When you go on vacation one of the first decisions is if you prefer to travel on your own or to take a tour from an agency which gives everything organized.

The main advantages of a touristic tour are:
- You don´t need to spend time preparing anything or collecting information before starting.
- You will see many interesting places in little time. They explain you everything and you don´t have to read your guidebook all time.
- During the trip you don´t have to worry about anything, they do all for you.
- There are some cases in which a tour could be interesting, for example if you want to see countries that ara far one from the other and you have to take several planes or spend much time travelling

Resuming, this option is nice for people that don´t have time to prepare anything or that are afraid to dare with their own travel or that have problems with idioms.

Esta opción es adecuada para la gente que no tienen tiempo para preparar nada o que está incómoda y no se atreve a preparar su propio recorrido o que no conoce idiomas.

There are several disadvantages:
- Less freedom. You have to adjust to the timetable of the tour, that doesn´t care if you are tired or you are willing to stay more in one place. For many travellers this could be frustrating. If you travel on your own it would fit better your preferences as you choose what to see and for how long.
- Probably it will cost more than going on your own.
- If you want to stay for more than 15 days it is difficult to find a tour.

On the other side people who travel on their own are looking for the freedom to choose everything, as well as something cheap and generally they enjoy the previous preparation. You start to think on your holidays while working or studying, what makes this boring period a little better and lighter. If you travel on your own probably the trip will enrich yourselves much more than a tour, as you will "go out from the path", you will know deeply a country and you will have to deal with different people and situations.

You have to choose what places you would like to visit (having in mind the duration of your trip): a city, a region, a country or an itinerary across Europe . You need as well to decide whether you want cities, mountains, beaches, nature, nightlife or a bit of everything. It is better to start your planning two to three months before you plan to leave.

Maybe you have very clear what you want to see, or maybe you don´t know anything about it. In any of these cases you could find useful to learn something more. We suggest internet to do that, but also it is worth to visit a bookshop or a library and have a look to the travel guidebooks. Who knows, but maybe you feel in love with a place that you weren´t going to visit or simply you obtain a valuable information or a new idea. We use to do it quickly with the Michelin Green guidebooks, by opening the map that gives stars to the places depending on their interest. Of course that these stars are another opinion that perhaps you don´t share but you obtain much information in a moment. Another way to know the main places to visit is to ask for a brochure in a travel agency. By studying the different tours you can have an idea of what are the places that you shouldn´t miss. If you like all this work, we recommend to use the three ways to have an overall picture of the most interesting places. But don´t do it very deeply, because you want to leave something for the travel, right?

One of the charms of Europe are the villages hidden and almost unknown, as tourists visit generally the main cities. You may keep some days free in your plans in case you discover a village that you shouldn´t miss during the trip.

A decision that divides the travellers is the level of planning to reach. Some prefer to have a strict planning that won´t change whatever happens. This planning admit two possibilities: to make a lot of reservations before starting the travel or to search a bed while travelling.

Some others love the adventure, the absence of a plan. They want to go with the flow, without knowing where they will stay two days later. These people can´t book anything in advance, only some day before during the trip.

The prebooking topic is considered in the accommodation section, so here we will pay attention to the itinerary. Our suggestion, as often, is to reach the equilibrium. Having the itinerary fixed might be very boring, leaving little to the adventure or improvisation. Besides, any fail on your schedule, a train late could imply a great alteration to your itinerary. On the other side, without anything planned it is very probable to lose an impressive place or to lose time because of the worse itinerary. Make a list of which places you can live without visiting and make an approximate itinerary to visit them. The final itinerary will be developed while travelling, searching for other interesting places in your way. To help to that another option is to carry a list of many interesting places that you may use to choose there.
Many people suggest that if you prefer to have all the route fixed and to make all the reservations before, you shouldn´t do an interrail or eurail, because the essence of that is the freedom, not knowing where you will sleep or who you will know. In our opinion this is not true, as each one will prepare the travel as they think they will enjoy more. It depends on you and you can do whatever you want with your travel. This is the interrail essence for us, travel where, with, how, and when you desire.

There are two tips to improve an itinerary: to ensure that you get the most of your trip, plan your progress from country to country or within one country in a loop to avoid time-wasting backtracking. Or choose a few main places from which you can explore the surrounding areas. Remember that a train covers a lot of ground in little time and if you base yourself in one area for an extended period of time, you can take advantage of the incredible train coverage and avoid frequent packing and unpacking.
If you keep moving each day to a different place you will finish totally exhausted, so a base for a period of some days is highly recommendable at some points during the travel.

Another important decision is how many places you would like to see. It is very easy to be excited by such amount of marvellous places, but you have to keep realistic. One of the most typical errors is to saturate your itinerary. You won´t get to know deeply anything, you will be travelling a lot and you will be exhausted. If you are people who love to see many things be very careful with that.

If you are taking a tour, you don´t have to worry about this. If you travel on your own this is an important decision. The most typical way to know Europe is by train, as there are many of them that connect almost every part of the continent. For that reason you can find different passes that make this option cheap. The most famous are the interrail (for European citizens) or eurail (for foreigners) cards, that allow to take trains for a period of time with no needing to reserve a seat (there are some exceptions. Consult the section dedicated to this). There are other options as well, like eurodomino or own passes in each country. Nevertheless if you don´t have any pass and you buy single tickets, trains are really expensive in many countries.

The second option is the bus. You have less connections than trains, but could be a nice solution if you are travelling for a short period. Besides it is often the only way to go to a small village for example. There are two companies that allow to move across Europe: Eurolines and Busabout.

People travelling on a budget probably will take an interrail-eurail card or eurodomino passes and they will take some buses when there is no train to some places.

Finally the car is a nice option, as it offers the greatest freedom. But for that you need to have first a driving license. There are two possibilities. First and the most common is to rent a car when you want to know a region. This is adequate when the car is the only option to move, when the rest of transports would make us waste much time and interesting places, or when we prefer simply the car. The second one is taking your own car if the country of destiny is not very far and you are not moving across thousands of kilometres. The car is a cheap way to move, specially if you are 3-5 people, but it also has disadvantages like driving in foreign countries.

If you haven´t decided yet you should visit the transportation section or the interrail and eurail explanations to read some new ideas.

Most people travel in peak season, May-June-July-August-September. Other possibilities are the fall months (September, October and November) or the early spring (March, April and May).

Pros for traveling during of-season:
- There are considerably fewer tourists.
- There are many off-season discounts.
- Most popular attractions are open and less crowded, and many have reduced price.
- There is place in hostels and hotels, and cost less. This reduces stress to your trip.
- Trains and buses are not crowded and cost less. Besides seat reservations won´t be needed for that reason.
- The weather will be cooler, so you shouldn't have to do laundry as often.
- Because there are less travellers around, many tourist cities are 'reclaimed' by the natives, and you have more chance of meeting the locals.

Cons:
- Some attractions are closed or have restricted hours. For that, you should carefully plan the trip or you should be very flexible with the timetables. 
- Less frequent trains and buses.
- Less sunlight hours, days are shorter.
- Streets and nightlife are more lively.
- There are less tours.
- All hostels are not open.
- There are less fellow backpackers/travellers to meet.
- The weather may be terrible for long periods of time. Difficult to swim or sunbath.
- You will have to pack heavy winter clothes You'll need to bring more clothes so that you can layer up for warmth.

This is commonly said that the best time to travel are spring and autumn, when the weather can still be good and the crowds have reduced a little. Nevertheless people usually can´t choose that and they go on holiday when they are allowed.

For us the main disadvantage is the weather. If you want to go to coast or islands, weather is critical to enjoy the trip. This is similar when you want to visit North Europe . Even in summer nobody can assure good weather, and often it is cold and rainy.
You can divide Europe in two parts: North and South. The best countries for the off season are in the South: Greece , Italy , Spain , etc. with better chance to have warm nice weather.
The exception to this division are cities. Cities are places that maybe allow a worse weather to be visited, as you can do many things.

Traveling with companions can be easier on the pockets and a generally safer way to travel. You will have always someone to talk, consult, take a picture or remember the travel time after. You can share food, room, toiletries, making the trip easier and cheaper. If everything ends good, probably you will have a long friendship with the travel mate and you will know much about this person.

However, being with the same people all the time can be very annoying if you don´t fix with the other personalities. As each one has own preferences it could start a constant fighting over where to go and what to see if everyone don´t give up a little, and it can put a great strain on even the strongest friendship. Traveling as group may make it more difficult to meet other people because groups tend to be prone to exclusivity and can be intimidating to other travelers. Traveling in a swarm might push you into the worst tourist traps, avoiding you to know the local food, customs or nightlife.

Try to make everyone as happy as possibly, by taking into account individual expectations for the trip like budgets and main places to visit. Try to agree on as much as you can beforehand, be flexible, and give people time and space when they need. A great solution is to agree that traveling in a group doesn't mean that you always have to stick together. Perhaps one day you can separate and do different things, to meet at night or some days after and share your experiences.

If you decide to travel solo you will find some benefits: meet and interact with more people, doing whatever you want and assert your independence. On the other side it could be intimidating and to meet other people you have to overcome any shyness. It will require more effort and stress to take all the decisions. Use your judgment to choose accommodation, city neighbourhoods and companions.

Another radical option different from the previous plans is to get a job or study abroad. Work or Study Abroad programs are available through many organizations (in our link database you could find several). If you don´t have money to travel or if you have to study during summer to pass your exams, maybe this is your solution. You can also get school credits while paying close to what you already pay for school, housing, and food, and be living in a foreign country.

If you didn´t have time to plan anything or if you are so lazy or if you love adventure you can try last minute offers to get your trip. If you don´t mind where to go you will find some good deals in the last moment. Search in travel agencies, internet or airports, as all of them would like to cover the empty seats and will reduce prices. You will find a narrow but cheap offer if you look for something for the two or three next days or even today.
If any of you use to travel like that or have tried ever, please tell us your experiences and recommendations.