10 days in europe
 

hello,

i am planning to travel to europe in january from january 17-january 27. my temporary itineray is 3 days in london, 3 days in paris, and 3 days in amsterdam? is that doable? im not planning to go to see any museums. i just wanna go sightseeing, like the eiffel tower, the big ben, the buckingham palace, etc. however, im not too sure where to visit in amsterdam. any suggestions?

i will fly from new york to london. i will take the train from london-paris and paris-amsterdam and will fly back to new york from amsterdam.

is visiting those 3 countries in 10 days such a good idea? or should i just do london + paris?

thank you in an advance!

Either is a not unreasonable distribution of time, depending on what interests you - but you'd get as much help deciding on what would match your interests from a good guidebook as from us.

One thing I will say is that what you've mentioned in London is done in about half an hour walking past the outside of Buckingham Palace and the Houses of Parliament, since that's all you can see of them (and for the next few years, Parliament and its clock tower will be covered in scaffolding). There is so much more to see and do than those anyway.

You'll need to familiarise yourself with how the public transport systems work:

London -
https://tfl.gov.uk/
https://tfl.gov.uk/maps/visitors-and...s?intcmp=40408

Paris:
https://www.ratp.fr/en
https://www.ratp.fr/en/visite-paris/...rounding-areas

Amsterdam:
https://en.gvb.nl/
https://en.gvb.nl/ontdek-amsterdam
https://en.gvb.nl/ontdek-amsterdam/tourist-guide

London is by far the largest city in Europe - if you have never been, it would make sense to allocate more time to London.

When you say 3 days, do you mean that you have 3 full days or 3 nights? If you include travel time, and you are there for 3 nights, that would effectively give you 2 days and a bit to actually see things. You have to account time for getting from one city to the other.

As Patrick says; Buckingham Palace and Big Ben you can only walk past, not get in.

The train trips between these won't take too long, and if you start early enough you'll have at least half that day at your destination.

Don't forget to consider the possible effects of jetlag on arrival, though.

In January you will want to go indoors some of those days in any of those cities, it will rain, it might snow, it will be cold. When you do then you will find galleries and museums a great place to wander and wonder. Of these cities only London offers so many for free and only London is such a big city in Europe. So while I love all three cities the shear amount of things you can do day in and day out in London in January is awesome.

So I'd plan to maximise my time in London and I'd assume I'm going to lose a day in London from Jet lag. Tricky choice, good luck.

With a mere 10 days (11 nights) I'd opt for just two locations. Since you aren't even sure what you want to see/do in Amsterdam, it's an easy choice to skip it. Two locations means you will waste less of your time getting from place to place. But ou still need to do your research. Pick up a couple of guidebooks for each city and read, look at photos and se what inspires you.

I have to admit that if it was really me with 10 day to spend in Europe, I'd choose just one city. Visit London this year, Paris next year.

I agree with Kathie - 2 locations is probably plenty. There's so much to see in just London and Paris alone. Amsterdam is nice, too, but you'll lose time getting to a new destination.

In case you're curious, I wrote a trip report with our itinerary, photos, and recs for Amsterdam:
http://fanofblank.blogspot.com/2014/...th-africa.html

Happy trip planning!

Please clarify - If you leave home on the 17th and leave Europe on the 27th you only have <u>nine nights</u> on the ground. If so, no you don't have enough time for three major cities. That is only 8.5 days actually free to do things. Plus the days will be VERY short and the weather possibly nasty (or not)

I would either do JUST London, or London for maybe 5 nights and Paris for 4 nights.

Agree that London and Paris would be perfect for a 10 day trip!

thank you all for your response!!

so i changed my itinerary ����

im going to spend 5 days in london and 4 days in amsterdam. after doing some research, amsterdam looks more interesting and fun for me. at least for now

probably just gonna do a day trip to paris from london just to see the eiffel tower

thank you once again ������

>>probably just gonna do a day trip to paris from london just to see the eiffel tower<<

Instead of a day trip to Paris and back - If all you want to do is see the ET, why not take the train from London to Paris, leave your bags at Gare du Nord, go see the ET, return to the station and head on to Amsterdam on the train.

Look at the calendar of the SNCF website - and look for the "flexible plan". Go early, and stay late. There's a lot more to see than the Eiffel Tower...
I'd leave my bags at the hotel, if you are going to fly out of Amsterdam.

Just so you aren’t disappointed, Big Ben will be covered in scaffolding as it is going through a restoration project for the next few years.

But don’t worry, there are way more fabulous things to see and do in London!

>>probably just gonna do a day trip to paris from london just to see the eiffel tower<<

The Eiffel Tower is probably the most over-rated tourist attraction in Paris. It's just a tower. It's just there. There's nothing to learn from it about the culture or history of Paris (unless you arrange the underground tour that shows how Eiffel's elevator system works — https://tinyurl.com/ya2kgkq9).

And the Eiffel Tower looks its best at night, lit up. If you want to go up it, book your tickets ahead, although the best cityscape views of Paris are those that include the Eiffel Tower, not those taken from it.