I am currently an American college student and I will be studying abroad in Europe starting this July beginning in Florence, Italy. After my program in Italy ends on July 27th, I will have about a 3 week gap between the end of this program until August 18th, where I have to arrive in Copenhagen for my next study abroad program. During my 3 weeks of free time, I am planning on visiting several other countries as I work my way to Denmark, but I wanted to know what travel option would be the best for me since I will most likely be by myself. During this time, what is the recommended number countries I should visit? I want to visit as many of them as I can but I read in another post that it would be best to focus only on one or two countries for 3 weeks, so what do you guys suggest and which country would be best for me to visit since I only speak English and Chinese (which is obviously useless in europe lol)? Also what is the best way for me to get around? I looked up Eurail but they're are fairly expensive. Are there any other forms of transit I should look up that is significantly cheaper? Lastly, do you guys know how much it would roughly cost me during me during this time when I travel by myself?
It all depends on how much depth you want to see any given country in. Some people are perfectly happy just ticking off a list of key tourist sites in major cities - if you're just collecting photos then knock yourself out, 'do' 10 countries. But most people visiting this site tend to want to see things in a bit more depth than that. 2 countries is about right, I think.
In terms of language, apart from English speaking countries (Irelands, England, Scotland, Wales) it's all going to be pretty much of a muchness - you'll find somebody in most places who speaks a bit of English. People in Scandinavia and Holland are particularly renowned (well, at least in England) for speaking excellent English. But you'll get by anywhere I think.
The cheapest way to cover long distances is usually by budget airline (think Easyjet, Ryanair, etc). Coaches/buses are usually second cheapest, and the cheapest way to cover short distances. You can get good deals on some point-to-point rail tickets if you buy fairly well in advance (3 months is usually about right).
I woud suggest that since you are going from the South to the North, then Germany and The Netherlands would make two good choices. Germany is a great country to visit, Munich, and Berlin from there to Amsterdam, you could take some day trips from there to Delft, also to Rotterdam. For rail travel in Germany check Bahn.com the German rail website and if you can book in advance they offer some terrific discounts. Also check the Dutch rail website for their discount. Three weeks really is not much time, so choose a couple of places and get the most out or each.
thanks for your input, I was considering to probably just going to 1 or 2 countries and I was thinking of Germany. Do you guys happen to know if its possible to take the train to the UK? I remember reading on the Eurail site that there's a train that goes to either England or Ireland
You can take the Eurostar from Paris or from Calais to London go to eurostar.com for departure times and prices
You can get a ferry from Harwich in England straight to Esbjerg on the west coast of Denmark
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