Flights from CA to Europe...open dates and destinations!

Try http://matrix.itasoftware.com/search.htm. You can input more than one airport, with commas, like:
LON, PAR, FRA I believe I read somewhere about a site that shows lots of destination options if you input your origin airport and your dates, but I don't remember it. Note that LON will pull up all London airports, PAR all Paris airports, and BER all Berlin airports. Use these instead of, say, LHR (which is only London Heathrow). Otherwise, you have to keep trying all the options; there's no rhyme or reason. For instance, I remember one time when flying into Milan was several hundred dollars cheaper than Venice or Rome, whereas most times the three are almost equivalent (from NYC, where I'm starting). And in fall 2011, Warsaw and Istanbul were MUCH cheaper from NYC than anywhere else in Europe, by large amounts. I joked to people that I couldn't afford to go anywhere else (I ended up going to Istanbul). Furthermore, Krakow and Warsaw were almost the same, but Gdansk was about $200 more. Why? Who knows? It used to be that more competition meant lower airfares, so places like London, Paris, and Frankfurt were cheapest, as they had more different flights on more carriers flying from New York. But when I looked in fall 2011, these were all much more than Warsaw, which has little competition for nonstops from New York. I'm saying all this to prepare you and your sister - if you find a cheap route, accept it and don't' ask too many logic questions.

I'm not sure if you know, but on Kayak you can choose "MORE" at the top of the screen, then select "EXPLORE", put in your origin airport and choose a month or season. Then down on the lower left side you can choose EUROPE and it will show typical flight costs to different airports in Europe. I use this all the time.

I like the calendar at www.itasoftware.com for fare comparisons. Don't be so sure it'll be way expensive. As I shared in another thread, I just booked round-trip for June/July travel between Vancouver, Canada and Zurich and paid $1250 for direct flights. Not a bad deal for a great itinerary, but the fare is even a few hundred dollars less now. This is on Edelweiss Air, btw.

Nancy - thanks! That was what I was thinking of. Very helpful. Unfortunately, it shows that flights for September to places I'm thinking of in Europe are very expensive, and flights from New York to Istanbul are still cheap (I loved it, but want to go somewhere else this time).

Thanks! Wow I didnt know that about Kayak, that definitely was super helpful. I guess she is just going to buy a ticket because she found it and just wants to jump on it. But now I know for next time :) Thanks a ton!