When are you going? Are you beginning in London or do you have air tickets yet?
The itinerary is a start, but you need to refine it a little bit.
You have time and money so that’s good.
Usually, a week per country (or more) is recommended. You might have to cut out a country or two—but see more of the countries you do visit.
What many people do is sort out a general plan, but keep it flexible. They might hate one place, and leave early, or love another spot, and stay longer. Or they might learn about a new destination and change their plans all together.
If you figure out some smaller towns along with (or instead of) some of those larger cities, it will be a nice change of pace for your trip and maybe your budget.
One or two days in Athens, and 2 days on 2 islands would be a good way to visit Greece.
IMHO Zurich was kinda boring,  but Switzerland itself is beautiful (and expensive).
I’ve not been to Oslo or Stockholm  (expensive again) though I have heard good things about both. All of your other destinations are good ones, but you need to lower the amount of time in some of those cities.
Basically you need to do more research—ask yourselves what you like and then ask us more questions.

i have a bit of time, for i am not leaving till September 2008 to miss the travel season. i plan to start in London but don’t have tickets yet. the city’s i have pout i plan to use as base city’s and try to see more around the country threw bus and such, like Zürich i plan to land there with my rail pass for example and see the rest of the country i can for cheep as possible. thank you for the help i will refine this now.

Seems good as a start but very vague and needs to be refined a bit.  A few suggestions for you:
 
1.  6000 is def doable but will probably be on the stingy side so to alleviate costs look early and often for flights.  Flying roundtrip through England or Ireland will most likely be the cheapest options. 
 
2.  For that long a time, your railpass will work for the connecting trips but be ready to spend some on the ventures away from the big cities. 
 
3.  Book some of your hostels in advance to reduce costs and get better options
 
4.  My advice is to start and end in London or wherever you fly into and do somewhat of a circle through Europe.  We did this on our last trip and saved more time for sightseeing and whatnot. 
 
5.  Not sure what you are into but most of our money was spent on beer and eating out.  Markets are awesome for saving money on both things so look there whenever you need to pocket a few cents.
 
Good luck finalizing things and you should have a great time

thank you for the info it will help allot. i am as of now flying into London and probably flying out of Amsterdam, but if it is cheaper to fly out of London then i will try that.

All that time and all that money, wow! 

This will be a great trip…provided that you make some changes. 

Basically, what you did so far, is this:

You looked at a map, you picked the countries you wanted to visit, and then you picked the largest cities from those countries.  You then put them together as an itinerary. 

People do this a lot.  Unfortunately, this isn’t a good way to make an itinerary. 

Problem is, some of these cities don’t require the amount of time you’re giving them.  For example, Athens should be reduced to 2 days.  Zurich to 2 or 3.  Even Paris, I would say 5 tops (it’s a great city to live in, but if you don’t live and work or study there, you’ll evemntualy get bored).  Same with Rome, I’d say 2-4. 

All that extra time can be spent exploring more of those respective countries.  You can reduce your time in London to 3 or 4 days, and take a side trip to Bath.  You can reduce your time in Paris to explore other areas in northern France (Brittany, Normandy, Loire valley, Reims, etc), or places in southwest France (Carcassonne, for example) to break up the long commute to Spain.  With Rome, you can halve your time in Rome, and pay a visit to either the Campania or Toscana regions.  Athens: most of your time in Greece should be spent outside Athens (and it’s rather surprising it didn’t cross your mind to visit one of the islands…very rare for a new poster); since you’re arriving from Italy, you’ll want to break up the long commute to Athens with a few days in Corfu.  Spain: 5 days is good in Madrid, make sure you spend some of that time taking daytrips to Segovia and/or Toledo.  Granada-to-Nice: long-ass commute; at least break it up with a few days in Barcelona (kind of surprising you didn’t mention Barcelona too).  Nice: great town, but also consider smaller Côte d’Azur towns like Antibes.

And so on…

Do a search of these forums, do some internet research, browse some travel books…see what you come up with.  You got more planning to do.

As Cil mentioned, your itinerary doesn’t have to be rigid.  But you need to be aware why 7 days is far too much tIme for most places most of the time, and that there’s more (MUCH more) to a country than its largest cities.

so if i want to visit allot of places in each country should i get the 2 month consecutive. the reason why so long in London and Paris is that i would not have to validate my rail pass once i get it till i leave Paris therefor more time over there. are buses reasonable when i comes to price i did want to visit Normandy.
 
thankyou for your help to i will try some more citys now.

 





London England 6 arias around
Paris France 5 arias around
San Sebastián Spain 1 stop for the night and part of the day
Madrid Spain 5 arias around
Granada Spain 2
Barcelona Spain 2 
Marseilles France 1 stop for the night and part of the day
nice France 3
Florence Italy 3
Pisa Italy 1
Rome Italy 5
Naples Italy 2
Corfu Greece 1 stop for the night and part of the day
Athens Greece 2
Naxos Greece 1 stop for the day
Athens Greece 1 stop for the night and part of the day
Delphi Greece 1 stop for the night and part of the day
Rijeka Croatia 2
Venice Italy 2
Vienna Austria 1 stop for the night and part of the day
Zurich Switzerland 2
Zermatt Switzerland 1 stop for a day
Bern Switzerland 2
Munich Germany 3
Prague Czech republic 2
Berlin Germany 3
Copenhagen Denmark 1 stop for the night and part of the day
Stockholm Sweden 3
Oslo Norway 3
Gothenburg Sweden 1 stop for the night and part of the day
Hamburg Germany 3
Amsterdam Netherlands 7
78 days
day living expenses $3,900  $50 a day
rail pass 2 month $1,075
plane tickets estimate $900
$5,875

this looks like a bit much but i tryed something new what do you think of this one better or worse than the last

Getting better…

You don’t need to get too specific just yet.  I would get a general itinerary and route planned and maybe book some hostels in a few months to keep you on a scheduled pace (unless you would rather just go wherever the trip takes you which is cool).  Then look at places around each of the towns and start planning some day trips.  Also, the people you meet along the way will suggest things that you may have never heard of and would like to visit.  Leave some flexibility.  Also, where are you flying in and out of and what are your interests in sightseeing as these things will directly affect your costs.  Flights round-trip from NYC to London can go for as little as $300 or so if researched correctly.  And, $50 a day including hostel stays will be ok in a lot of places but not very good in some.  Keep in mind that by the time you get there the $50 you have will be equal to 30-35 euros, which won’t get you far at all in places like London and Paris.  That is another perk of leaving the big cities.  Touristy things and even eating in the larger cities will be more expensive.

this list can get more flexibile because alot of the one day citys i am willing to change around becaue most of thows citys are mostly rest citys in between longer trips. i will be flying out of salt lake city into londen and mostlikly out of amsterdam, the reson i pout 900 dollers i a just in case thing because i have found round trip tikets for 524$ in alot of different months. i am mostly interested in alot of the popular sites and museums but mostly i just want to get a fill for eroupean culture first hand. i herd that if i do this trip during the autum months and early winter that things will be cheeper all over.
thankyou for the help so far this all has been vary helpfull.

Unless you want to smoke a ton of dope you will not need 7 days in Amsterdam.  My one trip to Europe was a week in Amsterdam.  As a novice traveler I had no clue what I was doing.  I went Sat-Sun with the main highlight of my trip on Wed (Ajax game).  Stayed at the same hostel for a week and was the only one there for that length of time.  Everyone else was there for a day or two.  Don’t get me wrong, I still enjoyed myself very much but if I could do it over again I would have went to other destinations as well.
 
If you want to spend a week in The Netherlands I was told The Hague, Rotterdam and Arnhem are all worth a visit. 

i will probably split it up to different city’s. i am not into the dope stuff lol

  I actually kind of like your original itinerary as a “base city/day trip” itinerary.  About 3 full days is enough for me in almost any city, but I like to do day trips and the occasional minimal-luggage overnight trip from a base as opposed to completely switching digs every day or two.  I don’t like to stay only 1 night in a place as a general rule.  One night stays are reserved for the occasional “stopover” between two base cities or as an “out and back” trip to someplace (like Normandy from Paris) that is too far for a comfortable day trip.   

i am so confused what do i do for some people like this and some people like that, maby i will try to make one that everyone thinks is good, i just have to combine the two.

What’s your budget breakdown?  I can’t see accomplishing this on a total budget of $6000.  $75 per day for 90 days is closer to $7,000 plus plane ticket, plus rail pass, plus a few hundred for other-than-train transportation.

Each of us has a different personality and different travel experiences, so you’ll differing advice. I think that, even among your group (how many?), you’ll find differences of opinion!
I definitely agree with previous posters in their feelings about packing up and moving out of hotels constantly, or about including more small towns in your plans.
The country that I visit most often is France, and there are many small cities or towns (and even some villages) that can be reached by train so, if you’d like recommendations along these lines let us know!

it will be a total of 72 days and i am planning on living pritty poor lol i am still thinking of which itnaray is better and i have maid changes to the second to have longer stays in places.

You should be ok on money if you book a lot of things in advance and constantly monitor rates of hostels, planes and whatever else.  Look back every day on flights and book when you see something you like for your exact dates.  $524 if it is all-in is a pretty good price from Salt Lake.  If you found anything under $500 I would book.  We got lucky last year and made a RT to Ams from Wahington at $475 and didn’t see it close to that again afterwards.  Even switching a date by a day or two can cut hundreds of dollars. If you can book that cheaply and get your railpass for just the right number of days, you will have close to $5000 to spend on your 70-75 days in Europe which will be a little cheap but not impossible.  We went for 42 days and spent about $3500 and we were never really roughing it.  You could always spend more time in Eastern Europe to ease costs. 
 
 
 
Also, when in Amsterdam for 7 days, journey to the college town of Utrecht and look up my man Jan Jaap.  He is the man and will only respond when called Jan Jaap Boss as that is what he is, a true boss.  He will show you a good time

thanks for giving me positive impute i like that and i will defiantly find that guy i will add him to my itinerary list which i have saved to excel also ware in that town so i can pout it in also. if you can tell me any other cool stuff that you found or hook me up with anything please do.

Tikibird,

If you must stay in Paris for 7 days, then I highly advise leaving the city for a few days (sometime during the middle of your week in Paris), as a side-trip to explore a nearby region in northern France.  Actually, I highly recomend “staying” in Paris for 7 days, and taking out 2 or 3 or 4 of these days for a side trip out of Paris to another&nbspoint of interest in northern France. 

One great trip you can do is to visit the towns of Saint Malo (in Bretagne region) and Mont-Saint-Michel (in Normandie region).  These two towns are highly worth a look as a side trip from Paris, and are located within minutes from each other.  What you can do, is you can buy a point-to-point train ticket (I doubt it’ll cost much) from Paris to the medieval coastal city of Saint Malo.  Spend a day (or day and a half) in Saint Malo, then take the bus from Saint Malo to Mont-Saint-Michel (transfer in Pontorson).  Then, see Mont-Saint-Michel (stunning place), then 5-minute bus back to Pontorson and catch a train to Paris.  If this sounds complicated, don’t worry: Saint-Malo, Pontorson, and Mont-Saint-michel are all just minutes from each other.  

Another thing you can do, is sign up for a tour to Saint-Malo and Mont-Saint-Michel (and a couple other nearby towns in that area).  There’s a great travel agency that specializes in catering to foreign students (like yourselves), and should offer coach-bus tours to Mont-Saint-Michel/Saint Malo.  The agency is located right next door to the Alliance Française language school at: 101 boulevard Raspail, 75006 Paris (6th arrondissement).  Nearest Metro stops are Saint-Placide, Notre-Dame-des-Champs, and Rennes.
 
Other ideas are side trips from Paris are:

You can buy a point-to-point train ticket (or see if you can find a coach-bus tour) to visit the famous Chateaux of the Loire valley (Renaissance-era&nbspalaces built by the kings of France, some of them were former medieval castles converted to palaces/country royal estates).  If you go at it on your own (without a tour), then buy tickets for the towns of Amboise, Chambord, or Chenonceaux for example, or check out this website: http://www.castles-france.net/chateaux-loire/

Another option: you can visit the medieval city of Reims (as a side-trip from Paris), in Champagne region (yes, where Champagne comes from..so you can explore vineyards too), well-known for it’s amazing Gothic cathedral once used to coronate the Kings of France. 

There’s a lot of possibilities you can do as you base yourself in Paris.  And I’m not a UK expert, but you should be able to do the same thing in the UK.  You can “stay” in London for 7 days, but take a 2-day or 3-day trip to visit some southern England classics like Bath and Stonehenge, and I’m sure there’s coach tours that offer this trip.  There’s a lot you can do.  Having to stay in a city for 7 days doesn’t mean you must confine yourself to that city for that entire week.   



Well, no, don’t be confused.  Oldlady isn’t suggesting you stick to your original itierary as is.  What she’s saying is that: it’s actually a good idea to “stay” in a city for 7 days, provided you don’t spend the entire 7 days in that city.  She’s saying that you can keep the original itinerary in a revised form.  I like her suggestion.

It doesn’t make sense to move around all the time, if the next town you’re visiting is only an hour away.  You can base yourself in a city, and then take side-trips for 1, or 2, or 3 days, leaving most your belongings in the original city (maybe train station locker), and bringing with you only what you’ll need for the next few days.  (For day trips, you don’t even need to check out of your hostel, because you’ll be back that night). 

This can’t always be done, but it can be done in a lot of places, like&nbsparis and London as I noted earlier (basing yourself in these cities, and visting nearby points of interest).  You can also do it with Madrid (day-trips to Toledo or Segovia, or even a 2- or 3-day side trip to Sevilla with the swift AVE, then back to Madrid).  You can do it with Athens (Delphi as day-trip, Metéora-Kalambáka as 2-day trip).  You can do it in quite a few places in Italy: base yourself in Florence and explore the Toscana region (Lucca, Siena, Pisa, Pistoia, San Gimignano), and/or base yourself in Sorrento or on the Amalfi Coast, and explore the rest of Campania region (Naples, Pompeii-Herculaneum, Paestum, etc).  However, you cannot base yourself in Athens, and take a day-trip to Naxos.



Keep in mind your itinerary may change once you’re actually out there backpacking, but this is so far a great general itinerary.

I do like the idea that you’re planning on exploring Marseille for a day.  Some people don’t like the city, but I think it’s a very lovely and charming big city to explore if you’re already headed in that direction (and are probably going to transfer trains there).  The city used to have a gritty reputation, but with an injection of investment and civic pride, the city has transformed itself and has been beautifully renovated and redefined.  The Old Port and Old Quarter are absolutely awesome places to stroll through.  And the city also has two gorgeous massive churches (Cathédrale Sainte-Marie-Majeure de Marseille and Notre-Dame de la Garde) built in Byzantine Revival style (the cathedral is more a hybrid of Byzantine Revival and Romanesque).  Byzantine Revival isn’t too common in France, but Marseille has not one but two massive [and stunning] Byzantine Revival churches, perhaps among the best examples of Byzantine Revival architecture in the world.



Nice is wonderful.  Also consider staying in Antibes instead of Nice (may find it more rewarding), with day-trip(s) to Grasse, Nice, and/or Cannes.  If you stay in Nice, possible day-trip(s) are: Menton, Grasse, Eze, Cannes, Antibes.



Instead of packing and heading for Pisa, you’ll might as well stay in Florence and make Pisa a day-trip from Florence.  Other possible day-trip(s) (whether in addition to Pisa, or as alternatives) are: Lucca, Siena, Pistoia, and/or San Gimignano.



IMO, reduce your time in Rome to 2 or 3 days (depending on how much you want to see…there’s lots to see, but it’s a very compact walkable city), then add some of that extra time to the Campania region (where Naples is located), except, instead of staying in Naples, choose another town in the region, maybe Sorrento, or on the Amalfi coast, and take day-trips throughout the region, as I noted earlier in this poast.



My recommendation: visit fewer places in Greece, but increase your time in each place.  Increase Corfu to 2 days, or preferably 3 days (lots to see and do).  Athens 2 days, or one full day (exploring the entire historic center, can be done in 1 day) and one night.  Then ferry to Santoríni, stay 2-3 days, then back to Athens, where you can either fly to Bari (for your ferry to Croatia), or train to Patras for the overnight ferry to Bari.  Another option in Greece: Corfu (2-3 days), bus to Ioánnina (charming town, but not much to do…can leave right away, or stay overnight), head for Metéora-Kalambáka (1 day 1 night), then train for Athens for 2 days (or 3 days, using the middle day for a day-trip either to Delphi or to Nafplio/Mycenae/Epidaurus with a coachbus tour.) 

Greece has a difficult geography (islands, peninsulas, etc), so unfortunately the “base city” method doesn’t work as much in Greece is it may in other countries.  Additionally, the Cycladic Islands are near Athens, but travelling by ferry is much slower than by train…so, you can’t just spend a day in a Cycladic Island, and then head back for Athens.  You’ll want to rest a bit in the island (especially with the holiday/vacation atmosphere that the islands have).  There’s also the option of flying from Athens to the Cycladic Island of your choice (short flight), but you may find the ferry much more convenient and flexible for a backpacker’s schedule.

that helped alot for right now i am creating a new itnaray based off all your guys help.

You know, I just realized where Rijeka is.  It’s near the Istrian peninsula.

To get there from Athens, you can:

Fly from Athens to Venice, stay Venice 2-3 days, then head to Rijeka, then off to Vienna.

Or:

Train/bus from Athens to Patras, ferry to Venice, then Rijeka, then Vienna.

Or:

Train/bus from Athens to Patras, ferry to Bari or Ancona, train to Venice, then Rijeka, then Vienna.

i like the second option it sounds fun.

vary helpfull info, my advanced itinaray is almost ready to be seen