the underwear and socks. Voila! A backpack that fits in a locker and won’t strain your back. Much. Do a dry run: pack everything then walk around with your backpack on for an hour or two. See? Better to find out at home than in Gare du Nord. If in doubt, leave it out.

I guess you may want to shove a knit cap in your backpack, too. It’ll keep your noggin protected from the wind and cold. I like cold so I don’t usually pack one.

PS-When you’re booking overnight trains, be wary about sleeper cars if you’re over 6 feet tall.

9

I only had to store my backpack at one museum, and it had a few very large lockers which could hold my backpack. It was a pretty small museum, definitely not the Louvre, which might mean that the Louvre will be the same, but have 20 times more lockers, or that it will have armed guards carrying away your bag for you, with strictly enforced maximum sizes. I don’t know.

Train station lockers are also pretty huge. I put my backpack in one in Vienna that looked tiny from the outside, but was about three feet deep. Unless you are carrying one of those really massive bags, it shouldn’t be a problem.

Don’t take the laptop. It’ll just be a huge pain (how do you plan to leave it in your hostel?) and they’re far too heavy. I wasn’t in the big western European cities, so I was only forced to pay exorbitant rates for internet cafes once, in Zurich, but I found internet cafes kind of charming. If you book ahead, you hardly even need the internet. (I didn’t think that far ahead, which once necessitated a crazy bike ride through Salzburg to try to find an internet cafe so I could book a hostel for the next day in Zurich - not a good idea, and as it turned out, a nearly impossible feat.)

10

I travelled with a guy who packed too light.
By the end of a month you could smell him coming and his only pair of shoes eventually got thrown out the window of a moving train when someone objected to their odour stinking up the corridor.

Do not, under any circumstances, wear one set of socks/undies and try to have the other set washed and dried in the sink overnight, it won’t work. You’ll end up smelling of damp, moudly, half-washed underwear. Also- take more than one pair of shoes- two months in the same pair without airing them out for a day or too…not so fragrant.

Either pack 5 of everything and do laundry every 5 days like a normal person, or buy a new multi-pack of underwear and socks every week from a cheap shop like H&M or Primark and save the up laundry for when enough of your outer layers need washed. If you find out you don’t have enough you can buy it, if you find out you have too much- post it home.

Train stations should have lockers or luggage rooms, hostels will often have places to put your bags too- buy some bike locks and padlocks so you can chain your bag to your bed frame or train seat if you need to, of course you’ll have padlocks on all your zipped compartments anyway, right?

If you aren’t booking ahead your priority will often be to get somewhere to sleep sorted out first, then food, then sightseeing. You really don’t want to have spent a lovely day in a museum only to find you don’t actually have anywhere to sleep that night because all the hostels filled up over the course of the day. When I said “just turn up” I meant in the morning (or as soon as you arrive). You’ll find that is what most backpackers do, so the places will fill up over the day, and some won’t take same day telephone reservations.

I can recommend:
In Bayeux: Family Home Hostel is nice
In Amsterdam: Hotel Prinsenhof is quite pricey, but nicer than the hostels.
In Salzburg: The YOHO- the coin operated showers were a pain, but it was fun.
In Vienna: Wombat’s
In Brussels: Sleep Well
I can’t remember where else I’ve stayed, but they were all serviceable.

How old are you? If you are over 26 you might find it difficult to stay in the Youth hostels.

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I’m 27, going to be 28 in January. Why should that be a problem?

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From what I read in travel books, only Bavarian hostels still limit guests to those under the age of 26, but there may well be individual exceptions. (I think that most hostels are not Hostelling International hostels now, especially in big tourist cities, and they can have whatever weird rules they want.)

13

The under 26 (or even under 25) rule still exists in some places, but it’s rare. I’ve seen them in Germany and France.

I travelled across Europe alone in the winter. For the most part I just showed up and got a bed in most hostels. The exception in my experience is hostels that shut down entirely for a few winter months - these are usually ones in smaller towns, particularly, for some reason, in Scotland. The other winter problem I encountered a few times was old fashioned hostels that close all day, so you get kicked out at 9 or 10am and can’t come back until 5 or 6pm. This is fine most days, but a pain if you want to have a nap or just warm up.

Are you male or female? In my (actually fairly extensive) hostelling experience, a female travelling alone (ie. me) can almost always get a bed because most hostels will allow women to sleep in the mens dorms but not men to sleep in the womans dorms. If you are a woman and comfortable sleeping in the mens dorm (naked man alert!) this can be a great feature. If you show up and they say there are no beds available, ask if there are any mens beds and try to look a bit pathetic - they will be loathe to turn a single woman onto the street in the dark and cold.

As for packing, there is tons of good advice in this thread but only you can really know what you want/need. Most hostels will lend you a towel if you ask, so I wouldn’t pack one personally. I left my bag in lots of train stations, hostels and other places - be aware that the train station situation is not always lockers, often it is just a little room. I didn’t leave anything valuable in my bag when it went in there. You might want to invest in a little lock that has an extending cord, to put around the bag as a deterrent - also good on trains if you want to sleep.

14

This is the kind of lock I mean:

http://www.mec.ca/Products/product_detail.jsp?FOLDER<>folder_id=2534374302883914&PRODUCT<>prd_id=845524442502203

I know it wouldn’t stop anyone who was serious, but it sends a little ‘hey, go steal someone else’s stuff!’ message.

Also, have a great time! Travelling solo was one of the best things I ever did for myself, and I think too few people are willing to do it.

ETA: What cities are you planning on hitting? Maybe we can recommend some hostels?

15

I bought a bike chain and a U lock and some padlocks for the zippers. I won’t be taking anything of serious value, but I certainly don’t want to find myself stranded with nothing but the clothes on my back.

I would love to hear some hostel or cheap hotel recommendations, or just about any place you think I should see. I looked up some of irishgirl’s recommendation, and the Wombat in Vienna seems particularly cool.

As I said earlier I bought a eurorail pass and it was a lot of money (especially since I’m traveling alone and over 26) so I plan on that being my primary travel expense. The pass is good for two months and takes me just about everywhere, but I only can take 10 days worth of travel.

I spent 6 weeks in London a few years back, so I think I’m going to skip the UK, possibly entirely, or maybe just until after I’ve looped the western continent. Here’s what I’m planning. There are of course other cities I’d like to see along the way, but I think I can make this loop on 10 days travel.

Paris –> Brussels –> Amsterdam –> Berlin –> Krakow –> Budapest –> Vienna –> Venice –> Rome –> Bern –> Paris

16

Yes, for goodness sake don’t haul around a laptop. There are cheap internet cafes everywhere if you want to be online. I travelled round Europe for 6 months in the early '90s and only contacted the outside world twice (via crackly phone lines) - it’s good to get away from it all.

Your itinerary looks good, but it’s never going to include everything (Prague!, you forgot Prague!). A good tip is to get night train rides as it saves on a room. You’ll miss some scenery though.

Speaking of which try to get out of the cities a bit and see the countryside. This can often be done in day trips from a city base.

Actually looking at your list again I’d personally skip Bern and Vienna, and add in Prague and somewhere like Zagreb. Others will diasgree.

Enjoy!

17

Never mind, hadn’t seen your itinerary.

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Did you have to stop at times and find work to keep your trip going? I think that may be the case for me.

That would definitely save me some money as those cities are much more cost effective, but what would I be missing?

19

When I’m backpacking I use hostelz.com or hostels.com from a cybercafe and only book a day or two in advance. This allows more flexibility.

I did actually bring a laptop last time, but it was a junker that I wouldn’t be worried about losing. I backed important things up on a memory stick and in Gmail/Picasa. Most cybercafes have paid wireless so you can get the cheap rates via your own machine. I would recommend this if you’re going to be doing a lot of writing, as continental keyboards can be quite confusing to use.

I agree that wash-one-wear-one is dumb, especially if you’re moving around a lot. As I said in another thread recently, too few undies is a false economy as they’re so light. Save weight by ditching other stuff.

20

Cool, that should work. It definitely gave me some peace of mind - you can even put the lock on if you are on a crowded subway or wherever, where someone might be able to open your bag while you are wearing it.

As for hostels:

I’ve never been to Brussels. I can only remember where I stayed in a few of the other cities - I guess the rest were just nondescript hostels!

Paris - the places in the Montremarte are the cheapest, but the one I stayed in was filthy. Can’t remember the name either.

Amsterdam - The Flying Pig. Pretty cool and fun place - lots of drug use, if that bothers you (not sure how to avoid that in Amsterdam though).

Krakow - Dizzy Daisy Downtown Hostel - the people here were super nice and let me sleep when I showed up off a night train at 4.30am, but didn’t charge me for that night at all. Nice hostel, good location, cheap as hell.

Budapest - there is a hostel called the Station Guesthouse that is the cheapest hostel in Budapest (or was) - don’t stay there! There is a reason it is so much cheaper than the others - you’ll never sleep with the noise of the trains!

Vienna - I second irishgrl for Wombat’s

Bern - Hotel Glocke Backpackers Bern was nice, although a bit noisy from the street IIRC. There are not very many hostels in Bern.

Personally I agree with Petrobey Mavromihalis to skip Bern and Vienna - both are nice enough, but not that exciting. I love Prague, and Zagreb is also a great suggestion, although I prefer Dubrovnik if you’re going to go to Croatia. You could always make the decision at the time - if you like Krakow and Budapest, you might like more Eastern cities. They are certainly a lot cheaper.

If you do go to Prague, I like Sir Toby’s Hostel - not far from downtown, but in a beautiful, safe, quiet neighbourhood.

If you go to Croatia I recommend taking a room in a private house if you feel brave - when you get off the bus or train there will be people there offering them - they usually hold up signs with a picture of a stick man sleeping on them. These rooms are cheap and comfortable, and give you a look into local life. It is a bit scary the first time you do it though!