18 Year Old Solo Trip 3 Countries

Is there a reason you want to backtrack to Amsterdam? Generally faster and cheaper to use "multi destination" or "open-jaw" or whatever the current expression is for flying into the first city, then ground transportation, then at the end fly home from the furthest point at the end - saves tracking all the way back to the start.

You would be eligible for the youth railpass but have you done the maths to be sure that it is a good value for the very limited number of train trips you have planned?

Flying open jaw is definitely the optimum solution. As it stands at the moment, you have 7 locations including 2 return cities in 3 weeks.

Berlin is awesome and definitely needs 5 full days there as an absolute minimum. It's great value too. You need to pin down your itinerary, as you are planning on visiting some very popular cities and hostels may be booked up by now.

Check out seat61.com for your rail journeys. The Eurorail Pass may not be the best value.

Agree with the others regarding backtracking.
Also, why going back to Frankfurt so much. There is not much to see there.

Plan your exact number of days and compute your travel time between each location. You plan to visit Amsterdam, Berlin, Prague, Frankfurt, and Mainz. How many days in each? Consider going to Heidelberg and/or a one day Rhein cruise to Rudsheim.

Have you been to Rothenberg on the Tauber? Consider stopping there between Prague and Frankfurt.

Suggest purchasing a Rick Steves guide book for the places you plan to visit.

After doing some research I have decided to use the meinfernbus company instead of the Eurail, it'll end up taking slightly longer but save me plenty of money. This also adds flexibility to the locations I can choose, which means I wouldn't have to stop in Frankfurt on the way to Mainz/Rhine area.

As for hostels, is them booking up a real concern for late July- mid August? I don't want to book a hostel for every part of the trip then end up wanting to change my plans and travel with others. Same for the bus tickets, would it be a better idea to book them all now? Or wait till I am there and purchase them.

I believe I will take the advice on doing an open jaw trip as well, and not return to Amsterdam after Mainz, instead possibly add a different country or maybe make my way more East after Prague.

Any other advice?

I'd suggest heading south in Germany toward Munich/Bavaria and the Alps. That's actually my favorite part of Germany (& Europe!), but it depends on what you prefer and how much time you have. The Swiss Alps are absolutely stunning (especially the Lauterbrunnen Valley), though it is quite expensive there. You can fly back from Munich or Zurich, depending where all you go.

Mainz is great, you can easily get there by train. I disagree that there is nothing to do in Frankfurt.

I would not add more to your trip, but if you feel like adding another place, Gent might be interesting for you.

Eric,

As this is your first "solo" trip to Europe, you may find it helpful to read Europe Through The Back Door prior to departure, as that has a lot of good information on "how" to travel well in Europe.

I definitely agree with the others that using open-jaw flights is the best idea. Your profile doesn't indicate where in Western Canada you're located, but Frankfurt is a very convenient location for return flights to Canada (either Calgary or Vancouver). I've travelled that route many times.

For the trip from Amsterdam to Berlin, I'd recommend a pre-purchased discount rail ticket. For example, the Bahn.de website currently shows a direct train from Amsterdam Central to Berlin Hbf with a travel time of 6H:21M and Saver Fares of €59 PP. That would be the most efficient use of your limited travel time. Use the extra time in Berlin, as there's LOTS to see and do there!

If you want to buy advance tickets for trips in Germany, use www.captaintrain.com as it's very user friendly and tickets are the same price as if bought from the rail network. They also handle tickets for France, Italy and a few other places.

Regarding Hostel stays you might want to have a look at the HI HOSTELS website and get an inexpensive membership. That will give you slightly cheaper rates and preferred booking over non-members. They usually have several properties in most of the larger cities, which gives you a choice of which part of the city to stay (provided you book early enough). I've found the facilities to be fairly consistent from one property to the next. If your travels take you to Bacharach (close to Mainz), you can try and get a room at the impressive Burg Stahleck castle, which is an HI Hostel property. It's a bit of a hike to get there, but incredible views and nice to have a Beer on the patio in the afternoon sun.

For travel in the summer, I'd recommend pre-booking as many of your accommodations as possible, as it will likely be BUSY in the major cities in Europe.

For Hostel stays don't forget to pack a towel, soap, flip-flops for the shower and a small but robust Padlock for the lockers (do NOT use the cheap TSA locks for that).

You could also consider small hotels or B&B's, which are not much more expensive than Hostels. Have a look at the RS guidebooks for the places you'll be visiting, as there's lots of good information there (including some Hostel listings).

A'dam - Berlin - Prague - Mainz - A'dam... Any advice or critique would be appreciated!

As you figured out, a Eurail pass is way too expensive. But Meinfernbus isn't necessarily the answer! Schedules are quite limited. Road travel is slow and increases your chances of delays. You can do A'dam - Berlin in about 6 hours by train - but it's at least 8 hours on the bus. AND...It's a BUS! And the company has a certain reputation for putting its drivers on the road for too many hours and for accidents.

You're booking hostel beds in these cities - right? So if you have a travel schedule and can keep a travel schedule, pre-book some individual train fares on the DB website for Germany's high-speed, long-distance trains. You only have 4 big journeys. I just looked at mid-July dates and found fares between E40 and E60 for A'dam-Berlin. Same thing for Berlin-Prague.

http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en

The cheaper "Saver" fares you see are train-specific and capacity-controlled - prices rise as tickets sell - so buy ASAP for your travel dates: https://www.bahn.com/i/view/USA/en/prices/germany/savings-fare.shtml

Note that the fastest way out of Prague and onward to Mainz might include a bus segment to Nuremberg on DB's Inter-city bus. But these are really nice buses. Find fares and schedules at the first link above. IC bus info:

https://www.bahn.com/i/view/USA/en/prices/europe/ic-bus.shtml

"As for hostels, is them booking up a real concern for late July- mid August? I don't want to book a hostel for every part of the trip then end up wanting to change my plans and travel with others."

The saver fares Ken and I have recommended for train travel are refundable but you will incur a penalty - and then will need to buy a more expensive ticket. If you opt for this sort of flexible trip, saver fares may not work well and you should consider a German Rail pass instead - its around E150-E160 for a 4-day youth flexi-pass. And it's good for some trips outside of Germany too, including Prague on certain routes - good to know in case you get dragged abroad by your newfound friends (maybe to Antwerp, Salzburg, or Krakow.)

https://www.bahn.com/i/view/USA/en/prices/germany/german-rail-pass-flexi.shtml

(You'd of course need to get separate tickets for travel between Amsterdam and the German border.)

If you haven't purchased that bus pass yet, you might want to visit the Eurolines Pass website. My daughter used this 30 day bus pass in 2011. Unless things have changed reservations were never required and It offered her a great deal of flexibility. There were also recommended hostels available in each city but usually better to have a reservation for those. Just a suggestion.