Itinerary Skills
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| The Web makes it easier than ever to spice up your itinerary with local festivals. |
By Rick Steves
If you have any goals at all for your trip, make an itinerary. I never start a trip without having every day planned out. Your reaction to an itinerary may be, "Hey, won't my spontaneity and freedom suffer?" Not necessarily. Although I always begin a trip with a well-thought-out plan, I maintain my flexibility and make plenty of changes. An itinerary forces you to see the consequences of any spontaneous change you make while in Europe. For instance, if you spend two extra days in the sunny Alps, you'll see that you won't make it to, say, the Greek Islands. With the help of an itinerary, you can lay out your goals, maximize their potential, avoid regrettable changes...and impress your friends.
Itinerary Considerations
If you deal thoughtfully with issues such as weather, culture shock, health maintenance, fatigue, and festivals, you'll travel happier.
Moderate the weather conditions you'll encounter. Match the coolest month of your trip with the warmest area, and vice versa. For a spring and early summer trip, enjoy comfortable temperatures throughout by starting in the southern countries and working your way north. If possible, avoid the midsummer Mediterranean heat. Spend those weeks in Scandinavia or the Alps. Scandinavia and Britain have miserable weather and none of the crowd problems that plague Italy and France. Ideally, forget crowd concerns and visit Britain and Scandinavia in the peak of summer.
Alternate intense big cities with villages and countryside. For example, break a tour of Venice, Florence, and Rome with an easygoing time in the hill towns or on the Italian Riviera. Judging Italy by Rome is like judging America by New York City.
Join the celebration. Hit as many festivals, national holidays, and arts seasons as you can. This takes some study (for a starter, go to www.ricksteves.com/festivals). Ask the national tourist office of each country you'll visit for a calendar of events. An effort to hit the right places at the right time will drape your trip with festive tinsel.
Save your energy for the biggies. Don't overestimate your powers of absorption. Rare is the tourist who doesn't become somewhat jaded after several weeks of travel. At the start of my trip, I'll seek out every great painting and cathedral I can. After two months, I find myself "seeing" cathedrals with a sweep of my head from the doorway, and I probably wouldn't cross the street for another Rembrandt. Don't burn out on mediocre castles, palaces, and museums. Sightsee selectively.
Establish a logical flight plan. It's been years since I flew in to and out of the same city. You can avoid needless travel time and expense by flying "open jaw" — into one airport and out of another. You usually pay just half the round-trip fare for each airport. Even if your "open jaw" flight plan is more expensive than the cheapest round-trip fare, it may save you lots of time and money when surface connections are figured in. For example, you could fly into London, travel east through whatever interests you in Europe, and fly home from Athens. This would eliminate the costly and time-consuming return to London. A good travel agent will know where flying "open jaw" is economical.
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| See countries in order of cultural hairiness. |
See countries in order of cultural hairiness. If you plan to see Britain, the Alps, Greece, and Turkey, do it in that order so you'll grow steadily into the more intense and crazy travel. England, compared to any place but the United States, is pretty dull. Don't get me wrong — it's a great place to travel. But go there first, when cream teas and roundabouts will be exotic. And you're more likely to enjoy Turkey if you gradually work east.
Save your good health. Visit countries that may be hazardous to your health (North Africa or the Middle East) at the end of your trip, so you won't needlessly jeopardize your healthy enjoyment of the safer countries. If you're going to get sick, do it at the end of your trip so you can recover at home, missing more work — not vacation.
Minimize one-night stands. Even the speediest itinerary should be a series of two-night stands. I'd stretch every other day with long hours on the road or train and hurried sightseeing along the way in order to enjoy the sanity of two nights in the same bed. Minimizing hotel changes saves time and money and gives you the sensation of actually being comfortable in a town on the second night.
Leave some slack in your itinerary. Don't schedule yourself too tightly (a common tendency). Everyday chores, small business matters, transportation problems, constipation, and planning mistakes deserve about one day of slack per week in your itinerary.
Punctuate a long trip with rest periods. Constant sightseeing is grueling. Schedule a peaceful period every two weeks. If your trip is a long one, schedule a "vacation from your vacation" in the middle of it. Most people need several days in a place where they couldn't see a museum or take a tour even if they wanted to. A stop in the mountains or on an island, in a friendly rural town, or at the home of a relative is a great way to revitalize your tourist spirit.
Assume you will return. This Douglas MacArthur approach is a key to touristic happiness. You can't really see Europe in one trip. Don't even try. Enjoy what you're seeing. Forget what you won't get to on this trip. If you worry about things that are just out of reach, you won't appreciate what's in your hand. I've taken dozens of European trips, and I still need more time. I'm happy about what I can't get to. It's a blessing that we can never see all of Europe.
Your Best Itinerary in Eight Steps
1. Read up on Europe and talk to travelers. Get a guidebook or two, take a class, contact the tourist offices. You must have some friends who'd love to show you their pictures. What you want to see is determined by what you know (or don't know). Identify your personal interests: WWII buffs study up on battle sites, wine-lovers brainstorm a wish list of wineries, and McGregors locate their clan in Scotland. This is the time to grow a crop of ideas from which you'll harvest the dream trip.
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| Planning an itinerary forces you to see the consequences of any spontaneous change you make while in Europe. |
2. Decide on the places you want to see. Start by listing everything you'd like to visit. Circle your destinations on a map. Have a reason for every stop. Don't go to Casablanca just because you liked the movie. And just because Dorothy Hamill went to Innsbruck, that doesn't mean you should.
Minimize redundancy. On a quick trip, focus on only one part of the Alps. England's two best-known university towns, Oxford and Cambridge, are redundant. Choose one (I prefer Cambridge).
Example: Places I want to see — London, Alps, Bavaria, Florence, Amsterdam, Paris, the Rhine, Rome, Venice, Greece
3. Establish a route and timeline. Figure out a logical geographical order and length for your trip. Pin down any places that you have to be on a certain date (and ask yourself if it's really worth stifling your flexibility). Once you've settled on a list, be satisfied with your efficient plan, and focus any more study and preparation only on places that fall along your proposed route.
4. Decide on the cities you'll fly in and out of. If your route is linear (like London to Athens), fly "open jaw." If it's circular, fly round-trip. An "open jaw" plan is generally most efficient and economical. Take full advantage of "open jaw" when establishing your starting and ending points.
5. Determine the mode of transportation. Do this not based solely on economical terms, but by analyzing what is best for the trip you envision.
Example: Since I'm traveling alone, going so many miles, and spending the majority of my time in big cities, I'd rather not mess with a car. I'll use a railpass.
6. Make a rough itinerary. Taking into account the length of your vacation, write in the number of days you'd like to stay in each place. Carefully consider travel time. Driving, except on expressways, is slower than in the United States. Study websites (such as www.bahn.de) to get an idea of how long various train journeys will take. Learn which trains are fast, and avoid minor lines in southern countries. Use night trains (NT) or boats (NB) to save time and money whenever possible.
Example: Logical order and desired number of days in each place:
3 London
5 Paris (NT)
3 Alps (NT)
2 Florence
3 Rome (NB or flight)
7 Greece (NB or flight)
1 Bologna
2 Venice (NT)
3 Munich/Bavaria
3 Romantic Road/Rhine Cruise
3 Berlin
4 Amsterdam
39 Total Days
Notes: I have 23 days for my vacation. Greece is time-consuming, even with an "open jaw" flight plan. If I eliminate Greece, I'll still need to cut nine days. Flying "open jaw" into London and out of Amsterdam is economical. Logical order may be affected by night-train possibilities.
7. Adjust by cutting, streamlining, or adding to fit your timeline or budget. Minimize travel time. When you must cut something, cut to save the most mileage. For instance, if Amsterdam and Berlin are equally important to you and you don't have time for both, cut the destination that saves the most miles (in this case, Berlin).
Minimize clutter. A so-so sight (Bologna) breaking a convenient night train (Rome–Venice) into two half-day journeys is clutter.
Trim time from each stop. Five days in Paris would be grand, but you can see the high points in three.
Consider economizing on car rental or a railpass. For instance, try to manage a 23-day trip on a 15-day train pass by seeing London, Paris, and Amsterdam before or after you use the pass.
Example: Itinerary and number of days adjusted to time limitations:
4 London
3 Paris (NT)
3 Alps (NT)
1 Florence
2 Rome (NT)
2 Venice (NT)
3 Munich/Bavaria
2 Romantic Road/Rhine Cruise
3 Amsterdam
23 Total Days
Notes: Get a 15-day Eurailpass (valid from last day in Paris until first day in Amsterdam).
8. Fine-tune. Study your guidebook. Maximize festival and market days. Be sure crucial sights are open the day you'll be in town. Remember that most cities close many of their major tourist attractions for one day during the week (usually Mon). It would be a shame to be in Madrid only on a Monday, when the Prado is cerrado. Paris closes the Louvre and many other sights on Tuesday. Write out a day-by-day itinerary. Note that when flying from the United States, you arrive in Europe the next day. When returning, you arrive home the same day (or so you hope).
Example: According to the guidebooks, I must keep these points in mind as I plan my trip. London: Theaters closed on Sunday, Speaker's Corner is Sunday only. Paris: Many museums are closed on Tuesdays. Versailles and the Orsay Museum are closed on Monday. Florence: Museums are closed on Monday. Dachau: Closed on Monday. Note that I'm choosing to pay a little extra on my flight to let my trip stretch over the weekends and minimize lost work time. Yes, I may be a zombie on that first Monday back, but hey, what's more important?
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| The Amalfi Coast is an easy day trip from Sorrento. |
The Home-Base Strategy
The home-base strategy is a clever way to make your trip itinerary smoother, simpler, and more efficient. Set yourself up in a central location and use that place as a base for day trips to nearby attractions.
The home-base approach minimizes set-up time (usually an hour). Searching for a good hotel can be exhausting, frustrating, and timeconsuming. And hotels often give a better price, or at least more smiles, for longer stays. Many private homes don't accept those staying only one night.
You are freed from your luggage. Being able to leave your luggage in the hotel lets you travel freely and with the peace of mind that you are set up for the night. Bags are less likely to be lost or stolen in your hotel than en route.
You feel "at home" in your home-base town. This comfortable feeling takes more than a day to get, and when you are changing locations every day or two, you may never enjoy this important rootedness. Home-basing allows you to sense the rhythm of daily life.
Day-trip to a village, enjoy the nightlife in a city. The home-base approach lets you spend the evening in a city, where there is more exciting nightlife. Most small countryside towns die after 9 p.m. If you're not dead by 9 p.m., you'll enjoy the action in a larger city.
Transportation is a snap. Europe's generally frequent and punctual train and bus systems (which often operate out of a hub anyway) make this home-base strategy practical. With a train pass, trips are "free"; otherwise, the transportation is reasonable, often with reductions offered for round-trip tickets (especially for "same-day return").
High-Speed Town-Hopping
When I tell people that I saw three or four towns in one day, many think, "Insane! Nobody can really see several towns in a day!" Of course, it's folly to go too fast, but many stop-worthy towns take only an hour or two to cover. Don't let feelings of guilt tell you to slow down and stay longer if you really are finished with a town. There's so much more to see in the rest of Europe. Going too slow is as bad as going too fast.
If you're efficient and use the high-speed town-hopping method, you'll amaze yourself with what you can see in a day. Let me explain with an example:
You wake up early in A-ville. Checking out of your hotel, you have one sight to cover before your 10 a.m. train. (You checked the train schedule the night before.) After the sightseeing and before getting to the station, you visit the open-air market and buy the ingredients for your brunch, and pick up a B-burg map and tourist brochure at A-ville's tourist office.
From 10 to 11 a.m. you travel by train to B-burg. During that hour you have a restful brunch, enjoy the passing scenery, and prepare for B-burg by reading your literature and deciding what you want to see. Just before your arrival, you put the items you need (camera, jacket, tourist information) into your small daypack. Then, upon arrival, you check the rest of your luggage in a locker. (Most stations have storage lockers or a baggage-check desk.)
Before leaving B-burg's station, write down the departure times of the next few trains to C-town. Now you can sightsee as much or as little as you want and still know when to comfortably catch your train.
B-burg is great. After a snack in the park, you catch the train at 2:30 p.m. By 3 p.m. you're in C-town, where you repeat the same procedure you followed in B-burg. C-town just isn't what it was cracked up to be, so after a walk along the waterfront and a look at the church you catch the first train out.
You arrive in D-dorf, the last town on the day's agenda, by 5:30 p.m. A man in the station directs you to a good budget pension two blocks down the street. You're checked in and unpacked in no time, and, after a few horizontal moments, it's time to find a good restaurant and eat dinner. After a meal and an evening stroll, you're ready to call it a day. As you write in your journal, it occurs to you: This was a great sightseeing day. You spent it high-speed town-hopping.
Updated for 2008. For lots more tips, check out our best-selling Europe Through the Back Door travel skills guidebook.