How much would 3 or 4 months in Europe cost, assuming that we (2 people) want to stay in cheap motels, want to cover as much of Western Europe as we can, food, public transportation, and money for tickets to get into places?
Is it possible to get a visa to a number of countries all at once before we go ? What kind of visa should we be looking at getting that affords us free mobility?
How much would going from country to country by train cost?
What is the price range for motels?
And are there any visa / transportation packages for tourists?
And also, my wife wants to spend a year there and do odd jobs. We will both be holding canadian passports. Will we have to get a work permit? and will we have to get a work permit for each and every country we go to?
just planning ahead! hopefully it won’t be a “khayali palao”.
One of my closest friends went to UK with another friend coupla summers ago (both guys). The way they worked it out, they got a part time job working at some burger shack or something. They worked 3-4 days a week, and the rest of the 3-4 days they checked out some spot or the other. So every week they would go to say ireland, scotland, this that etc etc and then return to base end of the week. Sounds a bit wierd but at the end of the summer then came back to canuck land with not a penny saved or spent.
Ok, so first of all “Welcome to Europe” (in advance :D)
You don’t need a visa to visit Western European countries, if you hold a Canadian passport and would stay less than 3 months. So in your case (you want to stay for 4 months and upto a year) you will require a visa, which you will get easily though.
Now it depends, which countries you would like to visit. If you get the visa of a Schengen-country, then you are allowed to travel to any other Schengen country on the same visa.
Countries, which have signed the Schengen treaty are:
Austria
Belgium
Denmark
Finland
France
Germany
Greece
Iceland
Italy
Luxembourg
Netherlands
Norway
Portugal
Spain
Sweden
Mind you, the UK has not signed the Schengen treaty. But if you won’t stay in the UK for more than 3 months, you don’t require a visa anyway. Once you leave the UK and go to France for example and then come back, the 3 months would restart.
And for Eastern European countries (like Czech Republic, Slovakia, etc.) Canadian nationals require a visa even if they just go there for a day. US nationals don’t require a visa for those countries though.
Going from country to country by train can be quite expensive. But there is an alternative called Interrail. That is basically a train pass valid for one month that allows you to travel on any train in Europe. It only includes trains though and no local, public transport.
And yes, you will need a work permit for working in Europe and you will need a seperate one for each country you would like to work in. However you shouldn’t have to much trouble with that since you are Canadian citizens.
