I would have said Australia and New Zealand, but it will be winter there, so probably not the best idea.
How about visiting several places in South-East Asia and possibly Indonesia?
Touring the US sounds good, I'd love to do that!

How about going and working abroad for a month?

It might not be quite what you were thinking but you could either go and do the bar/pr work thing in the med or if that's not your thing you could do voluntary work??? It would one way to beat the credit crunch, avoid school holiday prices and spend an interesting month together.

If you are thinking of going around the US, why not look at http://www.amtrak.com and see if they have any suitable rail passes. It's great seeing the US by train, but not always quick - allow time for delays on long routes, because freight gets priority - and you can travel through the hottest areas eg Texas in airconditioned luxury!

Have a great time!

where about in Malaysia is your brother? We did a stopover in KL on our way to Bali. I have to say that KL is the least favourite of the Far East cities we have been to though. Bali is brilliant and very cheap. Good weather too.

Thanks all for your replies.

OH's brother is in Malaka (sp).

We talked some more today and may get a one way ticket somewhere and a return from another place a few weeks later and see where our travels take us. Thinking of Greek Isles as despite the Euro being poor for us we both love Greece!!!!!

Before you get too worried about the £ it has picked up about 10% since last weeks record low.

Some key words leap out of the post - "student", "month off" and "trip round mainland Europe" - the traditional answer to that is an Interrail pass and staying in hostels or small B&Bs (or even sleeping on overnight trains for the hard-core Interrailers!). If you are under 25 a pass for 22 days covering virtually all of Europe (excluding home country but including some Greek ferries) would be €309. The pass is available for over 25s but costs more. You can also get single country passes, so for instance you could get an easyjet flight to Milan, then with an Italian pass work your way down Italy and get the ferry to Greece, stay for a while (possibly with a Greek pass) and then fly back from Athens. There is loads of information about passes and travelling at http://www.interrail.com but for single countries there may be cheaper options than shown here.

Thanks for that Steve.....I had briefly thought about inter rail but hadn't got furhter than the thinking! Unfortunately I am well over 25! As is my OH who of course wouldn't get a student discount.

Has certainly given us soemthing to explore further. I would really prefer to bum around Europe to be honest so a keeping everything crossed for the Euro to be weakened against the pound.

Just bear in mind that the pass prices shown on the Interrail site are the most you'd need to pay. If the tour was limited to a single country or a few neighbouring countries there may be cheaper passes and for preset intineries reserved in advance it could be even cheaper to use ordinary advance purchase tickets. In the example trip from Milan you could get a good price from Trenitalia on a long distance journey in Italy by booking in advance via their website (which allows you to either print the ticket at home or gives you a reference number to collect from the station in Italy - thus avoiding the post). That would lack the flexiblity of a pass but if you had a booked flight at one end and a ferry at the other then you couldn't be too flexible anyway.

And it's not just the Italy where you can save money if you know the system, Austrian Railways have a pricing structure for long distance that gives discounts for 2nd passengers, the Germans have regional passes that are staggeringly cheap if there 2- 5 in a group (and at weekends a national pass on the same terms). German Rail's long distance division also do the discounted internet fares which in some cases go international and are also available in overnight sleeping cars to save hotel bills. Most German airlines sell connecting long distance rail tickets, last years flat fare was €29 - which would have got you from Dusseldorf Airport to Salzburg in an ICE.

The key to bumming around Europe is to research early, learning the system and working out options will save big money.