mark_f3rd1nand

hey guys, its me again. the name is mark. 26. i like many different kinds of things. foods, eclectic taste in music, arts, building, outdoors, indoors, markets, theater, and anything in between.. as you can see from my instagram: mark_f3rd1nand

Here's a sample of my itineraries for "hopefully" my september 2015 trip to "some" parts of europe. Depends on which one is cheaper to fly in/out and what's better way to travel.

Itinerary 1
Allow at least two (2) days to travel to London from Honolulu, Hawaii.
Honolulu to London (Heathrow) (2 days travel)
London (2 full days to explore)
London to Paris (i alloted 1 day for traveling and resting between places so it wont be rushed)
Paris (3 full days to explore)
Paris to Grindelwald (1 day travel)
Grindelwald (2 full days to explore)
Grindelwald to Venice (1 day traveling by train perhaps or fly?)
Venice (3 full days to explore)
Venice to Florence (8-12 hour travel time)
Florence (3 full day explore) ( 1 day Cinque Terre Tour/ 1 day Tuscany Tour including Pisa/ 1 day exploring Florence) or should i add one more day?
Florence to Rome (I allotted 1 day of traveling between places)
Rome (3 days to explore)
Rome to Honoululu, Hawaii (i'll have 2 days to rest from this wonderful vacation).

Itinerary 2
Allow at least two (2) days to travel to Amsterdam from Honolulu, Hawaii.
Honolulu to Amsterdam (schipol?) (2 days travel)
London (2 full days to explore)
London to Paris (i alloted 1 day for traveling and resting between places so it wont be rushed)
Paris (3 full days to explore)
Paris to Grindelwald (1 day travel)
Grindelwald (2 full days to explore)
Grindelwald to Venice (1 day traveling by train perhaps or fly?)
Venice (3 full days to explore)
Venice to Florence (8-12 hour travel time)
Florence (3 full day explore) ( 1 day Cinque Terre Tour/ 1 day Tuscany Tour including Pisa/ 1 day exploring Florence) or should i add one more day?
Florence to Rome (I allotted 1 day of traveling between places)
Rome (3 days to explore)
Rome to Honoululu, Hawaii (i'll have 2 days to rest from this wonderful vacation).

Itinerary 3
Allow at least two (2) days to travel to Barcelona from Honolulu, Hawaii.
Honolulu to Barcelona (2 days travel)
London (2 full days to explore)
London to Paris (i alloted 1 day for traveling and resting between places so it wont be rushed)
Paris (3 full days to explore)
Paris to Grindelwald (1 day travel)
Grindelwald (2 full days to explore)
Grindelwald to Venice (1 day traveling by train perhaps or fly?)
Venice (3 full days to explore)
Venice to Florence (8-12 hour travel time)
Florence (3 full day explore) ( 1 day Cinque Terre Tour/ 1 day Tuscany Tour including Pisa/ 1 day exploring Florence) or should i add one more day?
Florence to Rome (I allotted 1 day of traveling between places)
Rome (3 days to explore)
Rome to Honoululu, Hawaii (i'll have 2 days to rest from this wonderful vacation).

A total of 25 days!! Is it too much or is it doable? If its doable, questions now are concerning transportation, how do i secure or research train between places? i know london to paris is Eurostar? Paris to Switzerland? Switzerland to Venice? if i fly, i've been using skyscanner.com and kayak.com for projective $$ amount for flights between cities. Any suggestions where to stay? I mentioned before regarding my dad works at Marriot but i've seen the pictures from awesome and beautiful B&B's, but would love close to the city center, any ideas? and of course, feel free to suggests things to do aside from "touristy" attractions.

I'm looking forward to everyone's suggestions and comments. Everyone is so awesome!

annhig

Hi again Mark,

my first reaction is that you are really selling London short, especially as you may be suffering from jetlag when you get there - honestly I would add at least one day.

The good news, OTOH is that if anything, you have allowed too long for travel in some places - it's less than a day from London to Paris so long as you get an early train, it's only 2 hours or so from Venice to Florence [and the station is in the centre of Florence so you don't waste much time when you get there] and from Florence to Rome is about 90 mins.

If you are wanting to do two day trips from Florence, really you need 4 whole days there, as otherwise you only have one day for Florence itself. I think that I might reduce Venice to 3 nights, as you are not planning any day trips from there.

BTW - you haven't quite got Itinerary 3 right - you will need to allow day from Barcelona to Paris as presumably that will be a flight and you'll be dependent on flight times.

anyway, counting nights, I would suggest this:

Allow at least two (2) days to travel to London from Honolulu, Hawaii.
Honolulu to London (Heathrow) (2 days travel)
Day 1 - arrive London, Stay 4 nights ie 3 full days to explore [allows for jetlag and tiredness]
Day 5 - London to Paris, stay 4 nights [will give you 3 full days
Day 9 - Paris to Grindelwald (1 day travel) stay 3 nights (2 full days to explore)
Day 12 - Grindelwald to Venice (1 day traveling by train perhaps or fly?) stay 3 nights
Day 15 - Venice to Florence - [2 hour travel time] stay 5 nights - ie 2 days for Florence, 2 for day trips
Day 19 - Florence to Rome (90 mins on train) stay 4 (3 days to explore)
Day 23 - fly home Rome to Honoululu, Hawaii (i'll have 2 days to rest from this wonderful vacation).

How's that?

Nikki

For a look at all the options for flights between the cities you want to see on budget airlines within Europe, check out www.whichbudget.com

If your father's employment at Marriott means you get free lodging, I would take it. If it means it is discounted, I would mostly use that and then spend a limited number of nights at particular B&Bs that you find appealing.

mark_f3rd1nand

Annhig: itinerary 1: London to Paris.
Itinerary 2: amsterdam to Paris.
Itinerary 3: barcelona to Paris. My mistake, as I copy and paste lol.

You're right. I could do that?! I like flying, I usually sleep like a log during plane ride and it doesn't bother. Flew from Honolulu to Philippines for pretty 25 to 32 hrs with long layovers and stopovers.

But you're right! If anything I can leave Venice early to Florence and use that day to explore Florence? But if anything you are right, I would want to explore Florence, or better yet, I'll come back and explore Italy all over again! Hehe

Nikki: yeah, my dad has discounts to various hotels throughout the world but someone mentioned to me that most of the times bnbs are cheaper and way more pretty as far as the building and old structures that could be very good to take in as much as I can for the city I'm visiting. Will definitely look through it thoroughly and make sure tell you guys. Any websites for bnb?!

nytraveler

Agree that you are giving London very short shrift It is the largest city in europe and probably has twice as many sights as any other place with the possible exception of Paris.

For info on trains go to bahn.de - which has schedules for all of europe. Train times won;t be exact for when you will travel since schedules typically change twice a year - bot the time between places will be the sane.

Many discounts are available if you buy tickets 90 days in advance but they are typically fixed times and not refundable so make sure you can live with them - but worth it to save half or more.

Also suggest you get a really good map of europe overall as well as the areas you will be visiting - this would have told you that Venice to Florence is only a couple of hours - not 8 or 10.

mark_f3rd1nand

nytraveler: thanks. got it. and I put 8 hrs travel to Florence including rest and and other stops including lunch or breakfast or both? hahaha

THANKS!

Lexma90

I really like the way you're giving yourself an entire day between destinations. In terms of planning, it will mean you always have time for the travel between.

I know you like lots of things, as you said, but are there particular topics, types of art or food that will help you decide between your 3 itineraries? Also, even when I was your age, my preference was to spend time in a country or region (for example, one 2-week trip was to Austria and Switzerland); you're all over the continent. But if that's the way you prefer to travel, thats fine.

mark_f3rd1nand

Lexma90: I liked the idea to visit different places. I like to see some things and will be back for sure to explore more of the country itself. THANKS a lot,

jamikins

I agree that london needs more time! Not has so many fabulous things to see!

You can see my pics here https://www.flickr.com/photos/pug_gi...7636964726324/

I would give it a couple more days!

annhig

nytraveler: thanks. got it. and I put 8 hrs travel to Florence including rest and and other stops including lunch or breakfast or both?>>

why not eat on the train? the big italian stations have plenty of places selling panini etc.