Am I being too ambitious?

Jody, It's great that you're getting such an early start on your planning. That will allow lots of time to work out the details. It's also good that you're planning to use open-jaw flights. As this is your first trip to Europe, my first suggestion would be to read Europe Through The Back Door before you get too far in your planning. You can then use the country or city-specific Guidebooks to plan hotels, transportation, sightseeing, etc. It's important to remember that you won't have as much time in each location as planned. Each time you change places, it will require at least half a day in each case, and possibly most of a full day in other cases. You'll also lose the first and last days in flight times (you'll generally arrive in Europe the day after you depart, and will be jet lagged for the first few days). Railpasses may or may not be the best method. These do NOT include reservations that are compulsory on some trains. You'll need to do some "number crunching" once you get the order of cities finalized. I'd also suggest a Barcelona > Berlin > Amsterdam > Paris > London route. The airports in Berlin will be "changing" in the future, but I'd use EasyJet from BCN to SXF (time 2H:45M, fares currently as low as €32.99 plus a few "fees"). The rail trip Berlin to Amsterdam is ~6 hours (one change at Hilversum), Amsterdam to Paris is as short as 3H:19M via direct train and Paris to London is ~2H:20M via EuroStar. It's highly advisable to pre-book the EuroStar, as there can be significant savings! Check THIS website for lots of good information. Many cities in Europe have multiple rail stations, so you need to be clear on departure and arrival stations. Good luck with your planning!

Jody, One other important point to mention....... You may find it very helpful to attend one of the meetings of the Atlanta Rick Steves group. They usually meet on the third Saturday of the month at a local Panera Bread outlet. AFAIK, they won't be meeting again until January, but be sure to check the "General Europe" section of the HelpLine for an announcement of the time and date for the next meeting. You'll be able to get an incredible amount of travel information from a very well travelled group! Cheers!

Your itinerary is actually one of the most reasonable ones I have seen in some time. However, Eurail passes don't cover the UK, and Eurail Selekt passes will no longer cover France, so it looks like a 3 country Selekt Pass (Spain, Germany, Benelux) might be the best you can do. However, these passes start at 5 days and you only have 3 legs of long travel (Barcelona to French border, German border to Berlin, and Berlin to Amsterdam. Paris to Berlin and Berlin to Amsterdam might be less expensive using advance purchase tickets from the Bahn. See what tickets cost on the German Rail (Bahn) website plus Barcelona to Paris from Spanish Rail and compare that to a pass plus all of the point-point tickets and reservations you would need with a pass. I think you'll find a pass would not pay.

Turn those 4 days into at least 4 nights, and then I would say, maybe this trip could be done....as long as you plan on flying into some of the cities. You have quite a distance in between most cities. And to do it by train, you will lose valuable time in between each city. If this were my trip, this is how I would do it 1. Fly into Barcelona, stay 4 nights 2. Fly into Berlin, stay 3-4 nights (I think Berlin could be done in 3, others may disagree) 3. Take early train into Amsterdam, or look into flying, may find cheap fares on easyjet. Stay 3 nights (Amsterdam very do-able in 3 nights). 4. Take eurostar train into Paris, stay no less than 4 nights
5. Take the eurostar into London, stay no less than 4 nights.

I wouldn't skip Barcelona. I think it will be the highlight of your trip. You can fly from Barcelona to Berlin for as little as 60$ (Vueling Airlines)
I would do the following itinerary: Barcelona -> Berlin -> Amsterdam -> Paris -> London You don't need a train pass. You only have three train journeys, two of them on the Eurostar. But wow, June, 2014? Talk about planning in advance.

Wow you guys are a wealth of information. I will definately look at Barcelona to Berlin and then the rest of my travel. I didn't even think about flying between cities. Anything else you can think of I need to know, please let post. And yes, I know, 2014 seems like a long way away, but it will be here before you know it.

I would consider dropping one city. With your proposed itinerary, you will be seeing a lot of the inside of train stations/airports. I would find it stressful and disorienting to get used to all the different languages, currencies, etc.

Barcelona to Paris - great night train route Paris to Berlin - another great night train route
Berlin to Amsterdam - about 7 1/2 hours by train Amsterdam to London - Amsterdam to Brussels catch the Eurostar - a little over 4 hrs total on the train plus appx 2 hrs stop over in Brussels We tend to enjoy the journey as much as the destination - the Hotel trains are fantastic. Traveling by train at night you reach your destination refreshed and ready for the day and dot lose precious daylight hours to traveling. I would price out point to point tickets and a rail pass plus supplements - if you will be doing any day trips by train from your cities take that into consideration of a rail pass. I know many prefer flying - personally I can't stand the cattle mentality and try to avoid it during vacation (except traveling to & from destination) Although our next trip we are taking a transatlantic cruise one way

Hi Jody, You are covering a lot of ground, even for a vacation. Put it in the context of the US: would you take a train from Atlanta to NYC, then over to Chicago, down to Memphis and then back to ATL? ( OK, that's perhaps a bit exaggerated). You could, and if you are restless after 3 nights, then do, but there is lots to see in and near any one of those cities, and you will significantly add to the cost of your vacation with all the transportation costs. Look at the Deutsche Bahn site - here is RS's explanation of how to use it: https://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips/transportation/trains/online-schedules May I suggest looking at one of Rick Steve's planning maps and also reading this article: https://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips/transportation/budget-flights There have been several discussions on night trains, pro and con, please read the threads before you decide. Definitely, you miss the scenery on a night train.
How fun it must be for you to contemplate your first trip abroad! ENjoy the planning!

You know, for a first time visit I think its great. You might even think about squeszing in one more city. But if you find a place that moves you then you can go back and do an imersion trip or go back for that and something similar.