Critique my itinerary

Due to the cost of airfare, I would suggest you try to stay longer in Europe and see more areas. In order to cut down on cost while you are there try hostelling and buying your food from grocery stores or delis.

My daughter and I went for 8 weeks - 8 countries and spent an average of less than 100 Euros per day. This did NOT include airfare and Eurail Pass. We found that German, Austrian and Switzerland hostels were VERY clean.

Many hostels provide some type of breakfast.

You do your homework and you can see Europe for less than 100 Euros per day.

You miss so much of the scenery when taking the night trains.

If this was a more extended trip, I would recommend against using night trains so frequently. Many (myself included) find it impossible to get an adequate nights sleep on the train. Three night trains in nine days is probably pushing close to the limit where you may start to wear down by the end of the trip.

To save time and money, fly into Amsterdam and out of Berlin, traveling Amst - Par - Mun - Ber.

Tom was spot on. Night trains are great time savers but if you're expecting to sleep much (unless you're a heavy sleeper)forget it. Try flying open jaws.

I am a heavy sleeper and I got almost no sleep from Como to Munich. I thought it would be like riding in a car... getting rocked to sleep. It was like sleeping on rocks. I was so tired when I arrived at Munich that my group fell asleep on the bus. Yikes!!

RD: the air in Europe is very inexpensive, and worth it to get to the next destination. You will need to plan ahead, and pack real light (if you're using easyjet, ryanair, etc.) but to get to the destination in 2 hours instead of 7 is worth it.

RD,
Would you consider leaving Germany for another trip and just traveling around France and the Netherlands-possibly add Brugge in Belgium? Just a thought...

You mentioned booking your trains a few days in advance, just make sure the night trains that you book those earlier if possible, especially if you want to save some money and also to secure your spot.

Also as noted, that is a lot of night trains. We did 2 of them a week apart on a 15 day trip and we survived. We got a good bit of sleep on one, and absolutely none on the other.

Good suggestions all. I sleep like a rock (even in cars), so it doesn't bother me. Is the airfare savings really that much? I planned on getting a 329 dollars Eurail pass for three countries. Could I really fly to four cities for less than that total? That is my only urgent question if my itinerary looks okay otherwise.

Here's one website to check airfares between European cities: www.whichbudget.com

I congratulate you on your brilliance. You have obviously determined that the only important things to see in western Europe are Paris, Munich, Berlin, and Amsterdam. Nothing else in between is worth seeing. Therefore it is therefore worthwhile to spend vast amounts of time and money "jet setting" all over the continent.

Apparently I have just been stupid by spending weeks at a time exploring the uninteresting details of Bavaria and So. Germany.

I have spent over two month traveling in Europe and thousands of hours studying the means of travel.

IMCO, if you need to use a night train or a flight, you are doing it wrong. Stay in one area and exploit it. You'll spend a lot less time and money that way than you will jumping around. Sure, it is easy to just pick the easy, well known sites found on the web, but there are sooo many other worthwhile places to go, if you do your research. I find that often this research is more fun than the trip itself.
And, Michelle, "two hours instead of seven." By the time you get to far-flung airports, wait in check-in lines, then security lines, boarding time, flight time, deboarding, finding ground transportation, and getting to your town, it is often more like six hours, never 2.