I've traveled to several European countries and the Vatican. You will find information, pointers, descriptions and a whole lot of photographs of the places within those countries I visited.
Go in any order you wish, they are not in journey order in the right menu but if you would like to follow the journey in the same order as I traveled, then follow the arrow. --------›
How Much Does Europe Cost?
In one word, depends. My trip was extremely cheap and I included everything down to the hand wipes I brought in my day pack. Another reason why I was able to do things so cheap was the handy student discount you get nearly everywhere with the ISIC Student Discount Card. With the conversion rate around what it was in June of 2006 the entire trip cost me only $4711.74 plus or minus a few hundred dollars. It would cost a more now due to the weak US dollar, especially the England part of it because the British Pound is at a 13 year high. I flew over there on Virgin Atlantic which I must say made flying a pleasure. Transportation is cheap when you buy the Eurail pass, just don't get fooled into thinking the price of the pass is all you'll have to pay for train rides. It just isn't so because some of the trips they make you reserve your seat and this usually costs around €15, for a sleeper car it costs as much as a cheap hotel and couldn't get any more uncomfortable, avoid at all costs.
My souvenir list was a mile long, I brought back twice as much weight back as I did with me, mostly due to the plethora of German books I bought in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria.
As for the most pricey country, surprisingly it wasn't England even though their money is nearly double what it's worth in the US. Nope, it was none other than Italy where a deal is impossible to come by and the common street dweller will spit in your face if you give them anything less than 5 Euros (well not really, but it seemed like it). From hotels to the simplest of food, there are no cheap deals. Everybody wants something for nothing and the friendliness just isn't there, at all. The one time I just about got a break on some food when the server gave me the wrong change, she yelled out wait a second! How much did I give you back? Almost, but impossible in Italy.
The cheapest country by far was Switzerland because there's so many things to do that don't require a penny, but if you do take any cable cars then the price jumps quite a bit. Germany also had a good track record for being very reasonably priced even in the most touristy of areas, although our cheapest place was off the beaten track.
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