EUROPEANS PLEASE ANSWER! Eurorail?

OK, my boyfriend and I are currently saving up money to just leave here (we are American) and go travel/live around Europe for maybe about a year. I have been looking up stuff here on Y!A and I am getting a bunch of mixed reviews about using Eurorail...people are saying its a great way to see as much as possible of the continent, but others are saying its a waste and trying to see all the countries is setting your expectations too high...what do you guys who actually live there think is best for tourists?



Our plans just to give an idea are:



Leave this darn counrty! lol and just see the sites and live and go with the flow...stay in some places for a month some for a couple of weeks, and overall we want to stay for about 6 months - one year

Any opinions from you lovely Europeans? Also, tourists wise, what is a good $$ amount we should save? We thought about $3,000 would be good...i'm not sure how much that is in Euros so pardon my ignorance there :%26lt;)



Thanks to all who answer and see you guys soon! :%26lt;DEUROPEANS PLEASE ANSWER! Eurorail?
If you want to travel for a long time, Eurail is not going to work out cheap.



First a word of warning, as people with a USA passport (and many others) you will get permission to stay in the Schengen area for 90 days out of each 180 days. That area covers most of continental Europe. The UK and Ireland, and several countries to the east are not part of the Schengen area, but they all do have like rules.



As tourist you can not work, and to get work permits is almost impossible, certainly if you want to travel around too.

Mostly if you want to enter an European country you will get a stamp in your passport, when you leave you get an other one, but if you are moving between the several European countries often, the passport control officer will want to see how much money you have, and if it is less than they expect you will be send home, or back to the country you just left.



A realistic amount of money if you backpack is at least $US 50 per person per day, but the official amount, (and that is what is checked) will be much higher. (That gets you to $US 7500 per person, so 15000 for the two of you, 5 times as much as you expect now. And that is for half a year.)



If you want to travel a long time in Europe you will likely go for the long distance buses, as they are the cheapest option without having to book weeks ahead: http://eurolines.com/

Otherwise, if you want to travel by train, just buy tickets. You are likely to do many short hops, and those work out cheaper when you just buy tickets.



Read in the older questions for more info, there are many of those. We answer a few per day most days, and each of us does it in a different way, and often different each time.EUROPEANS PLEASE ANSWER! Eurorail?
Why is it you people get all these great wet dream ideas and then you don't know how to prepare for what it is you want to do.



FIRST... you BUY a copy of EUROPE BY EURAIL as that is the BIBLE for traveling around Europe by Eurail.



SECOND... you BUY the GUIDE BOOKS for what you plan to do. You can get a nice general one.. FODOR'S EUROPE that gives you an overview of where to go and what to do.. and then get the more specific guide books to fill in the blanks... If you think you can do this for FREE off the INTERNET.. then YOU ARE WRONG.



You can't work in Europe.. but you CAN make money if you think outside the box. Of course, since you didn't think it important to tell us what you can DO, I can't help you there.



I went to Europe for the first time at age 17... I had a one month Youthrail pass, $1000 as a graduation present and my guitar... and stayed on in Europe and Asia and Africa and the U.K. for 3 YEARS busking on the streets and in the subway stations... so if either of you can play a musical instrument, there is that avenue open to you.



You can go to the U.K. for 90 days just on your passport.. you can go to a NON-EU country or continent for 90 days and then come back to EU Europe for 90 days... and so on. With a little movement and a little planning you can stay living in Europe for YEARS as an illegal alien.



OH... something else you can look at is getting a job on a cruise ship. Those are 6 month contracts.. so you work on the ship for 6 months and live in Europe for 6 months and then the boat.. then the Caribbean to live etc. You just have to THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX and have flexable plans.