Has anybody done this either alone or with friends?

I'm looking at it at the moment, with a view to doing it at some point in the near future. I would be interesting on drawing on the experiences of others...

To bear in mind, I live in London so am not too fussed about seeing every corner of Europe during this trip because its easier to get to and from Europe from here... I have also seen many of the big cities already. The main motivator and interest for me is the backpacking aspect, the independence that comes with that form of travel and the ability to see a totally different side of Europe via the method transport and of course the flexibility that comes with it.

In terms of a particular route, I have rough ideas in mind but its not really a massive issue for me, as alluded to above.
If anyone has done it, if you could give me any tips at all and also what a decent budget would be that would be great...

TY

bump

Check out hostelworld or hostelbookers and see what the cost of a rail pass is -- those are easy to figure out

As for daily costs it'll depend heavily on where you are and what you do (eg fancy amazing dinners vs. random pizza spots)

Hard to offer anything too useful, maybe plan your route and figure out the above costs then come back and ask for advice

I did this in 2006, highly recommended. Make sure you get the first class pass as it's only about £200 more expensive for an infinitely more enjoyable experience.

My itinerary went something like:

Turin, Bologna, Milan, Verona, Florence, Pistoia, Naples, Rome, Ancorra, Trieste, Munich, Prague, Vienna, Salzburg, Budapest, Berlin, Zurich, Bern, Barcelona, Cordoba, Seville.

The beauty with the pass is that you can stop anywhere. I'm doing another tour of Italy using the single-zone pass in the summer actually –trains are definitely my favourite way to see the world.

I think my pass for a month cost around £500 for 1st class and I ended up spending another £2,000 or so, which, all things considered, was pretty good value considering all I managed to see.

Thanks for the responses..

In terms of my route, as I said, I'm not too bothered. I know I will go for 3 weeks so will come to plan a rough route accordingly but I intend to be armed with train schedules etc and just look forward to having the facility to wake up in the morning and go "right, actually, i fancy going to x now.."

I'll definitely bump the thread when I have a proper route in place, lots of other things to sort out before that point however.

Do you recall how long the train from Bern to Barcelona took?

I hadn't given much consideration to first class but will check it out if it makes that much of a difference..

I think I actually went from Zurich to Barcelona overnight, think the journey is around 12 hrs but it might be longer.

In terms of being armed with the train schedules, unless you're in the hub cities, finding out times of European trains from country to country can be quite tricky, particularly in the smaller stations. Zurich is the busiest European station in terms of daily traffic so it's useful place to aim for if you're planning on a long journey.

1st class isn't a deal breaker, I went coach at the time. Having since travelled a good deal on 1st in Europe, I'd definitely opt for that if possible – mainly because you have the luxury of a bed on long journeys, which will save you money on hotel rooms.

Be sure to check if you need to make reservations because in some cases you may get a penalty (about 30 euro if I'm not mistaken) if you don't.

well, if you going in the summer i would say:
south of portugal, south of spain, south of france .italy.
maybe ibiza or a island in italy.

if you going in september or after you can do the east of europe

I have done it with a friend two and a half years ago and it was amazing! There is a chance that we will do it again in the near future.

Our route was awesome because we managed to visit larg cities as well as small towns/villages. We were also able to visit both rich and poor European countries. Our route looked like this: Copenhagen - St. Johan in Tirol (Austria) - Vienna - Budapest - Belgrade - Skopje (Macedonia) - Ochrid (Macedonia) - Kastraki (Meteora in Greece) - Patras - Pompei - Rome - Venice - Munchen - Copenhagen.

Here is an idea/tip we have for our next trip. Since you can't use the pass in Britain and it's valid for only 30 days, you could start by taking a cheep flight from London to another city, stay there for couple of days and then buy your pass there (or buy it in London with later activation date). This way you trip will last for more than 30 days. You could do the same on your way home.

Also, there is not THAT much freedom as you would think. The idea of waking up in the morning and going to place x is great, but it might not always work this way and it could be a pain in the ass (like trying to explane to italian ticket salesman, who pretend that he doesn't understand you, that you want to reserve a seat on a train). On large stretches you will need a reservation and it's a good idea to do it beforehand (once we had to go out of the train in Greece before we didn't have any). We planed our trip in details, we had hostel reservations for each day as well as seat reservations for trains where we had to have them and we still had a blast and enjoyed our trip! I think you would avoid a lot of frustrating situations if you give up the idea of being 100% independend and spontaneous.