I know I've only just got back from my trip this summer, but I caught the travel bug so bad that I'm planning next summers getaway. My 4 options are:

Turkey > Armenia > Azerbaijan > Georgia > Ukraine > Belarus > Estonia

Turkey > Syria > Lebanon > Israel > Jordan > Egypt

Italy > Albania > Macedonia > Kosovo > Bulgaria > Turkey

Or I could go and visit a friend in Malaysia

If anyone could give me any advice it'd be much appreciated, espiecally on costs of travelling around the middle east and malaysia. I'm hoping to go for 4/5 weeks and spend no more than £1,500 including airfare from London (I spent just under 4 weeks in SE Europe this summer and it totalled £1,000).

I was in Malaysia for about 3 weeks late last year. I spent about $1000AUD and stayed in hostels and ate from street vendors. That also included a few beers at the end of the day! (alcohol is quite expensive here, but I figured everything else was cheap anyway)

ev

israel is a must. it is so gorgeous and if you are staying in tel aviv...i reccommend staying at the mugraby hostel- $10/ night . good luck!

Wow...four great choices. I think I'll vote for the Middle East option, as you should be able to find good deals there as many may have been scared away by terrorism and the headlines. All your choices of places to visit are safe, in my opinion. However, when in Syria, do stay away from the Iraqi-Syrian border. There are a lot of nutzoid folks infiltrating to Iraq via that way, so it'd be best to steer clear...

worldwidemike (who's planning on going to Syria at the end of this month...)

those are great options. I'd go for # 2 or 3

I would take option #1. Estonia and the Ukraine will be very inexpensive and you will have an awesome time. All of those countries are beautiful in the middle of summer.