How to Plan a Three-Month Journey Across Europe

Sandy writes about creating our travel itinerary and the unique planning challenges associated with our new Europe adventure, starting in June.

Late last year, Darren and I discussed possibilities for our next Trekking the Planet journey. After a couple of years traveling around the United States, hiking on the Pacific Crest Trail and taking a road trip to 27 national parks, we were ready to venture internationally again. When we journeyed around the world in 2012 – 2013, we visited 53 countries. This time we wanted to find an area where we could slow down, but have multiple trekking possibilities. It soon became apparent that Europe best fit our criteria, and we began to explore our options.

Last November, during Thanksgiving weekend, I motioned Darren over to my computer screen at our home in Palm Desert, California. I wanted to voice my frustration with our trip planning to him. The sheer magnitude of possible hikes, combined with the language challenges of researching many of the treks, was wearing on me. This made the planning and logistics for our Trekking the Planet Europe journey some of the most daunting to date.

Miles of Trail Possibilities

When we chose Europe we decided to stay the maximum time we could without getting a visa – 90 days. I had already read many blogs about the Camino de Santiago and wanted to include it as our first hike. Our working assumption was that we would complete just one other longer trek. We would then use our remaining time to slow down and linger in a couple of other places.

Instead, I was blown away to discover that there were no shortage of trekking possibilities in Europe. There are literally thousands of miles of trails on the continent. For example, Europe maintains a series of long-distance “E” Trails (pictured below). Each country also features its own set of cultural and natural footpaths. Completing a hike on some of these trails would take longer than the three months that we had to travel.

With so many options before us, our focus shifted to a search for several shorter hikes. We reasoned that this would provide us with more variety as we traveled. As we had done in the past, we relied on surfing the Internet to look for “lesser known” treks matching our skill set (challenging trails, but not at a mountain climbing level). I soon found several blogs detailing some interesting hikes. But the locations spanned the continent, so the next problem was determining which ones would best fit our overall route and schedule.

This is where the language barrier came in, as many of the hikes only had information in that country’s language. Using Google Translate helped, but made the research progress slow-going. Eventually, I was able to find English language Kindle guidebooks on three of the four treks we chose. I also captured gpx trail files for each hike. As we walk, we can load the files into our phones to help us navigate. The treks we ultimately decided upon gave us a variety of cultural history and natural beauty to look forward to throughout our journey:

• Camino Portugues (150 miles, 13 days) – Portugal and Spain. This is part of the Camino de Santiago, but not the most popular route. We hope to gain some cultural exposure to the countries of Portugal and Spain as we hike. (Our guidebook)
• GR53 (65 miles, 6 days) – France. A lesser known route in the Alsace region of France. Full of historic ruins of castles and the scenery of the Regional Nature Park of the Northern Vosges. (Our guidebook)
• Lechweg (80 miles, 6 days) – Germany and Austria. This is a new long-distance trail along a river valley in the Austrian Alps. The Lechweg had the least English language information and no book. Instead, I was able to use Google Translate to obtain both a detailed route description and download gpx trail files (to ensure we don’t get lost).
• Swiss Alpine Pass Route (230 miles, 23 days) – Liechtenstein and Switzerland. A hike that passes through the best of Switzerland’s alpine scenery, but also has stages through small, off the beaten path villages. This will be our most challenging hike, as we travel over 16 mountain passes. (Our guidebook)

Planning a Firm Itinerary

With the treks chosen, I turned to building a firm itinerary. If you follow our other trips, you have seen that we like to plan things out, knowing where we will be sleeping every night. I realize that there are others who would rather be more spontaneous, but we have not had good experiences with securing last minute accommodations and travel. And we would prefer to spend our time on the road enjoying the fruits of our planning, rather than figuring out where to stay next.

There are definitely pros and cons to each approach, but we are comfortable with our planning focus. We do make sure that we leave time in a place for some spontaneity in our activities. But we do like to know where we are staying and to have our tickets to our next destination already in hand.

Besides the hiking, which accounts for about half of our total time in Europe, we wanted to visit new countries and regions. When we are not on our own two feet, our mode of travel around Europe will primarily be by train, with a couple of buses here and there. As I stitched together our itinerary, I used Seat61.com to research each country’s train system. I consulted the German website Bahn.de to check potential train schedules (even for other countries). In this way, I ensured that our overnight destinations were a reasonable distance from one another, and preferably a direct (or one change) train journey away.

The beauty of traveling by train in Europe is that several countries have high-speed rail networks. This makes travel between locations quicker and easier. These rail tickets are usually available three to four months in advance and are cheaper to book when they are first on sale. I discovered a new English language booking website called Loco2.com. It not only allows me to buy German, French and Spanish train tickets in one place, but it does not charge extra fees for booking on top of the national carriers. I could also put alerts on the dates / destinations I wanted to buy. This enabled me to purchase tickets the day they became available, saving us a ton of money.

Accommodations in Any Language

One difference in our Europe journey, compared to other trekking trips we have taken, is that we will not be doing any camping. “Wild camping,” or pitching a tent along the trail, is generally not allowed on European footpaths (although we did have an exception on the Kungsleden Trek we completed in the Arctic Circle of Sweden). Instead, Europe has an extensive hut system, which we used when we hiked the Julian Alps in Slovenia.

We will be staying in several huts while trekking in Switzerland, but on our other hiking nights we plan to sleep at pensions, B&Bs or guesthouses in small villages and towns along the way. I primarily booked our accommodations on Booking.com. They covered almost every city and town we planned to visit. In almost all cases I could book a place with free cancellation, giving us more flexibility in case our plans need to change.

In some of the really small villages and the Swiss huts, I used email to contact accommodations about their availability. Several times I wrote the booking request in that country’s native language using Google Translate. When I received a response I translated it back to English to ensure I got all the details.

Darren and I have also split up to do some “language study” before leaving. Our hope is to get by with some basic German, Spanish, Portuguese and French words and phrases, as well as ensuring that we have the Google Translate app (and applicable language downloaded) on our phones for assistance.

Slowing down and taking some downtime between treks was also an important consideration for us. So we booked a week at an Airbnb in Madrid, Spain, and another week at one in Verona, Italy. We plan to use each city as a base to take some day trips, as well as recharge our tired legs after the Camino (in Madrid) and the GR53 and Lechweg (in Verona).

We will also be spending several days in the small countries of Andorra and Liechtenstein, as well as the northern Normandy region of France. Finally, we booked a stopover in Iceland on the way back to the U.S., so will have four days to explore Reykjavik and the surrounding area. Because we will be there in mid-September, it won’t be conducive to overnight trekking, but we plan to do some day hiking instead.

Planning, then Packing

In all, with just about a month left before we leave, our planning is pretty much complete. We are now concentrating on our packing. This is another challenge, as we are traveling point to point on every trek, so cannot leave things to be picked up along the way. Therefore, we need to carry everything with us for the entire time we are in Europe. We are also trying to stay as lightweight as possible. The details of our packing (and some new gear and technology we will be bringing) will be the subject of our next story.