help me route my trip

Diana, not knowing where you want to go it is difficult to advise you. I would suggest getting a map of Europe and a copy of Europe Through The Backdoor. Read it, look at the map and decide what you want to see. After you have done that we can help with the logistics of where to fly into, etc. I do recommend you fly open jaw - fly into one airport and out of another, to avoid having to backtrack.

Planning a trip is half the fun!

A couple of thoughts. First, it is really hard for people to help you if you don't give some idea of what you would like to see. Big cities, small villages, history, art, culture, lake or mountain scenery with hiking?

Second, you daughter will probably have some ideas shere she would like to go after she has spent some time at her school in Geneva.

Third, travel from place to place can add up in $$$ and time spent on trains, which is not quality time. While it is tempting to want to "see it all", it is better to plan a compact trip as much as possible.

As for where to fly into and out of, it would make th emost sense to fly into Geneva to meet your daughter. (Remeber that if you fly from SFO on July 24 you will arrive in Geneva the next day). Since budget is a concern, and since you don't have a definite idea where you want to go, you might check and compare airfares flying out of different airports. You can do this easily on kayak.com using the "modify your search" mode to keep the same dates and same outbound leg; just change the starting airport for your return journey.

I just did a quick check, using dates July 24 and August 14, and found that the least expensive fare was flying out ot Rome ($345), followedby Zurich, Copenhagen, Pisa, Frankfurt, Paris, and Milan, in that order. But the difference between least and most was only $110. Also, most of those fares used a US Air routing to Geneva with 3 stops and a total travel time of 22 hours. I would not even consider that. The one routing that didn't was using Pisa as a return airport, all on Delta and a much more reasonable flight schedule.

Of course, things will change by the time you buy your tickets, but it is something to consider in your planning, rather than lock yourself into a departure airport (in your plans) and then find out it is the most expensive one when you go to buy your tickets.

Thank you for excellent advice. We are very open to areas to visit and was hoping for advise based on these factors: dates July 26th mid august, mother and daughter, starting in Switzerland and want to travel by train between cities. Berlin, Prague, Vienna, athens, greek islands, Rome, Florence and Venice are some areas my daughter has mentioned.

It is a long way to Greece by train. I suggest you drop Athens and the Greek islands from your itinerary, unless you are willing to fly there and back. Or you could take the overnight ferry from Bari (in Italy). Still, to make this worthwhile you should devote a week to this part and that does not leave much time for the rest.

The others can make a nice loop in the order you listed them: Berlin, Prague (consider a stop in Munich or Dresden as well), Vienna, Venice, Rome then Florence, flying home from Pisa.

You can take a night train for the long journey from Vienna to Venice, unless you want to stop elsewhere in Austria, such as Salzburg or Hallstadt.

You could also spend a couple of days working your way across Switzerland through the beauticul Berner Oberland---you daughter may visit there but this will be your chance to see it. End at zurich where you can take a night train to Berlin to start the rest of your trip.