Hey!

My friends and I are planning to travel to Europe for the first time. I have read reviews regarding choosing just 3 places to maximize the time and effort to better experience the trip. and so I have asked each friend for the most important place for them and came up with our inidividual choices which include: PARIS, ITALY and BARCELONA.
I am travelling from Singapore and I don't know which place to go first to make the trip smooth sailing.
or should I say, time-efficient.

Any suggestions?
thanks in advance!

Your friend should choose 1 place in Italy, it is a whole country.

Fly into one city and out of another. I would check prices and times to see what works best.

Oh, in italy we would like to visit, venice and rome.
I am more concerned about if it is okay to have paris as the first stop then itsly then barcelona. In the map, it looks as if paris is the center. Transit wise, i was wondering if this is a better route.

You start out saying no more than 3 and then immediately name 4. Paris, Rome, Venice and Barcelona.

How much time will you have not including your arrival day and departure day, in which to visit the places you choose?

Oops, now notice you say 2 weeks.

If that includes your arrival/departure days, that leaves 12 days to spend. If you subtract 3 days to move 3 times between places that leaves only 9 days in total to spend in the places.

You will spend 5 out of 14 days 'in transit' which is 35% of your total time more or less lost.

Without knowing how long the trip is no one can really give you good advice.

It really doesn't make a difference which order you do three cities since you would need to fly between them and all would be close to the same flight times.

For instance your could fly in to Paris, then fly to Barcelona, fly to Rome, fly home or you could do it in any order. Maybe decide based on which city pair gets you the best open jaw airfare.

I am more concerned about if it is okay to have paris as the first stop then itsly then barcelona. In the map, it looks as if paris is the center. Transit wise, i was wondering if this is a better route.>

Chose Barcelona or Paris or Italy - 2 of them - 3 is too much. I'd say first-timers will be best doing at most Paris-Venice-Florence-Rome - there is an overnight train between Paris and Venice to save daytime travel time and a cost of a night in a hotel. (www.thello.com for details)-other good train sites -www.seat61.com; www.budgeteuropetravel.com and www.ricksteves.com.

Land in Paris
4 days
night train to Venice
3 nights
train to Florence 3 nights
train to Rome 4 nights
Fly home from Rome

You could do Paris, Barcelona and say Rome if you want to fly between each - trains take all day Paris to Barcelona and 2 days Barcelona to Italy.

but not time enough for Venice and Florence and Rome and Barcelona.

I would go to Barcelona first and take a train to Paris, take a train to Venice, take a train to Rome. Or I would go to Rome first and take the trains in an opposite way, with Barcelona for the last.

>>take a train to Venice<<

A train between Paris and Venice seldom makes sense.

Thanks for your responses.

I'm checking out options whether to include london on my list and scratch out barcelona.
I dunno which itinerary wpuld match well with regards to transit. But based on your suggestions, i am quite comfused whther to Fly or take trains in between transit from paris -> venice -> barcelona

Planes between all three of those cities.

If you substitute London for Barcelona that would simplify things.

Fly into London. Spend 4 or 5 nights.
Train to Paris Spend 4 nights
Fly to Venice Spend 2-3 nights
Train to Rome Spend 3-4 nights
Fly home from Rome

I use Rome2rio website to see how travel works on a map. It also provides travel alternatives but is not the most reliable on prices. You can at least see quite quickly whether you are back tracking or not.
If possible, fly into one city and out another.
With cities mentioned, fly between most of them except London to Paris, or Rome to Venice.
I would consider London, Paris, Barcelona for 2 weeks. Italy can take a lifetime to see and one can easily spend two weeks between Rome, Venice (and if you are interested) Florence.
If back considering the first question, Paris, Barcelona then 'italy'.

How big are your luggages? Are shopping for things to take home? It can be a problem now if you want to take a plane but you carry more than a little luggage. The ticket is more expensive and you have to check everything. Then you wait for it when you land.

I like the train because for me it is simpler. I don't have to take time to go to the airport and wait before the plane take-off. It is easy to get to the airport in Barcelona but it is not easy to use the airports in Paris. For Venice the airport is far away. If it is bad weather comes sometimes the plane doesn't fly. The train doesn't stop if the weather is bad. I like the train because I like to read and look at the window. The train rides are not so long between Barcelona and Paris and Paris and Venice. It is very long if you try to go from Barcelona to Italy.

I don't know if you want to take a night train to sleep on the way. If you are young, it is not a problem usually. It is fun. But if you are older, you might not like it.

<A train between Paris and Venice seldom makes sense.>

Really? We did an overnight train Venice (thru Milan) to Paris and it made sense to us at the time.

<A train between Paris and Venice seldom makes sense.>

probably talking about daytime train as it takes all day but the Thello overnight service makes total sense - I have taken it a few times- save daytime travel time and cost of a hotel - www.thello.com for fares and schedules.

we're in our late twenties so sleeping in trains is ok with us.
planning to travel light too. of course, would love to see as much cities as we can but given the time constraints and transit times, i think it would be great to just go with paris, barcelona then italy.

also, i'm planning to go for the 1st and 2nd week of may, 2017.
perhaps, weather should be nice?

Avoid Venice, way nicer cities in Italy than it.

Weather could be nice, or not. No telling.

I would never avoid Venice, one of the most beautiful places on earth, IMO.