Travelling Around Europe

[Derry]

So a friend and myself are planning a trip around europe when she finishes uni in may (and before i start in oct). Intended leaving date is 1st June, and we're hoping to go for 7 or 8 weeks, but its totally going to depend on the money situ.

The only major travelling ive ever done was with my mom & dad (we drove from saudi arabia to england in a range rover in 1996), so i dont really have a clue where to start with planning. We've got a list of the countries we want to go to, and we're now thinking about what we'd like to do in each country/things we want to see etc.

Basically i was just wondering if anyone has done this sort of thing before and could point me in the right direction.. i have no idea whatsoever about travel visas and insurance etc, so thats the two major things we need to get sorted.

A bit more info fo you if you can help =]

*Going from england - france via eurostar (if it still works by then)
*Travelling between countries by train services or bus.. will need to sort some kind of travel pass
*Want to go to France, Belgium, Lux, Germany, Denmark, Germany, Czech, Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Italy (east coast), Greece, Sicily, Italy (west coast), Switz, France and back to England. We've tried to plan it so its a big loop around europe so we see what we want to see..


Soooooooo, if youve got any sort of info you think will be useful, about travelling in these countries, visas, money things and all the important stuff ive probably forgotten, please speak!

[Green Aura]

I don't know which uni your pal's at but most of them will have a branch of Student Travel Service (or whatever it's called these days). They should have all the relevant info and an idea of prices, but don't book anything until you've checked it out online - sometimes you can get better deals there than even a pass.

[gdb]

Hello Derry,

As you are based in Brum, I'm going to assume you are an EU citizen? In which case, you'll need nothing other than a valid passport to visit those countries.

And to travel between most of them, not even a passport. (There are no passport checks between France and Germany, for example, because of the European travel agreement - the Schengen Agreement).

As to insurance - I've never bothered with it for travel. Others might tell you to do differently. But you are covered for emergency healthcare (in all of those countries or most) through the Eurowide shared health scheme thingy... It's called EHIC and you can see more about it here https://www.ehic.org.uk/Internet/home.do

Travel is something else tho'. Back in the days when I was a student there used to be a month long Euro-rail pass. I'm not sure if that still exists....

[Derry]

Yea, we're both EU so now i think visas wont be a problem (ive been playing on worldtravelguide.net - very good site). I already have an EHIC card as i went to italy in 2006, and its valid until next year, so thats one less thing to sort, and i guess the insurance will just give parental types peace of mind =]

As for the student travel thingy, i work at Birmingham Uni, so im ganna go visit them again next week and talk to a lovely lady who told me lots of stuff before, she seemed to know quite alot about the different travel options etc, we were/are intending to pretty much get the train everywhere, unless a ferry is needed

[Nomada]

Travel is something else tho'. Back in the days when I was a student there used to be a month long Euro-rail pass. I'm not sure if that still exists....

I believe this still does exist, my bloke and I were looking into a euro rail pass not long back, don't know what this years prices are though. you can buy them so that you get continous travel or a certain number of days travel out of how long it lasts all throughout Europe.

http://www.interrailnet.com/

going by train is a nice way to travel, I saw so much going from Poland to Germany when I worked there, just sitting back and listening to Sigur Ros as I watched forests, farms, wildlife and rivers go past.

I don't recomend travel without insurance, though it was essential in my case because my bloke has a serious pre existing medical condition, if anything went wrong we'd be so screwed without it.

[Nomada]

By the way, think you can get a ferry to Denmark. That's what we'd planned anyway, we had wanted to start via Norway but they stopped running ferries across to there

[ellie12022]

when i travelled from Birmingham to France on Eurostar a few years ago, there was a special price from Birmingham to London (got it in the ticket office).

I'm an ex-student of Birmingham Uni, didn't really use the travel office there very much tho'.

You may want to look into when countries have bank holidays etc as this may affect travel.

the rough guides can be quite helpful too.

[Derry]

Nomada - thats the one the lady told me about, so im going to look into that a bit more because it seems like quite a good idea. same with insurance, im guaranteed to do something bad haha. Id never thought of a ferry to denmark, shall have to look at that too =]

Ellie - im hopefully starting at birmz this oct, as a student instead of a cleaner =D the site i mentioned above has details re all public holidays, i think that site may become gospel to me..