15 day European trip planning help.
 

I am deployed with the Army in Afghanistan and I am planning a trip to Europe for my girlfriend and I over my 15 day mid-tour leave. This will be our first trip to Europe. We'd like to see as much as possible without being too rushed. We aren't artsy so museums are not a must see. We like historical sites, shopping in markets/squares. We LOVE dining and wine.

We are going on vacation the first 2 weeks of May. I def want to hit London and Paris. I'd like to get to Edinburgh, Scotland with a day trip to Stirling to see the Wallace monument and Stirling castle and do some shopping. I was thinking about rounding out the rest of our time with a couple days in either Amsterdam or Bruges.

I have never travelled outside the US and all the info I am finding online is a tad bit intimidating. I look forward to some advice from the seasoned travelers here.


JB.

w/ 15 days (including travel days - right?) you can get a nice taste of London and Paris plus maybe 3 days in Edinburgh. You <i>could</i> squeeze in Amsterdam or Bruges, but that would be awfully hectic.

As it is day 1 is spent getting to Europe. Day 2 is spent acclimating and getting over jet lag. Day 15 is spent fly out.

So your 15 days is really about 12 days of real/usable time.

6 days in London (including jetlagged first day), train or fly to Edinburgh for 2 or 3 days, fly to Paris for 4 or 5 days. Fly open jaw into London and out of Paris.

day 1 - fly to UK
days 2-7 London
days 8-10 Edinburgh
days 11-14 Paris
day 15 -fly out

Or tweak a bit to add/subtract from each city.

If you really have 17 days (15 days 'on the ground' in Europe) then add one day to Paris, and one to London to maybe use for a day trip to the coast or Oxford, or Windsor, or Bath or ??

Thank you for your service!

Very nice itinerary by janisj. Agree that adding more destinations would require too much traveling unless you really want/need to visit those places this trip.

Personally, I'd allocate more days for Paris than London.

yes - i think that jj has cracked it.

in May, and given your circumstances, i think that ending in Paris would be fab; it is so much more than museums and galleries.

i too might borrow a day from London to add to Paris, but that's a minor quibble.

With your interests in mind I suggest London & Scotland for approximately half the days. Then Paris & Burgundy (Dijon & Beaune for the vineyards) for the food & wine.

I spent time in Burgundy in the spring this year and I recommend it highly. Easy to get to from Paris, less expensive and more interesting than some parts of France I've visited and altogether worthwhile.

Your post was pretty funny, in that it's very close to the itinerary that my family (DH, 13yoDD, 16yoDS and me) are taking next year. (We're flying into London, then train to Edinborough; fly to Paris, then to Brussels/Bruges, and ending our trip in Amsterdam.)

Caveat, though: I warned my family that the schedule is far too hurried, and involves too much travel time. I got outvoted.

Of all the destinations, most of the family has been to them already (except for Scotland, to which only I have been), so most of the visits will be a matter of which of the many things at that location do we want to do. Also, because we've been there before, in some cases multiple times, we know where we prefer to stay, where to go, how to get around, etc. So the logistics will be less of a hassle for us.

So, in your case, think about all that moving around, and the logistics of doing so. Do you want to spend more of your time getting from place to place (even if they're relatively close), or being AT those places?

It's about a 5-hour train trip London-Edinborough (though you could fly) one-way, plus more time to get to Stirling. So a very long day trip.

If you love dining and wine, Paris (of course) will be your best place for that, followed by Brussels. London's cuisine is getting better and better, though as we basically eat Indian when we're there, I can't help you much beyond that. Amsterdam is a wonderful city, but we go for the ambiance, not the food.

Many would debate whether Paris actually is the best place for food and wine. I've found that, for me, out in the provinces and wine producing areas of the country good food and wine are more accessible, easier to locate and far less expensive for comparable quality. Hence my suggestion of Dijon & Beaune in addition to Paris. And I'm told that Lyon is really the gastronomic capital of France.

My comment was with respect to the destinations that the OP originally had in mind; I would have a huge list of places to go for great food and wine, of which Paris would only be one of them!

>><i>"Personally, I'd allocate more days for Paris than London."

"i too might borrow a day from London to add to Paris, but that's a minor quibble."</i><<

explanation - The reason I allocated more time to London was to deal w/ the jet lag. If you did it in reverse, flying in to Paris and out of London, then I'd add the extra day to Paris. Whichever is your first destination really needs an extra day just to deal w/ the exhaustion/jetlag/acclimation.

So whether you fly first into London, Paris - or even Edinburgh - that city needs a bit of extra time so you don't end up trying to cram in too much on your first day.

Thanks for all the suggestions and advice!

The travel days were excluded from the vacation days. My first day of leave offcially start at 0001 the day after I reach London. If I arrive in London on May 3rd, my leave starts at 0001 on the 4th then we will have 15 days on ground for vacation starting. I figured our entire first day would be spent in the hotel anyway since it will have been around 8 months since we have seen each other!

Here is what I am thinking right now. Input is welcome as I have about 5 months to plan.

Day 0: Fly into London
Day 1-6: London (overnight train to Edinburgh on day 6)
Day 7-9: Edinburgh/Stirling (overnight ferry to Bruges on day 9)
Day 10-11: Bruges (Bruges to Paris on day 11)
Day 12-15: Paris
Day 16: depart Paris

I know many do not recommend overnight trains but I am willing to spring for the sleeper car. I spent the night in a sleeper car on a trip from Cleveland, OH to NYC and it was great! Hopefully the Caledonian is as comfortable.

I am concerned with fitting in Bruges and am considering just adding those days to Paris assuming one day each would be good enough for Edinburgh/Stirling.

Thanks again!

I believe the overnight ferry is no longer running - if I'm wrong about that, please post your info, as we might consider it for our trip.

On Bruges, yes it is a charming, beautiful little city, but calculate how much travel time you'll spend to visit. You may decide that you'd rather spend that time in one of your other destinations. On the other hand, most of the rest of your trip will be spent in big cities, so being in a smaller city would be a good change of pace.

Edinburgh, Stirling and Scotland can take as much time as you want. For our trip, we're spending only two nights in Edinburgh, 3 nights in the northeast area, maybe Stirling, but definitely also visiting castles.

That looks very nice-- still a bit short in Paris but certainly OK.

I personally would skip the ferry -- There is no ferry from Edinburgh (you'd have to travel down to Newcastle). I'd just fly from Edinburgh to Brussels the morning of day 10 and then train from Brussels to Bruges.

Also--you will actually have a full day in Edinburgh on day 6 since the train arrives early in the AM. So you <i>could</i> fly to Brussels in the morning of day 9 . . . and add one more day to Paris at the end.

Thank you for your service and stay safe

Or fly into Edinburgh, take the train or fly to London, and from there take the Eurostar under the Channel to Paris. If you insist on Bruges, do it after Paris and fly out of Brussels. Or take the Eurostar from London to Brussels, change for Bruges, train to Paris, fly back from there.

Get your train tickets as soon as possible (usually 90 days out) for a considerable savings.

Lex, you are correct. The overnight ferry no longer runs but they still have it advertised on their website! Grr! Looks like we'll fly into Brussels then train to Bruges.

janisj, I had not considered your idea about leaving Edinburgh on day 9 and sneaking in an extra day in Paris. I am going to look at that! Thanks!

Thanks everybody else for the input. Stay tuned. I may have more questions or need more recommendations.

JB