With my 30th birthday rapidly approaching, I decided to do what I’d long planned to do, and take my first solo trip to Europe. It was my gift to myself, and also a way to manage to visit 30 countries before turning 30 (although I was technically one day late, but who really counts?).
If you ever get the chance to travel alone, I highly recommend it. While traveling with friends and family is a lot of fun, traveling alone, especially abroad, gives you the chance to challenge yourself and truly take in everything around you.
I left on May 1, and returned on May 17th, managing to set foot in 8 total countries along the way. It took a lot of time and planning to figure out how to maximize my trip and see as much as possible – lots of experimenting with various train routes and researching timetables and hotel prices. Now that I’ve done all of the work, and completed what I consider one of the most amazing experiences of my life, I’ll share it all, so that you can travel between cities with ease 🙂
Note: most of these cities in the beginning are by train, and all of them leave once an hour with the exception of the train from Bratislava to Budapest. Use Google maps to find the exact times, and plan to be at the train station about 20 minutes early to make sure you can get a ticket and find your way to the correct platform.
Day 1: Fly from the US to Frankfurt. Frankfurt has become one of the cheapest cities to fly to from the US, which makes it a great starting point for any European trip. Most airlines will have cheap flights, and I opted for Condor, which has a business class option cheaper than any other airline I’ve found.
Day 2 – 3: Explore Frankfurt!
Day 4: Take an early train to Munich
Day 5: Explore Munich and take an evening train to Salzburg
Day 6: Explore Salzburg!
Day 7: Take an early train to Vienna
Day 8: Explore Vienna and make reservations at Steirereck
Day 9: Take an early train to Bratislava
Day 10: Spend the morning in Bratislava and then take the train to Budapest in the afternoon
Day 11: Explore Budapest and take a late night flight to Krakow
Day 12: Morning tour of Auschwitz and Birkenau then an afternoon in Krakow
Day 13: Continue exploring the city of Krakow, then take a late night flight to Copenhagen
Day 14 – 16: Explore Copenhagen and Malmo before taking a late night flight to Iceland
Day 17: Spend a few hours in Iceland before heading home to the US!
My only regret during the trip was that I didn’t have quite enough time in Iceland to really explore. WOW Air and Iceland Air both allow for stopover trips – a free layover for up to 7 days in the country. Next time I book a trip to Europe and fly WOW, I’ll definitely allow for at LEAST 2 days of a layover so I can get out and explore more. While WOW is known as a budget airline, booking their Premium seat is basically like having a first class seat on a Domestic airline. This seat was perfect for my flight back, because I was leaving mid-morning and wanted to stay awake for the entire flight to avoid jet lag. Had I been flying overnight and wanted to sleep, it wouldn’t have been the most comfortable.
Planning a trip to Europe soon and want some recommendations? Let me know in the comments!
