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Trying to plan my route for Europe, college student

Trying to plan my route for Europe, college student

Old May 26th, 2015, 08:40 AM
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Trying to plan my route for Europe, college student

I am currently taking classes in Rome for the next five weeks and I plan on traveling throughout Europe for the four weeks after. I have a few ideas in mind but I just wanted advice on the best routes and/or best cities I should see while I am traveling. I plan on taking trips within Italy during my five weeks studying and will be flying home from London after backpacking around.

My idea so far is to start from Rome and travel up through Vienna (or Switzerland) and spend time in Germany (not sure what cities though) and then go to Amsterdam, maybe Paris, and spend a week in Barca and other cities in Spain. While finishing out in London and Dublin.

What would be the best route for this by train and/or air? and what cities do you recommend I see and not see. I know its not much time so I want to take out as much as I can

Thank you!
arrenwells is offline  
Old May 26th, 2015, 08:57 AM
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It would help to have a clue as to your interests and budget constraints.

There are about 5 thousand different itineraries possible given 4 weeks and you list of countries (although you won't have time to see nearly everything you want).

But which is right for you depends on what you want to do - only big cities, not time for smaller towns or countryside - no hiking or exploring?

And Spain is great for a budget trip, while Switz is much more expensive.

You need to:

Give us a couple of clues
Look at the Let's Go Student Guides with info just for students
nytraveler is offline  
Old May 26th, 2015, 09:04 AM
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You have 4 weeks and want to spend a week in Spain -- leaving only 3 weeks for parts of 7 other countries. waaaaaay too much in waaaaay too little time.

Get a guide book or two and figure which few destinations 'call to you' more . . . and realize that huge cities like London require several days while smaller places like say Vienna only a day or two.
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Old May 26th, 2015, 09:19 AM
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Trains are the best for most of it - you may want to fly from Paris to Barcelona or other Spanish city but IMO Barcelona is one of the finest and would chose it over Madrid any day.

Anyway if you are under 26 yrs old look into the bargain Eurail Youthpass - maybe for a month straight if traveling to all those places. Buses just don't run but skeletal routes as trains are much faster - going up to nearly 200 mph on many routes.

You can also take overnight trains like between Rome or Venice and Vienna or Munich - save time and the cost of a hostel or hotel - many young folk doing that - good place to meet others - on the train and in hostels.

For lots of great advice on European trains check: www.ricksteves.com; www.budgeteuropetravel.com and www.ricksteves.com. If you want a railpass someone at home can buy it for you - all they need is your name - and mail it - since Europeans can't use them not ordinarily sold in Europe.
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Old May 26th, 2015, 10:27 AM
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If Spain is a must for a week, you might look at budget flights from Italy to somewhere in Spain. After Spain, perhaps another budget flight to somewhere on your culled down list (Vienna? Munich?). I would shoot for the furthest point and then make my way back by train towards your London departure. Vienna is about 4 hours from Munich by train and you can make your way around much of Germany by trains/buses. From there, it's easy to head to Amsterdam and then on to London.

For budget flights check these two websites.

www.whichbudget.com
www.skyscanner.com
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Old May 26th, 2015, 11:27 AM
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First of all, I hope the order you've listed those places isn't the order you intend to visit them, because you'll be zigzagging around with that itinerary.

Amsterdam is within easy reach of London, so the idea of going to Amsterdam, then to Spain, and finally to London will consume a lot of your limited time. If you absolutely must end in London or Dublin, then I would start with Spain, taking a cheap flight there from Rome. If your final stop is open to change, then I would head north first, and take a cheap flight from London or Dublin to Spain before spending your final week there.

By the way, where is Barca? I've never heard of it. Do you mean Barcelona?

It would be easier to give you ideas if we knew something about your interests and tastes. What follows is very general, with minimums of the number of nights I would recommend for each place.

Assuming you head north first, between Switzerland and Vienna, I would choose Switzerland, because Vienna is out of the way, and you don't have a lot of time. You can get to Switzerland by train from Milan. I don't know if you have an idea of where you'd like to go, but Bern and Lucerne are possible bases, with opportunities for day trips. I would allow at least three nights in Switzerland.

Switzerland shares a border with Germany, so you could easily get to a number of German cities from there by train. Without knowing your interests, it's hard to advise which cities you might enjoy, but I would limit it to two cities, and spend two or three nights in each. Let's say five nights in Germany.

I wouldn't recommend going to Paris unless you can spend at least four nights there. You can easily get to Paris by train from many cities in Germany.

Amsterdam is also an easy train trip from some cities in Germany, and also from Paris. I would suggest three or four nights in Amsterdam.

You can get to London, either by taking a train to Brussels and connecting the Eurostar there, or by a cheap flight. There are also overnight ferries from the Netherlands to England. London deserves at least four nights, more if you want to take some day trips.

From London, you can get a cheap flight to Dublin. I would skip Ireland unless you can spend at least five or six nights there, and visit some other place than Dublin. Again, knowing your interests would be useful.

Adding up the minimums and maximums above, I get 24 to 26 nights, which wouldn't leave you a week for Spain. You'd have to cut something out, maybe saving Paris for another trip, or maybe cutting out Germany, since you're not sure where you want to go there.

From Dublin, you can get a cheap flight to Spain and fly home from Madrid.

If you have to finish in Dublin or London, I would first get a cheap flight to Spain from Rome, then another cheap flight to Switzerland, and proceed as above.

I only see around four or five train trips in this itinerary. The rest are better done by cheap flight. For that reason, I doubt that the Eurail youth pass will save you any money. The cheapest one that would work for you is the four days out of ten, which wouldn't be much help. The ten days within two months costs €446, which is more than you'd probably spend on individual tickets.

All of the countries you're planning to visit have cheap fares if you buy well in advance. However, that means that you should start buying very soon. For local or regional trains, there are usually no discounts, so just buy the long-distance routes in advance. You can see the prices on the various national rail web sites. Usually they will show prices to your first destination in another country. If you have to change trains en route after leaving the first country, you have to look for the second train on the rail site of the second country.

For example, if you want to go to Bern from Milan, there are direct trains, and you can buy the ticket on the Italian rail site. If you want to go to Lucerne, you'd have to change trains in Switzerland; this means you could buy the ticket from Milan to the town where you change, but from there to Lucerne, you'd have to buy the ticket on the Swiss rail site.

Italy:http://www.trenitalia.com/tcom-en
Switzerland: www.sbb.ch/en
Germany: https://www.bahn.com/i/view/index.shtml
France: www.sncf.fr
Netherlands: http://www.ns.nl/en/travellers/home
Eurostar: www.eurostar.com

I use www.skyscanner.net to find budget airlines.

If you're studying in Rome, you may have quite a lot of luggage. What are you planning to do with it while you make this trip? Traveling with excessive baggage is a pain no matter how you travel, and low-cost airlines tend to have strict baggage limits, with heavy supplements if you go over.
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Old May 26th, 2015, 11:44 AM
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A neat way to get between Italy and Barcelona is by boat - a night boat so you save on the cost of accommodation too - flying is of course quicker but if you've never experienced an overnight long boat cruise you can here - boats go from I think Livorno and or Genoa to Barcelona.
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Old May 26th, 2015, 12:17 PM
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The boat between Genova and Barcelona takes more than overnight. It takes about 20 hours, which wastes a good part of two different days, if you count getting to Genova from Rome. The cheapest accomodation involves a reclining seat, and if you want an actual berth in a shared cabin, it would cost more than a budget flight.

I considered this ferry when we went to Spain, but it turned out to be cheaper, and much, much faster to fly.
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Old May 26th, 2015, 02:24 PM
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Flying makes sense there but just presenting options - options - maybe they have never been on such a boat with many amenities on board - someone takes it as they set sail regularly.
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