Getting Around Europe

With our flights officially booked, our plans getting TO and FROM Europe are finally set! The next step is figuring out how we are going to get AROUND Europe once we’re actually there.

There are quite a few airlines in Europe that offer low-cost flights to many European destinations. Two that I know of are Easy Jet and Ryanair. I flew Ryanair twice last summer, to Dublin and Pisa. My travels on Ryanair were interesting to say the least, but you really can’t beat the prices. I booked my flight to Pisa a couple of weeks in advance and I remember it costing only about $50 round trip. However, as the old saying goes, “You get what you pay for!” For those of us that are not citizens of the European Union (EU), boarding a Ryan Air flight is quite a hassle. I saw plenty of EU citizens breeze by, but non-EU citizens must get their passport checked and boarding pass stamped before getting on the plane and the line is usually extremely long. Our group traveling to Pisa actually spent the night at the airport (London’s Stansted and that night is a story in itself) before our early morning flight and we still almost missed our plane because of the long passport line! On board, there are no assigned seats (think Southwest Airlines in the U.S.) and everything costs money (no free drinks). I have even heard that Ryan Air is proposing selling standing tickets! Cheap air travel definitely has its disadvantages but these cheap airlines get you from point A to point B for ridiculously low prices! I even know someone who found a free flight on Ryanair’s website and only had to pay tax! For those doing weekend traveling or looking to quickly get across the continent, budget airlines are a great option.

We’ve decided that our best option would be to travel Europe by train. We plan on visiting about 15 different places, so rail would be the easiest and cheapest for us. Eurail offers many different options. You can buy a pass for a particular country (if you are only traveling to one), to a few countries that border each other or a global pass that includes 21 European nations. Travelers should do some research on Raileurope.com to find the best option for themselves. The website allows you to input how long you will be traveling for, how many places you will be visiting and your age to determine the best deal for you. Based on my trip (2 months, visiting about 15 places, under the age of 26) I will be buying a “Global Youth Flexi Pass” which will allow me 15 days of travel in any of the 21 countries within 2 months. Flexi passes allow you to choose your travel days within the time frame (two months in my case) but consecutive day passes are cheaper. Eurail also offers discounts for seniors (60 and up) and a saver option for groups of 2 or more traveling together at all times. In addition, the youth option will save travelers under the age of 26 a good amount of money. I was initially expecting to pay about $1,000 for my rail pass but I will only be spending $674.

It should be mentioned that you cannot use your Eurail pass in Great Britain (you can only use your pass in the 21 participating nations). Great Britain uses its own train system called BritRail, which is completely independent of Eurail. Also separate from Eurail is the Eurostar, the high speed train that connects London to Paris and Brussels through the underground “Chunnel.”

The Lost Girls

Chelsie and I stumbled upon "The Lost Girls" during one of our many trips to Barnes and Noble this past summer (we really did A LOT of travel planning there). The cover and title caught my eye and after I read the book's description I grabbed Chelsie and said, "We HAVE to read this book!"

"High above a waterfall in the Argentinean jungle, three friends made a pact. Struggling with uncertainty about their paths in life, they agreed to quit their glamorous New York City jobs, ditch their apartments, put their relationships on hold, and embark on a yearlong round-the-world search for answers. Authentic and uplifting, The Lost Girls will inspire anyone who has ever questioned the track she or he is following or longed to strike out in a new direction."

We might not have made our pact above a waterfall in the Argentinean jungle or have glamorous New York City jobs (at least not yet) but we made a pact nonetheless and we did it for the exact same reasons Jennifer, Holly and Amanda do in the book, even though our circumstances are a little different.

The story, divided into sections and told by all three girls about their year-long trip around the world really hit home for me. Not only because they are dealing with a lot of the same issues and feelings of uncertainty I am having at this time in my life, but also because reading about their experiences while traveling gave me a preview of what our own trip will be like. Their stories include scary moments, funny memories, times that bonded them forever and also times they had to get away from each other! The girls are easy to identify with and remind me of my own friends and myself. The book brings up many of the issues young women will encounter while traveling, including everything from safety concerns to how many night out dresses you can fit in a backpack (Lost Girls Verdict: Not very many).

I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves to travel, especially girls in their twenties. The book is exceptionally well written and made me laugh, reflect and get really excited to leave everything behind for a little while!

Also, check out the Lost Girls Website. What started as their travel blog has turned into a travel and lifestyle resource!

Making A Plan

Staring to plan an 8 week backpacking trip is a pretty daunting task..... We realized this when we first sat down earlier this summer to begin the process. It's hard to figure out where to start! There are soooo many things to consider: Budget (How much can we spend and how do we know how far that is going to take us?), Timing (when to go and how long to stay in each location), Accommodations (Do we book hostels before we go or wait until we get there?) and my favorite part of the planning process.... developing an itinerary! We started out sprawled out in the corner of Barnes and Noble with probably 10 guide books. While these will be helpful when planning what to do in each place and where to stay, we found the internet to be most helpful starting off. During a Google Search I found a webpage (First Time Europe by Rick Steves) that mapped out an itinerary containing many of the places we wanted to go and for the right amount of time! Even the description fit us perfectly, "two months, plenty of energy and a desire to see as much of Europe as possible!" Using Rick Steve's itinerary as our foundation, we made some slight modifications (8 days in Scandinavia wasn't going to work) and developed our own perfect itinerary! Here is what we came up with:

London (U.K.)
Loire Valley or Bordeaux (France)
Lisbon (Portugal)
Valencia (Spain)
Barcelona (Spain)
South of France
Cinque Terre (Italy)
Rome (Italy)
Naples/Capri (Italy)
Florence, Venice, Verona (Italy)
Switzerland
Munich (Germany)
Salzburg (Austria)
Prague (Czech Republic)
Berlin (Germany)
Amsterdam (Netherlands)

Pretty extensive list, huh? It was actually longer at first and we had trouble trimming it down. Once we reached this list though, we just couldn't eliminate anymore places. Each of these stops is a "must-see" for at least one of us! Are there any other "must-sees" we overlooked? Are there any of these places that don't live up to the hype? I'm sure some of you will notice one big city missing from the list.....Paris! We all agreed to skip it. Each of us had the chance to visit Paris on our study abroad trips and felt that is wasn't somewhere we had to visit again. I know it sounds crazy, but I didn't love Paris as much as I thought I would! Should we give it another chance?

Please let me know your thoughts/advice on our tentative plan!

About This Blog

Hey everyone!

I'm really excited to start this blog! I've contributed to a few blogs before, but I have never had one of my own! When my Campaigns professor, Dr. Russell announced that one of our assignments this semester would be to actively participate in some form of social media, I knew that I was going to start a travel blog. I love to travel and I am currently planning the most exciting trip of my life! I hope to use this blog to talk about/plan for my trip as well as many other travel related topics! I plan to make it very interactive with lots of links, comments and hopefully followers :)

About my trip:

I don't really remember when we came up with the idea, but about a year ago (shortly after returning from our various study abroad programs) my two best friends (Chelsie and Chelsea) and I decided that after we graduated college we would take a backpacking trip around Europe. We all had so much fun on our study abroad trips in Europe and loved the traveling aspect, but wanted to go back and explore Europe without school work on our minds (I studied abroad at Oxford, so it was just as much work as it was play). We talked to our parents about our plans and received mixed reactions. Chelsie's Dad was excited for us, mine not so much.... After spending a lot of money funding our study abroad trips, our parents were understandably worried about how much this trip was going to cost. After promising that we were going to travel as cheaply as possible and fund part of the trip with our own money, our parents finally all agreed that this would indeed be the perfect graduation present!

We plan on leaving March 1st and returning at the end of April. We will be visiting about ten countries (mostly Western Europe). We will only be bringing our backpacks and plan to stay only in hostels! We've spent a lot of time this past summer doing some planning and I hope to use this blog to continue the planning process and receive some advice!


Chelsea, Me, Chelsie






Pisa, Italy


Notre Dame in Paris



The London Eye


Ireland