A friend of mine asked me to give her a few words of advice about a trip she was taking. I thought you might find it interesting. The few words of advice I do have are simple. The book Europe Through the Back Door by Rick Steves is one of my favorite travel books of all time. The author has the best outlook on travel. I hope you have time to skim through it (or even read it) before you go. I gave up giving advice to people on where to go, where to stay, etc. Everyone discovers their own little treasures when they travel. I would advise looking through (if you don't take it with you) Europe Through the Back Door and going where Rick Steves recommends. It is important to plan in advance. Planning ahead means knowing in advance how to avoid the headaches of finding a nice, cheap place to stay, how often the trains run from Point A to Point B, the cheapest way to go, etc. I would encourage you to buy a good guidebook (or check one out of the library). The best places to go when you travel are the out-of-the-way-non-touristy-small towns. I think Rick Steves' Book Europe Through the Back Door is the best for this type of travel. In addition, he has a couple of books, Mona Winks and Europe 101 which are invaluable for negotiating your way through the major art galleries of Europe without spending a lot of time or missing anything important. Don't over-pack. There are very few things you have to take that you can't buy over there if you really need them. Take an ATM card. When I get to a new country, I just find an ATM and withdraw cash. Last summer I found ATM's within minutes of every train station in every big city. You avoid the hassle of banks and you get a good exchange rate. Just make sure your password is only 4 digits long. I guarantee you that you will be more free to travel on a whim with an ATM card than with traveler's checks. You still need traveler's checks for small towns and some more eastern European countries (maybe Greece), so take plenty of traveler's checks and just deposit the ones you don't use when you get back from your trip. Take pictures of everyone you meet. In a year or two, the only pictures you cherish will be the ones with people in them (even yourself). Scenery and buildings are nice, but you might as well buy a postcard. Speaking of pictures and postcards. I would take slide film instead of print film. Buy slides at gift shops whenever possible (of the touristy sights). Slides are usually better pictures than you can take yourself, and sometimes cheaper. Buy nice postcards to supplement your pictures (the photographers are usually professionals, and have access to places & views you don't). I also pack one of those wide-angle disposable Kodak cameras. Some pictures really look better in a wide-angle lens, but carrying a heavy extra lens for your camera isn't worth it. Buy souvenirs. If you see something you think you like, buy it. You can't go back after you leave. What if you don't end up wanting it? Give it to someone as a gift. They will feel good that you remembered them (even if you didn't). Consider the $20 an added expense of your trip, fairly small when considering the grand scheme of things, and the things you really don't want make the best gifts. What is a drag is when you find something really cool, buy it for someone, and then wish a few months later you had kept it for yourself. Don't try to follow a pre-set itinerary. Changing your plans to see things you hadn't planned on always turn out to be the best things on the trip. Listen to other travelers you meet. They always have the most current and reliable advice. Always be on the lookout for people to meet. I usually buy a bottle of wine to share before getting on the train. Nothing will allow you to meet people faster than sharing a bottle of wine or some food. Rick Steves has some great recommendations on how to meet people in his book. Take night trains and pay for the sleeper car. You will arrive at your next destination early in the morning, and you will have saved travel time and hotel expense for a night. It is possible to sleep on a train without paying for the sleeper car supplement, but you don't get a real good nights sleep. As far as hotels go, youth hostels, traveler's hotels and one star hotels are perfect. They are made for the traveler, safe and a good place to meet people. Take a Therma- Rest so you can sleep in the train station if you have to, even to rest a few hours before catching a 2:00am train. I think a very lightweight sleeping bag is also nice, but probably not a necessity. Camping is getting difficult and expensive. Most cities will only let you pitch a tent in a designated camp site, and these charge up to $10/night, and are usually not centrally located. The extra weight of a sleeping bag, tent, stove, etc. is not worth it. To make phone calls back to the US (if you need to), I use AT&T USA Direct. It saves you having to have correct change, deal with foreign operators, etc. I guess I had more advice than I originally thought. Most of this is echoed in Europe Through the Back Door, so look it over, and most of all, have fun. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- If you are planning your first trip to Europe, here is a guideline for how much it might cost (the 5 trips are described below). Please note that the cost can vary widely based on where you live (airfare differences) and how you like to travel (sleeping in hotels vs sleeping in train stations) The expenses are for a 3 week trip. Destination N/W Europe S Europe E Europe SE Europe Airfare $500 $550 $550 $550 Other Transportation $400 $400 $350 $350 Lodging $400 $350 $300 $300 Food $300 $250 $200 $200 Other $150 $100 $50 $100 --------- --------- --------- --------- Total $1750 $1650 $1450 $1500 I think there are five good ways to see Europe for the first time. Theoretically, Europe is small enough to go anywhere you want, but if you spread yourself out it costs a bit more and you waste too much time on trains. For all of the trips mentioned below, try to spend more than a day or two in at least half of the countries. Some people will criticize trying to see an entire country in two days. The idea is not to see an entire country in two days, but to get a flavor for the country in two days, and extend the stay in countries that suit your taste. For many people, their first trip to Europe is their last trip for a long time, so they need to see as much as they can. For others, it is the first of many trips. The first time, see as much as you can, and then when you return, you already have an idea of where you would like to spend more time. In Northern Europe a good three weeks would be the Netherlands, Northern Germany, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia (just St. Petersburg) and possibly Poland. A good Southern Europe trip is Portugal, Spain, Morocco, France, possibly Italy and maybe Switzerland. I think a Western Europe trip would include England, France, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands and maybe Ireland. Eastern Europe is becoming a lot more like the west. Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria, Hungary and Romania would be a fun trip. In South-Eastern Europe, I would like to go to Greece, Albania, Bulgaria, Turkey, and maybe Israel or parts of the former Yugoslavia.