Europe in 36 days Itinerary help!
Hi guys,
I will be leaving for Europe for 38 days (2 of which are travel days) at the end of April 2013. This will be my first time in Europe so any help would greatly be appreciated. Please take a look at my tentative itinerary and make suggestions! I basically took Rick Steve's 2 month itinerary and trimmed many places to make it fit so it might be overly ambitious. Thanks!
London (5 days)
Paris (3 days) then 2.5 hour flight to
Madrid (2 days)
Barcelona (2 days) then 1.5 hour flight to
Cinque Terre (2 days)
Florence (2 days)
Tuscany & Umbria (2 days)
Venice (2 days)
Rome (3 days) then 1.5 hr flight to
Vienna (2 days)
Prague (2 days)
Munich (2 days)
Rothenburg/Romantic Road (1 day)
Rhine (2 days)
Berlin (2 days)
Amsterdam (2 days)
I will mostly be traveling by train. A rough estimate shows about 2-4 hour ride between most cities. I am wondering if I should cut out Tuscany & Umbria and also Rothenburg and extend a few other cities? Any help would awesome! Thanks!
Viet
Seattle, WA 11/16/12
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Okay, so I am in the middle of reworking my itinerary. I am still planning on doing a 5 week tour but cutting out all of Eastern Europe. I am sure that I want to visit Amsterdam, London, and Paris in the beginning but I don't know which path would make the most sense.
Route 1
Fly into Amsterdam (4 nights)
Take train to Bruge (stopping for a few hours in Brussels) (2 nights in Bruge)
Yes, I will only be spending 1 full day in Bruge but I am okay with that
Take train back to Brussels to take Eurostar to London (5 nights)
Eurostar to Paris (4 nights)
I am spending an extra night in Amsterdam on this route because I will be flying in on Queen's Night and will be partying the next day (Queen's Day) so that will take up a day of sightseeing)
-or-
Route 2
Fly into London (5 nights)
Take Eurostar to Brussels (stay in Brussels for a few hours) then train to Amsterdam (3 nights) (no Queen's Day on this itinerary)
Take train to Paris (4 nights) (maybe stop by Bruges on the way but it's not high on the priority list. I added it to the first itinerary since it was close to Brussels where I will be catching the Eurostar)
Any thoughts? After Paris I will be doing Spain and Italy but haven't worked out that itinerary yet. Thanks!
I personally think you are doing too much back tracking and forward tracking on this trip. Would start in the west, London, then Paris and then Amsterdam etc. That is only my opinion.
I should mention that I was planning on going to Madrid after Paris so if I were to go London, Paris then Amsterdam I would have to catch a plane to Madrid from Amsterdam versus doing an overnight train from Paris to Madrid.
I'm jealous that you have the time and resources to take on such a monumental trip. But how you come up with the energy for such an odyssey is beyond me.
Have you ever considered making plans for the first destination city and then just wing it from there on? You never know what experiences you'll have and the people you're going to meet. I'm saying is just roll with the flow.
I would just hate to be strangled by a set schedule, including flight reservations and room reservations weeks ahead. If you take a laptop/notebook, you can easily plan out the next leg on the fly.
Don't think that you can see everything in every country. It's just not possible. And sometimes you need to drop traveling to a country that's out of the way--like Spain. It's just too easy to push yourself past the point of no return when taking on such an itinerary.
And most important, have a great time!
Well, this will be the first trip of the kind that I will be embarking on so I certainly hope that I'll have the energy to make it all the way through! It helps that I work a week on, a week off job so I really only have to take off 2 weeks off from work to make this trip happen.
Don't worry, I plan on allowing for some flexibility to my itinerary but I would prefer to have something specific mapped out to start out with. That way if I make any changes along the way I can see how it would affect the subsequent areas of travel. I think I might start out in Amsterdam then move to London, Paris, Madrid, Barcelona, then Italy (ending in Venice). I would definitely need to book rooms for Amsterdam since I will be there during Queen's Day. I realize that Spain is out of the way but I think it's doable with an overnight train from Paris. I'm not a must-go-to-the-museums kind of guy (although I do intend to go to one or two in each area). I'm more of a walk around the city, sight-seeing and eating food kind of guy so a few days in each spot would be good enough for me.
We'll see. It may turn out that I may get too burned out with this itinerary at which point I can just adjust and spend more time in certain areas.
For your most-recent inquiry I would just decide based on who had the best flights to Madrid, London or Amsterdam.
If they are similar, then choose to start London > Paris > Amsterdam, because the airport there is so convenient to the city.
As for the long train ride to Madrid, skip it and be glad.
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