I traveled to 14 countries in 7 weeks and have no regrets about my tight schedule. Here is my breakdown of how and why it worked for me.
This sort of trip is most certainly not what most people recommend. Trust me, I spent days scouring reddit in preparation for my trip and I couldn’t find a single opinion that recommended this, but I did find several people who were thinking of planning something of this style.
Of course in 7 weeks, there is no way for me to have visited every single part of every country, but I do feel like I got an immersive experience. There aren’t many cities that I wish I had spent longer, but there are so many more places that I wish I could’ve squeezed in.
I can’t recommend this “rushed trip” to just everyone and I know that it isn’t necessarily realistic for all travel styles. The key for me? Solo Travel. Or just a really good travel partner that gets you.
I travelled growing up, and those trips most certainly could not have been done on the same timeline that I had a few months ago. The key points for me where:
1. having a tight budget
This limited my options when it came to excursions, as I was mostly searching for some of the free experiences, which aren’t usually full day tours. This meant that I was able to fit in so much more in a shorter period of time. I didn’t do guided tours because I just found that I could visit faster and still read the signs/ ask chatgpt to act a tour guide for me (we’ll come back to my use of AI in trip planning later). I will say, moving around a lot does not help with budget, as I had to pay for both accommodation and transit more often.
2. easy transportation
I traveled through Europe, starting in Portugal and making my way across to the Balkans, where I visited former Yugoslavia. While transportation through the Balkans wasn’t entirely straight forward (I’ll have an entire post dedicated to that), it was still much easier than trying to get around North America on a budget and a tight schedule. So you just have to be realistic about where you are going. You don’t want to spending allllll your time traveling. Although the buses definitely became part of the experience.
3. last minute planning and availability
Now this may seem a bit counterintuitive. If I have a tight schedule, should I not plan it all out ahead of time to make sure it all works? Sure, but having flexibility is so much better. It goes both ways: there were some cities that I thought needed an extra day, or maybe I met someone that recommended a place that wasn’t on my radar. But there are also some places that I overestimated. I penciled in more days, especially for the larger cities, but then I realized that I could see most things I was interested in quite quickly. Regular 2 day itineraries could be completed in a day because I was so down to walk a lot. And walk a lot I did.
4. be prepared for some long days
Here’s the thing. I did get bored. I did have a lot of down time (in my opinion). But I also walked at least 20,000 steps a day, averaging much closer to 30,000 steps a day. So yeah. This isn’t for everyone.
5. traveling solo/with one person
I spent the majority of my trip traveling solo. I spent a few days with family, which where intentional days for me to visit people, and not cram in a whole lot of sightseeing. Of course these days were slower, but it also reminded me how much harder it is to coordinate lots of people. I went to Croatia with a friend, and we were still able to fit so much in each day, but we also agreed on early starts and had very similar priorities with each activity. In my solo travel, I met quite a few people, but I did a lot of the visiting alone as I just found that I was able to see what I wanted, and so much quicker. I would then do all my socializing in the evenings. I can guarantee that this is not for everyone. And while I don’t regret many parts of my trip (if any), I do wish I could have spent longer making relationships with people. But at the same time, that’s one of the challenges of hostel hopping. Even if I had spent more time in one place, there’s no guarantee that it would line up with people I’ve met.
6. efficient travel
The route matters. Before leaving, I had a sense of where I wanted to go but I truly didn’t plan much in advance. I used chatgpt to help me plan the most efficient route between each country, but chatgpt doesn’t know everything when it comes to buses around the balkans. There was only one time that I had to backtrack, and that’s because I so desperately wanted to make it to Sarajevo, Bosnia. I would’ve loved to go to Mostar, but it just wasn’t realistic and that’s a hard truth that I had to face in my travels. While I had built in some flex days, you just can’t do it all.
