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Question for all you world travelers...I'm backpacking through Europe and I need your help!
In a couple of weeks my brother and I will be boarding a plane to Dublin with nothing but the clothes on our back and a backpack. We will also be visiting the northern part of Spain and Rome. Unfortunately, we've run into a problem. We were supposed to stay with this religious order that I know from school (free food and a roof over your head woo!) but due to date confusions we can only stay with them part of the time.This means my brother and I are on our own for most of the month of June. That's 2 days in Dublin, about 2 weeks in northern Spain, and about 10 days in Rome.
So here's my question to all you world travelers. Have any good advice? Know anything about decently priced hostels in Rome or Santander, Spain? And finally, any suggestions on what I absolutely must see?
You can check out all of my travel plans thus far on my blog.
Thanks in advance for all your help!
Tags: backpacking, blogging, dublin, europe, ireland, italy, rome, spain, travel
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Jeffrey on -
http://www.couchsurfing.org/
Try this, it sounds sketchy, but I did it and it was a great experience.
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Permalink Reply by Amanda Abella on -
haha omg that is AWESOME
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Permalink Reply by R...RAWR on -
I highly recommend couchsurfing if you can get on it now and get organised!
It's also a great place to ask for recommendations for places to stay/ things to do etc. Local perspective and all that!
You can also check out the hospitality club! Similar concept/idea.
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Permalink Reply by Alana on -
i vouch for this- i was sketchy at first but it's an awesome scheme, and there's plenty of like-minded people out there who aren't nutbags!
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Permalink Reply by Kris on -
Couchsurfing is more work, but worth the effort. I would recommend it, if you can pull it off.
If you stay in Spain, particularly Barcelona, definitely book ahead. There are a lot of fucking sketchy places with "HOSTEL" blared across the front. As we found out at midnight. Use hostelworld.com. There is no other like it.
In Rome we stayed in a cheap grubby little place called the student house, or some such thing. It's near the train station, which was important for us, but we also walked to all the other necessary sites. It was only, like, ten euros a night. Besides the fact that the shut down for "student protest" the first night we were there and sent us walking about a dodgy section of Rome at night in the rain. Haha. Notice a trend?
Rome is amazing! Collosium and pizza are musts! Not worth going in, though, from what I heard. Just go see it at night and soak in the grandeur.
Sorry, I am getting carried away. Discover your own, and have fun! Of course you will.
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Permalink Reply by Kara on -
I agree with Kris about the Colosseum. It's a must to see, but waiting in the lines to go inside are sadly anti-climactic. Also, the Pantheon is really cool, or at least I thought so.
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Permalink Reply by Kris on
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Also, Kara can spell it. She is clearly a lot smarter then me, so listen to her.
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Permalink Reply by Rachel Finlayson on -
Don't miss London.
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Permalink Reply by Robert Fitzsimmons on -
Try couchsurfing.org or book a hostel with hostels.com or hostelworld.com I usually use hostel world. You can see prices, location and feedback left from other people there. So plenty of time to make a decision on what to book.
I spent a weekend in Rome a few years back, I recommend getting up early and queuing for the Vatican, actually if you can book it though a tour and they can queue for you, literally saving hours. You could spend a few days in the Vatican, but it gets a bit overwhelming, so I just went through and saw the main bits.
Colleseum is well worth the queue too :-)
I used a company called Angel Tours, I don't know if they still run, but you can Google it. It was run by Italian history students who where very knowledgably and keen, so well worth going with. It was only 15 Euro for 2 hours or so.
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Permalink Reply by floreta on -
If you want to stay with the religious order bit, try going up to random temples and explain that you're a traveler and need a place to stay in exchange for help around the temple/monastery etc. They will usually take you in. Catholic, hindu, Buddhist, etc. This is the travel advice of a friend I know who hitchhiked all the way from Russia to China with only $150 and mostly stayed through various temples and couchsurfing. The kindness of strangers as a traveler is absolutely amazing.
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Permalink Reply by Ethony on -
The best advise I got before my first big trip was:
Half what you are going to take and double your money. If you can buy it there, don't carry it around with you.
Other things:
I bought a travel washing line and everyone laughed at me until I used it all the time when backpacking and people were asking me if they could also hang their stuff on it. Yeah who is laughing now! I let them of course
Hostels not only are a cheaper way to have a roof over your head but they also plan a lot of activities and are a hive of local information
Get a HI card (they are YHA cards in Australia) cheaper Hostels and you get discounts all over the place.
Leave copies of your passports etc with trusted people back home in case the unthinkable happens
I hope you both have a great time!
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