Well, I've been trying to plan where I would like to go for a few weeks now, and I think I've gotten something pretty close to what I'm looking for. I'll be leaving in spring and hopefully traveling for 10 weeks or so, avoiding western Europe for the most part. It will be my first trip, I'm going alone, and keeping it semi-cheap. Nervousness and excitement!

Here is a picture of a map with the basics of what I have planned:

http://i35.tinypic.com/726m1k.jpg

There are some daytrips, etc from each city, but I couldnt list every one of those, and I plan to just go by the seat of my pants for alot of it. I'm just trying to get myself a basic outline at this point. The cities outlined in blue are ones I definitely want to hit. Gdansk can be added on to that as well I suppose. The others are ones that I recently axed from the trip.

Any comments on the itinerary/budget are greatly appreciated. The one thing I am unsure of is getting in and out of Bulgaria. It's kind of off by itself and away from the rest of the trip. Right now I'm planning to fly in from Budapest and eventually leave Sofia and head back over to Barcelona and proceed home to end the trip.

Again, any comments/suggestions are more than welcome!

Your itineary looks fine.
If you feel you want to include more of Poland (Gdansk), I'd suggest you take train or bus from Prague to Wroclaw, then proceed to Gdansk (via Poznan?), from Gdansk south to Krakow, and further on to Budapest.
I understand you're planning your flight back from Sofia to Barcelona, where you're starting and finishing your trip. You should find affordable flights with Wizzair.
If you still have enough time at the end of your trip, try to go to Madrid and from Madrid to Toledo (0.5 hour by train) or Segovia (1 hour by bus). They're all great places to visit, with lots of history and old architecture.
If you decide to do that, then it'd be better to fly Sofia - Madrid and from Madrid train or bus to Barcelona.

i think the itinerary is fine but you might have overbudgeted. you can get by in eastern europe for 50 usd per day. Then again, im not sure how you plan to travel so if you plan to do hotels and such it might be a better budget.

I'd always overbudget. 100 USD in western europe will leave you with some extra money at the end provided you dont go crazy on the drinking

Nomadic Matt wrote:i think the itinerary is fine but you might have overbudgeted. you can get by in eastern europe for 50 usd per day. Then again, im not sure how you plan to travel so if you plan to do hotels and such it might be a better budget.

I'd always overbudget. 100 USD in western europe will leave you with some extra money at the end provided you dont go crazy on the drinking

I plan to backpack/hostels. I tried to overbudget by a little bcause I'm sure there will be a good amount of unseen expenses and I'd like to be able to do most of what I want without missing out bc I must pinch pennies. As far as accommodations/food though it will be hostels and market food as much as possible

Looks good. Your going to have a great time. On your way from Krakow to Budapest I would recommend that you stop a little short and spend a day in Egar. Esp if you like wine, then you can visit the wine caves outside of town and drink some great, cheap, Bull's Blood Wine.
For pictures of a lot of places your going take a look at my personal blog at http://www.gadtravel.com

You can take a train from Budapest to Sarajevo and travel to Sofia through the Balkans. I'd highly recommend Croatia, Montenegro, Albania, and Macedonia. Not too expensive and definitely my favorite part of Europe.

Also, are there discount airlines that go to Sofia? There are some that fly to Istanbul and Bucharest... Easyjet to both and a bunch more to Istanbul, which might make more economic sense to fly from at the end. You can easily get a bus from Skopje, Macedonia to either of those places, as well as a train or bus from Sofia. Istanbul is also an affordable and interesting place to spend a few days.