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Have you decided that traveling is something that you really want to do? Are you ready to deal with the headaches of arranging transportation, pouring rain, full hostels, sunburn, getting lost and having things stolen?
Yes? Then you're ready for the experience of a lifetime.
These pages are a pretty good overview of my experiences. Everyone will have different opinions on many things, but you'll find that a lot of the sites contain much of the same information. I traveled in the UK and Europe, so that's where I'm going to focus on. Much of the information would be the same for other countries, such as money information, legal stuff, hostels, etc. Many of the links that I provide have information about other countries.
Don't know where you want to go? Deciding on a continent first
is helpful. I'd suggest searching around the web first. After
you know generally where you want to go, you can decide what cities or
countries you really want to see and which things you'd like to
see. Yahoo has a lot of information
on different place, and so does Rough Guides in their destinations
section. You just may run out of time or money. One of the
most important things about traveling is taking things as they come.
Stressing out about everything is a great way to ruin the experience.
You want to be able to enjoy it, and even the best laid plans will
go wrong. You may decide after you get to a place that you really
don't like it, or that you've seen everything that you wanted to on the
first day. Don't stay just because you planned on spending four days
there! Similarly, if you are really enjoying a place, stay longer.
I met several people in Prague who had planned on staying a week, and some
of them had already been there eight months. Same with Amsterdam.
You just might get sucked in. 
Don't try to see the world in two weeks. I met two girls in Amsterdam who had seen all of the countries that I had -- they did it in two weeks, and I did it in two months. They had taken four night trains in a row, spending a day in a different country for four days. They were so exhausted that they couldn't enjoy any of it. It'll be there when you come back!!
One thing to consider is if you are going to travel with a group, with someone else or alone. I traveled alone, and personally, I wouldn't have changed it for anything. I was never alone -- I always met people on the train or in the hostels. I met a Japanese girl, Mihaeng, who I clicked with, and we ended up traveling together for three weeks. We also met two girls from the Philippines, Lynn & Marye, who we went to Paris with, and I met many other people who I traveled with for a few days. I'm a 110 lb. 21-year-old female -- needless to say, my parents were not thrilled about me traveling alone. Nothing bad happened, and I'm even more independent than I was before. Group travel is much harder to arrange. Everyone always wants to do something different and some people will get upset if everyone doesn't do every little thing together. I traveled to Dublin for St. Patrick's day and to Scotland for a week with a group of other Americans who were exchange students, and I discovered that even on those short trips, I would rather travel alone.
The
first thing that you need is a really good guidebook. It'll have
everything you need to know in it. You'll discover destinations,
methods of transportation and cost, accommodations, restaurants, maps and
travel tips. It will have currency exchange rates, passport and visa
information and a few phrases of the local language. This will be
your bible. I think that the Let's
Go series is the best for the student traveler. It's written
by Harvard students for other college students. It's also the only
guidebook that is updated every year. Other books include Lonely
Planet and Rough Guides.
They're available at any bookstore, from the web site or online at stores
such as Amazon or Barnes
and Noble. If you've never bought a guidebook, you might want
to go to the bookstore and look at the book before buying one.
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I start? - Money
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