One Month Around Europe, Solo and on a Budget

I didn't get a visa. I spent about two months in France and used the rest of my time to travel around Europe. Strictly speaking, it was 24 days.

Traveling alone as a woman, with a heavy suitcase and research non-stop...

Planning was quite a struggle, so I hope this helps anyone planning a similar trip!

Why I Decided to Travel Around Europe

I had a vague feeling that it would be a waste to go all the way to Europe, stay only in France without seeing the neighboring countries, and go home. Surely it would be more fun to visit lots of different countries!

Budget-wise, it also saves on transportation compared with going to Europe several times. And I'd always wanted to try traveling alone.

The Route

I traveled in roughly three stages: the Benelux, then down through France, then Portugal and on to London.

With Paris, where I had rented a room, as my starting point, I first toured the Benelux.
Paris → Brussels → Bruges → Amsterdam → Luxembourg

From Luxembourg, I traveled almost the whole length of France.
1. Luxembourg → 2. Strasbourg → 3. Nantes → 4. Tours → 5. Lyon → 6. Avignon → 7. Aix-en-Provence → 8. Marseille → 9. Nice

I picked up the suitcase I'd left in Paris, toured Portugal and London, and then flew home to Tokyo.
Nice → Paris → Lisbon → Porto → London → Tokyo

Once I was actually there, there were many cities where I wished I'd allowed more time, and I felt how hard planning is.
I recommend not fixing your route too rigidly before you leave. Keep some slack in the schedule so you can move flexibly.

Personally, I think Belgium, the Netherlands, Strasbourg (or really, Alsace) and Portugal each need at least three nights.
For London, if you want to visit regional cities too, you may want a week.

How to Plan a Europe Tour

This was actually my second time touring Europe.
That said, the first time I only visited three countries, so although I had a general picture, planning was still very hard.

Here is roughly how I decided things.

• Get information from friends who love to travel
  I heard things like "Belgium is great! The waffles are delicious!" and "Portugal is the best! It's cheap and the streets are adorable!" and used them to make a rough list of destinations.

• Dig deeper into the places that interest you
  I got sightseeing information for each destination online from sites like All About and TripAdvisor.

  I only took guidebooks for Paris and London, but if I had planned while still in Japan, I think it would have been faster to use guidebooks.

  Books pull information together better than the internet and make it easier to understand what a country is like.

• Settle the route based on where the cities and countries are
  The order of cities is also affected by the weather and the sights. For example, the Netherlands is associated with spring and tulips. If you absolutely want to see tulips, information about when they start blooming matters.

  Transportation costs vary with route and season, and you may have to rethink the route because of sights that require online reservations or hard-to-book Michelin three-star restaurants.

  The more you research, the more places you want to go, so I think it's best to set priorities once you've researched a certain amount.

Check Transportation, Hotels and More

Between destinations I used low-cost airlines, national trains such as SNCF, budget buses and BlaBlaCar.
In some regions, the countryside is served only by buses.
Moving to such places limits your schedule, so once the route is set, use an app or similar to check that you can really travel that way and that the transportation actually exists.

You can book hotels after you arrive, but traveling while constantly searching for routes and hotels is mentally tiring, so I don't recommend it. For one thing, you can't enjoy the trip (sob). If cancellation is free, reserving hotels in advance is one option.

After Finishing the Europe Tour

The first thing I thought when the trip ended was "I'm exhausted!" (lol) But it was truly fun.
Absorbing so many things at once taught me the following.

I understood how backpackers feel
The heavy luggage was just stress.
My bags were stuffed with study materials and winter clothes I had to bring because of the season, so I put those in the suitcase and left it at a friend's place in Paris.

After a good part of the trip, I picked it up before going to Portugal, and that was absolutely the right call.
I traveled with a backpack holding the bare minimum: two or three days of clothes and underwear, toiletries and medicine. Even a few kilograms feels exhausting when you carry them all day.

Considering you may have to run in an emergency, a backpack really does make sense.

That said, if you're studying in Europe, you'll still need a suitcase.

If you plan to buy a new suitcase, I highly recommend getting a light one.

I recommend brands like Rimowa, Samsonite and Ciffre.

Europe is twice as fun when you understand its history and culture
I visited many cities in France, but toward the end I got a little bored.
Churches, medieval buildings, trams... similar scenery.

But if you look closely, each one has its own character.

Even if you spend time and money to come, it's a waste if you can't find the highlights.
The cities whose history and culture I researched well were the most fun, so next time I want to spend more time on advance research.

Take it slow! Homestays and Airbnb are recommended too
Moving between cities after only one or two days is really tiring (lol).

I made this route because I'm so stingy with my time that I wanted to see as many cities as possible, but it was a pretty tough schedule.

And even after arriving in a city, I wanted to do A and B and so on, with things I wanted to do overflowing.

In the second half of the trip, I tried not to pack too much in and to act on my priorities.
It's also nice to take your time. For a big city, I think even two weeks is fine.

A long stay at an Airbnb or a homestay is recommended, too. You really get to feel like you live there.