First time in Europe

Old Aug 17th, 2015, 05:51 PM
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First time in Europe

I plan to spend 3 weeks in Europe During Christmas time. This is my first time in Europe.
I am flying into London, Flying out from Paris. The city I wish to visit are:
London
Amsterdam
Munich
Venice
Rome
Florence
Milan
Zurich
Geneva
Paris
I need some advice, how many days should l stay for each city? I will travel from London and stop by each city for a day or two until I reach Paris.
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Old Aug 17th, 2015, 06:03 PM
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I suggest you cut your list in half and spend more time in each. London, Paris, and Rome deserve 5 days each.
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Old Aug 17th, 2015, 06:09 PM
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You have 21 days (or perhaps 20), and you've listed 10 destinations. Too much, IMO, but it's your trip. Do you really want to be traveling every other day for 3 weeks?

If you haven't already, you should investigate the travel times between points. You have some longish train rides, and if some of this is by plane, keep in mind that even a 90-minute flight will eat up 3.5 or more hours.
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Old Aug 17th, 2015, 06:10 PM
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I agree that you have too many days listed. You really don't have to see everything on this first trip.

Have you considered the time it will take you to pack up, check out, travel to your new destination and check in at your new city?
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Old Aug 17th, 2015, 06:13 PM
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I doubt there will be little unpacking/packing, but I do think the poster should consider the need to do some laundry a few times during the trip.
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Old Aug 17th, 2015, 06:14 PM
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Correction... I doubt there will be much unpacking/packing.
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Old Aug 17th, 2015, 06:25 PM
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Mandy,
Rick Steve's has a great mantra for travel - "always assume you'll be back". We have been to nearly every city on your list with the exception of Geneva and Zurich and I can tell you that each of them are worth at least three days with a few (London/Paris/Rome) that you could stay in for a week or more. Part of the magic of Europe is getting lost in its beautiful old cities and stopping to enjoy life in the cafes, squares and shops along the way.
I think you are severely shortchanging yourself by trying to see all of these cities in a three week period, particularly given the distances you will need to travel to get from one to another.
I would give London at least three days and Paris four. That leaves two weeks for a few more cities. Munich is out of the way, and you may want to save it for another trip where you could do Southern Germany and Austria. You could spend the remaining two weeks in Italy using three days for each city on your list. We went to Venice at Christmas time and it was gorgeous and quiet. We were there for four days, and really enjoyed our time.
You will have a wonderful trip no matter which of those beautiful cities you visit and I wish you a bon voyage!
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Old Aug 17th, 2015, 06:28 PM
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Besides the fact that you would be bouncing back and forth like a ping pong ball - have you allowed for the fact that you are traveling in December? Days are very short and skies gray. Bad weather can delay or change your travel plans and you will find that Dec 24, 25 and 31 many thing will not be open - even restaurants.

If you really want to see anything of these cities limit yourself to 4 cities at most. Otherwise you will just have a very expensive and exhausting blur of train stations and airports.

And IMHO you need to allow at least 5 nights (4 days) for London, Paris and Rome - and at least 4 nights (3 days) each for the other cities.
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Old Aug 17th, 2015, 08:23 PM
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You will remember virtually nothing if you try to visit all 10 of these places. Back to the drawing board.

Plan to spend minimum of 3-4 days in each place with no more than five to six cities total. We visited 10 places in six weeks and I felt it was way too rushed. We took nearly three months to visit 18 destinations and that pace was perfect.
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Old Aug 17th, 2015, 08:51 PM
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Welcome to Fodors Mandy. That was the 'nice' part. Now for the 'mean' side . . . your plan is awful.

Assuming you actually mean 3 weeks (21 days) this is what you'd end up with:

1.5 days is spent flying to Europe. The rest of your arrival day (about half a day) is lost to jet lag and logistics. One day is spent flying back home. Then you lose at minimum half a day every time you move from city to city . . . so for your plan that would be another 5 days traveling from point to point. All that travel leaves you thirteen days actually IN your cities. That is less than 1.5 days free per city for seeing/doing . . . for places like London and Paris and Rome. Simply crazy
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Old Aug 17th, 2015, 11:19 PM
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i've been to every city on your list. Why Zurich and Geneva? I even have friends and family in both of them and the cities have no real attraction to me. I'd cut them and I might even cut Milan, which tends to sprawl a bit, unless you are going to a football match.
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Old Aug 18th, 2015, 12:22 AM
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Hey Mandy!

I totally relate to the impulse to squeeze in as much as possible. But - I have found that everyone here is correct. You lose so much time moving around that you don't get to really see the places you visit. I have done the "squeeze it all in" trips & the "pick what you REALLY want to see" trips and the latter is much more enjoyable for my family.

nytraveler is on point with the sunset being early. In London, in December, the sun sets at 4:00pm (sunrise at 8:00am). Certainly you can still sightsee after dark, but you might want to do some things during the daylight hours...

If you let people here know what your interest are (museums, history, art...) they might be able to steer you to which cities are the best fit for your first trip. Good luck!
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Old Aug 18th, 2015, 06:16 AM
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Hi Mandy, You really need to do some homework before we can chime in any further.

Pick up a guidebook, or just enter the city names in the search engine here on Fodors for each place on your list. Read about each place. Some will naturally jump out at you.

You need to really see what interests YOU and then compile a list from there. Make groupings such as Venice, Rome and Florence, or London, Paris and Amsterdam, that are easily reached from one another.

Check out the transportation options between the locations: plane, train or a few days of car rental here and there.

When you have more direct questions relating to each city you will receive a lot more info from the posters here.

Have fun with the planning...it is one of the parts of travel I love.
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Old Aug 18th, 2015, 07:35 AM
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Hi, Mandy.
I'm going to agree with the others and say that your proposed itinerary is too ambitious. If I were you, I would do as michele_d suggests. Keep in mind the distances between the cities and how long it will take you to travel, check-in, check-out, etc.

Having traveled extensively in Italy, I'm apt to tell you to pick a central location and do day trips by train from there. You unpack and pack once. I use Bologna, but you could also use Florence and head to Venice (2 hrs), Milan (1 hr), even Rome (1.5 hour). We've also stayed in Paris and gone to Amsterdam for the day.

Best of luck. If you have questions, please let us know.
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Old Aug 18th, 2015, 08:02 AM
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My suspicious side has me thinking this a troll. Someone wants to visit 10 cities in 21 days? And after telling us she wants to spend one or two days in each city, she asks how long she should spend in each city? Uh, one and two-thirds days in Paris, one and three-fourths days in Venice, two and a quarter days in Amsterdam ...
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Old Aug 18th, 2015, 01:17 PM
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Perhaps a troll - but I think more likely just someone very naive and inexperienced in the physical realities of foreign travel. Not thinking about each place being a new culture, a new language, new transit system, new menus/restaurant rules, need to get oriented. etc.

Tours can work this way since the victims are protected from the need to deal with any of these things - but also don't really get any sense of the countries they are visiting - just a quick view of 1 or 2 major sights and plenty of chanced to "shop".
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Old Aug 18th, 2015, 02:30 PM
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Start by cutting down your list of destinations. I'd say maybe 5 cities for 21 days. Pick up some guidebooks and decide which places you most want to visit.

Also, consider you budget as while all of these places are expensive, some are more expensive than others: the Swiss cities will be very expensive, and London is always a budget-buster.

If you have purchased your tickets already, then London and Paris are set in stone. But I'd cut both Zurich and Geneva (expensive, and won't give you to taste of Switzerland most people are looking for). Make a few more cuts and you'll have a wonderful first trip to Europe, one you will remember with fondness rather than just remembering al of the travel!
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Old Aug 18th, 2015, 04:49 PM
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Apparently Mandy has left the building.
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Old Aug 18th, 2015, 05:11 PM
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OK, I will take the advise, and cut down my list to 6 cities. I have book my flight to London and Fly out from Paris. Below are the cities.
London
Rome
Venice
Milan
Zurich
Paris
From London I decided to fly down to Rome and move up to Paris. Hope get more positive feedback from here.
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Old Aug 18th, 2015, 05:23 PM
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MUCH much better Mandy.

But I'd still cut one more . . . probably Zurich. Six major cities in 21 days leaves you only about 16 days free to see/do - an average of 2.5 days per and that is REALLY short for places like London, Rome and Paris.
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