Europe
~24h · 1 stop from Sydney to Paris / Rome. Same voltage as home, round pins. One Type C adapter covers almost the whole continent — but not the UK, Ireland or Switzerland.
- Flight from Sydney
- ~24h · 1 stop
- Plug
- Type C / F
- Voltage
- 230V
- Tap water
- Safe to drink
- Currency
- Euro (EUR), plus local currencies outside the eurozone
- Time vs Sydney
- -8 hours
- Region
- EU
- Your kit
- Europe Summer
Europe, month by month
Temperatures in Celsius, because you live in Australia. Remember that a northern hemisphere summer is our winter — the reason most packing advice online is upside down for you.
| Month | Season | High / low | What it is like |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | Cold and quiet | 8° / 2° | Short days, low prices, genuinely cold. The cheapest month to go. |
| February | Cold and quiet | 9° / 2° | Still cold, still cheap, still dark by five. |
| March | Early spring | 13° / 5° | Warming, unpredictable, uncrowded. |
| April | Spring | 17° / 8° | Mild and pleasant. Rain likely, crowds building. |
| May | Late spring | 22° / 12° | Warm without the heat, and before the July crush. Excellent. |
| June | Peak summer | 28° / 17° | Hot and busy. Southern Europe regularly passes 35°C. |
| July | Peak summer | 32° / 20° | Very hot. Spain and Italy have exceeded 45°C in recent summers, and most accommodation has no aircon. |
| August | Peak summer | 32° / 20° | Hottest, busiest, and much of Europe is on holiday itself. |
| September | Shoulder | 26° / 16° | Warm sea, thinning crowds. The best all-round month. |
| October | Autumn | 20° / 11° | Mild, wetter, very good value. |
| November | Late autumn | 13° / 6° | Grey and cool. Cities only. |
| December | Christmas markets | 9° / 3° | Cold, dark and genuinely lovely. Busy in the market cities. |
What Australians get wrong about Europe
- An Australian summer trip to Europe departs in our winter. Every packing guide online has this backwards.
- Air conditioning is rare in European accommodation, including expensive accommodation. Assume you will not have it.
- Hotel and apartment sinks are famously missing plugs, which makes washing anything by hand impossible.
- Pickpocketing in Paris, Rome and Barcelona is opportunistic and constant. It is a bag-design problem, not a bravery problem.
- Launderettes charge roughly A$15–23 a load. Detergent sheets and a clothesline change the maths on a six-week trip.