The purpose of this page is to keep a running list of tips that we think may be useful for anyone planning a backpacking trip to Europe themselves. We'll make it more organized at the end of our trip once we look back on everything. For now, it'll be a way for us to share what we find to be important to know everyday. For fellow backpackers, feel free to comment and post your advice as well!

• Try to be in the first city that you land in for a few days. This will help with train reservations, jet-lag, and various other travel adjustments you'll have to make, including culture shock.

• The Eurail pass will most likely not allow you to just hop on the trains you really want to take, especially between countries. Budget anywhere between 5€ and 35€ for reservation fees per ticket. Thalys is the most expensive reservation we've encountered, and it runs in and between France, Belgium, and Germany for the most part.

• Take a small notebook and pen with you. It will help you communicate easier, especially when you're making train reservations with ticketing officers who only speak the local language.

• Take Thomas Cook's European Rail Guide with you. It's a useful book that will help you find cheaper alternatives when traveling by train. You can also go up to the ticket counter knowing what you want, which will speed up the reservation process.

• We found it easier to reserve hostels beforehand so that we could get the cleanest and best rated hostels for the cheapest price. However, don't rely just on one site like hostelworld.com or hostels.com. Explore the hostel's website or other booking sites when you find there aren't availabilities on a particular day. Contacting the hostel directly via email is another option.

• Stay in one hostel for the entire time you're in a city, even if this means paying a few extra bucks per person. It's a lot more convenient to have one "home base" than have to juggle check-in and check-out times and moving all your stuff when you want to spend the majority of your time exploring the city.

• Reserve the Last Supper as soon as you know when you'll be in Milan. It's worth it.

• $125 per person for daily expenses (including lodging, food, entry fees, and local transportation and reservations) is a good estimate for planning purposes. While you won't be staying in cushy hotels or eating at posh restaurants, you won't be going hungry either. You'll still get to experience most of the major attractions and cuisines in each city. (Note: this doesn't include flights or the Eurail pass)

• Depending on what you want to do, the Eurail pass may NOT be the best option. With the Eurail pass, you are limited to making reservations at the ticket office in the city you're in for any of the trains within, into, or out of that country. You might have to change your plans according to availability. We found the most problems booking Spain-France, since we gave ourselves less than 24 hours to book in advance.

• Look into cheap flights from Italy when you want to visit Greece. They save a LOT of time, and may even end up being cheaper than taking a ferry. 

• Ferries from Italy to Greece are long, uncomfortable rides (or very expensive for some comfort, think 109€ per person for a cabin or 38€ for a gender-specific dorm bed), and only take you to port cities, not the cities you may actually want to visit. So budget bus fare to your final destination (we paid 18.90€ per person for Patras to Athens). Also, the food on board is very expensive, so keep that in mind.

• If you wind up taking a ferry from Italy (Ancona or Bari) to Greece (Patras), getting to Athens requires a bit of planning. You can take either a bus directly to the central bus station in Athens, or a train to the port of Athens, called Piraeus. The bus is more expensive (18.90€ at the time of this writing) but gets you there faster and is more reliable than the train.

• Book your flights as early as you know when you want to travel, in order to save the most money. Kind of common knowledge, but good to reiterate. Also, travel on weekdays instead of weekends.

• Take about 7 shirts with you for a month-long trip so you don't look like you're wearing the same shirt all the time in your pictures. Also, don't wear the same shirt as your traveling partner cause people will get sick of seeing that shirt in your photos. :)

• Hand sanitizer is your friend. Keep one small bottle per person for a month-long trip.

• Make sure your toiletries bag has a hook that you can use to hang it in the shower stalls at hostels. This will make your life a WHOLE lot easier.

• Micro-fiber, quick-drying towels are definitely worth the investment. They dry super fast and are very compact and light compared to normal towels. These are the ones we got: Sea to Summit DryLite Towel. The large size worked well for us, but you could probably make do with a medium.

• Shower slippers are essential. Some of the shower stall floors are pretty disgusting.

• Spare sheets are very useful, both as a blanket or when you have to sleep on the floor of a ferry...

• ATMs are everywhere. Don't worry about travelers checks. You get the best exchange rates from your bank at home, but you may incur international ATM charges and a daily withdrawal limit. Check with your bank before you leave.

• Let your bank know that you're traveling. Give them a call, it's simple and painless, and will prevent a situation where you're stuck without money all the way in Europe.

• Make sure you know your daily ATM withdrawal limit, and figure out what time zone it's based on, or whether it's a 24-hour running cycle. I still don't know what mine is, but it would be convenient to know.

• If you're reading this far enough in advance, get a Capital One credit card. They don't charge any international currency fees, and is the only one major company I know of that has this policy.