Pezlord22

My family and I are ging to our first trip to Europe in September of 2010. We are planning on going for two weeks and spending 2 days in Rome, 1 day in Venice, 1 day in Florence, 4 days in Bavaria, 1 day in Interlaken, 1 day in Salzburg and 3 days in Paris. Does this sound reasonable and what would you reccomend for sight seeing, I have a good idea of what we would like to see, but could use some input, Thanks!

StCirq

It sounds more like a forced march to me. I can well appreciate wanting to spread yourselves all over the map on a first trip, but you've got 7 destinations in 14 days over 4 countries.

Get a good map, check out the distances between each of those places, look at driving times and train tables and get a sense of how much time it takes to get from one place to the next. Then, add in all the time it will take to find your hotels, unpack, get your bearings, have a bite to eat, etc.

I think you'll find you'll be spending about twice as much time on travel and logistics as you will actually BEING somewhere.

elcon

I absolutely agree with StCirq. Your itinerary sounds exhausting to say the least. You could easily spend two weeks in one country. 2 days in Rome won't even begin to scratch the surface. Where are you flying into and out of? Is this itinerary set in stone or can it be changed? What are the ages of the travellers? This info may help.

girlonthego

We had our first family euro vacation this summer. We had two weeks. We also ran ourselves ragged and wound up feeling a little short changed on some places. Our first stop was three nights in Paris. Well, the first day you are dead. It is a day that was lost to walking sleepily through a city. We then had two days to run around and see stuff before we flew to Munich. Two nights in Munich was fine and then we drove throughout Austria. I sometimes felt we were running from one thing to the next. We traveled through Austria with extended family and we spent a few days visiting with family. All in all the trip was great fun. But I would recommend to pick a few places and concentrate on enjoying them. Fly into Rome and spend 5 days there. You will actually only have 4. Then fly to Bavaria and spend 4 days in Munich-Salzburg area, and then fly to Paris and spend 5 nights there. You will get a little of three different cultures and languages. This would give you a taste of Europe.

I had no control over the Austria part of my trip. I was traveling with my mother in law in her native land with her relatives. She wanted to show us everything in the 9 nights we had there. I think we spent maybe two hours in Innsbruck before driving to the next place. It was a lot of ground to cover.

What i am trying to say is you spend lots of time driving, flying or taking the train from one place to the next. So, don't waste so much of your trip moving around. Try to enjoy 3 cities or areas for two weeks.

yk

You still have ~2 years before your planned trip.

You have way too many destinations for 2 weeks. You will end up spending half of your time traveling, and travel costs add up quickly the more you move around.

Everytime you change a destination, you will waste 1/2 a day at the least (checking in/checking out, getting to/from train station).

So:
either cut down the # of destinations
or
increase your vacation time to 3-4 weeks

SusanP

As others have said, absolutely too many destinations. By the time you travel from Rome to Florence, you would only have 1/2 day in Florence. Same for Florence to Venice. And your destinations aren't exactly close together.

I would recommend flying into Rome, 5 days Rome, train to Venice and have 4 days there, fly or overnight train to Paris and 5 days there, fly home from Paris. That is more than enough for your 2 weeks.

MelJ

Whew, I'm just exhausted thinking about this itinerary! SInce this is your first trip, much as you will plan, you can't even begin to imagine what it will really be lke to be in a foreign country until you arrive.

We've (DH and I) been many times and our adult daughter has been with us a couple of times. So last April we took grown daughter, grown son and two grandsons (then 13 and 10) for two weeks. We had a FABULOUS trip, but here's what we did:

1 week in London
1 week in Paris

That's it. That was enough to give all of us the freedom to do the individual things that interest 6 people and three generations. They got a good feeling for both cities and we had a blast!

If you deduct the transportation costs of traveling to all those countries, you can probably add a third week and do three: London, Paris, Rome. Get apartments in each place (usually cheaper than hotels).

Start with London because you have the comfort of a common language while dealing with all the other aspects of a foreign country. Take the Eurostar to Paris and, perhaps, a night train to Rome to experience those modes of travel. Or fly to Rome.

Just my 2 cents.

bobthenavigator

In 2 weeks plan on a max of 5 destinations and make the next one no more than 4 hours from the last one.

Aduchamp1

Like the others, I would rather see a few places well, than mnay places poorly.

Apres_Londee

It sounds like maybe you came up with an itinerary after looking at some of the tour bus brochures? If you are going to be travelling independently, please seriously consider the advice of the other posters.

Having to pick up and hull off to another destination every day or two will make for an exhausing and possibly miserable trip. I know it's really, really hard to cut places out of an itinerary but my advice is be ruthless and trust there will be a next time.

When planning, sometimes it's better to think in terms of "nights" instead of "days".

"Days" can be misleading- 2 days really means 1 night which really means one travel/settle in day and one sightseeing day. 1 day means really means 1/2 travelling and 1/2 day sightseeing, and so on.

Remember that travel days often don't leave a lot of time or energy to do much sightseeing.

If you're travelling with young children or elderly parents, or if anyone in your family has health or mobility issues, all that moving around becomes just that much more tiring and stressful.