In this travel guide, we’ll show you 8 great tips for backpacking Europe – better! From budget backpacking tips to how to enjoy your trip without worrying about the little things. We’ll share how to get around the continent easily and the best places to book accommodation!
Europe is one of the easiest continents in the world to country-hop! By jumping on a bus or train you can travel to a new country within Europe every day, which still blows my mind. Of course, we recommend hanging around a new town or city for a few days.
After spending a lot of time in the continent, we’ve learnt many backpacking Europe tips that could help you next time you’re travelling through these beautifully historic countries.
So here’s our 8 European backpacking tips for you, so you can make the most out of your trip! These tips are based on our experience travelling through many of the countries within Europe.
This post may contain affiliate links. We will receive a small commission if you make a purchase using these links, at no additional cost to you.
8 Great Backpacking Europe Tips
There are many ways to be prepared and plan for your future trip, but at least these tips are a step in the right direction! So, in no particular order here’s our Europe backpacking tips.
💤 Book your hotels here!
🛌 Check out hostels here!
1. Pack your backpack lightly
It’s so important to feel comfortable when carrying your backpack to various cities, towns and islands all over Europe.
Whenever we go on a backpacking trip, our trusty 40L backpacks come with us. That’s exactly what we did for our InterRail trip and all of our future trips since then.
It’s the perfect amount of space for any trip longer than 1 week. Just wash your clothes every week and you’ll be fine! We also pack a day bag into our backpacks, which we use to keep valuables safe on trains or packed lunches.
The great thing about the size of this bag is that it can be used as hand luggage on flights, so you don’t have to pay for checked luggage. Just make sure you have a small clear bag for your 100ml liquids if you’re starting with a flight.
If you are catching a flight with carry-on only and you’re not planning on getting on another flight for a while, one of our secret trips is buying suncream at the airport (or any other liquid that you can’t fit in your liquid bag). Suncream is usually well-priced in the UK and it’s so important for keeping your skin safe!
2. Choose Supermarkets if you’re on a Budget
Another one of our backpacking Europe tips is to use the grocery stores to save money instead of eating out every day. As much as we encourage trying the local cuisine, it can get expensive very fast, especially in Western Europe.
Pick an accommodation with kitchen facilities like a hostel or Airbnb and prepare some packed lunches every now and again. Making dinner is the perfect time to unwind, feel at home and even cook the local cuisine in your recipes. We definitely spend way too long looking at all the local produce.
Lidl or Aldi supermarkets may be found in some countries within Europe. They are our favourite because they’re so affordable and we even have them in the UK.
Once you’ve checked in to your accommodation, have a look at your kitchen facilities, maybe you have an oven?! Stock up on all the food you think you’ll need whilst in that country.
It’s also a great idea to bring your tote bags to use at supermarkets or fresh fruit markets, these will come in so handy when travelling or daily use back at home.
We often bring a food container and clips to seal bags so that we can travel with any leftover food. Here’s a few staples to buy from supermarkets when backpacking in Europe!
- Bread
- Peanut Butter or Jam
- Hummus
- Rice Cakes
- Pasta
- Pasta Sauce or Tomatoes & Garlic
- Fruit (bananas, apples, oranges)
- Vegetables (cucumber & carrots for snacking and local veg)
- Biscuits or crackers
Another one of our Europe backpacking tips is to always have snacks in your bag! We have a full guide on how to save money for travelling where you can find even more travel tips!
3. Bring a Water Bottle
We’re hoping in 2025, that everyone is already bringing a reusable water bottle out and about these days. Sadly this isn’t the case! Tap water is drinkable in most European countries and most of the time it tastes good!
Within Europe, there are so many free water fountains to drink from. Most bars or restaurants will most likely fill up your bottle too if you ask politely! We both use stainless steel water bottles for all of our travels, even in Southeast Asia.
Just make sure the country has safe drinking water before drinking from the tap. This hasn’t been a problem for us so far within Europe. However, whilst travelling through other countries outside of Europe we have carried a Life Straw so we could filter dirty water and not buy plastic water bottles.
If you do need to buy bottled water try to buy huge bottles with more litres. You can then separate the big bottle into your reusable water bottles. It will stop the convenient temptation of buying small bottles of water out and about.
In Germany, they have a bottle tax called Pfand. They charge a €0.25 deposit for each bottle/can. You can get this back by taking the empty bottle back to the store/supermarket! The tap water in Germany is completely safe to use by the way!
4. Don’t Rush your Backpacking trip
One of the most important tips for backpacking Europe is to not rush your trip! You’ve paid all of this money to explore a wonderful continent, it’s best to not skip to a new city every 2 days.
We know it’s such a hard thing to do and sometimes you don’t even realise you’re burning out until it’s too late.
If you’re planning a backpacking trip you want to try to experience as much as possible, but do you want to be zooming through iconic monuments that made you travel in the first place?
Will you truly experience these amazing countries if you’re rushing? Sometimes we just get way too tired and it’s harder to appreciate the location.
Flexibility is a dream when you’re travelling, but not everyone can get more than 2 weeks off. If you want to experience more countries on your trip, you have to be content with the possibility of not completing your list in every city or town you visit.
Have a look at our 3-Week Backpacking Itinerary in Europe!
5. Buses are cheaper than Trains & Flights
If you haven’t booked your trip yet and you’re not sure whether to get an Interrail pass or Eurail pass, then this is one of our Europe backpacking tips for you. As we are from the UK, at the time, we were able to get an Interrail pass.
It was 5 days of unlimited train rides within 21 days and this worked really well with our situation but we did wonder if it would have been cheaper without the pass.
In our situation, we had 6 travel days and our pass only covered 5 of those, so we did a bit of math before the trip and figured out we could get a bus for a really good price. Buses within Europe can be so cheap!
Sometimes the distance between major cities is only a few hours and can take almost the same time as a train.
Of course, it’s worth saying that Interrail and Eurail pass offers a lot of flexible freedom if that’s the type of trip you want!
Busbud is a great place to book bus tickets in advance online!
6. Saving Money on Train Reservations
So this is one of our tips for backpacking Europe that is mainly for those travelling with a Interrail or Eurrail Pass. Once you’ve bought your pass, you can get on any train that’s valid on your ticket, but some trains require reservations. This can be an added expense if you’re already travelling on a budget.
On our Interrail trip, we didn’t book any reservations in advance on the trains we took. We only had one bad experience where we didn’t get any seats because we didn’t book reservations.
It was a train going from Berlin to Prague with a stop in Dresden and we had to sit on the floor because all the seats were booked! The train had too many people on, and everyone without a seat was squished on the floor for a few hours, luckily we were getting off at Dresden.
It wasn’t too bad, and usually, you do get a seat, it’s just a huge gamble on how comfortable you want to be. So if you want to save more money you don’t need to bother with these reservations unless the train states they’re compulsory!
If you do want to reserve when you arrive at your new destination, head straight to the train ticket office and you can book your reservation in person! It’s likely your next train will be in a few days, although you will need to know the exact train you want to get on.
💤 Book your hotels here!
🛌 Check out hostels here!
7. Add Nature into your Backpacking Trip
There’s a few backpacking Europe tips we learnt after our first 3 week trip to the continent. That’s to add more nature into our trip. European cities are absolutely amazing, but it’s easy to feel worn out from too many cities within a short or long trip.
Add some mountains or national parks into your backpacking Europe itinerary or chill by the beach for a few days. Europe is filled with incredible nature, so it won’t be hard to escape the hustle and bustle of cities for some trees, sand or mountains.
An example of this would be to start your itinerary in the north and make your way down south passing through incredible parks on the way. Once you get to the coast, you can relax and take it easy again.
8. How to get around Europe
Another one of our tips for backpacking Europe is to plan how you want to get around on your trip. We’ve mentioned before how buses are the cheap way to travel (as they usually are), but they won’t get you across the continent.
The best way to plan your route is to visit nearby countries such as Portugal, Spain and France or Romania, Bulgaria and Croatia.
Here’s a few different ways to get around Europe and be sure to research the areas you want to visit and if there’s any way to save time or money!
Flights – Flying is usually the most expensive way to travel around Europe and the baggage restrictions are getting worse each year. Check your flights on Skyscanner first to compare airlines and then book on the airline’s website directly. Some of Europes budget airlines are Easyjet, Ryanair and Wizz!
Trains – If you’re travelling a lot then a Interrail or Eurail pass is an option, however you can often find affordable prices on the countries local train website. Romania by train is the main way to get around and you can book all tickets online!
Buses – There are many companies offering affordable and reliable bus travel throughout Europe! We’ve explored Europe by day and night buses without a problem, although you might not get much sleep and it could be too hot in the summer time! Check Busbud to compare times and prices!
Car Rentals – Another way to get around Europe is by rental car, this can often be expensive, but rewarding as you get to explore the hidden gems and nature of Europe without worrying about public transport – Find car rentals on DiscoverCars!
Ferries – Some countries such as Greece are so popular that ferries sell out! Book ferries in advance if you have specific dates that you’re travelling.
Extra Backpacking Europe Tips for Students
If you’re still a student, buy an NUS card to get discounts for now and the future! We did this on our first backpacking trip and got an extra three years of student discount after graduating (a graduate money-saving tip).
The NUS card came with a 1 year ISIC (international student card). This card gives you a student discount for a few activities in Europe! We noticed this on a few metro rides, museums and Prague’s Petrin Tower. There are loads of activities listed on the website!
How to book Accommodation in Europe
One of the last backpacking Europe travel tips is how to book accommodation in Europe. Depending on your travel style, there are a few different types of accommodation you can book on your trip!
It may be best to book accommodation in advance to save time and money when you’re backpacking Europe. This will help with the stress of finding somewhere to stay and it’s perfect if you already have your journey planned out.
If you want to be more flexible, hostels may be the best way to travel around Europe, but you may spend more money in the long run! Here’s a few places you can book your accommodation:
🛌 Hostels – One of the cheapest ways to travel Europe is by staying in hostels, you’ll meet lots of like-minded travellers and most likely share a dorm room with them. Find Hostels here!
💤 Hotels – The best place to book hotels is on Booking.com, you’ll find multiple options and you can compare prices! There are a lot of apartments and guesthouses on there too – Find hotels here!
More places to stay in Europe – Trusted Housesitters, Worldpackers, Airbnb, Vrbo and Couchsurfing.
Here’s a few more tips for backpacking Europe:
- Use E-Sims or pick up a local sim in the country
- Use packing cubes when packing your bag for Europe
- Plan your trip in advance, there’s so many blogs and Lonely Planet books to read online
- 🎒Osprey Farpoint 40L Backpack – Get a backpack that’s right for you!
- Bring a Microfibre Towel for hostels, beaches and lakes!
Still need travel insurance? SafetyWing is a flexible monthly-rolling travel insurance to help you stay safe anywhere in the world – Find out more here!
More Europe guides:
- 4 Days in London: Best London Itinerary
- Edinburgh Itinerary: The Best 3 days in Edinburgh
- 2 Day Plovdiv Itinerary: Best Things To Do in Plovdiv
- The Best 1 day Highlands Road Trip from Edinburgh
- 3 Day Athens Itinerary: The Best Things To Do
- Brighton Itinerary: Great Things To Do
- Browse more Europe posts!
We hope these backpacking Europe tips help you plan your future trip and have the best time! Find us on Instagram (@thesunrisedreamers) or leave a comment below!
LIKE THIS POST? PIN IT FOR LATER & SHARE IT WITH OTHERS!
One Comment