Hi guys! New to the whole travelling thing! I am looking at heading to Europe around April/May/June next year (2016) on a bit of a budget and going solo but hoping to see as much as possible in under 60 days. Love history and nature, not into big cities as much but would still enjoy the experience. Landing in London then heading across to Amsterdam then who knows where to from there. What are some must see places in Europe? Is it better to train, bus or fly? Should I buy the tickets there or in New Zealand? Is it better to do a contiki type trip with others or do you prefer solo?
All of these questions have the answer of "it depends". If your ultimate goal is really "to see as much as possible" on a budget, then booking transport early tends to give you the cheapest prices. Unfortunately it also locks you into a specific schedule, and most people who try "to see as much as possible" tend to underestimate how utterly tired you can get from simply moving from place to place, leaving them with too little energy and time to properly appreciate the places they're at, and then you don't have the flexibility of changing your schedule when you discover yourself running against the wall. I always recommend lingering in fewer places, seeing them in depth.
April/May/June is pretty much the perfect time to travel Europe. The weather tends to be good (though there'll certainly be stormy and rainy periods), but it's not yet high season, so you don't have to book accommodation far in advance.
For nature in Europe, I would recommend Iceland (the westfjords were my favorite location of the little of Iceland I've seen, though þingvellir is certainly also a must) and northern Norway (the Lofoten and Saltfjellet-Svartisen + the Hardangervidda + a probably Bergen and Oslo). For both it's probably best to wait till the second half of May to go there. When you're in the Netherlands, be sure to get out of Amsterdam to one of the smaller cities (Delft, Leiden, Haarlem), and in April, rent a bike from Leiden or Haarlem to ride to and through the flower fields. Other places I'd recommend are the southeast of the eastern part of Germany ("Saxonia-Switzerland"), Scotland (particularly around Glen Nevis and the Isle of Skye) and Rome (earlier in the year would be better; can get pretty hot in June). Croatia and the west coast of Ireland are still high up on my personal wishlist.
Problem is: All of this together would be about the maximum I'd recommend doing in a 60 day period, and it's spread all over the place, so stringing them together in any logical order (and figuring out affordable transportation) would be quite a challenge. (It'd probably involve quite a few flights.) Sticking to just a subset of it, with some in between places added, would probably make more sense.
For Norway, Iceland, Scorland, and probably Saxonia-Switzerland, I'd recommend renting a car while there and making your way around independently, although each would be possible with some form of bus transport - it just takes longer to actually get from place to place. For the Netherlands it makes most sense to do everything by public transport.
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