Okay, so for graduation my three best friends and I are going to Europe. What is a rough budget for what we have planned? We're planning on buying a 15 day Flexi Eurail pass, and then when necessary we'll just buy separate passes. Food: on the cheap. Lunches/dinners at small cafes/pizzerias/delis/etc....Breakfasts in our rooms, and snacks from grocery stores when possible We might do a nice dinner every few weeks. We're staying in International Youth Hostels, and on occasion a decent hotel. Any advice would be AMAZING!

Here is our itinerary...Please let me know if you think we should add/subtract anything.
The most days we can be gone for is 65, and we're already VERY close to that, at 64.
Day 1: Fly from Chicago [or cheapest airport] to London.
Day 2-4: Tour London
Day 5: London to Dublin
Day 6-8: Tour Dublin
Day 9: Dublin to Paris
Day 10-13: Tour Paris [day trip to Versailles]
Day 14: Paris to Netherlands, stopping in Brussels [Belgium]
Day 15-16: Tour Netherlands
Day 17: Netherlands to Copenhagen
Day 18-19: Tour Copenhagen
Day 20: Copenhagen to Oslo
Day 21-23: Tour Oslo
Day 24: Oslo to Berlin
Day 25-27: Tour Berlin
Day 28: Berlin to Munich
Day 29: Tour Munich
Day 30: Munich to Prague
Day 31-32: Tour Prague
Day 33: Prague to Vienna
Day 34-35: Tour Vienna
Day 36: Vienna to Salzburg
Day 37-39: Tour Salzburg
Day 40: Salzburg to Dubrovnik
Day 41-43: Tour Dubrovnik
Day 44: Dubrovnik to Rome
Day 45-48: Tour Rome
Day 49: Rome to Florence
Day 50: Florence
Day 51-52: Venice
Day 53: Venice to Barcelona
Day 54-57: Tour Barcelona
Day 58: Barcelona to Madrid
Day 59-60: Tour Madrid
Day 61: Madrid to Portugal
Day 61-63: Tour Portugal
Day 64: Fly home 

Any comments/advice/places we should see would be sweet! Thank you!

Young folk like you may want to linger a bit longer in Amsterdam than a day or two - lots of folks your age there from all over Europe in its may youth hotels - if into partying... and try the coffeeshops if into cannabis - sold legally for all practical purposes from menus in coffeeshops - the name for places that openly and legally sell cannabis - fun places for young folk even if do not light up (many now have vaporizers so you need not even smoke) - anyway it's the last call for foreigners perhaps in such shops as supposedly after this year only Dutch residents will be allowed in coffeeshops - Amsterdam in many ways a lovely city for lots of reasons - gorgeous in its ring of old canals - world-famous museums - the Anne Frank House and yes great great nightlife for your ages.

As for trains with that type of wide-ranging itinerary yes a Global Eurailpass is a no brainer IMO - youthpass if under 26 - some great IMO sites for planning the rail portion - www.budgeteuropetravel.com; www.seat61.com; www.ricksteves.com.

I think you're absolutely trying to see too much. I'd cut out at least half of your destinations. You'll be enroute for 30 plus days. I guarantee that's going to get really old on about the 5th day.

I should probably note, none of us are into the party/club scene, and we don't drink.
We all want to see a lot, and are okay with spending a bit of time travelling. Our main goal is to see as much as we can, but still relax before going to University this fall. We have worked in travel days, so the amount of days touring a location is the amount of time there - the days travelling have been noted as such.

hi triathletesyd,

i started looking quite favourably on your itinerary, but by the end i was just tired reading it. yes, i know you are young, and want to see as much as you can but you will be VERY fed up with the inside of train carriages by the time yo have finished - you are going to be moving on every other day! that is more than a bit of time spent travelling.

as you are going to be hostelling, do you even ned to go to this level of planning? what if you decide that you'd like to spend longer in Berlin? - which is surely worth more than a day, BTW! and just a day for Rome??? and you do know that portugal and the netherlands are countries, not cities? so that you can't see all of them in a day each.

europe will still be here when you're 30, 40, even 50.

slow down and smell the roses!

We have more then one day for almost every place we visit. I know that Portugal&Netherlands are countries; there's just no where too specific I want to go there; so I left it rather brief.
We have three days lined up for Rome - days 45-48 Berlin also has 3 days, I believe. We were trying to spend more time in each place; but all the sudden we hit day 50-ish and realized we needed to end the trip hahah

I went through and slightly altered our itinerary. While I wouldn't mind deleting Norway & Denmark (which are time consuming); one of us has family ancestry in Norway, and it makes sense to stop in Denmark on the way there...

Day 1: Fly out of Chicago (possibly Dallas/Buffalo/Toronto if cheaper, if not Chicago is a central location as we are all going to be spread out at different Universities). Land in London

Day 2: Tour London
Day 3: Tour London
Day 4: Tour London
Day 5: Depart London to Dublin
Day 6: Tour Dublin
Day 7: Tour Dublin
Day 8: Day trip from Dublin (location not specified yet)
Day 9: Depart Dublin to Paris
Day 10: Tour Paris
Day 11: Tour Paris
Day 13: Day trip from Paris to Versailles
Day 14: Depart Paris to Amsterdam
Day 15: Tour Amsterdam
Day 16: Tour Amsterdam
Day 17: Depart Amsterdam to Copenhagen
Day 18: Tour Copenhagen
Day 19: Tour Copenhagen
Day 20: Depart Copenhagen to Oslo
Day 21: Tour Oslo
Day 22: Tour Oslo
Day 23: Lazy day in Oslo
Day 24: Depart Oslo to Berlin
Day 25: Tour Berlin
Day 26: Tour Berlin
Day 27: Tour Berlin
*we cut Munich, which gives us an additional 2 days - bad idea or good?
Day 28: Depart Berlin to Prague
Day 29: Tour Prague
Day 30: Tour Prague
*possibly an extra day in Prague to visit Salzburg (day trip)
Day 31: Depart Prague to Vienna
Day 32: Tour Vienna
Day 33: Tour Vienna
Day 34: Depart Vienna to Dubrovnik
Day 35: Tour Dubrovnik
Day 36: Tour Dubrovnik
Day 37: Day trip [undecided]
Day 38: Depart Dubrovnik for Rome
Day 39: Tour Rome
Day 40: Tour Rome
Day 41: Tour Rome
Day 42: Depart Rome for Florence
Day 43: Tour Florence
Day 44: Tour Florence
Day 45: Depart Florence to Venice
Day 46: Tour Venice
Day 47: Tour Venice
Day 48: Day trip to Capri
Day 49: Depart Venice to Barcelona
Day 50: Tour Barcelona
Day 51: Tour Barcelona
Day 52: Tour Barcelona
Day 53: Lazy day in Barcelona
Day 54: Depart Barcelona to Madrid
Day 55: Tour Madrid
Day 56: Tour Madrid
Day 57: Tour Madrid
Day 58: Day trip
Day 59: Depart Madrid to Portugal (unspecified location)
Day 60: Tour Portugal
Day 61: Tour Portugal
Day 62: Tour Portugal
Day 63: Fly home

We cut out 3 places, and extended a few others, and still ended up flying home a day early... We have 2 days of "wiggle" room, as we have a 65 day period that we can be away for (that is, that all of us can be away for - some of us go back to school earlier then others).

Any other comments/advice? Places to stay, things we need to do? Thanks!

Leave out Oslo whose main interests are the Viking Museum, the open air museum and the Kon-Tiki museum, all within walking distance of each other. At a minimum, just give yourself a full day in Oslo. I would think that Stockholm would be more interesting. But leaving out that part of Scandinavia will give you some more breathing room.

Lisbon and the immediate area west of it should probably be the limit of your travels in Portugal (everywhere else you are limiting yourself to cities).

much, much better.

it's a shame about Munich, but definitely something had to give, and it'll be there still when you come back next time.

BTW - i just spotted one anomaly - you appear to be aiming to do a day trip to Capri from venice. sorry, can't be done - it's about 300 miles away on the other coast of Italy. you could do a day trip to the islands of the venitian lagoon - that's a lot of fun - but you don't need to plan that in advance, you just hop on a boat.

otherwise, it looks great.

Looks busy but that's your choice and it should be fun. One glaring error is that you can't do a day trip to Capri from Venice (day 48. Capri is off the east coast of Italy in the bay of Naples.
If money is a problem you might want to cut back on the time you spend in the Scandinavian countries which are extremely expensive.

Michael, I totally would ditch Oslo, with no problems; but one of my friends who I am going with has that as their #1, because their whole family is from Norway, so we decided to go with it.. Any other good cities (or places in general) that we could go to in Norway?

Annhig, haha thanks! Yeah, I really wanted to spend more time in Switzerland (and now we're down to none) but I figure there will always be more trips. Oh shoot! I meant to add in 2 days for Naples, I definitely was too tired while doing this - thanks for pointing that out!

Jefferey, haha busy was our goal - that and covering as much land as possible lol! Not too sure about budgets yet - still being finalized; but we're doing everything on the cheap, and I have some connections in Denmark, and friends have connections in Norway so we can stay there for free!

Thanks everyone!

0: Depart Copenhagen to Oslo
Day 21: Tour Oslo
Day 22: Tour Oslo
Day 23: Lazy day in Oslo
Day 24: Depart Oslo to Berlin

I agree with Oslo being not so interesting for so many days - consider however using it as a jumping off point for what I consider one of the very top most awesome excursions in Europe - the Norway in a Nutshell extravaganza - first take the dramatic Oslo to Bergen railway to Bergen - an old Hanseatic port with lots of character and the next day from it do the fantastic Norway in a Nutshell trip that entails a train to Voss (Knute Rockne's grave not far from station) - a thrilling mountain bus ride to Gudvagen, on Norway's largest fjord to take a boat to Flam - maybe seeing whales en route and then the dramatic Flam-Myrdhal railway to Myrdhal from where you can go onto Oslo or back to Bergen. A really fantastic day - one of the very finest in my decades of incessant European travels.

http://www.norwaynutshell.com/en/exp...in-a-nutshell/

Official site of Norway in a Nutshell, which is not really a guided tour but provides a ticket to cover all components you need.

How do you plan to get from Vienna to Dubrovnik?

PalenQ -- thanks! I will definitely check that out, and forward it on to those I am travelling with.

Yorkshire -- there is a 5 hour train from Vienna to Dubrovnik

I have just a few comments on your plans.

1) I would add one day to London and subtract one from Dublin. You will be jetlagged when you arrive in London, so you won't have as much time to get around as you think, London is huge, and it has so much history. Dublin is small, and you'll have recovered from your jet lag. (Alternatively, plan for your flight from London to Dublin to be at the end of the day, so that you're really get most of a day in London before you leave.)

2) I've been to Oslo and don't see a problem with the length of time you have allocated to it, but think about spending some of that time in an overnight trip into the countryside, which will be gorgeous.

3) One other suggestion that's quite different from what you have planned. Why don't you consider spending a Monday-Friday in one or more of the following - France, Spain, Germany or Austria - and use it to take a language immersion course? It's a great way to meet people from all over the world and experience the culture, and you'll also learn something while you're at it. There often are dormitory or homestay arrangements that can make the cost of doing such a course quite reasonable. You can even put it on your c.v. I can recommend schools in Spain and France if you're interested.

Heey, thanks for your suggestions!
-I will definitely consider adding to London, and subtracting from somewhere through the trip -- Most likely not Dublin; as a lot of us have family heritage (and some relatives) there, so there will be a lot people want to see. Somewhere else though we can find days to swap around!
-I definitely want to do that at some point, I was thinking in Copenhagen; because I have a friend there that I am staying with and he wants to show us the countryside around there.
-Hmm. That one would take some planning, but definitely do-able. France or Spain would be awesome for that! Definitely not something I would have considered, but a great thought! Thanks!

why are you going to London to Dublin to Paris? Wouldn't it make more sense to start in Dublin, then go to London, then go to Paris? If you look at the map, it makes more sense.

You will be dead after traveling at such a pace. You will go to many cities and they will all eventually be a blur.
You need at least a week in Paris. Dont' visit so many places....just narrow it down to a few. I was in Paris for 12 days a couple of years ago and didn't begin to see it all. I did this type of thing when i was young but had no itinerary. That was GREAT.....family at home wasn't too thrilled. We moved on when we were ready and had a blast! We had reservations at beginning and reservations at the end, but in between it was unplanned. Have a great time, whatever you decide to do. Stay safe!

Also, why are you traveling to Barcelona from Venice? It will most likely be very expensive. Venice is an expensive place to stay and you would be better off going there from Dubrovnik, which is closer. Then, after Venice, you could move onto Rome on a Trenitalia train, continue from Rome to Florence, and onto Barcelona from there.