Personally i love Mykonos, it offers great beaches, hotels, restaurants....
Being there doesn't mean that you will have to be part of the wild nightlife.. You can have a great dinner, have a nice drink in one of the numerous bars and cafes in Matogiannia, or Alefkandra (Little Venice) and then go back to your hotel, while others are preparing for clubbing....
Have spent very relaxing holidays in Mykonos, and i am going back every year.

You are planning on visiting mostly larger cities - which will be much more expensive than camping in the countryside. I can;t comment in detail on your budget - since we aren;t super budget travelers - except to say that I think this is a VERY limited amount of money for lodging, food, sightseeing and local transport for 2 people. If you want it to include intercity travel I'm not sure it's doable.

I believe you will be looking at a LOT of picnics and meals taken out of supermarkets as well as very basic lodgings with shared bath, no AC and stairs versus elevators. I suggest that you look at the entrance fees for major sights to get an idea of what you will have to allow for those costs.

Have you and your son traveled like this before? This is a HUGE undertaking at an extremely fast pace. Not everyone can travel at such a high intensity for months on end.

Even with the generous 4 months time allotment I would definitely eliminate the entire US/Mexico portion you are considering, and slow down your pace to better experience Israel, Greece, Italy, France, Britian, Ireland, Scotland, etc.

Wow, thanks for all the feedback,

Firstly, there's no way we would drop USA & Mexico, but those 3 weeks will be spent relaxing with family, not traveling about. Also the first 3 weeks in Israel will be spent relaxing with family, so it's really only the Europe portion which will be spent traveling - with a week relaxing with family in Barcelona in the middle.

So, from feedback, I'm going back to travel agent to look at other Greek islands - id love something less touristy, if possible. The rest of the 10 day Greek leg seems doable. The 16 days in Italy will be busy, but if I plan 3 nights in each place, 4 in Rome, and concentrate on Como rather than Milan for final stop, I'll think we will manage.

From the advice PalenQ gave, I'm now thinking to do an overnight train straight from Milan to Barcelona. This gets us to the week with family straight after the intensive Italy leg, giving us time to recover.

From there we can head into France with a week to spare before arriving in Paris. Any suggestions for that week are most welcome! I've been told Nice and Provence are lovely. I'd love to go rural.

Or we could head to Paris early, and thus give extra time to UK and Ireland, but it seems like an awful shame to whiz straight past the rest of France!

I'm leaning strongly to hiring a car in the UK, probably from Bath onwards. Ive been wanting to see Tintagel, Glastonbury, etc for as long as I can remember! Wales is a must. With a car it wouldn't be hard to drive around the Lakes district. From there maybe we should drive north to Scotland then fly to Ireland. I don't need to explore so much of Ireland, but I'd really like to see it!

As to the budget, it's not set in stone, but with transport costs of roughly $12,000, allocating more than $18,000 for the 4 months seems a little over the top! From what I can tell so far accommodation, usually inc breakfast, will be about $500 to $600 a week, less the 6 weeks with family, so it looks like it should be pretty doable. We are used to budget living, walking everywhere and picnicking, have no problem with shared bathroom etc. it is, after all, about the adventure first and foremost.

<i>just checking your $s are they US or Oz?</i> The two currencies are almost identical in value these days.

<i>I would definitely eliminate the entire US/Mexico portion...</i> As I understand it, feyla & son are doing an RTW (round the world trip). Eliminating that portion would mean doubling back instead. Think carefully about where you will travel in Mexico, though.

<i>So, from feedback, I'm going back to travel agent to look at other Greek islands - id love something less touristy, if possible.</i> As I suggested earlier, look closely at Naxos. Mykonos is everything clausar says, but Naxos is less expensive and more family-oriented. In early July there will be many Scandinavian families visiting the island, so your son will have others his own age around. :-)

all Greek isles I have been to are touristy - the ones that are not have no hotels or little to do.

Sorry I wasn't taking into account the RTW ticket requirements and didn't know you had family to visit in US & Mexico.

My thought was only about the incredibly intense pace, number of destinations, long duration of time. Hearing the details of several times stopping to stay a week in one place visiting family or friends, makes it a little bit more reasonable.

PalenQ maybe you have been only to the touristy ones .. :)

Yes clausar - and that is what most folks do - ones that are not touristy don't perhaps offer much of what the average tourist is looking for - but yes to laze back and relax if that is the goal there are zillions of small islands sans many tourists.

That is not exactly the case PalenQ, there are many wonderful islands that have much to offer, but for some reason as far as Greece is concerned i keep seeing recommendations for the same 4-5 islands over and over again.....

I will of course defer to your obviously much more familiarity with many Greek islands than my relatively limited experiences.

Q is why do tourists flock to just a handful of islands - I guess because they are famous because they attract so many tourists - so good tip to try some others.

What lesser known islands would you recommend - I may be taking a trip to Greece in the future? thanks

Some of my favorite islands are :
Lesbos , Koufonisia , Anafi , Kythira, Astypalia Kalymnos and Chalki just to name a few.

PalenQ, after talking down Greece so much on this forum, I'm happy you plan to return there yourself.

Some islands are "touristy" because they have international airports and deep water anchorage, e.g. Mykonos and Santorini, others because they are popular with package holiday companies, e.g. Kos, Rhodes, Corfu, etc. Any island that has good beaches and is easy to reach from Athens could be described as "touristy", because it attracts large numbers of visitors.

If you want to get away from the tourist crowds, the main thing is to avoid high season. Even the busy islands are quiet in May and late September. another way to avoid touristy islands is to go somewhere hard to reach, perhaps Astypalia, Chios, or Kythira for example. Even better would be to avoid the islands entirely, and go somewhere like Messinia or Lakonia in southern Peloponnese. I spent an afternoon in September visiting the magnificent Ancient Messina, and there were only about six visitors (including us) on the entire site. :-)