Well, yeah, it’s too much, but maybe you don’t have to really stop for each city.
I’d skip Zurich an Brussels, but that’s just me. I like your other destinations, but I’m not sure you can do them all in such short bursts.
I’d spend more time meandering around Sarajevo/Bosnia and I’d add Montenegro.
Have you already been to Paris?

yeah like i said it was just a thought, brussels wasnt top of my list anyway and zurich was just a means to move onto the next country. I have already been to paris before a couple of years back, and im based out in germany at the moment. Paris just seemed the easiest way to get to bern from calais viA train. Ive already looked at a lot of the train times and most of them aren’t too bad there are obviously a few overnighters. Im just planning at the moment. Just wanted to see what people thought to the idea and get any tips. Cheers for your comment.

Hi Stupid! Okay 15 cities in 30 days is a lot, but not impossible. If you never plan to return to Europe again it’s probably not a bad plan, but if you think you’ll eventually return, why try to see everything in one go? Personally, I would chop Luxembourg…it’s just a sterile government/business city (given its size it’s really just a big city). I didn’t find Luxembourg to have much character or national identity.

well i could chop luxembourg and brussels giving me more time in places like bosnia etc that already takes it down to 13, 12 if you dont count paris as im just passing through. Also i dont know if i would be doing the backpacking thing in europe again thats why i went overboard with the cities. Well out of the 15 ive chosen which ones are must see in your opinions.

Looking at your travel plan, I would be tempted to chop Paris (most of your destinations seem to be concentrated in the east). Paris is a great city and could be done another time along with Amsterdam, Brussels, etc.

Have you considered getting an open jaw ticket and flying into Zurich (then travel by train/bus east and south) before flying out of Greece? You could even add Albania along the way…haven’t been there myself, but friends say it is a great place with few tourists and incredible scenery…parts are like stepping back in time 200 years (like Portugal – just kidding)

i dont really want to fly to be honest thats why i was going through paris from calais. Ive already been to paris thats why i was just passing through. Sorry i forgot to mention ill be coming from uk.

Why not just skip France entirely and grab a cheap flight from the U.K.? If you’re in the U.K you can go to Paris anytime for a weekend.

yeah you are right, ill look into doing that. As i said earlier though just out of curiosity what would be your 5 must see cities out of the 15 i have selected? Cheers for your advice.

Prague is a definite must: Great old city, great architecture, great beer, friendly people.

Berne: I like Berne more than Zurich. If you go in the summer be sure to join the locals floating around the city in the pristine River Aare.

haha quality. So lets say i fly into Berne and visit Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Czech Republic and back to Berne. With 30 days to do it. What do you think to that?

Its doable, i would just schedule one day for innsbruck and villach, not much more you could do there in the summer! You could easily do both Vienna and Bratislava in 3 days, they are right next to eachother. other than that, you might be cutting it short in places like ljbuljana, prague, and places in eastern europe. i would consider trying to just head east and then flying back from thessaloniki at the end of the trip instead of trying to make it back to berne…would save a lot of money and time!

I would never leave Sarajevo out. I was to Bosnia this summer and it’s just incredibly beautiful. Just be sure to make a daytrip to Mostar. I’d even sacrifice Belgrade-Sofia-Bucharest just to get more days in Bosnia.

Bratislava can be done in one single afternoon, and it’s a hours’ train ride from Vienna.

Otherwise, a nice East-EuroTrip.

One more thing: If you are leaving Sarajevo to go to Belgrade, you have following possibilities:
A train with change in Strizivojna Vrpolje, Croatia
A direct bus from Sarajevo to Belgrade
One of the six direct buses from Lukavica to Belgrade

Lukavica is a suburb of Sarajevo, actually a village right behind the Sarajevo airport. It’s inhabited mostly by Serbs, so it has more connections to Belgrade than Sarajevo (inhabited mostly by Bosniaks and Croats) even though Lukavica is a small village and Sarajevo is the capital city.

Thanks a lot for the advice papyr.

How long would the bus take from Sarajevo to Belgrade, or from Lukavica? I was looking at the train to Strizivojna, which would you suggest?

i def think 15 cities in 30 is way too much. u have to factor in travel days. my wife and i backpacked europe 2 yrs ago and we founf out its best to not restrict ur self to that strict of a timeframe. u may love the city and wanna stay more than a couple days or u may hate the city and wanna leave. play it by ear. its more fun