I agree with Tyler, if you are on a budget Germany, Czech Republic and Eastern Europe are more economical, however London can be done on a budget and if you are visiting lots of museums, London has the advantage of most museums being free.

Personally i'd do a trip of 4 days or so in London, fly to Prague for 4 days then Berlin for 4 days. If you've longer then add Edinburgh after London and fly to Prague.

Also consider Poland. Krakow is beautiful and i found Warsaw interesting (although not at the top of my list)

Have you considered Amsterdam? This is a beautiful city, has lots of interesting archiecture and is a good city for young people. You could do this on your way to Germany from London.

I would not skip London if you have free accommodation it would be such a shame. It is like any other place you can eat and entertain yourself for as little or as much as you can afford. So compromise, as other said no one takes taxis in London buy a travel card and make use of the tubes. Lots of Museums are free and if you look around you can eat on a budget. You will regret not making the most of the chance of the free accommodation.
Still stick with you plan to visit London and Scotland, again when are you going to get the chance to have free accommodation to see these places. Thou you do not say where in Scotland.
As people have said maybe look at flying in to London and using easyjet to fly to Edinburgh and Prague then maybe Karkow or Budapest and fly home from an airport outside of the UK to make it a round trip .I think these will suit your needs, i.e.. “History and architecture, so visiting historical sites and museums is an important part of our trip. Shopping is of course”
Trying to fit too many places in one go will end up costing you money and spoil your trip as you spend more time travelling to and from places and booking in and out of accommodation.

sunah - how long do you have in total?

In your situation, it makes sense to go where you have free accommodations and then spend the rest of your time in places where your money will go further.

With the free museums, you can do a lot in London with little money. You just have to be careful where you go to eat.

After London and Scotland, I would choose Italy. It is such a wonderful place. We usually seem to be there in August, but I would think September would be better, if that's an option for you.

Germany is nice, if that appeals to you. I keep hearing that Berlin is a happening place, although I haven't been to that city myself. Personally, I would visit other places before Germany, but that's just my preference. We had a wonderful time in Germany/Austria last year.

It is hard to narrow it down, isn't it? Whatever choice you make, it won't be a bad one. Have fun!

If you want to go to Germany and Prague, go to Germany and Prague. Ignore everybody else's favorite places. Save Italy for when you have a little more time.

For budget flights in Europe look at www.whichbudget.com. Get a bunch of guidebooks from the library to help you decide where to go in Germany. The DK ones have nice pictures. Lonely Planet and Let's Go are for cheaper, student-type travel. I use Rick Steves' book and the green Michelin guides to help prioritize the sights.

Great post Mimar...

Unless someone exactly like yourself has been to every city in Europe, you won't be able to trust peoples "favorite places"... The major tourist path usually goes London > Paris > Italy... and if those are the only places people have been, that's the only places they can suggest.

I loved Berlin... there is SO much history there if you are history buffs.

I agree, knowing how much time you have total will help too.

In addition to free accomodation you seem to have, there are a good number of discount airlines operating out of UK (ryanair, easyjet). You just have to be careful as their fares often do not include taxes, they sometimes use airports further away, and they have strict rules on luggage weight limits etc.

You can also try Air Berlin, which is a discount airlines operating out of Germany. Prague is lovely, especially if you can avoid August crowd.

wow you guys, thanks so much for all the info!

we discussed this a little further and our itinerary will include scotland and germany. free accomodation in scotland will save us some money that we can spend in germany!

since we will be travelling for three weeks, we decided to stay in scotland for one, and spend two in germany. which i suppose will be enough to visit all the major cities.

If you get a chance to get to the Mosel/Rhine area, then I would suggest Beilstein as a nice stop. Not a big city at all but a nice place to relax and catch your breath, to see Burg Eltz castle, and to take a cruise on the Rhine (which we did as a daytrip from Beilstein). It was actually my favorite place in Germany although I didn't get to Berlin which is on my future wish list.

Sunah, I love that you're so open to ideas and flexible with your plans. I agree with many of the previous posters about taking the free accommodations to get to see London and ANYWHERE in Scotland! But when you hit the continent, given that you want to see Germany and possibly Prague, I'd do just that.

I haven't seen anyone mention hostels yet... are you open to staying in those? Many of them are in castles along the Rhine, where you can stay for less than 20 euro for B&B. See http://old.web02.djh.de/internationa...x_map.jsp?ID=9 for some ideas.

Another option is to stay in pensions or farmhouses, esp. in the Alps, where prices are very reasonable and you'll be treated like one of the family. You may not know that every town in Germany has a website--just type in www. and the name of the town.de and you should get it. Or do a search on the areas where you know you want to stay... and remember, you're always better off staying outside major cities and taking the train in.

A third option if you have the time is to rent a small "ferienwohnung" or vacation house/apartment. Then you can do most of your own cooking and save lots. There will be listings of such lodging on any town's website, right along with hotels and gasthauses.

September is the absolute BEST month to travel in Germany, it's winefest time, and you can stay in any little village along the Mosel or Rhine and participate in the local festivals. The weather is the nicest then, too. I'm jealous.