Advice on 1 month Europe stay

Switzerland's Lauterbrunnen valley would meet all your nature/scenic needs but you'd be hard pressed to find 4 weeks of accomodations for under $2000. It's also expensive in other ways aside from lodging. But OMG the scenery, hiking, and biking possibilities would blow you away.

Ha! Well I've been traveling 2 weeks already by train and car to belguim Germany and prague, probably 2000 miles to see lots of places... ready for something more relaxing... trying to figure out where I should plant myself for a while and still be able to travel for day trips. I am kinda burnt out on european cities... if I see another beautiful cathedral I'll hurl, lol. In 4 weeks I need to be in the UK for a festival... after that I start a job so need somewhere kinda permanenter.... ive been living in south of france for 2 years but that job ended, figured I'd work remotely from the UK for 6 months before returning to the US to build a wife and marry a house, 😆.

Try Thun or Spiez, Switzerland. Picturesque towns on the lake with easy train access to Lauterbrunnen Valley and the rest of Switzerland. You might need to go with a private room AirBnB space to get under $2K for a month.

Or, search "Switzerland" on AirBnB and Booking.com. There are a number of 'entire apartment' rentals listed for less than $2K, but not necessarily close to a train station.

Switzerland is great, but one of the most expensive countries in Europe. Still, if you choose to go there, I recommend Interlakken.

Douro River Valley in Northern Portugal (Porto) is amazing and you could easily do 10 days there, then move on to Northern Spain (Basque region) and the SW corner of France, Bordeaux region.

Perhaps Zell Am See, Austria? I just spent a few nights there, beautiful area. Day trip options: Krimml Waterfalls, Kitzsteinhorn Glacier, Salzburg, Innsbruck and more. I was really struck by how beautiful the area is. If you’re looking to save $’s on lodging, there is a hostel in Zell Am See @ 48€ per night including breakfast (single room w/bathroom).

Plant yourself two weeks in Boppard or St. Goar along the Rhein and two weeks on the Danube outside of Vienna and knock yourself out on day trips in both areas.

I'm starting to think a Greek island somewhere with boats to Athens, other islands and maybe Istanbul... but so much logistics to figure out... brussels to paris train is cheap, paris to Athens is only 250 round trip... should it be round trip, lol, so much to figure out...

Greek island sounds good. Beware the weather this time of year in France. It can be rainy, very rainy in some places.

A1) If the train isn’t an absolute: Wizz Air, Brussels to:
Tirana (Albania)
Sarajevo (Bosnia & Herzegovina) 2 hours, 40 euro
Sofia or Varna (Bulgaria)
Budapest 2 hours, 30 euro or Debrecen (Hungary)
Chisinau (Moldova)
Skopje (N. Macedonia)
Bacau, Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca, Craiova, Iasi, Suceava or Timisoara, Romania
Ljubljana, Slovenia 1.75 hours, 45 euro
Kyiv or Lviv, Ukraine.

Beautiful nature, no big cities, well connected by train … Carinthia in Southern Austria!
https://www.visitcarinthia.at/

Villach (population 60.000) is the junction of many train lines with endless potential for weekend trips.
-> to the north Salzburg in about 2:30 hours
-> to the south Trieste 3 Hours, Venice 3:20 hours
-> to the southeast Ljubljana 1:40 hours
-> to the west Lienz (East Tyrol) 1:40 hours, San Candido/Innichen (Southern Tyrol) 2:50 hours
-> to the northeast Vienna 4:20 hours
The good news, if you like mountains and lakes and any kind of outdoor activities there is no need to leave Carinthia. If you prefer a lake-side village you may look at Velden, Pörtschach or Krumpendorf on the northern shore of lake Wörthersee or Annenheim, Bodensdorf or Steindorf on lake Ossiachersee, all reachable by train.

On Istanbul, if you go there, you will need five days at a minimum to see the amazing city .

Cool on Istanbul, what should I see? I like unique architecture, ruins, beauty... need to figure out the ferries there.

Paul, thanks. I think I just passed thru there last week on my 2 week 1500 mile journey through Germany, prague and belguim... and it really did look like a special place I should have dedicated more time to... but I burned myself out on Germania cultures and ready for something new, lol.

no more big cities ... but I also want to be close to a train station for lots and lots of day and weekend trips

Unfortunately, I think those 2 go together since your train possibilities are greater in the bigger city ... how about Budapest? ... check out the train Bible https://www.seat61.com on different ways to get there ... from there, East into Romania, North to Krakow, NW to Vienna and Prague, West to Salzburg, South to Sarajevo ... and I would guess all easily reached by train ... I believe it is also fairly inexpensive (but don't quote me, only going by what I had read over the years and my 3 day visit about 5 years ago).

Yeah dude... you know I'm finding that hotels in the cities prices are higher, higher on weekends, and most affordable ones are pretty bad quality... amsterdam brussels and paris are outrageous... ghent, bruge, and all the little towns in bavaria were reasable... 90 a night clean and confortable. Time to return car tomorrow to brussels, was gonna take train to paris but can't find a decent hotel for below 200 a night which is too much... was so much better during covid, lol. Stratburg on Saturday with a friend, ill try to do Versailles Friday... need to find hotel. Schedulebto fly to Greece Monday... but now a company is trying to offer me a job so who knows what will happen next.