Update: Narrowing Down Mid-June Travels

Budget is ~$100 day

What does this cover? Food, lodging, transport ( local in country city to city) and site admissions.?? Or...?

~$100 day for sites, food, lodging (hostels)

IMHO your Options 1 and 2 are both bad choices. Italy and Spain in the summer - crowded, hot, not exactly cheap. They're lovely, but not given your parameters.

The Baltics could work really well. You might hit some iffy weather (it's the Baltics, they get cold and wet sometimes even in midsummer, but midsummer is your best chance for nice weather). I was there last August and had beautiful weather most of the time, but there were a few days where it just rained and rained hard and endlessly, so be ready for some of that.

Poland (suggested in a previous thread) would be perfect. It checks all your boxes.

You seem to be overlooking and continuing to ignore a major issue: getting there. Yeah, yeah, I know you have miles and points (so do I). That doesn't necessarily mean you're getting on a plane and going to where you want to be when you want to go. If you think it does, you should go and try to do some dummy bookings to find out what your real-world options are for flying to Europe in June. Every day that you wait your options will dwindle. I suggest you do this now as a reality check.

@David I already checked to make sure getting to all the options would be possible on points/miles which is part of why Poland was eliminated and why I mentioned Option 3 being the most complicated for travel :)

OK, fair enough.

But if you can get to the Continent, then getting to Poland or any of the Baltic capitals would be cheap. Check out airBaltic. Cheap flights if you buy early.

Presumably, you know not to wait if there's an acceptable award seat that's available across the Atlantic...

BTW, I did a trip last summer to the three Baltic countries (and a short visit to Poland on the way back - because my award flight went through there) and it was one of the best trips we've ever done, I'd highly recommend all 4 countries to anyone. All definitely less expensive than say Italy or Spain.

Complicated? I dunno, I thought getting to/from there was pretty easy. We flew into AMS then flew airBaltic to Vilnius. One stop to our destination, that's tough to beat anywhere in Europe, especially to places that aren't overrun with crowds. That's the tradeoff - super popular places (which are crowded) are easy to get to. You want no crowds, easy to get to, and free. Pick two.

Option 3, but throw in Helsinki especially if you are interested in design and architecture. You can get the best salmon meal at the market for next to nothing. Tallinn is a very easy ferry ride from Helsinki and you could probably start and end from there. But then again, I loved Poland so might be tempted to figure it into the mix somehow.

No. 2 - too much travel time and Sevilla likely to be very hot
No. 3 - only been to Tallinn, very picturesque. My impression is that the others are somewhat lackluster.

No. 1 - My choice! I enjoyed being in Bologna, doesn't attract as many tourists, and it's an excellent base for day-tripping. You can day trip to Florence. The fast trains are kind of expensive, if time is les important than money, there are local trains at 1/3 to 1/4 the price that take 1.25-1.45 hours instead of the 30+ minutes for fast trains. Other good day trips are Padua and Ferrara. Good house wines in most restaurants (they will let you taste first), good food, gelato everywhere and in Bologna you can get very good granite (singular - granita), a fruit slushy that is very tasty and cooling on a hot day. Take the tour of the university here, better than the one in Padua. It's about a 20 minute walk from the city's historic center to the train station. Best if you can find a place to stay between them.

Hi,

You don't have to fly to do option 3 , if you end up choosing this one. If you fly into Frankfurt, change to Helsinki, take the ferry to Tallin. There are several routes by ferry and train (or bus) to do depending on which route you want and in which order you want to see these cities.

If you don't mind a long traveling time, (I wouldn't at all) getting to the destination, go by train rom Berlin to Warsaw, then to Vilnius.

Ferries to Helsinki from Germany depart from Rostock and Travemünde.

Going by bus in the Baltic states and Poland offers you more choices if you're focusing on the capitals.

Option 1 is very doable. "Weather less important." Good attitude, you won't be defeated by the weather.

@ Zach...There are numerous ways to do a trip on shoe-string budget, all dpends how stringent you want to be, such as no booze (Beer) at all, maybe 3 times for the entire 10 days. Stay in University dorms and hostel as these options are available in June, eat in train stations, where lots of locals do. I hardly see any Americans eat in German train stations, even in those cities they are mostly to visit..Munich, Frankfurt, Berlin, Nürnberg.

Bottom line, if you want to do a bare-bones trip money-wise, it can be done, just a matter of will power and your priorities.

On a daily basis, I don't even spend 85-90 Euro a day, including the daily cost for the Pension in Berlin or Munich for a single room. I know if opted for a dorm room in a private independent hostel with 5 other roomies, the daily accommodation cost would cut by 60%.