Travelling around Europe.

Chandelier.

Morning,

I've come to the decision I'd like to travel around Europe next year with my son. I'm able to get around 3 1/2 weeks off work and plan to visit as many places as possible. We'll be going in the six week holidays so I'm aware it's going to be more costly due to this so I'm wanting to be as money savvy as possible and create a trip to remember and make many memories.

My son will be 8, nearly 9 when we do this so he will be a good age and he travels well. We've been looking at maps of Europe and picking out countries we'd like to visit, one of the main ones is France and Italy. I'm hoping to fly out to the first destination and then travel around my train, we will be packing light and I hope this can be as educational and fun as possible.

So I guess I have quite a few questions and wondering if people have any recommendations of where to visit or that's worth exploring.

What kind of budget would you say I'd need for 3 1/2 weeks for travel and accomodation?

What sort of accomodation would you go for? I'm wondering about a mixture of hotels, hostels or air b&b (although I've never used this before) depending on the area.

Are there any must see places?

How many countries do you think would be doable in the time frame we have?

I've a good 12/14 months to plan this so want to make it as efficient as possible and create an itenary. I'm looking forward to having something to plan and work towards.

Thanks

Voyager2002

France and Italy (or maybe just Italy) would be plenty for the time available. However, trains are fast so you could easily visit a destination elsewhere in the region that particularly attracted you.


I strongly advise you to visit the web site for The Man in Seat 61 to learn more about the trains, in particular whether a rail pass would be helpful to you.


There are a vast number of "must-see" places, depending on your particular interests.

Doshwaster

Sounds like a fun trip to plan. The Seat61 website is a goldmine of information on trains.

The main thing I would warn about is that when you try to see "as many places as possible" you actually just get to see more of the inside of planes, buses and trains as you dash around checking things off your list while your tire yourselves out. Better to go to fewer places but see more of them at a more leisurely pace. I don't think there is much point in visiting a new city for just one night as all you do is arrive, check in to a hotel, have a wander around, sleep then move on the next day.

Another thing to consider is how much you want to lock down your schedule in advance or leave it more open to cope with changes in your mood, the weather or strikes (very common in France or Italy during the summer months!).

z1a

I'd say you could get by on £100/ day if you're reasonably careful.

zagfles

Stay in hostels - far more sociable than hotels. You can usually get private rooms if you don't want a dorm.

Cost - piece of string. If you eat in restaurants every night and do expensive touristy stuff it'll cost a lot. If you're happy to self cater for some of the time, you'll save a load. Cooking is hostels is a very social experience, you'll get chatting to other travellers/families and get ideas and inspiration from each other.

Where to go - depends on your interests but Pompeii area would be on my must-do, also in Italy, the lakes and Rome. Italy is cheap to eat out if you like pizza/pasta but it's expensive if you go for the full 4/5 courses (but you really won't want to do that very often).

Suggest going as late as possible in the holidays - second half of August is a lot less busy than late July/early August.

Why not Eurostar to Paris to start rather than flying - assuming you want to go to Paris? From London it's just as quick.

knightstyle

Trains in France are subject to strikes. Currently the rolling strikes will be carried out on two days out of every five until June 28. So book as late as possible and check things like this.

hollydays

zagfles wrote: »

Stay in hostels - far more sociable than hotels. You can usually get private rooms if you don't want a dorm.

Cost - piece of string. If you eat in restaurants every night and do expensive touristy stuff it'll cost a lot. If you're happy to self cater for some of the time, you'll save a load. Cooking is hostels is a very social experience, you'll get chatting to other travellers/families and get ideas and inspiration from each other.

Where to go - depends on your interests but Pompeii area would be on my must-do, also in Italy, the lakes and Rome. Italy is cheap to eat out if you like pizza/pasta but it's expensive if you go for the full 4/5 courses (but you really won't want to do that very often).

Suggest going as late as possible in the holidays - second half of August is a lot less busy than late July/early August.

Why not Eurostar to Paris to start rather than flying - assuming you want to go to Paris? From London it's just as quick.

I don't agree that Italy is cheap to eat out, Rome certainly isn't

zagfles

hollydays wrote: »

I don't agree that Italy is cheap to eat out, Rome certainly isn't

If you go for the traditional full antipasti, primi piatti, secundi piatti, side dishes and dessert it's expensive, but you're not going to do that every day unless you want to end up 16 stone by the end of the holiday!

They usually do pasta dishes for the primi which were enough to fill us up, or a pizza. In Naples we had the best pizza we'd ever had, it was only something like 15 EUR for 4 of us with a carafe of wine! Generally got change from 50 EUR for 4 of us (2 adults, 2 kids) for evening meal with drinks, but could have done it cheaper if we'd needed to.

In Rome we ate our main meals at lunchtime and it was reasonable, not cheap, eg one place very close to the Pantheon so right in the tourist heart was about 10-15 EUR each for a 2 course with drinks.

hollydays

zagfles wrote: »

If you go for the traditional full antipasti, primi piatti, secundi piatti, side dishes and dessert it's expensive, but you're not going to do that every day unless you want to end up 16 stone by the end of the holiday!

They usually do pasta dishes for the primi which were enough to fill us up, or a pizza. In Naples we had the best pizza we'd ever had, it was only something like 15 EUR for 4 of us with a carafe of wine! Generally got change from 50 EUR for 4 of us (2 adults, 2 kids) for evening meal with drinks, but could have done it cheaper if we'd needed to.

In Rome we ate our main meals at lunchtime and it was reasonable, not cheap, eg one place very close to the Pantheon so right in the tourist heart was about 10-15 EUR each for a 2 course with drinks.

Naples is a different thing altogether .....Please don't lead the op on

zagfles

hollydays wrote: »

Naples is a different thing altogether .....Please don't lead the op on

Err... I wasn't just talking about Naples. That was one example. Been to loads of places in Italy.

lovesgshp

If in Italy, then in August, many of what are classed a meal of the day are not easily found. These places normally cater for workers, so tend to close for their own holidays.
We have one near to where we live and they have a self service type buffet, which depending on what you choose varies from 8 euros to about 15.
These type of offers are usually stopped in August so that prices can be increased for the tourist influx.
Also you can check some of the larger supermarkets as they often have hot food counters where you can take the food out in containers.