As an avid traveler, I too have a goal of visiting a specific number of countries during my lifetime but lets leave that for another day. I love to travel and last month I fulfilled one of dreams and had the opportunity to tour Europe. My destinations were Turkey, Italy, Germany, Netherlands, France and Switzerland in that order. I explored a small circle containing the best and most famous attractions of the world going from eastern Europe towards western Europe.
It was an amazing experience, one that is hard to describe and can only be felt and witnessed. I would like to share part of that experience by describing how I planned and spent my time in the most beautiful and famous cities of Europe. I will be sharing my personal experiences, advice about what to pack, where to stay and the best and cheapest ways to travel, some pictures of course and any other useful tips I can think of. I aim to provide this information for future travelers in a series of posts to follow. I will be writing a blog for each city I visited, so readers can bookmark this page or follow me on Twitter if they would like to stay tuned. I will also be adding links to the complete tour series at the bottom of this post. Most importantly, I will be sharing valuable visa advice specifically for Pakistanis interested in creating their own travel adventures in Europe.
Now, for some basic details about the tour in general. The tour was 17 days days long, starting from 18th December 2014 and ending on 3rd January 2015, during the winter season. The trip cost me PKR 350,000 ($3500) and the breakdown of costs will be included in the series of posts to follow. The cities I visited were Istanbul, Rome, Berlin, Amsterdam, Paris and Zurich. I stayed mostly in 3 star hotels and one famous hostel in Berlin. I traveled using domestic airlines, buses and a high speed train to get from city to city. To conclude, I would like to mention that if anyone has any questions / any specific topic they would like me to address in detail in the following posts, they can simply comment below and I’ll try to answer as well as possible. Stay tuned!
UPDATE:
#EuropeTour Part 1: How to apply for a Schengen Visa
#EuropeTour Part 2: 11 Things You Should Not Forget To Pack
Mohsin Khalid 
Hi mohsin.. i have also applied for single entry visa to italy in this category i can go to other schegen countries and i have to enter and exit from italy port.
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Yes you can visit other countries. Entering from Italy is a must if you got the visa through Italian embassy. For exit you can do it from anywhere in Europe. I entered through Italy and my exit was from Switzerland.
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You mentioned you stayed in hotels through your trip did you consider using Air BnB or hostels? I am in the process of planning my trip and I am just wondering if you found that the hotels were less expensive?
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I did look at AriBnB but I found them mostly a bit more expensive than my hotels were, this was due to the promotional offers I was availing through my travel agent. If you book hotels through a proper travel agency and book them well before time (2 weeks before at the least) then you will find most nice hotels to be cheaper than AirBnB and same as the price of hostels.
I stayed in a hostel in Berlin but that was like the 5 star hotel of hostels, if you plan to travel with a companion then hotels will be cheaper but if you are going solo then hostels will definitely be the cheapest. Whatever you decide to go for please don’t forget to read the reviews!
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Thank you! This was really helpful!
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Bro…i too have a long list of countries to visit inshaAllah 🙂
Man,if you like Islands then checkout mind blowing Greek islands(Santorini,Kos) in Europe.They are just another thing.Also,there is a place called “Big Sur” in California,USA.The view while driving on the coastline is out of this world !
Also, do check out Prague in Czech Republic.Davos in Switzerland and Florence in Italy.
Europe destinations are amazing for their art and architecture.
Also,places in Newzealand like Christchurch are amazing too.
Check out Bora bora too .Its a very small island but i think its a heaven on earth.It is located in the sea of islands around Malaysia.
I haven’t visited the above places but i am a day dreamer and constantly visiting these places on youtube videos and google images.
Loved your post.
Keep smiling and keep traveling.
God bless you 🙂
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Dude definitely all of those places are awesome and worth going to, lets see where my next adventure leads me to. I’d say don’t just explore on the internet, go visit a place. Start with a small, short tour of a near bye destination. Malaysia and Thailand are the best for it, all the best!
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Looking Forward to the series 🙂 …
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