touring Europe

aidanki

Hi all,
Looking to go on holidays towards the end of August for a week anyway, maybe 2 weeks if I can get the right deal. Im thinking of going travelling in continental Europe, maybe further afield even.
Unfortunately Ill be going alone as no friends available, Im trying to avoid the whole going to a hostel alone thing and trying to talk/tag along with strangers, its not something Im afraid of doing but would rather avoid due to the whole language barrier thing when travelling in Europe. Mighn’t be too many other English speakers say I showed up at a hostel in Paris or Budapest or somewhere like that, and would end up stuck with a bunch of people with absolutely no English speakers whatsoever.

Im early 30ties single and like my nightlife
So question, are there any European tour operators that say you arrive at the start point and join a group. You then travel around with the group until the end of the tour, and get to visit all the tourist spots and all the rest. I know if I was going to say South America this is how it would be done.

keithclancy

aidanki wrote: »

Hi all,
Looking to go on holidays towards the end of August for a week anyway, maybe 2 weeks if I can get the right deal. Im thinking of going travelling in continental Europe, maybe further afield even.
Unfortunately Ill be going alone as no friends available, Im trying to avoid the whole going to a hostel alone thing and trying to talk/tag along with strangers, its not something Im afraid of doing but would rather avoid due to the whole language barrier thing when travelling in Europe. Mighn’t be too many other English speakers say I showed up at a hostel in Paris or Budapest or somewhere like that.
Im early 30ties single and like my nightlife
So question, are there any European tour operators that say you arrive at the start point and join a group. You then travel around with the group until the end of the tour, and get to visit all the tourist spots and all the rest. I know if I was going to say South America this is how it would be done.

You'd have no hassle hooking up with people in hostels, Generally speaking German,Dutch,French, Spanish that travel can speak English anyway.

Even when staying somewhere for Business I'll stay in a hostel, there's always a bar down stairs you can hang out in, easy just to say "hey my names X .. you guys on vacation long ?"

Couchsurfing is also a nice way to meetup, you can checkout whats going on in the area, they usually have parties and so on.

If the couchsurfing doesn't work out you can always fall back on AirBNB, people that AirBNB are super outgoing just from the nature of the whole thing.

Another tip is when you get somewhere just lookup Facebook events close to you, always lots of stuff going on.

And if you want to go and see things you are totally flexible in that you can say "hey guys, I'm going to head off and see that thing I'll catch you later"

In a tour group your stuck with the itinerary of the bus.

Just my opinion anyway, a 2 week trip is pretty short though, I'd say book an open jaw flight (e.g. Dublin - Amsterdam - Munich - Dublin) and work your way from A-B.

The public transport on the continent is totally more doable than Ireland, or if you can get a carpool take that as well, that's half the fun.

munchkin_utd

strange proposition to start with. You want to avoid hostels as you dont want to have to make conversation with non english speakers !
I'm afraid its the other way round. The hostels will be full of americans and Australians on their big european tour so normally folks would avoid hostels to get AWAY from english speakers !!! They are the one place youre guaranteed to find heaps of native english speakers.

Anyhow, if you really want a tour, I've seen busabout and contiki on the go doing laps of europe with young people, but to be honest you'd be better off getting trains and intercity busses.
Its cheaper and at least you'll have some flexibility to tailor the travel to your overnight preferences.

aidanki

munchkin_utd wrote: »

strange proposition to start with. You want to avoid hostels as you dont want to have to make conversation with non english speakers !
I'm afraid its the other way round. The hostels will be full of americans and Australians on their big european tour so normally folks would avoid hostels to get AWAY from english speakers !!! They are the one place youre guaranteed to find heaps of native english speakers.

Anyhow, if you really want a tour, I've seen busabout and contiki on the go doing laps of europe with young people, but to be honest you'd be better off getting trains and intercity busses.
Its cheaper and at least you'll have some flexibility to tailor the travel to your overnight preferences.

your reading my post wrong! , the reason I wanted to avoid hostels was that I was afraid I would end up spending all my time with people who had no english whatsoever, which wouldn't be much fun at all

keithclancy

aidanki wrote: »

your reading my post wrong! , the reason I wanted to avoid hostels was that I was afraid I would end up spending all my time with people who had no english whatsoever, which wouldn't be much fun at all

Hostels are the one place everyone has English

Tigerandahalf

2 weeks gives you little time. Don't end up spending a lot of your time on a train or bus trying to see too many places. August is not a great time as central Europe is often roasting and it is peak season so lots of cash.
Would you not consider leaving the holiday until September when the weather will be nicer and places will be cheaper to stay. There would also be less tourists around so easier to relax and chill.

grimm2005

As everyone else has said, hostels are the one place pretty much everyone is guaranteed to speak English, and mostly native speakers. Did a lot of solo hostel travel last year and it was about 90% Canadians, Americans and Australians. The few non native speakers spoke fluent English and usually stuck with that so they could interact with everyone else. If you want to meet new people, do pub crawls and have a bit of craic hostels are your best bet. This also affords you the freedom to do whatever you want without sticking to a rigid itinerary.