I don't know what to say, but be careful of 2 things in France:

- there are pickpockets in the French subway (even though you can spend your whole life going to work using the subway without meeting one pickpocket).

- French people must learn English (most learn it as their first foreign language) but most French people don't learn to speak it, just understand it a bit and writing it (with books, oral understanding is not really studied).

Here's some random advice:
* You'll be able to get by pretty well with only English.  As mypapa12 said, France can be a bit painful sometimes, but even there you should be able to get around I think.
* Regarding safety/crime, Western Europe should be pretty decent everywhere.  Somewhere between U.S. and Japan I guess.  No need to plan your travel around it.
* Western European accommodation is usually decent even when it's cheap.  Check out youth hostels (Germany has lots of them) if you really want to save money -- if your expectations are not too high you'll be doing fine.   (I've stayed in youth hostels a lot.)  They shouldn't be age-restricted despite their name.
* Europe is well-connected by train -- check out the Eurail pass for unlimited train rides.  Also, bahn.de's search function finds you fast door-to-door (street address) connections in Germany with all public transit (train/bus/etc.), and it should know at least the major European trains routes (haven't checked how much exactly, but give it a try): http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query. … equest=yes
* European domestic flights can be pretty cheap as well, if you're going longer distances.
* Cabs tend to be good but expensive, so most of the time, try to plan ahead with bus/tram/subway routes (use something like bahn.de's search I mentioned above).  (Mobile internet helps if you need to plan on the spot.)
* What to visit: The capitals and major cities should be fine.  Sometimes there are smaller cities that might be worth a visit for cultural reasons (like Weimar in Germany), but if it's your first visit, just concentrate on the big ones I guess.  Try this list: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Largest_ci … ity_limits  I personally think that Amsterdam, Zurich and London are particularly nice (pretty / architecturally interesting) cities, but any city should be fun -- I honestly don't think it even matters that much where exactly you go.  When you've picked the cities you want to go to, grab some guide book or whatever to plan your sightseeing destinations; there's plenty to do everywhere.

Enjoy your travels!

Last edited by epsilondelta (2010 January 01, 1:51 pm)

Tobberoth wrote:

Prague is my favorite place to go in Western Europe. Rome is awesome as well. I like the Greek islands but Greece itself doesn't seem all that great. If I had the money to travel right now, I would probably go for northern italy. Florance and Venice especially.

Prague is a really nice city but Czech Republic is not in Western Europe exactly, is it?

There are many cities worth seeing in Europe but if it's your first visit and you can do only 3 countries or so, I guess France, Italy, Spain, Germany and UK would be the most obvious choices.

Tobberoth wrote:

Well I guess it's a question of definition. It's not actually considered a part of western europe but Prague doesn't feel very eastern to me. And it's on the border so it's not like it's far.

Well, UN puts Czech Republic under Eastern Europe or Central Europe at most, Czechoslovakia was on Warsaw Pact side of the fence during Cold War and Czech language sounds pretty 'east-european' to me.

I don't think it matters much anyway, I just found it bit funny when you said '*Country from Eastern Europe* is my favorite place to go in Western Europe'. I think that if one wants to see Western Europe, there are countries that would be bit more 'west-european' than Czech Republic. With this said, I do find Prague a really nice city and agree with your advice to see it.

ueshiba wrote:

In Portugal you won´t have any problem getting by with english. From my personal experience, portuguese people´s english is better than spanish people´s for instance. I think one of the things that makes it this way, is because our TV broadcasts movies and shows with subtitles, unlike many european countries( free immersion while growing up ftw=P) . When i went to spain this was really clear, it´s so weird watching robert de niro or adam sandler with another voice, it just takes away so much from the acting. If you go to Lisbon, be sure to go to Sintra, a beautiful small town near it.

What do you mean "Spanish people's English"? The only English speakers I've met outside the airport were tourists and immigrants.
Apparently they can have 10 different languages in the same country, but not learn the most common language in the whole world.