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3 Months in Europe Basic Itinerary - Suggestions? Help

3 Months in Europe Basic Itinerary - Suggestions? Help

Old Jul 1st, 2013, 06:09 AM
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3 Months in Europe Basic Itinerary - Suggestions? Help

Hi Everyone,
Next year I will be going on a long haul type trip to South America (47 days on tour), the USA for about a month (http://www.fodors.com/community/unit...uggestions.cfm) and about 90 solo days in the UK & Europe before an 11 day tour of Turkey and 20 days touring Egypt, Jordan & Israel. My ultra basic Itinerary is this at the moment:

UK – 14 days (staying with friend in UK who till take me around as they see fit)
Belgium – 2 days
1 Day in Brussels
1 Day in Bruges
The Netherlands – 3 days
3 Days in Amsterdam
Germany – 14 days
3 Days in Cologne
3 Days in Frankfurt
3 Days in Munich
2 Days in Dresden
3 Days in Berlin
Poland – 7 days
3 Days in Warsaw
4 Days in Krakow
Czech Republic – 4 days
1 Day in Kutna Hora (day trip)
1 Day in Cesky Krumlov (day trip)
2 Days in Prague
Hungary – 3 days
3 Days in Budapest
Austria – 5 days
3 Days in Vienna
2 Days in Salzburg
Switzerland – 10 Days (Really like to stay in the Alps and interested in Montreux)
2 Days in Zurich
2 Days in Lucerne
2 Days in Wengen
1 Day in Montreux
1 Days in Berne
2 Days in Basel
France – 14 days
4 Days in Paris (Day trip to Versaille?)
3 Days in Nantes
3 Days in Bordeaux
2 Days in Marseille
2 Days in Nice
Italy – 14 days
2 Days in Milan
2 Days in Verona
3 Days in Venice
3 Days in Florence
4 Days in Rome

I have a friend wishing to travel with me through Switzerland, France and Italy and the locations are a mix of where we'd both like to go. Any suggestions of overall of day Trips, simplifying bases without missing things changes to time spent (reducing it a little if possible) and locations that can be done as day trips would be much appreciated. Ill only be 21 so countries with only a 3-5 allowance I'd like to experience enough to have good memories and to gauge whether I'd like to return eventually to see more thoroughly.

THANKS FOR YOUR HELP!
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Old Jul 1st, 2013, 06:24 AM
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I hate you.
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Old Jul 1st, 2013, 06:31 AM
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You don't seem to be allowing for travel days. 2 days in Belgium - with or without travel from the UK, ditto three day in the Netherlands - with or without travel from Belgium and to Germany, and so on. You will lose the best part of a day every time you move on to a new country, and lose time moving to new cities.
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Old Jul 1st, 2013, 07:22 AM
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I am only stopping in Belgium as there is a change over in trains from the UK to amsterdam. Ive been looking at overnight trains and early morning trains as I am used to working shift work so am accustomed to waking up at 2:30am etc but if you could give me a little more information that would be great
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Old Jul 1st, 2013, 07:43 AM
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For example Brugge to Amsterdam leaving at 6:08am arriving at 9:40am with no time difference. Same as Amsterdam to Cologne
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Old Jul 1st, 2013, 07:52 AM
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I agree that you don't seem to have allowed for travel time. And your choices of French venues are a bit weird, other than Paris, though every place in France has merit. Why 3 days in Bordeaux?
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Old Jul 1st, 2013, 07:56 AM
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Dump Brussels, Frankfurt and Berne.

Your French cities; I'd suggest going to smaller ones that are far nicer so
Days in Nantes
3 Days in Bordeaux
2 Days in Marseille
2 Days in Nice

could be based on wine districts, so Beaune, Strasbourg, Reims so much nicer.

Any extra time you win use to go to a nice German town/city so maybe Ulm, Trier or Wurzburg (Cologne, can't even get a decent sized beer there).
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Old Jul 1st, 2013, 07:57 AM
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My friend that is coming to France would like to visit there because there is some wine spa, I have based my choices of french stays based upon where people I know have been and reading seems to give pros and cons for just about everywhere - how would you spend your 14 days?
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Old Jul 1st, 2013, 08:00 AM
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It may help if I said Im much more interested in food, wine, culture rather than partying bar hopping. Im planning this trip for the second half of next year so this is just a basic outline so far so any suggestions helps is appreciated.
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Old Jul 1st, 2013, 08:05 AM
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Oh, Les Sources de Caudalie. Hope you have big bucks. And it's not IN Bordeaux. In fact, you could visit the same wine spa right in Paris, at the Meurice Hotel, and save the trip to the Bordeaux area. Nantes is great,if you're going for the history, but most people don't even know much. I agree that Beaune or Dijon and Strasbourg and maybe Lyon and Avignon/Arles and Nice would be better choices, but really, it's not as though many places in France will be disappointing. If you have reasons for going, go.
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Old Jul 1st, 2013, 08:08 AM
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I'd just like to soak in as much culture and history as I can in two weeks while making my way over to italy.
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Old Jul 1st, 2013, 08:12 AM
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Even though my timeline is basic are the times I suppose reasonable for the amount of time I have?
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Old Jul 1st, 2013, 08:19 AM
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http://www.fodors.com/world/europe/i...-of-france-57/ - perhaps something more like this for France
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Old Jul 10th, 2013, 03:05 AM
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Wow, a huge plan. Some quick thoughts:

Germany: Cut Frankfurt, do Würzburg or Trier for a day instead if you have the option, split Cologne into Aachen-Cologne-Düsseldorf a day each. That particular order coming from Belgium and the other way round coming from Amsterdam. Aachen for a bit of history and nice scenery, Cologne is really not worth much more than a day and so is Düsseldorf. If you're not much into local foods and local culture, you could as well consider dropping those locations.

Poland: In case you won't be flying from Berlin to Warsaw, stay a day in Wroclaw or Poznan instead of spending three days in Warsaw. Also, two days in Warsaw should do the trick for the city center and its most important cultural stuff. Four days in Krakow? Are you plannig to visit someplace close? If not, three is definately enough. That way you'll have an additional day for Prague, which I highly recommend.

Switzerland: I'd drop a location or two, as travelling will consume a lot of your day, as others mentioned before. Two days of Zürich and Basel each seem to offer potential to cut. Personally I liked Bern a lot but again, I'd rather spend more time visiting one place than having to deal with check-ins/outs and all the travelling.

Italy: Milan for a particular reason?

Consider every trip to another city as only half a day for visiting other stuff. If I were you, I'd setup and excel file and try to find connections first to really find out on how things look like in practice. I think that way you'll have a much better grasp of how to continue with your itinerary.
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Old Jul 10th, 2013, 03:32 AM
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Assume you are going by train and if going to even half those places by train then look into various Youth Eurailpasses (for folks under 26) and then you can hop on any train anytime in most countries - complete flexibility - to help plan the rail part of your trip check out these superb sites - www.budgeteuropetrvel.com; www.seat61.com and www.ricksteves.com.

You may want to hop overnight trains at times and save on the cost of a hotel and cover large distances while sleeping - many folks your age are traveling by train - good place to meet others.
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Old Jul 10th, 2013, 12:47 PM
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You may find that a Swiss Pass is better for Switzerland than using a Eurail simply because a Swiss Pass covers so so much more - like trains in the Jungfrau Region, 100% up to Wengen, Lauterbrunne, Grindelwald or Murren then 50% on aerial gondolas - Eurailpasses give at most 25% off and only to Lauterbrunnen and Grindelwald though not sure to Wengen.

An 8-consecutive-day pass is a great deal as you seem to be on the move many days - per day cost is cheapest.
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Old Jul 10th, 2013, 01:05 PM
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Wow... quite a trip! You have a lot of great places planned, but I would encourage you to consider whether you really want to moving every couple of days. You will be traveling, checking in and out of hotels, and getting your bearings in a new city just about every other day. Personally, I would prefer to stay longer in each location to get to know it a little bit before moving on. Sometimes less is more.

For example, for your 10 days in Switzerland, you mention you really want to see Wengen and Montreux. So just do five days each in those two places then. For the 14 days each in France and Italy, I'd opt for 3 locations max in each country. With a trip of this length, my concern would be that moving hotels so much would get old pretty fast, and also your memories of each location will all start bleeding into each other, so that you are left with very few specific impressions of each off these wonderful places.

Also, sounds like you are you'd and probably on a tight budget. You might find the Lonely Planet Thorntree forum another helpful resource, as there are many backpackers on that site.
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Old Jul 10th, 2013, 02:01 PM
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"Sounds like you are young." Darn autocorrect.
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Old Jul 11th, 2013, 01:40 PM
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any young traveler on a budget will greatly benefit from having a copy of Let's Go Europe along - a wealth of info foremost of which is the unparalleled coverage of hostels and youth hotels and budget digs of all sorts. Harvard Student Agencies - at any of the new major bookstores left or at your library's used book sales - tear out the pages for places you are really going.
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Old Mar 19th, 2014, 03:30 AM
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18 days (with friends in Derbyshire, England)
21 days in Germany
3 days in Krakow ( not very long but I had a very specific list of things I wanted to see)
6 days in Czech Republic (5 in Prague 1 in Czesky Krumlov)
10 days in Austria
10 days in Switzerland
21 days in France
19 days in Italy

This is how I have ended up dividing my time it may be a little rushed for some but I think it's and improvement and I'm happy with it. I have spent the last twelve months though carefully considering why I wanted to go to places and what I wanted to accomplish while there. Thanks for all the advice
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