I am Backpacking West Europe & need advice and insight for the 5-6week trip

Justin: It is not so much the number of cities as the distance between them and the fact that rail connections are often not great between the cities you picked. Look at a map of Europe...Italy and Spain are huge peninsulas sticking into the Mediterranean. Getting down to Rome will therefore take a while by rail, and going from Rome to Barcelona by rail will take an eternity. Do you know for a certainty that you can sleep on night trains? If not, you will have to do shorter jumps by day, and again, that eats into your time. Given that London fully deserves a week, that leaves 3 weeks for the rest, but again, you have to factor transportation time into that equation. Again, Rick has wonderful advice on this site on precisely this point, how to balance time versus what you want to see. You did not mention a budget, but even staying in hostels and eating picnics you can expect to spend $40 per day for food, lodging, and sighseeing...over 6 weeks that is $1960 in addition to transportation around Europe and transatlantic airfare. Staying in even cheap hotels in major cities will run at least $50 per night per person and eating in little cafes and cheap restaurants will cost at least $40 per day...times 42 days. Do some research and reading and reflection...it will be expensive any way you go, but planning carefully will help get the most out of that expense.

Your question is quite long and I will let others help you out with all the details. I just wanted to let you know you could delete the 2nd posting, so people don't start answering both of them.

As a quick starter though, your trip is very crowded with way too many countries for such a short time. You have 8 countries in 5-6 weeks. You sound pretty young, so I bet you will be back to Europe soon. Why not pick out a few favorites instead of spending all your time travelling all over the place. This will also cost you a fortune. Most people pick perhaps one city a week to base in, then make day trips as well as really tour that one city. Places like Paris, Berlin, and Rome will take mulitple days.

The only way to know if a rail pass is good deal or not is to:

1) Come up with a rough itinerary. You don't have to know exactly how long you plan to stay at each destination, but know the order you plan to visit each.

2)Go to the website of the national rail company for each departure point on your trip and see how much each leg of the trip will cost. If you can commit to traveling on a specific date, for some of the long distance routes you can get a significant discount by purchasing in advanced. The Deutsche Bahn website is a good place to start, although some of their information is incomplete for trains outside of Germany.

3) Compare the total cost of point-to-point tickets to the price of a rail pass that would cover all of your trip PLUS all the reservation and additional fees they tack on.

Then, you have your answer. There really is no short-cut. You have to do your own homework on this... but the shorter answer is that rail passes are rarely a good deal these days, especially if you can get advanced purchase discounts.

Lee from Colorado or Tim from North Dakota can provide more information on specifics, but the bottom line comes down to that you need to plug the numbers.

Justin: the other posters have provided excellent advice. I would suggest you buy Let's G0- Europe and R Steves Best of Europe. Read the itinerary suggestions and general advice carefully. Also consider what your budget will be. Are you willing to stay in a bunk bed in a dorm room shared by several other people with a bathroom down the hall (hostel)? Or do you need a hotel with private bath and AC? Your answers to those questions have crucial budget impacts, especially over 6 weeks. Do you plan to picnic every meal or eat in cafes and restaurants? Same issue. What is it that you really want to see in Europe, and why? Why, for example, are you going to Dublin and Lisbon? Why not Berlin, Prague, Vienna? Do you just want to see the Alps or do some hiking in them?
I also am not sure buying airline tickets a full year in advance is the wisest idea. There has been a lot of discussion on this topic in this site, and you ought to look up some of those discussions before jumping this early. I don't know what you mean about "far west coast"....most flights from the US go directly to London, Amsterdam, or Paris with connections elsewhere, but there are direct flights (for example, Atlanta direct to Rome) to other destinations. In any event, the specific choice of arrival city is unlikely to make an enormous difference in airfare....how much airline competition exists on a given route makes a far bigger difference. Living in Nashville, you can really try several US gateways to see where you get the best deal...Atlanta, DC, Baltimore, Philly, NYC, even Chicago are all about equally accessible for you.

hey guys! great comments! thank u.. keep em coming. but am i really that naive to think that 6weeks would be long enough.. iwas planning a week in paris and a week in rome..the other destiantions are split between 2,3-4 nights. any comments about this? even if you beat a dead horse thanks!

This is really far in advance to come up with a specific budget. But you can for sure get an idea at this point. I started planning for my trip about 2 years in advance. Have you looked at flying within Europe? That can sometimes be less than the train, depending on the trip and can save you some time. I have chosen not to do a railpass, mainly because it won't save me any money since I am over 26 and traveling in Poland as well. Not to mention that even when you have a railpass you still have to pay fees/reservations. I'm glad that I've done some research because I had no idea about that until about 2 months ago!

Given the breadth of your questions, I would strongly recommend you get yourself a copy of Europe Through The Back Door and give it a thorough read. I think you will find it a much more complete and well-organized source of information than trying to piece together all the answers you are getting here.

Justin, Consider what the other posters are saying. You will loose lots of time on rail or even on cheap flights- many of the "cheap" airports they use are a LONG way from your main city and that costs money and time for transport to the city. Also- London deserves at least a week. Why not think about this- Dublin- 3 days, London- 1 week, Paris 1 week, Rome 1 week, and then either Madrid or Portugal 1 week. Use the "extra" time you have left for travel days and to add day here or there- Persoanlly London could use 2 weeks with lots of day trips, and I bet Rome could also. You could also probably get a good deal on an apartment or even rent a dorm room at a university if you stay at least a week in a location.

I suggest that you skip a few places from your itinerary. For example, skip Portugal, Belgium or the Swiss Alps. Depending on your energy level, consider taking a couple of night trains, regardless if you and other traveler can get a couchette or a sleeper. You're covering a lot of ground.