Not sure if right place to ask but here goes...

Most people in Italy go for point to point tickets, as fares are relatively cheap there. You can also fly to Rome from the U.K. on budget air carriers to start your journey. Have you considered just flying Venice-Berlin to save time? Air Berlin and EasyJet are budget air carriers that fly that route. You would have to double back from Prague to get to Amsterdam, but it beats a very, very long Venice to Prague train trip.

Would that just lead to a long slog from prague to amsterdam?
I've not thought about that but it does seem a good way around it. Do you think those cities are 'do-able' in three weeks? And do you think I've missed any major destinations in my list? (Baring in mind I've been to paris twice before)

I would actually add one more city to your list: Florence, in combination with Pisa. Easily connected by train to Venice afterwards.

Thanks Diane! Never thought to add Florence, will look into whats there!

Hi, Chris,
I would strongly recommend buying point to point tickets in Italy - it was my experience that the rail pass adds 20% to the cost of your travel and doubles your headache. I've heard it only becomes cost effective if you're traveling for over a month. If you're traveling to/from a large city, I'd book a day in advance to get the price that you want. We ended up spending more than we intended to go from Milan to Venice because we waited until our travel day to buy tickets and the two lowest price points were sold out. (Not that travelling first class was such a terrible thing . . .)

The days of automatically purchasing a rail pass are over - for this trip, I'd book point-to-point. Definitely book open-jaws (or 'multi-city') - into Rome and out of Amsterdam, for instance. For me, I'd allocate the days as - Rome: 3-4 days, Pisa: 1 full day, Venice: 2-3 days, Salzburg (see below): 2 days, Prague: 3 full days, Berlin: 2-3 days, Amsterdam: 2 full days. I'm taking you at your word about 21 days (!), and I've included days for travel, too. I'm also assuming fairly early get-up-and-get-on-that-train travel, too :-) I hate to add stops in your itinerary, but would you be interested in a stop in Salzburg? That could break up a long train ride b/n Venice and Prague. Not a perfect answer, but something to perhaps consider. A flight b/n Venice and Prague would be ideal, if the price/time/airport locations worked for you. Unfortunately, not every city in Europe is well-connected by the airlines (sigh). Don't forget to add in the 'getting to the airport 1-2 hours early, going through security, blahblahblah' that's involved with air travel :-( (cont.)

(cont.) According to Bahn.com, Venice - Prague is about 13-14+ hours (didn't figure out price). Venice - Salzburg is 6h30m - 7h30m and could cost as little as €39. Salzburg - Prague is 6h30 - 7h30m for around €39 (most, but not all, solutions will end with a bus ride from some location into Prague). Prague - Berlin is 4h45m and as low as €29. These prices are advance purchase - good only if you've nailed down your plans and are sure you want that particular train! The train b/n Berlin and Amsterdam is around 6h30m, and could cost around €44. There are several of these non-change trains throughout the day. I like the occasional 'train day', but some people get quite antsy! This itinerary is a bit spread out over the map, and lots of hours are eaten up by travel - by one form or another. You may have to make some choices here...

Is your itinerary "achievable?" As the posts above indicate, yes. Is it desirable? Only you can decide if you want that much moving around, that little time in so many places, and to spend that much money on transit (even advance purchase discount fares add up when you're taking so many trips). Since you live in England, you can get to the continent much cheaper and more easily than those of us in North America can, so do consider the option of seeing fewer places and returning for another round. Or, of seeing places closer together this time, adding nearby places (like other parts of Italy, for instance) and saving the others for later. And yes, most people these days do NOT go for a rail pass, as they often cost more and are more trouble to use than discounted, non-refundable advance purchase train tickets, or discount flights. To look for train routes, go to the Bahn Website. This is German rail, but has schedules for all of Europe. To look for flights, go to Skyscanner.

chris, Your trip seems reasonable for 3 weeks. Is the order you listed the same as you'll be travelling? It might be easier to travel in the reverse direction. You could arrange your trip along these lines.... > D1: Flight, MAN - AMS (EasyJet - 1H:25M - note time change) > D2-3: Amsterdam, touring (2 days?) > D4: Train to Berlin (about 5 hours - it's a very pleasant trip). You might consider staying at Pension Peters - great location, wonderful staff and Dicke Wirtin's Pub across the street (Guinness on tap) as well as 24-hour Schwarze's Cafe a few doors from the Pension) > D5-7: Berlin, touring (3 days?) > D8: Train to Prague (4-5 hours - arrive at Praha hl.n station) > D9-11: Prague, touring (3 days?) > D12: Flight, PRG - MXP. Train to Venice (2H:35M from Milano Centrale to Venezia Santa Lucia, reservations compulsory) > D13,14: Venice, touring (2 days?) > D15: Train to Florence (2H:05M, reservations compulsory) > D16-17: Florence, touring. Day trip to Pisa if desired. I'd suggest Siena instead via Bus. > D18: Train to Rome - start touring > D19-21: Rome, touring (3 days?) > D22: Flight, FCO - MAN (via jet2.com - you could also use EasyJet to LGW) I agree that a Railpass is not cost effective for Italy as P-P tickets are relatively cheap. Also, Passes do not include reservation fees. Regarding trains in Italy - Some trains have compulsory reservations (ie: Freccia) and you MUST have a valid reservation for that train, or you may be fined €50 on the spot! Regionale trains do not require reservations but you MUST validate your ticket prior to boarding the train or you may be fined on the spot! Happy travels!

chris, A few points to add..... You can save considerably by pre-purchase of tickets on Italian trains which require reservations. Check the Trenitalia website. If you can get Super Economy or Economy tickets, there are substantial savings. There's no advantage to pre-purchase of tickets on Regionale trains - just buy those from the Kiosks when in Italy. Some here have reported a few "issues" when using the Trenitalia website, so keep that in mind. Check www.roninrome.com for lots of information on rail travel in Italy and a tutorial on how to buy tickets. For your trips from Venice > Florence > Rome, you could also look at the new Italo high speed trains. In some cases these use different stations than the Trenitalia trains. To check rail details on your other trips such as Amsterdam > Berlin > Prague, use the www.bahn.de website. I'm sure you're familiar with the budget airlines in Europe. If you need any tips on those, post another note. Cheers!

As for your itinerary I would try not to add more places to see. Logistically the best IMHO seems: train Rome - Pisa - Venice, flight Venice - Prague (if there is flight), train Prague - Berlin - Amsterdam. Out of these cities I am most familiar with Prague. As for accommodation I understand that one of your priorities is price. Try travel agency which offers cheap accommodation in Prague: http://www.ckvesta.cz I got very reasonable price through them in hotel Kafka. It's only one tram stop from the Main Train Station. Little farther from the center is Pension Krystof: http://www.krystof.hotel.cz/accommodation/ In its neighborhood there is even cheaper Hattrick Pension: http://www.pensionhattrick.cz Obviously there are many more cheap pensions but I stayed in these mentioned above and can recommend them. I had a car and I could park for free there.
Recently I stayed at private accommodation on the upper floor in a family house in the neighborhood of Kobylisy. Price super reasonable. Walk to Metro (subway) 10 minutes, to tram 5 minutes. Metro takes about 10 minutes to get to Downtown, tram little longer. The landlady lived many years in the USA and speaks fluent English. If you are interested you can PM me.

Thanks for the replies guys!
Ken, that does seem very achievable. The travelling doesn't put me off as I don't know when I'll have the opportunity to do this sort of trip again and want to see as many places as possible. The starting point to amsterdam maybe cheaper by boat from England though so that may be the way I choose to go. Does anyone have any experience in hostels / B&B's, and if so which would be preferable? (baring in mind a tight budget)

I haven't stayed in hostels, but my sister often does, and she uses http://www.hostelworld.com and http://www.hostelbookers.com to research not only hostels (she checks the reviews carefully), but also cheap hotels. She did find a real gem of an inexpensive hotel for us in St. Petersburg, Russia, using Hostelbookers. I personally have found http://www.eurocheapo.com very helpful. It not only lists inexpensive places to stay in lots of the cities you're visiting, but also has descriptions of the various neighborhoods, which is useful. Be particularly careful in Amsterdam. Many of the hotels are small, and many are listed in multiple guidebooks. The city is popular year-round, particularly on weekends. All of this adds up to a "seller's market," meaning rooms are hard to get, often have minimum lengths of stay on weekends, tend to be expensive, and tend to be poor value for money. There's the additional problem that some inexpensive places are "party hostels," where the guests are more interested in getting drunk/high than in sleeping; fine if those are your goals too, but not so good otherwise. Venice is another place where rooms can be pricey and hard to get, but I wouldn't expect a "party crowd" so much there. On the other hand, Berlin accommodation tends to be good value. Pension Peters, mentioned above, is certainly worth looking at, but it's only one inexpensive option. If you can get a copy of Rick Steves Europe Through The Back Door, it will have a lot of "nuts and bolts" tips about travel and saving money. Even though it's geared toward USers rather than UKers, for a first time traveler it will still be very useful.