It’s I’ve learned a lot about booking hostels, navigating new cities, making friends, and packing. I’m happy to say that I’m a much better traveller than I was one year ago today. My travel knowledge has come from a lot of trial and error, a lot of great information from fellow travellers and friends, and most of all, a lot of awesome resources. I’m very Type A and a planner by nature, and I love nothing more than falling down rabbit holes on the internet while researching various things. My Google Docs spreadsheet for Europe had no less than eleven different sheets!
I wanted to share some of my favourite websites and articles to inspire you and help you plan an adventure of your own.
Inspiration For Your Trip
Almost Fearless:
- So You’ve Graduated From College, Now What?
- 8 Things I Wish I Knew When I Was 22
- It’s That Time of Year Again
Adventurous Kate:
General Travel Tips
Legal Nomads: World Travel Resources – an incredibly helpful, very comprehensive guide to world travel.
Rick Steves: His travel tips section is full of great, very useful information.
Yes and Yes: There are tons of awesome posts in her travel category including 18 super-helpful travel tips.
The Savvy Backpacker: Lots of great articles and resources for planning a budget backpacking trip.
Nomadic Matt: How to Legally Stay in Europe for More Than 90 Days (a very helpful article about visas and permitted lengths of stay).
Packing for Europe & Travelling Light
One Bag: The absolute ultimate light packing guide. It has tips on why packing light is a smart choice, a universal light packing list with detailed, and in-depth explanations of why each item on the list is helpful or important. I lost hours to this website.
One Bag One World: Forums and tips on travelling light. I love the old website, but the new one is good too. You can find the new one here.
Her Packing List: Awesome packing lists, backpack and product reviews and resources.
PB Fingers: What To Pack To Europe (aimed at women, for summer travel)
Rick Steves: A light packing list and tips on packing smart and travelling light.
Never Ending Voyage: How to travel long-term with carry-on luggage, and their complete, updated packing list.
Favourites
Ulmon Apps: The ultimate travel app for most major cities. It lets you navigate in real time even without an internet connection, lists all major attractions within the app and sometimes even has integration with the local subway system so you can see which metro stop to get off at for wherever you’re going. I absolutely adore these apps and they are my #1 recommended travel tip. Plus, somehow they’re free.
Hostel World: I love this website and never used anything else to read reviews of hostels and book my accomodations.
Blogsy: A blogging app for iPad, perfect for blogging while travelling.
Oanda Currency: An awesome currency converter app that you can use even when you have no internet connection.
Solo Travel
Twenty-Something Travel: The Introvert’s Guide to Travel, and a good reason to travel solo.
Refinery 29: I Travel to Feel Lonely…On Purpose – a really great, fresh perspective on solo travel.
Legal Nomads: The Solo Female Travel Experience, and the same topic, revisited with helpful tips.
Fluent in 3 Months: Is Long-Term Solo Travel Lonely?
A Little Adrift: Yes, Sometimes Travel Is Lonely.
The Ramble: Awesome advice if you’re worried about getting lonely while travelling.
European Destinations
Italy:
- Love Taza: Lots of beautiful photos and a few recommendations for various Italian cities
- The Fresh Exchange: Cinque Terre here and here
Paris:
Croatia: 15 Things To Do in Dubrovnik
***
Taking myself on a trip through Europe is one of the best things I’ve ever done. I was able to see some of the most beautiful places in the world, meet some awesome people, and most of all gain lots of confidence for both travelling and living the life I want to live. I’d recommend it to anyone. You don’t need a travel partner, you don’t need to be ready, everything is figureoutable, you can do this. It’s almost a year later but the experiences I had on my trip are still giving back to me in ways I never could have predicted.
This is a very incomplete list of resources, of course. I’ll try to add more as I remember them or as questions come up. If you have any specific questions about my trip, check out my FAQs, my posts on tips for travelling through Europe and for doing it solo, or send me an email at stephanie @ lifeinlimbo.org.
Thanks for reading. Good luck and have fun on your trip!
