Our First Big Trip: What a Month Across Europe Taught Us About Travel
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In 2015, my husband and I decided our first trip together (just the two of us) would be a 30-day trip across 8 European cities.
We had just entered our 20s, and I joke now that we were just naive enough to make it work because we didn’t yet understand (or care) how much energy, planning, and emotional bandwidth this kind of trip actually requires.
With a total spend of around $10,000 CAD, our itinerary was:
- Italy
- Rome: 5 days
- Florence: 6 days
- Pisa: 1 day
- Venice: 5 days
- Switzerland
- Gryon: 3 days
- France:
- Paris: 6 days
- Belgium
- Brugge: 2 days
- The Netherlands
- Leiden: 2 days
We did a lot.
We learned a lot.
We had a magical time.
But it’s also not a trip we would choose today.
Our “See Everything” Phase
On this trip, we felt pressure to do all the things, because how could we come home from Paris without getting up close to the Eiffel Tower?
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Seeing the Colosseum, the Vatican, the Tower of Pisa, the Louvre, and more was incredible, but the pace was relentless.
These places are tourist attractions for a reason, and the experiences themselves were magical.
At the same time, we learned quickly how overwhelming massive landmarks and museums can be.
The Vatican and the Louvre, in particular, taught us the value of guided tours.
We had a tour guide for the Vatican but not the Louvre, and the difference was clear: having someone to focus your attention on key pieces made the experience far more enjoyable for a first-time visit.
We noticed how differently landmarks are experienced, too.
The Eiffel Tower is massive and can be admired from many viewpoints (climbing L’Arc de Triomphe was my favourite), while the Tower of Pisa is much smaller and really requires getting close to appreciate it.
Getting close to the Eiffel Tower, on the other hand, mostly meant getting hassled by scammers.
Some experiences were unforgettable but physically demanding.
Going inside the Colosseum was incredible, but pairing it with the Roman Forum in 38-degree heat nearly caused us to collapse from dehydration.
What we didn’t yet know was how to slow down and take care of ourselves without feeling like we were wasting time or missing out.
What We Got Wrong About Food
One of the biggest lessons we learned on this trip was the importance of properly feeding ourselves.
We didn’t intentionally skip meals to save money; it just happened.
Between the heat, stress, excitement, and constant movement, we weren’t prioritizing sitting down for proper meals.
We did load up on snacks and other treats, which kept us going, but weren't the actual fuel we needed.
When we did sit down for meals, the food was great, but we skipped far too many.
Now, food is one of the first things we think about when we travel, especially since my husband is a celiac.
While Google Maps wasn’t as embedded in our lives in 2015 as it is now, today he downloads offline maps and pins gluten-free restaurants in advance so we always have nearby options.
As cool as it is to stumble upon great gluten-free food in Europe (which does happen more than you might think), it’s far better to go in with some pre-planning.
Saving and Tracking Our Money
My husband and I are frugal by nature, but at the time, we didn’t know what our spending habits would look like while traveling and needed to stay within our budget.
Once everything was booked, we calculated a daily budget and tracked every expense by keeping receipts and noting our spending each night in a notebook.
We don’t track quite that closely anymore, but we still create a tracking sheet before a trip to establish a daily budget and review our spending afterward.
These days, we know our habits well and know we’re rarely going over $200 CAD a day, which adds up quickly on travel days.
What we know for sure is that once you’re on the trip is not the time to be saving money, especially not by skipping meals.
For this trip, most of our savings came from booking flights early and booking rooms (not full spaces) on Airbnb.
In Florence, we stayed in an attic for $37 CAD a night, where our host served us gluten-free crepes and cappuccinos on the balcony every morning.
A magical time when an Airbnb stay actually included breakfast.
Other accommodations were less exciting, but we were grateful to avoid any negative experiences.
We also saved by asking for travel gear as birthday gifts, staying with a family friend in Paris who generously fed us three meals a day (resulting in one no-spend day), and avoiding mobile data entirely.
In 2015, hosts provided written directions, which I printed out and stored in my bag for navigating to every accommodation.
We planned routes before leaving each morning, navigated with physical maps (which seems wild to me now), and relied on café WiFi if we ran into trouble.
Today, we use offline maps and only turn on data if absolutely necessary.
More recently, learning about the FIRE movement prompted me to reevaluate how our standards had shifted with our accommodations.
While we don't want to just book a room anymore, views were becoming commonplace with our bookings, which are definitely not required for sleeping.
That realization alone saved us $500 CAD on our recent trip to London and Oxford before we even left.
Now, we travel with a daily budget in mind, knowing we’ll spend money on meaningful experiences, and accepting that not everything will be worth what we paid.
The more we travel, the more we learn what is and is not worth the money to us, but to learn that you kind of have to accept you will "waste" some money along the way.
Learning What “Too Much” Feels Like
This trip taught us what it feels like to overextend ourselves.
There were travel days that were long and moments where we were overwhelmed.
We learned that constant travel between cities in one trip is draining.
Five days feels like the minimum amount of time to experience a place without draining ourselves completely.
We also learned that big cities can be overwhelming in both small and large doses.
Most importantly, we learned how to communicate if one of us is overwhelmed and just take a moment to step aside wherever we are and regroup.
The Places That Felt Effortless
The cities we remember most fondly weren’t the ones where we did the most; they were the places where we felt allowed to slow down.
Venice stands out because we did exactly that.
We wandered without urgency, took in the views, sat by the water, and returned to the same restaurant multiple times because if the food is really good, why not?
The one experience that we pre-planned was a gondola ride under the Bridge of Sighs.
My husband scheduled it for early in the morning at the beginning of our stay, with buffer days built in just in case something went wrong with planning.
It went perfectly.
That experience taught us the value of intentionally planning what truly matters, spending the money to experience it fully, and leaving space to simply explore.
Being present allowed us to stumble upon a live theatre performance we hadn’t planned for, a reminder of how deeply we bond over theatre and something we now seek out whenever we travel.
Switzerland felt effortless in a different way, with Gryon being so small and incredibly scenic.
Even with transit issues keeping us close to our Airbnb during our stay, the views were seen from everywhere.
Slowing down and staying longer than felt “efficient” when taking in the views made the experience richer.
Brugge and Leiden surprised us most of all.
With fewer must-see attractions, we felt allowed to take our time exploring, and their smaller scale meant we felt we truly explored the cities entirely, even with our short stays.
Pride Without Romanticizing the Exhaustion
This trip cost us about $10,000 CAD, and we don’t regret it for a second.
It was ambitious and intense, but we don’t romanticize the exhaustion anymore.
We were young, capable of pushing ourselves hard, and in a season of life where a month away felt easy to say yes to.
This first trip laid the foundation for how we travel now.
Tourist attractions are still on our lists (we are tourists, after all), but we know what truly matters to us: viewpoints, long wandering walks, sitting somewhere beautiful longer than feels efficient, returning to places we love, and letting one meaningful plan shape the rest of the day.
Just as importantly, we’ve learned what to avoid: packing every day with major experiences, treating rest as optional, skipping meals, and moving accommodations too frequently.
This month across Europe was our “everything” phase.
Every trip since has been about adapting and continuing to learn what works best for us.
Stay tuned for a reflection on our most recent trip to London and Oxford.
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