Giahna11

Hi,me and my partner are planning a holiday to Europe from mid Dec2016 to mid Jan2017 to visit my sister who is currently living in London.We are also wanting to visit Amsterdam,Paris and Rome aswell.This is also our first trip overseas,and we will be flying in from New Zealand. We are planning on spending a month there which would equate to 7 days per city.
We are looking for any advice to help create an ideal itinerary. What is the cheapest and best way to travel to/from each city? What accommodation advice can you give us as we are young (20) and want to explore mainly the town and do lots of sightseeing?
Thankyou for your help.

tonfromleiden

From a logistics point of view flying in to London, train to Paris (Eurostar), train to Amsterdam (Thalys), flying to Rome, flying out of Rome is the best.
But where you want to spend Christmas?

sandralist

If you aren't spending Xmas with your sister, you might want to avoid spending it in Rome for reasons of costs, crowds and closures. Amsterdam might have the most open and going on. Whichever time you go to Rome, check out renting an apartment for a 7-day stay. I like to use the agency Rome Loft, but you can also check out AirBnb. You can't use reliably use Airbnb for Paris and in Amsterdam, I'm not sure.

hetismij2

Amsterdam is open over Christmas. Nearly all the museums are open on Christmas day for instance. Restaurants might be busy, but if you choose an ethnic restaurant you will almost certainly be able to eat without booking, though it might be worth checking before hand if you have time.

PVR340PLA

Renting apts is the way to maximize your budget and your experience. VRBO is a good resource. I have had positive results using them in Paris.
Areas I like are the 4th and 5th in Paris.
In Amsterdam, the Jordaan and in Rome..Campo di Fiori..
As far as transportation between Paris and Rome, either fly or consider overnight train. I have done Paris to Venice and Amsterdam to Venice overnight and it saved time and was fun.

tonfromleiden

Take care with Airbnb in Amsterdam! Recently there have been some police actions against Airbnb's which were functioning as an illegal hotel. The tourists standing on the street with their luggage and without accomodation didn't look very happy.

PVR340PLA

This is where we stayed last time in Paris.https://www.vrbo.com/665779a

PalenQ

Trains are fantastic - in a month you go easily do

London
Paris
Amsterdam
Germany and Switzerland to
Italy

by train - night trains can be sued to cover long distances and save on the cost of an accommodation too.

for lots about trains check www.budgeteuropetravel.com (check their free online European Rail & Planning Guide for lots of suggested rail itineraries in each area); www.seat61.com; www.ricksteves.com.

PalenQ

Christmas Day in France is hopping too - some museums open and lots of folks out on the streets as the French really celebrate Christmas on Chirstmas Eve and treat the following day IME as just another Sunday. Trains run Sunday schedules and lots of them vs the UK where public transit virtually comes to a complete crawl Dec 25 and Boxing Day the 26th - weird the only country I know about where this happens!

traveller1959

It's funny that many first-time-travellers to Europe want to see way too many destinations in too short a time.

You seem to do the opposite: Just four cities in four weeks. 7 days per city is a lot. I would recommend that you either do daytrips from your destinations, e.g.

- Oxford and Bath from London,
- Utrecht from Amsterdam,
- Florence from Rome.

For daytrips from Paris, look here:
http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...near-paris.cfm

Or you add more destinations.

Your logical itinerary would be London by train to Paris by train to Amsterdam by plane to Rome.

Between Paris and Amsterdam you can easily spend two or three days in Belgium, in lovely Brugge, Brussel and Gent.

Or you can do things which might look utterly crazy but are doable and inexpensive: Fly to Athens. A flight from Amsterdam to Athens is just 100€, and a flight from Athens to Rome even less. (The flight from AMS to Rome is 88€)

suze

I disagree. I would not start adding more stops. I think you proposed itinerary is perfect just the way it is! Plus by being in cities for 7 days (a full week) makes it easier if you decide to pursue renting apartments.

Do you have plane tickets yet? To me the logical order would be into London, then up to Amsterdam, back to Paris, on to Rome. Fly home from Rome, if possible.

PalenQ

I like base cities where you stay for some days too - nice coming back to familiar terrain after a day out in some nearby town - like from Paris to Reims or Chartres or any of many neat short day trips or from London to Cambridge, Oxford, Stonehenge, Windsor, Hampton Court, etc.

I think if you stay say 7 days in a London or Paris that is too much in one big city for the average traveler - but to do day trips from it into a more real England or France in many ways is neat. I think many folk tire of being always in a big often noisy traffick-filled city gets tiring - smaller towns to day trip to are refreshingly more calm and more typical of a country.

Kathie

I think your plan of a week in each city is perfect. Once you are there, if you want, you can do a day trip out of town. Be aware that renting an apartment in Paris from any of the named agencies is problematic, as almost all are illegal rentals. While it would be the owner, not you, who would be in trouble with the authorities, you could suddenly find the apartment you thought you had rented in Paris is off the rental market.