"I highly suggest reading this: http://www.amazon.com/Rick-St... This was our bible when the husband and I went backpacking through (Western) Europe for 5 weeks. We started out in Barcelona, then Cannes, rented a car and drove around the mountains in Southern France, dropped the rental off at St. Tropez, took the train to Nice, Venice, Interlaken (Switzerland), took a gondola up to Gimmelwald (stayed at an awesome hostel there), continued to Zurich, then Munich, then Lingen (to visit with the husband's relatives), Amsterdam, Loire Valley, Paris, and then London. And yes, definitely get a Eurail pass and take advantage of staying in hostels." - April Buchheit