“ Think your bucket-list was already long? Here's 75 more of our favourite things to do. ”
A ‘bucket list’ is a strange thing. You create a mental list of all the amazing things you want to do that will guide your next 40 years travelling. Base jumping off a massive cliff, inhaling an entire croissant by the Eiffel Tower, doing a backward somersault while taking a selfie, straddling a horse in the Alps: it can (and should) include anything!
The thing is, when you’re travelling Europe, a lot of the most memorable moments won’t be what was on your bucket list, because sometimes the best things are impossible to predict. So, with this list we’ve compiled some of the (the tried and tested) best bucket list must-dos, and some of the things you may have never thought would be so memorable. Are you ready? Let’s go!
- Drink cheap wine by the Seine in Paris. Fall in and get an extra bucket list point. (Definitely DON’T fall in!)
- Drink one absinthe shot in Krakow and pretend you're a 1920s hipster poet.
- Use Google Translate for an entire Tinder conversation.
- Vanquish your inner prude at the Sex Museum in Amsterdam.
- Smash two kebabs in a row after a night out in Berlin.
- Gawk in disbelief at how completely perfect Croatia is.
- Listen to a French and an Italian person arguing about whose national cuisine is better.
- Watch the sunrise over Barcelona at the 'bunker'.
- Get totally lost in Amsterdam and phone someone back home to help you find your way using Google Maps.
- Take advantage of the time difference and only phone home when you're out in a club.
- Go river rafting in Lake Bled, Slovenia.
- Decide that everything should be served in tapas portions in Spain.
- Take a wine tour in Tuscany, and then boast you know about wine, even though you can still only name two grape types.
- Muddle up French, German and Italian in one short conversation with a Spanish person.
- Shout 'get a room' at two people flirting in your dormitory.
- Pick your dream retirement spot at Cinque Terre, Italy.
- Cram your iCloud full of pictures of you jumping into glistening blue lakes.
- Learn how to pronounce Italian cheese names (and discover they sound as good as they taste).
- Laugh at the Catalonian 'crapper' figurines. They're literally statues of a young boy taking a dump.
- Prance about in the Alps singing 'The Sound of Music'.
- Claim you've seen the most beautiful sunset in the world on the island of Santorini, Greece.
- Contemplate how clever the Romans were, at the Colosseum in Rome.
- Vow to never eat a tomato again after La Tomatina in Spain.
- Try not to kiss that person you've just met while riding a gondola around Venice.
- Be mesmerised by the mosaics in the UNESCO-listed Alhambra Palace, Spain.
- Party in a club in Berlin for 12 hours. Pop out to do some cultural stuff. Then pop back in to finish off what you started
- Ask for a standard beer in Bruges, receive one that has 13% alcohol.
- Permanently feel like you've left one important item in every hostel you've stayed at.
- Leave all the shopping until the airport after a two-month trip.
- Buy incredible chocolate for the family in Bruges and scoff it all without remorse in Amsterdam.
- Conquer your fear of heights and go paragliding in Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland.
- Test your balance by taking shots on a traditional Croatian sail boat.
- Buy an entirely black outfit after getting inspired by the ridiculously cool Scandinavian fashion style.
- Pretend you're still interested in renaissance art after a million 'Madonna and Child' paintings in the Uffizi, Florence.
- Find out the pleasures and pitfalls of partying in your swimwear in the baths of Budapest.
- Buy a 'traditional antique hand-crafted gift' and then discover that the same thing is for sale in the airport at half the price.
- Get suitcase envy, because that guy is actually travelling for three months with a 35 litre rucksack.
- Sing along to beer drinking songs you feel you've known your whole life at Oktoberfest, Munich.
- Dress up in our favourite colour and party your socks off at Amsterdam's largest party, King's Day.
- Lose your breath conquering Kotor’s castle in Montenegro and be rewarded with a jaw-dropping view.
- Find out that Flamenco dancing is so saucy it should be illegal in Madrid.
- Throw out half the clothes you brought travelling, because you've decided to 'pack light'.
- End up at a house party in the middle of nowhere with people who don't speak a word of English.
- Promise yourself you'll visit Barcelona again once the Sagrada Familia is finally finished.
- Take Cersei Lannister’s walk of atonement in Dubrovnik, Croatia. We can even throw fruit at you if you want to make it just like the real thing!
- Marvel at the majesty of the Duomo, Milan.
- Take the creepiest photos ever at the Hill of Crosses Lithuania.
- Try and take a taxi home at four in the morning and realise your hostel is two minutes away.
- Learn how to make paella in Barcelona.
- Be stupefied at how you've not been punched in the face yet for attempting to make up German words.
- Go to the Alps and learn that snowboarding is not funky, cool or sexy when you're doing it for the first time.
- Cover yourself in luminous body paint and rave like you just don't care at Sziget Festival, Budapest.
- Make best friends for life every time you board another Busabout bus.
- Freak out at 10,000 bikes and a tram heading straight at you while you cross the street in Amsterdam.
- Be awed by the sight of the six mountaintop monasteries at Meteora, Greece.
- Cry over the wasted wine at the super-soaker wine festival of La Battle del Vino in Bunol, Spain.
- Discover your haggling skills aren’t as good as you thought at a market in Tangier, Morocco.
- Swear you're going to wear lederhosen every time you go drinking after Oktoberfest.
- Learn to love maps as you travel through three countries in a day.
- Dance until you (literally) drop at Ushuaia, Ibiza.
- Go midnight skinny dipping in the Mediterranean. Totally forget where you left your clothes.
- Applaud your Guide, who somehow is always last to bed, and first to get up in the morning.
- Turn up at a restaurant in Spain, and discover that no one actually eats until around 10pm.
- Have a deep and meaningful conversation about religion after being awestruck by the Notre Dame, Paris.
- Come back home to a Facebook feed in about 18 different languages.
- Discover what the world would be like if the hippies had control in Freetown Christiania, Copenhagen.
- Enjoy the legendary modern art of Pollock, Picasso and Dali at the Berardo Collection Museum, Lisbon.
- Gaze in awe at the daring divers jumping from Mostar Bridge, Bosnia.
- Have the perfect hangover meal of Croatian strudel at a pastry shop in Zagreb.
- Spend your entire travel budget and go to an opera in Vienna.
- Pray to the ancient Greek gods at the Acropolis, Athens.
- Chairlift your way up to one of the most amazing views Italy has to offer in Capri.
- Attempt not to fall instantly in love with a man with a sexy Italian accent.
- Backflip off a yacht in Nice, France.
- Get your Hop-on Hop-off pass and come explore Europe with us.
