How to Go Backpacking Across Europe

Tower Bridge, London, England

Are you going to Europe for the first time and a bit nervous about backpacking? Its easy, fun, and the best way to travel either alone or with friends. I'll give you a few tips that will help you enjoy your first trip to Europe.

Things You'll Need

• A Backpack
• Airfare
• Clean Underwear
• Your Passport

Instructions

1. Backpacking is easy, but its importing that you have the right backpack for the trip. If you're short on cash and a friend has a backpack you can use then great, but if you can afford buy yourself a backpack that fits you and your needs. Go to a good outdoors or army and navy store where a knowledgeable salesman can find the right backpack for you, fit it to your back, and teach you how to adjust it. Backpacks only work if you know how to use them.

2. Pack light, the more you pack the more you carry, and the less room you have for souvenirs. You can wear a t-shirt twice, pants can last a week, and a sweatshirt the entire trip. In the winter you can layer, most of Europe isn't nearly as cold as places like Chicago and Boston. And if your desperate you can always buy a shirt or whatever you need in Europe.

3. Buy a guidebook. I'm sure you heard of Buckingham Palace, the Eiffel Tower, and the Colosseum, but do you know all the other sites in each city? A guidebook will list all the sites, tell you what is in each museum and allow you to choose what you want to see.

   What a guidebook should not be used for is travel schedules, restaurants, bars, or prices. These things change, the 1:00 bus might leave at 12:00 now, or the ferry leaves Monday not Tuesday. The information in even the newest guidebook is already at least two years old by them time it hits the bookshelves. You want a good restaurant ask someone in your hostel. If a bar looks fun go in.

   Just try to get one guidebook that covers all the cities you want to visit and maybe a few more, books are heavy, why carry more than you have to.

4. I like to book my first hostel in advance, its nice after an 8 hour flight (if not longer) and arriving in a strange culture that might not speak your language to know where you are going. You can do this online at places like hostels.com or hostelworld.com. Read reviews, and see who offers the best price and best location to see where you want to stay.

   After that I like to just find a place when I get to where I'm going. When you get to a train station in a major city you will never have a problem finding a hostel. Although if you are traveling in the peak of the summer season or between Christmas and New Years then you may want to book several days in advance.

5. Be flexible, don't say I'm going to be in this city on this day. Make a loose plan so you have an idea of what you are doing, but you don't need to follow it. If there is a city you love, stay longer, a city you don't like, leave, if everyone is raving about a certain city (like Prague) check it out. Your on vacation so enjoy yourself, all you need to make sure of is that you arrive at the airport on time to catch your flight home (unless of course you don't want to).

6. Bring with $100 to change at the airport but try using credit cards whenever possible as they are the most convenient and give you the best rates. If you need more cash there are ATM's all over the place so there is no need to carry your life savings in your pocket.

7. Is London, Paris, and Switzerland too expensive for you? Go East! Eastern Europe has a lot to offer and everything from hostels to food is much cheaper. For the cost of McDonald's in Zurich you can have a great sit down meal in Vienna, then get some ice cream, and still have money left for a beer.

8. Travel overnight. Taking a train or bus overnight means you don't need a hostel that night. You also don't lose a day of your trip traveling so you will get to see more of each city. Most hostels will hold your back pack for you on the day you checkout, and all train stations have lockers (unless you are in a small town or in Northern Ireland).

9. Not everything is going to go exactly as planned, you will make a mistake here and there. There's nothing wrong with waking up completely lost on a subway, or needing to jump a fence, it happens. Relax, everything will work out, and you will have a great story to tell.

Tips & Warnings

• Hostels are cheap, and a lot of fun. They are a great place to make new friends from all over the world.

• Traveling with friends is great, you always have drinking buddies, and things like renting a car will be cheaper. But traveling alone is also great, you can go where you want to go and do what you want to do, and you will also make friends in the hostel.

• The Guiness in Ireland tastes a million times better than what we have here at home.

• In Amsterdam people will walk past you and say "Coke X", ignore them and they won't harass you. If you want something get it in a cafe, not on the street.

• The best food in England tastes worse than chalk. Stick with McDonalds when in England.

• As an American you don't need a visa to visit most of Europe, but if going to Russia you do need a visa, plan in advance and learn the rules, staying in a Siberian prison does not make for a good story.