We have just started planning a trip to Europe for 2 weeks mid September 2012. Our itinerary is in the planning stages any feedback or recommendations would be appreciated!

Fly into Munich spend 3 days
Train to Switzerland, stay for 3 days
Train to Nice, France say for 3 days
Train to Barcelona, stay for 3 day
Train to Paris and fly out of Paris.

We are late 20s and really Interested in live music, eating/drinking great food, sightseeing, etc.

Thanks!

You will lose more than 3 days just in transit. I'd re-calibrate and cut at least one destination. Barcelona is the logical one to dump just based on geography - but it depends on which destinations are most important to you.

Yes you have greatly underestimated the travel time by train among these locations. As an example, en route time from Nice to Barcelona is from 10 to over 17 hours; from 8 to 14 hours from Barcelona to Paris.

www.voyages-sncf.com

Flying into one city and departing from another is an excellent strategy but if your flying includes a transatlantic leg, you´ll lose one day upon arrival and another day at departure.

As a start, I should eliminate Barcelona entirely and make every attempt to simplify your overall itinerary.

You haven't allowed enough time to travel from place to place. Those "3 days" in reality will only 2+ days each place. I would subtract at least one and maybe two of the destinations from your list (so you would truly have 3-4 days in 3-4 places).

As per <i>janisj</i> and <i>Sarastro</i>, you'll need to re-examine your travel times/methods between each destination.

Train from Munich to Switzerland (which city?) is easy enough, but will take a good half day if you're looking at places like the Berner Oberland (Lauterbrunnen, Interlaken, etc). From Switzerland, you can fly from most airports (Zurich, Basel, Bern, Geneva) to Nice fairly cheaply and the flight is just over 1 hour.

Nice to Barcelona, as noted, by train takes all day (no night train), so look at flights from Nice to Barcelona with Iberia (only 1hr).

Barcelona to Paris - better to fly this route too. Look at Vueling (fly into Orly or CDG, not Beauvais).

If you keep Nice in, there are quite a few live music venues in the city. The best-known is Chez Wayne (just known as Wayne's) which has great bands in the back room and gets packed with atmosphere. One of the cool little live music venues, Johnny's Wine Bar, closed a few years ago which is a shame, but there are still a few small venues as well as large ones to choose from: Ma Nolan's, Thor Pub, Blue Whales, Shapko Jazz Bar, and wander around the small streets/lanes of Vieux Nice (Old Town) and see what little wine bars you can find with an acoustic set if you prefer.

Note that even the routes w/ one-ish hour flights still eat up half a day w/ travel to the departure airport/advance check in/travel into the city from the destination airport.

<i>Note that even the routes w/ one-ish hour flights still eat up half a day w/ travel to the departure airport/advance check in/travel into the city from the destination airport.</i>

That's correct. Just giving options of transport between cities other than the long train rides.

If you're staying somewhere for 3 <u>days</u> that equates to 4 <u>nights</u>, so take that into consideration for your planning as well and you'll likely find you need to remove one destination. You also haven't noted if you're staying in Paris or just passing through - if the former, and you haven't been there before, then make sure you give yourselves a minimum of 4 full days.

We love to travel at autobahn speeds, quickly moving from place to place and covering a lot of ground. However, I think I would join the other who have posted and cut this down. Don't try to conquor all of Europe in this one trip. Leave something for next time.