8 Mistakes Not to Make When Planning a Europe Trip

Planning a trip to Europe? These are the most common mistakes that people make when planning their Eurotrip. I've traveled Europe quite a bit so I'm telling you the things to do and not to do when it comes to a vacation in Europe.

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[purposedriven]

Who is going to travel all that way and not see Paris and Rome! No way!

[mickgarrett]

One trip, one week, one BIG city. 10 days to 14, add  one other big city (London/Paris) and don't expect to see it all.  This will allow you to hit some highlights and linger over lunch.  Eat your big meal for lunch, or assemble a picnic from a local grocery. Dinners are substantially pricier,  so plan to eat a lighter portion in the evening. Lots of restaurants in Paris do take-away and we dined splendidly on the balcony back in our room.

[ireshrie]

Also, this is my first time watching your video. Pretty impressive. I'm now a subscriber! :)

[ConnollyCove]

Very informative!!..Thanks for sharing. :)

[ThoseTwoBrits]

Hey Jess! It was nice meeting you the other day - loving your videos :D x

[tudorarada]

Summer is the only time I can go because of school.

[francismajor]

Hi Jess. I really appreciate all the work you do in providing us with information on London & Europe. Came in handy on my last trip in June 2018. Will be going again in 3 months.

[yooattziin]

I've read a lot and heard a lot about not traveling through the entire continent. I live in the American continent, so traveling so many times to explore an specific area it's really expensive specially for the flights. I think that the majority of people who go backpacking through the entire continent are the young people who don't have so much money to go to Europe every vacation. I include myself. I don't think it is wrong to try to visit cities as much as we can. If we just focused on one we may not be able to visit other ones ever again. So we have to take the chance when going for the first time :)
Just my humble opinion.

[cfarinaaz]

Yeah, wish I could avoid going during the summer, hah. Yay schedules.

[jwin_]

thank you thank you thank you! this is such a helpful video. booking my flight soon :D

[guti]

Thanks for putting some common sense into me! #2 😉

[carlfromtheoc]

Last year took my first trip to Europe and went to Ireland. I figured they speak English and I could not get too lost, it is an island. What I have told people after my trip is to ask the folks at the front desk where the locals go for food and drink. If you are on a tour and there is a bit of time as you are waiting to get back on the bus, chat with the bus driver, as they likely really know the area. Have structured time, but allow for unstructured time - like a combo laundry day and chillax time.

This year I am off to the Cote d'Azur for about 3 weeks. I start of in Marseille, then will visit a friend in Cannes for 2 weeks and my friend is looking forward to my notes and pictures of Marseille and the surrounding areas, as they have never been. I will eventually fly out from Nice.

Also, the internet is your friend. For example, using the internet, you can find specialized airport shuttle buses that run into various cities, at various locations, which may be close to your hotel, which is cheaper than a cab, or train. Or find your place on a map, zoom in a bit, then use the map functions to find, restaurants, bars, food stores, etc, and then click n those locations for web sites, hours, etc. Also handy to find where bus stops, subway stops and train stations are relative to where you will be. Or where the nearest laundromat is located.

For me, whether travelling domestically or internationally, I try to avoid chain restaurants. The exception is that in Europe I do want to go to a McDonalds just to see the different menu items.

Lastly, I always have a notebook (a regular spiral bound paper one) handy so I can write things down, like what I did on a particular day, what I saw, what I ate. Why? Well, I am a bit of an idiot and if I do not write it down, I will forget, or get thing wrong. Bonus, you make notes of places to go back to, or write down the web site of a product(s) - especially if they ship internationally. A bonus for me was surfing the web and finding that the Museum of the French Foreign Legion is a short (20 minutes) train ride from Marseille, then about a mile walk to the museum. Perfect! Hit that in the morning then relax in Marseille in the afternoon.

For the record, I travel solo and family groups always seem willing to look out for the nice, polite, solo traveler. Like the evening myself, a couple from Houston, a couple from Australia, and the Irish tour guide killed off a bottle of Bushmill's coming back by train from Galway to Dublin.

[MissBieberific]

Hey! So glad i found this video! My friends and I are planning a Europe trip over the summer, and from your video i heard it wasn t agood idea, but we have no other choice since this is for our grad/senior trip. We are planning to visit Rome, Venice, Turin, Barcelona, Amsterdam, Paris, and Marseille in 21 days. Yes this is going to be a little too short to truly visit everything but we just wanted to get and experience. My questions are: how long do you think in each of the cities we should stay? also for transportation we were thinking of using interail.. do you know much about it? or if it is worth it? Thanks

[NehaLal]

Great videos! I am planning a trip for Christmas holidays. Where would you recommend. We want some cultural exposure as well as we would like to party 😀 Thank you!

[LighthouseREFS]

Good suggestions! I've been to Rome, Northern Italy twice and Lugano, Switzerland twice the last week of May and the first two of June. I'm so glad we went at that time of the year before the crowds and the heat arrived and that we did, just like you say, a few days in each city and day trips instead of trying to visit many countries in just 2-3 weeks. This year I was tempted to do a couple of other countries in August but after watching this I think I'll just postpone it to the first two weeks of November. I hope it's not too cold in Germany, which is one of the countries we want to visit this time. Northern Italy is a must for any trip we make to Europe ( I just love that area). Any suggestions?

[celenyrosales]

Great tips! I am planning on visiting Spain, and Italy on November, but i am worried it would be too rainy.... How is Europe during the month of November?

[lavayuki]

Instead of Dublin, Ireland has some really nice towns like Galway, Cork and Kerry to visit. In the UK I really like Bath, Edinburgh and Cornwall. Munich in Germany, Davos in Switzerland, Nice and Bordeaux in France, Florence and Venice in Italy and Algarve in Portugal were a few of my non-capital city favourites.

[RafsanSabab]

Thank for your awesome videos. I am going to Oslo this December for a summit. If I have seven extra days after the summit how should I plan my trip? As in, what are the places I should go to inside or outside Norway

[agneslee]

i love your video!!! it's so useful!!! i'm planning to go to London on early December. How is the weather over there? will it be very crowded on this time being?

[anshul]

oh man I should have watched it before preparing my trip.
Have done all the things opposite
planned my trip in summers
planned my trip in major cities ..
haha liked and subscribed