24 days europe tour
 

Hi everyone,

I will be attending a conference in Manchester till the 27th of August. I wish to visit France (Paris), Italy (Rome, Venice), Germany (Berlin), Spain (Barcelona and Madrid maybe) and Amsterdam for 24 days after the conference. Any suggestion for possible cheapest and sensible itinerary? What is the last country (airport) I should visit before flying back to Australia. Many thanks for all your help :-)

Dex

I would suggest flying back to Australia from Barcelona or Madrid.

I would suggest this order:

Paris (by Eurostar train)
Amsterdam (by train)
Berlin (train or flight)
Venice (flight)
Rome (train)
Barcelona (flight)

Paris, Berlin, and Rome merit at least four full days (5 nights). I don't have an opinion on Barcelona, as I've never been there. Unless you have a lot of specific things you want to see, or want to make some day trips, two or three nights would be sufficient in Amsterdam and Venice. If you go to Madrid, I would think three nights would be plenty; there are some great art museums there, but there isn't much else that would have enticed me to stay longer.

www.skyscanner.net is a good source for budget airline flights. Be aware that they often have very strict baggage limits. You can get good discounts on train fares by buying well in advance. The websites are

www.eurostar.com
www.sncf.fr (or probably better www.capitainetrain.com/en )
http://www.trenitalia.com/tcom-en

The Italian train tickets go on sale 120 days before travel date, and the best discounts are snapped up quickly on popular routes like Venice->Rome. I'm not sure of the best purchase windows on the other rail sites.

Discounted tickets are usually sold with "no changes, no refunds" conditions.

Questions: to which cities can you get direct flights from Manchester?
Are there any particular cities from which it is easier to get flights to Australia?

Just briefly, it looks as if you might want to drop one city. With such a long time frame, you can't keep up a fast pace the whole time. Which place interests you the least?

You seem to prefer cities, but if you felt you were finished in any of them, there are nice day trips from all of them that you could do kind of spur of the moment.

From Madrid, many people do day trips or an overnight to Toledo (30 minutes by train) and day trip to Segovia (about 40 minutes).

European trains are fantastic - for lots of great info on planning the train part check these IMO superb info-laden sites: www.seat61.com - great info on discounted tickets if you book online weeks in advance to guarantee as they are sold in limited numbers; www.ricksteves.com and www.budgeteuropetravel.com.

Consider flying first from Manchester to Berlin then
take train to Amsterdam
train to Paris
overnight train Paris to Venice or fly
train to Rome

There are no direct flights between Spain and Auz.
24 days divided by 7 cities means only 3 and a bit days in each. Less time for travelling and booking in and out of accommodation. Leaves very little time to partake in that wonderful thing you want to do, sightseeing. Maybe slow down a bit and see more?

Some people do make day trips to Toledo and Segovia from Madrid, but they are cities that I liked much better than Madrid, and they deserve more time than that. I would almost suggest staying in one of those cities and making a day trip to Madrid. I especially like Segovia. Salamanca and Ávila are also great; Ávila is small, and other than its city wall, and some interesting churches, there's not much to see.

Remember that three nights somewhere is just two full days. I would want to cut one or two cities in order to have enough time to see a bit of these places.

I agree that you have too many places listed for your time frame. Which places are your priorities? You might check which priority city has good flights back to the airport you will use in Australia. Once you are certain of your starting and endpoints, filling in the middle will be easier. Are you flying directly to Manchester?