Essential Western Europe: Amsterdam, Berlin & Epic Views — Self-Launched

Land at Schiphol and take the Sprinter or Intercity train straight to Amsterdam Centraal (about 20 minutes, €5.60/£4.80) — no transfer booking needed. Check into a central hostel dorm in the Jordaan or around Nieuwmarkt; Hostelworld has plenty of 6-8 bed dorms for £25-35 a night. Spend the afternoon on foot: Dam Square, the Bloemenmarkt flower stalls, a wander along the Prinsengracht, and a cone of fries with mayo from a hole-in-the-wall. Skip the canal cruise tonight and just walk the bridges at golden hour. Do a supermarket shop (Albert Heijn) for breakfast supplies to keep food costs down over the next few days.

🚌Airport train to Centraal ~£5, then walking

🛏Central Amsterdam hostel dorm (6-8 bed), £25-35

• →Walking orientation of the canal ring
• →Dam Square and Bloemenmarkt
• →Evening canal-side stroll

Rent a bike for half a day (MacBike or Black Bikes, roughly €12-15/£11-13 for 4 hours) and do the classic loop: Vondelpark, the Rijksmuseum underpass, the Magere Brug and the Nine Streets. If you want a guided version, GetYourGuide sells 2-hour city bike tours from about £22 — cheap and you meet people. Grab lunch at a market (Albert Cuyp or Foodhallen), then head to Centraal for the direct Amsterdam-Berlin train. Book on NS International or Deutsche Bahn well ahead: saver fares start around €37.90/£33 and the ride is roughly 6 hours. Arrive in Berlin in the evening, check into a hostel in Mitte or Kreuzberg, and grab a kebab or currywurst for dinner.

🚌Half-day bike rental ~£12; Amsterdam-Berlin ICE ~£33 (book early)

🛏Berlin hostel dorm (Mitte or Kreuzberg), £20-30

• →Self-guided bike loop of the canal ring and Vondelpark
• →Albert Cuyp market lunch
• →Intercity train to Berlin

Start with a free walking tour (Sandemans or Alternative Berlin run daily, tip-based, usually £8-12 in tips) to get the layout and the history in one go. Then walk the route yourself: Brandenburg Gate, the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, Checkpoint Charlie and a stretch of the East Side Gallery. In the afternoon rent a bike (about €10/£8.50 for 3 hours) and ride out to Tempelhof Airport, the decommissioned airfield that's now a vast public park — locals kite-surf and rollerblade on the runways. Dinner at a street food market if it's a Thursday (Markthalle Neun) or a cheap Vietnamese spot in Kreuzberg. Berlin's nightlife is famously all-night; pick a club or a bar crawl depending on your energy.

🚌AB day ticket or 24-hour metro pass ~£8; bike rental ~£8.50

🛏Berlin hostel dorm, £20-30

• →Tip-based free walking tour
• →Brandenburg Gate, Holocaust Memorial, East Side Gallery
• →Tempelhof by bike
• →Optional: Checkpoint Charlie museum (~£10)

Take a morning train Berlin-Dresden (about 2 hours, saver fares from €17.90/£15 — or a FlixBus for £10-12 if you're flexible). Drop your bag at Dresden Hauptbahnhof lockers and walk 20 minutes into the baroque old town: the Frauenkirche, the Zwinger palace courtyards, the Brühl Terrace over the Elbe, and the reconstructed Neumarkt. Two or three hours is enough. Then continue Dresden-Prague by train (about 2h15, from €18/£16, book on DB or cd.cz) or the RegioJet/FlixBus coach (from £10). Arrive Prague by early evening, check into a hostel in Old Town or Vinohrady (£15-25 a dorm bed), then do your own highlight walk — Old Town Square and the Astronomical Clock, Charles Bridge, the John Lennon Wall and the graffiti-covered TV Tower — finishing at a Vinohrady beer hall like U Sadlu for a £6 dinner and a half-litre of Pilsner for about £2.

🚌Berlin-Dresden train ~£15; Dresden-Prague train ~£16

🛏Prague hostel dorm (Old Town or Vinohrady), £15-25

• →Self-guided Dresden old town walk
• →Evening highlight walk of Prague Old Town and Charles Bridge
• →Czech beer hall dinner

Walk up to Prague Castle (Hradčany) in the morning — the grounds and St Vitus Cathedral exterior are free, and a circuit ticket if you want inside the buildings is about 450 CZK/£15. Wander down through the Lesser Town, cross Charles Bridge and climb the Old Town Hall tower for the view. In the afternoon hike Petřín Hill (free, 30 CZK/£1 for the lookout tower) or hit the Letná beer garden for a £2 pint with the city spread out below. If you want the craft beer and food tasting the operator sells as an add-on, book it directly through GetYourGuide or a Prague food tour company for around £45-55 — or just do it yourself across three or four pubs for under £20. Evening: a cheap Czech dinner of goulash and dumplings for £8-10.

🚌Tram day pass ~£3; mostly walking

🛏Prague hostel dorm, £15-25

• →Prague Castle and St Vitus Cathedral
• →Charles Bridge and Old Town Square
• →Petřín Hill hike or Letná beer garden
• →Optional craft beer and food tasting (£45-55)

Take the early RegioJet or FlixBus from Prague to Cesky Krumlov (about 2h45, from £6-9) — the most scenic and cheapest leg of the trip. Store your bag at the bus station and walk into the UNESCO-listed old town: the castle ramparts and bear moat, the round Cloak Bridge over the Vltava, the baroque theatre, and the bell tower climb for the classic red-roof view (about 100 CZK/£3.40). Lunch at a riverside pub for £6-8. In the afternoon take the shuttle or bus onward to Vienna — RegioJet/FlixBus run direct in about 4-5 hours from £12-18 (there are also shared shuttle vans from £25). Arrive Vienna in the evening and do a self-guided ring walk: St Stephen's Cathedral, the Hofburg, the Rathaus and the State Opera exterior are all free to wander after dark.

🚌Prague-Cesky Krumlov bus ~£8; Cesky Krumlov-Vienna bus ~£15

🛏Vienna hostel dorm (Naschmarkt or Neubau), £22-32

• →Cesky Krumlov castle and old town on foot
• →Bell tower climb
• →Evening self-guided walk of the Vienna Ringstrasse

Vienna is a walking city. Do a tip-based free walking tour of the historic centre in the morning (£8-10 in tips) or simply follow the Ringstrasse on foot. Buy a 24-hour Vienna public transport pass (€6.10/£5.20) if you want to hop trams — the number 1 and 2 lines do a scenic circuit. In the afternoon pick one paid attraction rather than all of them: Belvedere Palace with the Klimt collection is about €17/£15, the Kunsthistorisches Museum similar, and the State Opera standing tickets go for €14-18/£12-15 if you queue or book online. Budget at least one proper Viennese coffee house visit — a melange and a slice of Sachertorte is £10-12 and is the whole point of Vienna. Dinner at a Naschmarkt stall for £10-12.

🚌24-hour transport pass ~£5.20; walking

🛏Vienna hostel dorm, £22-32

• →Tip-based walking tour or self-guided Ringstrasse walk
• →Belvedere or Kunsthistorisches Museum (pick one)
• →Coffee house and Sachertorte
• →Naschmarkt food stalls

Take the morning Railjet Vienna-Salzburg (about 2h30, saver fares from €29.90/£26 on oebb.at — book early, this route gets expensive). Drop bags at your Salzburg hostel, then catch bus 840 from Salzburg Hauptbahnhof to Berchtesgaden/Konigsee (about 1 hour, €6-7/£6 with a Bayern or Salzburg regional ticket). Walk the lakeshore trail at Konigsee — the flat path along the water's edge is free and the electric boat to St Bartholomä is about €22/£19 if you want to go further. Alternatively, the Pravčická Gate natural rock arch is a day trip in its own right from the Czech side but is doable as a long day from Salzburg only with a car — most independent travellers fold it into the Dresden/Prague section instead. Back in Salzburg by evening, walk the Getreidegasse, Mozart's birthplace, the Residenzplatz and climb Festungsberg to Hohensalzburg for sunset (exterior and grounds free; fortress interior about €13/£11).

🚌Vienna-Salzburg Railjet ~£26; bus 840 to Konigsee ~£6

🛏Salzburg hostel dorm, £22-30

• →Konigsee lakeshore walk (boat optional, ~£19)
• →Salzburg old town orientation walk
• →Hohensalzburg hill at sunset

The Salzburg-Munich train is a bargain — the Meridian/BRB regional service runs hourly and takes about 1h45, and with a Bayern Ticket (€32/£27 for up to five people, or about £14 solo if you split it) it's one of the cheapest international legs in Europe. Arrive Munich, check into a hostel near the Hauptbahnhof (£22-32 a dorm bed), and head out on foot: Marienplatz for the Glockenspiel (daily at 11am and 12pm, plus 5pm in summer), the Frauenkirche's twin onion domes, the Viktualienmarkt food stalls for lunch, and the Englischer Garten if the weather's good — including the surfers on the Eisbach river wave. Finish with a pint and a plate of pork and dumplings at a proper beer hall (Augustiner or Hofbräuhaus, £15-20), which is the correct way to end this trip.

🚌Salzburg-Munich regional train with Bayern Ticket ~£14

🛏Munich hostel dorm near Hauptbahnhof, £22-32

• →Marienplatz and Glockenspiel
• →Viktualienmarkt
• →Englischer Garten and Eisbach surfers
• →Beer hall dinner

Depart at any time. Munich airport is 40 minutes from the centre on the S1/S8 (about €13/£11 for the full zone ticket). If you have a late flight, a last walk through the Altstadt or a supermarket breakfast in the hostel kitchen keeps costs down. Staying longer? Add a day trip to Neuschwanstein by regional train plus bus (about £25 return) or extend by three days and swing to the Bavarian Alps for hiking before flying out.

🚌S-Bahn to MUC airport ~£11

🛏Departure day — hostel check-out

• →Optional Neuschwanstein day trip (~£25 transport + £15 entry)