Very good advice.
I wonder about the Alps. I have only ever flown straight over the top of them, at say FL150, and this is doable (in the right bit of airspace) both VFR and of course IFR. Given clear weather, I can't see a problem with landing there; some places e.g. Samedan seem easy to get into, while most of the mountain airports seem totally scary.
The other thing not yet mentioned is doing an IR. This isn't a must for European touring (perversely, one can do a lot under "VFR" if one can actually operate on instruments, bending a few little rules here and there) but an IR does help. It makes long distance touring much less effort.
But, we sit here typing up all this stuff, when the original poster might have a £500/year flying budget! As so often happens on here.
In fact I think one could generate a sort of a long term checklist, for those who want to do a PPL to go places. I learnt to fly with exactly that purpose from day 1 but there are so many things I would have done differently had I known what I learnt later.
Nickd - I sent you an email.
Pitts2112 - that brightened up my day, between checking in a huge delivery of cardboard boxes
