Need advice on travel in Europe

http://www.couchsurfing.org/ I did this in Paris and it was pretty awesome and fun! It's like you have an instant insider friend in the city! Just use your common sense in choosing hosts - I am female and so I stayed with mostly women, and the guys I stayed with had tonnes of references and photos and friends vouching for them. It was a great experience and I would totally do it again. And - it's free!

If you don't like soviet sleepover's description of the hostelling crowd, then definitely don't try a Contiki tour. I worked in a London hostel for a few months and the Contiki people were, primarily, exactly those kind of people. They saw sights, got drunk, and never had to make a decision themselves. I definitely wouldn't recommend them for anyone who describes themselves as adventurous. (Not that every Contiki person was like that- there were always exceptions) One of my highlights was a bike trip through England. I bought a secondhand bike for 20 quid, met a Canadian fellow in the hostel who was keen, and the two of us set off on a trip. No map, no helmet, no bike repair kit or spare inner tube, and definitely no idea what we were getting into. Bucketloads of adventures and stories and memories though. Europe's populated enough that, even on a bike, you're rarely all that far from help, and never need to carry too much food or water with you. We camped along the way so we got to sleep in farmers' backyards and village greens and medieval ruins and castle moats (though the legality of these varied somewhat). I'd had all my money stolen the day before I left, but with free accommodation and self-powered transport, I lived on about 2 pounds a day (three cheers for Tesco 9p spaghetti in a can!). I say head to your first destination, get a bike, and go. Stay in hostels along the way, and you're guaranteed to meet people to explore the place with, and perhaps people to join you for longer. If you want big nights and drinking, search for the party hostel. If you don't, stay in a YHA. It's pretty easy to tell if the place has the right kind of vibe for you. I just saw that you asked for recommendations of groups... I think you need to decide if this is to be an adventurous trip, where you're not relying on (and paying) others to organise things for you, or if it's a fun trip where you don't need to worry about bookings or itineraries. If you want the former, then avoid tours, stay in hostels, and you'll never be alone unless you choose it.

I also couchsurfed alone (in France) and felt much safer / better connected than when I stayed in a hostel.

In addition to hostels, you might want to look into single-day walking tours or other similar quasi-active group events if you're interested in meeting other young-ish travelers who aren't traveling quite as cheaply as a lot of hostel stayers. People who are low-budget enough to not want to eat out aren't going to pay the 20 euros or whatever for a walking tour, and in my experience these things tend to attract a younger crowd than multi-day tours where everything (food, lodging, travel) is planned out for you. When I was traveling alone, I had a fabulous day in Berlin with http://www.berlinwalks.com/, and hit it off with someone else traveling alone who ended up being my dining buddy. Even if you don't meet someone who you like well enough to continue traveling with, it does give you a nice break from having no one to talk to but yourself.

Along the same lines, the day bike tours I've taken, like http://fattirebiketours.com/, had a bunch of younger travelers, many single.

I really liked http://contiki.com/. Lots of young fun single people traveling alone and having fun.

One thing to know with tours is that if they aren't age limited, they will skew very old. 55-75 year old couples are their bread and butter. It's a generalization, but 20-somethings don't have the money and 30- and 40-somethings have kids. They hit 55, the kids go to college and the parents finally take their first trip to Europe. This older crowd isn't a bad thing, but it's not a party scene — it's a drink wine after dinner scene. I took a Trafalgar tour when I was 23 and I was the youngest by about 20 years. If you wish to avoid this, look for age-limited tours. For instance, Contiki and Top Deck explicitly sell themselves as 18-35. But there only seems to be budget options in this category. "Budget" isn't bad — everyone has a price they can pay — but I haven't really found the upscale alternative, and on package tours I think that makes a difference in the experience. Like a budget operator will use a hotel on the outskirts of the city and bus you in to sight-see. It's ok, but at night you're stranded in the suburbs (or on the mainland in Venice.) I have heard good things about Rick Steves tours, anecdotally. Or you can just do the hostel thing. Spring for a single room if you don't like the dorm idea, meet a bunch of people, find another single who's going the direction you want, and join up. When you get sick of them, "you're headed in a different direction".

I stayed at hostels and found that people were very friendly and totally willing to go explore the city and maybe even travel to the next place together. This works best if you stay in each place for several days and if you are not scared about saying hi. Try to pick hostels that have lounges or common areas. Though, I would totally have couchsurfed if I had known about it.

PercussivePaul has it. Not Europe, but I traveled around Asia and and Central America for a total of about a year (two different trips) when I was in my 20s and really never lacked for company. Stay in hostels, take local transport, strike up conversations (for some reason, the latter is so much easier when you're in a foreign country). A few other tips for meeting fellow travelers/backpackers: - Like Paul says, stay in places with common areas that are not bars (unless it's a small, cozy bar, or mostly frequented by guests). Bonus if they serve communal meals like breakfast. - It's always best to stay in hostels if you want to meet people. If you're averse to staying in dorms, most have single rooms. Fancier hotels tend to be full of families and business travelers. - Be on the lookout for groups that seem to be comprised of people who met while traveling - obviously they will be more likely to be welcoming (a dead giveaway is multiple ethnicities in one group). I have had some really great times that started because I approached a group of travelers in a hostel. - On the other hand, don't write off couples or other pairs. I've actually found that pairs, even (maybe especially!) often welcome the company of a third for a while, to give them a break from each other.