1 month in Europe, looking for some general tips

If there's any way you could reverse your trip and fly out of Paris instead of London, you'd save a lot of money.

You can eat for as little as 5 EU per meal, or as much as 35 EU, depending on how hungry you are. Watch out for beverages, especially alcohol, which are very expensive. Look for "menus" or "formules" in bakeries and in cafes, which are the cheapest option. Go to supermarkets and buy food.

Shared rooms will be the cheapest option for hostels.
You can check prices in the cities you plan to visit on this website:
http://www.hostelworld.com/

Consider, if you haven't purchased airline tickets already, flying "open jaw"--into 1 city and out of another. It is usually just as cheap but it saves you a travel day returning to the place you started.

If you cover all that distance by rail, you'll get your money's worth out of the rail pass. But some aspects to consider:

• I assume you'll be under 28 to qualify for a youth pass on the date of activation.
• Versus a 15-hour train ride from Prague to Rome, most of us would look for a budget flight; try www.skyscanner.com.
• Details of direct London-Amsterdam Eurostar trains and their prices (or pass holder reservation fees) won't be known until probably this December. Currently, budget flights on this route are cheaper than trains.

Do fly "Open-Jaw" or "Multi-City," as advised above. You might go London-Paris-Amsterdam-Berlin-Prague-Venice-Florence-Rome and fly home from Rome.

Averaging 3-4 nights in each of these big cities is reasonable, but I'd prefer some smaller towns in the mix, for variety. Any of Rick's guidebooks or the Explore Europe section of this site would be a good place to get some ideas. See also the Travel Tips section for articles excerpted from Rick's travel handbook Europe Through the Back Door, or read that book itself.

A few tips:

• Read "Europe Through the Backdoor"

• Look for multi-city airfares rather than loop back for round-trip London - fly into London and back from Rome or Milan. Then London - Paris - Amsterdam - etc. would be a linear route.

• Price train point to point tickets before commiting to any rail pass.

• For each destination, determine why you want to go there, what you want to do and see, then you can determine how long you need for each place. My first impression is you have too many places without enough time to really enjoy each of them, especially Venice, and travel time accumulates for each transfer and your current plan will lose about 5 days site seeing time.

Enjoy the planning and the trip!

If you stay at HI hostels, one advantage is that they serve hot dinners for under 7 Euro. That was the price in Berlin's HI hostel on Kluckstrasse. But you don't need to stay at a HI hostel in order to have dinner there, I didn't and still had their dinner. No one is going to ask proof your being a guest at the hostel when you buy the meal ticket.

Since your trip is well over a year away and as far as I know you can NOT have purchased your airline tickets yet.

Consider this as a possible travel path.

London > Eurostar train to Paris
Amsterdam
Berlin
Prague
About here take a full day of vacation from your vacation.
It might be good to fly from Prague to Venice as I think I have seen people on this forum in the past have a hard time finding a good (easy) travel path between these two cities.

Venice
Florence
Rome
Fly home from Rome and you have avoided the time and cost of back tracking to London..

I am sure you will get many of the same suggestions we give to all of the first time travelers who seek help from us. The thing you have to do is heed the good advice you will get here. At times it may not be what you want to hear.

Get a copy of the Rick Steves Europe through the Back Door. It is full of great information for you as a first time traveler to Europe. What you read will be echoed on this forum. IMO
.

If you fly out of Roma or Milano, you might be able to use less expensive railpass. Train fares in Italy are still pretty cheap compared to other countries in Europe.

So, regarding travel time, would it be wise to say, add an extra day in Venice, and a couple days in a small town or something like that? Ive just heard in general that while Venice is neat and all, you dont need more than 2 days there, from a few people

Take a look at the calendar and check for local holidays as well as Easter. You may want to either be somewhere specific or avoid somewhere on holidays.

You've given yourself only two full days in Berlin, which strikes me as insufficient if you have an interest in World War II and/or Cold War history. In addition. Berlin is a very youthful city where I'm sure you'll enjoy the opportunity to socialize with other relatively young travelers.

I have no suggestion as to where you could find an extra day or two for Berlin, or the equally needed extra day for Venice. All your planned destinations are wonderful, but I think you've got at least one destination too many for the length of trip you are planning, especially considering that you have some long travel legs in there. Even if you fly, the hassle of dealing with airports means you'll lose a major chunk of each travel day.

If I were to just add on two days, one for Berlin, and one for Venice, would that be a more reasonable itinerary, or would it still be advised to cut out one city? I have a little room to play with budget-wise, so adding a few days shouldn't be a big deal

On adding a day or two to a particular city, that depends how desperate you are in visiting that city or how high of a priority you have for one place over another. Since I don't particularly care for Amsterdam, I would add extra time to Berlin so that you could track down the WW2 sites, of which there are numerous ones within the Greater Berlin area...all depends what you want to see and getting out there.

Sorry, but I think that you are trying to squeeze too many places into your time and as a result are significantly short changing some places. Berlin, Venice and Paris are notable examples.

If you are on a budget, the obvious place to drop is Venice, which is eye wateringly expensive. It's also the one place that's least likely to change if you don't get chance to visit it for another 20 years! However, this would only claw back 2 nights, so add one each to Paris and Berlin.

Amsterdam is also expensive and geographically out of the way, but it is a vibrant city.

Fly open jaw and the nights you save could be added to London at the start to allow a jetlag day.

I find Budapest to be more interesting than Prague and cheaper.

You are planning to arrive on a Bank Holiday in the UK, so transport maybe more limited and as it's Easter, places are going to be busier and more expensive, as schools and universities are on holiday. Most of Europe will be thus the first 2 weeks of your trip.

Consider flying for some of your legs, as booking the likes of Easyjet maybe cheaper than rail and may save time. Buy tickets as soon as they are released for the best prices i.e. book this summer.

I would always urge people to take as long a trip as possible and economize on lodging to keep the budget in check. It's costly to get to Europe, and you lose the first and last days to travel+jetlag, so the best value comes from taking as long a trip as you can manage. Occasionally someone says they'd have been happy with one less day in a particular city (usually a rather small one, not the sort of city you have on your itinerary), but I don't think I've ever seen someone say that his entire trip was too long. Everyone always wishes he had had more time in Europe. If you are not constrained by a job that allows you very limited vacation time, take advantage of that!

Berlin is a relatively inexpensive city compared to the others on your list, but I'm not up on the cost of hostels; that may not vary as much as hotel charges do. On the other hand, Berlin has a very, very large number of museums and historical sights, many of which do charge admission, so for the sake of your budget you'll need to do some research ahead of time to decide which ones most interest you. This webpage provides information on many of the museums/sights in Berlin. Near the top of that page you'll find a link to information on a large number of free regional museums and memorial sights. I mention this specifically for Berlin because, to me, that city (being mostly modern) is more about visiting specific sights--with the admission charges that often entails--than wandering around and looking at the architecture for free.

One advantage of cutting a destination or two is that you'd free up some time and might be able to take a few day trips to smaller towns or stop for a half-day in a nice town along the way when you're changing cities. Although your destinations are varied, they are all, except Venice, high-intensity big cities.

Try and book your departure from Rome.
04/02 Arrive London (4N)
04/06 Eurostar to Paris (5N)
04/11 Thalys to Amsterdam (3N)
04/14 Train to Berlin (4N)
04//18 Train to Prague (3N)
04/21 Fly to Venice (3N)
04/24 Train to Florence (4N)
04/28 Train to Rome (4N)
05/02 Depart Rome

Acraven, thanx for that link to Berlin museums. We'll now be going to the Museum of Film and Television on a Thursday evening when it's free. Sa-weet!

You will have a fantastic trip if you stick to your itinerary! I've been fortunate to have visited each of your destinations except Amsterdam. Since this is your first trip to Europe, it's understandable that you want to hit as many highlights as possible. Based on my experience, you might get "sightseeing fatigue" after you've visited a few of the cities and the fabulous things they offer. You will need some downtime to reenergize. I think you should consider working in a visit during the middle of your trip to a smaller destination where the site is the town itself. You can simply hang out and visit with local people for a few days without the tourist crowd. For example, after Amsterdam stay a few days in Germany's Rhine Valley before moving on the Prague. You may also want to consider going from Prague to Venice to Florence to Rome in that order based on geography. Whatever you do you'll have a great time!!!

I've been to Amsterdam 5 times and this hostel is
great location breakfast service etc.
https://www.stayokay.com/nl/hostel/amsterdam-stadsdoelen

It is part of hihostels or Hostelling international Network

I agree with others if you can fly into London and Fly out of your farthest eastern destination that would save you money time energy i

Here are some random, general ideas for your consideration:

If you are planning so far in advance (good for you), I have an organizational bit of advice. Keep notes. Keep them ORGANIZED. Use a notebook or spreadsheet or both. You will have plenty of time to investigate different cities and learn so much. Don't rely on your memory; it's important that you can access the information that you learn so that you can refer back to it six months from now.

All of us who travel have limited time and 1 million ideas of what we would like to see or do. I sometimes score each site within a city to determine which sites I absolutely want to see and which are second-tier activities. That may be too structured an approach for you, but it helps me keep in sight what things are absolute must do and is helpful when I have 12 things that I want to do in one city and only two days to do it. Prioritize.

When you look at hostels, pay close attention to what the cancellation timeframe is and or if there is a cancellation fee. Why? For example, London lodging is very very very expensive--The city is wonderful and many museums are free but you want to make sure you get a hostel bed reserved in advance, ridiculously in advance. Before booking, make sure you read the cancellation policy and mark the date on your calendar. If your plans/itinerary changes, which which frequently happens when you are planning far in advance, you can maintain your flexibility and not be charged for a bed you may not want to use. Affordable lodging is key to your budget and even affordable hostel lodging in London will be more expensive than elsewhere so keep your eye on when the hostel calendar opens for bookings.

Lastly, everyone has their own pace of travel. Personally, after four cities, I would feel a bit of travel whiplash. I would prefer to spend a little longer in each. It is easy to underestimate the time needed to travel from place to place, to get to the train station, to resettle into your new place, and simply to get oriented to your new city, figuring out the transit system or where different sites are located. You may run into a transit strike or you may get a once in a lifetime sinus infection that knocks you out for 24 hours. Build in downtime, you will enjoy your travel more.

I have no doubt that you will be back for many more trips. Enjoy every minute!

A few hostel suggestions
Shelter Jordan in Amsterdam they also have another location closer to the Red Light Distict
It a dry and drug free hostel very clean
In Rome I loved the Beehive
in Prague the Yha near the old town great location
in Berlin I stayed at Wombats
Expect for Rome I stayed in all these last year