preparing to travel through Europe

enjoying morning views of cathedral and town in Zacatecas – Mexico.

Preparing to Travel Through Europe

A bit amazingly to me, I’ve been traveling around Mexico and Central America for three full years already.

Yep, I headed out to my very first Latin American country back in November, 2015. I landed in Guatemala, headed up through Belize and Mexico and then… Well I just kept on exploring the region in depth until…well, here I am three full years later!

It’s certainly been interesting, beautiful and (mostly) enjoyable. In particular, I absolutely love Mexico, which is now my second favorite country in the world, after Japan.

But now I’m ready to move on. I have to admit that I’ve had my fill of Latino culture. Certain things have been grinding on my patience for quite some time now. Most predominantly is that awful Reggaeton music that has taken over the Hispanic world. It actually makes me feel super aggro! And that’s never good. lol

Secondly is that old staple of many Central American cuisines: mixed beans-n-rice. It makes me want to puke. If I never eat beans again in my whole life, that will be absolutely fine with me!

gorgeous Vinales – Cuba

Much to my horror, just when I thought I’d left both ‘thorns’ behind me forever, I recently had to deal with both of them in Cuba for one entire month. And that put the icing on the cake.

I can’t handle either of those annoyances one more single day. I’ve had it!

I need to explore a completely different culture.

Fortunately, despite 20 years of full-time world travels, there are still several major regions of the world I have yet to travel through – Europe, Africa, Middle East, Caribbean and the Pacific Islands.

Where to go? Where to go?

Well… Seeing as how Europe is the closest to Florida (where I’m holed up for the winter) and is the cheapest region to reach from here, that’s where I’m inclined to go next. In fact, I’ve already begun my research.

However, I already know in advance that there are a few serious complications with traveling long-term around Europe for me.

a rare photo of me in snow in the USA

Cold Weather

First off is Europe’s cold weather. I dread cold.

Obviously, Europe isn’t cold all the time. The problem is that I’ll be leaving Florida in February, a very, very cold month throughout all of Europe.

So I’ll have to start my travels a bit south of Europe until things warm up.

Happily, February looks like a perfect time to visit Morocco. From there I can swing over to the Spanish Canary Islands and then up into Spain (briefly! Apparently Reggaeton is big there. Lol) in spring.

European visa regulations

The second, bigger complication, is the super crappy visa regulations for visiting Europe. Non-Europeans are only allowed to spend 90 days within 180 days traveling through the EU countries labeled as ‘Schengen Countries’. They include 26 countries: all the western European countries plus several countries in Eastern Europe.

Basically, visitors can travel around Schengen countries freely for three months, then they have to get out for three months. Say WHAT?!

For long-term travelers, that’s a huge hassle. It’s impossible to see even a fraction of Europe in just three months! Heck, it would be easy to spend 1-3 months in each country, let alone the entire continent!

That means serious logistical – and perhaps financial – headaches. I’ll have to figure out a travel route for three months through Europe, then an easy/quick/cheap escape route to some neighboring non-Schengen countries, where I can travel for three months while I’m ‘kicked out’ of Europe, then venture back into the Schengen countries again.

Planning out a feasible travel route, in conjunction with good weather conditions, is fairly complex.

international currencies

Expenses for a Budget Traveler

Probably the hardest issue facing me is that most European countries are very expensive. Traveling around as a budget traveler requires a lot more planning and research.

In particular, accommodation and transportation are extremely expensive all over Europe. So I’ll have to find alternative solutions to the regular, mainstream budget hotels/hostels and public buses & trains.

Food is also expensive there, of course. But I’ve always managed to eat for under $10 US per day in expensive countries like Australia, New Zealand, USA and England, mostly by buying groceries and cooking all my meals. So I’m not worried about eating costs.

But I do need to find less expensive transportation and accommodation options.

Transportation

For some reason, overland transportation in Europe is extremely expensive.

That’s a bit curious to me. Europe is a small, compact place, with short distances between towns, even between countries.

And there are high population densities, which means there are plenty of passengers for public buses and trains. So I don’t quite understand why it’s all so expensive. (Any insights here, folks?)

But that’s how it is. Apparently both buses and trains are generally so expensive that it’s often cheaper to fly! Given short flight times, flying could be an option for me in some cases.

In fact, I’ve already discovered, for instance, that’s it’s super cheap to fly between London and Morocco / Canary Islands and Spain. With flights costing just 17-25 Euros ( $20-30 US), even I can afford to fly in Europe!

heading on a road trip in Panama on their ultra plush buses

But I’ll also be doing a lot of overland travel. So I’ll have to find alternatives. Luckily I do know of some options, mostly from fellow travelers.

In particular are ride shares. In Europe, apparently long distance ride shares bloomed out of the super expensive train and bus fares I just mentioned. Lots of people can’t afford those long distance trips. So folks with cars traveling between two cities started advertising to find passengers to share the costs of fuel and perhaps road tolls.

My best friend, Kat, spends a lot of time traveling around Europe. So she already knows several websites/ ad boards for finding these group trips.

But there are many different types of ride shares. Uber is also called ride sharing, but, as everyone knows, it’s actually a cheaper alternate to private taxis. While traveling around Central America and Mexico, I discovered that Uber is super popular all over the region. It’s gone worldwide!

More recently I learned on a site called RideGuru that Uber is just one of dozens and dozens of similar ride-share options operating all over the world. Some are truly shared services like mini-van shuttles, while others operate as cheaper private taxis just like Uber.

I’ll be checking into all these different types of shared over-land travel options in Europe to beat the super expensive trains and buses.

LashWorldTour in bedroom - Noosa House Sit

my lovely bedroom at my Noosa House Sitting, complete with free wifi…and bicycle

Budget Accommodation Options in Europe

Accommodation in most European countries is so extremely expensive that even beds in hostels are expensive!

I don’t especially enjoy sleeping in dorm rooms with a bunch of people I don’t know, all on different sleep schedules and with different habits. I never have. Even in my 20s, I always tried to find private rooms rather than dorms in hostels.

In Europe, to add insult to injury, I’d have to pay $20 or $30 for a BED in a dorm room that I don’t actually want to sleep in anyhow.

So I’ll be searching for other, more private and less expensive options. I’ll start with Couch Surfing, work exchange gigs and house & pet sitting opportunities.

I’ve had wonderful experiences with all these options in various parts of the world.

Most recently I had several fantastic Couch Surfing hosts in Mexico, that really made my travels through northwestern & central Mexico super special. So I’m excited to try more Couch Surfing in Europe.

I’ve also enjoyed many great work exchange gigs, particularly in Australia & New Zealand. I love the exchange concept, that “I’ll scratch your back, you scratch mine” ideology. I generally have worked 4-5 hours a day doing fun stuff I enjoy like landscape gardening and caring for farm animals/pets. In return I’ve been given wonderful private rooms in the hosts’ houses and all the food I can eat.

Lash working on a farm in NZ

It’s a fantastic way to meet, interact and help out local people and see how daily life operates in various countries. And it reduces travel costs to almost nothing, as the volunteers are working for their room & board.

For expensive European countries, work exchange seems like one of the best options for me.

Likewise, I’ve had many wonderful house and pet sitting gigs around the world. And I know from checking out house sitting websites that the largest number of opportunities are located in UK and Europe. So I’ll be searching for those as well.

If anyone knows of other budget accommodation options in European countries, please fill me in!

My research and trip planning will be ongoing until I finally set out in February. So I’ll keep you all posted about any great finds, insights and travel routes I discover.

Likewise, if you know any budget travel tips for Europe, please let me know.

In the meantime, you might also like the following:

Dreaming of Viewing the Northern Lights

Confessions of a Cold Weather Hater

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