London, Dublin, back through to Paris, then to Germany...help how to do it

I would recommend a slightly different itinerary.

Stay in London for three nights. Fly to Dublin on a budget airline (Aer Lingus, BMI, or Ryanair). There are many departure times and several airports to choose from out of London. From Dublin fly either Aer Lingus to Paris CDG or Ryanair to Paris Beauvais. (Note: Beauvais is a long way from Paris.) Book NOW to get the cheapest fares.

Read each budget airlne's Web site carefully for luggage size and weight limits. You'll pay extra if you go over. Pay close attention to the check-in deadlines. If you don't have a boarding pass in hand when the deadline arrives, your ticket will be worthless and you'll have to buy a new one at full fare on a later flight.

Take trains from Paris to Berlin, Berlin to Prague, and Prague to Munich. For Paris-Berlin you can take either day trains or a night train. Taking the night train will save you the cost of a night in a hotel and give you more daylight hours for sightseeing. Paying a little more for bunks in a 4-person couchette rather than a 6-person couchette is well worth it for the extra elbow room and luggage storage space.

If you book NOW at www.bahn.de, the German Rail site, you can get discount fares for all these routes. Click on the flag drop-down menu for English. Enter Praha for Prague and Muenchen for Munich.

If you can get discount fares, point-to-point tickets will be cheaper than a railpass. Note that discount tickets are for a specific departure date and time. They are non-refundable and non-exchangeable.

You could also fly Paris-Berlin on a budget airline: Orly-Schoenefeld on easyJet or Orly-Tegel on Air Berlin.

That is great advice, thank you so much. We had contemplated that and it does seem the cheaper option. However, I do have another question.

When we are in London for example and would like to go to see Bath or Stonehenge, we can just buy rail tickets for that right? Then when in Germany, we would like to visit places a little out of town, say the concentration camps or something like that, would a pass work for the in-town trains? Can you buy a seperate pass for those at a much cheaper rate?

How does getting around the cities work besides buses? I guess I didnt really think about that. Thanks!

To get to Stonehenge by public transportation you would take a train from London to Salisbury and a bus from there to Stonehenge. For details, see this page on the London Toolkit site.

Train fares in the UK vary widely and the price of walk-up tickets can be very high. Sometimes same-day return (roundtrip) tickets are only slightly higher than single (one-way) tickets. Sometimes you can get cheap fares by booking in advance, but those tickets are for a specific departure date and time and are non-exchangeable and non-refundable. If you want help with advance booking, just ask.

London-Salisbury: £31.30 for an anytime single ticket, but only £32.80 for an anytime, same-day return ticket. No discount for advance booking.

London-Bath: Walk-up fares are £74 each way, making a total fare of £148! However, by booking in advance you can get a fare as low as £9.50 each way.

Transportation in the cities: For London each of you should buy an Oyster card, load some pounds on it, and use it as a pay-as-you-go card. Use it for the Tube (London Underground), the bus, and the Docklands Light Railway. The bus is your only option in Dublin. For Paris buy ten-ticket carnets as needed and share the tickets. Use the tickets for the metro (subway), the RER in zone 1, and the bus. In Berlin you can buy passes that are good on the U-Bahn (subway), S-Bahn, trams, and buses. I don't know anything about public transportation in Prague.

David,

For the trip to Stonehenge, you might also consider taking the Bus from London Victoria to Bath (National Express). From Bath you could take a day trip that covers Stonehenge, Avebury, etc. Have a look at Mad Max Tours (listed in the Guidebook).

In Munich it's relatively easy to get to Dachau or Neuschwanstein Castle. I used Radius Tours but you could certainly do it on your own if you wish.

Happy travels!

Is this your first trip to Europe? With such short stays in many cities, and "side trips" during even those short stays, it seems to me that you will see mostly airports and train stations during your visit.

I have to echo Matt's comment -- this seems like too many cities for the time you have to spend. Do you have to hit all these cities? I would suggest eliminating Dublin and adding an extra night to London and another to Paris. That will save money and time and let you see several sites in both cities and perhaps take a side trip. I would also eliminate either Berlin or Prague and add the time to Munich. Side trips do not make any sense IMHO if you are only spending two nights in one place, especially cities like the ones that you are planning to visit -- they offer so many options. A day trip will cost money and take up valuable time. Matt is right -- you will spend way too much time traveling and not enough time seeing things and experiencing these places.