Soon to be backpacking Europe and just looking for some good advice?

14 days is not a lot of time. I would suggest that you pick a region and travel around there. If you want to go to a lot of places and you want to get there fast, rent a car. You won't get mugged unless you're out really late at night and totally drunk. You won't need your laptops; just visit internet cafes or libraries. Why lug the thing around? You're going to be in Europe which is the real world. Stay out of the virtual world for two weeks; it won't kill you.

Don't go to Romania, full of thieves and scum. Don't go to Tallin, Estonia, full of Romanian thieving scum.

I don't have time to plan an itinerary for you, but I think that considering your time, concentrating on an area of Europe and getting a rail pass would be your best bet. I backpacked Europe for a month last summer and saw The Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Austria and Sweden. So I say you should pick 3 countries and plan what to see in those 3 countries. It mainly depends on what you want to see and do. Three to four days in any large city is enough to get a taste of the city. My main advice is pack light and study up before you go! Who wants to plan when you are there (unless you need to make other arrangements)? Choose your Hostels and Lodgings ahead and reserve online. One last word of advice, try not to arrive in a new city after dark, it is easy to get lost in a city at night! I got lost one time on my trip, after arriving in Brussels at dusk. I did not have a reservation and had to find a hostel that required me to walk through a unfavorable area, construction on a building in-front of my Hostel was the cause for this blunder! I could find no way to get to the street I needed because there was little light and a lot of signs down. It took 2 hours and then finally a kind Turkish student helped me find my way. It was a scary experience and a waste of time! Good Luck to the two of you!

"Me nor my friend speaks any kind of good foreign language but we plan on buying a translation book, is this going to be a large inconveniencee?" You can get by perfectly fine with English unless you are really going off the beaten track. "I don'tt believe that we would be targeted for any kind of muggings or robbery'ss, just because we are 2 athletic guys, but has anyone else had a problem like that? Should we carry some kind of protection with us at time?" Most of Europe is very safe for travelers. Violent crime against tourists is so rare it's practically nonexistent in most places. That said, there is a problem with petty theft - pickpocketing, bag snatching. It's a good idea to wear a money belt instead of carrying a wallet, and don't carry a wallet in your back pocket or leave your bags unattended for even a minute (e.g. in a train station if you go to the counter or in a cafe if you go to the bathroom). "Also we plan on one school backpack for each of us, we would each need our laptops and we are thinking 2 days worth of clothes and maybe an extra t shirt." Leave the laptops home - Internet cafes are cheap and they are everywhere. You will want more than 2 days of clothes - at least bring more T-shirts and underwear, you can rewear jeans or shorts if you need to save space. "Also what do you feel is the average cost per day, with food traveling and lodging. We are looking for bare essentials and would much rather spend our money on having funthen lodging or traveling." If you stay in youth hostels instead of hotels, use public transportation instead of cabs, and eat most of your meals from cafes, bakeries, pizzerias, street stalls, fast food, etc. instead of in real restaurants, you can spend around US $60 per day per person, not including your flight. You need to raise this if you intend to go to bars and clubs, if you intend to eat meals in real restaurants most of the time, or if you intend to stay in cheap hotels instead of hostels (although with 2 people sometimes a cheap hotel room is about the same as hostels, which charge per person) - if all of those things are true, then expect more like US $100 per day per person. "As much as we want to go to large cities we would also like to go to out of the way spots, if there are any places you couldrecommendd that we b great. We kinda know where we want to start and stop, but at the same time if someone else had a trip that is better then ours we would throw ours out the window in a second." With 14 days I'd do something like London - Paris - Brugge - Amsterdam....or alternately, Munich - Salzburg - Venice - Rome.

Dont know if thats alot of time either but i can tell you how i backpacked this past summer. well first off my friend told me about this company that does trips to Europe for people 18 - 27 year olds. They organize different trips that go different countries thoughout Europe. You choose the one you like best and just choose the date. The price includes round trip air-fare, hostels, and transportation b/w countries. Its great cause they basically take care of everything for you for one pretty good price, plus my friend passed along a disocunt code for me that saved me money it was : Vincig7397... The trips are very well planed out and you spend just the right amount of time in the city to basically see all you need to see with alot of free time to do what you want to do. You go with other people in your group so its a great way to meet people.Also if you want to stay longer you can just tell them what day and where you will be in europe and they will fly you home from that place and day at no extra cost. Its a great way to travel around Europe and me and my friends had a blast. Let me know if you have any more questions