thiswanderer

Hello, travel gurus,

I'm a very lucky person. My graduation present is five weeks in Europe and an Interrail pass. I want to make sure I make the most of my travel time, so I'm working on an itinerary. I plan to go with a group of three other girls, all of whom are from Germany. We will all be 18. We have a long list of places we'd like to see. Here's the first draft of our itinerary:

Start in Frankfurt then:
-Venice
-Florence
-Milan
-Cinque Terre
-Nice
-Marseille
-Lyon
-Paris
-Brussels
-Amsterdam

I also want to see smaller towns like Manarola in Cinque Terre and find a way to visit Prague and Vienna.

All four of us are concerned that we won't get to spend enough time in each city; we want to cut down our list. So our streamlined itinerary could look something like this:

-Frankfurt
-Venice
-Vicenza
-Florence
-Cinque Terre
-Paris
-Amsterdam

With Prague and Vienna somewhere in there. Any suggestions for how I can fit these in? Only one of my friends and I want to go.

Is this realistic? Would we be able to easily fit in any of our other destinations from the first list? I would appreciate some general travel hints as well.

Notes:
All of us have experience traveling without an adult. My friends can speak some French, English, and of course German.

PalenQ

How long are you going for is crucial for anyone to answer your question - if a month yes by all means if less stick with the latter list. For lots of great advice on trains in those countries check out these Wundbar IMO sites: www.ricksteves.com; www.budgeteuropetravel.com and www.seat61.com. For schedules of all European trains and details about them check your own country's state railway site - www.bahn.de and as I believe some say in German have a Gut Fahrt! (pardon my German but it sounds funny in English if as I recall that phrase from train station walls!)

Get a IYHF card from your local hostel and consider taking overnight trains at times to save time and money - and why Marseille - interesting city but with limited time IMO spend it better elsewhere.

Cheers!

inspiredexplorer

So I'm not a Eurail expert by any means, so I don't necessarily know when the pass can be used on high speed trains and when it can't, and the websites PalenQ has indicated are super helpful in terms of train specific info.

I do think with a 5 week timeline (estimating you have 35 days / 34 total nights to travel), you can easily accomplish your goal of seeing the edited itinerary plus your two other destinations. Here's how I might structure it:

Train (11 hrs)to Prague first, 4 nights
Train (4 hrs ish) to Vienna, 4 nights
Train (8 hrs) to Venice, 6 nights including day trip to Vicenza (easily done from Venice, and helps cut down your total bases while adding Prague/Vienna)
Train (3 hrs) to Florence, 6 nights
Train (3 hrs ish with change) to Cinque Terre, 4 nights
Cinque Terre to Milan, train (7 hrs) to Paris, 6 nights
Train (3 hrs ish) to Amsterdam, 4 nights
Train back to Frankfurt

If you're into overnight trains, you can add one in the Vienna-Venice portion and Milan-Paris portion, but you don't really need to in either case:

Train to Prague first, 4 nights
Train to Vienna, 4 nights
Overnight train to Venice, 1 night
Venice, 5 nights including day trip to Vicenza
Train to Florence, 5 nights
Train to Cinque Terre, 4 nights
Cinque Terre to Milan, overnight train to Paris, 1 night
Paris, 6 nights
Train to Amsterdam, 4 nights
Train back to Frankfurt

You can shift nights as you like, but I put more into Paris, Florence, and Venice, mainly because Venice you have a guaranteed daytrip, Florence has a lot to offer university age travelers, and six nights in Paris would be great for a first discovery of that city and a daytrip (Versailles/Giverny/somewhere you may have an interest in).

kja

I agree that you should be able to use your shorter itinerary and even add a city or two -- just no more then 2 cities per week, maybe a tad less if you include destinations like Paris and Florence that offer so much to see and experience. inspiredexplorer has given you some interesting options, so you might play around with those.

If you don't already have your flights, try to fly open jaw (i.e., into one city and out of another) as doing so will help you avoid backtracking (and so save you money and time).

The single best bit of travel advice I can give you is to get at least one, if not several GOOD guidebooks. I strongly recommend the Rough Guide and the Lonely Planet. You will learn things you never even knew to ask, and in comparison to the cost of your trip, the price will be nugatory. Of course, you can also look at them in your local library.

You should be able to have a truly wonderful trip - enjoy!

PalenQ

So I'm not a Eurail expert by any means, so I don't necessarily know when the pass can be used on high speed trains and when it can't, and the websites PalenQ has indicated are super helpful in terms of train specific info.>

Excellent advice from inspiredexplorer and kja - to answer the question about high-speed trains and railpasses - passes can be used on nearly every high-speed train in Europe - in many countries you can just hop on any train anytime - in some like France, Spain and Italy the pass pays for the train fare but not the mandated seat reservation requirement - which is usually several euros you have to pay. So a pass can be used on every link of your itinerary - if you use an overnibght train then the pass pays for the train fare butnot the optional or required sleeping berth.

PalenQ

Cinque Terre to Milan, overnight train to Paris, 1 night>

The fate of the Venice-Milan-Paris overnight train is iffy so don't count on it being around very long - night trains from Rome and Florence already been scrubbed. There is dependable night trains from Nice to Paris however but that is a bit farther than Milan from the 5 Terre.