Dan and I (pictured in Vienna) decided to travel after study abroad and it was the best decision we could have ever made. You can travel before, but I would not recommend after. If you travel after, you have been in Europe with a group and you are ready to go off on your own. You are taking your training wheels off. We traveled to five countries, and I went on to a sixth one by myself. The highest cost of studying abroad is the flight, once you are in Europe I think it is worth the extra few hundred dollars to keep traveling. Sleeping in hostels and taking trains were very easy. We met up during the semester to plan and book everything. Even when people did not speak English, we never had to use Google Translate. You can book a train between countries for €15-€30, which is absolutely worth it for visiting a new country. We had a few hours at night to explore and eat, then we went to bed. We woke up the next morning and gave ourselves a few more hours before a train in the early afternoon. That train would arrive sometime at night and we would start the process over. It did not get dark until 9:30 pm in most places so we were able to see the city. Each day we had no clue what we wanted to do. On the trains we looked up best things to do in the city we were going to, and then we did those things. We walked everywhere and never bought tickets. We saved hundreds of dollars doing this and I do not think we missed out. I was sufficient with seeing places from the outside. After we saw the places we wanted to see, we would just wander around. We walked in random directions and just enjoyed the city. Every time we ate, we made sure to have a traditional meal in the country we were in. This is the one thing I allocated money for. I believe it is important to try to food in the country you are in, even if you do not think you will like it.