6 key strategies for planning a European trip

[Adrian Kents]

Most of my European travels take place between September and May. I rarely fight the high-season summer tourist crowds. But I just sent my niece across to Europe with a Eurailpass to backpack across the continent like I once did. My, how times have changed.

The old days of hopping on trains at will, arriving in town, searching for a spot in the hostel and visiting museums on a whim are past. Europe today may have places where that is possible, but the hot cities and popular towns are packed, hostels are booked in advance through the Web, trains need reservations, buses are limited and some of the best museums require advanced booking.

Almost every museum, train, bus, hostel or ferry that requires a reservation makes it easy. Just use the Internet and use it about a week in advance. Travelers can make reservations before leaving for their trip if they feel the need to plan ahead or they can chance a reservation around three days in advance if they want more of a loosey goosey approach. But make reservations and plan ahead.

If any of you have read about Americans deciding that travel in Europe is too expensive for their blood, please note that the rest of the world has more than taken up the slack. The continent is packed.

The lesson I just took away from my recent time in Italy, Germany and Spain and making plans together with my niece to visit southern France and Italy was the need to plan ahead. Before the planning phase, make sure that basics, we take for granted are clearly understood — basics like telling time in Europe.

Learn to tell time
I was in the military, so looking at a scheduled departure time of 20:15 tells me that the train is leaving at 8:15 p.m. Unfortunately, many of our teenagers have no concept of what time 20:15 actual is. More than once I have seen teary travelers sitting on the tracks crying because they missed their 20:15 train by arriving at 10:15 p.m. I know it sounds silly, but make sure whenever sending teenagers or college grads for that European adventure that they know how to tell time.

Have a plan
This is a new concept for me. In marketing campaigns, military attacks, weddings and other complex operations, planning ahead is a given. It never was, when I was wandering across Europe in the ’70s and ’80s. I would wake up in the morning and decide what I wanted to see and where I wanted to go and then either head to the museums or get back on the train heading to the next town. Now, during the European crowded summer, plan ahead.

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