Budget Travel - Ok..I'm back in the US..Where to Next?

Greetings fellow travelers! My name is Orlando and I live in the San Francisco bay area. I've recently caught the travel bug. This past year I spent a couple of month backpacking in South America. One of the best experiences of my life! Had the chance to hike Machu Picchu, party every night till 6am during carnival in Salvador and Rio, spent 2 weeks exploring Buenos Aires, and saw the beautiful waterfalls of Iguazu Falls. Since I've returned from my trip all I can think about is how to save up and backpack all over again. I'm on a tight budget so my next adventure will have to involve a lot of hosteling and couchsurfing. So I'm asking my fellow world travelers, where should my next backpacking adventure be? I've always wanted to go to Europe, but I heard it's really expensive. Some have suggested New Zealand and Australia. Asia also appeals to me. Any suggestions?

...and how long you would have for the trip. Being on the West coast of the USA you are 12 hours from Europe and 14 hours from Australia. Figure out a good city to be a jumping off point for your trip. A city that you can fly to cheaply from SFO and has good LCC links to other places you might want to check out. Aer Lingus to Dublin comes to mind. Though you can get good deals with the legacy carriers to London and again their are a riches of destinations and LCC's to choose from in London. Same for a flight to Sydney and then using it as a jumping off point to South East Asia on Virgin Blue/Jetstar/Tiger Airways.

Try and pack light and make use of local laundromat's/do handwashes. That way you can save on checked luggage fee's. You can always buy cheap t shirts etc from the local version of Walmart and discard as you go along.

Well the first thing I would suggest that you do is join Hostelling International. (http://www.hiusa.org/membership/member_benefits) You get discounts with your memembership. Plus priority booking at the different Youth Hostels (though you don't have to be a youth) all over the world. Also check out the local YMCA etc. There are plenty of good private hostels but they can be hit or miss. So with HI/YHA/YMCA you can pretty much guarantee they will be safe, secure, clean etc.

If you do fancy going to Australia check out the fares on V Australia (http://vaustralia.com/) and then for domestic flights you can book an air pass with Virgin Blue.

I found groceries to be quite inexpensive in Australia. So you could certainly eat well on a budget if you are in a Hostel with self catering facilities.