In 2006 my friend and I travelled around Europe visiting Czech Republic, Austria, Italy, Switzerland, France, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands in one month. This book was our Bible!

It gives excellent information on getting there, getting around, suggested routes, how much things cost, staying safe, where to go, when to go there etc. For each city it tells you general information about the place - the language, currency, weather etc, then places to stay, getting around, history of the place. It gives reviews of hostels and tourist attractions, infomation on what extreme sports or alternative attractions are available. It tells you all about the local cuisine, where to eat and how much it is likely to cost. Each city section provides you with a city map.

At that back of the book there is a phrase book for most of the languages used in the countries mentioned, we found this very useful as it's important and part of the backbacking experience to try to speak the language to the locals.

This book was very useful, but it's important for backbackers not to plan their trip from this book to the letter... leave a few days free, as you never know who you might meet whilst travelling, I know on a few occasions we met other travellers who had been somewhere amazing, and as we had left some time free we were able to visit these wonderful places too!