You've only listed larger city destinations. No interest in the countryside anywhere? For that matter, what are your general interests? It's impossible to recommend an itinerary without knowing anything about you.

FWIW, if it were my trip, and I was flying all the way to Istanbul, I'd want to see more of Turkey than just one big city.

As far as points between Istanbul and Barcelona, obviously you have all of Europe to choose from (although I think Amsterdam is pretty far north of your other ideas). You should look into the transportation options and costs between various cities as you could eat up a large part of your budget just moving around. Ditto budget hotels everywhere because you're late in planning.

If your open jaw is fixed, I would suggest staying in Turkey until you are ready to go spend a few days in Barcelona. There are cheap flights from Istanbul to other parts of the country.

Well for rail info and planning a rail trip in Europe I always highlight these IMO superb info-laden sites - www.budgeteuropetravel.com; www.ricksteves.com and www.seat61.com. If you all are under 26 then be sure to investigate the bargain Eurail Youthpass which lets you in many countries hop any train anytime - in Italy, France and Spain you do need to make mandated seat reservations however but pretty much elsewhere just hop on.

I would strongly recommend spending half in and around Istanbul and half in and North of Barcelona.

My daughter spent honeymoon that way and loved it.

They flew to Barcelona from istanbul, rented a car and drove to the Langue Doc region in France and stayed at some very reasonably priced B&Bs in france and in Spain on the way back to barcelona.

Some areas to consider around istanbul would be Assos, Cunda, Gokce Ada, or Bodrum, Fethiye, Marmaris, Kas, Side further South. Beach, history, nature, antiquity in Turkey. Medieval world, wine tasting, art, architecture, nature, castles in France and spain. And fabulous food in all three countries.

Sure Italy is great and so are other spots in between Istanbul and Barcelona, but the areas I mentioned will be harder to get back to once you've missed them. And Dali will turn in his grave if you do not visit Port Ligat or Figueras.

Thank you so much for the great replies!

We are now thinking about flying from Istanbul on June 2nd to Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg Airport and potentially taking the train around Switzerland/France/Spain until we leave from Barcelona on June 16th.

Any suggestions for this?

Why would you go to the trouble and expense of buying a ticket to Istanbul and leave after just a few days? I agree with those who counseled spending half the time in Turkey and the other half in or near Barcelona.


You do not have nearly enough time to travel around France, Spain and Switzerland AND Istanbul.

I spent 3 weeks in Turkey the summer after I began college so your post brought back memories.

I doubt you will like this as it is not a common route but we went Istanbul, Cairo, Barcelona two years ago. With teenagers. Three amazing places. We would do exactly the same thing again.

Your starting and ending destinations, Turkey and Spain, are lower cost destinations. Costs in France are higher and everything is expensive in Switzerland. If you are on budget, estimate your expenses appropriately if you want to include Switzerland.

I'm not an expert but I do agree with everyone else. My daughter went to Istanbul when she was studying in Barcelona & it was one of her favoriate places of all her travels. It doesn't make sense to go all the way to Turkey for just a few days.

2-3 nights in Barcelona isn't nearly enough of time. We were there in october 2010 & spent 5 nights in Barcelona & didn't see everything. We also spent 3 nights & 4 days driving north of Barcelona along the Costa Brava. Dali's house at Port Lligat is amazing, so is Cadaques, Girona, the Pyrenees, etc.

You don't want to waste a lot of time & money traveling from one destination to another. If you want to see 3 countries, maybe you should consider Turkey, Greece & Spain. Just some ideas.

One more voice for more time in Turkey. I was there for the first time last fall and it is one of the most beautiful, interesting, countries with a rich and amazing variety of landscape and sights that I have visited. It seems a real waste to spend the money to fly all the way there, then not really see anything. Even for people who move quickly, 4-5 days in Istanbul would not be too much. Capadoccia is a most interesting place with a lunar-like landscape and fascinating history. If you enjoy any hiking, this would be a great place to do it. The coast is beautiful and Ephesus is astonishing. Food is wonderful and cheaper than many other countries.

Spain is another big country and you are also already locked into that. Spain has good train and plane connections. You could spend a week in Barcelona and do day trips or fly into Madrid or Seville, see that area, then take a fast train to Barcelona.

You only have 2&1/2 weeks. If you were not going to Turkey, you could do more traveling about in Europe, but you are already committed to Turkey and Spain, two large countries that are far apart. The point is, why spend more money to go other places when you are already in such an interesting place as Turkey, especially since it is not as easy to get to in the first place? Why not take advantage of being there now?

I would go with otherchelebi's advice. Having been to both cities, I would love to return to see more as there is so much to see. We are going back to Barcelona in November, but would love to do Istanbul again and area, on a trip all by itself.

I like Turkey, but I don't see anything wrong with your plan to taking the train around Switzerland, France and Spain.

You really shouldn't let your plane tickets determined your entire trip. Your main interest has been seeing the heart of Europe, and there is nothing wrong with your choice. I am surprised at the advice that you should simply split your time between Turkey and southern Spain because you have plane tickets. Of course there is always "so much to see" in these beautiful countries, but France and Switzerland are marvelous, and you should take the trip it excites you to take!

Cairo is marvelous and I know people would like to support its tourism, but it really is not wise to go there right now -- and even more so if you'd rather be in France and Switzerland.

One of the joys of being in Europe is how easy it is travel within Europe. Don't let travel-logistic-ideologues twist your arm. I don't care where you go so long as it makes you happy.

PS: I spent a month in Turkey and loved it and will be heading back to Spain later this year for 3 weeks because I think it's a great destination. So I agree with people that these are worthwhile places (although I am not much of a fan of Barcelona).

But I also think France and Switzerland are great. Hard choices.

One more thought:

It never occurred to me that Dali might turn in his grave if I didn't go to his museum, but I gave it a wide berth and don't regret it.

"Cairo is marvelous and I know people would like to support its tourism, but it really is not wise to go there right now ..."

I double dare you to post that on the Africa forum.

I know there are die-hard cheerleaders for every destination no matter what. And hey, coldphere, I'm hardly a chicken on these boards. (I'm even willing to risk ekscrunchy fiinally letting me have it.)

I am sad to post that it isn't safe for a couple of young grads to swing through Cairo in the next few months. But it isn't. My conscience won't let me post anything else.

ExcitedtoTravel711

I want to amend my post to say don't let travel logistic *ideologies* twist your arm. (not ideologues). I think everybody is asking you to be flexible in your thinking.

You have all been so wonderful in this planning process. I have definitely been quite indecisive!

I think as of now, I am between either going to Switzerland by way of flying into Basel, or potentially skipping Switzerland altogether and flying into St. Etienne,France (found a very reasonable flight http://www.skyscanner.com/flights/ista/ebu/120603/airfares-from-istanbul-to-st-etienne-in-june-2012.html)and traveling through the south of France.

I have a cousin who lives in Valence, and I would potentially stay for two days there and then venture south to Nice.

From Nice, I would want to take a trip to Monaco at least for the day, maybe for a night (I know its expensive). From there I would Like to go to Spain... I would probably fly from Nice to Barcelona for $61 http://www.skyscanner.com/flights/nce/bcn/120611/airfares-from-nice-to-barcelona-in-june-2012.html.

Then spend the remainder of my trip enjoying Barcelona.

Any thoughts, critiques, and advice are completely welcome!

Excited, you sound like a new parent wanting advice on child-rearing! We could all give you Too Much Information, but I think you just have to dive in and find out what you like. Your first trip is always just to see what you want to see more of when you go back.
Have fun!

If budget is driving this trip, then follow the cheap flights and lodging. But TICK-TOCK-TICK-TOCK. You don't have a lot of time for dreaming, and you've already spent 5 days just seeking opinions here.

(You don't need to change hotels Nice/Monte Carlo... They're only 13 miles apart.)

JFYI there are now also non stop fights on Turkish Air from Valencia Spain . You may be lucky with their pricing. ( some great RT deals since they started this route).

Just wanted to say thank you again for everyone's suggestions and offer our final itinerary.

We are flying into Istanbul and staying for 4 nights.
From there we are flying from IST to Marseille (got a $66 Airfrance flight!) and taking the TGV to Valence from Marseille. We plan on spending 2 nights in Valence and then taking the TGV from back south to Nice and spending 4 nights and checking out Monte Carlo as well.

We will fly from Nice to Barcelona and spend our final 7 nights in Barcelona with a day trip or two to areas around Barcelona likely including Montserrat.

Very excited! Thanks again for all of the great suggestions!

Can I ask about the $2500 per person budget. I assume that this does not include airfare - and that you have already payed for yuor air tickets. If you are going to try to buy air tickets out of the $2500 - leaving you perhaps $1200 per person for 18 days - you don;t have nearly enough money.

You need to allow for transit between cities (even at budget prices can take most of yuor budget), transit within cities, hotels, meals and sightseeing.

You have been given a lot of advice on cutting back on the number of places you go - but before you do that I really think you need to run a detailed budget on this. (Last summmer my 18 year old DD and 2 friends did 5 weeks - living modestly but not super budget (they wanted hotels with AC in hot climates) and she spent almost $9000 including air and train between cities. Strongly urge you be sure you have money enough to cover realistic costs (do remember that prices in europe for everythng are likely to be higher than in the US - esp if you don;t live in a major city.)

The $2500 (More like $3000) is not including my flights to and from Europe.

I've already booked all of my hotels, long train rides, and internal flights and have spent about $1150 on that. (hotel room costs are being split between 2 people)

Istanbul Hotel for 4 nights $469.40/2= $234.70
Ataturk Airport to Marseille France Flight= $66.00
Marseille to Valence TGV Train= $33.00
Valence to Nice TGV Train= $40.00
Nice Hotel for 4 nights 500/2= $250
Nice to Barcelona Flight= $80.00
Barcelona Hotel for 7 nights $825.00/2= $412.50

So this will leave me with about 100-115 dollars a day for local transport, food and entertainment.

Daily Budget-
Breakfast- $5
Lunch- $10
Dinner- $20
Snacks- $5
Local Transport- $20
Entertainment (Museum fees, fun things)-$40-55

My two days in Valence will be with family, and therefore will cost less, and the first day in Istanbul and last day in Barcelona will just be transport to/from the airport. So my budget will probably look closer to around $115 per day (not including accommodation).

Thanks for this good kick to write out a budget. Visualizing it is very helpful.

I assume you are talking about US dollar. You should also take into account "loosing" money due to exchanging money form your $ to local currency. Especially when on a tight budget.

Be sure to read the small print on all those low cost flights The luggage sizes and requirements are strictly enforced on many of them. Always cheaper to ay for luggage online than at airport.

I think your food budget is low, unless you make your own sandwiches, buy fruit, etc. from supermarkets a lot of the time.