10 Practical Tips for Traveling Europe
While planning my two-month sabbatical to Europe, I googled things like "Trips for traveling Europe" and the results were incredibly vague. Things like "enjoy yourself" and "figure out where you want to go" kept popping up and I found myself frustrated. I wanted tips that would actually help - tips someone who just got back would suggest. Well, here they are:
- Buy a Tortuga bag // only bring a carry-on
They're designed for traveling Europe and perfect for a single-bag trip. They unfold like a suitcase but have the straps and design of a backpacker's backpack. Lots of pockets and compartments mean you can cut down on compression and ziplock bags.
Furthermore, I promise you'll get a week into your trip and want to ditch things. I know it sounds impossible, but try to fit everything into a carry-on (this is where the Tortuga comes in handy). Not only will you avoid $60 fees on the budget airlines (Ryanair etc.), but you'll be able to slide in-and-out of subways and trains without looking like a dork.
- Leave your laptop at home
Seriously, I even brought an iPad because I'm a tech guy and thought "I need to be able to have a big screen just in case.... but I never used it. The weight over your trip will outweigh the one or two times you want to watch Rick and Morty on a bigger screen.
- Download maps.me
It's like Google maps but made for travelers and the best part: it has trail maps. There were numerous times I showed up in a city and said "wow, that's a nice looking hill, I wonder how you'd get up there" and sure enough, there was a trail a few blocks from me. The app also displays things such as coffee shops, museums, and lookout points, which are great for getting a high level overview of where everything is at.
- Use Momondo for booking flights
After hours of using multiple apps, here's the deal: No one is going to give you a $50 flight to Europe that gets there in 10 hours. It's just not going to happen. Even if you sign up for Scotts Cheap Flights, etc., they'll get you relatively cheap flights that you have to fly on a specific day that takes 1.5x-2x the amount of time to get there (not always, but most of the time.) Momondo gives you all the results and you can sort by: Cheapest, Fastest, or Best (choose Best).
- Use Rome2Rio for figuring out travel options
While looking at a map and trying to figure out how to get from Munich to Prague, don't just jump to conclusions and say "Oh let's take a train!". The train could be expensive, or take a long time, etc. Rome2Rio does a great job of saying "Okay you could take a train for 8 hours and $100, or a plane for 2 hours and $200, or you could take a bus for 6 hours and $50". Use it first before you dive in and make plans.
- Use FlixBus / OuiBus
FlixBus is definitely the name brand here, but I found OuiBus to be basically the same thing (operating in France). It's incredibly cheap and they travel between all the major cities. The hardest part is figuring out where the bus stop is. Most of them have WiFi but bring a book in case it's not available.
- Use Hostelworld for booking hostels // Pay attention to the "Atmosphere" ratings
If you're going to stay in Hostels, use Hostelworld. It's easy to use (I have a few product design complaints but I won't list them here), and it's the de-facto standard. Furthermore, every hostel has an overall rating and individual attribute ratings such as cleanliness, location, staff, atmosphere, etc. The thing to pay attention to here is "atmosphere". No one will have a perfect 10, but before you book somewhere, compare the difference in atmosphere scores - usually hostels that are calm will have a lower score.
Okay, I can't help myself - the problem here is that if someone prefers a calm hostel and stays in a calm hostel, they'll give the atmosphere rating a 10.. if someone prefers a calm hostel and stays in a party hostel, they'll give it a 0... etc. etc.
Instead, there needs to be a non-numerical scale of calm <-> party where users can place a slider position. This will be a better indicator of relaxing vs lively atmospheres.
- Try to delay planning as much as possible // or: how I stopped worrying and learned to love the chaos
If you're going for multiple weeks, you'll naturally want to completely plan your first few days. You don't want to get off of a 10 hour flight and worry about booking a place to stay. Figure that out for the first 3ish days and then stop. I ran into a guy who was booking everything a day in advance (where he was going, where he was staying, transport, etc.) and naturally I asked "uh what the hell do you do if it's booked, or if it's too expensive, or if...?" to which he replied "I go somewhere else". Granted, if you have a specific place to visit, make it happen, but from my experience, prices don't go up that much - I think we're kind of past the day where you need to book flights 6 months in advance to save $500. I booked my return flight home a week in advance and only paid ~$100 extra. That allowed me to play everything by ear and led me into some pretty cool adventures that I wouldn't have planned from my laptop back home. You'll definitely meet friends and they'll have great suggestions, or invite you to come stay with them, or the weather will be bad and you'll need to call an audible - it's a huge benefit to have.
- Take the free walking tours // do it the first day
Most big cities have free walking tours - a.k.a. "go on a 2-3 hour tour and tip what you want at the end". They're a great way to get a feel for a city and actually understand what you're looking at instead of just saying "that's cool" and walking away. If you're like me, you don't want to "look like a tourist" while traveling, but guess what? You are a tourist. Most hostels and Bed & Breakfasts will be able to point you to the meetup point. I tipped $10-15 which was well worth a walk around the city with everything explained to me. Additionally, you'll naturally talk and make friends with everyone in your tour group.
The other thing to note here: Do the tour on your first day in the city. You'll get everything knocked out and you can spend the rest of your time deciding what you want to go back to. It gets rid of the "I need to see it all!" feeling and instead allows you to relax on your second day.
- Take a Fat Tire bike tour
Almost as an addendum to #9, if you're in one of the cities serviced by this company, go on this tour! I'm not being paid by this company, but I took the tour in Barcelona and it was phenomenal. It's like a walking tour but you get to see more of the city and you're less tired at the end of the trip. Plus, you get to ride around on a cruiser all day. Super chill.
Maybe I'll add more tips as they come to mind. For now we have an even 10.
Shoutout to Mitch Heard who introduced me to the Tortuga bag and has an excellent article on packing.
If anyone has any other tips, please feel free to leave them in the comments!