---
title: 'How to Backpack Europe: everything you need to know | Eurail, hostels, currency, making friends, etc'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=cx2byMGdJoY'
video_id: 'cx2byMGdJoY'
date: 2026-06-28
duration_sec: 1776
---

# How to Backpack Europe: everything you need to know | Eurail, hostels, currency, making friends, etc

> Source: [How to Backpack Europe: everything you need to know | Eurail, hostels, currency, making friends, etc](https://youtube.com/watch?v=cx2byMGdJoY)

## Summary



## Transcript

there is so much you need to know before
you plan a backpacking Europe trip and
so this video is going to tell you every
single thing you need to know about
backpacking Europe from flights to
budget to urel accommodation and hostels
Transportation souvenirs everything you
could possibly think of I'm going to
tell you all about it so I went
backpacking last year for a month with
my friend Sophie after semester at C and
we went to 13 different countries some
of them I went on my own most of them
were with Sophie and then I visited a
couple other friends in some of the
other countries so I went to Germany
Denmark Poland Czech Republic Hungary
Italy Switzerland France England Wales
Iceland and Ireland I think that's all
of them I've kind of divided these into
two different sections so kind of what
you need to do before you leave and then
traveling things once you're there that
kind of stuff and then each of those
have different categories Within each of
them I have literally a massive it's
like a 1500w document of like all my
notes and make sure I remember because
there's actually there is quite a bit
you need to know about backpacking and
you can just kind of wing it but there
are definitely some things that will
make your life a lot easier when you're
backpacking if you know them ahead of
time first of all your rough Plan before
you leave you kind of have to make a
base of what countries you want to go
not that you can't spontaneously do
something when you're there but you
should have kind of a rough plan of what
countries you want to go to in what
order just because it's a lot cheaper to
not zigzag back and forth across Europe
so you want to reduce your travel time
and also reduce costs by going kind of
countries next to each other instead of
going from one end of Europe to the
other order doesn't really matter unless
you are trying to hit a specific event
in a country if you're trying to do a
lot in not a lot of time like we went to
13 countries in one month I would
recommend 2 to three days per country I
think on average mine was 2 days but
like Iceland I was there for 6 days so
it just kind of depends what your plan
is obviously Iceland was kind of a
farther away country so that necess more
time and I'll go through this more but
definitely try to book overnight trains
if possible because then you're not
having to book another night of
accommodation and also you're not taking
daylight to travel to a whole different
country so that is my base
recommendation there as far as flights
obviously you need to buy your flights
to Europe if you're already in Europe
and planning to a backpack trip then you
don't really need to worry so much about
flights but seeing as I'm from the US so
this is from a US perspective flights to
Europe are obviously more expensive if
possible don't try to be too strict with
dates because flights could be much
cheaper if you went like a day earlier
or came back a day later or whatever so
try and be flexible and move the your
start and end dates around a little bit
just to see you might get a much cheaper
flight price and always make sure that
that you have the flexibility to change
your flights if possible so if something
happens at home and you have to come
home early it's way nicer to know that
you can change your flight without an
extra cost or wasting the money of that
flight if you have that flexibility
built into your ticket originally so I
would highly recommend making sure to do
that also just in case you're making
spontaneous plans and all of a sudden
you meet somebody you meet a friend and
you want to go to this country oh now
you can easily change your plans and
your flights so being able to be
flexible is the most important part of
backpacking also smaller flights if
you're going to a different country or
if you're going to Islands like if you
want to fly out to sanini from Athens
right those flights can definitely be
booked much shorter in advance and also
usually much cheaper than probably
people in the US are used to but I would
still heavily recommend trains over ples
so this kind of goes into your rail I'm
going to talk about your rail now inter
rail is for those who live in Europe but
for anybody who doesn't live in Europe
you get a UR Rail Pass which is
basically the same thing but for
different cens uril is amazing and you
don't need to be at a train station
multiple hours early like you do at an
airport so it just saves a lot of time
and overall if you get a Euro pass
you'll be spending less money you can
get many more trains for the price of a
Euro ticket than you will get for planes
and planes largely only go to larger
destinations so of course if it happens
to work out and you've run through all
the days on your Euro pass your rail is
getting harder and harder to say then of
course you can book a flight but I would
highly recommend trains trains also go
to smaller cities and Destin ations
whereas planes are only going to largely
go to bigger cities there are multiple
different kinds of passes I believe I
got the 15 days in two months which
basically just means you can use trains
you can go on any number of trains you
want on a travel day so you add 15
travel days in the span of two months
those are flexi passes so you can get a
four five or seven days travel in one
month or you can get 10 or 15 days of
travel within two months so I could go
on three different trains on one day
like midnight to midnight and that would
still only count as one travel a so
that's a really nice thing about Ur rail
if you're trying to cross a great
distance or if your path just has a lot
of different layovers to get to whatever
City you're going to continuous passes
you can get 15 or 22 days in a row so
that's like every single day for 15 or
22 days or you can get one two or three
months in a row continuous passes are
honestly way more than you need and way
more expensive just because it gives you
the opportunity to travel every day if
you want to but but that's really
unrealistic and you probably won't do
that anyway so I highly recommend just
getting the flexi passes they're also
different prices so if you're a youth
which qualifies as 12 to 27y Old then
those passes are slightly cheaper than
the adult ones which are 28 to 59 years
old and the child 4 to 11 is free and
Senior 60 plus is less an adult but more
than youth I think I'm not totally sure
highly recommend getting that cheaper
ticket there's there's also first class
and second class I got a second class
ticket you don't need a first class
ticket it's just more money basically
especially if you're trying to do it on
a budget that's what I recommend as
amazing as URL is it is also a little
bit confusing to use you have the URL
app and then you just search the train
or City station that you want to go to
from where you are and the app will give
you a whole bunch of different options
like different times and different
amounts of layovers or how long it'll
take and you basically just add the
train to your app and it will keep track
of it and then don't activate that pass
until you either get on that train or
the conductor comes by and asks for your
ticket because there are sometimes in
northern Europe especially Germany where
nobody came by to ask for a ticket so
you kind of waste one of your travel
days if you activate the ticket and
nobody comes by granted most of the time
people do come by but we've had a few
times where nobody ever did so don't
activate your pass until the conductor
is coming towards you because you don't
need to show anyone the pass really to
get on the train the eural app also has
a really nice map where you can add all
of the trains you want to take in the
future and it shows you a map of like
where they all are and where they're
going which ones you've taken and stuff
like that so that's really nice to be
able to actually visually see all the
different trains you're taking and the
thing with overnight trains so trains
that are specifically marked overnight
trains you need to buy a separate seat
reservation for some trains that are
like more common paths you will need to
get to reservations for anyway which you
can do either in the actual train
station or you can't do them online
which is kind of annoying but before you
leave you can get them ordered and
delivered to your house or most commonly
you just go to the train station a few
days before or once you first get to
Europe I would recommend going to
whatever major train station you're at
and just say I need these seat
reservations or I need these overnight
passes because
you cannot get on an overnight train if
you do not have a overnight seat
reservation we learned that the hard way
we were stranded in a tiny little
abandoned town in Denmark and I wouldn't
recommend it so make sure if you need an
overnight pass or you even need a seat
reservation you get that figured out we
went into Berlin train station and just
went to the ticket desk they have a
specific like location that you'll be
able to find and they were super helpful
with figuring out all the different SE
reservations that we needed cuz the app
doesn't really let you know about that
you kind of have to figure that one out
on your own unless you already know it
so I would recommend figuring that out
the second you get into Europe if you
haven't already ordered your seat
reservations find a train station say
these are the ones I need and they will
help you out it's not really that
expensive some of them were literally
like5 some of them were more expensive
like the Eurostar from France to England
that one was more expensive but that's
more expensive train in general seat
reservations something you need to know
about but as long as you get them figure
it out especially for overnights
especially for overnight trains but if
you figure it out then it's not a
problem so just keep that in mind as far
as budget I actually last week posted my
backpacking budget video so I'll link
that here and you can watch it cuz I
went through every single thing I bought
and the price of everything for
accommodation Transportation food
excursions and souvenirs for every
single country I went to and I gave an
average per day budget so you can watch
that video for more in- depth about a
budget but I think I determined that my
average per day for everything was like
$150 not euros dollars obviously I'm
American so all of my money came into my
account already translated into dollars
I think at the time though the Euro was
pretty similar to dollars so there
wasn't really that much of a difference
at that time anyway but also just keep
in mind that some countries are way more
expensive than others Poland was one of
my cheapest ones uh Switzerland is super
expensive as is Iceland is also super
expensive so if you want a more
expensive or less expensive it just
depends on what countries you go to also
what cities and what kind of activities
you want to do but you can totally
tailor it to whatever kind of budget you
have now for packing I also made an
unpack with me from my backpacking trip
video a few months ago so I'll link that
here as well so I won't go through like
every single detail of what's important
CU I definitely mentioned all those in
that video but I'll go through a few
things here of what's important to
remember carryon is so worth it okay
bring carryon only luggage it doesn't
matter how long you are going it's so
worth it and also try not to bring a
roller carry-on suitcase you will get so
so so tired of rolling your suitcase
over cobblestones you will wreck the
wheels of your suitcase if you do that
and you'll be so tired of hearing that
clacking noise of your suitcase dragging
along behind you on the on the
cobblestones you'll just want to pick it
up and carry it anyway it's I highly
highly recommend going backpacks only I
double backpack this so I had my Osprey
Fairview 40 so that was a carry-on
backpack and then I also had just like
my regular school backpack Jan Sport
backpack and so I had my 40 L backpack
on here and then I would carry my school
backpack on my front everybody knows
your backpacking that's okay that's kind
of part of the fun of it all but
backpacking is so much better than
having any kind of suitcase I just
cannot recommend it enough as far as the
actual things you bring with less is
more okay you do not need the like 14
different dresses that you think you
will wear you won't wear them put
everything you think you want to bring
then take half back okay you don't need
that much also packing cubes very
important I got most of my packing cubes
on Amazon I'm pretty sure and you just
have to find ones that kind of lay the
best so I had a bigger one for most of
everything and then I kind of had a
smaller one that was for like shorts and
pants and then I had a wider one that I
put all my um bras and underwear and
socks in but because it was wide
everything was flat so packing Cube
itself ended up being pretty flat so I
could just slide it in the top pocket
which is actually a really nice way to
have that because the bigger things are
the harder they are fit in a backpack so
that was actually really smart was to
have a flat packing cube with all of
that stuff in that I could just slide in
wherever I needed it to go and also you
will walk probably 20,000 steps every
single day bring comfortable shoes you
need comfortable shoes I brought my Vans
and I brought birken stocks I've walked
thousands of miles in my birken stocks
okay so whatever you know that you will
feel comfortable walking miles in bring
that and you only need like two pairs of
shoes really now for the actual
traveling part I'm actually going to
start with currency because obviously
most of Europe uses the Euro and very
rarely will you need actual cash you can
always get some cash beforehand at your
local bank which I would recommend
because usually those are better
exchange rates than if you try to use an
ATM in country you probably won't need
to use cash very much I would recommend
having a credit card which has no
foreign transaction fees because then
you can also get points on everything
you buy and then you don't have to pay
for fees for foreign transactions so
that is what I did I had the Amazon
Prime card which is no transaction fees
you can get a little bit beforehand
especially if you're going to countries
that don't use the euro I'm honestly not
sure how many of those are
left maybe just more Eastern Europe but
I I could be wrong or maybe like
Scandinavia like Norway maybe doesn't
use the euro I'm not sure I didn't go to
Norway so I couldn't tell you that for
certain honestly you don't really need
to carry much cash at all hosts use
hostile world we used it every single
time we booked it was amazing always
worked it was great basically you just
search the city you want to go to and
then pick the cheapest one that's also
closest to the city center uh because
you will spend way less time walking if
your hostel is already like right in the
city center and that worked out
brilliantly for us every single time we
also
mostly only booked hostil like a few
nights ahead we really didn't plan that
much in advance you can get your first
few nights hostel before you get there
or even your second City or your second
country's hostels before you leave but
honestly after that you don't really
need to because there will almost always
be open spots unless you're going in the
peak of Summer then you might want to
try to book them a little bit more in
advance but there was always a available
spots also keep track of holidays in
certain countries because our friend who
came with us to Prague they had this
witch burning holiday something that was
going on in Prague the weekend we were
there and we luckily were staying the
night before but our friend was staying
the next night and every single room and
every single hostel and hotel in the
entire city was booked every single one
so you should be cautious of if there's
going to be holidays in the places
you're going to that might need you to
rethink how you're going to plan hosts
or maybe you want to go to that City a
few days later so you miss that holiday
most hostels also have different types
of rooms available so usually there's
like a mixed dorm option and then rooms
that have only men or only women larger
dorms with more people in them will also
typically be cheaper than dorms with
only a few people but really depends on
what kind of environment you want and
also what kind of hostel some of them
only have certain options some of them
don't have mixed options every hostel is
different also private rooms definitely
the most expensive options but if you're
kind of feeling a little burnt out and
you want some time not around people
then I would recommend booking a private
room just so that you can have a chance
to be alone for a few days I would also
recommend trying to find a hostel that
has some kind of included breakfast some
are are literally just like bread and
jam and some are definitely more of like
a full continental breakfast kind of
thing sometimes they're for free and
sometimes you have to pay like a couple
Euros to get it but it's just one more
meal that you don't have to find on your
own so I would highly recommend doing
that as far as public transportation
goes use it use public transportation
okay I can't recommend it enough getting
taxis or Ubers depending on the country
will be so much more expensive and time
consuming because roads are not NE
necessarily built solely for car travel
like in the US however I will say in
Poland I got like five or six taxis and
Ubers for a total of $25 we found out
they were so cheap and we were like
we're just going to use it definitely
look but use public transportation you
can buy a day pass or a multi-day pass
depending on how long you're going to be
in the city but use it when walking
would be too far most of the time you
can just walk everything in European
cities are pretty close together and
only taxi and Uber when public
transportation won't get you within
walking distance of the attraction you
want to see there are way more taxis and
uers in like the central part of the
city so if you're trying to see
something that's kind of outside the
city and trains and public
transportation won't get you within
walking distance of it just get the Uber
from the bigger city because if you get
a train as far out as you can you're
much less likely to have an abundance of
Ubers there available this is on a
different trip actually but me and my
friend Ashley we were doing a Belgium
and Amsterdam trip and we wanted to see
something that was like outside Brussels
and so we just got an Uber from Brussels
all the way there because it was way
easier than getting a train out or
getting a public transportation out and
then trying to walk or find an Uber and
also there are plenty of taxis at the
big attraction so coming back is not
that hard either and I say this
cautiously and I don't recommend it but
in northern Europe Denmark and Germany
especially you may be able to use public
transportation without ever buying a
ticket there's not a lot of checks in
place like you don't have to buy a
ticket and then like scan the ticket in
order to get through France that's very
heavy you have to go through like six
different Securities before you can get
on a train but northern Europe They
Don't Really check so much so I'm not
saying I recommend it or you should do
it but just it's more feasible southern
Europe they will check every single time
you won't be able to get through there
will be security northern Europe it
might be feasible but I don't recommend
it just so you know trams are also
trickier than Subways or underground
public transportation sometimes you have
to buy a ticket after you bored instead
of before and there are people who will
make you pay a big fine if they catch
you on a tram and you have not bought a
ticket yet that happened to us in
Budapest and we had to pay like a $36
fine even though we had literally just
gotten on the tram so also keep keep
that in mind that above ground public
transportation is way more riskier I
would say than Subways or underground
transportation in terms of figuring out
how to pay for them when it's not clear
as far as excursions or getting to
tourist destinations or museums stuff
like that there are some days when we
would roll into a country and have no
idea what we were doing not a clue
hadn't planned anything we hadn't even
looked anything up but we knew we wanted
to go to the city use Google Maps you
can search a city and then search
attractions and so they'll all pop up
and then so you can look at all the
different attractions save any that
you're interested in even remotely
interested into a Google Maps list so
that later when you're going back and
looking at oh what should we do in the
city today you have a map of like how
far apart all the different attractions
are so you can like say oh there's like
four different things we want to do and
they're on this side of the city let's
go over there hit all those so we don't
have to walk back and fourth across the
city a bunch of times it worked very
well for us every single time I've ever
used that method it's worked really well
keep in mind that if there are certain
things that you want to hit like an
Frank house that are going to be really
busy make sure to get those booked ahead
of time those tickets booked ahead of
time as early as you know when and where
you're going to be there because it
really sucks to miss an opportunity to
do something cuz you're only there for a
couple days and the tickets are booked
for those few days so make sure that if
there is a bigger attraction that you
want to see get those booked as soon as
you know when you're going to be in that
place you can also use apps like get
your guide to book more of a tour of
something and some of them are really
nice and helpful and not too expensive
but on the whole I would say it's
probably much cheaper to do whatever
that t was planning to do on your own it
totally depends some of them are are
offering more of an experience that you
can't do on your own I would say try and
do it on your own try to plan it on your
own first and then if you're like n this
is too complicated the transportation
from one place to the next because it's
so
rural then I would say use get your
guide or some other app like that try to
figure it out on your own first if
you're trying to save money food is a
big one very important do not go out for
every meal it's so expensive if you have
a massive budget go for it that sounds
fantastic but most people are probably
not backpacking Europe I'm not on a
budget again try to get hostels that
have breakfast it's one more meal you
don't have to find or you can get coffee
in a pastry at a bakery lots of bakeries
everywhere in Europe and usually they're
not expensive so that's a good one to
use we actually carried around a mini
grocery bag like it was this little
grocery bag and we kept restocking it
with bread cheese and meat usually like
salami or something like that and that
was our lunch every day that was our
lunch we would just have a picnic lunch
and we would just go to grocery store
and refill those things up we also would
get like carrots or some kind of
vegetable that was easy just so that we
could have some nutrition you know
because that's also important to
remember that you actually do need to
feed your body at least decently to make
sure that you can keep up the pace of
backpacking so make sure to actually get
some nutritious food in there yeah we
just refilled that at a grocery store
every time and we just carry that little
brown bag around with us and you save a
lot of money that way so that was
breakfast at hostels picnic lunches out
wherever we were and then we usually
went out for dinner I would say if you
want to experience a local Cuisine or
you have a little bit of a looser budget
not even that much because again we were
only putting on one meal and that wasn't
like an expensive meal either we weren't
going to the expensive restaurants we
weren't getting appetizers or anything
like that right pretty much just an
entree maybe a drink or two that's what
I would recommend because then you
experience more of the local Cuisine
then you can also get more of like a
fulfilling meal however if you're on a
really tight budget or you're going for
a long period of time then I would say
you can also go pick up some food at a
grocery store and then make it at your
hostel pretty much all hostels have some
kind of kitchen with basic kitchen
utensils or microwave or something like
that get some basic groceries make your
dinner at the hostel have have leftovers
or you can go out to eat one night but
have leftovers and have those leftovers
the next night cuz you can put your
stuff marked in a tupperware in the
hostle fridge and then you can have that
for your next night as far as souvenirs
go you can check in my either budget
video or my souvenirs video but I mostly
bought postcards and pins for my
backpack while I was backpacking cuz you
don't have a lot of space when you're
backpacking to buy big souvenirs I did
ahead of time leave Extra Space when I
was packing my backpacks so that I could
buy a sweatshirt I bought a sweatshirt
in Venice or I actually bought hiking
boots in Iceland which are the shoes I
ended up wearing home and I just stuffed
my extra pair of shoes in my backpack
but because I had that extra bit of
space I was able to do that make sure
you have a little extra space in your
backpack doesn't have to be a lot
especially if you're someone you know
who are going to want to buy souvenirs
because most of my souvenirs were
postcards they're really easy to pack
they're flat I just slid them in my
laptop sleeve so that they would stay
flat and yeah it was pretty easy that's
what most of my souvenirs were making
friends also depends on whether you're
alone or you're backpacking with
somebody obviously if you're backpacking
with a friend already you don't
necessarily may feel the need to
actively make friends as much however we
still made friends we still got to
talking to people who are in your hostel
room you can go eat breakfast with
somebody in your hostel most hostels
also have events planned planed during
the evenings so go to those just hang
out in the uh Lounge common space area
and strike up a conversation with
someone you can talk to the people who
are in your dorm room and just say hey
what are you doing tomorrow do you want
to go do something together it's can be
scary and I'm an introvert honestly so
doing that
definitely takes more effort for me than
it might take other people but if I can
make friends while backpacking in hostil
then you can do it because that is
something that's definitely harder for
me to do you don't have to make friends
and do something with you can you can do
everything alone if you want to but it's
also a really cool way to make new
friends and meet people and have
different experiences because somebody
you meet might be doing something that
you hadn't even thought of that you
should do and you're like wow that
sounds amazing let's go do that can I
join you and that starts a whole
friendship so it just depends on how you
want your backpacking experience to be
last but not least my biggest tip that I
actually learned from semester at C
which was right before I backpacked be
flexible be flexible with everything you
do be flexible because things will not
go according to plan that's just that's
just the reality of travel especially
but also backpacking random things will
happen trains will get delayed hoses
won't work out the museum you wanted to
see will be closed on the one day you're
available you'll be stranded at an
abandoned train station in the middle of
the night which happened more times than
you would care to believe okay it it
happens a lot and that's okay it
honestly depends just on your attitude
if you laugh along with it and just
laugh at how unbelievably terrible your
luck is and you laugh instead of cry the
situation is so much better and so much
funnier so things will happen but on the
other hand things will just randomly
work out the day you decide to go to
them Muse will be the one day they have
free entry or you'll somehow be grouped
in with a school group and be given a
free ticket that also happened to us in
Poland or the hostel will have such a
good breakfast that you will be able to
make some sandwiches for lunch that
happened to us in Denmark it just
depends um how you treat everything your
attitude about everything changes the
perspective of everything and everyone
around you so if you go in with a
light-hearted attitude and think wow
that sucked well that's
hilarious everything is so much more
enjoyable and obviously it's not
possible to be happy all the time when
traveling especially when you're
traveling for a long periods of times
things will eventually run off a cliff
right things will eventually just get
bad something bad will happen something
will happen at a home that you're sad
you have to miss a situation will happen
with people or just with what you were
trying to do and it won't work out and
that'll suck it's kind of inevitable but
you kind of have to learn to roll with
the punches otherwise it's not not going
to be as much of an enjoyable trip that
is truly my biggest tip that I can give
you things will won't work out but on
the other hand things will surprisingly
work out roll with the punches be
flexible that's everything I have if I
think of anything or if any of you have
any questions or things I didn't mention
and things I should talk about leave me
a comment down below because I might
make a second video If there are a whole
bunch of other things that I didn't
think of cuz I think this video is
already probably going to be pretty long
even though I know I've been talking
very fast so leave a comment if you have
any questions or anything else I should
mention or bring up or if you have any
other backpacking video ideas that I
should do just let me know because I'm
always interested in other video ideas
that you guys want to hear thank you so
much for watching make sure to like And
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