6 Month Europe trip
 

Following the news of impending redundancy, I am thinking of taking the opportnunity to spend 6 months or so travelling Europe by bike with my other half. Plan to do mainstream countries such as France, Spain, Germany, Italy, Switzerland etc and would be interested to know what (very) roughly I would need to budget for sucha trip. Camping all the way and eating basic foods what would be a ballpark figure? Any help appreciated!

Dave

Great to hear you want to grab the opportunity!

Fuel is currently around 1.10€/l. Campsites around 10-15€/night for two, more in summer in the tourist spots. If you use a petrol cooker and cook all your own meals you can probably get by on 10€/day. Meat and booze extra...

Check out www.globalfreeloaders.com for cheap http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/ubb/smile.gif accommodation.

Free camping is not really an option in the countries you mentioned, but you can always ask a farmer whether you can pitch your tent for one night in his paddock.

Prepare for periods of bad weather: get a map of youth hostels with phone numbers. In France you can sometimes get cheap accommodation in Gîtes d'Etapes; in Italy this is called Agriturismo.

If you're down here before June email us.

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Salut from Southern France, the bikers' paradise,

Peter.

Peter,
the best on your freeloader link was:

I Should Be Working!
Trying to avoid work? Check this site out... :-)

Anyway Dave, you should laso consider travelling though the new EU candidate countries. Very interesting and lots cheaper than western Europe. Free camping is also less of a hassle.

Hans

hi
I totaly agree don't leave out eastern european countries and turkey great places no hassle and cheaper

nobby

Many thanks for the replies.

Could anyone out there suggest a route that they used and enjoyed? Ive not seen much of Europe outside of major cities (Paris, Barcelona etc) but would be keen to see less travelled places. If anyone has an itinerary that we could loosely follow including eastern europena states it would be much appreciated.

Thanks again.

Dave

Hans,

I don't understand what you write. When I click on the link I get to "The Worldwide Accommodation Network". It's got nothing to do with work or not working.

Perhaps you have a DNS problem?

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Salut from Southern France, the bikers' paradise,

Peter.

The road from Barcelona south along the coast is fantastic, if a little busy. Just south of Valencia pick up the road to Xatavia which leas to Alicante. This is superb, twisting up over a rocky ridge and back down into a plain, then back over another ridge. Finally the coast road from Cartegena south to Aguilas is great too, mile after mile of bends and good road visibilty. There´s a motorway alternative to this one so most of the traffic takes that, leaving this road quiet.

it´s good to get recommendations, but trust your instincts. Pick out some places you want to head to and find a twisty road that links them. You´ll soon find yourself automatically choosing good roads.

cheers

Six months is a good length of time for such a trip. From the UK we travelled down through France, Spain, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia then back through Slovenia and into Hungary and briefly into Rumania then back through Hungary Austria, Germany and France.
You could easily fit in Portugal and Turkey as well if you wanted. Whatever you do don't miss Slovenia. It has stunning scenery, very friendly people and is a very cheap country to visit.

My girlfriend and I are planning a four month trip through Europe next year before emigrating to Australia.

We plan to leave at the beginning of April and to start in the southern part of Europe. Hopefully as we travel northwards the weather will get better in the more northern countries as the summer progresses.

The rough plan at present is to catch the ferry to Spain. Travel down through Portugal to Southern Spain across and then back up the country then into Italy then back to France, Germany, and Scandinavia, etc.

Due to time constraints we are not planning to go to the Eastern European countries.

Our intention is to go and see the sights while we can as we won't have access to them when we have moved to Oz.

One tip I have read elsewhere: On the Michelin maps the roads with a green edging are scenic routes and are worth taking.

Bon voyage.

Thakns again for the info.

RM - We thought about a similar route but opted for the east european leg mainly due to cost. Scandanavia is a great place to see but it can be very expensive. Conversely eastern europe - in particular rural areas- can be incredibly cheap for accomodation and eating/drinking. We plan to include southern italy and the amalfi coast which I believe should not be missed. Time allowing, we would love to get the transporter ferry from naples across to tunis. We should try to meet up at some point in the trip as the early parts of our routes will be similar and will be around the same time.

Thakns again for the feedback.

Dave

Scandinavia WAS expensive.
But I think, these days only restaurants and alcohol are more expensive then in the rest of Europe.
Food from a foodstore is maybe 5-10% more expensive.
Camping on a campsite is cheaper and you can camp 'wild' for free.


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Freek (NL)



[This message has been edited by Freek (edited 21 December 2004).]

im located in La Spezia, Italy. if you come through here and need any kind of help sorting out accomodation, give us a shout. always willing to help out a fellow biker.

have a good ride
luca

I am planning a trip through Europe hitting some of the mainstream countries and some not.
Check out my website, www.ridingtheglobe.com
I would love to meet up for a few day or few weeks if you schedule allows.
Josh

I'm aiming for Germany,Italy,France and the Netherlands. Sometime in July, i guess the weather should be pretty good then. That's the plan, but you never know what happens, might run into one of you guys on the way http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/ubb/wink.gif

RM - Sounds like you have the same sort of plan (and final destination) in mind as my girlfriend and I do. We are booked on to the 6th April ferry from Plymouth to Santander and are basically following the same route as you before heading east into Iran, India an ultimatley Australia in December (we plan to settle in Brisbane). Maybe we can catch up some time on the road.

Luca - Italy is on our itinery (May/June) so would love to meet up for a drink.

Gazzr

Hi Gazzr
I'm shipping my Adventure to the UK from Oz first week in May .
visiting the folks in France and down the med coast and then onto Greece and Turkey and eventually home to Sydney.
Might see you on the road.
Steve

Get the red michelin maps for the countries you are interested in visiting, find the green marked scenic routes, connect them all up, travel them and enjoy. cheers

Hi buddy, I will try to send you some places which I know (Czech republic, Slovak republic Romania etc.)
regards


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dablyk
Honda VF750F, BMW K75RT

Dave:

I have done 8 to 12 weeks of riding each summer, for the past 3 years, throughout Western, Central and Eastern Europe. I don't camp, I stay in simple hotels, and I budget USD $100 a day for everything - food, fuel, lodging, tires, the works.

Of that, I probably spend about USD $40 a night on lodging, so you can modify that number by what you expect your camping fees to be.

Switzerland is expensive for food, but has the least expensive fuel in Europe. Swiss youth hostels are also very good, and very inexpensive. You don't need to be a youth to stay in one, they are very family oriented.

The central and eastern European countries are less expensive than the ones to the west. The UK and the Scandinavian countries are, in my opinion, the most expensive of all places. Anywhere in former Yugoslavia is quite inexpensive. Slovakia is a delightful place and also inexpensive, same for Poland and Slovenia. The portion of Germany that was formerly the DDR is less expensive than the more urban areas in the west of Germany.

Hope this helps you.

Here is some tips for travelling in Europe:

- Countries of easter Europe fuel and food is very cheap. There is no budget hotel chains but cheap hotels can be found.

- Scandinavia is also very cheap area to travel. Fuel cost about same as in central Europe or a bit more. In shops food cost about same but at restaurants it could be expensive. Hotels are mostly quite expensive. From northern part of scandivia is possible to rent cottages for reasonable price but I recommed to camp at forests. That´s safe and legal if you watch that you are no-ones back yard. If you want a bit more luxury use camping places. Those are not expensive and there you can use hot shower etc.

If you want to stay at hotels and eat at restaurants Scandinavia is expensive but if you want to do it cheap way I believe that it is cheaper than in central Europe.

- Spain is also quite cheap place. Fuel prices are somewhere between eastern and central Europes prices. Food and hotels are also cheap. If you want to drive along motorways that´s expensive because of very high priced road tolls. I recommed to avoid those because there is very nice roads whitch are free to ride.

- In France fuel is more expensive than in Spain but a bit cheaper than in Germany. In France road tolls are lower than in Spain. France is full of cheap hotels.

- In Germany there is no road tolls and in most of motorways is not either speed limits. Fuel is expensive but there is cheap hotels and small B&B places where you can stay for reasonable price.

If you are planning to go Scandinavia ferry prices (for motorcycle and passager)are about:

- Estonia-Finland 30 euros
- Germany-Finland 200 euros
- Germany-Denmark-Sweden 40 euros

Cheap hotels around europe can be found from here:
http://www.eurapart.com/budget.html