Hi there,

I'm an English 17-year-old student in my last few months of college, and I'm taking a gap year before going to university. I plan to go backpacking around Europe for three months, between October 2013 and January 2014.

By that time, I'll have saved up £4500. After a total £700 on rail travel and around £1000 on accommodation, I'll be left with £2800, just over £30 a day. Bear in mind that I'll be budgeting so this should do me just fine.

Here is my route: http://www.eurotrip.com/trip/matt039s-european-gap-year

So the trip itself is very feasible and in my opinion I've got everything worked out pretty well considering it's not for another 8 months.

What I really need is some advice from people who have experience of backpacking. One thing I'm worried about is the time of year. It's not that I'm missing Christmas or anything, I'm not Christian, it's more than I'm worried that all the hostels will be empty and I'll be on my lonesome all the time. Will it be that bad? As long as there are, say, three other travellers there I'll be happy. I just don't want to be in the position where I've blown all my savings to be miserable and lonely! haha

All advice will be appreciated greatly

This site is for American style backpacking, in other words, wilderness trekking, not for budget travel. For the latter, try Lonely Planet (which seems to have made a comeback after being down for a month.