Is backpacking right for me?
Here is the first question a potential traveller has to tackle. Do you want to do it all by yourself or would you prefer an organized tour?
You have to analyse the type of person that you are. Can you take things as they come (roll with the punches, so to speak)? Are you resourceful? Do you feel confident enough to navigate in unknown territory? What about if you don't speak the language? Are you streetwise? Are you willing to stay in some crappy places? Would you like to meet new people all the time? Would you like to spend as little as possible? Would you like to have a flexible trip that allows you time to stay in the places you like and leave the places you don't?
If you answered a lot of "yes", then maybe backpacking is the way to go!
Would you feel *lost* if you suddenly found yourself in a strange city? Would you know how to get around with an unfamiliar transit system? Do you feel unsure about finding a place to sleep or food to eat? Do you prefer that someone else plan the activities of the day and evening? Do you prefer to lodge in *reputable* places? Would you prefer to travel with the same group of people the whole time? Would you prefer to have others cart your baggage around? Would you rather not have to worry about train travel?
If you answered "yes" to many of these questions, perhaps a tour is better suited to your needs.
Choosing a partner
Another tough choice to be made...going alone or with a partner. Most packers (especially first time travelers) tend to choose to go with a partner. Often a wise move. It's nice to have that safety net there--just when you start to panic about something, your other half is there to calm you down and help you get through the situation. Choosing a partner is very important!!
I went with my best friend Heather. We'd been friends since we were 5 years old and we knew each other extremely well. We knew we'd fight along the way so that didn't come as a surprise when it inevitably happened. What was surprising was how *intense* our fights were!! We've never fought so badly before!! It was fine for the first 2 weeks, but by week 4 we had a HUGE blowout!! The point of this is that no matter how well you know your partner or how much you understand that you will have fights, travelling with someone for an extended period of time can take a toll on your friendship!
Heather and I are still best friends, more so now that we shared that experience. However, I have heard numerous stories about friendships breaking up mid-trip.Choose your partner wisely! In retrospect, Heather and I had rather different ideas. She wanted to visit every single church that crossed our paths while my idea of a good time was to sit at an outdoor cafe for an afternoon and watch the world go by. We compromised a lot, which is one of the main reasons that we made it through intact. There came a time that I wanted to spend a day by myself exploring some of the things that interested me but not Heather, and then meet back at the hostel for dinner. Heather wouldn't hear of it---she said if she'd wanted to travel alone, she would have. Personally, I think time to oneself is important! It's important to find out how your partner feels about what you want to do.
If your potential partner and you can't even agree on what countries to visit or method of travel then perhaps you should rethink going with that person. If your partner seems to be calling all the shots and you find yourself feeling resentful, this is not a good sign either! Don't just go with this person because you have no one else to go with--who's to say they wouldn't ditch you mid-trip? Hey, you wouldn't be the first, nor would you be the last!
Where are we going to go?
Ok, you've decided to backpack, you've decided on a good partner, now you must decide upon your destinations. The way Heath and I did it was to first decide what countries interested us. I'd gone around to different travel bureaux in the city asking for brochures. Armed with stacks and stacks, I proceeded to leaf through them discarding the ones that didn't interest me and keeping the ones that did. Then, I handed the whole load (discarded ones and all) off to Heath. We each made a list of countries we wanted to see. Basically, we came up with all of western Europe and part of eastern Europe--not a very narrow start!! We compared lists and managed to find several common countries. We both had some that the other person didn't though. I was pretty set on visiting Belgium and she wouldn't budge from Greece, despite the fact that it was way out of the way. We compromised and went for both of those and dropped Spain and Portugal and the Eastern European countries. We managed to narrow our countries to 8. At this point, we figured out for how long we would go (probably one of the easier decisions you'll need to make) We decided on 8 weeks. That worked out to one week in each country. We realized that there were some places that one week wouldn't be enough and other places where one week would be plenty!
Our next step was to list all the cities that interested us in each of the chosen countries, marking the "must-see-with-or-without-you" ones with an asterix. Naturally, there were more cities than we could possibly see in the allotted time. Again, we compared our lists for common places (mostly London, Paris, Zurich and big cities). There were a couple of "must sees" on each of our lists and the rest we decided on together mostly by process of elimination.
The final step was to make a tentative itinerary--this was for our benefit as well as for that of our families. It's reassuring for them to know about where you'll be in the world on a given day. We also wanted to see how this fit into our time schedule...would we be over or under or even in days?
We began with something like: "Ok...day 1, we land and we have jetlag....do nothing. Day 2--take it easy and sightsee a bit. Day 3--jetlag gone, hang in London. Day 4--London, Day 5--Daytrip to Canterbury, Day 6--Daytrip to Cambridge....etc...Day 20 Leave Paris in AM for Nice...arrive midday, find hotel, relax and crash. Day 21--Nice, Day 22--Nice, travel overnight to Rome. Day 23--sleep part of the day, see Rome in pm....etc.
Don't forget to account for travel time! Be forewarned that travelling from point A to point B, even if it's only a 5 hour train ride, can be very draining. I found that often on travel days, once we arrived at the new destination, we didn't feel inclined to start sightseeing! We tended to stay close to the hostel and explore the local area and get to sleep early.
Nevertheless, in the end, we ended up with an extra 3 or 4 days on our hands and decided on a jaunt to Luxembourg on our way to Belgium. Nice place! That is the beauty about backpacking---the itinerary was thrown out the window and we were free to do as we wished!
When are we going to go?
If you are a student, chances are the spring and summer seem most likely. Backpacking is good during those times for several reasons: first, you can be sure that all the tourist attractions and hostels will be operating, but mostly because you'll pack much less! (no need to worry about heavy coats or boots)
Spring or summer? Heath and I went in the spring and don't regret it one bit! The weather was a bit cooler so we didn't sweat as much (so we didn't need to wash our clothes *quite* as often), and since summer is the high season, there were less tourists than there would have been in the summer. Thus, the trains and hostels were rarely full to capacity, which suited us just fine!
Don't forget to check if there are any major holidays in any of the countries you plan to visit at the time you plan to visit them!! We almost got stuck penniless on a national bank holiday! If you plan to travel on a certain day, check to make sure that it isn't a peak travel time due to holiday! (Note: this is another good reason to make an itinerary before you go, so you'll have an idea of what country you'll be in on approximately which date) A travel guide or the country's travel bureau or consulate can provide that information.
Deciding how to travel once we're there
What are the options? Bus, train, air, and car rental come to mind. Now, I've never rented a car anywhere so I won't discuss this option except to say that people who've done it say it's wonderful, especially if you want to get into the backroads. However, it's expensive (and so is gas!!) and you've got to worry about where to park it and whether or not it will get stolen. Also, if you're travelling in more than one country, there may be regulations or monetary penalties for taking the rental car over the boarders. However, if you want to rent a car, I've been told to reserve it in North America before you go to $ave yourself a bundle!
Air travel within Europe is rather expensive. Depending on your destinations, timeline, and budget, it might be worth the expense to fly. There are about a zillion combinations of how to get where and when, you just have to work through them and see what works best for you.
I never travelled by bus in Europe except in Britain where we found it cheaper to take the bus than the train. Let me just warn you that it's rather cramped in there and the train is much more comfy, especially on longer routes. Depending on where you're going, you may not have any choice except for the bus. If I'm not mistaken, there is a bus pass being sold that does a circuit of Europe, but only in certain countries and during certain times. Ask your travel agent about it.
My prefered method of travel is by rail. Europe has an extremely well developped rail network, much more so than in North America. Trains run often and to all sorts of destinations, even to little out of the way places! The best way to travel by rail is with a Eurail pass. There are lots of different kinds of Eurail passes...some are unlimited, some are for X number of days of travel within a certain amount of time, others are custom made based on the countries you choose to visit. Some are combined air, rail, car passes. There are youth fares and adult fares. (youth=26 & under) Your travel agent will provide all the necessary details, but I strongly recommend rail travel.
Heath and I decided right away to go with the Eurail youth pass which allowed us unlimited use of trains within a 2 month period. This allowed us to stay in one city and do daytrips to other nearby cities without having to pay for the train. For example, in Italy, we stayed in Padova and commuted to Venice each day. The hostel was cheaper and nicer than the ones in Venice. This way, we didn't have to worry about accounting for each time we travelled--we were free to hop on and off as much as we wanted. Many people we met travelled with a youth flexipass which allowed X days of travel within 2 months. Although this option is less expensive, they did not have the luxury of doing what we did because they had to account for their travel days. Basically, they could travel all they wanted in one day. But commuting meant wasting a day of travel for a short run or else paying for the ride instead. Personally, Heath and I found that the smartest thing we did was get the unlimited pass--no fuss, no muss, no extra expenditures, no tough decisions, no worries!
How much money will this co$t?
That all depends on how you want to live. My trip for 2 months, everything included from flight and insurance to equipment to expenses to souvenirs to film developping, cost me somewhere in the neighbourhood of $4500 Canadian dollars. (YOU do the math to find the equivalent!) We lived pretty well on that! We budgeted $50 cnd per day--that included everything (lodging, food, entertainment, souvenirs) except the travel expenses, since that was already prepaid with Eurail!! (see above).
Some days we were well under budget and other days we were somewhat over budget. Some cities are more expensive than others (London, Paris, Rome, and Zurich I found to be the most expensive) We were also fortunate enough to have stayed with friends in those very places!! In the end, it all evened out and I even came home with a bit of cash left over! Heath and I lived by a golden rule--this is our vacation and we want to enjoy ourselves...no point in scrounging to save a few dollars because we probably won't ever get to do this again. This isn't to say that we spent without thinking--afterall, we never could bring ourselves to pay $80 for a gondola ride in Venice. But we lived well and spent wisely.
Well, this was a question that I pondered for a while. In the end what we did may seem complex but I found it worth it. First, we carried the equivalent of $50 cnd in the currency of each of the countries we intended to visit. This was some "getting started" cash. That was another of the smartest things we did!! Countless times other packers arrived in a country and didn't even have currency for a subway token to the nearest hostel! We figured that that amount would last us a day until we could find a bank in case we arrived at night or in case of unforseen bank holidays, etc. I would definitely recommend doing that!!!
The other way I carried currency was in traveller's checks. It's the smart thing to do because in the event that you get robbed, your traveller's checks can be replaced--cash cannot! Changing travellers checks to cash is so simple! Just beware of the exchange rate given and the commission charged. We often went to Amex or Thomas Cooke exchanges and had 0 or minimal commission charged. Sometimes, rather than paying 2 commissions, one of us would exchange money and lend half to the other person. The next time we changed currency, the other person would cash it and pay back what she owed. That can get tricky at times!
The last way I stashed my cash was on credit. I carried 2 credit cards with me--a Mastercard and a Visa (you never know!). I knew that Mastercard is more widely accepted in Europe than Visa, so I paid Mastercard a sum of $1000 just prior to my leaving, and $500 to Visa. The purpose of this was to avoid any interest charges if I took a cash advance. Many people don't realize that when you take a cash advance, the credit card company starts to charge interest from the moment you withdraw it. However, if you have a credit balance to begin with, there is no interest charges and it works like a bank account! Also, I put major purchases on credit and I wasn't around to pay the bill when it came in. Like this, I didn't have to worry. Why not just use your bank card? Because your bank card MUST be used in an ATM only. As luck would have it, NONE of my cards worked in the ATMs (I have NO idea why not!!!) With a credit card, I would go into a bank and ask the teller for a cash advance on Mastercard or Visa. They never questioned it. If I'd gone in with my bank card, I'd be lucky if I got anything at all! By giving yourself a credit balance, you'll avoid interest charges too!
(NB...I just discovered that Mastercard no longer allows overpayment of a credit card bill--at least Canada Trust Mastercard, so this can only be done on Visa for now.) |
