I like this itinerary. You’re covering a lot of ground, but you’ve got it worked out so it’s not rushed.

Some tips on your day trips… You want to take the Circumvesuviana train to Pompeii Scarvo (“ruins”) station which is right across the street from the entrance to the site and on the same line as Sorrento. The Pompeii station on the Salerno line is not near the ruins. On a day trip from Sorrento you could easily visit both Pompeii and Herulaneum (station Erculano or something similar on the Sorrento line) to see the ruins there. They’re smaller than Pompeii but in many ways they’re more interesting and they’re much less likely to be overrun with tourists. The ruins are about a 5 to 10 minute walk going straight ahead as you leave the station.

Take RER (suburban commuter rail in Paris) line C to Versailles as that station is near the Palace. The “regular” Versailles train station (reached from Gare Monparnesse) is a considerable distance from the palace.

Dachau is easy to reach on the Munich S-bahn commuter rail line (which is covered by your railpass). It’s a short bus ride (not covered by railpass) to the camp. There’s signing at the bus stop and, of course, you can just “follow the other tourists.”

Wow, excellent destinations and a well-thought out itinerary.
Buy your water BEFORE you get to Pompeii (it’s a hot and dusty tour, and the bottled water at the site is expensive.) Day to day expenses can vary. Try to eat from markets when you can.
Be sure to do the volcano hike on Santorini, it’s fun.

Damn… that’s a mind bogglingly great itinerary for a first timer

As far as per diem expenses…. that depends entirely on you. Personally I give myself like 50 dollars per day, and I always end up living like a king the last week because I’m able to get by so frugally. Sleep in hostels, get food at grocery stores and make it yourself… don’t go to bars every day…. you’d be surprised how little money you can spend and still have a great time. My friend and I spent less than 5 DOLLARS per day in London to eat, and it’s known as one of the most expensive cities in the world. The last day we were there we had so much money left over we just “splurged” and went to this average fish n’ chips place and blew an exorbitant sum for lunch just because we were so weighed down with money (well, “alot” for me was like 10 pounds for lunch…. which…I mean, come on, that’s 20 bucks!!! ) But yeah, you get my point.

Wow thanks guys, it’s always nice to hear good feedback!

I’ve been working on this thing for quite a while now, and I finally feel like I’ve got it right.

Thanks for all those helpful hints too. Ill have to write them into our guidebook so that I don’t forget them =P

Right now the budget my bf and I have is about 55 euros a day. That doesn’t include any transportation costs except within the city itsself. We’re planning to stay mostly at hostels that include breakfast, so that we don’t have to pay for that. (Hopefully we’ll be able to sneak a bun or two into our bags too for a quick lunch =P) And I LOVE foreign grocery stores so it will be no problem eating from there.

One other thing we’re planning to do is bring a box of granola bars on the way over there just because London is expensive and some granola bars will be a cheap and easy snack.

Any other comments or suggestions are welcome !!!

Would it be possible for you to add this to the Eurotrips section of the site?

http://www.eurotrip….

It is a great itinerary and I would like us to feature it.

Are you staying at The Pink Palace in Corfu? You should and if so, please telll George the owner that Mike from Eurotrip says hi – you may want to add another day or two to Corfu – it is a great time.

Can I come along? Looks like a great trip. My only concern is going from Prague to Amsterdam then back then back to Germany….why not go Prague to Berlin To Amsterdam and then Munich (would eliminate a lot of retracing your steps and an overnight train trip)….an even better route be Prague, Munich/Augsburg, Berlin and then fly out of Amsterdam

Good thinking, just keep in mind that the Europeans’ idea of “breakfast” can be quite a bit different than ours… haha. I.e., here’s some bread with jam packets…

Agree with other’s you have put allot of thought into it, looks great. Although it’s a great idea to know where to go try not to micro manage your trip too much and leave some flexibility in there.

As Feicht said hostel breakfast’s may not be all that great, but it’s amazing how much bread you can eat!

Is the 55 Euros each?, if so it is doable just remember that some of the city’s you have chosen are costly.

Looks good, well thought out. I agree with Davy though, try not to micro manage it too much. Its great to have an itinenary, but be open minded and willing to break it pretty readily.

Yes it is 55 euros each. We’re planning to bring backup of about 1000 CDN just in case. Plus my mom said she’ll help us out in case anything goes wrong financially.

Yeah I forgot to mention that despite the pretty detailed itinerary, we’re open to going to other places if something comes up. I figure I’ll just plan as much as I can, and then if we want to change things, at least we know what options we have. We’re not booking our hostels till about a week in advance. In Greece however we’re planning to prebook just because we’re staying in low budget hotels there and we’ve been able to find some pretty good deals ( in some cases cheaper than hostels !) so we don’t want to leave that to chance.

I’ll look into posting the itinerary at the link you posted .. that’d be awesome to get featured!

Thanks again guys, and keep the suggestions coming !

Two pointers:
1) To set such a rigid schedule from day 1 will hinder you from seeing ALOT. The most memorable experiences will come from the spontaneous destinations. You are independently backpacking for a reason, if you know you want to follow such a rigid schedule, you may as well could go with one of those conitki organizations. Plan your first few stops and then have a couple of must see’s in the back of your mind……..trust me, it will make for a much better trip.

2) While places on your stop like London, Madrid, and Paris are nice, the cheaper, friendlier, more hospital places will be off the beaten path. I noticed you didn’t have too many smaller destinations on you itinerary. I would sacrifice a couple of days in the bigger cities for some of the smaller towns and villages.

Have fun!

Standard “continental” breakfast in europe is 2 small slices of a baguette, 2 jam packets and coffee or hot chocolate…got a piece of cheese in Antwerp once…Luxembourg sometimes throws in a soft boiled egg (but no cheese)

That’s pretty much the method I have used when away on a longer trip. Book just a few day’s ahead when on the road. Worked out well, always knew I had somewhere on arrival but could easily change my plan’s. Also good to know you have back up plan’s for your finance’s. Looks like you will have a great trip, just keep researching you can never do too much.

The information you have provided is new to me. Thank’s for it.
Lisa11

Job Search

Wow, sounds like a great trip! How was it? Parts of it look similar to the one I plan to take in the spring. Do you have any advice or feedback from your journey? We only have 4 weeks but this is our plan so far.

We plan to meet in Cairo (4 days), then fly to Athens (2 days), boat to Santorini (2 days), return to athens with a day trip to Delphi (1 day), bus to Corfu (2 days), ferry to Bari (keep moving), train to napoli (keep moving), bus to sorrento (1 day), boat to Capri (1 day), Train to Roma (3 days), Train to Florence (2 days), Day trip to Pisa and Sienna (1 day), train to Venice (2 days), overnight train to Nice (2 days), Travel to Costa Brava, Sp (2 days), and end up in Barcelona with the remaining approx 5 days. How does that sound to you?