Hi.
I am Jerry Koh. And on the May of 2017, I embarked on a journey I have dreamt of since 2 years ago when I was on my bed in Signal Institute, Stagmont Camp.
This article originally comes in two parts. This part is about budgeting and how to get the most out of your dollar (or Euros, rather). This is my adventure when I Backpacked Europe for 50 days with S$3.7k. If you want to exclude flights — just S$2.8k!
First thing’s first,
Disclaimer: I would like to clarify that my type of travel is not suitable for everyone, and I don’t like to tell people how they should travel. This is just a guide for you to look through when you are planning yours! I’m just here to show you that your travel dreams need not be shattered by financial constraints.
Most blogs under-report their costs by not mentioning their airfare, or that the costs are in Pounds/Euros, or they didn’t take emergency spending into calculation — so they get the best, lowest cost, clickbait-ish titles.
Disclaimer 2: For me, this $3.7k is rounded up, and includes airfare and emergency/unnecessary spending. It is the true amount I’ve spent for my 50 days in Europe in SGD. So no bamboozle.
The places I’ve been to are also the more expensive countries in Europe, so if you want to save even more, you can do so by going towards Eastern Europe, or changing your continent to Asia or South America. These options can easily half your expenditure!
This article talks about your trip in this order:
- Research
- Flights
- Countries
- Transport
- Accommodation
- Food (and alcohol)
- Having Fun! (Important, if you read nothing else read this)
- Conclusion
When you’re scrolling you probably realised this is a very long article, but I think it’s best to consolidate everything into one than to have scattered pieces here and there throughout the internet. And if you’re serious about planning your trip, you would would find the whole article very helpful. I remember how I swallowed so many blogs when I was planning mine!
Now, enough banter, let’s get down to the guide, shall we? :)
0. Reason
Step zero is to ask yourself why you are embarking on this trip.
If you want to skip this philosophical mumbo jumbo and get to planning, then please go straight to step one, otherwise this is possibly the most important step that could make or break your trip, so read on.
Now ask yourself, why do you want to travel? Are you taking this trip to break the deathly routine of going in and out of your office? Are you finally done with NS/studying and want to go out there and see the world? Are you frustrated with this place you’ve stayed in for the past decades of your life and you just felt enough is enough?
Or are you travelling to become a better person, to cultivate internal growth through external exploration? To get some space for you to think about what you want to do in life — be it in terms of career, family, or relationships.
It’s a useful step to think about the reason behind you taking that step out there rather than travelling for the sake of travelling because everyone around you is doing the same. This gives you better sense of purpose when you travel which had made me super open and adaptable for my 50 days in Europe.
But perhaps the reason for your trip is to have no goals and go to where the winds blow you, then sure, go ahead and get lost in the world!
1. Research
The first thing about planning your Eurotrip is to do research — lots of it — because that’s how you bring costs down. Whether you just entered NS or university, it’s not too early to think about where you want to go after you ORD/graduate and start planning earlier.
I started planning when I was in my first year of NS and I must say all that actually helped me a lot. I read travel blogs when I was free and sometimes even emailed them to ask for help and they very graciously replied to me! One was Ryan for The World Wanderers and Alex from ActiveAdventuresAbroad. Alex even made some itineraries for me for free! (because I sort of gave him feedback when he was building his own website 3 years ago and now it looks gorgeous!)
I also posted on Reddit /r/backpacking and /r/solotravel te receive tips and tricks from seasoned travellers and I must say they have been so helpful they might’ve saved my life in one way or another!
You see, sometimes the first step starts at home and you just need to take that first step to get you closer to your travel goal! Don’t be afraid to go out there and talk to people, they will usually be more than happy to tell you how they did what they did.
Research is important because it helped me find out, for example, how trains work in Europe, what is the cost of living in each country, what is the cheapest way to get from one city to another. More details will follow in the individual components below. But the crux is this — doing research (early) gives you a better peace of mind and a general idea of what you are going to do and where you are going when you finally touch down on foreign soil.
“But Jerry”, I hear you ask me, “wouldn’t that take away from the spontaneous spirit of travelling?”
Hmm…well yes, you will to a certain extent, but the problem with deciding on the fly in Europe is that costs skyrocket the closer you are to the last minute. So for example if you want to go from London to Amsterdam, a spontaneous decision would cost you £144 (S$257!!!) while I got mine for £55 through research and early booking.
I’m not saying only people with money can get to live the dream of deciding on the go, but generally, the lack of research and planning will hit you hard in your bank account.
2. Flights
The next big thing you have to consider is getting yourself there, and that means you have to know how to get cheap flights, because flights will be one of your biggest expenditures (if not the biggest).
Here, there are 2 ways of doing this:
- You book wayyy in advance because tickets are most volatile here and can hit as low as $700 for return flights from Singapore to Europe, and jumping back up to $1.2k the next day.
- Book last minute and gamble that the price drops just before you fly, you might be able to get ridiculous prices.
I would recommend the one that gives you more control and less anxiety. But if you really want to go all out with excitement and spontaneity, knock yourself out with the latter.
I spent everyday for the last December monitoring flight deals, my eyes were on any flights that hit $800. I wasn’t lucky enough to jump on the $199 Norwegian Air bandwagon because I have school to attend this year, but my friend who’s travelling later this year managed to get it!
And now that air travel is getting more and more competitive, cheaper options like this are popping out and by the time you read this, flight tickets might not be a huge problem after all!
There are tons of websites out there that compare flights across all the airlines like Skyscanner, Kayak, and Google Flights. BUT I don’t usually use them to buy because I’ve sort of honed in on which airlines usually have huge price drops—like Lufthansa, Qatar, and Finnair — so I just go to their respective websites to see. But it’s also worth checking out Google Flights to see any underdogs that may emerge (which was why I ended up taking Air France and KLM).
It’s also wise to add email notifications so these websites will notify you if there are significant changes in flight prices!
Also, it seems that flights to Amsterdam are cheaper than to most other European cities for some reason, so maybe you can use this as a deciding factor for where you want to start your backpacking trip!
What helped me when I booked 5 months in advance was not just in cost, but also in spirit. By buying that ticket in January when my trip is in May, it knocks in the reality that — Okay, shit, I bought the tickets, that’s it, it’s happening no matter what now. And that helped me be more serious in planning and research because I was no longer doing it “for fun”. but rather, I was doing it for the imminent reality.
3. Countries
Now that you bought the tickets to your destination country, you should start confirming which are the places you are going to and the route you are taking.
Again, this doesn’t apply if you want to wing it completely, but it’s still good to have a rough guide on where you want to go. (I had to write down all the places I’m going in a calendar because my mom would go crazy from worrying, so I had to show her I’ve done my homework.)
An easy way to choose is to just go to where you like or want to go. Like duh. Do you like art? Culture? Food? Concrete jungles like Singapore? Or perhaps the serene nature is what you’re looking for? Or ideally, you can just lump all of them in your trip and make it as diverse as possible. But be careful not to spread yourself out too thin!!!
A common mistake for first-time backpackers is that they want to see so much because it is their first time in Europe and everything is so close to one another. A short train ride and you enter another country with scenic vistas or quaint cobbled streets — it’s hard to resist.
But often, travellers neglect about the time it takes to travel, their own stamina, and poor itinerary management. Oftentimes things that look good on paper don’t go accordingly when on the ground and it’s best to give yourself more leeway and control your urges.
As I heard a backpacker’s words of wisdom on reddit:
“If you pack your itinerary that tightly, all you’ll be seeing are train stations.”
Which is totally true now that I think back to my trip. If I hadn’t revised my routes (from Plan A to Plan D!) I would’ve mostly saw train stations and be even more drained from travelling.
Instead, give yourself some space and don’t be so uptight about not going to Rome, or if you’ll be missing out Paris. Rome and Paris will always be there, and plus, there will definitely be more amazing things you can find wherever you are— the destination isn’t that much of a deal, if I’ve learnt anything in my 50 days.
I’d rather you spend some more time in each of the places you’re going and meet more people to spend time with. Sure, some places can be done in 2 days, but I usually stay at a place for 3 to 4 days minimum.
4. Transport
Transport within Europe was my biggest cost during my travels, even more so than my flight tickets, and it would especially be the case for Europe. So if you want to backpack on a budget, this section is important.
For transportation, there are two parts. I like to split them up into “Big travel” and “Small travel” —or “Macrotravel” and “Microtravel” if you’re feeling fancy.
4.1 Big Travel
Big travel is basically my coinage for “travel from a big city to another big city”. So think Amsterdam to Cologne, or Paris to London.
They usually encompass long-distance train/bus rides, and occasionally some short flights if you want to bother with air travel nonsense. For my trip I travelled entirely by land (plus a short ferry ride), no flights. It’s up to you depending on your itinerary. Mine was a huge circuit so I have no need for flights.
Travel to fewer cities
The problem with Big travel is that they are unavoidable costs because there’s no way you are walking 200km from one city to another. So to tie it back with the section above — the fewer cities you travel to, the lower the cost of your trip. In order of magnitudes. Your bank account and future self will thank you for it. And you gotta save some other places for an excuse to visit Europe again! ;)
And like I said, I’d rather you spend more time in each city you’ve been to than to whiz pass Europe like a maniac — you’ll regret only catching glimpses of each city you’ve been to and wish you stayed longer. You’re not on a hop on, hop off excursion bus you booked with a travel agency,
You are now a traveller, not a tourist.
But of course, don’t be discouraged. I met this Malaysian girl who was cycling and camping her way throughout Scotland and she probably spent no money on transport except for the bike. Leg power can get you pretty far actually, I might just do that next time!
There are multiple ways to backpack Europe, you just have to get creative and free yourselves from restrictions!
Book in Advance
Okay, back to Big travel. The best way, like flights, is to book them early and you can get yourself really good deals! Apart from the London to Amsterdam example above, most trains I took was 2x or 3x reduced just by booking in advance! Again, the trade-off is having your days kinda fixed, but in my experience it wasn’t that restrictive.
I remember, when I was in Europe, that I find solace in knowing my past self 1 month ago had already secured my train for tomorrow, so today I can just enjoy myself without worrying about when is the next train, where is the station, how much it will cost. So I had peace of mind which I really appreciate :)
It is also worth noting that not all trains get cheaper the closer you are to the date, some of them have fixed prices so it doesn’t make a difference whether you buy earlier or not — so in this case, I had opportunities to be flexible with my plans.
Additional tips on Big Travel
Because I’m a cheapo Singaporean, I also let the cost of Big travel decide where I want to go for my trip. It was only a €7 Flixbus ride from Munich to Salzburg and that resulted in one of the best parts of my trip. Also because my host lives 50 minutes away from Salzburg city centre in the mountains, I get to experience something absolutely unplanned!
Another point, because Swiss trains are crazy expensive, rather than going straight to Paris, I randomly chose another city between Switzerland and Paris to spend a few days at and to save on train cost. That made me head down to Dijon despite knowing nothing except that I think they are famous for, erm, mustard??? Then I took a bus from Dijon to Paris, which was only €15. And because of that I managed to stay with a lovely young French couple who fetched me from the station and showed me all I could do in the city.
Also to circumvent ridiculously expensive Swiss trains — and this is legit — you take a German train to Germany, then take another train from Germany to your Switzerland destination. It’s still much cheaper than taking a Swiss train from within. When I needed to go from Munich to Interlaken, I had decided to do Munich → Zurich → Interlaken, which costs CHF70 (S$100). But then if I went from Munich → Interlaken straight, it costs €39 (S$60!!). Almost half! AND I STILL HAD TO CHANGE TRAINS IN ZURICH ANYWAY.
4.2 Small travel
Now, on to small travel.
I define small travel as “getting around the specific city you are in” — so like internal trains, buses, and trams.
I wasn’t very familiar with the concept of trams, but simply put, they are like buses that move on tracks, or like trains that move on roads. Basically, a bus-train hybrid.
Day Passes
Day passes are usually the way to go because if you are staying at a place for a few days and travelling a lot, something like a 3-day pass can get your money’s worth of travelling done without getting individual tickets because transport costs get really expensive — especially in the UK. But for London I got a 7-day pass plus Oyster Card so I can tap in and tap out however much I liked.
Get Multiple Tickets
Another option, like when I was in Paris, was to get a book of ten tickets which costs less than 10x one ticket and travel around. But be careful not to overbuy as unused tickets will be money down the drain!
Walk
Bus 11 is the best mode of transport sometimes. Just plain walking can get you around effectively and you’ll be surprised how common it is for people to just walk 40 minutes to get to work. Unlike Singaporeans, likely because of scorching weather, Europeans love walking. Probably also because they find their transport expensive as well!
I didn’t take any public transport in cities like Dijon, Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Inverness because everywhere is so walkable. And I like walking because you get to see more of the city and feel your way around the city after a few rounds. So don’t be lazy and get those calories cookin’!
Naughty tips
This is a bit of a do-it-if-you-want advice because it is so common — Don’t pay for transport in a city! I’m not teaching you to be a bad kid, but locals do it too anyway, so I just joined in :)
It is not possible for some cities like London and Paris, where there are gantries, but for most of Germany and Netherlands, you can just get into a tram, sit down, and get off when you reached the destination. I admit I was guilty of this!
Okay, I’m not condoning the breaking of law but sometimes I just want to try it out or I legit forgot to pay. A few times the station closed and I couldn’t buy tickets, and for some you are supposed to buy on the train, but since they didn’t ask, I just shut up and sat there.
But still, I recommend you to pay because the authorities realised people are abusing the system and give no mercy in issuing fines if you are caught.
In Munich, they have plain-clothes conductors that will pretend to be passengers and suddenly whip out their electronic scanner thingy mid-journey and check your tickets. Luckily I had my 3-day pass with me if not I would be set back another €60 (S$95!). In London it would be a £80 fine (S$140!!!). Not worth it.
Being naughty — you decide whether you want to risk it. I’m just pointing things out!
4.3 Hitchhike!
I have to stress this. If you are in Europe, TRY OUT HITCHHIKING! It would not only be a good way to get around, but also a great experience to have and meet interesting people who have picked you up!
Hitchhiking mostly works on Big travel because no one usually stops for you when you’re standing in the middle of a busy street getting from the train station to the bar that is 2km away. I did it mostly in Scotland to and from Isle of Skye and it was really fun!
It’s amazing how sticking up your thumb — preferably with a cardboard sign — can get you free transport. Europeans are generally very nice and you have a good chance to get a ride. (If you know where to stand! Hitchhike also must hitchhike properly.)
Here are some tips to ensure you get a good chance of hitching a ride, because having so many cars see you and shake their heads, or straight up ignore you, is a rather demoralising ordeal to go through.
- Stand at the main road to the direction you want to go. Hitchhiking is not magical, you can’t get a ride to your destination from any road. I recommend checking out hitchwiki — they tell you the hitchhike-ability of everywhere in the world and where to stand for the best chance to get to where you wanna go!
- Smile. No one wants to pick up some guy with a face that looks like the world offended him and is about to strangle someone. A little smile goes a long way — literally. Give the driver a nod and they might even respond (either with a shrug or, hopefully, stop in front of you). Girls have it easier because they come off as less intimidating and drivers wouldn’t take chances with guys sometimes.
- Speaking of stopping in front of you. Stand somewhere they can park. Good luck finding a ride on a one way, or even a two way street. If you stand at a spot where people can’t stop without obstructing traffic. They couldn’t help you even if they wanted to and you would have missed several good opportunities just by standing at the wrong spot.
- Make a sign if you can. Having a sign let’s drivers know where you want to go and you can sift out those who are not going to that direction. Not everyone will bother stopping without knowing where you want to go. So even if the driver is going the same way, they wouldn’t stop because they don’t know that you have the same destination as them. This is called signalling.
- Be flexible. Not going to your destination? No worries, get in and you can catch some other ride later down the road. It’s easier to break your journey into short easy-to-digest sections to ensure you capture most of the traffic going in the direction, rather than just the few who are going to your destination.
So go out there and have fun getting those thumbs up!
5. Accommodation
This is a long one, but really valuable if you read everything. Accommodation can become your greatest cost, but for me I spent only S$300 for lodging in my 50 days in Europe!
Couchsurfing
Tried and tested, I think this is the highlight of my trip — meeting so many people from all over the world and having friends in a city before I even reached there!
I thought the concept of couchsurfing has become quite known by a lot of people but I’m still surprised when my friends told me they’ve never heard of it.
So basically Couchsurfing is a platform that allows you to find hosts in an area with whom you can stay with — for only the charge of your company! (Okay, that came out wrong.)
They are a fantastic community based on the sharing economy and I urge everyone to at least try it once. The people I’ve met are amongst the nicest, most diverse people I crossed paths with — from students to teachers, government workers to start-up founders, males to — okay, maybe just one female — but you get the idea.
Some people might have qualms about staying at a random stranger’s place and shudder at the thought. But if you think about it, they are inviting some random stranger into their house and they are probably more afraid of you! But from my experience, all 18 of the people I’ve met on couchsurfing are the warmest and nicest people I’ve met in my life. So much so that it’s hard to forget any of them. Fantastic beasts (humans) and where to find them? Probably couchsurfing!
I have hosts who showed me around, brought me to drink and dance, chilled at their homes and watched movies, cooked for me, cooked with me, whom I cooked for.
And what better way than a local to show you where to go and what to do? I did many amazing things because of the tips and tricks my hosts shared with me and you don’t get that staying at hostels or hotels.
In Glasgow, I even accidentally “worked” for a start-up (check out xupo!) by helping them as a translator during a Skype call to their manufacturer in Shenzhen! It was an amazing experience that I wouldn’t have gotten if not for couchsurfing.
Some people are concerned about the safety aspect of CS, and there are definitely black sheep within the community, so read your hosts’ profile thoroughly. If you are a girl and afraid, don’t be, because you can read references people gave for the host and if girls that stayed with them say they are great, they would be great for you too. But if you are still uncomfortable, trust your instincts and find someone else.
Oh, a side note — if you’re on couchsurfing just to leech free accommodation and not socialise with people, I urge you not to try couchsurfing and ruin it for everyone just because you are an antisocial selfish freeloader.
Additional tips on Couchsurfing
Here’s a link to my profile if you want to take a look. And you should also Complete your profile. You think only you scared of people? People also scared of you!
Even if you don’t mind staying with anyone, you need to have a good profile for people to accept your requests. If you have an empty profile, how do you expect hosts to accept some random person’s request on the internet? You could be a creep for all they know. Complete your profile honestly and show effort, people appreciate effort.
And that’s why writing a request is important too. I handcraft all my requests, mention something in their profile so they know I read it. Ask them for a place and sign off warmly. Show effort, and your effort will be rewarded.
My hosts tell me some people paste templates and send them en masse, getting their names wrong, sometimes writing, “Hi. Need a place to stay on 15th to 17th. Thanks.” or even not writing anything at all. Don’t be so entitled, no one owes you anything. Be nice! :)
The next thing is try to get at least one reference on your profile — you can ask fellow friends to help you write one — because if you have a positive reference, hosts will know passed through someone else’s filter and deemed ‘good’ and will more likely accept you.
I had to start from zero because I was the first person out of everyone I knew to do this, but I didn’t find it too difficult to find hosts. Still, I imagine it would be easier if you already have at least one good reference on your profile. (Friends whom I personally know, drop me a message and I’ll write one for you if you need!)
Hostels
I don’t want to shit on hostels too much but it’s a hit or miss for me. I only use it as a last resort.
I have met a few great people whom I forged strong connections with, but hostels are mostly lodgings where you see people and go hi-bye and they go about your day and you go about yours. But if you meet people of similar interests as you, go ahead and hang out with them, it’s going to get really fun!
But I must say that hostels can bring you out of your comfort zone and socialise (if you choose to) and you will also have great experiences. I met this other Singaporean guy in Switzerland and he told me some shop donated a ton of pasta to his hostel in Italy and they cooked up a storm of 30-people pasta!
And the good thing about hostels is they can be easily book with an app and are mostly very cheap — costing around S$20 on average.
Why mostly? Because I paid bloody €60 for the very first night of my trip! (My CS host cancelled on me because of work, that’s the bad part about CS.) And that was the cheapest one I could find — I went around several hostels in Amsterdam and most of them charge above €100 and I immediately noped out of there. Almost S$200 for one night in a dingy hostel? No thanks. Bye.
But I think that’s just Amsterdam, and probably other touristy big cities, otherwise they are all affordable and budget friendly.
F.R.I.E.N.D.S.
Why did I choose to do the trip after ORD and have London as one of my destinations? Because I have my lovely friends studying there! Killing several birds with one stone, you get to see your friends, they get a rare visitor, you can crash at their place, it’s a win-win for everybody. If I did it only after university, all of my friends would already have left university as well and I would have missed out on an opportunity to meet them!
Seeing your friends in a foreign land is such a nice, heartwarming moment, and they are definitely really glad to host you too. All the conversations I’ve had with them till late at night are definitely the best parts of my trip.
Hotels
Er…budget, rememeber? So no, no hotels. Unless you are at a very unsafe place, and don’t feel comfortable at all, then please find yourself a nice hotel for the night. I might be preaching the relative safety of European streets, but no place is crime free. Stay safe!
The Earth is your bed and the Sky is your blanket
You don’t have to be such a poor thing and sleep on the streets every night to save money and earn imaginary hobo points. Try telling your parents you plan to do that and see how they chain you to the wall and forbid you from flying off!
Granted, I brought along my sleeping bag and was prepared to do that in the highlands (it’s called camping without a tent, okay??), but both nights I managed to find a roof — one was a quiet train station and the other was a bothy.
It’s easier to do that in the Scottish highlands because there is practically nobody (I was the only person at the train station) and even if you sleep in the open, the only thing stopping you is the rain and PESKY LITTLE DEVILS CALLED MIDGES.
Oh and what’s a bothy? It’s just a small stone hut you can find in the highlands to spend your nights at. They are built along hiking trails that provide free accommodation to hikers who needs to rest!
But seriously, don’t just sleep on the streets in London or Paris just because you want to save money. You can, people do it, and it’s not really unsafe, but all you get is some street cred and a sore back.
6. Food
What eats up (haha) your funds little by little along the way? — Food. I’m not a picky eater on the road so this part was quite easy for me.
So you need food everyday — ideally 3 times a day— to keep you going, and food doesn’t always come cheap in these places. You can’t just head down to a kopitiam and have a $3 chicken rice and be on your way, can you? A meal in London is at least £7 (S$12.50) and almost double that in Switzerland!
So here are some tried and tested tips by a poor guy who survived both these places.
Bread (And Nutella)
I know, I know, what the hell is this stupid tip??? But bread is the main staple in European diet and when in Rome, do as the Romans do (literally).
You’d be surprised how dirt cheap croissants are at €0.35 — even cheaper than Singapore — and they taste really amazing. Like I wouldn’t mind eating it for every meal because they’re sooo good!
In Singapore, you would think that resorting to eating bread sounds like selling yourself short but it’s actually not just a great way to save money, but how can you go to Germany and not eat their baked goodies! Every single bakery I went to effortlessly destroys Breadtalk or Fourleaves, any time, any day, in both price and quality.
Alternatively, you can get a whole loaf of bread, which lasted me days to even a week, for 50 cents and I spread Nutella over it and I’m set for any meal or when I get hungry at night. Nutella costs about 3x less in Germany than in Singapore, and that Nutella lasted me my whole trip. A less than €2 Nutella lasting close to 50 days? I never heard of a better deal.
You cook
Get your ass off the couch and get cookin’! Although I had inestimable good fortune that many of my kind hosts cooked for me, I also took to cooking for myself frequently in hostels and cooking for/with my hosts. Turns out it is a good way to bond and make conversations! Food in Europe may be expensive, but ingredients aren’t. Cooking is so cheap I think sometimes it costs even lesser than Singapore!
Get this — £1 for pasta, £1 for sauce, £1 for meat, £1 cheese — that gave me 4 meals. Math time: £4 divided by 4, so one meal technically costs me £1! (Just go to a Sainsbury’s in London, it’s the cheapest supermarket there and you can get most things for cheap.)
You embody the Singaporean Spirit
I learnt this from my friend who’s staying in London — when a supermarket is about to close, like in Marks and Spencer, you can go to the bakery section and they will have yellow-labelled reduced price items that you can get. It’s so cheap sometimes it might as well have been free!
Some people might call it cheapskate, but I like to call it travelling smart :)
Additional tips on Food
I’ve read some blogs about how they eat bread with peanut butter for every meal and scrimp and save so hard for food that it’s not exactly healthy for your body. You can do that for all I care but there are really no problems in keeping a balanced diet even while you are on the go, especially so if you are in a developed country!
Fruits are ridiculously cheap in Europe as well — you can buy bananas by the individual, and strawberries are delicious and cheap (with Nutella anyone?). Vegetables hardly cost much and I add them to my pasta when I’m cooking too to get dem vitamins and fibre.
Budget backpacking doesn’t entail suffering unless you choose to.
I mean, if you’re doing a 3-day camp in the wilderness like I did, you don’t really have a choice. But you can’t keep up a shitty (pun intended) diet in the long-run, it’s not worth having constipation at times and diarrhoea at other times just because you want to save that €1 or €2.
Many people also think that they must relinquish any of the foodie dreams they have because they are on a budget trip. But with good planning and money management, I still managed to eat local delicacies and enjoy myself. (Macarons cost like 90 cents so you can buy some and take your instagram-worthy shot in Paris.) And with the same amount that I spent, you can even easily eat like a king in Eastern Europe.
But if you are the kind of person who just wants to take pictures of your gastronomical adventures in the whole of Europe, you can really forget this section entirely, because it doesn’t really work for you.
Alcohol!
Good news for alcoholics! Europe is generally a great place to experience beer culture (looking at you Germany and your beer gardens!) and alcoholic drinks in general.
Apart from places like the Nordic countries, and other countries that tax on alcohol, they go for pretty cheap and is definitely affordable even for anyone on a budget.
But because I’m putting this out there on the internet, I have to be more responsible and tell you guys that drinking is bad for your body. That was why I had a challenge to not buy alcohol for my 50 days in Europe…
…And I succeeded the challenge!
I did not buy any alcohol when I was in Europe, but I still drank 25/50 days I was there. I honestly was okay with not drinking — I’m no alcoholic — but every time I drank I was offered by nice people and what kind of monster turns down an offer!
That’s how inescapable alcohol is when you’re in Europe. You don’t have to find alcohol, the alcohol comes to find you!
But still, please drink responsibly and know your limits. There’s no place worse to get drunk than in a foreign land where no one knows who you are and where you stay — and it’s not like they can send you back even if they check your IC because you live in Singapore!!!
7. Having fun!
Now finally after ALL THAT (I hope you’re still with me), we get to the fun part. The part that is the highlight of your whole trip. The part which was why you set off in the first place.
Fun doesn’t cost money
For me, most of my entertainment comes free of charge — hiking dreamy mountains, sightseeing in the cobbled streets of ancient cities, museum hopping (almost all museums are free) to explore the most wondrous artifacts uncovered, dancing with people I’ve met in these strange yet welcoming lands. It doesn’t sound like much but I did so many things that I’m surprised I didn’t even spend much, if any, for the above activities.
And in terms of hitchhiking and couchsurfing, even if they are not counted as entertainment, are fun too!
The rule of thumb is don’t pay for anything a tourist would pay for.
Boat rides down the river? I’m not paying money to get into the filthy Seine/Thames.
Going up the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, London Eye? Some things are best seen from afar. You can’t actually take a picture with the Eiffel Tower in the photo if you are on the Eiffel Tower, can you??? All you get is a high vantage point of the city which you can get at other buildings for free.
Just because many people are queuing up paying for it, it doesn’t mean you have to — this is the Singaporean urge you must control. In fact, this is the chance for you to scoff at the boring tourists because you are a freaking backpacker!
Adventure is up to you
As a backpacker you must find adventure not in what you can pay for, but what you seek out. That’s the whole point of a backpacking trip — to do something scary, what you usually wouldn’t do, something out of your comfort zone, so you can grow and discover a side of yourself you didn’t know. (Note: I didn’t say “find yourself”, I don’t believe in that after having done it. Will probably write about that some time soon.)
Sometimes, you can just knock yourself out
That said, you can spend on things you actually want to do and experience. Sometimes you should just ignore all advice and do it if you feel strongly about it.
The bulk of my “entertainment” expenditure comes from the hang-gliding I did in Interlaken, Switzerland. It was really expensive, CHF230 (S$330), but really fun! I actually contemplated a lot about it because I could actually have a blog title of “Backpacked Europe 50 days for $3.4k!!” intead of $3.7k…
But no, I wanted to do it, I saved up for it — and if was gonna do it I might as well do it when I’m 21 and in bloody Switzerland!
Now let me blow your mind for a bit.
Under my expenditure titled “entertainment” I spent S$433 in total.
That meant I spent S$103 on the other 49 days for “entertainment”. Oh, and that included watching Les Misérables at the Queen’s Theatre in London ;)
DESTINATION ISN’T EVERYTHING
This point is in all-caps, so you know it’s super super important. And it is.
It’s tempting to just rush to the beautiful sceneries you see on Pinterest, or drooling over your friends’ trips to amazing destinations. But if I’ve learnt anything on this trip, it’s this — the memories I remembered most fondly involve other individuals. Every single one of them.
I was like you, I wanted time for myself to think and explore. I set off on this trip solo, wanting to be a cool lone wolf wandering the harsh landscapes, but the world showed me otherwise, showed me that — and to quote Christopher McCandless in his dying moments in the Alaskan wilderness —
When you are on your solo trip, don’t hesitate to say hi to every single person you see. Your day, your trip, or even your life could change because of that. You have my word.
Conclusion
This leads nicely to the end of my very long “The Ultimate Singaporean Guide to Backpacking Europe On A Budget”.
Again, I would like to emphasize that whatever I said can be followed to a T, or completely disregarded, it’s not really in my right to tell you what is the correct or wrong way to travel. Your trip is for you to decide how you want it to be.
The most important thing is that I hope you’ve learned something through someone else’s trip, and my post has motivated you to make your own.
Don’t look at me and feel envy — there were definitely times when I felt lost, scared, and uncertain, when I felt like how I’m gonna survive the rest of my days here. But these are all human emotions you should get to experience, which is all the more of a reason why you should embark on this trip,
exactly because it’s not easy.
Again, my kind of travel is not suited for everyone, but I guess it generally fits the adventure-craving early twenties who want to travel for long periods (like post-ORD or post-grad trip) without breaking their wallets.
I really hope this article helped you greatly in your travel dreams — be it if you are getting started, planning currently, or flying off tomorrow.
All the best in your journey and bon voyage!
Questions? About my trip or about planning yours, you can drop me comment below or an email at jerrykohwrites@gmail.com and I will try my best to answer them!
If you are interested in the route I took, I have it mapped out on Google Maps so you can see where I went to!
Don’t forget to like and share if you found this article useful or if you know friends who would be interested in a backpacking trip. And check out my other stuff if you enjoyed :)
Lastly, thank you for reading!
