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Europe Itinerary – Two Months in Europe

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Europe Itinerary

Balea Lake on a cold, foggy morning in Romania

To some, two months traipsing around foreign countries seems like nothing, just another backpacking adventure around the world! To others, it seems practically inconceivable. I suppose this post is for the folks in between: the travelers who believe they can embark upon such an adventure but aren’t sure how. Well here’s our two month Europe itinerary to help get you started!

Right off the bat, you may notice several key countries are missing from the itinerary: France and Spain, for example. Here’s the thing: some countries, in our minds at least, are too big and diverse to try to squeeze into a few days, so we’re saving those for a separate trip. After all, you’d hardly scratch the surface if you tried to see the whole US in two months. The key? Pick the locations in Europe that interest YOU and go from there. But hopefully, this Europe itinerary will give you a solid jumping off point!

And we’re off!

We flew Wow Airlines from Boston to Brussels because it was only $189 per person each way with a 7-day stopover in Iceland. We were already in Massachusetts, so we left our car with a friend and hopped on a plane!

Europe itinerary

Black sand beaches in Iceland.

Day 1-7: Iceland

A note on Iceland: it’s freaking expensive. The third most expensive country in the world. We did not know this at the time we booked our stopover. My advice? Go for 3-4 days to check out Reykjavik and surrounds or a full 10 days and splurge on a campervan rental and drive around the whole island. It’s an amazing place, but $18 for a bowl of soup will wipe you out faster than a Maui wave.

Europe itinerary

Grand Place, Brussels, Belgium

Day 8-11: Brussels, Belgium

Next, we flew Wow from Reykjavik to Brussels. Brussels has culture but is also quite touristy. There’s chocolate and crappy waffles everywhere. Do yourself a favor and don’t buy either unless you’re at a local farmers market. Do get a beer, though. Preferable at Delirium, which has literally thousands of beers available. And a killer vegan hot chocolate at Laurent Gerbaud Chocolatier is totally worth it.

Europe itinerary

Bruges, Belgium

Day 12-14: Bruges, Belgium

From Brussels, we added an unexpected detour to Bruges. Locals highly recommended it so we used the rideshare app BlaBlaCar (which is like a beautiful cross between Uber and Craigslist) to hitch a ride. It was around $15 for both of us and we got to chat with a local during the hour drive. We stayed in a hostel in the gorgeous city of Bruges. It’s seriously stunning. Ever seen En Bruges? “It’s like an f***ing fairytale.”

Europe Itinerary

Amsterdam, Netherlands

Day 15-18: Amsterdam, Netherlands

We took a coach from Bruges to Amsterdam where we stayed with a friend we met in Iceland. This is the land of bicycles, but honestly, we were too afraid to rent some. Cycling here is seriously terrifying. If you’re not careful you might get taken out by a cyclist just walking! We survived, though, ate some of the best loaded fries I’ve ever tasted at Vegan Junk Food Bar, saw some sights, but as we’re neither pot smokers nor partiers the city lacked a certain appeal. Not as pretty as Bruges, but there’s certainly a lot going on! The red light district alone is a trip!

Europe itinerary

The Berlin Wall Memorial

Day 19-23: Berlin, Germany

We took a coach back to Brussels in order to fly to Berlin, Germany for $16 per person. It was cheaper to pay for the bus and plane ticket than just to fly from Amsterdam. By quite a lot. So that’s what we did. We loved Berlin. It was the first time I felt like I fit in in Europe, what with my purple hair (what’s not shaved), and all. Plus, vegan food galore. There’s obviously tons of history in Berlin and even concentration camps within a short train ride, so history buffs would be in heaven. We’re not history buffs, but we had a pretty great time exploring anyway.

Europe itinerary

Theaterplatz in Dresden

Day 24: Dresden, Germany

We left Berlin early via coach. We were headed toward Prague, but Dresden was on the way and, on the recommendation of some Germans we hitchhiked with in Reykjavik and my own desire to check it out after reading about it in a Vonnegut novel (Slaughterhouse Five, for those of you literary folks who are interested), and decided a few days earlier that a slight detour was in order. We explored what was left of the old city, wandered in the new part of the city, and enjoyed a lovely day. 

Europe itinerary

The evening view from Charles Bridge

Day 25-28: Prague, Czech Republic

In the evening we caught another coach the rest of the way from Dresden to Prague where we crashed on a friend’s couch for a few nights. Prague is also veeeeery touristy. It is a beautiful city, though, architecturally speaking. We had possibly the best gelato ever at Creme de la Creme, ate and ate, and wandered the winding streets, picking up cheap, tasty beer on the way. 

Europe itinerary

Vienna, Austria

Day 29-31: Vienna, Austria

I’ll say this about Vienna: it’s shiny and clean. We took a coach from Prague and got into our hostel in the afternoon. There are scads if old royal buildings and churches to explore, ridiculous fountains (mermen on merhorses, for example…), but the highlight for us was probably scoring ballet tickets at the TK theatre for $4 per person. The city also has a great bike share program. 

europe itinerary

Bratislava, Slovakia

Day 32: Bratislava, Slovakia

Basically, Bratislava is practically on the way to Hungary from Vienna, so why wouldn’t we cross one more border? We only spent the morning and afternoon in this city, but the old section is plenty interesting and there are gardens and castles to keep you occupied for at least a few hours. 

Europe itinerary

The Parliament building in Budapest, Hungary

Day 33-35: Budapest, Hungary

Honestly, this is one city I wish we had stayed in longer. Unfortunately, it was also one of the few cities we were flying out of, so dates were pretty set. There were castles, plenty of green space, rooftop bars, cafes named for French authors, cheap vegan food and my favorite parliament building ever. A local friend showed us around one afternoon and we truly enjoyed this city split in half by a river.

Europe itinerary

Michelangelo’s David inspiring awe in Accademia Gallery visitors

Day 36-42: Riccione, Florence, Rome, Italy

We flew from Budapest to Bologna, Italy, then took a train to Riccione where a friend lived. We stayed with her for a few days and mostly lounged in the beach and caught up on work. It was the off season so there weren’t many tourists. There was good vegan gelato at TK. After two days there, we took a train to Florence, which is brimming with art and history…and David…seriously the most amazing sculpture ever. There are also nice walks up hills, though gardens, around cemeteries, you name it. After two days there we took a train to Rome. We spent two days in Rome seeing the sights and learning about ancient history. It probably would have been even cooler had we known a bit more about it BEFORE we arrived, but what you gonna do? And we couldn’t pass up taking home a dual spout Moka pot from Bialetti before we left. 

Europe itinerary

Athens, Greece

Day 43-50: Athens, Greece

This was another country we had little intention of visiting during our trip, but an Irish friend we met in Australia was going to be there so we decided to go too! Never regretted it! Cheap food, chill culture, coffee everywhere, beaches, what’s not to love? And since we did a work-stay at a hostel we got free lodging, too! Would go back to Greece in a heartbeat!

Europe itinerary

Rasnov Fortress, Romania

Day 51-58: Romania (Transylvania)

To clarify, Transylvania is a region of Romania. We flew into the capital of Romania, Bucharest, from Athens and met up with our Irish friend again who joined us on our 6-day road trip around the region. Castles, fortified churches, cheap food, terrible beer (from a 2-liter plastic bottle found in grocery stores), fall colors…It. Was. Amazing. We chose it because of its eerie and fictional history (Dracula, anyone?) and it turned out to be the highlight of our trip, despite the rocky start with the rental car. Moral of the story? Always choose destinations that are meaningful to you, not because an online list or guidebook (or blog post complete with itinerary) tells you to go. 

europe itinerary

Day 59-60: Going “home”

We were flying back to Boston from Bucharest, but not really. Our Wow Airlines flight was about half as expensive if we just flew the same route we traveled on the way to Europe (Boston to Brussels via Reykjavik). Plus, when we booked the flights we were thinking we’d be heading back north through France, so we’d be doing a big loop and flying out of Brussels would make sense. Well, our Europe itinerary obviously changed, so we had to fly from Romania to Belgium where we opted to sleep in the airport (the second time we did so on this trip) instead of dealing with the hassle of getting into the city, booking a hostel, and waking up at the crack of dawn to go back to the airport. Fortunately, Brussels is an exceeding comfy airport for sleeping. In the morning we hopped on a plane that had a brief layover in Reykjavik and were on our way back to the states (where we then had to drive halfway across the country back to Texas to make it home in time for Halloween). Success!

Our Europe itinerary was full of surprises, but mostly good ones. Maybe it helped you plan your own Europe itinerary. If so, let us know! Know of a few cool, off-the-beaten-path locales we should hit up next time? Share ’em! Wander on!