I think your transportation choices are right. Is there a ferry from Nice to Barcelona??? I’d look at either skipping Nice and flying to Barcelona or skipping Barcelona if this ferry thing doesn’t work out. The big problem is you have way too many stops for a 24 day trip. — Do you really want to spend roughly 1/3 or your waking hours “in transit” from one place to another?

I start by looking at a 5 country select pass — Benelux, Germany, Austria ??, Italy and France for 10 days. From there, see if a 3 or 4 country pass (cutting Austria, Italy or France) and fewer days plus some point to point tickets for the cheaper trips will save money — probably coming up with the 4 country, 8 day pass that THE TRIP PLANNER RECOMMENDS.

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If I were you I would skip Pisa and Nice, because both are not really spectacular. Pisa as a city is not pretty, you only have this tower which you can look at for about 30 mins. Try do do Rome instead, and fly directly from Rome to Barcelona. (e.g. Ryanair: Rome—> Girona). Or go from Venice or Florence if you don’t intend to goto Rome.

Further: skip Hamburg, Brussels as well. They are big and nice but nothing great. Perhaps you can have a quick look on the Grand Place of Brussels when in transit between Bruges and Amsterdam.

Thanks for the advice. We are trying to figure out what to cut out, and this might help. However, I still am curious as to whether you would suggest buying a rail pass or just point to point rail. Also, after reading through the website it appears that we will have to add Austria as one of the countries since we have to pass through on the way to Italy. There also seem to be fees for reservations in some of the countries and fees for night trains. To clarify my questions:
Should I get a 6 country (Benelux, Germany, Austria, Italy, France, Spain) global pass?
or Should I get a 5 country (Benelux, Germany, Austria, Italy, France) pass?
or Should I get a 4 country pass (Benelux, Germany, Austria, Italy) and then buy point to point tickets to France and Spain?
or Is it better just to buy point to point tickets along the way?

Also, are night trains a good idea for saving money and time? How easy are they to reserve/find?
Thanks!!!!

1. You pay the extra fees and reservation costs whether or not you use a railpass. If you take a train that requires a reservation the ticket costs more than standard fare because it will include the reservation.
2. If you’re willing to book each individual, non-refundable ticket up to 60 days in advance on the individual national rail company websites, you MIGHT save money over a railpass. This is a lot of time and work, plus you may not be able to buy all the tickets as some countries only sell domestic tickets on-line or don’t accept “foreign” credit cards. It also seriously limits your flexibility so you lose one of the major advantages of going by train.
3. The best recommendation you’re going to get without a fair amount of work on your own is the one that’s already been calculated for you in the trip planner.
4. You do not HAVE to add Austria to your pass. Just buy a point to point ticket for the part of your trip that’s in Austria.

Night trains are a good idea if you like night trains. They don’t save a ton of money for the budget traveler because a berth in a 6 berth couchette costs about the same as a cheap hostel. They save time, but too many overnight trains will be exhausting. They are as easy to find and reserve as any other train. I would try to reserve about 3 days in advance (longer for Friday night and Sunday night) although you can usually find something as late as departure day.