>>2867092
Britbong here, thanks for making me disconnect my VPN, your post is that infuriating. Basically great itinerary if your intent is to be bored out of your fucking skull.

Ancestry means jack shit, if there's anything interesting you'll learn its that the UK and the USA are far different, more than you initially think from a surface level. Tower of London and London Eye are both overpriced, the latter has queues but by all means try. Tower of London is managed by Historic Royal Palaces and its worth mentioning that their annual membership fee is £60. Given the castles are expensive if you're going to multiple I would consider just getting a year's membership though you may want to do some research into the topic. Natural History Museum is great, allow half a day and make sure to book in advance. I strongly recommend the free Hunterian Museum if you have any interest in biology. Its part of the Royal College of Surgeons and features all kinds of preserved dissections, that and the Post Office Museum are to me the best in London although the latter is likely going to be less interesting to someone who hasn't grown up with the Post Office as a part of their life.

You say Nottingham... have you made this type of thread before? There was another anon who a few months back either had a friend there or was curious about visiting. I'll tell you now you'll struggle to fill in the day. Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem looked like a tourist pub to me but could be good, in daytime there's very little to do there. Some of the neighbouring areas have some good countryside locations but again, you will be stuck for things to do if you go there... and for nightlife yeah London's expensive but you've got endless variety.

Also it funny you say Amsterdam has a pretty bad reputation with drugs and prostitution - try Soho. Its much seedier.

The Netherlands ironically to me is one of my least favourite places because indeed it is very similar to the UK... but its not on a budget!

>>2867092
>>2867126
Worth noting with the Netherlands, given the density of the country going from place-to-place is very fast and it always surprises me when going from one part of the Low Countries to another, being used to towns having at least some kind of significant distance between them.

Amsterdam is interesting in that it feels like an intersection somewhere between London and NYC. Though of course it doesn't have many tall buildings. The canals are good and the tall townhouses a treat to the eyes. Otherwise I'm not big on the city, it IS expensive to do pretty much anything there. Keep in mind Amsterdam is very popular as a base for international flights - per result hotel prices are jacked up more than arguably any other city in Europe, and museums are not cheap. Honestly given the free museums in London its hard fro me to recommend those in Amsterdam though I tragically missed out on the Rijksmuseum (building is good though, you do have to book in advance on that one too). If you like coffee culture, Amsterdam has it in spades possibly more than London. Also the drug and prostitution scene in the Netherlands is very safe and regulated, even if you do get involved in it you're not going to be taking nearly as many risks as you would in other countries... although prices in Amsterdam are like double everything in Germany anyway which has basically taken Netherland's crown the past like 10 years, even Belgium's better now...

P.S. Make sure to use the Toogoodtogo app if you want to eat on a budget. London food scene is best in Soho imo, markets are SHIT overpriced pay 15 quid for a plate of cheap carbs and sauce. Soho is ironically barely any more expensive if such and you get quality food. Netherlands harder time to rec food but they do Surinamese stuff and more Indonesians if that's your thing.

P.P.S.... You know there's drugs and RLDs in basically every major Low Country city right? Its not just Amsterdam.

>>2867092
Hang on a minute

>gap year
How long for? I mean if you're just sitting around doing nothing for a year may as well come over for a month or two and hostel it. Meet other people have fun and shit and get to immerse yourself more. Sure UK sucks shit for that (hostels outside London are way pricier than their continental equivalents and the housing of migrants in hotels means guess what? No cheap hotels for you). You really want to be spending at least two weeks if you're going to Europe partly to recoup the price.

Also just some logistical insights for you;
>Flights UK -> Ireland typically £13-20 and vice-versa
>Eindhoven typically has cheapest flights to-from UK, down to about £13 to Stansted.
>Stansted typically cheapest airport for flights UK-Europe, althought Gatwick and Luton sometimes take on that role. No cheap airports in East of country anywhere north of London's airports, for cheap flights oop norf you have to go to Manchester or Liverpool, typically.
>Stansted close to Cambridge and Ely, both scenic towns even if not full of things to do - certainly beats Notts.
>Gatwick close to fuck-all, Luton close to Luton, Heathrow close to Thorpe Park... I guess.
>When in Netherlands, can use Flixbus for bus and train planning, sometimes cheap routes. If in Amsterdam Schiphol got tram into city, don't recall seeing anyone pay for it and indeed people don't seem to pay for the trams there but may be worth checking.
>Again when in Low Countries, quicker to get to Belgium, Germany, France etc. than you may thing... not saying that you have to and by all means enjoy Netherlands - just if you get bored, you have those options.

Oh yeah, should mention;
For hostels I use the Phoenix joint in Marylebone for like a tenner a night, its a SHITHOLE, but it does the job - it is a morbidly funny place to go though as all the floor levels are totally fucked up. Safestays seem to get bedbugs a lot for some reason. YHAs usually good.

>>2867092
I live near Nottingham and go there quite often, but don't bother. You should go somewhere like Cumbria or Harrogate if you went somewhere nice that isn't London. Manchester or Newcastle for the nightlife.

I might be going to Eindhoven this year. I've never been to the Netherlands before myself I'm looking forward to it if I do.

>>2867406
>Newcastle for the nightlife
Just went there couple of months ago, the nightlife is not that good.

>>2867126
>You say Nottingham... have you made this type of thread before?
No, this is my first time.
>The Netherlands ironically to me is one of my least favourite places because indeed it is very similar to the UK... but its not on a budget!
Ok, I'll keep this in mind

>>2867132
>How long for? I mean if you're just sitting around doing nothing for a year may as well come over for a month or two and hostel it.

Hostels suck but your post has interested me. You do make some good points and there are plenty of places in Europe I'd would love to visit. I really to see the Baltic states, in particular Latvia and Lithuania. There super cheap and have very interesting histories. I would love to see the ruins of the former Soviet occupation and not to mention both of them are like 50% empty and are filled with abandoned buildings and monuments. There the only countries I can think of that have a spooky quality to them which is something they definitely play into for tourism.

The Balkans is also interesting to me because I'd love to see the ruins of Yugoslavia. I'm also very interested in seeing Germany although I imagine it's pretty expensive.

P.S sorry for the late response.

>>2867523
>I really to see
Want*

>>2867497
Not him but for the North East, Newcastle is definitely the epicentre but that's not saying tonnes for the country as a whole.

>>2867406
Eindhoven... why? Well to be fair I've never been but if you go, do tell me what the Philips hq is like!

>>2867519
Back. Yeah Netherlands is not cheap. As far as 'expensive countries in Europe' goes, I'd say its something like;
scandinavia > low countries (either greater or equal to) uk > germany and france > rest of europe
It continuously pains me how consistently cheaper Germany tends to be than the UK, though in recent times I found the price to climb a bit where the difference isn't what it was. Also Luxembourg's prices are surprisingly normal for such a rich country, just a side-note and something that made me despondant when comparing the standards of living. They even have free public transport.

Its interesting reading your post, your interests seem to align with mine when I first started travelling and was more interested in the 'off-the-beaten-track' parts of Europe, so to speak. Unfortunately I can't say much about the Baltics; I'd visited Lithunia on my first solo trip, this was almost 10 years ago! Safe to say Vilnius probably looks very different now, I remember seeing the commercial centre under construction back then and nowadays I believe it is complete. The city centre was pretty, I found the train station area to be somewhat dodgy but the trains themselves were those new German double-decker sorts. Also getting to Trakai was very cheap and wasn't too long as I recall, do strongly suggest visiting it. To me the more rural areas with all the forestly reminded me strongly of Scotland, though the architecture is a little different. One thing you'll notice in Trakai is the Karaite architecture where the buildings have 3 windows! https://www.trakai-visit.lt/en/karaites-street-called-the-small-town-mazasis-miestas/

>>2867523
I will say I spent a lot of time milling around Vilnius as I managed to run out of money... I was young and foolish. There's not tonnes to do there as I recall. There is a hill to climb though can't remember what is at the top, it overlooks the old city iirc. The old city itself you can walk through in like 10 mins. Also note that you can easily get the train to Riga or Poland (I'd taken an overnight bus to Warsaw at one point, though there's likely no need to do such a thing).

Can't comment on Riga, its on the list. Allegedly its a popular stag destination for Britbongs. I believe they've also got legalised prostitution which may be why? And the nightlife is meant to be popular. From what I've read it sounds like a quieter out-of-the-way version of Prague. Though being a major port of the Hansa I assume its far more red-brick everything. I believe Riga is meant to have more kvass (soft drink if you haven't seen it, I used to get Sencu kvass when I was younger a more hip. Lithuania also does kvass and their own version Gira which I'm not sure if it is any different from kvass kvass but certainly tasted nastier.

Went to Tallinn last year I believe or that before. Its a cute Hanseatic town with a mixture of influences. There's certainly no more than a day of things to do there, I'll warn immediately. I saw everything and I was taking it slow! There's a cool shop for Marzipan that is very old-worldy (Cafe Maiasmokk) which I highly recommend if you like the sweet. There's a maritime museum, some old walls etc. Like Vilnius you can walk through the old town in minutes but I did think it was prettier.

Can't talk much about the Balkans. My brother visited them all and the food portions back then were insane, they love their grilles! The lakes and rivers seemed beautiful too. I've visited Albania (Gjirokaster and Tirana), former city you won't see any ruins really, but it is a nice old-fashioned town. Tirana has the Bunkart complexes.

>>2867523
>>2868667
Went to Podgorica to transfer to Albania and milled around for some hours. Its easily the most boring city I've visited, there's quite literally nothing to do there AT ALL. But it can be used as a base to the more scenic parts of the country, to what I gather. I saw some of the generic coastal cities in Croatia (Dubrovnik, Split, Trogir) but aside from the communist museum in the former, there's not much to say about Yugoslav ruins. Of my brother's travels the coolest thing I saw was the Mostar bridge which was destroyed during the wars and rebuilt, though I'm not sure if you'd find it interesting. I believe Kosovo is meant to be really cheap from what he said but this was years ago and such may not be the case... I'm also not sure if it would be Podgorica 2.0.

I would recommend Germany, note the north-south divide. The south is more catholic which tends to lead to more aesthetics and prettier stuff, the area near Austria is max. comfy. Austrian Tyrol and Switzerland have imo the best landscapes in Europe, though I haven't been to Zakopane or most of Spain. I do find the architecture in the north of Germany to be a bit more restrained and similar to the UK and low countries (with more glimpses of flashiness so to speak). Again, Germany is no more expensive than the UK/ Low Countries. What I will warn is the the train network is confusing as fuck for someone who doesn't live there and you absolutely want to use the Deutsche Bahn (DB) app to use them. Since some trains are regional (regional bahn RB or something like that), for the whole country (iirc?) and intercontinental (ICE) you get different sorts of tickets for different ranges and its a fucking hassle when you've lived on an island and know of no such thing.

>>2867523
>Baltics
>super cheap
Not anymore. They are highly developed First World countries with First World prices for everything except booze. Tourist services like lodging are very limited outside the larger towns, so your wanderings will be quite limited. Topography is generally dull. Summer temps are cool to balmy. Most tourists stay in the biggest cities, which have plenty of street life. Polish girls are prettier than Baltic girls. Poland is also cheaper, but less friendly to English/Russian speakers than their Eurozone neighbors.

Lithuania was basically a zero service country.
>self check in hotels
>self check out supermarkets
>app purchased railway tickets
I spent more money per day than any other country I've been to, but felt like I was getting less than anywhere else as well. The mix of soulless modern construction and dilapidated Soviet era infrastructure was the main interesting thing about the country. Everyone is moving to the prosperous cities; the countryside is quaint but lifeless.

>>2867092
>I'd like to visit, like the Tower of London, the Natural History Museum, the National Portrait Gallery
Nothing can replace them. Amazing. You can easily add another 20 iconic things to do in London.
>and the London Eye
well, this is new, might enjoy a dinner cruise on the Thames for the same hassle of waiting and lines.

>spring break
Visit gardens, nothing like them!

>>2868665
>Eindhoven... why

I'm going to a festival in Ysselsteyn in June and that's the nearest city. The village looks nice as well so I will explore that a bit if I can.