Switzerland

What things interest you? and When are you thinking of going? Europe is a varied place.

I love art, and anything historical. I'm very open to new experiences. I wanted to go this Novemvber/December as airline tickets are cheaper.

I love art, and anything historical. I'm very open to new experiences. I wanted to go this Novemvber/December as airline tickets are cheaper.

November/December? If you like art, London or Paris. Weather is not so hot, but you'll be in museums/galleries all day. Spain: great museums, not half-bad weather (especially in the south). Southern Italy: ruins up the wazoo, more museums than you can shake a stick at (if that's your idea of a good time)
Malta: decent weather, cheap, ancient ruins (some which precede the pyramids) strange museums and a bus system that defies description.

For art and history, I would probably choose Paris if you have never been. Practically oozing with both. Italy would be another prime choice, as would London and the UK. With a month, I would probably got to the UK and France or either France and Italy. Try not to go to too many places, especially since you will want to stretch that $1600 as far as you can. Paris, for example could be used as a base from which you could make countless daytrips to places like Versailles, Chartres (cathedral), Giverny (Monet's former home) or larger cities such as Rouen (where Joan of Arc was burned at the stake), or Reims (another great cathedral).

For art and history, Italy should be at the top of any short list. Cheap flight to Rome from Philly or NYC. Tons of history in Rome, move north towards Florence. The possibilities are endless...

Amsterdam has many fine galleries (eg
van gogh) plus it's a hotbed of counter-culture artistic activities.
Easy to fly from anywhere,good train &
bus links to rst of Europe, people speak
english more clearly than the english do.Great fun if you are 18!!

If you want to make the most of your time, $1600 won't get you too far in London - probably pay for your accommodation for a few weeks... Why not Greece and Turkey - Turkey is great for budgets. Regardless of the media, I do consider Turkey safe. The history there is unreal. The art probably isn't that great, but you'd have a wonderful holiday. Or perhaps consider Spain and France. Spain is good for budgets, history and a nice holiday, and France is good for art, culture and history. My suggestion is to consider how long you want to go for, what standard of accommodation and eating, and how much "work" (travelling can be hard work) you want to put into your holiday.

on that much cash - I would go to Eastern Europe - Western Europe is expensive and Eastern is still full of bargains. For Art and some great architecture try (czech) Prague, Krakow, Gdansk or many others in Poland or Moscow, St.Pete in Russia (with the last one you will need visa - which your youth hostel/Hotel can help) or Budapest or Romania, Bulgaria. In all you can get hotel for $50/day or much less and food from $2-$15 ($15 in good restaurants) - you can also use overnight sleeper trains which are popular in Eastern Europe and will save you some bucks on hotels. There are many youth hostel directories available or for other similar dorm type places, for all countries (available - for your age group - take your school ID or some schools will issue you international student ID - great for all kinds of discounts in all Europe) which will save you mega bucks and make any vacation possible. round trip to Poland out of season last year was around $350.
simmilar was to Moscow and Czech republic (using their carriers) Polish LOT (really nice airlines), Russian Aeroflot (food and service was good, seats were like in British Airlines, and no in flight movie), Czech did not try it yet.

Doing a quick search on www.av.com "youth hostel" got so many hits as well as this:
http://www.hostelseurope.com/freqask.html
flight and hotel will be your biggest expense so I think this is the way to go - It's also good way of meeting others from all over...