Need help planning Europe trip!!
 

Hello! I just graduated college and am looking to travel to a few countries in Europe for about 2 months but am not too sure of what order to travel them in or where to even go honestly. I have a few places in mind and the order as well, but I am open to any suggestions and what to add/replace! Here is what I have so far:

Barcelona/Madrid, Spain --> Dublin, Irelan --> London, England --> Brussels, Belgium --> Amsterdam, Netherlands --> Berlin, Germany --> Poland --> Prague, Czech Republic --> Vienna, Austria --> Santorini, Greece --> Istanbul, Turkey

I'm also somewhat on a low-budget and am not too sure of the travel situation between each country. Any type of advice or suggestion would be very much appreciated. Thank you so much!!

As you don't plan to visit countries, but only their capitals (except Santorini and Istanbul) you may check the most popular European low cost airlines: ryanair, easyjet, vueling, wizzair.....)

No Paris??

ssander

London --> via Eurostar ~2:20 --> Paris --> via Thalys ~1:15 --> Brussels --> via Thalys ~1:50 --> Amsterdam

Fast and cheap if you buy tickets well in advance.

ssander

Europe has a very good system of train, or intercity flights. All of the cities you listed is a transportation hub.

About the budget, for each pair of cities that you want to connect, you can see the price and the how-to in this site:
http://www.seat61.com
That is a very informative site and it'll lead you to anything you need, trainwise.

With it, you'll be able to estimate your total transport budget.

When trains take more than 5h then flights might be better. For flights you can look at some flight comparison site as skyscanner.com or kayak.com.

Assuming you are under 26 the Eurail Global Youthpass will probably be a boon for all those trains - take night trains too to save on daytime travel time and cost of hostels or hotels - for lots of great info on trains and passes check www.ricksteves.com; www.seat61.com and www.budgeteuropetravel.com.

Pass lets you just hop on any train anytime in all your countries save Britain -no valid there - and Turkey.

If you are serious about saving money, cut half of the destinations. Even with budget transportation, moving around costs money, time, and stress. For instance, going from Vienna to Santorini to Istanbul is both wishful and expensive thinking. I support slow travel: Settle into one spot, get a feel for the place, take excursions as desired.

Yup less can be more -more or less!

What is your budget for 2 months not including your flights to/from Europe?

You need to cull a few of the most distant targets.

You’re young and will get more chances to do them justice, rather than just rushing in and out at considerable expense .without really getting to know them.

Then do your sums, reapportion your time to worthwhile targets, and consult the following websites that will help you stay within budget:

https://www.hihostels.com
http://www.eurolines.com/en/
https://www.busradar.com
https://www.ricksteves.com/travel-ti...distance-buses

I would take a map, mark each of the destinations you mention, then pick only half of them (ones that are geographically closer together). That will help bring your trip in at a lower cost than trying to cover so much ground.

I may suggest cutting Dublin and Spain as those are outliers to others places you are going to - even cheap flights can be expensive and time-consuming.

the rest of your list is in logical order - London and on.