35 Days?
 

Lisbon, Madrid, Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, Berlin, Warsaw, Prague, Vienna, Bratislava, Budapest, Bucharest, Istanbul, Sofia, Thessaloniki, Skopje, (Prishtina?), Belgrade, Zagreb, Ljubljana, Venice, Geneva. What are your thoughts.

Not super intended on seing all the sights or taking all the culture in. This trip is more for me to do the feat of seeing most of continental Europe in a little over a month. Please don't respond with harsh comments about how absurd this is, I know what it is and what I'm getting myself into, I'm more interested to here the experience from others who have underwent such a grand EuroTrip.

22 cities . . . Not at all realistic.

Sure, you don't don't want to see 'all' the sites. But in 35 days - after subtracting all the travel time (at least 10 full days in transit), you will have barely one day in each city.

Why even bother?

(Note: I did not say it is absurd. Even though it kinda is)

OP said not to bother, but you just had to bother.....

You seem to have laid this out as a plausible directional itinerary, so can we presume you intend to do all travel by rail or bus? Madrid - Paris stands out as a long haul potentially worth flying.

In looking at the route, I see Warsaw, and then Geneva as outliers. If you dropped Geneva, and went from Vienna (Bratislava can be done as a day-trip as it is 50 minutes away) to Venice ( consider flying), before continuing back to Ljubljana, Zagreb, Belgrade, Skopje, Thessaloniki, Sofia, Istanbul, my very rough calculations suggest you might save 10 hours of travel time (road/rail).

You could also go from Budapest to Belgrade, continue the routing to Istanbul and ten fly to Zagreb and continue to Ljubljana, and Venice.

There are countless options here since you don't really have a commitment to any one place. If there are some of these that are there because they were on the way and others that are must haves, can you present it that way.

I think you would be well-suited to doing this as a series of tours to make this maximally feasible. Tours have the routine down pat to be able to cover a lot of ground quickly and you will still see something of each country ... a taster, if you like. Otherwise logistically it will be difficult to do your plan in 35 days. I don't think the idea of ticking boxes on your bucket list is absurd, but I do think if you want to do it, you need some help.

Lavandula

What are your thoughts.>

If going to half of those places by train in that quick a time look strongly at a Global Eurailpass for a month or a 10- or 15-day Eurail Flexipass. For lots on European trains and passes check www.ricksteves.com; www.budgeteuropetravel.com and www.seat61.com.

Yes, I intend on spending a large portion of the budget on a 2 month continuous global pass from Eurail in case anyone was wondering.

I hope you really, really like trains.

I would move quickly to start - perhaps Amsterdam, Brussels, Paris, Geneva in four days. Slow down a bit and then knock off another four in four days.

I know I would be “banking” a bit of time early on so I could a) slow down a touch towards the end, and b) get to some of the outliers, probably Madrid and Lisbon.

If you are American you can cross off Istanbul.

"I'm more interested to here [sic] the experience from others who have underwent [sic] such a grand EuroTrip."

I once traveled from Scotland to Saigon, with all forward travel by train, and with some detours, traveling through England, France, Spain, Portugal, (Spain), Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary, Austria, the Czech Republic, Poland, Lithuania, Russia, Mongolia and China. 17,000 miles not counting detours. But I took seven months to do it, and thought I was moving rather fast even so.

You couldn't pay me to do the trip you outline, but it's your trip. Not sure what else you want to hear.

Okay, back when I was a young Sue, I did:
London - 2
Paris - 3
Lyon - 1
Barcelona - 3
Nice - 2
Florence - 3
Rome - 3
Venice - 2
Vienna - 2
Salzburg - 1
Munich - 1
Innsbruck - 1
Lauterbrunnen, Switz - 2
Heidelberg - 1
Cologne - 1
Amsterdam - 3
near the channel ferry (yup it was a long time ago) - 1
London - 3

total 35 nights plus the plane over, 17 places (one, London, was repeated.)
I was young, energetic, and went for the journey.

Two points: I visited fewer places than you have listed, in the same amount of time. However, I looped back to London, I didn't consider doing an open-jaw flight, which you likely should do.

b) My places spanned a smaller section of real estate than the places you have listed. (No Greece, which would involve a ferry or a flight. No Turkey, which may be off your list anyway.)

Okay a third point. In my day, it wasn't so hard to just hop on a train. These days, reservations for many trains are required, even if one has a multi country pass.

And a fourth point. You have some outliers, as Aramis said, and you have some 'orphan' cities (I can't see how you are going to connect Venice to the rest easily.)

And a fifth: you are young and energetic, but train crews go on strike from time to time, or there are other delays. Even if you just go for the journey, expect snafus.

Hi I agree with the comment above that if you are from US skip Turkey. Things are too "IFFY" right now there. Check State Dept info. Sue

“IFFY”? Turkey is no longer issuing visas to US citizens, so it’s not iffy, it’s out of the question.

If you were a turkey, would you issue a visa? It IS Thanksgiving, you know. Or it will be in a month or so, take your pick...

And Cameroncassidy, for a first time visitor, you show great aplomb. (I have always wanted a plomb.)

Eurail pass is the most expensive way to travel. Add on the cost of reservation fee, and you must book a seat and you maybe better of booking each trip. That's a lot of work for you to do but you may save enough to add a cheap flight for one of the places you want to visit. Good luck and I hope you are young and energetic.

"Ljubljana, Venice"

Can easily add Trieste

Eurail pass is the most expensive way to travel. Add on the cost of reservation fee, and you must book a seat and you maybe better of booking each trip>

Depends on various factors - how many longer train trips OP takes and whether or not they want to book in stone discounted tickets - typically non-changeble non-refundable - or have flexibility to chose which trains once there - nice in case one wants to alter their itinerary for some reason and if OP is under 29 there is a cheaper Youthpass- if over 28 Eurails are first class in most cases and that has its advantages too.

but do the maths and yeh add on $5-12 or so for trains in France, Spain and Italy and OP can not really do all those cities.

Just staying at home and beating yourself over the head with a chain would be much the same effect , be much cheaper, and save people bothering to write advice....

I don't really get what we are supposed to say if we are not allowed to say that this is not realistic/enjoyable/fun/worth it.