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I'm currently finalizing my summer vacation: europe backpack trip, from July 12th-26th! Although I can only take two weeks off, I'm hoping to make the best of it. I'm going to go with a friend of mine, and our plan is to hit Germany (Berlin), Czech Republic (Prague), Poland (Krakow), and Netherlands (Amsterdam), with probably a couple more german/polish cities (Frankfurt, Wroclaw?). Our goal is to do a healthy mix of partying and sight seeing, focusing on experiencing and taking part in local culture. I have a few questions for those who live in these countries or have travel experience in them:
1) Are those reasonable cities to hit? Is there anything I'm totally missing out on that should take precedence over some of those?
2) I'm planning on getting the 4 country-6 travel day eurorail pass. Though, I've read online a few places that it can be inefficient and you get charged surprise reservation fees when you actually book your ticket. Should I go ahead and get the pass, or just buy tickets as I need them (train or plane, depending on cost/convenience)?
3) I want to try to get by on 25$/day on food and drinks, 40$/day on lodging (hostels). Is this reasonable? I'm going to avoid eating out almost entirely, picking up food and water for the day each morning at stores or whatever (I heard that the fresh bread is amazing!). I'm willing to spend extra money going out to clubs/drinks that doesn't factor into that 25$/day though.
4) Do I need to worry about getting sick from drinking tap water in any of these countries?
Thanks for reading! I'd also love to meet up with any TLers and have a drink if our paths cross 
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I see a problem with this. You're not taking me with you.
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Zurich15361 Posts
1) Cities
- Berlin sucks. If you don't know anyone local that is. You need someone to show you around or it's going to be sightseeing only.
- Prague go for it.
- Even better though, if you can, go Budapest. It's like Prague times ten.
- Frankfurt is nothing special. If you are in the area though shoot me a PM I am always up for drinks.
- If you can skip Frankfurt for Cologne
2) Don't know what the 4/6 thing is. Train tickets are kind of pricey if you buy them on the go. Train/plane is the cheaper the earlier you book.
3) That seems awfully tight. You can get by on that for sure though if you stick to your food from the market idea. You'll be missing out on food experiences then though.
4) No
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Netherlands45349 Posts
Amsterdam is relativly boring for a city if you don't have anyone local either with you who knows the city by heart. For Tourism it is oke I suppose but it is NOTHING like say Berlin.
We do have Weed and Hoes tho.
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On April 23 2011 09:00 Kipsate wrote:
Amsterdam is relativly boring for a city if you don't have anyone local either with you who knows the city by heart. For Tourism it is oke I suppose but it is NOTHING like say Berlin.
We do have Weed and Hoes tho.
I visited Amsterdam with neither any from the city or anyone that knows the city by heart and I had the time of my life, so I guess it really depends on the person.
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You should definitely check out some events you could go to ahead of you arrival. If you manage to find some big DJ gigs, festivals or other fun stuff, mixing in with the local crowd will be much easier and your experience will be more fun overall. ^^
Expect shitty english outside of Berlin and Amsterdam though.
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Netherlands45349 Posts
On April 23 2011 09:04 darklordjac wrote:Show nested quote +On April 23 2011 09:00 Kipsate wrote:
Amsterdam is relativly boring for a city if you don't have anyone local either with you who knows the city by heart. For Tourism it is oke I suppose but it is NOTHING like say Berlin.
We do have Weed and Hoes tho. I visited Amsterdam with neither any from the city or anyone that knows the city by heart and I had the time of my life, so I guess it really depends on the person.
well, relativly to other large cities such as London, Berlin and Paris I meant. It is still worth to check out ofcourse.
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Come to Stockholm. TLO approved.
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First of all, no matter where you go, you should know in advance what you want to do there. Ideally, you will have planned exactly which sights you want to hit and you should have printed maps (say google maps) from all the cities you want to visit.
1)Berlin: There is a lot to see in Berlin! Also there is a decent nightlife if you intend to go to clubs.
Furthermore, there are several famous palaces around the city of Potsdam (which is quite close to Berlin), if you are interested in stuff like that e.g. Sanssouci
Prague: I've heard from a lot of people that it's a very beautiful city, but I've never been there.
Krakow: Sorry, no idea.
Amsterdam: Certainly worth visiting (not only because of the weed  ). In my opinion, it's an incredibly beautiful city.
Frankfurt: I don't think there is anything worth visiting in Frankfurt.
Instead you might visit Cologne or maybe Dusseldorf. Cologne has the better nightlife and a huge, incredibly famous cathedral. Dusseldorf on the other hand has some modern architecture that I've seen people enjoying (nothing too fancy though). If you come to Cologne I might be up for some drinks. However, it depends on when exactly you will be there since I have a big exam on the 22th.
2) I don't know anything about this ticket, but in Germany at least, buying single train tickets tends to be kind of expensive.
3) 25$ are currently 17.18€, which should be enough for food and drinks if you buy them from stores or even if you eat sandwiches from a backery or something like Doner kebab. In fact, I believe that you won't even spend that much on food and drinks in Germany and the Netherlands and even less in Poland and the Czech Republic. I also cannot think of any traditional food that you have to taste in Germany, so there really is no need to go to a restaurant.
I have no idea what the hostel prices are in any of those countries, but you might want to start booking places already since availability might be pretty limited during the summer!
Also you should consider public transportation expenses in every city that you will be. Here it would be very handy to check on google maps which places you want to visit and decide if you can walk all the distances or if you will have to pay for public transportation (or gamble by using it without paying).
4) Absolutely not. However, if you are still worried, mineral water is quite cheap if you buy it from a grocery store (1.5 liters for 0,29€ in Germany).
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Thanks for responses everyone.
I'm thinking now of renting a car instead of going for train tickets for extra freedom and less wasted travel time, and it actually works out to be a similar cost. Is renting a car pretty reasonable, or are there some caveats/hidden risks you might know about? D:
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You need to check for compatible drop-off points for cars. Otherwise, flying is the best way to travel internationally, as budget airlines make it very cheap. Trains are fast and expensive in Germany, and slow and cheap in Poland.
I dislike both Krakow and Prague, but I suppose if you want to make a fool of yourself amongst people who are used to delinquent tourists, those will be the places where you can minimize collateral damage.
When you are in Germany, consider Nuremberg, Ulm, Bamberg, Bayreuth, Berchtesgaden, Neuschwannstein, Heidelberg, Freiburg, Konstanz, Strasbourg, Rothenburg in the South; Düsseldorf, Cologne, Trier in West, Lübeck, Lüneburg in the North and Potsdam and Weimar in the East.
In Poland, I prefer Torun and Danzig over anywhere in the South.
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i happen to live in berlin and i can tell you its definitely worth visiting. berlin is currently probably the most popular major city in europe with its very cheap and affordable lodging and prices in general. youre not too far off on your estimate concerning food and lodging. id still recommend hospitality club or couchsurfing just because its free and its a good chance to get to know local people and have them take you around town and tell you the places to go. berlin in the summertime really is the shit, on top of that theres plenty of native english speakers(people who moved here from usa, uk,etc) as well as people whose english skills should be more than sufficient to let you lead a decent conversation with them. dont know what kind of person you are but the nightlife here is incredible. you can really wreck yourself going out clubbing meaning that youll probably end up coming home the next evening if you hit the right clubs :-) apart from that it has of course all the touristy stuff your touristy heart desires ^^ but in general its always worth a trip just to get to see and experience part of the very liberal mindset that has been developing here over the last couple of years.
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If you are going to travel from Berlin to Prague (or vice versa) I think the train leads you through Leipzig. If so it's worth walking around for a day or so. Nice university city with a lot of cultural things to do and a fun inner city.
Also Dresden is nice to walk around for an afternoon if you are passing through it. They actually finished rebuilding the inner city in the original style a couple years ago after all the bombings from WWII that flattened everything in the old city.
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EPT
