No.

Unless you're packing up and going from one home/hostel to another, don't carry it outside. Leave it where you're staying instead of taking it with you to the museum or out for dinner and drinks. Too easy to get it stolen.

As a matter of fact, my general rule of thumb is to only carry what you need when going out. No need to carry four credit cards and a debit card with you if you're only going to use one.

Passports, home keys etc should be locked into the hotel/hostel safe when you go out, assuming they have one (most hotels rooms have safes these days).

This is Europe remember, we are dangerous lefties intent in stealing your wealth.

I keep my passport locked in my backpack when I'm walking around. Only thing I keep accessable on my person is my phone, a bit of cash, and one of my cards in my front pockets. Everything else goes locked in the pack either on my back or in the locker/hotel room.

My passport stays on my person or within easy reach at all times. The only exception is when I have to leave it at an embassy for a visa.

Yes, pickpockets exist, but I trust my vigilance over some lol hotel safe. It's also a requirement in some countries to have your passport on you at all times.

I also keep a copy in my wallet, and another two copies in my backpack. Depending on where you are, a copy (pref notarized) is just as good as the original for most uses.

My experience over there is from ~2003, but I hated Paris (super expensive, unfriendly, etc), didn't like Berlin (just way too big geographically, so much travel time to get anywhere), and thought Prague was the tops... until I went to Budapest. Budapest was my favorite. Madrid was OK, I just wasn't there long enough to get used to the weirdo hours everyone keeps. Overall much preferred Eastern Europe to Western and would love to do Tallinn, Poland, Slovakia, etc someday.

Yeah, the hostel staff in Prague stole my passport from my room. As it was 2003, it was the height of the Iraq war, and the US embassy in Prague was closed due to bomb threats. Since I couldn't get a replacement until the embassy opened, I ran out of cash and had no idea what the PIN was for my emergency credit card's cash advance option. Also ran out of clean clothes, ldo. Good times!

Where did you try to go? While Berlin is a huge city (Spandau in the West to Köpenick in the East is a 30 mile drive), almost all the tourist stuff like sightseeing, museums, restaurants and nightlife is located in the relatively small and adjacent area of Mitte, Prenzlauer Berg and Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg and small parts of Charlottenburg/Neukölln/Tempelhof. That’s probably less than 10% of the total city area with most things conveniently accessible via S-Bahn which is way faster than bus, subway or Tram.

I backpacked Europe in 2011 so the pick pocket issue was still back then but I had no issue with putting my passport in the front pocket of my jeans.

Hey, I've backpacked through Europe a few times in my 20s for a total of maybe 6 months.

1) I've done it both ways. It is a personal preference, but I would advise seat of your pants. You're out of high season so things shouldn't be crazy busy.

2) Meeting people is not a problem at all, just stay in hostels. Some hostels are more social than others, just read the reviews etc on Hostelworld or Hostelbookers to get a feel for them. The culture in hostels is that you are generally welcome to just walk up to people chatting at tables or whatever and ask if you can join them.

3) I've actually been to all the places you mention, although Copenhagen I was only in for a day and barely saw any of it, so I won't comment. It seemed nice. Reykjavik, Stockholm, Krakow and Paris are all great. Budapest and Salzburg good. Tallinn OK. I didn't love Prague - it was OK - but a lot of people do love it. Wouldn't bother with Helsinki personally.

Other places, confining myself to the east/center: Berlin is one of the best cities in Europe. Vienna is nice, not unmissable, but pretty cool, just a nice city with a lot of grand architecture and English widely spoken. If I were you I would cut loose Helsinki and Tallinn and go south from Copenhagen to Berlin instead, heading to Prague or Krakow from there.

While I agree with thread recommendations to use trains, you do want to be careful in the East. At least when I was there (which is like 10 years ago now) the travel time from e.g. Krakow to Prague was surprisingly long, the trains are not all high-speed like in the West.

Definitely go check out Auschwitz when in Krakow, it's a very moving experience.

Funny how Paris is so polarizing. I've been there 3 times and always found everyone really polite and helpful. You do have to make a bit more of an effort, ask people in French if they speak English, don't just start talking at them. Possibly Americans get a more hostile reception than Aussies, idk.

Yeah, this sums up how I felt about Prague.

I found that doing that was very helpful. When in Italy and France, I tried to speak the language whenever possible. I made an effort to learn a few basic words just to at least say I tried when talking to people. When you try their language and fail, sometimes they respond by trying to speak English.

When I first got to Paris, my AirBnB hosts weren't at the flat. I ordered a beer at the place across from them and despite only knowing a few French words, was able to enjoy a friendly though stilted conversation. I'm sure if I just approached them speaking only English, I would've been kicked to the side and complained on 2p2 about how mean French people are.

The only time I ran into an unfriendly person in my 2 1/2 weeks in France was when I went to pay for breakfast with a bank card only for them to have a minimum purchase amount. I pointed out that there was no sign stating that and when I offered to get the money at an ATM and come back, they threw a fit. Eventually, they used the card and off I went. Even then, it wasn't that bad. I've had far more animosity in America and I'm from there.

Since when does "backpacking" mean taking public transportation and staying in hotels / hostels? That's just travelling light. Backpacking is hiking through the countryside carrying everything you need with you, including shelter and food (or the means to get it.)

You are aware that words have different meanings depending on context, right? Not only that but sometimes new meanings are created for currently existing words! Even crazier is that sometimes entirely new words are created.

Languages are amazing, aren't they?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backpacking_(travel)

Easy as that.

I took a night train trough Italy to Rome about ten years ago. I was awoken in the middle of the night by one of my bunkmates confronting an unknown guy in our 4 bunk room. If he hadn't woken up someone's valuables would have been missing in the morning. It was one of the more shady experiences i had while backpacking through europe.

Other than that experience, train travel through western Europe was safe, convenient and efficient. One of the best advantages to trains is that stations are usually right on the middle of the cities and boarding is easy. Time saved by flying is wasted by having to get to and from the airports and going through security.

Yeah. It's a proud culture - which is fair enough - and they appreciate the effort.

My experiences in Paris included a little old lady beetling up to me while I was looking at a map near the Eiffel Tower and asking me in English if I would like some help. Also a lady who owned a bistro doing charades to explain menu items to me and my girlfriend (this was before roaming mobile internet was feasible). Her mime for "toast soldiers" (which apparently translates) was memorable. People overall were nothing but cool.

On the pickpockets issue, I'm more with chopstick. I keep passport with me at all times, in a place that is really hard to pickpocket.

For your backpack, check out travel locks if you don't already have them. Just a little padlock that goes through the zipper handles. Gives me a little peace of mind that somebody can't just unzip & reach in.

I have these.

https://tarriss.com/products/tsa-lug...chalert-2-pack

We have a winner for worst post of the thread and possibly a contender for worst post of the year.

Surprised no one mentioned the straps with pockets for your passport etc for under your clothes. I would definitely go for keep valuables on me at all times instead of leaving them in the hostel.

I always thought they looked ridiculous, but I would certainly consider something like that for overnight train rides in eastern/southern Europe.

The most important thing is to not carry the passport in your wallet. Unlike in lots of African countries where you can almost instantly monetize a US or EU passport, there’s no easily accessible market for that in Europe. While terrorists probably would love to get their hands on an US passport, the average Italian pickpocket doesn’t know any 09/11 guys and therefore discards it with all other evidence in the nearest trash can.

I actually mean the ones you wear underneath your clothes. I dislike the ones that are visible like the neck pouches and whatever.

My opinion is the destination list needs work. Unless you need to see a lot of parliament buildings and national museums then the capital cities are in some ways the least authentic and interesting parts.

Consider some of the following:
https://www.smartertravel.com/10-eur...iscovered-yet/

I honeymooned in Korcula (no 8), took a different girl to Kotor (no 5) and live in Kosice (number 9 on that list) which is 3 hours by train from Budapest. PM a bit in advance if you are going to be in town.

Yes, and you ask them what they liked about it and based on their answer (beer, picturesque quiet backstreets of the old town, the women) you realise they would have been better served by going pretty much anywhere else in the former ČSSR.

From the above
Another criticism is that even though one of the primary aims of backpacking is to seek the "authentic," the majority of backpackers spend most of their time interacting with other backpackers, and interactions with locals are of "secondary importance."[5]

This is the danger with staying at the same hostels in the same cities as everyone else. If you are coming all the way from America then most of the other travellers will be from other parts of Europe though so from a certain point of view they are "local" at least to the continent.

No, no, no, not the beer.

**** wearing that thing. Choose a decent hotel with a room safe in a non-dodgy part of town. This is Europe, not Lagos.

I will say the most fun I had on my trip was at the small town in Slovakia we stayed at for the wedding.

About 2hrs North-East of Bratislava.

Everyone there was nice and friendly, a few people asked us why we were there, because it was the first time they’d seen that many English speaking people come at once.