Europe Learnings

This concludes our Europe trip. Seven weeks, six countries. There’s a lot we learnt which I’ve tried to capture in these blog posts. The main learning: less is more. I think we had a good balance of being busy, but not exhausted, and the latter end of our trip allowed us to relax so we actually felt refreshed coming home. Whereas the first three weeks had us moving around every few days, Greece only had two islands in 10 days, two of which were travel days.

I would definitely recommend booking tours in advance, rather than the night before, especially if you’re going during peak seasons. Despite May being a shoulder season and less busy, a lot of things aren’t open during this time and the water in oceans is significantly colder. I think the ideal time would be mid-August to early September.

Pack less! And make sure you have comfortable shoes for walking around. We averaged over 20,000 steps on most days, nearly 17km (even on days we weren’t hiking). I got blisters from the first few pairs of shoes I wore (my birks, Docs, and then Jas’s birks). Crocs were some of my most utilised shoe – perfect for beach days and after hikes. Travel hack: buy a carabiner and attach them to your hiking backpack or travel backpack to save space (and weight if you don’t want to wear/pack your heavy boots travelling).

Always purchase the extra luggage. Saving $20 is not worth the stress of trying to make weight restrictions. Allow plenty of time for travel and connections, it’s not worth the stress either. Location is everything for accommodation. Saving $100 might sound appealing, but it will cost you in travel time and convenience. Staying in the city centre also allows you to experience the city/its culture. Plan for rest days in your trip i.e. plan to have nothing planned to allow you to reset and rejuvenate.

Try to minimise one and two-night stays. One-night stays are the worst, but two nights aren’t much better. You lose a lot of time travelling so try to account for that when planning. When planning a long trip like this, decide on the countries you want to visit and the overall idea of things you want to do/see there. For example, we had to plan our trip around the Women’s Champions League final in Norway and the tulips in Holland. We also knew we wanted warmer weather for Italy and Greece, so we then tried to plan based on geography, convenience, and available travel options i.e. trains or flights. Once we settled on the countries, we then broke down the cities and recommendations of things to do in each country. This was based on blog posts and Jas’s TikTok recommendations. Make sure to check when recommendations are suggested! A lot of the TikTok hike recommendations didn’t state they were in the middle of summer i.e. closed during spring. 

For driving in other countries, don’t lose yourself in reviews of rental companies. We opted for larger companies (except in Greece) as they have a global reputation. We made sure to list all the damage prior to picking up the car and took photos of everything – before and after – to minimise the risk of getting scammed. I would avoid returning a car after hours, just because you’re held liable until the car is actually checked off, and it’s not worth the stress of waiting for that approval. Because of how expensive car insurance can be with rental companies, we made sure to have this included in our travel insurance (we booked with Allianz for $618 for the two of us – about $6 a day each). In regards to road rules, try to look up speed limits and parking restrictions before you start driving. In Croatia, the speed limits weren’t always listed, but their ‘town’ signs have designated speed limits (50km/h) and the crossed town signs revert back to the original speed limit (either 70 or 90km/h). For Greece, opt for a car instead of a quad bike. A car allows you to have air conditioning, shade, and a place to securely store your belongings so that you don’t have to take everything with you to the beach. 

For phones, Jas kept her UK number, but changed to 3 mobile, so we had access to making phone calls. I bought a 60-day travel sim with Maya mobile with 50GB of data for $66. I would then hotspot Jas any time we were out (as Jas only had 6GB of travel data per month with her plan). I would recommend one person having access to making calls as you never know when you might need to call your Airbnb host, restaurants, or car rental companies. A lot of Airbnb hosts use Whatsapp, but there’s some who don’t.

Before going away, we weren’t sure about getting a power bank but are so glad we did, especially because in some countries we didn’t have the correct outlets. We opted for this one from Amazon Anker Power Bank, 20,000mAh Portable Charger with Built-in USB-C Cable, 87W Max Fast Charging Battery Pack for Laptop, 2 USB-C and 1 USB-A, for MacBook, iPhone 17/16 Series, Samsung, Switch, and More for $69.99. A lot of travel blogs said a 10,000mAh would be sufficient, but given that both of us would be using the power bank, we opted for a more powerful one. It also then allowed us to charge our laptop and iPad because of its charging capabilities. Some recommendations including a 10-in-1 travel bank, but the more things a power bank can do, the more likely it is that one of those will break. Anker has very good reviews and is a sturdy build (the built in USB C cable is extremely helpful too). I also decided to get a new battery for my iPhone rather than getting a new iPhone (in case it got stolen). My battery was operating at 78% (after four years), so I spent $150 to get a new one and it has significantly improved my battery life.

For outlets, we bought a simple Korjo one for Europe and a One Beat one with 2 x USB C and 2 x USB A charging capabilities. You will need different chargers for Switzerland and Italy, so in hindsight we probably should have got one that you can change the connections for. But we ended up using Airbnb host’s converters, our power bank, and then found a converter on a Swiss train to get us through.

The other thing we brought with us was a medical bag with travel sickness tablets, anti-histamines, anti-nausea, anti-diarrhoea, cold/flu tablets, throat lozenges, and your standard Panadol / Nurofen tablets. We also brought band-aids (and used them a lot!) and a pocketknife. My friend gifted me an Opinel before we left and we used this regularly to make sandwiches and slice cheese. Be warned though, the blade is VERY sharp!! My Mum generously sent over some lanolin wool when she was in Norway to help protect my feet from blisters during our hiking in Dolomites. The other thing we brought with us was instant coffee – just to see us through the countries (like Switzerland) that were extortionate in price.

We made sure to stock up on film for our polaroid and point-and-shoot film camera before we left as we weren’t sure if we’d be able to get them overseas. I opted for Kodak Portra 400 but wish I had just stuck with the Kodak Ultramax 400 as a lot of the photos came out too dark/underexposed (Portra film isn’t great in low-light environments). Our polaroid camera died while Jas was in England so we replaced it in Holland and it works so much better than our previous one ever did! The other thing we brought a lot of was…books. I think I had 8 books packed haha. But we read all of them and sent half of them home when we were in Norway. I know everyone might say, why not just get a kindle, but if you know, you know. It’s not as relaxing reading from a screen on a beach as it is to be reading a physical book with yellowed and water-stained pages.

In regards to cities and countries, I’ve listed my opinion and assessment in summary below:

Holland (5 days) – definitely recommend

• Utrecht – Amsterdam’s little sister – beautiful, less touristy, would highly recommend (make sure you get a bike and live as the Dutch do!)

• Amsterdam – overly touristy, but great coffee/café culture – would recommend visiting but not staying here

• Nijmegen – great for a day trip

Switzerland (6 days) – beautiful – photos don’t do it justice, but also overly expensive

• Zurich – dull city, but easy to access other cities from which is why we stayed here

• Zermatt – lovely skiing village – would recommend visiting in winter or when you can do the 5 lakes hike

• Interlaken – a really pretty city and a great base for Grindelwald

Croatia (6 days) – the coastal road is stunning, but the cities are a bit overrated and very overpriced – experiences during peak season are extortionate

• Dubrovnik – extremely touristy and overpriced, but very historical

• Split – probably the best city out of the four we visited, but need to visit when the weather and beach are warmer (June-September)

• Zadar – less touristy / busy and a good base for Krka waterfalls or Plitvice lake (must-do)

• Zagreb – didn’t get to explore

Norway (6 days) – really like parts of this country (probably a biased opinion because my friend lives here)

• Trondheim – beautiful city, very liveable, highly recommend. Similar to Adelaide in vibes

• Oslo – pretty city, but very expensive

Italy (16 days) – definitely recommend!

• Venice – yes, but only for a night. Very touristy and busy, but worth staying overnight for.

• Dolomites – 1000x yes! Would recommend a minimum of four nights and a car.

• Bologna – yes. Really cool university town with a good feeling.

• Tuscany – 1000x yes! Would also recommend a minimum of four nights here as there’s a lot to do (must do a cooking class!)

• Salerno (Amalfi Coast) – the Amalfi itself was very overrated. Extremely busy and crowded. Salerno was a great base away from the chaos of other cities, but the Amalfi isn’t worth visiting in my opinion.

• Naples – not the safest city, would give it a miss.

• Palermo – would highly recommend for the food, culture and beaches. Getting a car would be a good idea too.

Greece (10 days) – yes, yes, definite yes!

• Paros – probably our favourite city we stayed in. Would highly recommend.

• Milos – absolutely yes. A car is definitely needed, but is super affordable.

If anyone ever has any questions about upcoming travel plans, I am more than happy to share my experiences and opinion. Planning Europe can be overwhelming (I had many meltdowns deciding between accommodations!). Someone tried to tell me that the differences between accommodations are actually probably really small so just pick one, but I wholeheartedly disagree with this. Location is important. So too is the host’s willingness to help. We found our best experiences to be with people who state they love meeting their guests, or they love travelling themselves as they were the most hospitable. My recommendation then for accommodation is to try to get the specifics of it before you book – how far is it from a train station? How close is it to the city centre? How accessible is it? The more diligently you research, the smoother your trip when you travel.

Happy holidays!