Ask HN: Tips for a student going to Europe? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Tips for a student going to Europe?

4 pointsspeek10 comments

A few friends and I (three of us total) were planning on going to go to Europe over the summer this year. We want to go to Sweden, England, France, and The Netherlands.

We're all in college and pretty much broke.

We want to spend a week in each country (probably Stockholm, London, Paris, and Amsterdam respectively), but we're not sure how we'll be able to afford the trip.

We don't exactly want to backpack across Europe and stay in hostels, so any suggestions for other stuff would be nice.

Also, stuff to do that's not touristy in those countries would be nice as well.

Thanks for the input and Happy New Year!

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We don't exactly want to backpack across Europe and stay in hostels

Why on earth not? That's half the fun! I was relatively shy and antisocial on my European tour and I still have two or three hostel stories to tell.

And if you want to find a critical mass of people who know how to tour Europe on the cheap, why are you avoiding hostels? Were you planning to look for fellow bums in the lobbies of three-star hotels?

Having said that: There are relatively cheap pension rooms / B&B rooms / zimmer around, and you can leverage the economy of scale of having three people that are willing to share a room. There are also persistent rumors that many European countries have awesome campgrounds. Though you might have to haul sleeping bags around.

I toured Europe by following the general advice in Rick Steves' general-advice book. His reader demographic probably skews a bit more "middle-aged NPR listener" than "college student" (advertising via PBS specials will probably tend to lead to that), and sometimes he comes across as a bit of a nerd, but then again so do I. His advice was pretty solid. If you don't like meeting fellow tourists who are clutching a copy of his book, don't go to the specific hotels and restaurants that he recommends. (This apparently also goes for all the places mentioned in, e.g., the Lonely Planet guides. Guidebooks are excellent guides to finding your fellow tourists.)

Oops, forgot the most important advice: Keep most of your money, your credit/ATM cards, and your passport on your body, out of sight and in a difficult-to-access spot -- get a money belt of some type. Pack very little, and don't pack anything you're not willing to lose. I've had stuff stolen on two out of four European tourist trips, but the second time all I did was laugh and go shopping.

If you drop by Copenhagen I'll probably be able to fix you up with a place to live for a week while you're here. I live on a boat in a Copenhagen Marina, and I'm sure I'll be able to loan a boat or something for a week.

Copenhagen is great in the summer - the beer is cold and the chicks are beautiful.

My mail is in my profile :-)

For free accommodation I recommend couchsurfing.org. It might be a little tricky with 3 travelers, generally people have couches for 1 or 2 people, but all of those cities will have lots of couches available. I have hosted lots of couchsurfers (highly recommend this if you can do it) and I've couchsurfed in other countries, never had a bad experience. When you are staying with someone living and working in a city you will have a much different experience than if you are staying at a hostel or hotel.

No Italy?! Why those countries? Not that they're bad, just that they're also fairly expensive (although if the pound keeps crashing, maybe England will finally be cheap) in a continent that, at least at the moment, is already expensive for Americans. Cheaper countries: Portugal, Spain, Greece, lots of places in "Eastern Europe". Italy's not cheap, but it is, of course, the most amazingly beautiful country anywhere even if it's not really run very well:-) I can't offer to put up people, necessarily, but I'm always willing to take some time to show people around Padova, my home away from home in Italy, where hopefully we will be returning soon.

Hostels aren't bad, actually, and you don't have too many other options for 'cheap'. Just try and figure out which ones are good, and which ones to avoid.

I just spent a little over a month in Europe and half of the time was spent in Italy. It was awesome.

For the OP:

Some cities were of course more expensive than others. If you stay at cheap hostels, take the metros and walk instead of taxis, and eat out at cheap "bars" or take out it's affordable.

A lot of the sights you want to see are free also, like Piazzas and fountains. So just grab a slice of pizza or gelato and enjoy the views.

In the UK, instead of London, you might like to consider going to Manchester or Edinburgh instead. Both much nicer cities than London (IMHO).

You can get a Europe wide rail card for a remarkably low cost - and rail travel in Europe is (largely) fast and comfortable. There are also low cost airline options (check out Ryan Air and FlyBe on-line) although sometimes they use airports a little outside major cities.

Hotel prices in Amsterdam are not too bad, Paris more expensive and London and Stockholm might well boggle your mind - still good quality, centrally located, comfortable hostels do exist and are well worth checking out.

Also, How much money do you think I should set aside for this trip?

My advice would be to skip Stockholm and go to Berlin or Vienna.

Having been to several Scandinavian countries, I can assure you they are the most boring and American-like places you can go in Europe[1], owing to the relative newness of their cities and also mind-bogglingly expensive. Even for Europe. We're talking $10-13 US for a beer.

Berlin is dirt cheap, even with the exchange rate, and full of interesting and exciting culture and things to do and (as far as these things go) a very friendly citizenry who speak great English. Its ultimate personality is the personality of a fanastically diverse mutt of a place, and yet it all works. It feels amazingly alive.

Vienna, by contrast, is more expensive than Berlin but cheaper than visiting NYC. It is less exciting than Berlin, being more homogeneous and sedate, but still has its own incredibly distinct personality and gobs of awesome stuff to see and do.

[1] yes, even more so than London, call it the tyranny of small differences

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