Where to go!?

Germany is by far the cheapest option of the places you're considering. They're all rather safe but I feel very comfortable personally saying that Germany is a safe place for a woman to travel solo. As a general rule, the more south you are, the more pricey it is (Munich being the most expensive city to visit and live in) while the further north and east you are, the cheaper it is (Berlin being probably the cheapest city in Germany, and conveniently also the most exciting to visit!) But even "expensive" Munich is cheap compared to Switzerland or Sweden. In 10 days, you could divide your time between Berlin and Munich, with day trips from each (To Potsdam, Dachau, Neuschwanstein and/or Salzburg, Austria) or focus more on one geographical region for the whole time (The Rhine/Mosel being great for scenery, castles, and wine).

Budget: three of the four places you list are among the most expensive on the continent. You should be able to manage Germany okay. Safety: all the female members of my family routinely wander Europe alone - - my younger daughter moved herself to France for her junior year of high school and then went back for college. Places: in ten days you've got time for two, three if they're within three or four hours of one another and you really hustle. Parts of you list are close to a full day apart. Get a map. Make a disk at the same scale that has about a two or three hundred mile radius. Wiggle it around until you've covered a couple or three things you like. Try to stay away from the edges if you can.

Yes, I'm getting the flight over to Europe as a gift so I thought that since I had the time I might as well extend it a week or so before meeting up with people. I think Germany will definitely be a stop on my travels but I am also interested in getting different flavors of Europe - are Berlin and Munich similar cities? If so, which one would you guys recommend? If not, do you think there will be enough to use those two as home bases (I like the idea of day trips to Dachau, ect.) I did forget to mention that I have been the Prague (and loved it) but I haven't been to Poland, and I actually don't know much about it - any ideas of what to do around Poland? Any thoughts about mixing a trip to Germany with one of the more expensive counties - such as Copenhagen and Berlin/Switzerland and Munich - or do you recommend sticking with Germany? Sorry for tons of questions but I feel the idea of being able to go anywhere a little overwhelming but exciting!

Berlin and Munich are nothing alike. A wild guess is that you'd like Berlin better and it's cheaper. Poland's not that bad an idea, actually, as a second spot. I'd pick Krakow over Warsaw in a heartbeat, plus the flight time to Krakow from Berlin is generally shorter than it is to Warsaw. Air Berlin (with the standard caveats) can do it in a couple of hours for less than two hundred bucks round trip

Berlin and Munich are vastly different. If you do a search for "cagefight" you'll see my (intentionally humorous thread about the differences between the two cities. They seem to bring up strong feelings. I'm a wannabe Berliner, but I do concede that Munich is a great destination, and has better day tripping options from it than Berlin (on the other hand, once you're in Berlin, why would you need to leave?) From Berlin, Poland is doable. From Munich, Switzerland, Austria, or even Czech Republic. If you did the Rhine/Mosel you could visit Luxembourg and Belgium quite easily. From the Black Forest, France is right there. So it's quite easy to combine various good places to visit in Germany with visits to other countries. But with budget airlines in Europe, you don't need to be based in two close geographical areas either. You could do 5 days in Copenhagen, and 5 days in Munich, using a plane to connect.

Munich to Copenhagen on the budgets generally has a change somewhere so they'll take longer. Lufthansa competes on that route at pretty much the same price with non-stoppers.

if you are on a budget and if "different" is a desire then I would suggest Krakow (except Krakow can be difficult to reach) , Hungary (except Ralph doesn't like Hungary), Romania and Bulgaria, Croatia, Slovakia, Slovenia. Nothing is going to be more economical than Central Europe and little is more unique in Europe. I would also suggest Spain but there seems to be an issue with crime towards tourists right now.