Trying to research information on backpacking Europe with a family 4 (husband/wife and two teenage daughters). Any info or tips greatly appreciated.

What kind of info are you lookin for? Inter country travel, accommodations, things to do? Etc. Where are you planning on visiting?

We would like to start in Amsterdam and end up in Italy to fly back. Looking to see parts of Germany and the. Head south would like to alps, Switzerland etc. Looking for cost effective travel inter country and cost effective accommodations. Slowly building up plans for things to see and do.

Inter country travel is cheap to rent a car, it gets expensive when you want to go from country to country via rental. Train is likely to be your best bet, but flights are also very cheap. Use skyscanner.net to look for flights. We found easy jet to be very affordable and easy for our destinations.
In terms of accomodations, hostels will probably be the most cost effective. You can book a room for the amount of people you are travelling with or book two private rooms, etc. Go for the ones that don't have age restrictions and that have community kitchens. I use hihostel.com or hostelworld.com
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My 2 teenaged sons and I just got back from 1 month in Iceland, Paris, Italy and Switzerland. The days of hostels being cheap, sadly, I believe are no more for a family of 4. Every city we stayed in, the cost of 3 beds in male and female rooms (male for them, female for me) was more expensive than booking hotels online. Family rooms or the smaller coed rooms (6-8 ppl) were even more expensive. With the exception of Geneva, I booked every night in several cities on hotwire for $80-100 cdn w breakfast and 2.5-4 star rating. Hotels include privacy and other services that hostels don't so it ended up being a preference for us.
Your question is pretty broad. It's easier for travellers to comment if you have a few more parameters

Thanks for the replies. I'll narrow down some parameters in the coming months. We're just in the beginning phase and we've never done a large trip like this. Thanks for the help!

If youre going to Venice Italy I recommend Venice art design B&B, its about a 15 minute bus tode from Venice Island. The B&B is clean and the owner is fantastic! Not to mention its a really good price for being anywhere near Venice!
If you are thinking Hostels, check out Generator hostels. Again they are nice (for hostels), plus they have private rooms that you can rent so your whole family can stay in a private room togther.
They have hostels across Europe including Amsterdam. The ones i stayed at are easily accessible by public transportation.
As much fun as trains seem, they are expensive unless you prebook months in advance. Check out buses or flying. If you decide to fly i prefered easyjet (download the app!!!), ryanair was a good budget friendly choice as well. Just watch out for the size of you backage, and if you need to check baggage book that with your ticket. They will charge you a CRAZY amount to check luggage when you check in.

I just got back from a month w my teenaged sons including 2.5 weeks in Italy and we did all of our train and plane bookings while we in Europe and I found train prices very reasonable. The costs of train or plane fares that we took within one country and from one country to another (we visited 4) were all very reasonable. We never had to chose plane bc train we too expensive. We based it more on scheduling

Thanks for the info.

Also i think its really amazing your planning this trip with your teenage kids!! Its going to be a trip of a life time.
I just came back from a 2 month backpacking trip and love it!!! If you have questions PM me, i would be happy to pass on as much info as possible. Oh and if you want to go somewhere that Canadians never seem to venture to, check out Croatia. Its amazing, and they have this amazing national park that you literally can spend hours walking around waterfalls and around lakes. Not to mention you can never go wrong with some time near the ocean. Also, France is a must, especially the south of France!

Thanks for the heads up about Croatia. Love the thought of the national park. Will be putting that on the research list.

The parks name is Plitvice Lakes National Park. I believe its a UNESCO world heritage site.

Just went to Europe twice in the last 5 months. Once to travel around with the hubs and two teen girls and the second alone with my dad (he lives there). Trains are super expensive if you decide to just wing it.. we paid close to $300 pp to get from Paris to Milan Italy. Same flight would have cost 79$. Of course found that out after
. We found some good air bnbs around Europe, but the one in Italy had bedbugs, so watch for that. I guess it's a problem down there. Poland was super cheap, Italy was the most. We ate at "home" a lot to cut costs. Shocked me at how much more expensive our food it here in comparison. You'll have a blast. Hold onto your stuff, they stole from us twice down there.

There are cheap flights available in Europe. Just be aware that that usually means you pay for anything extra. Be sure to print boarding passes before you go to the airport as sometimes there is a hefty charge to get them there. Also, really scrutinize the carry on and checked luggage weights and sizes. Not all airlines follow a standard size and they tend to make everyone put their bags into a sizing rack.
I have always found train transportation inexpensive but I book them at least 2 weeks ahead. This summer when I booked Stuttgart to Paris by TGV, I put in 2 coach class tickets and they actually gave us first class and it came up less expensive than coach.
We used airbnb and hotwire for this last trip ( when we weren't on our cruises) and had great places with both. airbnb in Venice 1/2 bulk from the train, bus and canal. If you decide to travel by car, remember there are no cars in Venice beyond the bus depot. airbnb in Barcelona near the university was a very nice area. Both hotwire hotels in Athens ( huge buffet breakfast with anything you could imagine ) and Paris ( exactly where we wanted to be in between Gare du nord and Gare de l'est and the largest hotel room I have ever stayed in, in , as they tend to be tiny) were perfect. They were 4 star at least and very cheap.

Hi Alan I just got home from a month with my 15 and 16 yo sons. It was our second trip to Europe as a family. Backpacking to Europe is kinda like someone saying they want to 'visit Canada', huge place, lots to do and see. Do you know when, for how long, what countries you want to visit? What kind of trip do you want it to be. You could travel in any one country for a month and be very satisfied. After the number of countries we've now visited we have often said we'd like to go back to France for a month. Or Scotland for a month. Or Italy for a month. Any place we've visited we could go back and have that country be our destination and be quite happy. It really depends on what your family's vision is. Depending on time, and the area of Europe, 3 or 4 weeks to do a few countries is do-able. Several countries even, but it changes the kind of trip and planning considerations you have to make. The first time we went we visited 12 countries in 2 months. This time we did 4 countries in 1 month. The sky is the limit in terms of options. In some countries where you may stay a week or 2 you could even consider a camper van, transportation and accommodations one. We did 5 nights in Iceland in a camper van and it allowed us to see so much more of the island than having to travel back to our home base. I would also strongly recommend besides what countries having an idea of what your want to see. In many places where you may only stay one night and maybe without a vehicle you have to make arrangements for your backpacks for the day or you lug them around while you're sight seeing. Some places are better than others about letting you store your bags for a day. Absolutely, hands down 2 of the best experiences I've ever had with my kids. Exited for you. Lots to plan!!!

Thanks. We are sitting down this week to narrow the exact trip down. We have about 5weeks to complete the trip. Hopes are to travel in Germany down to Italy but predominantly the interior countries.

Following planning a pilgrimage next September

Following as well