hey kate,

What school are you graduting from? with what degree?
if you want my professional / honest advice, stay in the US for the summer. If budgetting is a concern, you will not be doing yourself any favors by travelling in Europe during the peak tourist season.

Use your summer to get a job bartending or waiting tables Better yet, get a job bartending NOW, so you have some experience. These are great money makers: i put myself through undergrad thanks to the food service industry. Use your summer to see friends of yours and maybe convince someone to be your travel companion. Throw your self a graduation party and invite relative from high and low (also a good money maker). If you work at night, find odd day jobs : dog walking, landscaping, opening a lemonade stand on a busy road.

Student loan repayments usually kick in 6 months after graduation, typically November. Try to wrangle enough money from your summer jobs to pay for you r trip and set 3 months of loan repayment money aside (actually give this to your parents, and see if they’ll make the payments for you while you are gone.

Prepare yourself to travel in October!! Purchanse your plane ticket and traveller’s insurance in late April or early May for the best rates. In June or July plan out your definite must see cities, and your possibly-maybe cities and purchase your Eurail Global Pass. Purchase your accommodation in September.

If this is something you really want, you can make this happen (and i can help :)

Start thinking about WHAT you want to get out of this journey. I sugest a balance of structure and spontaneity. Maybe some backpacking, some organization of hostels, maybe take a language class in spain and soak in the culture, ride a bike through southern france, and teach english in greece???

please do not hesitate to email me if you have any thoughts, ideas, questions, etc. We have plenty of time to accomplish this if we start the planning now :)

YAY!
Farah

hvn@statravel.com
(facebook: farah f)