We don't exactly want to backpack across Europe and stay in hostels Why on earth not? That's half the fun! I was relatively shy and antisocial on my European t

We don't exactly want to backpack across Europe and stay in hostels Why on earth not? That's half the fun! I was relatively shy and antisocial on my European tour and I still have two or three hostel stories to tell. And if you want to find a critical mass of people who know how to tour Europe on the cheap, why are you avoiding hostels? Were you planning to look for fellow bums in the lobbies of three-star hotels? Having said that: There are relatively cheap pension rooms / B&B rooms / zimmer around, and you can leverage the economy of scale of having three people that are willing to share a room. There are also persistent rumors that many European countries have awesome campgrounds. Though you might have to haul sleeping bags around. I toured Europe by following the general advice in Rick Steves' general-advice book. His reader demographic probably skews a bit more "middle-aged NPR listener" than "college student" (advertising via PBS specials will probably tend to lead to that), and sometimes he comes across as a bit of a nerd, but then again so do I. His advice was pretty solid. If you don't like meeting fellow tourists who are clutching a copy of his book, don't go to the specific hotels and restaurants that he recommends. (This apparently also goes for all the places mentioned in, e.g., the Lonely Planet guides. Guidebooks are excellent guides to finding your fellow tourists.)