1st time to Europe in the fall! 2014
 

Hi everyone I need some itinerary advice going to europe for a month starting oct 3- 26. I would like to get the tail end of Octoberfest in Germany and then visit Prague, Austria, Italy, Switzerland, France, Belgium and possibly Spain or London. Any advice, suggestions on the best routes as well as things to do or see/ if my trip is plausible, would be greatly appreciated .

Thanks ,

Chris

With 21 days (you lose October 3 and October 26 to traveling to/from the US), you cannot see everything you want to. Heck, you couldn't even see all of France or Italy or Switzerland in 21 days.

You need to get a good guidebook and decide what cities (not countries) you want to see. Keep in mind that you lose up to a half day each time you change cities (pack, check out of hotel, get to train station/airport, locate train, train ride/flight to next location, get from station/airport to hotel, check in, drop bags, freshen up, time for lunch). So 2 nights = 1-1.5 days.

This is not a trip report

Octoberfest sometimes ends in September I think so check dates - used to be October but was moved to Sept for better weather I read.

so you may want to land in Munich - take the bus to Prague

take train to Vienna

take overnight or day train to Venice or Florence or Rome - do all three biggies and maybe end in Switzerland or Paris or both. But you will have to cut something - Spain, London or Belgium to do all that.


anyway trains are best for your plans no doubt - check these superb sources for lots of great info on planning a European rail trip: www.ricksteves.com; www.seat61.com; www.budgeteuropetravel.com - download the latter's free and superb IMO online European Planning & Rail Guide for lots of suggested rail itineraries in all those countries.

One advantage of a Italy and Spain or northern France or Belgium or the UK is much more dependably sunny and warmer weather - start in the north and work south IMO.

Please take some time to read through the posts here at Fodors. Especially this one:
http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...understand.cfm

While it seems to you (OP) that you have a LOT of time, you cannot do all that. Well, no, you can. Sign up for a tour and sit back to see the inside of a bus and the countryside pass by for 3 weeks.

I don't think it's feasible at all. You have 8 places and they are different countries and about 23 days. I guess literally it would be if you only stayed about 2 days seeing each country in one city and then one day to move on to the next one, by plane. This would cost a fortune. You could take the train between Prague and Vienna. And you could get from Munich to Prague by bus (train isn't really very convenient). Still, I'd allow one day for the moving between countries and getting settled except in a couple cases (ie, Prague to Vienna couldn't be done in about 3-4 hours, I think, or half a day, same for Switzerland to France or Belgium to France).

This would be very expensive and tiring, but if your sole goal is to see these countries, you could do it.

I think you could do about 3. For example, Munich, Prague then Austria. Or Munich, France and Switzerland.

Forget Spain, it's too far from any of those. You could combine London with France and Belgium, also.

<< if my trip is plausible >>

It's not clear if your trip is 3 weeks or a month but it doesn't much matter with your itinerary. You plan to visit 1 city and 5 entire countries. Even if you hired a team of private drivers and never slept you would not be able to cover sights in 5 countries.

You should choose a few cities to visit. If you have 3 weeks then see Munich, Berlin, Prague, Vienna. If you have a month you can add Budapest to the itinerary.

The trick to the puzzle becomes finding as many overnight trains as possible to limit your daylight travel time. Is it "doable?" yes! If you are trying to get a taste of lots of places, you can do it (I did back in the 80s). We saw 2 days of lots of places and actually had a great trip. We utilized many train station lockers back then (I don't know if these still exist). We spent little time traveling during the day, utilized lots of overnight trains. Whatever you decide, have a great time (your planning process will be challenging but fun!)