First time in Europe, on a budget!

Ed, you and I are too old to enjoy Ibiza but for 20 somethings it's amazing. My 20 yr old son just went with friends and LOVED it. I would not do both Paris and London in 3 nights. I would just do Paris which is my, and my son's, favorite place. If you can add time to Paris that would be even better. I think your itinerary is good. You will have an amazingly fun time!

I would second what Ed said about the expense of traveling. You haven't said what your budget is - but getting from each of these places - I am seeing $$$$ with all the planes, trains and automobiles. With roughly a month to spend, I would focus on 2 or three regions and not try to see it all. Traveling with a group is challanging - even if they are your BFF and in my experience transporation connections can usually bring out the WORST in everyone - so I would limit how often you have to pick up and leave a town. Someone is late, someone lost something, someone's purse was stolen, someone gets sick. Slow it down and enjoy the city you are in. You will have far more fun and memories with that bottle of wine in a Roman square than you will lugging your suitcases across Europe.

Millie, You might want to try the site developed by Rick's son, Andy.

I definitely prefer London over Paris, but that's just my personal opinion, and I know many will disagree :) Most museums in London are free with a suggested donation, so that will give you some things to do without spending much money. The Eurostar is expensive- it might be cost prohibitive for a day trip. Based on the rest of your itinerary though, I would stay in Paris and skip London this trip.

To me it looks like the Girl'sBigPartyTripAtTheEndOfEverything. You're going to spend a huge wad of money just on transportation. Also a huge amount of time to the point that you really won't get to see much. Ibiza has got to be at the bottom of the heap. I'd dump it. If you did, you could get Paris as well as Lonon (but at almost the same hectic pace).

You have 4 nights scheduled in Germany, but didn't say where. With a tight budget, then I would suggest Berlin. Tons to see and do and probably one of the cheapest places to stay, with hostels or hotels and food is cheap too. Plan on staying the whole 4 days there, with perhaps a side trip to Potsdam and / or Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp.

I'm with Susan. They're in their 20s, Ibiza is the clubbing capital of the world. They will have a wonderful time there.

thanks guys for the great responses!! Well yes we are in our 20s and my birthday falls on our 2nd night in Ibiza so I wanted to be somewhere with fun and sun! The budget is a few thousand dollars for each of us (3-5). Honestly the reason I didn't want to spend a lot of time in Paris is because I heard the people are just mean and rude and do not like tourist. I want to be places where people aren't going to hate us! Or treat us poorly. For Germany I was planning on either munich or berlin. Also I want to ride the autobahn. We were planning on flying most places or tains, no automobiles. ....now I'm rethinking a lot with all your responses :/

thanks guys for the great responses!! Well yes we are in our 20s and my birthday falls on our 2nd night in Ibiza so I wanted to be somewhere with fun and sun! The budget is a few thousand dollars for each of us (3-5). Honestly the reason I didn't want to spend a lot of time in Paris is because I heard the people are just mean and rude and do not like tourist. I want to be places where people aren't going to hate us! Or treat us poorly. For Germany I was planning on either munich or berlin. Also I want to ride the autobahn. We were planning on flying most places or tains, no automobiles. ....now I'm rethinking a lot with all your responses :/

Hate to harp on a technicality, but you want to 'ride the autobahn' but 'no autos'. The autobahn is the freeway, can only go on it with a car. Could you clarify that? Also, I agree you're spending a lot of time in airports. If you have 2 nights in Athens, you only have one day to see it and there's so much more than a day's worth to see. The Mykonos to Rome part means you'll probably need to go back to Athens then fly over or take a series of busses/trains and ferry, very time consuming. It's easy enough to fly in and out of Ibiza, where you will have a great time. Also, skip the last bit for 4 nights in Germany and stay longer in Paris so you can do the London run. If you're spending some time studying in Prague, there's probably a weekend off here and there where you can go to Berlin or Munich for a day or two. Have fun!

Ah good ol' James, always there with such helpful posts. Here I go James, just for you....I've spent a lot of time in Paris and it's a great place with great people. I run into more rude people here than I ever have there. In fact, the rudest people I've encountered in Paris were American. Ok James? Did I make you proud?

I wouldnt skip Paris for what you "heard". France has long had a reputation for being rude- and occassionally you will find that (in my experience mostly from shopkeepers) but you will also find little old ladies who walk three blocks out of their way to help you find the Metro or a shop you were looking for. Just learn a few polite phrases in French (they are stubbornly proud of their language) and the other countries you plan to visit

Driving on an autobahn is usually not nearly as fun as it sounds. Even on the sections with no speed limit, if there is only 4 lanes, traffic is usually congested enough with slow moving trucks that I can rarely sustain speeds above 120 km/hr (about 72 mph). Driving at about 90 km/hr is more the norm. On 6 lane stretches, if traffic isn't too bad, you can sometimes test the limits of the car's acceleration, but usually only briefly. I regularly drive from near Mannheim, Germany, up to Leuven in Belgium, and I find that I can usually sustain faster speeds on the Belgium portion of the trip (which has fixed national speed limit) than I can in Germany.

Kathy: When I said no autos, I mean we won't be renting. Figured we'd find another creative way to do it. Also, so would you say skip Mykonos all together and just spend time in Ibiza? I wanted to do both Islands because I figured it will be the only time we spend at the beach. Lastly, we won't have any weekends off in Prague unfortunately. Not enough time to travel anywhere anyways. :( Everyone: If you had to concentrate on less places, which cities would you say are worth spending more time with and which would you guys cut out all together?

Hi Millie. As far as eliminating some places to save time and money, here are my suggestions: It sounds like you want to have a lot of fun in the sun, so I would say skip Athens and focus on Mykonos (6 nights total - maybe 4 there and 2 on another island close by). -Mykonos - 6 nights -Rome - 4 or 5 nights -Ibiza - 4 nights I would skip Barcelona and save it for another trip - you will spend a lot of time and money just getting into and out of Spain for 3 nights, and it's out of the way from everywhere else you're going. With those 3 nights, you could go to Athens (3 in Athens, 4 in Mykonos); or you could add one night to Amsterdam (that can be a real party city, depending on where you go and which coffeeshops you visit) and the other two to Paris. -Paris - 3 nights (skip London) -Amsterdam - 2 nights
-Germany - from an economical point of view, Berlin and Munich are about equal distances from Prague (judging by Google Maps) but Berlin is cheaper so if you're concerned about money, go to Berlin. There's a LOT to see - you won't be disappointed!

When I said no autos, I mean we won't be renting. Figured we'd find another creative way to do it. That sounds like some trip. Hope you girls have a great time. The autobahn is no playground. Please take care. Its not just fast (from time to time) but has some of the worst accidents you will ever see. I don't know what your idea of another creative way is, but for cripes sake be careful. Don't put your life in some stranger's hands. Stay safe

With about 26 days I'd consider picking 5 destinations that are within easy travel distance of each other (to save time and money) and spend at least 5 nights in each place. You can do day trips from many cities. To keep it simple, choose one beach destination (Ibiza, Greece, or other.) I'd include Paris and Berlin and from there, decide what your friends and you most want to do and what makes the most sense economical-travel-wise. Check a site like www.whichbudget.com for inexpensive tickets between European cities. Sounds like great fun!!