EEtchu

My friend and I plan on traveling to Madrid, ending Feb 2017. Here is our supposed Itinerary which might change.

Our base would be Madrid because I have a friend who resides there.

Madrid
Cities
Seville
guadalajara
Gijon
Malaga
France
Paris
Italy
Rome
Venice
Pompeii
Florence

EEtchu

Well 9 cities lol

PalenQ

Are you going by train as I presume? How old are you - if under 26 you can buy the bargain Eurail Youthpass valid in Spain, France and Italy if over with that much train travel you still should investigate a Eurail Select Saverpass (2 folks traveling together on one pass - cheaper than two solo passes.

You have several longish train trips and even a string of discounted train tickets could be more expensive perhaps - do the maths.

Car would be neat for countryside but in cities, esp Italian ones where many cities have banned private cars, they are a hassle and if renting in one country and return in another there is often a steep STEEP drop-off surcharge.

For lots on trains check www.ricksteves.com; www.budgeteuropetravel.com and www.seat61.com.

to get regular and possible discounted fares check

www.renfe.com for Spain
www.voyages-sncf.com for France
and www.trenitalia.com for Italy

You could take some overnight trains too to save daytime travel time and the cost of a hotel or hostel.

Kathie

9 cities in three weeks? Well, I hope you love trains, as most of your trip will be spent in trains and train stations. Seriously consider some judicious cuts in your itinerary. Moving from one location to another typically eats up half a day (figure from the time you check out of lodgings in one place until you get checked in at the next). So it takes three nights in a place to give you two full days to see/do/experience what you came for. If you have 21 nights on the ground in Europe, you would average 2 nights in each place - just one full day. For me, that would be a bad ratio of transit to being in places I chose.

6 cities in three weeks would be more reasonable.

thursdaysd

Forget Paris, especially in February. Fly into Madrid and out of Rome, or vice versa. Replace Guadalajara, Gijon, and Malaga (or at least two of them) with Granada. Pompeii is doable as a day trip from Rome, but it is a long day and you miss other sights in the area. Consider Ostia Antica instead.

nytraveler

I'm not sure what you mean by "using Madrid as a base". Obviously it can't be a base for other counties - nor can it be for places in southern Spain.

And trying to get to 9 cities in how many days (you say 3 weeks but is that 23 nights - or are you cutting off weekends and have only something like 19 or 20 nights) just doesn't work. You would be spending a very large part of your time - and your money - just on a very extensive tour of the train stations of europe.

Also have you looked at the weather in the places you are going. Madrid is on a high plateau in the center of the country and gets cold - as does anyplace north of the Alps. Places in Italy will likely not be so cold - but at that time snow is possible as far south as Rome and there is no beach weather anywhere.

Whathello

I count 10 cities...

StCirq

10 cities in 3 weeks is too much, and very expensive.

PalenQ

5-6 cities in 3 weeks would be optimal - if they are major tourist cities that have so much to see and do and yes factor in time transiting between them. Why do you say 6 cities in your OP and then give a laundry list - do you mean to have us say which six are best?

janisj

Pal: >>Why do you say 6 cities in your OP and then give a laundry list<<

Get w/ the program, the OP corrected that in his/her second post . . .

BAHItaly

Amazing trip. If something had to be removed, Malaga may not be as special as all the others.