rishabsood

Me and my wife are landing in Frankfurt on the 10th of June and have around 7 days to spare. Please advise a short and sweet itinerary.

We are keen on covering these cities :

London, Amsterdam, Paris, Venice, Florence and Rome.

Am open to cutting down on London and catch up on the Italy piece or maybe letting go of Amsterdam for maybe, Swiss detour.

I am flexible and am more keen to cover more places in a shorter time and day trips are fine by us.

Look forward to some sound advice

kerouac

That's only 4 countries. What about adding 3 more?

Okay, more seriously, what do you expect to see on a day trip to a major world capital? Is a bus tour sufficient for you?

jamikins

With 7 days you really only have time to see 2 places. Each time you move you lose 1/2 day in transit, moving hotels, etc. That means 7 places * 1/2 = 3.5 days out of 7 lost just in transit which leaves no time at all to see any of the places.

Are you flying out of Frankfurt as well? Do you have any interest in Germany? I would determine 2 places you want to see that have good connections with Frankfurt and save the rest for later.

If you want a whirlwind tour where you fly by every place while sitting on a bus consider doing a tour so all the logistics are taken care of.

flanneruk

We can go round this one forever.

For whatever reason, you've chosen to visit 7 cities in 7 days.

So do it. Transfer on arrival to Rome, go straight to your hotel and see something. Lateish (but not too late) the following afternoon, go back to your hotel, collect the bags you've left there then get a taxi to the station for the train to Florence.

Repeat each day, taking an early evening train to Venice, plane to London, train to Paris, train to Amsterdam and plane to Frankfurt. The whole experience will be indistinguishable from a week of sales conferences back home, only this time with your wife so you can't go out tomming each night. And you'll be spared the boredom of listening to your colleagues' presentations. But presumably that's what you wanted.

This works (or not) for any collection of cities. You can even add one.

Between getting up and stopping sightseeing to go and collect the bags, you'll average six hours a day. Enough, just, to see three smallish things.

Mind you,you'd see even more if you stayed at home and just looked at photographs.

adrienne

<< Mind you,you'd see even more if you stayed at home and just looked at photographs. >>

And it wouldn't cost you anything!

I'm not sure why you're asking for an itinerary as you've already worked one out - 6 cities in 7 days. I feel sorry for you going to Europe and seeing very little.

kerouac

Frankly, I see lots of plans like this, sometimes with 2 or 3 times more time to spend, but the main issue is that Europe is a continent, and you don't visit an entire continent on one trip. Yes, I have seen plenty of Europeans planning their 2 weeks in the US with San Francisco, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Dallas, New Orleans, Miami, Washington DC, Boston and New York on their itinerary.

Older generations drilled into us that a trip to another continent was a 'once-in-a-lifetime' event and you have to squeeze every drop out of it. Some of that seems to linger on in some people's genes, even though the truly motivated can make return visits every year and see different things every time.

StCirq

Thanks for this morning's laugh.

P_M

This is a first-time poster so I think someone is pulling our collective legs.

On the odd chance this a serious post then I feel sorry for the OP. This trip will be a huge waste of time and money and he will learn the hard way.

P_M

A few more thoughts on the chance the OP is serious, or in case it helps someone else with similar plans:

Your itinerary is similar to the one I had on my first trip to Europe. The difference is that my trip lasted 5 weeks. I spent a week in London, a week in Paris, a week in Rome, then 2 weeks seeing a few points inbetween. Even with that much time I still did not see everything.

If all you have is one week then you need to focus on one major city or a small reigon of one country. As it stands your plan is insane.

jent103

It sounds like your tickets are already bought. Since you don't actually want to see anywhere in Germany, you'll lose at least the rest of your first day (and maybe some of your second) getting to the first place you go. I'm assuming you also fly home from Frankfurt, so you'll lose time on the other end of your trip as well getting back there from your last "real" destination. (If you have not bought plane tickets yet, I STRONGLY recommend not flying to Frankfurt if you don't actually want to see anything near there. Buy an open-jaw ticket, landing in London and leaving from Paris, for example.)

So realistically, you have at least a little less time than you think, assuming your flights are set. You don't say where you're from, but what you're proposing to do is like saying you want to visit New York, Washington DC, Boston, LA, San Francisco and Seattle in a week, but flying into and out of Chicago.

One thought: Stick to Italy.
Day 1: Fly into Frankfurt; if you're lucky, catch a connecting flight to Rome
Days 2-4: Rome (one day, take a day trip to Florence)
Day 5: train to Venice
Day 6: Venice
Day 7: Get back to Frankfurt from Venice
Day 8: Fly home

It's still busy, but maximizes your time while still being logical.

humptynumpty

There are many more capital cities in Europe, how about 10 minutes in Moscow, half an hour in Athens?

Technically, Istanbul is in Europe and Asia, add it and you have bagged another continent.

nytraveler

Please - look at a map. And train schedules. or flights.

You would spend your entire time in transit - and see nothing.

And if there is any sort of problem, bad weather day, strike, etc - you might not even have time to get from city to city.