Europe... backpack? or Guided Tour?

i think it would be more fun if you go backpacking. but you must be prepared for a fair share of hardship. dishonest hostel owners, getting train tickets and coach tickets by yourself, and the eventuality that you might not get rooms for the night. i used to backpack but think i won't be able to do it anymore. it takes quite a lot of time to plan, although it might be cheaper. i guess for the itinerary, it depends on how much time you have and what you are interested in. go get some guidebooks from the library first and lonely planet usually has a few suggested itineraries that you could pick amongst...

I am an independent traveler and love to go backpacking. When I was 18 I left Finland where I had been working as a children's nanny then I went around Europe alone using an Internet. First I told a train in Finland, then a boat to Sweden and then I saw the beautiful city of Stockholm. Then I took a train and then another overnight train in a sleeping compartment past the Arctic Circle to Narvik in Norway. It was stunning up there but quite cold. Then I came back into Sweden before reaching the rest of Norway. I saw the interesting city of Oslo and took the pretty train journey to lovely Bergen. I went to scenic Copenhagen in Denmark and saw the Little Mermaid. Then went to Cologne in Germany and on to meet up with my sister in Ostend in Belguim. We went to delightful Bruges, the Venice of the North. I said goodbye to her and off I went again to Budapest in Hungary. It was the year before the Iron Curtain lifted. It was so cheap to go to the opera I went a few times. Then I went to beautiful Salzburg in Austria and I thought the surrounding mountains looked magnificent. On that trip I stayed in youth hostels and used my Inter Rail ticket to get around. I think a backpacking trip is far more fun than a guided tour because you would be able to see the places you want to go, choose how long to spend in each and meet other travelers not a large group. There are Inter Rail tickets for residents of Europe or a similar rail pass for people from the rest of the world. Youth Hostels and Backpacker Hostels are cheap places to stay with dorms and private rooms. Guest Houses can be found at a reasonable cost but hotels in the major cities tend to be expensive. You could spend a month seeing London, Paris, Barcelona, Lisbon, Nice, Rome, Florence, Venice, Salzburg, Prague and Budapest. You could fly into London or Rome for example. Look at flight costs and try to get a good guide book like Lonely Planet or Rough Guides. Tourist offices vary, and if you get any free maps of cities you are going to before you leave that would be good. Happy traveling.

Your first step should be thinking about what countries look interesting to you. Then it depends on what kind of person you are and what you do prefer. Backpack or Guided Tour... Do you want to make it alone or with a friend? How much money do you have or how much money do you want to spend for your trip? There are a lots of questions you should answer first. ;)