A Matter of Advice

[tothewind]

My friend and I are looking to travel Europe this upcoming spring, but we aren't the most financially sound crew around. Can any give their 2 cents on cheap ways of getting to Europe, places in Europe to avoid, and anything else that may help us on our voyage?

Cheers!

 

[Bendixontherails]

Don't miss Amsterdam. I went a few years back, supposedly just for two weeks... stayed three months. the trains are so easy to ride free, just camp out of town and ride the train (think SF streetcar) into town free everyday!

 

[elokupa]

yes defo give amsterdam a go, tis a strange feeling smoking a joint while asking a piggy where the best place to get shrooms is.

if youre hitchhiking try to avoid france, i once waited 2 days for a ride...was full of families on hols.

spend some time in germany, in summer theres so many festivals its crazy, plus theres an average of 5 riots a year.

italy: bleeeeeeeeh

the UK is expensive as fuck but easy to make money busking and what-not

if you REALLY wanna get to europe on the cheap you could join a crew, some german squatters said they got to the USA by hitching to morocco joining a crew of a ship that was headed for brazil, from there they hitched to mexico and hopped into the US... i guess it could work backwards too.

 

[Dtchmsterkiller]

I am traveling to Spain with a friend in the spring to take part in a work exchange (free food & board in-exchange for work) near Barcelona. My ideal plan was to leave the work exchange after some time into the summer and head NORTHEAST to France and into Switzerland to see Zurich. After that, the second place I would most want to visit: Venice.

I imagine being down in the Peninsula seeing the southern part of Italy is very frustrating because of all the back tracking I would have to do to get back to France. I can relate to Peninsula induced anxiety and frustration, I live in Miami, Fl and on average it takes 9-10 hours to drive out of the state. Venice is very far up north and not much into the peninsula, and so happens to be a place I have always wanted to visit!

After reading the opinions on the different countries of europe on this thread and others, I have become disappointed at the consensus that France (and Spain) are not hitchhike-friendly, as well as Italy being 'blehh' (ELOKUPA). I value your opinion, BTW, I know virtually nothing of Italy and except this description.

So I may re-think my plans of heading EAST, and make plans to head NORTH through France and into the netherlands to go to Amsterdam, since I hear all these good things about it. Would the hitchhiking north through France be unbearable?? Any language tips for communicating with drivers in french?(my friend and I know none) Does anyone know of relatively cheap TRAINS or about hopping freights? please email !!!

thank you all, kian

 

[nitepeepole]

the crazy thing about the the netherlands is people from there will ALWAYS fucking tell you they're from Holland and never from the netherlands, but somehow...also... they're dutch. YTF is that?

 

[wartomods]

I really deslike amsterdam, it was good when it started and hadnt all the hype, but now i just hate it, it isnt like you cant get good weed or hash in any part europe.

 

[wartomods]

I am traveling to Spain with a friend in the spring to take part in a work exchange (free food & board in-exchange for work) near Barcelona. My ideal plan was to leave the work exchange after some time into the summer and head NORTHEAST to France and into Switzerland to see Zurich. After that, the second place I would most want to visit: Venice.

I imagine being down in the Peninsula seeing the southern part of Italy is very frustrating because of all the back tracking I would have to do to get back to France. I can relate to Peninsula induced anxiety and frustration, I live in Miami, Fl and on average it takes 9-10 hours to drive out of the state. Venice is very far up north and not much into the peninsula, and so happens to be a place I have always wanted to visit!

After reading the opinions on the different countries of europe on this thread and others, I have become disappointed at the consensus that France (and Spain) are not hitchhike-friendly, as well as Italy being 'blehh' (ELOKUPA). I value your opinion, BTW, I know virtually nothing of Italy and except this description.

So I may re-think my plans of heading EAST, and make plans to head NORTH through France and into the netherlands to go to Amsterdam, since I hear all these good things about it. Would the hitchhiking north through France be unbearable?? Any language tips for communicating with drivers in french?(my friend and I know none) Does anyone know of relatively cheap TRAINS or about hopping freights? please email !!!

thank you all, kian

unless you can grasp french dont have hopes high in what concerns communicating with drivers, freight hopping is doable but considerably more difficult to catch because of 2 reasons: most freights europeans freight cars are unrideable comparing to america, and second the electric trains are fast fast, maybe because they arent as big as americas ones, so you have to be precise trust me there is no time to see a train in the other side of yard leaving and you having time to catch it.

 

[Komjaunimas]

I am traveling to Spain with a friend in the spring to take part in a work exchange (free food & board in-exchange for work) near Barcelona. My ideal plan was to leave the work exchange after some time into the summer and head NORTHEAST to France and into Switzerland to see Zurich. After that, the second place I would most want to visit: Venice.

I imagine being down in the Peninsula seeing the southern part of Italy is very frustrating because of all the back tracking I would have to do to get back to France. I can relate to Peninsula induced anxiety and frustration, I live in Miami, Fl and on average it takes 9-10 hours to drive out of the state. Venice is very far up north and not much into the peninsula, and so happens to be a place I have always wanted to visit!

After reading the opinions on the different countries of europe on this thread and others, I have become disappointed at the consensus that France (and Spain) are not hitchhike-friendly, as well as Italy being 'blehh' (ELOKUPA). I value your opinion, BTW, I know virtually nothing of Italy and except this description.

So I may re-think my plans of heading EAST, and make plans to head NORTH through France and into the netherlands to go to Amsterdam, since I hear all these good things about it. Would the hitchhiking north through France be unbearable?? Any language tips for communicating with drivers in french?(my friend and I know none) Does anyone know of relatively cheap TRAINS or about hopping freights? please email !!!

thank you all, kian

Yeah i "double, tripple, dosent matter" ... Spain and France is pain in the ass to hitchhike, its much faster to ride trains without tickets, because conductors dosent speak english most of the time and you can easily get to the final station without beiyng kicked out or getting a fine. Furthermore i second that Italy = Blehh... Hitchhiking is banned, you can only hitch on Superstrad(s) ( the roads that go paralel to the main highways ). And futhermore, if you want to book cheap trains use bahn.de - Ihr Mobilitätsportal für Reisen, Bahn, Urlaub, Hotels, Städtereisen und Mietwagen or TGV - réservation billet de train, consultation horaire de train et prix, infos pratiques voyageurs and book tickets in advance, otherwise sometimes it can get expensive as hell, in Germany they have "Happy Weekend" tickets , they range from 25 to 37 euros for 5! persons and you are valid to ride from Friday 00:00 to Monday 06:00 all over the country. As without language skills and stuff i definetly advise you to avoid cities such as Barcelona, Paris, Berlin when hitchhiking, if you dont know the spots etc it will be hard as hell to get out of em without train