15 days trip to Europe
 

Hi Guys,

I am planning to visit Europe in this August with my wife and Daughter (14yrs). I am travelling from Tanzania (East Africa).
My target destinations are Switzerland, Paris, Italy, Spain/Barcelona. Please suggest a best trip itenary

Suresh

Welcome to Fodors. We moved your thread to the Europe Forum.

Either add many more days or cut your list of destinations down.

Tell us what you might be interested in. Any list of stops without your interests is at best a starting point. Not a great starting point.

That is a lot of territory. Four countries, or two countries and two major cities in two other countries.
Do the15 days include travel time or is that time on the ground?
Have you been to Europe before? If so, where, on your own or on a tour?
What do you hope to see in Switzerland?
What do you hope to see in Italy?
Remember that traveling such distances between places, even with short flights, eats up a lot of time, door to door, from checking out of one hotel, getting to train station or airport, the travel time, etc. do not underestimate this. You will pay for the time as well as cost of transportation.
Two nights in a place gives you one full day, three nights give two days, etc.

in any order,
Arrive ? (Maybe Paris), 4 nights, three full days,
day of travel to ? (Maybe Barcelona)
Barcelona, 3 nights, two full days
Fly to ? One day of travel
Venice? Pisa?, Florence? Rome, ? Half day of travel between each. No time left.
Fly home.
You might see some crazy bus tours that touches these places, but it is not good to try on your own.

Combos: Paris and Switzerland
Bit of Switzerland and bit of Italy
Just Italy

Do you need a visa for this trip? Are you aware of the requirements for getting one if you do?
I understand you wanting to see as much as possible but with only 15 days you cannot see it all. Talk to your family and decide what it is you really want to see and do. Where in Switzerland? Where in Italy?
August is peak holiday time in Europe and many places will already be fully booked, and or very busy.

By 'target destinations' do you mean that is your wish list of possible destinations and you are trying to pick which one(s) to visit - OR - do you mean you plan on visiting all of them?

First you need to tell us what sorts of things you want to see and do.

Also -- is the whole trip 15 days including travel days? If so you will only have 13 days free to sightsee. That would work for one country, or maybe 3 cities in different countries, or maybe a small part of two different countries -- but definitely not enough time for Paris + Barcelona + Italy + Switzerland.

Thank you Treveler_Nick.

after looking at the suggestions from the forum, I may plan only Swiss, Paris and Italy.
Will that make a comfortable plan for covering most of the best places to visit.

Switzerland and Paris and Italy... is a bit too much for 15 days.

I'd want to know
1) When? December is different to August
2) Interests? White water rafting is different to shopping

Depends on what you think is the “best.”

Though I could cover quite a few, I could not cover “most of the best” places in Italy in 15 days.

If you have not done so already, you need to read some guide books and decide what the best places are for you in Italy and Switzerland.
What are some “best” places your daughter and wife would like to see?

1. You could do Paris and three major places in Italy.
2. You could do one or two places in Switzerland and two or three in Italy. (Four total)
3. Lot of time traveling, but you could do Paris, one scenic place in Switzerland and one major city or countryside area in Italy.

It will be more helpful in getting advice if you answer the questions about your precise number of nights on the ground in Europe and your interests because there are many possible itineraries. Which one is best is for you depends on what you specifically want to see.

You will save time and money by doing “multi-city” into one city and home from another rather than RT into and out of the same city.

Sassafrass makes good points . . . and his ideas are fine IF you have 15 days 'on the ground' in Europe - in other words a 17 days trip all together. If your whole trip is just 15 days then you would be working with 13 days plus travel from/to Tanzania. So you would have to pare down his suggestions. Remember that you will use half to one full day every time you move locations. So starting with 13 days, visiting three cities or scenic places and a total of two days in transit between them means you would have less than 3 full days free per stop.

I did a 3 week trip that included Switzerland (Geneva, Vevey, Montreux) the took the train to Venice. Then took the train to Paris. Flew into Gevena and out of Paris.

It would really help if we knew more of what interests you. History? Art? Hiking? Something else? When a person has limited time, it makes sense to concentrate on the things they enjoy most.

Let's say you fly into Paris, and fly home from Milan or Rome. You could make a brief stop in Switzerland between Paris and Italy. You could either fly from Paris to Switzerland, or take a fast train.

There are direct fast trains from Paris to Geneva (a little over 3 hours). Considering the time getting to and from the airports, that may be faster than flying. There are also cheap direct flights from Paris to Zurich or Geneva.

Then there are direct flights from Zurich or Geneva to several Italian cities, including Milan, Florence, and Rome. Which city you choose would depend on what you want to see most. You can't see everything on such a short trip.

Hi Sassafrass..

My idea is to visit the best places of tourism in those countries.
Switzerland (Apls, Zurich, Lakes etc), Paris (Eiffel Tower, Louvre Museum, Disneyland etc) and Italy (pisa tower, venice, milan) can be my most choicest countries . I cannot visit the whole country I know but the prominent and must watch places to be planned

Suresh

Hi bvlenci,

My idea is to visit the best places of tourism in those countries.
Switzerland (Apls, Zurich, Lakes etc), Paris (Eiffel Tower, Louvre Museum, Disneyland etc) and Italy (pisa tower, venice, milan) can be my most choicest countries . I cannot visit the whole country I know but the prominent and must watch places to be planned

Suresh

4nights Paris
1 night Lucerne
2 nights Grindelwald
3 nights Venice
3 nights Florence
3 nights Rome

That's 16 nights, kleebatt.

Let's break this down. The OP seems interested most in famous tourist spots. Paris seems to be the arrival destination. After landing day, add four more and skip Disney (children centric and no little kids), Ten days left. Travel to next location. Nine days left. I would cut Switzerland in favor of the classic tourist Italy: Venice, Florence, Rome, Fly into Venice (2-3 days), train to Florence (2 days), train to Rome (3-4 days). One day left, for leaving to home.

This does not include in the plan allowances for closure days (usually Sunday-Monday) or national holidays (depends when you go). Judging from the OP's posts, sophisticated planning and logistics for hotels and travel and arranging sight seeing within locations are not going to be strong points. Luckily, there are many Paris city tours that can be booked, and my suggestion for Italy can easily be booked as a one price commercial tour (hotels, sights, and train or bus within Italy, maybe even meals). Leaving the details to those who have set up travel tours as a successful business will avoid disasters and greatly simplify the logistics.

Trying to do an impossible too much is a classic mistake for an inexperienced traveler. Let us help.

There are no "best places" for tourism, because it depends on the interests and tastes of the individual tourist. If someone asks me, "What's the best car?", I would need to know if they would be driving in the city, or in a suburban area; whether they needed to transport a family; whether they preferred speed or economy; and several other things.

If I go to Rome, I can spend the entire time visiting archaeological sites, because that's the "best place" for me. That wouldn't interest someone who was most interested in Italian cuisine.

I suggest you get a good general European guidebook with lots of photos, so you can decide what might be the best places for you.

I recommend Rotterdam, a beautiful and vibrant city. It's an often overlooked gem, which means it's not overrun in the summer by tourists, as some other cities in the Netherlands. You can easily access many other beautiful towns and cities from Rotterdam, such as Delft, the Hague, and Dordrecht.