First time in Europe, Beginning to plan trip.

[le_diagon]

Hello everyone! My cousin and I are planning to go to Europe next summer, I guess I'm kind of starting early with the planing, but I'm really excited, so I thought I'd get a head start :) I just had a few general questions:

Comments

[aviation_]

I suggest getting a "multi-city" ticket that will allow you to fly into one city and home from another while still benefiting from the discounts of buying them together. This isn't the cheapest for sure (so search other options), but it usually is in my experience. Use a search engine like Kayak to search for these tickets. Just select "multi-city" at the top.

[le_diagon]

Thanks a lot to everyone for all the advice!! I will definitely consider my options, and figure out what's best for what I'm planning!

monkeedreamer: Sorry for calling the Netherlands Holland, I never knew the difference, won't make the same mistake again!

kali_kali: Thanks for the transportation advice, it makes a lot of sense. My French teacher last year said everytime she was in France, there was some kind of strike going on lol.

Thanks again!

[dosedby_you]

I just got back from a month-long backpacking trip - I'm so excited for you! As far as rail pass vs. flying, here's my two cents: flying via budget airlines will definitely be faster and cheaper IF you book far in advance; however, that pretty much forces you to have a more strict itinerary. My friend and I got rail passes, which are not cheap, but there were a lot of things we really loved about train travel: Firstly, we had a little more flexibility to change our schedule around if we wanted to leave a place early, if we missed a train, if we decided to go somewhere else at the last minute, etc. Secondly, traveling is exhausting, and I found those train rides to be a nice break in between all the tourism, trying to understand how things work, hearing foreign languages, etc. (and the countries you're visiting are all relatively close, so there shouldn't be an super-long ones to suffer through.) Thirdly, train stations are almost always right in the center of the city, so getting to/from them is a lot easier and cheaper than getting

[le_diagon]

Ok now I'm a little confused...with the rail pass I would have to buy the ticket in advance, but even if I didn't have the pass, I would, in all likelihood, have to book it a bit early anyway, right? And the train tickets between countries can be between $60-$120 anyway, so I'm thinking It's probably worth it to pay the $200-$300 for a rail pass.

[dosedby_you]

Yeah, sorry, it is a bit confusing! If you're planning on taking trains, I personally think it's totally worth it to get the rail pass. It will save you money and generally is more convenient, I think. You would have to order the pass itself before you start your trip, as it has to get shipped to you.

There are trains, like shorter commuter trains within one country, for which you don't need reservations and you can just hop on and off whenever. For other trains, though- longer ones where they don't allow standing room - you have to reserve a seat and pay a small extra fee (but nowhere near the cost of a full ticket.) A lot of times, you can just go to the ticket office in the train station the day of or the day before and ask for a reservation, but sometimes the more popular routes fill up in a few days before, so as soon as you know where and when you want to go, it's worth checking to see if it's open.

Hope that helps! Feel free to ask if you have any questions :)

[le_diagon]

That actually helps a lot!! I think I am definitely going to go for the rail pass. Thanks a lot :D