Critique My Travel Plans?

I鈥檓 planning a Summer 2010 backpacking adventure and would love some criticism/advice. I鈥檝e figures out my basic destination list, a rough schedule and a potential budget, but having never backpacked, I鈥檓 not sure how close or far off I am. Any advice you can give me would be much appreciated鈥?br>


Schedule:

[04 May 2010 鈥?09 May 2010] Dublin, Ireland

[09 May 2010 鈥?12 May 2010] Liverpool, United Kingdom

[12 May 2010 鈥?14 May 2010] Manchester, United Kingdom

[14 May 2010 鈥?16 May 2010] Cardiff, United Kingdom

[16 May 2010 鈥?23 May 2010] London, United Kingdom

[23 May 2010 鈥?30 May 2010] Paris, France

[30 May 2010 鈥?02 Jun 2010] Brussels, Belgium

[02 Jun 2010 鈥?09 Jun 2010] Amsterdam, Netherlands

[09 Jun 2010 鈥?14 Jun 2010] Berlin, Germany

[14 Jun 2010 鈥?20 Jun 2010] Prague, Czech Republic

[20 Jun 2010 鈥?25 Jun 2010] Vienna, Austria

[25 Jun 2010 鈥?30 Jun 2010] Budapest, Hungary

[30 Jun 2010 鈥?02 Jul 2010] Zagreb, Croatia

[02 Jul 2010 鈥?04 Jul 2010] Ljubljana, Slovenia

[04 Jul 2010 鈥?09 Jul 2010] Munich, Germany

[09 Jul 2010 鈥?12 Jul 2010] Venice, Italy

[12 Jul 2010 鈥?18 Jul 2010] Rome, Italy

[18 Jul 2010 鈥?22 Jul 2010] Athens, Greece

[22 Jul 2010 鈥?26 Jul 2010] M媒konos, Greece

[26 Jul 2010 鈥?29 Jul 2010] Athens, Greece

[29 Jul 2010 鈥?01 Aug 2010] Florence, Italy

[01 Aug 2010 鈥?04 Aug 2010] Milan, Italy

[04 Aug 2010 鈥?06 Aug 2010] Nice, France

[06 Aug 2010 鈥?08 Aug 2010] Toulouse, France

[08 Aug 2010 鈥?12 Aug 2010] Barcelona, Spain

[12 Aug 2010 鈥?15 Aug 2010] Valencia, Spain

[15 Aug 2010 鈥?19 Aug 2010] Madrid, Spain

[19 Aug 2010 鈥?22 Aug 2010] Lisbon, Portugal



Budget:

Airfare: 1100

Denver to Dublin, Ireland

Lisbon, Portugal to Denver



EuroRail Ticket 1400

3 Months, Unlimited in 21 Countries



Food/Drink 4000

110 Days at $25 a day food (2750)

50 Days at $25 a day for drinks (1250)



Lodging 3300

110 Days at $30 youth hostel (3300)



Attractions 2750

110 Days at $25 a day exploring (2750)



Other Travel 1950

110 Days at $10 for town travel (1100)

Flight from Rome to Athens (150)

Ferry to UK (100)

Ferries for Mykonos (150)

Ride through Chunnel (100)

Train through England (350)



Total: 14,500 for 110 DaysCritique My Travel Plans?
Your total budget $14,500 is OK for 110 days, but not great. It sounds like a lot of money but much is budgeted for travel costs and you are planning to visit some of the most expensive places in the world. For example, $25/day for "attractions" won't be enough unless you skip a lot of days.



For traveling around, check with your trans-Atlantic airline for Europe Passes. An example is:



http://www.skyteam.com/about/products/eu鈥?/a>



You do backtrack a lot. Check the map again.



Don't only visit cities.



Check with your regular medical insurance to find out if it covers you in Europe (and in ALL of the countries you plan to visit). If yes, take with you proof of coverage. If no or not clear then you should get travel medical insurance which is cheap and sold by travel agents (including AAA).



You should consider joining SERVAS, which will both save you some money and give you local contacts almost everywhere in Europe:



http://joomla.servas.org/



However, I think you are doing WAY too much for one trip AND scheduling yourself too tightly. Things happen: Bad weather, a local festival fills all the places to stay, whatever. You need to be more flexible.



Your itinerary also has you in a different city every few days and you need to remember that getting from place to place will basically take a whole day with each move. Also, the constant travel will exhaust you (really!) long before the almost 4 months trip is over. When you get home the trip will all be just a blur - IF you don't get sick and have to go home early.



Unless there is some reason why you absolutely must visit all the places you list consider reducing your trip to 2 months/60 days. Go from early May to early July - Europe is on vacation starting in mid July.



Choose 6 to 8 countries or places and schedule a week to 10 days in each. Do short excursions if you want to visit nearby places (ex. Paris %26amp; Brussels are very close to each other and there are trains every hour).



If you do that you won't get exhausted/sick, you will have much more money available per day on the same budget, and you will have fun. The trip you describe above looks great but will cease being fun very quickly.



Goo luck, whatever you decide!
Looks pretty sound to me. You're going to have an amazing time! I'm envious! Nice, France is beautiful, you might want to spend more than two days.Critique My Travel Plans?
It looks like you have given this a lot of thought....Perhaps too much. Backpacking is so unstructured that you will change your routes a dozen times before you finish. It is nice to have a general idea of which countries you want to travel and take it from there...... Keep doing your research and find students who have done this. Perhaps you will find some here. Make sure you have good credit and good credit card, Charge as much as you can but backpacking you will need cash as well...You should be able to use your credit card on many of your activities.

If you change one of your scheduled plans above then it throws off your entire trip, Much to detail !!!!