I’m looking for some assistance with our itinerary for a trip this summer. I am traveling with one friend, and we are planning to leave about the last week in May. We are flying standby, and since order is determined by seniority, how early/late we ‘book’ for our flights doesn’t make a difference. We are staying in hostels and will have Eurail global passes. Here is our plan so far:

Fly into Dublin
3 nights Dublin
3 nights Doolin
1 night Bushmills (SailRail Dublin-London)
5 nights London and surrounding area
4 nights Paris
4 nights Basel with day trips to Lucerne and Konstanz
2 nights Interlaken
2 nights Cinque Terre
4 nights Rome with day trips to Pompeii and Frascati
2 nights Salzburg (night train to Berlin)
3 nights Berlin
3 nights Prague
3 nights Vienna
6 nights Villach
To Munich or Venice to fly home

The city order at the end seems a bit illogical, but it is arranged that way to allow us to be in Villach as late in our trip as possible because of the school schedule of a friend we are visiting there. Rather than move the trip later in summer when it will be busier and I need to get home to take my boards, we have rearranged our itinerary to be a bit less linear. Does this look horrible or doable? Ideally, we would travel Rome-Villach-Salzburg-Vienna-Prague-Berlin and fly home from there. Alternately, can anyone think of places that could tempt us away from Berlin and Prague?

Throughout our trip, we are interested in staying in or visiting smaller cities and towns near our ‘big city’ stops. Do you have any suggestions of locations which are easily accessible from our itinerary cities by train, have inexpensive things to do and see, or have hostels? Specifically, are there any clean, budget-friendly hostels or B&Bs that you would recommend? (Or any hostels you would like to warn us against!)

The other dilemma is whether to purchase a one or two month rail pass due to its validity in Ireland and N. Ireland- one month is $800, two months is $ 1129. How developed is the train system in Ireland especially? For at least part of our transportation from Dublin to Doolin will be via bus as the train doesn’t connect, and I question if we would use a rail pass enough to make it cost worthy to buy the two month pass. So the question is, will our train transportation in Ireland, within Villach, and from Villach to the airport in Venice add up to >$329? My thought is that it would be more cost worthy to purchase the one month pass, but I wanted to get some more input before we make our decision.
Thanks in advance!