Planning a Europe Trip (for Americans) (Travel Lemming Podcast #11)

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
If you're an American planning a tripto Europe, this podcast is for you.
Here's a 30 second teaser of this episode.
They are now planning for anelectronic travel authorization
system where you're gonna have to pay.
if you're going to like Spain,Portugal, France, Germany,
they are all part of Schengen.
And what that means is,
if you wait and you go inSeptember, you'll find those same

(00:20):
places have like half the people.
It's a lot cheaper.
And it just kind of takes sometime perusing, the flight finders.
But you can really get areally good bang for your buck
if you're planning a trip to Europe,this I think is something that a lot of
people don't think about, but can reallyhelp you, which is to take advantage of.
What's called open jaw itineraries

(00:41):
So Nate, what are your topfive countries in Europe?
So, my number one is also my favoritecountry in the world, which is I'm
Nate Haik, founder of Travel Lemming.
I've been to Europe many times, and Ihave lots of tips to give you today.
I'm here with my co host, BettyHurd, who is a flight attendant.
Betty, how are you doing?
Hi, Nate.
I'm doing great.
I just moved to Los Angeles, so for thosewho don't know, I'm a flight attendant.

(01:04):
I have a whole episode aboutit, too, if you want to go check
that out after this episode.
But I just got transferred to LAX,so I've been here for a few days.
And I'm excited to talk about Europe.
I've been there many timesas a flight attendant.
But before that, I've been going sinceI was eight years old, so we have
plenty to talk about in this episode.
Yeah, I think, so what I think Iwant to do for this episode, so
we're gonna focus on the perspectiveof Americans specifically, because

(01:27):
that's most of our audience.
I know we do have some Europeans whoare listening, and you can listen to
this and maybe make fun of us for asAmericans and our naivete about things.
But for a lot of Americans,Europe is one of their first big
international trips that they take.
And if that's you, if you've never been,I'm going to try to help kind of walk you
through a lot of the issues that we getin a lot of our readers at travellemming.

(01:49):
com, where they have.
Questions about their trips, orwe've kind of heard some things
that they've made in terms ofmistakes at the end of the episode.
I'm going to go over a list of commonmistakes and tips, but I want to
start off with talking about somebroad overview of the things that you
need to know before you go to yourtrip, then we'll have in the middle.
We'll have a segment.
Betty and I are goingto share our top five.

(02:11):
Favorite cities,experiences, a few others.
And then we both cameprepared with what we think.
I asked Betty to do this and I did this.
We came up with ourperfect two week itinerary.
If you only had two weeks forEurope, what would you do?
And we both came up with itineraries.
And I think they're, , I thinkyou and I are, have, have
different versions of that.
So we'll have something to talk about.

(02:32):
Yeah, they're pretty different.
But, uh, we'll get intothat in just a little bit.
Yeah, so if you're going to Europe, bythe way, you're gonna need a backpack.
And so this episode, we're reallyhappy to have our first sponsor,
which is Tortuga backpacks.
Betty's going to have a bitof information later on.
But thank you so much to Tortugafor sponsoring this episode.
So my first tip that I want to say, ifyou're planning a trip to Europe, this I

(02:55):
think is something that a lot of peopledon't think about, but can really help
you, which is to take advantage of.
What's called open jaw itinerarieswhen you're booking your flights
to Europe, book an open jaw.
Nate, what is an open jaw itinerary?
I don't think I knew this term.
Before hearing it from you.
Yeah.
So it's, I mean, if you think abouta jaw, it's like, it's an open jaw.

(03:17):
So if you just imagine something whereit's got one point at one side and
then it goes two different directions.
So the idea of an open jaw itineraryis For your main flight, usually the
biggest expense of a Europe trip isyour flight to get across the Atlantic.
You've got to get from theU. S. to Europe and back.
And typically, that's going tobe one of, probably the biggest

(03:37):
expense for your entire trip.
You can sort of hack it by flyinginto one city in Europe and then
flying home from another city.
And then taking your itinerary betweenthe two cities, which is really easy to
do in Europe because there's a ton ofawesome ways to get around internally
what that means is that you don't have toreturn to the city that you started at.
So you can make a moreefficient itinerary.

(03:58):
And if you're willing to put in some timesearch in different combinations, often
you can end up finding cheaper optionsbecause you find you can take advantage
of whatever happened to be kind of thebest deals, for going one way or another.
Yeah, that's what I've always doneis I figure out the time frame
that I'm able to travel in Europe.
Then I look for the cheapestflight in from America.

(04:19):
And then I look at the cheapestflights out from a different city.
And it just kind of takes sometime perusing, the flight finders.
But you can really get areally good bang for your buck
So, Nate, how would you recommendsomeone goes about booking one
of these OpenJAW itineraries?
so, pretty much all the flight searchengines like Skyscanner, Kayak, Google
flight, have an option, they'll callit either multi stop, multiple cities.

(04:43):
It kind of depends, but usuallyat the top, there's one way.
round trip.
And then if you select likemulti stop, it'll change the
input on sky scanner or wherever.
And it will, instead of just your startand stop cities, it'll have four spots.
And so you put the citywhere you're starting.
And usually that's also the cityyou're returning to if you want
to go back to your same home.

(05:03):
And then you pick two differentcities to try to search and then
it will find a combined itinerary.
For example, if you're flying from NewYork, you could fly New York to London.
And then from Paris back to New York.
And so what that will do is, allow youto have the benefit of taking advantage
of the local travel in Europe, seeingsomething else, and then going back.
Often you can find cheaperdeals as well this way.

(05:25):
The other way to look for itis by combining One way fares.
So you can either do this by booking anopen jaw ticket, which is where there
it's the same ticketed reservation.
It's just that you're leaving.
You're going to and fromdifferent airports, or you
can separately buy tickets.
And sometimes.
It can be cheaper eitherway, it just depends.

(05:46):
But typically what I would say issearch for a one way from your city.
And the more flexibility you havewhen you're booking, the better.
Like, if you're like, I want to go toEurope, and I want to hit up Amsterdam,
Paris, and London for but I'm not,I'm agnostic as to which one of those
I go to first, and you're coming fromNew York, well search one way flights
to all three of them to get there,and see which one is the cheapest.

(06:07):
And then think, okay,if Amsterdam's the cheapest.
And then, thinking about thatlogically, it would make the most
sense probably to return from London.
And then you search the return flight fromLondon, find the best one that you can.
And you can, if you have flexibility onyour days for both the outbound and the
inbound flight, You can really startto find a lot of different options.
And so anyway, I just think Europehas so many different hubs and because

(06:29):
they're all close together, this isa really good way to get that big
purchase because most trips, when you'replanning a trip, start off by getting
your flight to Europe and you just gotto get to the continent somewhere, and
then you can plan your itinerary withinthe continent I mean, they have.
Crazy cheap airfare internally in Europe.
And so it's really just a matter ofgetting yourself there affordably
and then getting yourself home.
Yeah, so this OpenJAW itinerary givesthe implication that you're going

(06:53):
to be going to multiple countries.
So, is that something that you recommendwith Europe, going and trying to hit
up a whole bunch of different spots?
I think, yeah, so I think a lotof Americans don't realize this.
If you, if you like overlay a map ofthe United States, the continental
United States, Alaska's prettybig, but if you put the continental
United States over Europe, likethey're roughly the same size.

(07:14):
And if you're an American, your scaleof what a country sizes is sort of.
Your, your baseline is the USA,but in Europe, this countries tend
to be about the size of a state,and some of them are really small.
I mean, they have city countries in Europeand so you can go to multiple countries on
the same trip, like even for a week, it'svery feasible to go to multiple countries
and depending on where you're at.

(07:35):
Like, you can go to another countryjust as a day trip, in a lot of
Europe, because a lot of these cities,it's like you just take a train and
you're across the border, and ifyou're within, the Schengen zone,
then you won't even have to go throughimmigration in order to do that.
So, the Schengen Zone, can you tellus a little bit about what that is?
with Europe, you have to, if you're anAmerican planning a trip there, one of the

(07:58):
first things you need to do is understandthe difference between the Schengen zone,
the Euro zone, and the European Union.
Probably most Americans have heard ofthe European Union, which is a economic
union, of a bunch of European countriesthey have a lot of trade, it, it works
a little bit differently than, thanwhat Americans might be used to, there's

(08:19):
the Eurozone, which is a similar, butSlightly different set of countries
that uses the euro for their currency.
So you only have to use euros, if you'rein any of the euro zone countries.
So like the currency is thesame in Germany as it is in
Spain, as it is in Portugal.
There are some countries that have theirown, that are not part of, the euro

(08:39):
zone, but are part of the European union.
And then separately from that,this is, it gets super confusing.
Separately from that is Schengen.
And Schengen is, is very important fortravelers because that is the, the
shared zone for immigration purposes.
So, for the countries that, which ismost of the major European countries,
but not all of them, the UK is nota part of any of this since Brexit.

(09:03):
But if you're going to likeSpain, Portugal, France, Germany,
they are all part of Schengen.
And what that means is, is it'sessentially like your visa allows you
to travel freely within those countries.
Once you're in Schengen, you're inSchengen the same as you would be
if you were within another country.
They're not gonna, you're not gonnago through immigration if you're
passing between Spain and Portugal.
you also have to considerthat your allotted time in

(09:26):
Europe is for all of Schengen.
So, for Americans, you typicallyget 90 days when you go to Schengen.
Any, any of the European countries.
You get a 90 day visa upon arrival, and,and we'll talk a bit, they actually, now
you're gonna, potentially gonna have toget a pre authorization, soon enough.
But you get 90 days when you're there.
And what's, a lot of people,especially if you're traveling for a
longer trip, can mess up, is that90 days is for the whole zone.

(09:49):
So if you spend 89 days in Spain,and then you want to go for a
week to France, even if you havenever been to France in your life.
You only get one day in France andthen you've got to get out of there
or else your visa won't you knowYou'll be out of days And so that's
the first thing you kind of have torealize if you're only going for a
shorter trip And probably a lot oflisteners are going for a shorter trip.
What is important is is that youdon't have to deal with the hassles

(10:13):
of immigration when you're movingamong the Schengen countries.
And if you're going for alonger trip, you need to pay
attention to that 90 day thing.
So those are really thetwo, the two key points.
So within the Schengen countries,it's like you, the, you have
freedom of movement and youcan cross an international
border on a train or driving.
And it's not as, it's likecrossing between state borders.
Like it's, you may not even notice itif you're not looking out the window.

(10:35):
Right, they don't stop you andask you for your passport and
say, show me your visa, right?
In general, no, there, there aresome routes and again, it gets super
complicated, like, especially once youget into, like, Eastern Europe, but in
most major destinations, no, once you'rein the Schengen zone, you're good to go.
And now there's slightly differentrules for the UK, because the UK,
since Brexit, Is no longer a part ofthis, this freedom of movement area.

(10:58):
So if you're planning to go to anywherein the United Kingdom, England,
Wales, Scotland, any of that, younow, as of 2025, and this is new as
of January 8th, 2025, Americans needa electronic travel authorization.
It's not a big deal.
You can get it online.
It costs like 10, which is maybe like 12.
But you can't just show up.

(11:18):
You got to go online when you're bookingyour ticket and sign up for that.
So be sure to sign up for theE. T. A. S. We'll put a link
in the, in the show notes.
Europe is talking aboutdoing the same thing.
At some point soon, Americans formany years, Americans have been able
to just go to Europe and show up.
And that's how I've always done it.
You just go to Europe.
You show up, show them your passport.
They let you in for 90 days.
They are now planning for anelectronic travel authorization

(11:41):
system where you're gonna have to pay.
It's only 7.
You're gonna apply online.
It's not a big deal.
It's not yet as of the time of thisrecording in early February, it's not
yet in effect, but they say that itwill be in effect sometime in 2025.
They haven't yet announced the exact date.
So, you know, if you're planning a triplater in the year, you're going to want
to look at this if you're travelingover the summer of 2025 or later.

(12:03):
And it costs 7 to apply online.
95 percent of people supposedlywill get a decision within minutes.
But, you know, you might be in that other5%, so I guess you're gonna want, you, I
would suggest applying for this, kind ofas soon as you can after booking tickets.
The good thing is thatit's good for 3 years.
So if you go back to Europe, if you'rea frequent traveler like me, you only
have to do this once every 3 years.

(12:25):
It's a bit of an annoyance, but, youknow, so you just need to get those
little Little details out of the way.
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So we've talked aboutpreparation to get to Europe.
We've talked about how to get to Europe.
Now I want to talk about how to getaround when you're actually there.
So, in terms of internal transit, how doyou recommend going from place to place?

(13:29):
yeah.
I mean, Europe's great becauseit's so well connected.
I mean, you have lots of options.
You can fly.
Europe has really cheap budget airlines.
So there's Ryanair and EasyJetare two of the big ones.
There's also Wizz Air, if you'reflying in Eastern Europe and
a bunch of different ones.
And it's not uncommon to find internal,like your short little flights between

(13:49):
European cities for 20, 30, 40, especiallyif you're not talking about bag fees.
Now we're going to talk later atthe end about mistakes because
those bag fees can get you.
So you'd want to listen to theend of the podcast if you're
flying Ryanair or easy jet.
But that's one option ischeap budget airlines.
Another option is rail.
So Europe has a. System of trainsthat, and it's so much better than

(14:11):
what we have in the United States.
I mean, other than the Amtrak NortheasternCorridor, we don't have anything
like it, where you can get betweencities by just hopping off a train.
One reason why that is betterthan flying is that with a train,
you don't have as much security.
Usually, you just kind of put yourbag on a thing and you roll through.
So you can show up 10minutes before your train.

(14:32):
It's typically the stations arein the center of the cities.
Whereas the airportsare like in the suburbs.
And so landing at an airport meansyou have to take a taxi into the city.
You know, depending on what timeyou're landing, like that can add an
hour to either end of the journey.
Whereas the train, you're often gettingoff right in the center of the city.
And so that makes it Very convenient.
And so even if a flight is like anhour flight and a train is like three

(14:55):
hours like say between Barcelona andMadrid, for instance, it's about the
same to fly versus taking the trainbecause they have a high speed train.
And by the time you deal with going to theairport, or, you know, and getting into
the city, it actually is more efficientor as efficient to just take the train.
So a lot of Americans really enjoythat because it's a new experience.
Taking the rail travel, I thinkit's That's one really good option.

(15:18):
It can get a little expensive ifyou're going on like longer trips.
Like if, if between for instance, Parisor Rome or like these bigger cities,
I would, I would still personallytypically go with a flight in that case.
Another option is cars.
So you can drive, you canrent a car and you can drive.
And if you're within Europe, youjust drive between the borders.
And, you know, there's some differencesin how they drive in Europe and typically

(15:40):
have smaller cars, smaller roads.
But if you're comfortable with that,that's a good way, to get around.
You can also take advantageof car sharing services.
So there's this really cool,thing called Blah Blah Car.
That's what it's called.
Blah blah car.
I have not heard of that before.
What is that?
So it's like a, I would, it's similarto, it's like a sharing program.
It's a , long haul.

(16:02):
So if you're a driver in Europe, it'svery common for locals in Europe to like
make drives between say, I'm going todrive from Brussels to Berlin and you
know, fuel is quite expensive in Europe.
And so as a way of kind of defrayingthat cost, they'll go on to blah, blah
car and they say, Hey, I've got a car.
I've got three spots in my car.
And they'll typically say how much.

(16:23):
space they have in their trunkfor luggage and all that, and I'm
going between Brussels and Berlin.
And if you want to go anywherealong that route, you can kind
of book a spot in that trip.
And I've done it before.
It's really, you get into acar with random strangers.
I mean, it's, it seems sort of weird, butit's not that different than like Uber.
It's just over a much longer point.
So you're just, it's like sharedroad trips with strangers, I guess.

(16:44):
Yeah, and also buses.
When I was doing my solo trip aroundEurope, which I have an article
about, I always took FlixBuses.
And it was super, super affordable togo from country to country that way.
So the, the budget airlinesand the Flix buses were my
bread and butter at the time.
I remember taking an 18 flightfrom Barcelona to Dublin.
And honestly, those trips werekind of dictated by the cheap

(17:08):
transportation that I could find.
And so it's just, Europe is somuch more affordable when it comes
to this public transportation.
You're going to find deals everywherecompared to the U S they're everywhere.
Yeah, on, on the buses.
So there's a site called Flixbus,particularly in central Europe, F L I
X bus, and you can find really cheapbus fares, and I've taken that around

(17:30):
like the Czech Republic and Austria andsome other places out in central Europe.
So that's a good way.
Another one I want to mention is, by boat.
So, In the north, like, if you'regoing among the Baltics, like,
there's some ferries and things.
But you can also go on cruises.
And my very first trip to Europe, allthe way back in 2008, right after I
graduated college, I did, I took a cruise.

(17:51):
I took a cruise from the UK allthe way down to Rome and back.
And I think a lot of people like toknock cruises because it's, there's
some, you know, if you're not stayingovernight in the city, you never
get to experience the nightlife.
For a lot of people, it feels like alittle bit too like not independent
enough, I guess, but there area lot of benefits for cruises,
particularly if you're a travelerwho is like mobility challenged, like

(18:16):
my mom, for instance, like she's,
it's limited in her ability to kind oflike walk around and to go between places.
And it's a lot of stress to haveto like move hotels every couple
nights to go between cities.
But if you want to see Europe, if youwant to see all these cities, well,
a lot of them are situated along thecoast and they have cruise ports.
And so you can take one cruise shipwhere you have one bed and you sleep

(18:36):
in that same bed and then you'regoing between these cities in the
evening and then you wake up andyou explore the cities in the day.
And you can see a lot of sites that way.
They also have river cruises.
In Central Europe that will take youalong the rivers, like there's a really
popular route that will run like Prague,Vienna, Budapest, Bratislava, and that
is, those are much smaller boats, and theydo sometimes more up overnight so that

(18:59):
you do get that chance to like go out todinner and go out for the night and then
, come back to your riverboat, so Vikingriver cruises, it's, is famous in the U.
S. for advertising these, if you'reon, like, late night television.
And I've never taken a river cruise,but it, like, one of those longer ones.
But I think it's interesting,especially if you're, like, a family,
if you're traveling with folks whoare older or have mobility challenges.

(19:20):
I, you know, I do want to mention that.
That's a good way to get a tasteof Europe, and it's really simple,
because you just book the cruise,and then you, you kind of just get
on and go off, in each of the cities.
Yeah.
I was just going to say, cruisesare really great for families.
The first time I ever wentto Europe was in 2006.
I think I was eight years oldand my family and all my cousins
went there about 18 of us total.

(19:40):
We didn't have to unpack.
We had the same rooms theentire time for two weeks.
That's like the greatest part about it.
I will always sing the praisesof cruises because I think it's.
So easy and stress free nothaving to pack up all the time.
But yeah, they have somereally great cruise deals.
In the off seasons, like the summertimeis going to be a little bit pricier
on the topic of off seasons, summertime,you know, when is the best time that

(20:02):
you recommend visiting Europe, Nate?
Personally, I like to goin the shoulder season.
So The most popular time and probablythe time that most people will want to
go is summer because Europe is very cold.
It's actually quite far north.
We tend to think of it as being on thesame latitude as the United States,
but it's quite a bit further north.

(20:22):
And so in general, it just has a muchcolder climate, like even if you're in
Spain, which is the southern of Europe.
I was there this past March andeven in, like Madrid, which you
look at a map, you're like, Oh,that's relatively far South March.
It should be relatively okay.
Like it was still pretty cold.
So Europe gets a couple solidmonths of summer , and that's

(20:43):
particularly June, July, and August.
And those months are whenEurope tends to fill up.
It's the most popular months totravel for Americans, particularly
July and August, because it tendsto align with the school calendar.
So a lot of families go, universitiesare off and all of Europe just
kind of fills with tourists.
However, more touristsmeans higher prices.

(21:05):
It means more crowds.
It means it's harderto book those flights.
It means hotels book up faster.
And so, because I go almostevery summer, the summer high
season can get a little intense.
Like you feel like you're just beingpushed around like a bunch of lemmings
inside of some of these sites.
But if you go for shoulder season, sowhich would be like May or September.

(21:28):
Then you'll still have pretty good weatherlike it won't be the like perfectly hot
summer weather, but in some cases that'sokay can actually be more comfortable.
It can get really hot.
Not every hotel in Europe has aC, which we'll talk about later.
I was actually in the New York Timescomplaining about this a few years ago.
Which we'll talk about that later.
But the main point I'm getting at isthat it can get really hot in the summer.

(21:49):
And so in May and September,it's a little bit cooler.
I personally find itmore pleasant weather.
The beaches aren't necessarily as ifyou want to like go to the beaches.
I don't think Europe hasthe best beaches personally.
Like if you're an American,go to Florida, go to Mexico.
I don't think you go to Europe forthe beaches, but the Europeans do.
They all go down to, like, the coastof France, the coast of Spain, to
Portugal, and they all go out andsun themselves on the beaches.

(22:11):
And the other thing that youhave to know about is Europe,
like, shuts down in August.
Everybody takes vacation.
I don't know if you, if you have any,like, European friends or if you've ever,
like, when we're working with folks inEurope, they just sit there out of office.
To be like, Hey, I'm gone forthe next five weeks and they
just completely disappear fromwork and they all go on vacation.

(22:33):
Like literally nothing is, happening.
Other than vacation during that time.
And so it means that like,they all go south too.
They all, all the Northern Europeans,like that's their time to get the sun.
So they all fly down to the Greece, Italy.
You know, Spain, the south ofFrance, these places all fill up and
that means it's really expensive.
It's really crowded.

(22:54):
But if you wait and you go inSeptember, you'll find those same
places have like half the people.
It's a lot cheaper.
And personally, I think the slightlycooler weather is actually better,
especially when you're like exploringinside of the cities and stuff.
So May or September,
Yeah, I've personally neverbeen to Europe in August.
I've been in the summertime,high time, super crowded.

(23:15):
Like you said, like all the mainattractions are just jam packed
with people, which kind of takesaway the beauty of those places.
So for me the best time that I wentwas in April I found that a lot of the
places I went to at the time it was likePortugal, Spain, France, and Italy You
could just kind of you could get aroundthe buses and trains weren't super packed
okay, so if you're traveling to Europein August or any time in the summer,

(23:39):
be sure to book your hotels in advance.
And that's generally true in Europe, alot of the best hotels tend to book up.
I want to quickly mention that wehave guides to where to stay in a
lot of the big cities in Europe.
We have locals in several citiesin the UK, including London, Paris,
and we have guides to other cities.
So just search whatevercity you want to go to.
And travel lemming where to stay andyou'll find great guides that will

(24:02):
help you find the best area of thecity the best hotels And then book your
hotels early a lot of hotels have freecancellation these days So best to just
lock in those rates because sometimesthey'll get really crazy if you wait
until the last minute so That's that'skind of the sum of my tips, for folks
who are Planning, you know, what youshould know before you plan your trip.
We'll talk a bit about tips andmistakes after, but let's go through

(24:24):
some of our top fives, Betty.
Yeah, I think this is the hardestpart of the whole podcast, was coming
up with our favorite countries,favorite cities, our top experiences.
But yeah, I'd love to share.
So Nate, what are your topfive countries in Europe?
So, my number one is also my favoritecountry in the world, which is
Georgia, the country, not the state.
And yes, it's in Europe.

(24:45):
It's, you know, it's, the Caucus mountainsare the boundary between Europe and Asia.
And the Georgians will fight you ifyou say that they are not in Europe.
It is such an amazing country.
I think if you go to ourpodcast, where we talk about the.
50 best places to travel in 2025.
We've got a couple locationsin Georgia on there.
Georgia is, so amazing.

(25:06):
Like, I don't even know how todescribe it sometimes in words.
It's because it sits at the crossroadsof the Middle East, Asia, and Europe.
It has all these differentcultures that have come through it.
But they have their ownlike distinct culture.
Like they have theirown distinct language.
Like most languages are part of likebroader language families, but Georgian
is it's like own proper language.
And even when it's written out,like it literally looks like Elvish.

(25:29):
So when you're going around theselike very old towns, you see the
Georgian language and it looks like.
Like something from Lord of the Rings,like the written language, and the food,
and the songs, everything is very unique,it's a mountainous country, you have these
old towns, some of them have these giantwatchtowers that they built, like they
used to, there used to be people thatwould like live in a watchtower, and they

(25:50):
would have these little stone watchtowersthat would guard the entrance to their
valley of these mountains, And there aresome of these parts of Georgia that were
never conquered by the Mongols that were,you know, that the Ottomans weren't able
to conquer because they just couldn't getup into these like deep mountain villages.
And they maintain their own cultures,there's their own regional languages.

(26:12):
You know, within Georgia,there's all these like little
different sub parts of it.
We've got a ton of guysto Georgia on travel.
I mean, I have some videos on our mainYouTube channel from back in the day
that you could talk more about that,but that's definitely my number one.
I could spend a wholepodcast talking about that.
Maybe we'll sometime.
And then after that, Iwould say probably Spain.
I mean, Spain probably be my number two.
It's definitely the placewhere I spend the most time.

(26:34):
I speak Spanish.
And.
You know, as listeners know,Clara is from Argentina, and
so day to day we speak Spanish.
So , I really enjoy going toSpanish speaking countries since
I've learned Spanish, because it'slike such a different experience
when you speak the language.
But there's so much within Spain,and I love the warmer weather,
personally, and I love tapas culture.
Italy, I would, got to put onthe list because of the food.

(26:55):
I really like Croatia.
I think it's got some of the mostbeautiful water, in Europe and Ireland.
Can't beat a good pub and a good, justthe culture of Ireland is so interesting.
So I'd say Georgia, Spain,Italy, Croatia, Ireland.
How about you, Betty?
Top five countries.
My top five countries, I havetwo overlapping with you,
which are Italy and Croatia.
Italy, like you said, for thefood, I think Italian food is.

(27:18):
By far my favorite food.
I could just go crazy there withthe pasta and the desserts that
they have the wine It's amazing.
And then germany is my number twoI've been to Germany more times
than any other country in Europe.
I've been to Munich and Frankfurt, Berlin.
Also, the beer culture, likethe beer gardens everywhere.

(27:39):
I'm a big beer drinker, soGermany's always so much fun
going to the beer gardens.
And I have yet to go to Oktoberfest, butthat's a huge thing on my bucket list.
Croatia, like you said, thewater there is Unbelievable.
I also have found that, the places I'vegone in Croatia, maybe it just had to
do with the time of year I went, but thecrowds in Croatia were, were not nearly
as bad as like the beaches of Italy thatI've been to, which had kind of similar.

(28:01):
Water,
Did you find any, there arelike rocky beaches in Croatia.
They are.
Yeah.
I went cliff diving there.
Like there weren't really placeswhere you could kind of wade
into the water on the beach.
It was like, you had to Dive offof a cliff to get into it and then
climb back up the mountain to getout, which I thought was so much fun.
Like I absolutely adored my time in Split.
Next is Poland.

(28:23):
Again, great food in Poland.
I love pierogies and also it's supercheap there compared like the Eastern
European countries are a lot cheaper than.
The really popular Western ones.
And I would go out by myself, walkaround in these gardens in Krakow.
And then, also, like, there'sa lot of history in Poland.
Like, I went and saw Auschwitz,
So I think it's a greatplace for history buffs.

(28:45):
But again, just really budget friendly.
And then last is Scotland.
I love Scottish people.
They're so inviting and hilariousand I've really only been to
Edinburgh but, I love, like, goingout to the bars there and the clubs.
It's just like this crazy experiencewhere they have a club in, like, an
old, historic 300 year old churchand, it's just such a, such a unique

(29:06):
place with the castles and the culture.
So those are my top five.
And for listeners at home, we've gotsome guides to some of these places.
So Taylor has guides to Croatia.
We have a number of guides to Scotland.
So Louise, is one of our local riders.
And she has guides to Glasgow, toEdinburgh, places to visit in Scotland.
bunch of guides to Ireland.
I have some, and we have a wholepodcast, where I did an interview

(29:28):
with Abigail after she had justdone a road trip through Ireland.
So, go check out some of that content.
Okay, so we talked about countries.
Now, Europe is a greatplace for city hopping.
If you had to pick top five cities, Betty,
My top five cities are Vienna inAustria, Postitano, Italy, Split,
Croatia, which I just mentioned,Krakow, Poland, also talked about that.
And then Palma de Mallorca in Spain,which is like a, this beautiful

(29:52):
crystal blue waters island,off the Eastern coast of Spain.
But I think most of all Postitano it'sright on the Amalfi coast in Italy,
it's this cliffside, incredible city thatall the, all these houses are just stacked
up the mountain and there's views ofthe water below with these winding roads
that go through this incredible streetswith markets that again are just like

(30:13):
stacked on top of each other and it justlooks like a place out of a fairy tale.
I think that's probably one of mytop places in the entire world that
I think people should visit if you'regoing to Italy, flying into Naples,
make sure that you take a day tripor take a couple days in Positano.
So what are your top five cities, Nate?
I mean, it's hard to pick, but I have.
Barcelona, Madrid, big fan of Spain,Venice, there's, just cause it's so

(30:35):
unique, I mean the whole city is builtover water, the history of how they, I
mean they literally, it was built likea long time ago by building up over this
marsh, and like, it's, the streets areliterally canals, it's, it's just, it's
Venice is super touristy, but it's also,really a unique place in the world.
And I've, I've been to alot of places in the world.
There's nowhere like it.

(30:55):
So visit Venice, London.
I love go back constantly.
It's a classic, but I would sayprobably my favorite is Budapest.
I think Budapest is such anincredibly underrated city.
There's a ton of history.
It has.
Stunning architecture, Hungarian cultureand cuisine is really interesting.
And I just, I just love, like it'sgot the river going through, it's
got really nice, beautiful sights.

(31:15):
You have the, the chain bridge, whichis just like stunning bridge and you
go back and forth between these bridgeson the Buddha side and the pest side.
I've got a guide tothings to do in Budapest.
You could check out if that'son your list, but I would say if
you're planning a trip to centralEurope, don't sleep on Budapest.
Alright, so what are some of yourfavorite experiences in Europe?
Yeah.
So I thought for this one, these are justkind of like some things that I think.

(31:39):
I would recommend everyoneto try at some point.
So one is hopping aroundthe Greek islands.
There's so many beautiful islandsdown in Greece and you can take
these ferries between them.
And obviously they're the famousones like Santorini and Mykonos.
And I've been there.
I didn't love Santorini.
I have an article on travellemming about why I think you.

(31:59):
It's okay to skip Santorini.
I think it's really beautiful.
You have all those stunning, hotels thatare kind of carved into the side of a
cliff that like looks out over the sea.
And it's incredible for Instagrams, right?
But, you can get similar views ona lot of other islands that are
less crowded and less expensive.
And that was my maincritique of Santorini.
But I think going to islandsin, Greece, highly recommended.

(32:23):
Just wandering around the oldtowns, Europe has so many old towns.
I mean, you were talking about like Krakowearlier and split, and these have these
old ancient towns with cobblestone streetsand many of them are pedestrian only.
And it's just such a different, uniqueexperience, especially for Americans.
Tapas, I love Spain and, you know,in Spain they have the culture of
tapas, which is these small littledishes that you can come out and eat.
And there's just nothing likebouncing between tapas bars and

(32:45):
sort of tasting different dishes.
Similarly, trying the pub scene inIreland or the UK because that's
really a big part of their culture.
Just going in and spending timehaving some pints going between pubs.
And then my last one, this is in Budapest.
So as I said, Budapestis my favorite city.
Cannot recommend it enough.
One of the big things to do there isto take like a dinner cruise, along the
river, And you get these stunning viewsof the Parliament, Which I think the

(33:08):
Hungarian Parliament is the single mostbeautiful building in the entire world.
Like, the only thing that comes closefor me would be like the Taj Mahal,
But I just think the intricacies of theHungarian Parliament Parliament is the
the spires that sort of jada up with this.
I want to say it's gothic or neogothic style I shouldn't be talking
about architecture, but it's stunningAnd so you take a boat and you have

(33:31):
all of these incredible sites onboth sides of you I highly recommend
taking one of those at sunset.
You can do it as part of theselike Tours that you buy that
are expensive dinner cruises andthose are nice and I've done those
here's a tip for you.
Budapest has a public transitboat that you can take.
If you're on a budget, this is likeone of my favorite ways to get around.
A ride only costs about 2 and theyactually have like a bar on board and

(33:56):
they have food and you can sit up atthe top and they have tables and seats.
And it will go between the differentstops on the Buda and the pest side
and It's called the d14 and if you goto travel lemming best things to do in
budapest It's number six on my list andI have a link in all the details on how
to do this But a lot of tourists don'tknow about this just it's just basically
like a bus on the river, but they havea bar And for a couple euros you can

(34:20):
have an amazing incredible experience
Alright, so those are my top five.
Betty, five experiences that,that you love in Europe.
Well, I had my first legal beer inMunich, and like I said earlier,
Germany has such awesome beer gardens.
We were at the Hofbrauhaus,and it was so much fun.
So if you go to Germany.
Make sure to enjoy the beer garden scene.

(34:40):
It's, it's just the greatest time.
Also I went on an Otleyrun in, the UK in Leeds.
If you don't know what an Otley runis, it's like a themed bar crawl
where, our theme was like the elderly.
So we all got dressed up as oldladies and old men and we went
to, thrift stores to buy all thesereally old clothes and canes.
And we dyed our hair gray.

(35:01):
And, we went to like 15different pubs for the full day.
And I guess this is like a big thingthat at least like younger people,
college students do in the UK.
Tons of fun.
I think one of my favoritethings is just driving in Italy.
As a lot of, you know, I broke mycollarbone driving a Vespa on the
Amalfi coast, so I am not fit to drivein Italy and, you know, it's just like

(35:22):
a life or death experience wheneveryou take public transportation there,
if you're on a bus, a private car.
They drive like maniacs and somehowthey all just kind of know how to
navigate each other and it's, it'sjust like the most exhilarating
experience the first solo adventureI ever took, started in Amsterdam and,
like I said earlier, ended in Split.

(35:43):
So, in Croatia.
So, that was, a greatgrowing experience for me.
I'll never forget my two monthsof solo travel throughout Europe.
I'm actually just about to record anepisode with Skye, who is one of our
solo travel experts at Travel Lemming.
She's got tons of guides.
So we're going to be recording anepisode about solo travel as a female.

(36:03):
So make sure to, keep an ear outfor that episode when it comes out.
So what about hidden gems in Europe, Nate?
So first off, I would say almost allof Eastern Europe is still pretty
under traveled, because so many ofthe connections to the U. S. are from
like Western and Southern Europe,and just because of the history of
the Iron Curtain and all of that,Americans haven't explored it as much
in the East, but I love Eastern Europe.

(36:25):
We already talked about myfavorite country, Georgia.
I really love Ukraine.
Right now is not the best time to go,while, they're still dealing with the
invasion from Russia, but it was oneof my favorite destinations and as
soon as it is safe, I highly recommendAmericans putting that on your list.
Kosovo!
Very underrated Balkan countries, allof the Balkans are underrated, but I

(36:45):
found Kosovo super interesting, theylove Americans in, in Kosovo, like you
will see American flags everywhere.
It's really interesting whenyou say you're from the US
people are super friendly.
The city of Seville in Spain or Sevesiain Espanol, is, I think, of an under
visited city, like within Spain.
There's so much in Spain, andso it's easy to get skipped, but

(37:07):
that's, it's like so beautiful.
Like the central area and the churchand everything, it's just so beautiful.
Tallinn, so that's themain city in Estonia.
Tallinn literally looks like ascene out of like a Disney movie.
Like with castles, it's a little old townthat has a wall around it, and It looks
like a fairytale and you can go duringthe winter and then when it's like covered

(37:28):
in snow and then it looks like a winterfairytale, so those are a couple of my
my own favorites Anything anything elsethat you got in terms of favorites, Benny?
I don't think I know a ton ofhidden gems because I've gone to
a lot of the bigger areas, but,Sintra, Portugal is my number one.
It's north of Lisbon.
takes about an hour,by train to get there.
And it's got all these ancientcastles, these incredible cliff sides.

(37:50):
With these crazy rock formationsinto this like beautiful blue water.
It's one of the most gorgeousplaces I've ever seen in my life.
So if you ever find yourself inLisbon, look into a day trip to Sintra.
So do you have any places stillon your bucket list in Europe?
I mean, there's lots of I'm at the pointwhere I go back to a lot of favorites
a lot But there's some things I haven'tdone so I've never seen the Northern
Lights, I'm not a cold weather person,so I don't tend to do as many winter

(38:13):
trips, but I really want to go to likeIceland or the north of Norway or Finland
and see the Northern Lights, and thenalso I've never been to Malta, which
is, which I think would be really cool.
Yeah, I also really,really want to go to Malta.
It looks gorgeous.
I think it's a little bit harderto get to, but that's one of the
biggest things on my bucket list.
And just like the Balkan countries, I'vealways wanted to go to Albania and Bosnia.

(38:33):
The food seems amazing.
The crowds seem a little bit lighter.
Greece, I still haven't been to Greeceand I'm actually going to my best
friend's wedding in September there.
So that'll be my first time there.
Can't wait for that.
And Scandinavia just seems so beautiful.
But yeah, there's, there's somany things on my bucket list
though, I could go on and on.
All right, Nate.
So if you had two weeks in Europe,what would be your perfect itinerary?

(38:56):
So I think I made an itinerary for folkswho have never been to Europe, and if
you're an American and this is yourfirst trip, or if it's your like your
only trip, I wouldn't necessarily saythis is, this is what I would recommend.
for a first time itinerary.
So first three days, I would,I would start in London,
spend three days in London.
I would take the Eurostar to Paris,spend day three through six in Paris.

(39:17):
Then I would take a train up to Amsterdam,spend, day seven and eight in Amsterdam.
Then days ten and twelve, I wouldbook a flight from Amsterdam down
to Venice, an internal flight.
And Venice is just amazing.
I would explore the canals of Venice,and then I would fly again to Rome,
explore the Colosseum, explore theVatican, see some of that history,

(39:38):
and then I would fly back to the U.
S. And so, I think that, you know,London, Paris, Amsterdam, Venice,
Rome, it's doable in two weeks.
It is a fairly fast paced itinerary,but that gets you a taste of, you
get to go to the UK, you get togo to France, you get to check out
the Netherlands and also Italy.
So it gives you a taste of several of thedifferent regions of Europe and definitely

(40:00):
takes in a lot of the highlights.
What about you, Betty?
You have two weeks.
You know, 14 days in Europe,what would be the itinerary that
you would tell people to take?
Mine's very fast paced as well.
Especially towards the end ofit, but start in Munich, Germany.
Get your beers, enjoy Germany, takea bus to Vienna, Austria, go see
the Kiss by Gustav Klimt at theBelvedere Palace, which is my favorite

(40:23):
art museum in the entire world.
Then you're going to take another busso you can see the countryside to Lake
Bled, Slovenia, which is one of the mostpicturesque places you could ever go to.
And you can do a lot of hiking there.
So this is kind of your like,reprieve from the city life.
Then, you're going to take another busto split Croatia, enjoy the cliff
sides there, the water, then you'regonna fly from Split to Naples because

(40:46):
you have to get your Italian food.
And there's a lot ofawesome history in Naples.
And then after Italy, you're gonnago to Palma de Mallorca, Spain.
And that's where you're gonna end itwith the amazing beaches, Spanish food.
You can't go wrong ending on an island.
Okay.
So you've got a couple itineraries.
Now let's get into some of the tipsand mistakes that we see people making.

(41:07):
So, you know, Betty on travel, I mean, weget comments all the time on our articles.
And by the way, folks, if you're planninga trip to Europe, we've got tons of
articles, I really encourage you toclick the button at the top that says
ask me a question in the comments,and you can ask our writers questions.
We respond all the time.
I mean, I wake up, and typicallyone of the first things I do
is I respond to comments thatpeople have left on the blog.
And through years and years of doingthis, I've just seen so many different

(41:30):
tips and mistakes that people kindof make when they're traveling to
Europe, especially for Americans.
So one thing that Americans oftenstruggle with in Europe is water.
Because you know in the U. S., Like yougo to a restaurant and they bring out
like this giant bucket of like, of a cup.
It's like, it's not even a cup.
It's like a vase.
And they just like fill itto the top with ice water.

(41:50):
And like the, the servers will justcome by and like keep filling up your
water throughout your whole time there.
Well, it's not like that in Europe.
In Europe, if you order a water, firstoff in, it depends on the country.
Some countries you can get it free.
But in others, like you end up havingto buy it and they'll bring you out
like the smallest little bottle orsometimes like literally a thousand.
Thimble of water.

(42:11):
And if you're out walking around inthe middle of the summer and some
old town and the sun's beaten downon you and just getting really hot,
it can be hard to stay hydrated.
And so what I say is like plan forthis, bring a refillable water bottle.
Try to fill it up along the way.
A lot of old cities in Europeactually have like free.
Clean water taps.
Like some of them are really oldthat you can tap into and you
can fill up your thing, but justmake sure to like, stay hydrated.

(42:35):
And like, even in a restaurant, likeget ready for the fact that like buying
water, they're going to bring out theselike smaller, smaller little bits.
Yeah, that's something I'malways dehydrated when I travel
especially in Europe So make sureespecially if you're backpacking
around you got to stay hydrated
Another thing that Americansoften complain about is ice.
Like we really like icein the U S and they don't.
Put ice as like, it's not thedefault to bring out ice in

(42:57):
your drink as much in Europe.
So just be prepared for thatsimilarly Many places particularly
in like northern europe.
Do not have air conditioning in thehotels So like in berlin, for instance
It's not uncommon for even like nicehotels to just not have air conditioning
because you know It's generally coolLike it's maybe only one or two months
out of the year that it would be hotenough to really need it anyway So

(43:19):
they just don't have air conditioningor these older buildings just weren't
built at a time when air conditioningwas around because they're so old.
And so it's not as much a part likeclimate, conditioning is not as much
a part of the culture in Europe.
And I don't know about you, but Ifind it super hard to sleep without
air conditioning on in the summer.
Like I just get like really
Oh, I cannot.
Yeah, I can't sleep if it's hot at all.

(43:41):
A lot of Americans feel the same way,and so when you're booking a hotel,
you cannot, like, I would just assumein the U. S. that like a hotel in
Florida, like I wouldn't even thinkto double check the description for
does it have air conditioning, but youcannot make that assumption in Europe,
like you need to confirm that it has A.
C. if that's something that's importantto you, and I didn't do this, so

(44:04):
this is a mistake, I learned the hardway back in 2017, when I was going
on my big trip around the world,I was in Berlin and I was there in
the middle of this like record heatwave that they had at the time.
It was a record.
I think they've had higher onecents and I actually ended up
being quoted in the New York Times.
This is kind of a funny story.
I'll put a link in the shownotes, but, I, they interviewed

(44:24):
me and it's not the best quote.
Like I'm, I'd come off as like super.
Whiny, like I'm just like, it'slike Nate Hague from Denver was
actually, they didn't even sayNate Hague, they misspelled it.
They said Nat Hague withoutthe E and it's still like that.
So that was, you know, I, in theNew York times is a Nat anyway.
So Nat Hague from Denver.

(44:44):
was recently in Berlin, quote, in avery nice four star hotel, but found
the heat fairly unbearable inside therooms, which of course don't have A. C.
I knew that going in, he said, but whenI called to ask for a fan, the person at
the front desk said, yes, I know fans arestandard in American hotels, but that's
just not how it works here in Europe.
And then my favorite line.
Where it says, Mr. Hake did not get a fan.

(45:07):
So that is my one appearance in theNew York times famous for not getting
a fan, but I thought it was crazy.
Like they didn't even have afan, like, you know, and this
was, it was, it was really hot.
And so I'm just sitting there sweatingthrough the whole night and that,
and this was, this was a nice hotel.
I felt like at the time,I remember being like.
like righteous indignation because Ifelt like I had overspent on this hotel

(45:30):
and then I get there and I just like,can't even sleep because it's so hot.
So something to watch out for ifyou're traveling in the summer,
do not assume that your hotelhas air conditioning in Europe.
what about safety?
So, you know, like a lot of America,this is everyone always asks about
this, like a lot of Americans havethis perception that travel is unsafe.
And we've talked in prior podcastsabout how actually statistically

(45:51):
sometimes you're less safe in the US,but safety is still a concern in Europe,
anytime that you're somewhere thatyou're not, like you're a tourist,
you're going to be a target, right?
Like for thieves andall that sort of stuff.
So how, how have you felt, travelingin Europe about safety, Betty?
never felt unsafe in the way thatlike someone was threatening me.
The only thing that I've reallyexperienced was pickpocketers

(46:16):
or, you know, just petty theft.
Like one time in, in Barcelona, I wasat a very nice restaurant and I left
my purse hanging on my chair and bythe end of the dinner, it was gone.
And I had no idea howsomeone just took it.
Like I was leaning back on this chairand they took it and I didn't notice.
So that was the only thing that happened.
Luckily I didn't havemy passport on me, so.
Really the biggest thing I reallyrecommend is for people to have your

(46:39):
passport on your body at all timesSo you can have one of those kind of
dorky little passport holders thatyou tuck in under your shirt or like
under your belt Just to make surethat nobody steals anything from you.
But besides like theft like thatI've never really felt unsafe.
But what about you
never had any major incidences.
You do see pickpockets.
Especially in the really crowded areas.

(47:00):
Barcelona is a famous one when you'rewalking through the Gothic quarter where
it's these like really narrow old streets.
And when you get a ton of people ina crowd and you're up, that's where
potentially like, you know, if you're, ifyou've ever been in a crowd where like,
it's so crowded that you can't even,you're not like, Exactly aware of what's
going on around you and you're kind ofbeing bumped and pushed and so that's the

(47:20):
Place where pickpockets can strike andso you just when you're in crowds Make
sure that you have your valuables in aplace where you kind of have control over
them Sometimes if it gets really crowdedI'll just like I carry my wallet in my
front pocket and this is this thing thatI see a lot of American men doing is
putting their wallet in like if they havejeans or shorts on in their back pocket.

(47:40):
And that is you're asking for a pickpocketif you're carrying your wallet in your
back pocket through these crowded streets.
So move it to your front pocket or moveit inside of like a cross body bag or
something that you have in front of you.
And then if If I feel like there's a lotof people around me, I'll usually put
my hand on my phone, and like have myphone in my pocket and just kind of have
my hand over it to know that it's there,until I get somewhere less crowded.

(48:01):
So that, that's my main tip,mainly pickpockets and stuff.
You see some, TikTok has lately gotreally popular with this like trend
of people posting videos about how,how be careful, it's not safe in
all these random European cities.
And because Fear is a big thing that getspeople to share stuff on social media.
I think that this kind of, youknow, gets overplayed a little bit.

(48:22):
So don't worry too muchabout it, but be smart.
If you go out drinking, there's a bigculture of drinking throughout Europe.
So if you do that, make sure that youhave someone trustworthy with you.
And if you're solo traveling, I recommendgoing with a group from your hostel.
A lot of hostels will, will hostpub crawls and bar crawls and just
making sure that you establish.
A time to be home with another person.

(48:42):
And, and if you do that, I really do thinkthat you, you've got your bases covered.
So, when it comes to packing, what doyou need to bring with you to Europe?
So, first thing, walking shoes.
Cause a lot of Americans are surprisedyour step count will go way up.
I can see it like on the Apple healthapp where it has your steps, you can
literally see the months that I'm inEurope because I'm like just walking so

(49:03):
much more so comfortable walking shoes.
Of course you need an adapter.
You can get like just the generaladapter, different plugs over there.
In a lot of the countries, a. Hangingtoiletry bag is something that I
really like because, especiallyif you're changing hotels a lot as
you're traveling through Europe.
I just have one that everything's in thebag and you kind of unzip it and then it
hangs down and put everything in there.

(49:24):
And those are kind of my essentials.
I don't overthink packing too much.
We have lots of packinglists on Travel Lemming.
And I know a lot of peoplereally think through every
single thing that they bring.
But, bring enough clothes for a good day.
Bring comfortable clothes.
Any essentials for you, Betty?
Yeah, I think a rainjacket is really important.
There's a lot of places thatget really rainy, especially
during certain times of the year.
And also if you only plan to travelwith a carry on size bag, like if you're

(49:48):
traveling with just a backpack, makesure that it fits those carry on sizes.
Like for example, our, our sponsor TortugaBackpacks, those are awesome for a trip
through Europe because then those budgetairlines won't get you at the gate, which
has happened to me so many times where youpay like 30 for, for a ticket somewhere.
But your bag is just slightlyoversized, so then they charge you

(50:10):
80 euros for your oversized bag.
So make sure that your bag fitsthose carry on requirements.
on that subject do you travel with abackpack or a suitcase or kind of depends?
Well, as a flight attendant, I alwayshave my suitcase with me on those kinds
of trips, so I've gotten, like, reallyused to traveling with a suitcase.
But when it comes to Europe,there's a lot of uneven

(50:30):
streets, cobblestone streets.
I love having a backpack in thosesituations because I hate rolling
my suitcase over those streets.
What about you?
I've done both.
When I did my big trip around theworld, I only had just one backpack
and a day bag and you can do that,especially for budget travelers.
Like if you're doing the hostelscene where you're going between
hostels and stuff, you don't wanttoo much stuff because there's
not that much space in the hostel.

(50:51):
It's more to manage.
It's more to pay for.
It's more to carry.
You're walking a lot with your bags.
But, you know, I think for all thetravelers, suitcases are generally fine.
Like you said, the, thecobblestone streets, I have a
particular memory in Prague.
Of, I was struggling to find like anAirbnb or something and I had a suitcase
and it was like an hour of me walkingin the sun on those cobblestone streets.

(51:15):
And when you drag your suitcase,I mean, it sounds like gunfire.
It's like clack, clack, clack,clack, clack, clack, clack as
you're going back and forth.
And I just, it was just souncomfortable and everyone's looking
at you and I just felt awful.
So,
ruin the bag usually.
Oh, it's just, it's not, they're not.
Yeah.
I mean, that, you know,they did not think about.
suitcases when they were designingthe streets 500 years ago.

(51:35):
So, I think it kind of depends upon whereyou're going and also if you're doing
more walking and you're not taking taxisand stuff, then a backpack makes sense.
But you can manage either way.
Okay, on money, a fewquick tips for y'all.
So first off, ATMs, if you've nevertraveled abroad before as an American,
you should make sure that you have a debitcard that refunds So I use Charles Schwab.

(51:57):
That's a very popular one.
There are some others that have,you know, banks that will pay
back your, your debit card fees.
So with a Schwab debit card, I goto any ATM anywhere in the world.
I don't even worry about the feebecause they just reimburse you.
They do charge you, but you get acredit for it back on your, Account,
in Europe, they have these like Eurostar, Euro ATMs, I think they're

(52:18):
called and they're everywhere.
They're ubiquitous.
We'll put a photo up onthe screen , on YouTube.
As you can see what these look like.
Sometimes they have crazy fees, Betty.
Like, I've seen 10, 12 Euro fees.
And that adds up
Yeah, that's wild.
And the other thing that you have todo is you have to be careful, you have
to, don't accept the ATM's conversion.
Because that's going to end up,you're not going to get a good deal.
Like they're going to, they're going togive you their conversion rate, which

(52:40):
includes like, you know, a little cutfor the, a little cut for the ATM owner.
You want to let your bank do thatbecause you're more likely to get, I
know Schwab gives the inter, interbankexchange rate, which is like the, the
best rate that you're going to get.
So, it'll try to, like, it'll popup on a screen and it'll try to
trick you into thinking it's justthe continue, but they're trying to
get you to accept that conversion.
Do not accept it.

(53:01):
Yeah.
And if you're, if you're travelingand plan to pay for most things
with a credit card, get a credit cardthat has no foreign transaction fees.
This has saved me so much moneybecause when I go to the ATM and
I take out money, like you said,like it'll charge me fees for that.
And then also if I do take out cash,I almost always come home with random
bills that probably have amountedup to like over a couple hundred

(53:21):
dollars at this point over the years.
And I just tacked them to my fridge likea magnet, which is super not useful.
So yeah, ever since I, I switchedto a, the chase, like United travel
card and no foreign transaction fees.
And I pay for everything with card.
If you're in a place where youcan pay for most things with
card, it's really helpful.
A couple other quicktips on the budget front.
So we could do a whole episode just onlike budget backpacking in Europe, but

(53:44):
if that's your, if you're a student, ifyou're someone who's on a really tight
budget, you can make, Europe work.
The main thing you have to dois find a cheap flight there.
Find cheap internal transportation,and then accommodation
is one of your big ones.
So, there are some tricks where youcan get super cheap accommodation.
If, for instance, you want to do housesitting, so you could use a service like
Trusted House Sitters, where you go andyou like find someone who's, in August,

(54:09):
all these Europeans leave their homes, andsome of them have like pets, or they have
plants, or things that they need to care.
It's a lot of animal care.
So you could just like cover for them.
There's couchsurfing, which I thinkis still an ongoing community.
You know, you're stayingin a stranger's home.
I don't personally, I'm not a huge fanof couchsurfing, but I have participated
in a lot of couchsurfing communities.
And it's a great way to meetpeople and certainly save money.

(54:30):
Hostels.
We haven't talked a lot about hostels onthis but for the budget crowd like that's
where all the backpackers are staying.
It's great because you can make friends.
It's super cheap.
I mean you can find hostels for likebetween 10 and 20 euros especially in
eastern Europe, if you're willing to stayin a room with a bunch of other people.
And we have articles on the website.
about hostels.
You know, it's typicallyfor younger people.

(54:50):
We just published one from Jess Levyabout how, you know, staying in hostels
in your thirties, which I have done.
So it is, if you're on a budget.
There are lots of ways to make it work.
Also, you know, for transportation,public transport's very good in Europe.
So just learn whatever thepublic transport system is.
You can usually getaround for a Euro or two.
And in general, when you'replanning your trip, just plan for

(55:11):
countries that are more affordable.
Like Germany is always goingto be relatively expensive.
The Netherlands, and certainlyScandinavia, as you were mentioning
earlier, Always gonna be expensive,but Eastern Europe, meanwhile,
like the further east you go,typically the more affordable it is.
So the Czech Republic will be cheaper thanGermany and then if you keep going, like
Poland will be even cheaper than that.

(55:31):
And then like Romania, Bulgariawill be even cheaper than that.
Kind of the further east you go ingeneral, the more affordable it is.
I don't know.
What about you, Betty?
Any budget tips for folks?
Yeah.
And on that note about.
I mean, the cheapest hostel I everbooked was an 8 hostel in Poland,
and it was like in an old castle.
It was gorgeous.
Some hostels are really, really nice.
So just do your research.

(55:53):
And you can save a lot of moneythat way staying in hostels.
I know a lot of people knock them, butyou should definitely give hostels a try.
I think getting a SIM card is huge.
I know my, I have Verizon, so I getcharged 10 a day internationally.
Which is fine if I'm in Europe forjust a couple of days, but if you're
going to be there for weeks and weeks,you don't want to be paying, you know,
300 when you get back from your trip,because you're paying 10 a day or

(56:14):
whatever your phone company charges.
So get a SIM card for your phone.
Okay, so for more tips for theBudget Backpacker crowd, we've got
some great guides on Travel Lemming.
Look up Taylor's BackpackingEurope Guide, and she also has
a Backpacking Budget Planner.
Really recommend going to check outboth of those articles, and it'll really
help you to I think Europe, if you'reI think it's more approachable and

(56:37):
affordable than a lot of people think.
So check out Taylor's guides.
Also, you've got a guide,Betty, that I wanted to ask you
about, which is your solo travelthrough Europe perspective piece.
And it's titled what I wish I'd knownbefore solo traveling through Europe.
And you talk about how you had,you spent two months at the age of
21 solo traveling through Europe.
You talk about safety,budget packing, all that.

(56:59):
So as a solo travel.
Learn in Europe for folks who are maybethinking about just going by themselves,
like, what would you have to say to them?
Yeah, so when I took my solotrip, I really went into it very
blindly, very happy go lucky.
I didn't think it would behard to navigate Europe.
And really, like, a lot of thingswere much easier than I expected.
Like, like I said, booking,flights, booking FlixBuses, trains.

(57:21):
But I talk about in this article,just trusting my gut and, you
know, booking places in areasthat have really good reviews and
have reviews about solo travelers.
Like I stayed in a couple of reallyshady areas that probably weren't
very safe for a female solo traveler.
I also packed very poorly at the time.
Like I brought these heels with me andI was walking through the streets for

(57:42):
miles and miles for several weeks withthese heels that were so worn down.
And my Converse shoes, like those werethe only two shoes I had no walking shoes.
My feet ached for months after that trip.
So make sure you pack right Also, alsojust like I said being prepared before you
take off on a solo trip Europe truly isone of the best continents to solo travel

(58:05):
budget wise Navigation, transportation.
There's very few, language barriers.
If you're an American, like there's alot of places, most places speak English.
So it's a great place to solo travel.
Just make sure you planit with packing, right?
Know your budget and, and just havinga good head on your shoulders and
making smart decisions on your own.
Yeah, wise words.

(58:25):
Okay, folks, if you're listening athome, and there's something we didn't
cover, I mean, we're obviously whocan't cover all of Europe in one
podcast, although we certainly tried.
But if you have a question, leaveus a question in the comment.
Be sure to like and subscribe.
We just hit a thousandsubscribers on YouTube.
And you know, we're also onApple, Spotify, leave us a review.
If you've been listening to the podcastand you haven't left us a review that

(58:46):
with those, we really appreciate those.
If you're, if you're going to give usfive stars and if not, let us, let us know
what we can do to earn those five stars.
One last thing I want to say beforewe go, and that's just that remember,
don't let travel FOMO get to you.
If you go back to our very firstepisode, I talked about travel
FOMO or fear of missing out.
You can't do it all.
Europe is huge.
And, you know, we've got a perspectivepiece from Ruthie, who, Ruthie's

(59:08):
from Wales, and it's titled, I CringeWhen Backpackers Say Their Quote,
Doing Europe, because she basicallysays like, Hey, you can't do Europe.
It's more than 40 countries, 800 cities.
You can't do it in a single trip.
And you can check that out ifyou want to kind of hear her.
counterpoint to that, but I wouldsay that the, I agree with that.
And I would say you canview that as a liberation.

(59:29):
Like you're not going to cover it all.
So instead of trying to cover it allfocus on how can I make the most out
of the time that I have to cover thethings that are really important to me.
So I would just remember that.
And, yeah, that's any otherparting thoughts on Europe.
I think if you haven't been, you got togo, everybody has to go at some point.
And like you said about travel FOMO,you know, you're not going to be

(59:50):
able to see all of it, but enjoywhere you are, enjoy where you go,
take it all in and you can alwaysplan another trip to return one day.
All right, folks.
Well, if you've listened through thispodcast, you'll probably also like, the
interview that Betty did with Rachel,who is Travel Lemming's Paris expert.
I mean, Rachel knows so muchstuff about Paris, and if you're
heading to Europe, I bet Paris isprobably going to be on your list.

(01:00:12):
You can go check that one out next.
Thank you so much, everyone.
We'll see you in the next podcast.

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Planning a Europe Trip (for Americans) (Travel Lemming Podcast #11)

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