anonymous
Traveller
2473 comments
Posted 13 years ago
Hello everyone. My best friend and I are taking a month long holiday to Europe. We're going into our junior year of university, and after a particularly terrible year for me last year, we're taking a much needed holiday. Europe has always been my dream, and I'm absolutely ecstatic to be going. It will be my first trip to the continent, her third. We plan on going at the very beginning of July, probably 1-3, and staying until the first week of August.
The cities we're planning on visiting, in order:
Brussels
Aix-en-Provence
Florence
Ancona, Italy
Hvar, Croatia
Split, Croatia
Ljubljana, Slovenia
Bled, Slovenia
Vienna
We're flying from LAX, and probably flying into Brussels, as it seems like it will be the cheapest. We need to stay close to Germany, as one of my German friends will likely meet up with us in the beginning. One way flights seem like they cost much more than just book a roundtrip, so it makes more sense for us to fly in and out of the same airport. We originally planned on flying into Germany, but it would add about $500 to the trip. We're going to stay in hostels and try to backpack around as inexpensively as possible, because I am funding this trip myself and money will be reasonably tight. My budget for the month will be around $3,000 to $4,000 (my mom is buying my plane ticket and says she's willing to transfer money to me if I run out or something) but I really want to fund this myself. I'm just really worried that even staying in hostels and things, $3,000 just won't go very far, and that perhaps we're going to stretch ourselves to thin on the amount of countries we'll go to.
Is a Eurail pass cost effective in this situation? We plan on taking overnight trains whenever possible to avoid paying for hostels, and plan on travelling exclusively on trains, except for the ferries from Italy to Croatia.
Are we cramming too much in?
Will $3,500-ish be enough for a month, or should I start begging family members for donations or something?
Is there anything that people who have gone to these countries highly recommend, or recommend avoiding?
Peter
Traveller
9339 comments
Hi.
USD 3.500 = EUR 2.700
As I now continue to talk in EUR currency, the currency used in Europe. :)
And EUR 2.700 should be definitely enough!
I suppose your flight ticket is excluded and your Eurail ticket included in the 2700?
Here you can calculate a budget for your trip: [u]https://rail.cc/en/overall-costs[/u]
For one month travel, you could add some more stops. Especially Eastern Europe is inexpensive.
An example route could be:
Brussels - Amsterdam - Berlin - Prague - Krakow - Vienna - Budapest - Croatia (Hvar, Split) - Slovenia (Lake Bled) - Italy (Florence) - France (Aix-en-Provence, Paris) - Brussels
So you have 2 or 3 nights in each place.
Schedules also avoiding extra fees are listed here, including information about night trains:
[u]https://rail.cc/en/search-eurail-route[/u]
For hostels have a look here: [ux]https://rail.shop/hostelworld[/ux]
And if you want to support the railcc project, buy your official Eurail tickets here in the railcc shop:
[u]https://rail.cc/en/eurail[/u]
Thank you.
Don't hesitate to ask if you have more questions.
Peter :)
anonymous
Traveller
2473 comments
Thank you so much, Peter! That was really helpful. The route you suggested seems much easier, and we'd get to see a lot more. My mom really wants us to stick to two or three countries, but we just want to explore!
I think we're planning on avoiding Paris, because it really seems like a city you'd want more than just a couple of days to explore, and because it'd be SO expensive. We also noticed we'll be spending a lot of time on the coast anyways, so are there any really lovely, inexpensive French cities you recommend? Not necessarily on the coast or in the South of France. And preferably cities that are easily accessible from Florence. I'd really like to experience a more genuine France than just going to Cannes or Nice or something.
Once again, thank you so much for your help! We'll almost indefinitely be purchasing our Eurail passes from your site as well--they're cheaper, too!
Peter
Traveller
9339 comments
So let's have a look on smaller French cities. :)
As you have to go North from Italy and want to avoid Paris, think about a route like this:
stay in Nice as your base and have trips to Monaco, Grasse, Antibes, Villefranche (if you want to save travel days on your Eurail pass, use local train tickets - cheap!).
Then Aix-en-Provence, Avignion, Orange, Le Puy en Velay, Beaune, Lyon, Strasbourg, Luxembourg, Brussels.
No need to stop everywhere - but just a route. You can use local trains and save at the same timethe extra reservation fees for the hight speed trains. :)
Peter :)
anonymous
Traveller
2473 comments
What would be the easiest way to get from Croatia or Slovenia to Italy? It would be easiest to do Slovenia first and journey down to Split/Hvar, Croatia after Slovenia, because there is a ferry that goes from Hvar to Italy, but is there an easy way to get from Budapest to Ljubljana? I noticed the train route has been suspended. Is there a bus route or anything? Ljubljana to Split seems easy enough--just make a connection in Zagreb, right?
Peter
Traveller
9339 comments
I recommend [b]Budapest to Croatia[/b] (Zagreb), then continue to the places you want to see in Croatia.
[u]https://rail.cc/en/eurail/budapest-to-zagreb[/u]
Then back to [b]Zagreb and continue to Slovenia[/b] (Ljubljana):
[u]https://rail.cc/en/eurail/zagreb-to-ljubljana[/u]
[b]Slovenia to Italy[/b] (Venice) by train (and some walking): [u]https://rail.cc/en/eurail/ljubljana-to-venice[/u]
If you come from Lake Bled and want to go to Italy, travel the following route (use the station Bled Jezero):
[u]https://rail.cc/en/eurail/bled-to-venice[/u]
Cross the border like given at the link above (Slovenia-Venice).
Or as an example, Lake Bled via Venice to Rome:
[u]https://rail.cc/en/eurail/bled-to-rome[/u]
About the ferry I don't have information - but should be nice as well.
Peter :)