Justaler

Hi , I'm planing my first solo backpacking trip in Europe this October . What I want to see is Aurora and I also want to go to Paris and Jungfrauch . I will arrive and depart from Amsterdam , my trip will be twelve day . Please help me to make the right itinerary , if it possible I would like to add Rome and other east/west Europe city . Anyway I'm not in to the guy who like to enjoy one place too long , so it would be good to be in a lot of place . I also love overnight bus/train .my budget is around 2000 usd . Thank you

JBord

It would be better if you planned an itinerary and posted it here, asking for feedback, suggested changes, and help answering specific questions or solving a problem.

You'll find lots of knowledgeable people willing to help if you take this approach instead.

Justaler

Okay , Currently I consider to make itinerary
Amsterdam 1 days ( I dont really into it , so I consider to only take a snap on some windmill ) , overnight bus to colmar about 40€
Colmar 1 1/2 days , colmar to interlaken . Train fare about 50 €
Switzerland 3 days , bern to paris overnight bus 30 €
Paris 2 days , fly to reykjavik about 60 € (promo fare)
Iceland 5 days , fly to amsterdam about 65 € (promo fare)
I'm gonna stay in hostel with average fare 20-30 € , already find cheap hostel in reykjavik . If there is something wrong , would you mind to tell me what it is ? .As you can see I only use overnight bus two time , so it's not that bad . I've experience that much worse than this , Bangkok-Phuket and Tokyo-Osaka , everything is well maintained , and I still enjoy my day trip ...

KLouis

Amsterdam, Jungfrauenjoch, Paris, Rome plus one more Eastern city, i.e. only 5 places in 12 days, including travel between them? It would be much cheaper if you bought yourself a good computer with a super-duper screen (no publicity for anything here ) and downloaded high definition pictures from the net. As for Aurora, do you mean the aurora borealis? If yes, I hope you have good winter clothes and a direct link to whoever is responsible for the weather up in northern Norway that time of year!

PS I wrote my reply before your second post, the rest comes after that. I see, you switched Rome with Colmar and you want to go to Iceland rather than Norway for the aurora. Well, unless you're about 20 years old and in excellent health, you'll be in a very high risk of cokkalpse with such an itinerary. And this is certainly NOT a sarcastic joke, but a fact!

Justaler

I'm 22 , and have a really good health . Lol . But if you have twelve day in europe , what will you do when your main point is aurora borealis and paris ?

JBord

Well, your itinerary is aggressive and you seem to understand that. I think you'll spend nearly as much time traveling as you do in each location, but of course some of that will be on overnight transportation.

With that in mind, the biggest problem with your itinerary is you go back and forth instead of in a straight line. You don't seem to want to see Amsterdam but will spend a couple days there on each end. Have you already booked the Amsterdam flights? If not, you should consider flying into somewhere like Zurich and then out of somewhere like Oslo or Iceland perhaps. That would allow you to go in this order: Switzerland, Colmar, Paris, then a flight to Iceland perhaps. You'll waste a lot less time traveling.

Since you are using cheap transportation and hostels, I think your budget will be fine whether you keep your current itinerary or are able to switch it and cut out Amsterdam.

Justaler

Yea I alroady booked the flights , so I have to go and out from Amsterdam . So here , you still reccomend me to go Iceland ? While in the other group they tell me to skip Iceland .

KLouis

To see the aurora you need clear skies. One major problem with your plans is that you want to fly to Iceland for 5 days at a time of the year when, statistically, the chances of your trip being a flop are very high.

Also, unless you have relatives in or near Colmar, why don't you skip it and spend the time in Paris instead? It's a nice small town but, again, two days in Colmar in October?

Finally, let's say that windmills in Amsterdam, well, canals and bridges, the... red light district, great museums, yes to all or some of that, but windmills in a city?

jaymar01

If you prioritize your goals, and seeing the Aurora is #1...then you should head to Northern Norway. Specifically Longyearbyen (LYR) on the island of Svalbard.

SAS flies there, and you can get there using Star Alliance miles if you have them. A round trip ticket is around $250-$300 from Amsterdam.

Home this helps:

http://www.aurora-service.eu/aurora-...rthern-lights/

JBord

No, skip Iceland since you already have the flight to AMS. I was just suggesting a better overall route that would save you travel time if you could cut out AMS.

Justaler

Okay , my highlight is aurora , But can you reccomend me seven days in norway ? Then I will have another three day in Paris ..

Justaler

Right it seems that I will skip iceland , considering that aurora in north norway is have a better chance to see than in Iceland

jaymar01

You'll probably get much better help posting your "seven days in Norway" question in the Nordic Counties thread.

A couple of additional thoughts....

Norwegian Air flies to Longyearbyen direct from Oslo. Price is amazingly cheap.

Here's a trip report from a Flyertalker who travelled to Tromso Norway to see the Northern Lights.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip-...-jan-14-a.html

Hope it all works out. Sounds like a great adventure.