7 Tips for a Well Organized Euro Trip

It’s the most important step for any trip. I have divided my planning in 4 categories: 

Decide on countries to visit

As Europe has many countries, you might want to take time to decide which all countries you want to visit. If you want to see Northern Lights you may want to add Norway or Iceland to your list. If you just want to go and relax in Santorini, then you may even just have Greece in your list. So, it’s up to you and your partner and co-travellers to decide on which countries to travel to in your Euro trip 🙂

We chose France, Switzerland and Italy.

Flight Tickets

So once you have decided on the countries to visit, locking down on your entry country and exit country should be next.Followed by booking flight tickets. You may even decide your entry and exit as per ticket prices as well 😛 Getting your tickets done well in advance is always a good idea to save money. Summer is usually the best time to travel most of Europe. 

For us, we landed in Paris and returned from Rome. Yes, flight prices did decide that a bit 😉

Hotels/Resorts Booking

Figure out where you want to stay based on price, scenery, transportation accessibility, distance from city center etc. We generally choose resorts based on transportation accessibility as we were going to use it very frequently.

Tip: Go on forums like TripAdvisor to search for resorts/hotels.

Recommended sites: Resorts from Booking.com; Stay like a local with Airbnb

Visa

Applying for Visa, is another milestone towards planning your trip. If you are applying for Schengen Visa then whichever country you are planning to stay most number of days, Visa must be taken for that country only and it will be valid for other countries you are visiting. For United Kingdom there is separate visa procedure. So if you are planning to visit the Schengen counties as well as London, you must apply for two Visas, one Schengen Visa and another one for UK. Usually while applying for visa, you must present your hotel/resorts booking details, flight to and fro tickets, bank account statements, etc.

Once your tickets, hotel/resorts bookings and Visa are done, you need to work towards deciding on places to visit. Research the top places to visit and top things to do in the countries you have decided to travel. This is the most important step to make your vacation go as per plan. It is better to plan ahead so as to make the most of your time in Europe. You may even plan for few days to be at leisure, like we had kept 2 days in Paris for which we didn’t plan anything. But point to note here is we planned not to plan anything for those two days 😛

All these planning will also help you in budgeting ahead as almost everyone budgets for flight tickets, hotels and Visas but miss on proper planning for daily expenditures on the trip.

Recommended reading: The spectacular City of London and Her Top 9 Destinations

It’s good to have goals on daily basis for a well spent day on your trip. As per the research and your budget for the trip you should finalize the itinerary. Nowadays, you get plenty of apps which helps in creating your itinerary. Distribution of load in making Itinerary is always a good idea if you are travelling in group.

The day we arrived in Paris, we took bus tour in the evening and visited Eiffel tower.

In Europe, many travel options are available and best is to rely on metro trains. Public transport systems are very robust in Europe. They are convenient to travel in. For example: We brought Swiss pass in Interlaken, which was valid for metro, Cruise, and bus from anywhere to anywhere within the country for 3 days. It was really a time saver and super convenient. It also provided us with 25% discount on Jungfraujoch ticket. We did not purchase the pass over internet, we bought it at Zurich airport. Relying on Uber and local taxis can be very expensive. So wherever we could, we bought day bus or train passes.

Include bus number/metro train number/ station name in your itinerary planning and research from your hotel/resort to any attraction. Yes we did this too 😀

You also must book intercity travel apart from within the city travel. We took train from Paris to Interlaken, Interlaken to Luzern and Milan to Rome. Prices of intercity train also varies depending on how much days left and they can be very expensive. So, booking it prior to travel is always a money saving option. We booked these in advance over internet from Raileurope.com .

We recommend to take Swiss railways if you are travelling to and from Switzerland to another Europe country, it’s very scenic. Choose to travel during daytime, preferably early mornings. Wondering why? The Swiss beauty can be enjoyed in day light and you would reach your next destination mostly around noon.

Banks are now providing services like travel forex cards which are very easy to use. You can get this easily from major banks and online transfer is also available in most of these forex cards. Keeping some cash with you for your emergency needs is also a good idea. Foreign Exchange is available on any international airport if you are out of cash. In Europe, most of the supermarkets, railway stations, etc. will accept credit card and forex cards.

Travel insurance is an important document while processing Visa. Medical Insurance coverage is necessary for your emergency care. It may seem to be an unnecessary expense but highly recommended to get a travel insurance before you leave.

You may think that this a vanity tip we are listing here. But this is really crucial one for a no-hiccup trip 🙂 Instead of packing everything on the day before your trip starts, you must gradually start packing. Start thinking about what you’ll need to bring with you at least a week before you leave. If your destination of choice is suddenly experiencing abnormal weather, you may need that extra time to go shopping. Like when we were about to leave for Paris we heard that it’s raining a lot there and we had to quickly shop for a packable rain coat.

Some of the important(or rather unimportant) things which we packed apart from our regular things are below:

1. Rain Coats (In case of rains and cold wind).
2. If you are going to colder region(Jungfrau – top of Europe) then thermals, leather gloves, boots, woolen caps, woolen socks, moisturizers, lip balm are must.
3. A pair of sport shoes and goggles
4. In Europe, tap water is drinkable so carry your water bottle and fill it when needed to avoid spending on water.

So, these are some of the tips from us for you to plan an unforgettable Euro trip. Do let us know how your Euro trip goes. And if you have already had Euro trips in past, do share your planning and tips in comments below.