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When you are traveling alone there is nobody but you to keep you safe and organize the daily things for you.

If you are mature enough that will not be a problem, but at 19 you are on the young side for an extended travel alone.

I would advice you to do a few practice weekends where you go to a relative or friend in an other part of the UK and have to organize all for that alone. Or learn to arrange rail tickets or flights by going through the booking process, all but the last part where you enter the personal details and pay.

For traveling alone you will have to remember that you are responsible for your own safety, that means that you should never get completely drunk nor out of your mind from drugs. It is even better to avoid those completely.

Remember the rules for personal safety your parents would have told you every time you went to town, like 'do not go into the park at night, do not go home with people you have just met, do not drink your drink if someone might have been able to put something in it, if you do not trust a place do not go in.

There are more 'rules' but these cover some of the basics.

As young person traveling alone, you best stay in hostels.

Before you book, read reviews. If you are not sure you can pick out the good from the best, it might be better to restrict yourself to one organization only, the Hosteling International hostels, which used to be known as the national youth hostels for each country, are fairly good and not too expensive and they will help you book your next night with the next hostel in many cases.

In Western Europe you will need about 80 pound per night, maybe a bit less as you are getting reductions in many places, but Sweden is known to be a very expensive country, so if you go there too, you will need that kind of budget.

You can go for an InterRail pass, but whether it is cheaper than tickets bought early depends on where and when you travel and how far in advance you buy your tickets. Flying can be much cheaper, but only if you buy your tickets early.

And remember, in winter a lot of places will be closed, specially in the smaller towns, only the winter sports resorts will be running 100% and will be booked solid.

It really depends on where you're going. Most countries in Europe are safe, except some of the eastern European ones. There won't be much tourists in winter, and don't count on trains, since they might now run if there is snow. I think you should just go in the summer.

If you really want to go in winter though, best destinations would be Alps, specificaly France, Switzerland, Austria, and Italy. Zakopane in Poland is also a pop. one. Since you have friends in Sweden, you can travel to Gdansk, I would recommend flying from Karkow, and then catch a ferry to Stockholm if they're running.

You didn;t say how many countries you;re visiting, but public transport, hotels, food, museums, whatever. Between 1,000-2,000 dollars.

Prices in the France, Germany. benelux area are roughly comparable to where you live. Main difference is pub food and cafe food is much easier to get where you life and it's somewhat cheaper. From Denmark up to Sweden things are roughly 20% more expensive than what you're used to.

I tend to feel safer in most of those countries than I do in yours. Your country feels eerie, especially the areas with pubs on a friday and saturday night.

Do be aware that that kind of behaviour can earn you a quick jail trip in some other countries.