France, Belgium, Italy

Old Oct 27th, 2015, 01:08 PM
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France, Belgium, Italy

Hello! I'm currently trying to plan a trip for my friend and I to spend at least 2 weeks in Europe, we want to go to France, Belgium, and Italy. I'm looking for any kind of advice, I've never traveled before so it's a lot harder to plan than I thought it was going to be. I really appreciate anything you can tell me!
Thanks!
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Old Oct 27th, 2015, 01:25 PM
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Er.. well its not that hard if you have a time line and a list of destinations.. what are you finding so hard?

Buy a ticket to one place and out of another.. this is called a "multi destination" ticket and it saves you backtracking.. So.. lets say you fly into Paris.. take a train to Belgium ( you will have to narrow it down to a city .. obviously you cannot see an entire country in a few days now can you?) .. then find a ticket from there ( lets assume Brussels) to Rome.. then fly out of Rome home.

I would divided trip this way, but depends on your intrests of course.
France-Paris-4-5 days
Belgium - 2-3 days
Italy-Rome-4-5 days.

I personally would get rid of Belgium so I could devote more time to Italy.. see Venice too..

Remember every time you change location you lose a half day to a day in just transit.. so moving less works for me. but some folks like to just pop in and out of places.

Paris and Rome have enough to keep a person busy for a week each.. so you are going to have to really sit down and brainstorm what exactly you want to see and do based on your own intersts.. nothing anyone says here matters much if you don't do what interests you.
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Old Oct 27th, 2015, 01:48 PM
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How do you most enjoy spending your travel time? What most interests you both. Simple and relaxing, or pack in 10-12 sites a day?
1/3 of the overall enjoyment, should be the planning and anticipation. That means doing your homework. Look at books, sites.
How about? Beautiful scenery, historic cities or towns, museums-- what type?, history buff, sports, hiking, foodie, wine, beer?
You need to give us a place to start.
Belgium has great (the best) beers, and the town of Bruges/Brugge is lovely with many canals, small boat rides, lovely traffic free walking zones, a Michaelangelo in one of many churches. Great seafood..
Antwerp, famous for diamond cutting, is also lovely, famous for the art of Peter Paul Rubens..
That means doing your homework, and discussing what you each expect from the trip.. Start with that, go from there.. and good luck.
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Old Oct 27th, 2015, 01:54 PM
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I would start with why you chose Belgium, France and Italy and what you hoped to see/do in these countries. Read some guidebooks and online websites. Then prioritize your wish list to decide what's most important to the two of you and what you'd be willing to leave for another trip if necessary. If you'd be going in high summer, consider high temps and humidity in some places could slow or impact the speed and/or intensity of your exploring.

Then you have to know exactly how much time you'll have. "At least 2 weeks" is different from definitely 3 weeks or longer.

Once you know how much time you have and what's most important, you can begin to develop an itinerary that gives you enough time in each place to accomplish your sightseeing list, follows a logical geographical order, and allows time for traveling between cities. If budget is an issue, the more destinations you have means the more you'll be spending on moving around.

Although you might take an intra-Europe flight at some point, you'll probably travel mostly by train. You can search these websites for train timetables and travel times:

For Europe in general: http://www.bahn.de/p_en/view/

For Italy: http://www.trenitalia.com/tcom-en
[use Italian spellings of city names]
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Old Oct 27th, 2015, 01:58 PM
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Ah.. if going for canals I would visit Venice over Brugges.. having been to both.. Brugges is definitely the "little sister" of canal cities if compared to Venice the grand dame!

I didn't notice you said at least 2 weeks.. meaning.. if you can manage more time TAKE IT.. the transatlantic airfare makes it worth going for a longer visit if you can swing it.. and as you have figured out, there is an abundance of places to visit.. you can always fill time up.. but its harder to cram things in a shorter trip
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Old Oct 27th, 2015, 02:08 PM
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Well I was thinking to spend 6 nights in paris and then take a day trip to brussels by train and then flying to Italy for another 6 nights (not sure where the best place to go in Italy is yet)
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Old Oct 27th, 2015, 02:53 PM
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I love Belgium, but I have to admit that if you have never been to Europe, for such a short trip you should just go to France and Italy unless you have a very specific reason to want to go to Belgium.

If Belgium is a must, I would eliminate Italy and perhaps add Amsterdam.
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Old Oct 27th, 2015, 03:15 PM
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I checked DB Bahn, train connections, out of Paris Est (East station) to Brussels Central station. Looks like it would be about 3 hours each way. Plus time to get to and from those stations. Most larger cities have 3-6 or so stations.
This German site, is easy to look up information on, after you fill in some times and dates... choose a date in the next month or so, on the day of the week you may be traveling.. Note: that week-end schedules often have less trains running. Follow it through till you get an idea of cost, and time it would consume, one way, and round trip.. Also, Europe's time is on the 24 hour clock.
Here's the DB Baun site: http://www.bahn.de/i/view/USA/en/abo...imetable.shtml

I agree with kerouac above, it might be better to limit your countries, and Italy is the farthest. Decide what is most important to you two... Work together on it. Believe me, I've planned several girl trips before, I do all the work, and suffer the most disappointment. Both of you need to ''invest your time'', to appreciate the full ramifications of it. Good Luck.
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Old Oct 27th, 2015, 03:18 PM
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Justine
Getting ris of Belgium.
Tsssss
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Old Oct 27th, 2015, 03:23 PM
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Oh Pariswat.. you know I only say that because of course Belgium deserves far more time then this short visit allows...lol..
If going to Belgium one should allow it at least full week I imagine.. ( especially for those who like beer.. lol)
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