It's been nearly six months since traveling through central Europe, you've heard how much I loved traveling the continent solo. I about to publish a day-to-day account of my travel through a continent that I dreamed of traveling since I could draw maps. The planning for Europe began the day I learned about getting assignment to Turkey, back in August 2012. It was so rough, I wanted to see it all... all the cities, tourist sites, places no one goes to, etc. There is a good reason there are many travel books on Europe, there is too much to see in one trip. By the time June 2014 rolled around, I settled with four countries over a months time after reading so much of Europe.
How did I sacrifice all of Europe for four countries in planning that took over a year?
Simply it came down to time management, travel logistical planning, budget, and USAF travel paperwork. I am not going to lie, planning this trip was very difficult and the route changed a lot until three months until departure. Big trips require a lot pre-planning to forestall difficulties, but as you also heard was that there was plenty of troubles on the trip as well, but that is part of the beauty and curse of these travels.
During most of my time in Turkey, the main travel plan was to be mostly restricted to overland travel from Istanbul to Ramstein. I was planning to bridge the continent overland and cover a lot of ground, I had three major routes across Europe and all were scrapped in the Spring 2014. There were three things that I ran into that factored into reducing to the present Germany, Czech Republic, Austria, and Switzerland route.
As for USAF paperwork, I can say this. Submit early and do not submit your entire travel route, or it will count against you in their cost estimate. This alone made me abandon the overland route that I mostly fleshed out during my tour in Turkey. The focus shifted to favorable entry and exit ports of entry for traveling Europe which formulated the circular route I took in central Europe.
1) Understanding Travel Time Management
Through months of research online, the recurring theme of travelers was managing their grandiose trips across Europe. They felt rushed jumping from one big city to another. On the trip, my conversations with fellow travelers at hostels reinforced this sediment. Yes, the major cities of Europe are worthy of visiting, but there is a lot of charm in the small towns of Europe. It reveals a more authentic European experience from the regular tourist traps of the biggest cities.
If you understand that travel/moving day isn't a sightseeing day, you suddenly realize that you have less days for seeing than for traveling. It's in one's favor to make shorter travel hops to maximize since travel days are taxing with packing, finding the next train, gaining orientation in the new city, finding the hostel, eating, etc. Travel days is pretty much lost time to seeing the glory of Europe. Don't kid yourself that one can defy this, it really does happen.
I came away with a deeper appreciation with my longer stays in the different cities of Europe. Parting advice, you need a minimum of three days to enjoy a city in Europe, four to five days for large cities like Berlin or Prague. This is outside of travel days getting in and out, so in reality that's dedicating a minimum of five days to one city in all. You'll have to visualize on a calendar or you won't see it.
2) Logistical Planning
Figuring out getting from A to B is paramount after solidifying where you roughly want to go. Since rail is the primary mode of transport of European travel, you have to figure out the most effective budget for transportation. You could pay out of pocket or pay for a Eurail rail pass. There are a lot of online resources detailing this and the cost analysis between the two. There are two definitive websites that I consider fundamental to making a smoother travel process: www.seat61.com and www.rome2rio.com
Seat61 is simply the encyclopedia of train travel on all the habitable continents on Earth. Managed by a British man who has worked with British Rail and the Ministry of Transport over the decades, this site is the most recommended site for beginning your plans of travel around Europe. The site has an article on the benefits and pitfalls of the rail pass, as you will see that the rail pass value has decreased in certain countries in Europe.
Rome2Rio is another site to plan out specific times and flesh out a transportation cost for the travel budget. I don't know how the world would live without this site since it crunches out route data and cost estimates from the maze of websites dedicated to specific nations all on one site. It will show you where the information was obtained from. This site is useful in determining whether or not a rail pass is worth the cost.
In my planning, and as you will eventually deduct is that the rail pass is most effective in central Europe. The United Kingdom isn't part of the Eurail program, the Eurostar train between France and England is reservation only, the high-speed trains in France, Spain and Italy require reservations and have limited seats for rail pass holders. I wanted to make my transportation logistics very simple and stick to the rail pass benefits, something of which the four countries chosen did well in not adding in hidden costs, except the train to the Matterhorn.
I will note that if you have a rail pass, you can get onto the train, but for the busiest routes that a reservation maybe required or extremely helpful since they do get crowded and full.
3) Budget
For the traveler with no equipment, there is about a rough $1000 to spend on getting travel equipment and the rail pass for doing something I did. Mainland Western Europe is expensive and you will spend $100 USD to enjoy it at least. Eastern Europe can be enjoyed from about $50, but a comfortable daily budget is $70. My time in Switzerland was the most expensive and I was easily burning through $100 per day, probably closer to $125 to decently enjoy the country. I would consider Britain would cost close to Switzerland. Before the trip, I roughly estimated that I would average a $100 day budget with an extra $400 emergency. I can tell you that my daily budget estimate was very close to what someone would probably spend unless they like to pinch pennies... maybe at the expense of the enjoying Europe.
You'll read my day-to-day personal experience of central Europe during the height of the World Cup coming soon. I had to be flexible, become acqainted with beer in all the different cities I visited. I was never alone, you'll encounter fellow travelers from all walks of life doing the same thing you will be doing... getting in their quintessential European experience. At every hostel you'll visit, you'll mingle with travelers, hear of personal triumphs and experiences, gain advice.
At the end of the day, when you're ready to see Europe. No research in the world is going to prepare you for an experience of a lifetime. Enjoy it, if something doesn't go your way, it's an opportunity! There is too much to see in Europe in one trip, be glad what you about to see, and you'll hunger to see more another time, God willing.
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