Hi, we’re Cris and Richard. Or Crichard for short.
We’re a Canadian couple in our 40’s who are going to be backpacking* across Europe for 2 months. This blog, along with our Instagram, was created to share our adventures. If you like travel and adventure, or want to see some of Europe, you’ve come to the right place!
We’re not “backpacking” in the hostel & tent kind of sense. We will actually be carrying two backpacks each, which can be stowed, so we will be living out of a backpack. That part is true. But we’ll be staying at AirBNB’s and (a minimal amount of) hotels. At our age we’ve grown to value our personal space and our backs. 🙂
This trip will represent a few (big) firsts for us. To start, it’s by far the longest trip either of us have taken. That’s both exciting and terrifying at the same time.
Then, we’ve decided to pack as minimally as possible. Limited to what we can carry-on in a RyanAir flight. They seem to have the highest restrictions on size and weight, so if we follow those, we’ll be good to carry-on every flight. Normally we travel fairly heavy (3 pieces of luggage for 2 weeks kind of deal), so this will be a change to reduce it to a backpack and a daybag.
While this is scary, it will save us a ton of money, time and headache:
- Checking luggage on a European flight dramatically increases the cost, so you can save a lot on your travel.
- It saves you time in the airport by not having to go through customs, bag checks, writing out the info card for your bag, etc.
- Your stuff is with you at all times. You don’t have to worry if your luggage will make it or if something will get lifted by a customs officer with sticky fingers.
- No more hoping your bags make it with you, or waiting at the carousel while that one blue bag goes by the 14th time. We just get off the plane and go.
- Not to mention, your bones will thank you for it after not having to lug 75lb of luggage on crappy little wheels up an uneven cobblestone hill…
We will save a shitload of money on travel. And time. We can wiz through airports by avoiding customs, bag checks, etc. And risk. Everything we have does not leave our side. To lose our luggage, well… Hurley? Is that You?
Some of you might be considering doing this yourselves, so maybe our experiences will help you. If/where possible, we’ll be sure to share some feedback on the advice we followed and other personal learnings along the way.
Our goal is to get a much more local experience than we usually do on shorter / whirlwind-weekend style trips. For example, we’re choosing AirBNB’s that have kitchenettes and washers. Packing light means we need to do laundry, and whether there’s a washer or we need to pop something in the sink, that’s going to be how we get around. We’re also trying to be budget conscious, especially in places like London & Paris. Eating out all the time will add up to a lot of money. So we want to hit the local market, get some actual groceries, and cook some of our own meals. We may just eat in some nights to get a feeling of what it’s like to be a “normal” person living there. Who knows, we might have some great balcony views waiting for us!
The locations we’re choosing for our accommodations are also very near the action. Almost always in the “old town” section in any city that has one (this is relevant in Poland in particular, we’re spending an entire month there.)