You are the only one who really can plan your trip. For what it is worth, I wiuld go to Turkey including Istanbul, Capadocia, and a coastal area from which you can take day trips to Ephesus, Pergamon, and Aphrodisias. The day trips can be arranged through your hotels in Capadocia and the coast, I believe. We had one travel agent who arranged everything for us but that was fairly pricey.

Another idea is Vienna-Budapest or Vienna-Prague-Slovakia.

Pat

<<I feel that if I don't go on this trip (alone) in the next 6 months, that I may never do my own trip again>>

<<Most people I speak with that are older than I am say that I should do this now, because it will be hard to do later.>>

<<I just want to make this trip happen before life passes me by>>

I'm not much of a Central Europe expert, so can't really help you there. Just wanted to say you seem to have an awfully pessimistic mindset about traveling to Europe. Most people your age are just beginning a lifetime of travels. Instead of focusing on this being your last chance to visit Europe, I'd focus on narrowing down the destinations and making the most out of wherever you end up traveling to.

"I like old, authentic, and beautiful cities that ideally were spared distruction in their history (I realize this is hard to find)."

On that basis you cannot leave Prague off your list. My suggested list would be Istanbul, Vienna and Prague. Three wonderful cities with very different histories and cultures.

In your time frame I would allow 3 or 4 days each with a day between each city for travel. Start with Istanbul, fly to Vienna and then air or train to Prague.

If you had time my fourth choice would be Granada, with its Alhambra and Albaicin.

Turning point at 30? You're only a youngster; I didn't really start travelling until I was 55

It is great that you want to take this trip. I'm partial to Central and Eastern Europe myself.

I think that where you go should depend, in part, on whether you want to visit just one country or several countries. If you just want to see one country in depth, I would recommend a trip to Moscow and St. Petersburg, with some stops along the way to see the old cities of the Golden Ring (Yaroslavl, Kostroma, Vladimir, Sergeev Posad). Similarly, you could visit a number of cities in Ukraine and see the different parts of the country like the Black Sea region and the more Western/Polish part.

If you want to do a multi-country trip, something like Budapest-Bratislava-Prague with a few stops in smaller cities along the way might be nice. Or you could visit the three Baltic capitals.

Finally, you didn't mention going further south but I would also recommend a trip through the Balkans. Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, Montenegro and Slovenia can all be done in two weeks (I've done it) if you move fast enough.

As for tips, don't ignore low cost air carriers. We are traveling from Krakow to Warsaw and had planned to take the train or drive. On a lark, we looked up flights on LOT and got three seats for $67 total. Renting a car is not always cost prohibitive if you drop off and pick up in the same country. If you do a drop off in a different country, you'll get hit with a big surcharge. I've had fabulous luck finding affordable, and often usual, places to stay by browsing online reviews, especially in smaller cities. In the big cities, I've had great luck getting very nice hotels on the cheap with Priceline. Finally, with some of the less traveled paths, check out online expat forums and post questions there about getting around, things to do, etc.

Best of luck with all your planning!

You have a lifetime of travel ahead of you! I didn't start traveling seriously until my fifties. I just finished a six month RTW in my sixties...

Eastern Europe is a great choice. You might want to skip Russia this time, as expensive. If you're American the visa is expensive (and a hassle for everybody) and Moscow can be very expensive. I loved Ukraine, both western Ukraine and the Crimea and there is a lot of Russian influence there. If you look at my 2006 trip you'll see my route that includes Istanbul to Crimea to Romania to Lviv to Krakow to Slovakia (great mountains) - http://wilhelmswords.com/eur2006/index.html - the RTW report on site includes Russia.

Use whichbudget.com for cheap air travel, seat61.com for loads of info on train travel and bahn.de for train schedules.

i expected to see a question from a person in their late 60s or early 70s, not a 30 year old. at 30 you are still as they say "wt behind the ears". you are not nearly at the crossroads of your life. my wife and i are currently 67 & 65 and are leaving for about a month trip to turkey - week in kyrenia (north cyprus), 5 days in cappadocia (central turkey), week along the northeast coast along the black sea and then a week in istanbul. during our 43 years of marriage we have traveled around the world with and without kids. never take a tour - just wander, look and ask. used to go without reservations and just knock on doors and ask if they had a room. now we are less adventurous and generally rent homes and apartments for 3 days to a week. have no language skills but if you are polite and respectful to those you meet and those who serve you, you will get by. good luck and have many years of adventures.

Wow, you guys are wonderful. Thanks for the push in the POSITIVE direction. I'm no ˆconsideringˆ staying in one country; yet I may still spread between two or possibly three. With the countries i'm looking at, only with the prospect of a flight would I do this (say, a jump from the Ukraine to Romania or Turkey).

Thats said, i'm still eager for more responses. Read my entry at the top and let me know any ideas that you may have. I can't tell you how grateful I am for the first series of replies...I may have to do this in September instead of April or May (because of the lack of planning time that I would have for this Spring), plus, airfair over to Europe is on the rise in mid-May. Any ideas for cheap airfair TO Europe, Ukraine, Turkey, etc...?

Any trip ideas from my initial entry will be cherished.

Cheers my fellow travelers!

Sincerely,
Jason (30 year old at the crossroads

Bucharest got pretty well bombed and then got mashed up by the post war loonies and still is not really there yet

Bratislava rather the same

However I would not drop Romania out I just might go to other places (surf on the country on this forum)

I'd like very much to keep this discussion alive. Some of you have so much great information to share that I wanted to bring it back into the limelight. Please read my initial entry.

As far as where to go, you might want to go to bookstores and go thru the travel session. When you have an idea, you can borrow guidebooks from the library. Make a habit of reading travel blogs and trip reports. They usually come with pictures.
Hardwork will pay off. I am flying to Stockholm and I found the cheapest nonstop fare on the airline website and not the consolidaters. You need to do comparative shopping in order to get a good deal. I registered with most airlines so I get email alerts. Members on Fodors tend to be very generous and care to explain in details. Trip advisor is different but still tons of info there. Lonely planet attracts younger audience and most of them have a smaller budget than the people here. If I were you, I would be a member of LP. If I were 30 years old and know what I know, I would be very smart with money which means no expensive fashionable shoes (I couldn't even walk in them). At your age, I spent a month in India after a death of my family, it was a great and healing expereince for me.

I went on my first trip to Europe for 5 weeks - by myself - when I was 32. It was awesome! As much as I enjoy travelling with my sweetie now - there was something so free in doing it by myself.
14 days isnt really a lot of time to spend in a bunch of different countries - be careful you dont spend most of your time getting two and from places and checking in and out of hotels - it can eat up ALOT of time. Buy or borrow a bunch of guidebooks, troll the forums here and on trip advisor, do A LOT of reading and when you narrow things down, start planning the actual trip on a spreadsheet. When you look at flight/train/ferry connection times and availability, you will probably rethink it a bunch of times. When you do plan, fly in to once city and out of another - usually no more money and it will save you tons of time
I have been to Italy, Croatia and Solvenia, Argentina, Spain, Vienna and Prague. Italy and Argentina top my lists but they were all wonderful. Solvenia was cool - especially seeing the caves. Plitvice in Croatia was amazing and not what you would think to find in Europe.
I dont know too much about Central Europe but it is hot right now and supposed to be a bargain. Istanbul looks wonderful to me and I am planning a trip to Turkey and Greece next year.
Good luck and you have tons of travel in your future -you just need to make it a priority!

I was older than you are now the first time I went to Europe, and have been back several times since. So don't worry about that issue. However, it's also never too soon to go when you're an adult, either -- and age 30 is a good time to go.

Will definitely second Prague and Vienna, and also suggest Salzburg, for things Central European I've actually been to. Krakow, Budapest, and Istanbul are also supposed to be interesting places to visit. My limited research on Ukraine suggests L'viv is an especially good choice given what you're looking for.

Also, if you're considering Russia, my understanding is that you have to obtain a visa first -- and it's apparently time consuming to do. Leave yourself plenty of lead time if you include this country.

"Also, if you're considering Russia, my understanding is that you have to obtain a visa first -- and it's apparently time consuming to do. Leave yourself plenty of lead time if you include this country."

I am going on a week-long boat trip from St Petersburg to Moscow next June. The visa requirements by the Sydney consulate (http://www.sydneyrussianconsulate.com/visa.html#q10) are very detailed, much more so than the Indian visa I needed for this trip. The web-site said my passport would take at least five working days to be processed; I got it back nearly a month later. The cost, including registered mail both ways, was well over $100.

The US consulate rules may be different. Some countries, including Russia and India, treat visa sales as a business with franchise areas. For that reason I had to send my passport 1000km by mail to Sydney despite living only two hours from Brisbane. I lived the wrong side of the state border here.

But I think the trip will be well worth it

Someday I'd like to go to Russia, but I feel that I'll do that with a friend. Any other thoughts/ideas/advice is greatly appreciated.

Cheers, and thanks for all of the support..

In Poland visit Lodz
http://wikitravel.org/en/Lodz
You won't regret it !

Lot's of good ideas here. Any more.... (start at top)

Jason, 30 is a good age to have a few ideas of your own and to follow your own dream rather than replicate 20th century marco polo look alikes and contenders.

If nothing else, flip a coin, take a flight, never look back or regret. may end up being your best trip ever.

"Lot's of good ideas here. Any more.... "

Have you tried reading the many trip reports here? Have you read any guidebooks? Time to do your own research!

Sorry to annoy you fodorites. Isn't this a place for advice and searching? Of course I'll do my own thing, I've narrowed the whole world down to two areas of interest. It seems a bit extreme of anyone to think that i'm looking for someone to make my decisions. The entire point of this website is to inform, and that's all I was looking for; information.

Oh, right, you're the Turkey vs Ukraine person. So why are you still asking for advice on this thread? This forum works better with more focused questions.

Because there are still people who have a lot of useful and helpful information to offer my friend.

worldview, this site is indeed a place for advice and searching, but thursdaysd is right as well. Folks in this forum tend to be much more receptive to OPs who show they've done homework first.

In fact, there has been a good bit of useful information already provided here on this thread, and I'm not sure how much more can be offered at the general level to which the initial post was put. Besides, without some groundwork done on your own, you won't have anything to weigh the advice you get here.

In short, a tandem approach always offers the best information. Since you've gotten some areas narrowed down, how about putting up an initial sketch day-to-day itinerary with attractions that interest you? Then those folks who are knowledgeable can help refine your itinerary, offering insights into what you list and suggesting some things that might also work for you. You then can accept or reject the suggestions you receive and make revisions as you think best.

Your thread caught my eye. I laughed out loud when I read how old you are! I am more than past the "crossroads of my life" and just now taking my first trip to Europe. I am sure you will have lots of opportunities to travel, just make it a priorty in your life. I can't give you any advice on where to go because I am just starting out on my adventures but you have a wonderful group of people here who will guide you!
Enjoy!
GG