Whats up all,

I am new to this site, and new to backpacking as well. I am planning my first trip to Europe this May/June. I am gonna stay for 2 months. My plan is to buy a railpass and stay in hostels. The problem I am having is deciding how many places to go see. There are so many places, wish I could see them all, but can't. Right now I am thinking about making a total of 18 stops on my trip, which would give me roughly 3 nights per city, some four. Does this soud like too much?? I've never done this before so I really dont know. Here is my roughly planned itinerary:

london>paris>brussels>amsterdam>copenhagen>berlin> prauge>munich>zurich>milan>venice>florence>rome>na ples>nice>barcelona>madrid>san sebastian

Has anybody here done a trip like this before?? My situation is, I am a college student near graduation, and this is possibly the last time I will have to travel before I get a real job. So, I kinda want to see it all. What do you think??

Any help is appeciated! Thanks!! :cheers:

I did a similar trip (somewhat different itinerary, but same general circumstances and time frame) but I often spent a lot less than three to four days in one place - which was pretty exhausting by the end of three months. Knowing what I know now, three to four nights per place is probably a good minimum for getting a bit of a sense of a place, though many people prefer 5-7 if possible. You might want to consider dropping one or two stops from your list in order to buy yourself a little more time in some of the other places, if you can bring yourself to do so. I've only passed through Zurich personally, and I've never been to Milan, but from all I've read and picked up on these boards and other places, is that both are big bustling cities with not a heck of a lot to commend them - unless you have a particular interest in them, they might be good candidates to drop...

Or, if you're totally committed to seeing something of Milan, you could stay somewhere like Verona, which is roughly halfway between Milan and Venice, and daytrip to those two from there, while spending some of your time in a more appealing place than Milan, and a less expensive place than Venice!

Oh, and I wouldn't worry too much about this being the last time you'll have a chance to travel - once you've got the bug, it's pretty hard to squash! ;) You may only have a couple of weeks holiday, but you'll probably be able to manage a trip every year or two, so you can always plan to go back to places you missed or that you'd like to see more of.
:tumbleweed:

Hi...i know a guy in France and when I mentioned to him that I myself was thinking about going to Nice...he said, well, that Nice is not so nice. So if you're thinking about dropping a city, that might be one to consider...

Here's a thought on Naples: Do it as a day trip from Rome. Its only 2 hours by train. That's what I'm considering doing. Also then Pompeii is close if you are interested in it.

Thanks for the advice. I am thinking that there are a few places I can knock off to cut it down to maybe 12-13 cities. This way I'll have a little more time to soak it in and relax.