Europe on a Shoe-string > 4 weeks trip with family on a backpack! Preface: We, as a family of three, planned for a trip to Japan during this summer. Our planning started in mid January and was almost done by mid February. All travel necessities were booked. Since the VISA is issued only 2 weeks in advance, we had kept things on hold. Then came the news about earthquake and tsunami in Japan - followed by the nuclear disaster. Even though we had not planned to visit northern Japan, we were concerned that this disaster would effect facilities like public transportation, electricity... etc.
After being completely prepared to tour Japan, it was disheartening to say the least - that the trip had to be called off, due to this unforeseen disaster. Everything that was booked was cancelled - Luckily, we did not loose any money. Also, this made us think about an alternate destination. Europe was the first choice for the following reasons: - We always had it in our mind to visit Switzerland & Italy, since we had not visited them earlier.
- Trip to Europe was easier to plan in the limited time available, since we had an idea about things - in general.
- Europe - any day is the best holiday destination! Every member gets to see / do something to their liking.
- One VISA covers most European countries - Which makes it easier to plan activities.
In our previous trip, we had not visited Vienna in Austria & also had not spent enough time around Munich in Germany. So, we added Austria and Germany to our itinerary. To get a taste of the night journey by Eurail, we added a trip to Paris (this was a wrong decision, probably taken in haste). After this, before applying for the VISA - we booked our accomodation, air-ticket, travel-insurance and Eurail pass. Approximate expenses incurred, is as stated below:- Total accomodation cost for 3 adults : Rs.1,60,000/-
- Air-ticket + Travel insurance : Rs.1,25,000/-
- Eurail Global Pass (21 consecutive days) : Rs.1,10,000/-
- Train reservation charges : Rs.35,000/-
- Museum / attractions tickets and local public transportation extra.
We used our Eurail pass between 30th April to 20th May. All our accomodation had fully equipped kitchen. Since we are vegetarians, we prefer to cook our food and therefore, we were particular about this. Things we carried with us:- Clothes to suffice for a week - Self-service washing machines were available everywhere for a charge of approximately 5 euros per load.
- Groceries like rice, wheat, ragi, rava, Poha, rasam powder, green chillies and spices. (Green chillies are not available at all, except for some Indian stores in Italy. Even vegetables are on the sweeter side. So, cooking without chillies will not taste to our liking. Rice and wheat will be available, but of a different variety. Again, it won't be to our liking. Therefore we carried all these stuff)
- A small rice cooker & ready made mix like Maggi noodles, Rava dosa... etc.
This limited our luggage to 2 suitcases of 20kg each and a backpack of 5 kg. Vegetables, fruits, milk and curds are available at the local grocery shops. Travel Itinerary: Planned train schedule is as below. Trains were available every 30 mins in case of a miss. Some trains need reservation compulsorily. http://www.eurail.com/planning References: Lonely planet, Wikipedia and other Internet sites.
Purpose of this thread is to share my experience during the trip and also provide details which would help others, who would like to travel on their own. Trip details and pictures are to follow.
Last edited by Chethan B G : 13th June 2011 at 23:29.
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