Sorry, to correct my message: 100 miles = $1 as a rough estimate. Not only can't I type, I can't do my math either.

...You have beeen given lots of advice..I am of the do less see more school ..meander rather than rush..(if you want a sampler do a bus tour for a week or 2 then stay in one place for a week each with day trips)..but this is my style as a travel day (and i dont mean a day trip) is a day with little sight seeing unless you take back roads with stops at interesting spots..re the guide book...i do the library bit before, plus conde nast ect..but i carry a green guide (for european trips..lonely planet for off the beaten path)..small but contains opening hours and brief ideas..if my journey changes, i can easily leaf through the guide and find necessary info..

I'm sorry that I didn't phrase that more clearly. We are thinking along the same lines. I was trying to say 80,000 miles per person (times two people) equals $1600 for TWO people. And I stand by the "could be" worth 2 and a half times that, in the right circumstances.

Oh, and yes, I realize that people rack up a lot of miles at a young age all the time. Just nosy.

I see, rex. But what sorts of things can you claim for 20,000 miles? Don't domestic flights start at 25,000 miles? I'm quite curious about this, as more and more I'm beginning to think that miles are not worth the trouble.

To me I guess the value is always maximized when you fly during a peak period and when you fly the longest distance possible with layovers. But in reality I tend to doubt that miles can really be put to work in these circumstances unless there's a lot of advanced planning.

Sorry to take this thread a little off topic.

As much as it pains me to use up 80,000 miles a ticket, I?m going to do it. First off, my husband and I are very constrained as to when we can travel. He is a teacher, and so we are left with a week over the holidays or 3 months over the summer. So we are basically stuck taking any vacations (Winter Break, Summer, Spring Break) over the busy travel periods.
And for flying at the time we are going, I wasn?t finding flights for less than 1000. I did find a couple in and out of London for around 600, but nothing that fit into our desired travel itinerary.
80,000 miles seems like a lot, but its only 30,000 more than a regular Europe ticket. I also was under the impressions that 100 miles = $1? so if the tickets worked out cheaper than the miles than pay for them.
As to why I have so many miles. I travel for work ? actually most of my miles were accumulated in my last job. I was traveling weekly from Ohare to Dallas, and I had up to 450,000 miles at my max. After you get status you start getting double miles, and I also have a United credit card. So it all add up.
Just as an FYI ? we have been saving money for this trip. I am expecting to spend around 10,000? (hopefully not much more) ? but we will not be financially crunched if we do. The reason that we are trying to fit this all in and are going no-holds-barred is because we will most likely be starting a family in the next couple of years, and in that case I know that we will be doing hardly any travel (and definitely no overseas travel) when we have young children.
And back to the ?saving? of frequent flyer miles. I used to want to save them up for future vacations, but with United almost out of business you never know what will happen to the miles. You would hope that no matter what happened they would keep the mileage plus program (if they sold out) however, you never know. When all of this was going down with United a year or two ago I thought for sure I was going to be losing my 400,000 miles? after that point I decided that I would make the decision that was best for me at that point in time, instead of always saving away for the future.
I?m sure my above comments may make me sound like I spend, spend, spend with no concern for the future but that is far from the truth. I have no debt, own real estate, and have multiple investments... But I digress.

I can certainly understand many of your reasons for your summer Europe trip. I too used a bunch of miles to take the family to OZ/NZ last year to use up some UA miles and am thinking about using more some time within a year to go somewhere else just in case UA really goes under. I also understand your time of year for travel issues as your SO is a teacher and unless the school is on a year around program it is impossible to get away for an extended time unless it is the summer. We also did not travel overseas for about 10 years while we were having children so I understand this issue as well.
Having said that I must tell you that I think you have a boat load of work to do to plan your trip which is only 2 months away. As a couple with some means you can wing it but with an itinerary like yours I suspect you are going to want to nail down your hotels and some of your travel plans as you will be traveling in peak season with many thousands of other people with similar budgets. Also you may wish to have AC in your hotels this summer, especially in Spain and probably in Italy as well.
Sandra Gustaffson's books on places to stay may be of help for Paris, Madrid, Barcelona, Seville, and Florence or Rome. Lonely Planet and Rick Steve's also have lots of suggestions for your budget as well as Cadogan and Time Out. You may also wish to look into the possibility of staying In University dorms during your travels as they are often inexpensive, well located and roomy as well as clean. Do a hotel search here too. I suspect that alot of the possible hotels you may wish to consider may be pretty full by now so I would get a list of suspects and start E mailing or faxing to check prices and availability.
I think the DK guides are good for helping you plan what you want to see but are not particularly good for restaurants or hotels. Also too heavy to carry around. Michelin are more compact and good for information on what you are seeing but have no info on hotels/restaurants unless you get the red guide. Fodors I think is not well oriented to a budget traveler. Frommer's budget travel books may work for you.
Rex's advice to cut your trip down to 3 weeks and use 100K miles and limit your vacation to say France and Spain this summer would make your planning easier. You could than take another 100K miles and go back to Europe in the off season, say Thanksgiving, or Easter and explore say, Italy for a week to 10 days.
I totally understand your feeling of being overwhelmed as planning a trip like this takes alot of work. My wife and children do not appreciate the amount of work I do to plan our trips. They just expect things to go smoothly and that we stay at nice hotels/apartments and eat at interesting restaurants.
I see alot of time in Borders or Barnes & Noble plus the net in the near future as you get your trip together. Best of luck.

My preference is for "Rick Steves" or "Let's Go" for good basic tips and information, and "Cadogan" or "Rough Guide" for fuller background. For a lot of driving, check out the French lease Renaults, Citroens or Puegeots rather than traditional car hires.