Finally

Okay a little details, I have a cousin that lives in Tarragona so that’s why we are staying so long there, plus it’s only like 40 minutes from Barcelona so we plan to spend time in both places in those 7 days. Turin looks like a weird destination but my cousin wants to visit the new Juventus stadium but we can skip that if necessary. We picked Zurich to have a place to go to between Milan and Berlin.

All help, tips, suggestions appreciated.

Thanks

Milan and Zurich are major transportation hubs which makes them convenient places to visit. However, I don’t think either is a great toruist visit. Milan is a big, bustling, expensive business center with a day’s worth of stuff to interest a tourist. I’d either skip or spend a day there on the way to Venice. Zurich is a city, a decent and pretty city, but it’s not in the Alps and not, IMO all that interesting. While you’d miss the scenery from the train, I’d take an overnight train from Venice to Munich. I’d actually spend more time in and around Turin or Munich if you are interested in Alpine scenery. Innsbruck and Saltburg are scenic day trips from Munich.

I couldn’t agree more with OldLady. Even take some time to go down to Florence rather than Milan – much more worth it.

Ok thanks for your advice. we decided to cut London because it would be more expensive to travel back to New york from a different city than the one we arrived. I have a friend in Rumania how possible would it be to make stop there? would any of you guys recommend it? what about Stockholm? seems far but we could skip Milan and Zurich.

Another question; how much in advance should we book the hostels and buy the unlimited eurorail pass?

London is probably the last place I’d cut from your original itinerary. You can buy an open jaw flight into London and out of Madrid for about $130 more than a roundtrip to Madrid. You could easily spend a whole day and $100 getting back to Madrid for your flight home.

Stockholm is a nice city but it’s very expensive and it’s out of the way for most itineraries. If you have the time (you could easily kill a day getting there and another day getting to your next destination) and the money, it would be a nice visit for a couple of days. I’d skip Milan and Zurich and put London back in.

The trip planner recommends a 5 country select pass for 8 days plus a couple of point to point tickets. The trip planner is generally the best recommendation. Is there a reason you want to buy the more expensive global pass? Your railpass is a paper document and it’s shipped by secure method, so normal shipping is 5 to 7 business days and most railpass sellers ship your order within 1 or 2 days so order about 2 weeks in advance to avoid paying for express shipping. You must begin to use your railpass within 180 days of the purchase date, so don’t order it more than about 5 1/2 months in advance.

Check our hostels forum for recommendations about booking hostels. It’s much more a matter of personal style than necessity. You will always find someplace to stay if you arrive by mid-afternoon and are willing to settle for 2nd or 3rd choice and spend some time hunting around. Do book the first night at least a couple of weeks in advance. You don’t want to arrive jet-lagged, sleep-deprived, culture-shocked AND lost and homeless.

Thanks for the advice guys, we are most likely going to skip Switzerland and you’re right about Stockholm.

Okay a little update, have been checking for flights online and it’s almost 200 dollars cheaper to fly into Berlin than it is Madrid/Barcelona so we will most likely just arrive in Berlin.

Also we have a minimum of $6000 for two people excluding air and railpasses. Do you think that would be enough for the trip? Don’t really need to stay at any place fancy and even though we are big foodies we would not mind eating in the markets to save some cash.

I think budget is tight, but doable for 35 days. Minimum is probably $75 US each per day ($5,250) That would cover hostel dorm, carefully planned admission fees, local buses and subways, food from markets and street vendors, laundry and misc., a few train reservations, the occasional beer or wine and an occasional bar or cafe meal. Serious partying, eating in restaurants, increases in beer and sit-down meals, expensive day trips, any shopping beyond necessities and the ocassional post card type souvenir, and routinely taking premier trains with expensive reservations, would be extra. $100 per day each ($7,000) would allow you to go beyond the basics. Cutting transportation costs by buying the right combinations of rail pass and point to point tickets and finding the cheapest open jaw flight (see our “cheap flights” forum) and adding the savings to daily living could make a big difference in the comfort level.
Add $200 emergency cash ($ or € equivalent) to any budget.