It was a long process to say the least, but I had so much fun doing it. It took it's time but it was definitely worth it.

 

The end result was 12 cities in 5 weeks. Amsterdam, Berlin, Krakow, Bratislava, Budapest, Ljubljana, Venice, Milan, Nice, Barcelona, Madrid and Paris.

 

No part of the planning was easy. But I'm gonna make you a step by step guide to help you

 

0.5. COMPANY

This sounds like a daft one, and isn't really a proper point, but you really need to think about who you're going with. There was 5 of us, which was a good number as we could split into nice groups and change it up. But 5 is a weird number, for hostels for example, there'll always be a stranger sharing with you. 

 

 

1. WHERE YOU WANT TO GO

Try and make a simple list of where you want to go. I know its tempting to say everywhere, but cut it down. Another important factor is how accessible is it, route wise. It sounds silly but genuinely have a map in front of you whilst you do this. We tried to stick to a loop but had to alter it slightly for Spain. Also look at what festivals are on and consider going to lesser known areas to experience them, take La Tomatina for example, it takes place in a small Spanish town, but it's definitely something for the Bucket List.

 

 

2. HOW LONG

 

Like I've previously said, we were away for 5 weeks. which was a great amount of time for me, but for the people with me, a couple of them struggled towards the end. I don't need to explain how points 1 and 2 are linked, but we did 2 or 3 days in each city, depending on how much we wanted to see and do.

3. TRANSPORT

For Europe especially, train travel is a bit of a no brainer. There's 2 options; plan everything and buy a train pass valid for a whoever long its needed, which is what we did, or risk it and just buy train tickets on the day if you are planning on winging the whole trip. We bought the 30 day pass from the interrail company, so that it began on the day we left Amsterdam and ended the day we got to Paris. We also flew to Amsterdam and from Paris, which meant we could have the extra days either side of our travel pass. We also reserved seats on the trains, so we were relaxed, knowing we weren't going to have to sit on the floor for 6 hours. Over the 5 weeks we totalled 74 hours on trains, so pack a lot of things to do. I think between Mar and myself we went through at least 4 of the €2 sudoku books you can buy in newsagents

4. ACCOMMODATION 

With there being 5 of us, we decided to avoid hostels, just because we'd have to stay in the big rooms and share with strangers. Almost all of our accommodation we found on airbnb. I genuinely swear by it now. We had the chance to stay in super cosy apartments, have our own kitchen and space to chill, and be right in the middle of everything. It was amazing.


Just do it. Book it and go, honestly, you won't regret it.

First Stop: Amsterdam.

Train Pass : Eurail