IMDonehere

The answer is yes without reading it. Same for "doable" and "nuts" and "possible."

Your instincts are right, the trip is crazy. Now I can read your entire question and come up with the same response. No matter the reason or the qualifiers.

traveller1959

Yes, I see them too, these crazy itineraries.

Partly, they come from tour operators which offer trips like "All of Europe in one week" or "7 countries in 5 days". The clients think they get the best for their money if they book such a "It's Thursday it must be Belgium"-style trip while, in fact, they are spending most of the time sitting in buses, browsing tacky souvenir stores and eating mediocre meals.

Partly, these itineraries come from bad guidebooks. If you read a guidebook with chapters like "the best beach in France" (which happens to be in the southwest) and "the best cathedral in France (which is in the North), "the most scenic road" (which is in the southeast) and "the best sausage in France" (which may be in the center) then the travellers try to assemble itineraries which cover all these destinations.

Partly, these crazy itineraries come from lacking knowledge of geography and lacking experience with travelling. The posters underestimate distances and times for packing the suitcase, checking out of the hotel, riding to the train station, waiting on the platform, travelling by train, going fromt the train station into the hotel, checking in etc.

Regardless, whether you travel by train, by plane or by car, moving from one place to the other eats up at least half a day if not a full day.

And finally, everybody seems to ignore weather. We often see itineraries like "on November 13, Jungfraujoch". People are not aware that they can forget it if it is in clouds or if it rains. Recently, I have seen a lot of posts from people from India who want to travel to Europe in November (it is cheap then) and are not aware that we have winter in November and short daylight hours.

Maybe we should produce text modules for such posters and just paste them into our replies.

traveller1959

I have found the thread that triggered your post. It's one of the best of its kind.

But the seniors who want to do 15 destinations in 4 countries and 12 days aren't bad either.

Adelaidean

My niece is doing this tour

https://www.topdeck.travel/tours/discover-europe

15 countries/ 31 days

I tried not to shudder, but she'll have a blast.

She'd probably be bored on our upcoming trip, which covers just over 1000km in 31 days

traveller1959

Adelaidean: Your niece's trip is the craziest that I have ever seen. One day for Paris! One day for Rome! She will spend most of her 31 days in the bus.

What I really despise is the advertising for this tour:

__________________________________________________ _____

Travel Day: Paris to Bordeaux.

Bid au revoir to le gay Paree and make a quick stop in the heart of the Loire Valley. Next we head to Bordeaux to become masters of the grape in the red wine capital. Drink the best drops and hear tales of how these fiery reds came to be.

Included today:
-Visit Loire Valley en route to Bordeaux

Meals: Breakfast, dinner.

Optional Activities: Entry to Chateaux Chambord

__________________________________________________ ______

Net driving time will be 7 to 8 hours with a bus. The only program point on this day will be a half-hour visit of Chambord castle. The wine tasting will be the following day and include three tiny gulps of mediocre wines in a nondescript winery before starting for the next long drive. This tour gets the award for minimum efficiency.

Whathello

I keep writing that I visited 15 cities in the US in one month.
I was 21, and I loved this trip.

But I was alone : not sure you can survive as a couple for such things : if you're tired and want to oversleep and say 'to hell with alcatraz, I sleep - so I never saw Alcatraz or it is 5 am, I can't sleep anymore so let go to this beach tath guy told me about yesterday.

But really, one of my best trips.
We did 3000 kms in Mexico with 3 kids 2 years ago in 13 days - our biggest mistake was to overestimate traveltimes on their roads : Chiapas has no good roads, so we spent way too much time in the car - but yet, a fantastic trip too. I needed holidays after returning ;-)

So, sometimes people do things we wouldn't do. But if they like it - heck, why not, their trip !

Adelaidean

"Adelaidean: Your niece's trip is the craziest that I have ever seen"
Hideous, isn't it. What I find curious is that these 20 something's are really internet savvy, yet don't plan their own holiday. Most of her friends' do the same kind of trip. None of them have considered just travelling as a small group together and planning their own itinerary.
A young work colleague did a similar US bus trip and loved it (although,I didn't understand the visit to the carwash from 'Breaking Bad', among many other odd itinerary inclusions aimed at young adults...).

progol

Aidelaidean:

Re: your niece's trip - I find it amusing that it has the most number of days in Corfu! That says it all about priorities, no?

traveller1959

Whathello, we all have done such trips. We once visited 13 states in the USA and drove 6,500km within 21 days. It was not too bad because well-planned, we never drove more than 450km per day and driving in America is easier and faster than in Europe. However, changing hotels so often turned out to be more strenuous than we thought.

The niece's problem is that she will spend an extremely high portion of total time in Europe within the bus. But the advertising makes even a boring bus drive seem like an experience.

__________________________________________________ _____

Travel Day: French Riviera to Swiss Alps, Switzerland.

The view out your window today plays like a documentary on 'world's sexiest views'. Unlike Toblerone, the Swiss Alps aren't all lined up perfectly so we weave up through the sexy valleys and handsome peaks to reach Engelberg.

Grab your forks and prepare to chow down on Swiss cuisine then hit the bar for a nightcap.
__________________________________________________ _______

Nothing but driving this day. And not even particularly scenic.

Whathello

> 5000 bucks to see the interior of a coach...

nytraveler

I blame it on two things:

Way too many people willing to let other people lead their lives for them rather than taking the responsibility to do it themselves. Even if you decide a tour is right for you - learn enough about the tour to see what you are really getting/doing.

Complete lack of teaching geography in school - so somehow people become adults without knowing where/how big other countries are - or have a clue what the climate is like/may be different.

My favorites were:

The couple from FL who apparently thought that FL and Italy has the same climate since they are approximately the same shape. Despite all advice to the contrary they were determined to visit a bunch of major cathedrals in Italy in shorts and flip flops - in December - because that's what they did in FL.

The woman who wanted to make reservations at the Ivy in London and wanted to know if her husband had to wear a shirt with sleeves (I never understood if she meant a long-sleeve shirt - or a tee shirt versus a tank top) and long pants

PatrickLondon

I seem to remember from years ago a thread that developed into quite a spat over someone's over-ambitious plans for a tour of the UK, all comments to that effect being rejected as hatred and bitterness, or something along those lines. The OP in question wrote it all up in a blog, and sure enough it ended up with all the family being dragged up some hill with literary associations in the middle of the night. And it was snowing.

ribeirasacra

****Way too many people willing to let other people lead their lives for them rather than taking the responsibility to do it themselves.***

That is the trouble with this forum too. Ask a question get a load of different answers and the members go ballistic when someone writes an answer to something creative.

tower

nothing ever will beat.."Should you tip the pilot"..c-l-a-s-s-i-c

suze

Not always true. I've now & then seen that question here, then the person posted a totally reasonably paced itinerary.

RonZ

tower, there is also "We had tapas, but the portions were too small."

Nikki

And amazingly, most of these people are so misguided that they actually think they are enjoying their vacations. I have friends who would be dining out for years on the story of the midnight climb up the literary hill in the snow. Poor things.

marvelousmouse

I think it might be the insidious influence of guidebooks too. I've been sorting through the local library section to get ideas as I've never been to Europe. I usually don't bother too much with guidebooks and I'd forgotten how frustrating they are. Many of them make the craziest day trips or city itineraries sound plausible. Then I'll add up the time of transit or time that actually allows you at a specific site and go...yeah...never mind. Sure, I'll do a crazy day once in awhile, but I can't keep up that pace.


I'd laugh at the tapas thing but I actually had a college friend complain about that at a tapas bar

suze

<Many of them make the craziest day trips or city itineraries sound plausible.>

So do organized group tours. Those big bus tours have extremely aggressively paced itineraries.

IMDonehere

I ascribe the need to the general anxiety of the middle class. They plan their children's play dates. They fret over their college when in elementary school. The two income home is always against the wall in terms of time and guilt of time not spent with children. Work is always a source of anxiety where you need to achieve and be organized. So a trip becomes an extension of their every day life.

Some are afraid of peer pressure that someone will say, "You went to (Fill in Country) and did not see (town or site)?

There is a smaller group who look at travel as some look at sexual conquests, the number is more than important than the event.