I’m traveling from Prague to Vienna in a few weeks and I’ve read the Czechia trains are notorious for delays. Anyone have similar experiences? I have a first class Eurail pass and would prefer to take the train but is bus really the recommended option?

Hello!

I’m looking for some advice on where to go in January for a winters holiday in Europe with my friend. We think we have narrowed our choices down to either Austria (Innsbruck/Salzburg) or Poland (Krakow/Zakopane).

Ideally there would be plenty to do and somewhere we can enjoy the colder weather. We are thinking to go for around 7 days max so could be less and there isn’t a budget per se so it’s just deciding which would be a super fun holiday!

Any advice or experiences of holidays in either country in January time would be super helpful🫡

hey yall! my partner and I (23M 21F) are taking a trip in mid march and have narrowed down our (extensive) list of possible destinations to just three: sicily, greece, and southern spain.

specifically, our spain trip would be madrid (2 days) granada (2 days), and seville (3 days). our sicily trip would be palermo for most of it, and perhaps some day trips (cefalú etc). greece we'd stick mainly to athens, maybe hit a couple islands but just brief day trips.

we like good food, good drink, and immersive history/culture. we also love cats and are unable to rent a car. we are young but not much for the club scene, and we love a cute bar and meeting interesting, wise folks of all ages. we want adventure but not so much that it detracts from the beauty and stresses us out too much!

if you have any thoughts/suggestions/preferences between these trips, please share! all of them are within our budget, as ive done extensive research on cheap flights and lodging, so im mostly looking for advice on things to do/vibes of each trip. good bad and ugly.

my partner and i are spending january to april traveling around europe! my partner has never seen snow and i think it’d be nice for him if we travel somewhere snowy in january. to not only see snow, but have enough snow to get to do some fun activities (thinking things like sledding, walking around snow-covered city, building snowmen — not skiing or anything super intense)! does anyone have suggestions as to cities that are nice for snow? we’ll be flying out of madrid, so flying into places that are cheap from madrid would be helpful

Hello i will be landing in Frankfurt and heading to Munich as my first city to explore. I am planning to spend 3 days in Munich so that i have so time for the day trips to Salzburg etc. From there we plan to head to Venice and spend 2 days maximum. From Venice i am planning to head to Florence and spend 3 days in Florence. And my last city is Rome and i have 3 days in Rome. Please let me know if you have any suggestions of switching any cities or adding day trips in certain cities. Thank you

Hi all,

We are a family of 4 (kids 13 and 15) travelling through Europe In July next year. We are not really big city people so don't plan to spend too long in cities. We want nature, hiking, lakes, mountains, castles, coast, and countryside. We are planning to fly into Munich and out of Rome but that is flexible. We have 4 weeks. We will mostly train, except for a few days where we will hire a car in Tuscany. Below is our planned itineracy. Does anyone have any comments, e.g. is it doable, suggestions for things to add or remove, etc?

Day 1 - Arrive Munich

Day 2 - Rest up and explore Munich

Day 3 - Munich to Fussen (visit Neuschwanstein castle)

Day 4 - Fussen to Appenzall

Days 5/6 Schafler ridge hike with night in the Schafler hut

Day 7 - Appenzall to Jungfrau region

Days 8-10 in Jungfrau

Day 11 - Jungfrau to Zermatt

Days 12/13 - Explore Zermatt region

Day 14 - Zermatt to Lake Como

Day 15 - Explore Lake Como

Day 16 - Trave to Italian Riviera (Probably stay Porto Venere)

Days 17/18 - Explore Riviera

Day 19 - Travel to Florence (one night in Florence)

Day 20 - Travel to Tuscany Accommodation (Montepulciano?)

Days 21 to 24 - Explore Tuscany

Day 25 - Travel to Rome

Days 26/27 - Explore Rome

Day 28 - Flight home

Hi guys,

My friend and I are planning a Europe trip for around Dec-Jan 2025.

We will be going to a few countries but needed help pinpointing cities we should go to in Germany.

We will probably be in Germany for around 7-10 days in early-mid December. We would like some places with good Christmas vibes and just general recommended cities for winter.

Hi, It’s been a big dream of ours to see Europe during Christmas. Visa came through, so we wanted to make the most of it. Here’s the planned itinerary-would love some advice on what could be better. I realize it’s tight, but wanted to fit in as much as possible. Thank you so very much in advance!

12th-reach London

13th-London

14th-train to Strasbourg

15th-Strasbourg

16th-Colmar day trip

17th-train to Munich

18th-Munich

19th-train to Prague

20th-Prague

21st-Prague

22nd-train to Vienna

23rd-Vienna

24th-flight to London

Few days in London and we head back home

My friend bailed on the second half of our planned trip and now I don't have plans for 7 days at the end of December/January! We were supposed to go to Paris because he had never been (I've been to amsterdam, london, and paris) so now I want to utilize that solo travel time to go somewhere I haven't been .

Any advice on places to go from Berlin? I thought about Prague or Poland but I'm concerned that because my departing flight is from Paris, it will be a waste of time and travel to go east rather than west. Is that a silly/non applicable concern?

EDIT: My interests include architecture, nature/hiking (although i'm guessing it'll be snowing everywhere?), museums, live music, and historical attractions. i love cinema related things and taking photos. And i'm very advenutorus with my eating. I'm not really a huge drinker.

What title says basically I will be picking a car up from Avis at CDG and will be driving around France and maybe enter Switzerland for the day. Do I need to have an IDP? I’ve read lots of contradicting things online saying that it’s only for police or that it’s just a translation and you don’t need it.

Hello everyone

Me and the family (wife, 5-year old daughter and 1-year old son) are visiting the Balkans this summer, and I would really appreciate any advice, you guys may have, both regarding travels with young ones and especially the amount of travel/activities I've planned vs. time for relaxation.

We are flying in from Denmark and are looking for approximately two weeks (preferably 12 days) of mixed sightseeing and relaxation with the kids. We visited Croatia 2 years ago and were both very happy with the vacation. My main issue in terms of the outline is, whether we should include Mostar or not. The original plan was Dubrovnik and Kotor, but I felt that the fear of Dubrovnik being crowded with other tourists and Kotor being too dull made me want something extra. The alternative for me is leaving out Mostar, and heading to Kotor earlier by train, leaving out the need for the extra rental car time (if any time needed at all in Kotor), and maybe opting for a trip to Shkodra and more of the smaller towns and village.

This is the basic outline:

Monday: Denmark - Dubrovnik by plane

Tuesday: Dubrovnik (relaxation)

Wednesday: Dubrovnik (city sights)

Thursday: Dubrovnik (short city tour)

Friday: Dubrovnik - Mostar by rental car

Saturday: Mostar

Sunday: Mostar

Monday: Mostar - Kotor by rental car

Tuesday: Kotor (relax)

Wednesday: Kotor (relax)

Thursday: Kotor (Perast/Our Lady of Rock)

Friday: Kotor (Budva)

Saturday: Kotor

Sunday: Kotor-Dubrovnik (staying overnight at airport hotel)

Monday: Dubrovnik - Denmark by plane

Thank you all for any feedback - it is greatly appreciated! Alternatives to the original plan would also be greatly appreciated (ie. other destinations than Mostar).

Hey! I wanted to ask for some help creating an itinerary for myself. I’m traveling from North America, is three days plenty for a first-time visit Amsterdam? It’ll be my first time traveling to Europe as well, so any tips are welcome.

I’m not super picky, I’m on kind of a tight budget but Amsterdam is one of my dream trips. I’m hoping to accomplish the following:

• Sightseeing
• Eating cheap/affordable food
• Photography (for photos of myself and in general)

I am planning to stay in a hostel in the city centre and do a lot of biking and walking. I did some light research beforehand and have some places in mind to hit up but I am really only set on the Van Gogh Museum. I would be going around Mid-December as well.

Thank you for the help!

Background: Newly living in NYC and really amazed at how much easier it makes Europe travel. The flights are so much cheaper and shorter/direct than they were from the west coast. My partner and I have already been to ~7 of the major European destination cities and we previously did 10-day, 3-city trips because we felt like the expensive and long international flight was such a large component of the trip that it made sense to pack in multiple destinations. I know that some people prefer longer, more relaxes durations in each city but our preference is to get the diversity of a few places and we try to connect by train so that we don't lose too much time to inter-trip travel. Now that we are in NYC with the shorter flight times and less vacation time saved up, we are looking for a fun 7-day, 2-city trip. We like historic site tours, bike tours, food tours, fine dining, drinking, non-art museums, plays/musicals, etc. Not picky about hotel rooms and generally like to get the cheapest flights and hotels and prioritize higher spend on activities and restaurants.

Cities we have already visited: London, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Rome, Paris, Prague, Berlin.

Two-city combinations we are considering: Lisbon/Porto, Florence/Milan, Athens/Istanbul, London/Paris

Current Plan: After thinking through which cities we haven't done, and seeing the deals available, we have tentatively decided on Lisbon/Porto in mid-February.

1. Direct NYC->Lisbon flight is 7hrs
2. 4 nights in Lisbon (castle tour, old city bike tour, fine dining, wine stuff)
3. 3hr train to Porto
4. 3 nights in Porto (same basic plan, want to add in a group bar crawl to meet people)
5. Flight from Porto->Lisbon->NYC is 11.5hrs

Total cost for flights, train, hotels is $1600 using Tripmasters (screenshot of package). Trying to book separately gives same basic price.

Questions:

1. Any changes you would make?
2. Unmissable fun activities in either city we should add?
3. If this were your trip would you book through Tripmasters or book separately? This is probably my biggest current one, I like using them because I feel like they "earned it" by making my research so easy and apparently not marking up the components.
4. Any deals I should take advantage of now during Black Friday/Travel Tuesday (like specific activities or tours I should book in advance)
5. Any other feedback is appreciated.

I’m a 20 year old student studying in Florence, Italy and we have Christmas break coming up. Me and a friend were gonna go travel through Europe and see Christmas’s markets and cities to check them off the list, but it’s looking expensive even with eurail passes on sale and all that. Getting a car doesn’t seem like a bad idea because we can sleep in the car to save money on nights and travel during the day. The idea was to rent in Florence and do a large loop going up to Brussels and Amsterdam, going over to Berlin, and working down to Vienna and Munich before going back to Florence.

Ive driven in Croatia before without too much hassle and Germany sounds even easier to drive in. I’ll be getting AAA for the travel insurance and the idp as well. Thoughts, advice?

Hi! We are going to the Dolomites in June for our honeymoon and are looking for recos on a stunning beachy location in Europe to pair with it. We’re currently planning on a few days in Milan followed by 5 or so days in the Dolomites, rounded out by a third location we are hoping for suggestions on - right now we are considering Mallorca or Croatia (Dubrovnik and Hvar), if anyone has an recos between those two places or any others. Looking for stunning scenery, lively and cultural atmosphere and posh/upscale accommodations - TYIA!

I’m from western Canada and trying to organize a trip with my friends to Europe this summer and everyone is a little concerned about the cost, we want to do a 2 week itinerary which goes to Copenhagen in early July for an event and then around 7-10 extra days after that. I’ve been looking at it comes out to about 2600$ with hotels and flights. We want to try and keep it as cheap as possible since we’re all in university and don’t have that much money. Any tips for while we’re there or for the flights?

We are thinking of booking 2 one ways to go there and back. The one back from Portugal and the one there to a cheaper city to fly to like Edinburgh or Dublin.

I’m pretty well travelled but this is the first time I’ve had to be so careful about spending so want some help. I know a lot about travelling but not so much about really budget traveling.

Itinerary so far:

Get there 5th July in Edinburgh 6th night fly to Copenhagen 7 and 8th in Copenhagen 9th 10th 11th morning in Malmo (event) 11th afternoon fly to Budapest 12 in Budapest 13th afternoon fly to Lisbon 13-20 spend in Lisbon and Porto with a few day trips.

I know we are kind of speeding though things but we want to see more and the Budapest flight end up working really well and cheap. I’ve been to a lot of Western Europe and done it this way and I’ve been able to see everything.

Open to any tips or tricks or suggestions. Really want to know the best time to book to get good deals but also don’t want to wait too long to where they get super expensive.

Budget is 2000-2500 with food, flights, Accommodations.

Thanks

Hello,

I am Canadian, and I have never been to Europe before, so I'm not too familiar with travelling in central Europe. I have read a lot of guides and posts and even used https://www.tripsnek.com/, but I still don't know if my trip is too ambitious. I know the cities I want to visit are Amsterdam, Venice, and Rome, but I also want to travel through Rhine Valley and the Bernina Express since I've heard it is beautiful year-round. Are the amount of days I have in each major city enough time to enjoy the city? My itinerary is:

Day 1, January 7: (fly into Amsterdam)
Day 2-3, January 8-10: Amsterdam
*train through Rhine Valley*
Day 4, January 11: Cologne
Day 5, January 12: Koblenz/Mainz
Day 6, January 13: Zurich
Day 7, January 14: Chur
*train through Bernina Express*
Day 8, January 15: Tirano
Day 9-11, January 16-18: Venice
*fly to Rome*
Day 12-14, January 19-22: Rome

Thanks for the advice!

Hi everyone,

I’m taking a train from Vienna to Paris on December 30th, and there’s a 20-minute transfer at Salzburg Hbf. I’m traveling solo, so I want to be prepared. I looked up Salzburg Hbf, and it looks like a pretty big station.

I don’t see the platform numbers on my ticket yet—will they show up closer to the date? If you’ve had a similar transfer or traveled through Salzburg Hbf, is 20 minutes usually enough to switch trains?

It’s during the busy holiday season, so I’d really appreciate any tips or advice for making this connection smooth!

Thanks in advance!

Hi all! My best friend and I are planning a trip to Ireland and the UK for Fall 2025. We are Canadian and both under the age of 25. We know renting a car is completely out of our budget so our main option is taking the train all over. What I’m wondering is how much of the UK and Ireland will we truly see? I know some of the best parts are the countryside and we want to see it all!

Hello guys,

I am planning my family trip to Europe next year in August( with my wife and my healthy 70 year old parents).

I have been to Hallstatt many years ago for a night. I loved it and want to bring my family to enjoy it again.

I found out about the lovely city Innsbruck when I did my research in Hallstatt. It looks amazing so I would like to visit the city too.

I just don't know if staying more than 2 days is worth it.

My plan is

I will arrive around 12 at the airport. If the weather is good, may go straight to Nordkette. If weather is not good, go city walk.

On the second day we will join the Zirbenweg hike tour with a welcome card.

The third day and the following days for reference:

Rent a car > Neuschwanstein Castle > Mittenwald > Ellmau >Kufstein Fortress > Königssee

"A Night in Königssee"

Salzburg to return car > Bad ischal> St. Wolfgang

"A Night in Bad ischial"

Hallstatt> Gosau

"A Night in Bad ischial"

Salzburg>Munich

As you can see, lots of lakes and hiking in my plan. I don't know if they are all too similar and we would get tired. But if there is a fabulous and special thing to see, I don't want to miss it either.

Any suggestion is appreciated. Thank you!

I heard people say that Ötztal and Sölden is a beautiful place to hike,

Muttererlam is nice to see and the mountain cart is interesting (I am not sure if it will be too dangerous for my parents though)

The Grassmayr Glockengiesserei Bell Foundry looks interesting too visit as well.

Olperehuttle suspension bridge looks too hard for us.

Hey!

I’m planning my Europe tour and noticed that many of the cities I’m considering staying in have hostel chains that look great in terms of price and accommodations. I’d love to hear your thoughts on Generator, Meininger, Flying Pig, or any other hostel chains you’d recommend!

Do you know if they offer discounts for staying at multiple locations within the same chain, like HI Hostels in the USA?

Right now, my plan includes visiting Barcelona, Brussels, Amsterdam, and Berlin. I’m also deciding between visiting another city in Germany or heading back to Spain—maybe Barcelona again or another city.

Any suggestions are welcome!

Will be cycling with a group over 9 days / 8 nights. We'll be passing through: Lisse (peak tulips!), Rotterdam, Antwerp, Bruges, Ghent and ending in Brussels. I have visited Brussels before, and not too keen to spend more time there. Overall, I am planning to make this a ~2 week Europe vacation.

So, what can I do for the remaining ~6 days after we finish in Brussels? Is Western Germany (Cologne, Dusseldorf, Dortmund) a good option? Or maybe a trip to Switzerland?

For reference, I am into outdoorsy stuff, WWII history, walking and immersing myself in new cities, love old architecture and meeting new people.

Any suggestions?

Edit 1 - I don’t plan on cycling after reaching Brussels. So, I can be more mobile with train and planes.

Hi everyone. As the title states, I’ll be doing 25 days of contiki (European quest) in June-July 2025 where I’ll be visiting France, Spain, Monaco, Italy, Austria, Czech Republic, Germany and the Netherlands for 25 days then Portugal for 3 days to attend Afronation. I’ve got 4 days left in Europe.

I’m aware the contiki bit sounds like a lot in such a short time but that’s kinda the point.

I’m coming from Australia and would like to stay within the Schengen zone.

Also there’ll be a lot of partying throughout my whole trip so a nice calm location would be good before going home.

My last stop is portimao in Portugal

Any suggestions welcome!! Thank you

Hi there,

I am looking at visiting either Copenhagen or Amsterdam from December 12 to 17, planning to stay for 4 nights and 5 days. I am a solo traveler.

For context, I was in Switzerland last December and really enjoyed how beautiful Zurich and other cantons are during the winter holidays. I want to go to another city that has a similar vibe. It was snowing when I arrived and it made for a really great night with beautiful views.

I was looking at Copenhagen and thought that I could also add a day trip to Malmo. The markets, the museums, biking around, and more seem cool to do. Seems easy to get around as well. I want to explore Scandinavia and get started with these two cities.

I was also looking at Amsterdam as it’s a city that’s been on my list for a while and I hear some debate between Copenhagen and Amsterdam for December travel. There are good food options, light festivals, museums, and overall great to walk around. I can also take the train to do day trips to Utrecht and other nearby areas.

I am having a hard time picking between the two as both are great options so I wanted to ask if anyone has any advice or have recently traveled to these cities in winter time and if they enjoyed it. I do plan on coming back in spring time to visit France, Italy, and other countries. But I love how European cities and December/Christmas holidays really mix with each other. If you have any other recommendations too, I would love to hear it!

Thanks!

Hello, currently I am planing for a trip in mid october 2025 for about 9-10 days.

Do you have any recommendation for a day trip hike (3-5 hours hike) from Lucerne (most probably Rigi and Pilatus), Interlaken and Zermatt? I don't really have mountaineering skills, hence looking for an easy / moderate level hike.
I am going to skip Jungfraujoch.

As for now I am thinking to make Lucerne, interlaken and Zermatt as a base.
I am a bit torn as well to choose either Interlaken / Grindewald as a base..

Thank you!

I’m planning a trip to Europe for March. Part of the trip requires me to travel from Madrid, Spain to Bremen, Germany. I’m having trouble seeing what the best option is for this. Plane rides seem to be 250+, does anyone have any experience taking a train from Madrid to Bremen? Any advice is appreciated !

Hi guys, I will be interrailing around Europe for 2 months with my Brother, and as a part of this, we want to take the Glacier Express from St Moritz/Chur to Zermatt. The issue is that we'll be in Innsbruck before we go to Switzerland, and when I try to research ways to get from Innsbruck to St Moritz or Chur, they seem very long and convoluted (some train journeys are about 9 hours with several changes). Any advice on a better way to travel between Innsbruck and one of these cities on a budget would be great. Thanks :)

Hi all, I lost my wallet while traveling in Europe, which had my California ID and Chase credit card. I contacted Chase, and they were really helpful in blocking the old card and issuing a new one. Thankfully, I can use Apple Pay, but I don’t have the physical card or the new credit card number yet.

This has caused some issues: 1. Purchasing tickets for attractions: Many places don’t accept Apple Pay. Is there any way I can get the new credit card number or alternative options for payment? 2. Car rental: Since my California driver’s license is gone, I only have my international driving permit from AAA. From my understanding, the international license is not valid without a U.S. license. Does anyone know if I have any options for renting a car in this situation?

Would really appreciate any advice or tips!

Hey guys, so I'm in a bit of a pickle, we were going for a vacation next year and had plans to try for kids in late 2025 a happy little accident happened and my wife is now 4 months pregnant, thing is I had promised her to take her to see a snowy place before the kid was born, we are from Brazil and she has never traveled internationally, so has never seen it.

Well, deadline moved up quite a bit and I want to surprise her with a romantic Christmas vacation, I moved a ton of stuff on my work to get last couple weeks of the year off, I was planning on Switzerland, but most things I read point to it being basically dead on Christmas as a bunch of restaurants seem to close on the actual day.

So here's the question, where can I book a 7~10 day vacation that would start in 20 days? All it needs is to be a bit romantic and to have some snowy views for her to see.

No need for slopes/sky/snowboarding.

Thanks to the lovely people out here, my itinerary was critiqued very well & I managed to get some valuable insights through them.

I ( 29M from dubai ) would like to know, when shall I book hostels for my July trip ? And when shall I book my plane tickets ? I'll be going to Budapest, Vienna, Prague, Amsterdam, Paris, Venice, Florence & Rome for 4 weeks.

I have noticed that the global eurail pass, has 25 percent discount if purchased in the next 20 days. So shall I purchase the pass now & take advantage of the discount? Any inputs will be highly appreciated 🙏