As I settle back into my little flat in London, I have taken the time to reflect on my fall break and the experiences I have had. I was lucky enough to visit a bunch of places in Italy and Spain. Here are a few tips I have learned while traveling around for Europe for my first time.
1. Travel with a good group of people. I traveled with my roommates and a bunch of friends I have made on the trip so far, and being around good company made the trip easy and memorable. However, once we got to Spain the group of friends we were traveling with was a little large. No one expected it to be difficult traveling with a larger group, but when everyone wants to do different things the group is bound to get split up. Traveling in groups of people that can stay together or always remembering to stay with a friend or two when a group splits up is very important while being in a new place.
2. Research research research the place you will be staying in. While we had a great experience at the first airbnb and hostel in Italy, we did not do as much research for the hostel we stayed in in Spain and it ended up being pretty rough. The area was great but the hostel itself was noisy and unclean, and there was no common room so when you arrived at the hostel you had to go right into your bed. It was hard to get a good sleep there for the 4 nights we stayed there which made us pretty tired during the day. Although it could have been a lot worse, looking back on it I definitely would have done a lot more research to make sure the place we stayed in was as awesome as the other two.
3. Be realistic about your travel plans. If you are traveling for the entire fall break like I did, you have to keep in mind how exhausting it will be to jump around from place to place for 10 days. If I knew how tired I would be having fully booked days every day, I would have given myself a few break days to recover so that I could enjoy the rest of the break.
Those were the 3 most important things I learned while on fall break. Although it had some difficulties, overall traveling around Europe for the first time was an unbelievable experience. I saw so many amazing places and I would do anything to be able to have that time again.
