Best route
 

We are flying from Australia, we want to travel to the following countries and asking for ideas on the best route. Spain including Madrid Barcelona Valencia. Italy only want to see cinque terra, Amalfi coast, Sorento & Positano. (we have previously been to italy) Vienna, Prague and Budapest, we are aiming for 5-6 weeks.
Happy to travel by train, just not sure in which order to do the different countries.

With five separate countries, you obviously need to fly into one destination and home from your last, it's called Open Jaw. The choice of where to fly into will depend on the best flight deal you can get, but ideally get yourself a good map of Europe, check flights and plot your travels from arrival.

There are a couple of different ways to approach your itinerary.

1. Airfare prices - fly into and out of the least expensive cities from your origin.

2. Depending on time of year you're traveling you might want to travel from north to south or south to north for the best climate.

If climate and budget are not factors:

Fly into Prague. Take the train to Vienna and then Budapest. Fly to Milan and visit Cinque Terre; take the train to Sorrento for AC. Fly to Madrid or Barcelona and visit Spain. Fly home from Madrid or Barcelona, whichever gives the best connections.

Great advice Adrienne, thanks and rubicund. We r travelling in May. going to Prague ffirst was not our plan but going to the cheapest country first is a good plan, will check out fares from all countries. Thanks again

I would look at the budget airlines for flights in Europe (often cheaper than the trains between countries). You have to pay attention to luggage/carry-on weight (they are less than regular airlines and can be very restictive) and check-in times.

www.skyscanner.com
www.whichbudget.com

This tip might help - Rome to Barcelona airfares are some of the cheapest in Europe not involving secondary airports and the RyanAir(bus). I think if you plan a Spain/Italy transition between those 2 cities you will find it the best deal.

That, of course, suggests either a Prague - Vienna - Budapest - CT via Pisa/Genoa (they are closer than Milan if flying from Budapest) - Amalfi - Barcelona (via Rome) - Valencia - Madrid routing, or the opposite.

You could do Budapest - Vienna Prague in order to start, too - whichever turns out best airfare wise for getting in and then on to Italy (if you decide to fly that leg).

As you have quite many days to play around with, you could also check the ferry services from Barcelona to Genoa which would give you a "Mediterranean cruise" for free when traveling between Italy and Spain or vice versa :-)

thanks one & all - looking at your advice over the next day or so, appreciate all suggestions. Checking the "free" cruise!