European tour on a budget

[gdingee]

My 21 year old daughter graduates from universtiy this spring. She would like to do a trip to Europe sometime thereafter. Even considering a long term stay to possibly work and travel.

We are looking for tours, deals, ideas. She is scouting the university bulletin boards, etc for info.

Anyone have any contacts?

gdingee in New Brunswick, Canada

[wesdor]

I have been to northern Europe many times and would be happy to try to answer any questions you might have.

A couple of thoughts.  With the Euro being so strong, there are not many places to find great deals in Europe.  Does your daughter speak any other languages?  My wife and I speak German and our children speak Spanish.  We rented a villa on Costa del Sol,  Spain in 2002 and found it to be very reasonable - 3 weeks for $1500, there were 9 of us total.

We just got back from Prague and found that city to be really exciting and some great bargains.  Germany tends to be rather expensive, but Berlin, Dresden, Leipzig are at least 3 cities that are being rebuilt with amazing results.

Big cities are where most first time tourists want to visit, but we have found the people in smaller town Europe to be most friendly and helpful.  In most countries, speaking English will be accepted by nearly everyone.

Hope that gets this discussion started - I envy your daughter's summer.

[Murf]

Both the YMCA & the youth hostel groups have excellent resoursces, especially in Europe. They have deals with all the universities to use the dorms during summer break. It's stupid cheap.  ;D

Just Google something like "Youth Hostel Europe".

[Sam]

wesdor is right, the small towns, especially in Germany are really nice. It's amazing how clean they are and how much of the history is still there. We stayed with a really nice family in Hannover while we were there. They rented a room out during Ligna. We haven't spoken with them in a while but if you would like their contact info I can see if we still have it around.

If she goes to France, I recommend her visiting a small town about an hour south of Paris called Chartres-I believe is how it's spelled. I think it was our favorite little town while we were over there.

[jph]

The best way to see Europe on a budjet  is to travel by rail. Buy a railcard that gives you unlimited travel for a month on Europe's railways. When I did it as an 18 yearold we tried to get the night train between cities, so saving time and hostel fees.  ;D ;D

[SwampDonkey]

Both the YMCA & the youth hostel groups have excellent resoursces, especially in Europe. They have deals with all the universities to use the dorms during summer break. It's stupid cheap.  ;D

Just Google something like "Youth Hostel Europe".

I beleive that is how alot of youth travels. I've met a few people in my travels that have traveled in this manner. I haven't any contacts though.

[twoodward15]

Join the military?   I've been in europe at least 12 times in 13 years now.

[Paschale]

I've done the youth hostel thing in England, though only for one night.  It worked quite well for me.  There are books that talk about how to go about "hostelling," as well as ranking them.  Some are not so desirable, and are best to be avoided, but the one I stayed at was terrific.  It's a cheap and easy way to survive.  A friend of mine spent several weeks in Europe with her cousin when they were about your daughter's age, and they primarily did the hostel program.  It worked well for them.

Wesdor, I'm very intrigued by that Spanish villa for $1500 for three weeks--that certainly sounds like a great deal, particularly when splitting it with several people.  How'd you find that?

[wesdor]

Pscahale, Spanish  villa for 3 weeks:

Friends of ours live in Hannover, Germany.  They saw an ad in the Hamburg newspaper for the place.  We had to pay in advance in January, but that wasn't any problem.  This was in 2002 and the Euro wasn't as strong as it is today.  We paid in Euros, but the $1500 was the conversion rate at the time.

Before you get the idea of a huge villa right on the sea, understand that we went to Torro del Mar and then turned UP into the mountains.  We had come from Cordoba that day and had travelled some 2 lane roads, but nothing like this.

The villa was about 45 minute drive up the mountain (at least when we grew accustomed to the roads). The first time up must have taken more like 2 hours.  As we turned off the main road and went through the first small town, I remarked that the road was a bit narrow.  Within the next 2 miles we were along very steep cliffs and the road was much narrower.

We came to a crossroads and my son was navigating. He told me to take a left turn, and I told him that wasn't a road.  Well, he was correct.  We drove another few miles and then came to another very nice but steep road.  This led to a crossroads where we had to take a right turn and go across what seemed to be a razor back spine with at least 1000 foot drops on either side.  (by the time we had driven it a few times it didn't seem that bad),

Another few miles and we saw one of our friends on the road.  He had walked back about 2 km hoping to find us before we gave up. 

Once we got to the place, it was very wonderful.  A small swimming pool and plenty of room for all of us.  It is situated on about 7 acres of orchard and you can see the Mediterranean way off in the distance.  There are a number of tiny towns dotting the mountains and we either walked or drove to a lot of them.  We bought much of our food and supplies in the local farmer markets and tried to live like locals.  The thing we liked most was the fact that just about everyone else in the area spoke only Spanish.  We like to get off the beaten path and find what the local people are like.  For us this was an ideal vacation.  BTW - all three of our children (now 26, 24, and 21) speak Spanish and they had a great time being our interpreters. 

Should you have an interest in staying there, I'm sure I can get the owner's name.  They happen to live in Hamburg and rent the place out by the week. 

Hope that gives you some details without dumping everything on you.

[TW]

About traveling
If she comes to norhern Europe she has to come in summer. In winter we just cope and wait for the spring. I think there is more to see further south like Germany or Denmark or Austria or the Tschek republic. Norway is very interresting but not good for the budget. The further away she gets from the tourist routes the better. 
About working
Anywhere west of the old iron curtain. There are said to be lots of good places east of it too but they still have bad wages over there.