It's official! I will be going to England, France (of course), Belgium, The Netherlands, Spain, and Italy during October! I am usually the planner so I have planned 2 separate trips and it has been very stressful.
The first one is England, France, Belgium, and the Netherlands. It was slightly easier to plan than the other one because I didn't have to coordinate with anyone. I booked all of my hotels thru CheapTickets because I received 20% off all of the hotel rooms. I'm using megabus to travel and I don't plan on eating at a lot of restaurants. I have screenshots of the maps with the locations on my phone so I will be able to navigate around. I am also doing Sandeman's free walking tours. You pay what you think the tour was worth at the end.
The second trip is my 2 week fall break to Barcelona, Rome, Florence, Venice, and Milan and I am going with a guy from Colorado and a girl from Finland. It took absolutely forever to find anyone interested in doing the same thing I wanted to do (NO ONE PLANS ANYTHING HERE!!). One girl was on-board and really excited but when it came time to buy the tickets, she backed out. I didn't think this trip would happen, but it is :) I almost didn't go because I knew the planning would be stressful but so far, so good. I booked flights with easyjet and ryanair (buy the full-coverage insurance), and I am currently in the process of using hostelworld to plan out hostels. The total for travel and hostels is about 450 euros. I leave this Saturday (10/5/13) for England and then I come back on the 20th and we are leaving the 21st, so I have to have everything done before I leave.
Basically, I have been busy planning and doing laundry.
Also, here's a how-to-travel-for-16-days-with-one-backpack:
(Unfortunately, I am flying to London with just a carry-on so I can't bring a lot of liquids (shampoo, conditioner, etc), so I'll probably have to buy some when my travel sizes run out.
1. Dresses and tights: they pack really easily and can be re-wore, Jeans, Sweaters, and T-shirts. I am wearing my boots and peacoat.
2. Raincoat
3. Small first aid kit, tissues, and hand sanitizer
4. Travel size toiletries and travel size packet of detergent for washing clothes in the sink.
5. Reusable water bottle
6. Mini umbrella
7. Socks and underwear (definitely don't under pack these)
8. Batteries, camera, iPad, and chargers
9. Documents (passport, tickets, hotel info)
10. Crackers :)
That's all for now!
Hillary