Best summer trip for someone whose never left the country?

Do Montreal, Quebec City, and GTA.

A local...im in University Heights.

This is all Europe specific advice.


"Has to be cheap, both the flight and the activities, so probably no major European cities or huge capital cities."


Hub cities are usually cheaper than direct flights. Hubs like all German airports, Vienna, etc. Play around w/ the dates/cities on a site like kayak. From your arrival airport, simply book a train to your country of choice. Consider an overnight train so you can avoid paying for a hostel and dont waste the day travelling. That can save you money, but dont rule out flying. Ive managed last minute flights for cheap on Easyjet and the like. I paid $100 for a 2 day advance purchase from Sofia to Vienna. Would take about 2 days of travel and almost $100 to do that by train.

Having been to over 26 European countries, 98% of the time everyone you encounter under 30 or so will speak English. Dont worry about that. Bump that to 100% if you are in the West. If you have common sense, there is no need to be concerned with crime or violence. Dont be flashy, dont walk down dark alleys alone, etc. The worst that has happened to me was I left a pair of socks at a hostel I stayed at in Kosovo.

Travel light. Smart.

Try to budget 2 or 3 days per country as a MINIMUM. Doing a different country everday may seem like a good way to cram it all in, you miss out on a lot of what the city has to offer.

Hostels are a good way to save $$ and meet other travellers - a big plus if you are travelling solo. Bring some earplugs - they are worth their weight in gold.

Strongly consider Eastern and/or South Eastern Europe if funds are limited. Money goes much farther in countries like Estonia, Romania, Czech and Bulgaria than they do in Western ones like Belgium, The Netherlands or UK (crazy expensive). All of Scandinavia is very expensive, the most affordable being Finland.

The closer you are to the Russian borders, the cheaper your costs will be. Not only that, but it is a much different experience (read: less 'Western') than the West. I have enjoyed the East much more than Western Europe. YMMV.


Some opinions:

Czech is a must see if you are into awesome buildings.

Poland, Latvia, Estonia are MUSTS if you are into girls and partying.

Like the beach? Look into Croatia and Montenegro.


I could go on, but it really depends what YOU are into.

san diego == Tijuana

Mexico. They speak enough English for you to get by, but little enough to make it interesting.

from SD, I recommend going east or going south

amsterdam