In June my grown daughter and I plan a 3 week tour, by rail, starting with London-2 days, Amsterdam-2 days,Bruges-1 day, Paris-3 days,Nice and Monaco-2 days, Genoa-1 day, Cinque Terre-2 days, with excursions to Pisa, Rome-2 days, Naples and Amalfi Coast-2 days, and then up to Florence, Venice, Verona and the last day or so in Milan - I know, I know, sounds like a lot, but I think it's do-able. I have booked most of our hotels and b&bs along the way and am just looking for other's ideas on must see and do bits while in this cities for such a short time. We have done Naples, Sorrento, the Amalfi Coast and Rome several years ago, so we may not need so much advise in those areas, just all the rest! Has anyone ever traveled so extensively by rail in Europe and did the Eurail pass purchased in the US before leaving really pay off? Thanking all in advance - Ciao

I have to be honest...I think you'll be spending most of your time packing, unpacking and checking in and out of hotels. I'd rather spend my time seeing the sights! I prefer to stay in just a couple of places and then do day trips.

margy

You will be spending an awful lot of time on trains to do what you propose. If it's already booked, I'm not sure what to contribute. It seems a break-neck pace to me. Have you already bought the plane tickets? Into London and out of Milan?

Since you will be traveling by train, have you even considered the time that it will take just to GET to each destination from the previous one? This sounds more like a marathon than a vacation.

Hello Leslie, I would really rethink this intinerary. As others have said a good deal of your time will be spent in trains. A few years ago some family members did a similar trip also by train. They came home almost ill as they were so tired and quite frankly I think their time in Europe was nothing but a big blur for them. But if you have travelled like this before, and have you, than you know what you are doing. But if you haven't I would really give it a second thought. Not to be negative but I wouldn't take this trip if it was free. I just could't handle all of the checking in and out of hotels, all of the train rides, no time to relax and just enjoy where I was. But that is just me.

You can figure the value (or not) of purchasing a rail pass of some sort on the various websites. You need to compare point-to-point prices against the pass cost to know for sure which is better.

Frankly, your itinerary sounds like you're just going to see things, which could be done cheaper and much more relaxing if you looked at a picture book. To VISIT, you will need to scale back.

Cinque Terre is a 2 day visit alone, without going to Pisa. What are you doing in London that you only need two days? I mean, if you're going for to see a show and that's it, fine. Otherwise...And if it's your first stop, the first day will be nearly wasted with jet lag.

I could go on, but I'm dizzy just thinking about it.

You have come to the wrong forum if you think people won't try to talk you out of this. It's an exhausting marathon. You will lose AT LEAST 1/2 day every time you move. All you're going to remember is the train. Please reconsider!

yes, it is do-able...but do you want to actually enjoy it, don't you ? Well..you won't be able to do that in such a hurry. Don't forget to take a lot of photographs to remind you where you have been when back at home !!

Is this about ticking off a list? Because that's all you'll be doing, since your schedule includes travel time. Enjoy the trains. There won't be much time to see more than trains, train stations, taxis and hotel desks, perhaps a restaurant now and then. No, I would not want to join this trip either, even if it was for free.

Your itinerary puts The Amazing Race to shame.

I'm sorry to be blunt but this sounds ike th4e Bataan Death March to me. You have 16 DIFFERENT cities in 20 or 21 days. This is cose to madness.

Have you sat down and figured out how many hours (it won;t even be days) you actually have in each city?

Have you looked at the train schedules? And the cost?

IMHO you will be spending the bulk of your time either sitting on a train, in a train station, hauling your luggage to and fro hotels and checking in and out.

And it appears to me that you are counting many days twice - that is as a day to travel from one city to another AND as a day to tour that city. You simply can;t do both (unless you will tour at night instead of sleeping)..

And what if there is some sort of delay on one of the trains?

And what if there is a train strike (not at all unknown in some of those countries)? Do you just drop a city? Try to chance all your plans?

I really don;t see any time at all for seeing the sights - never mind experiencing a little bit of the local equivalent of La Dolce Vita.

I'm curious, OP, what did you plan to DO in each of these cities?

LeslieMomOf6 don't listen to the nay sayers!!! I am of the "Sleep when you are dead" school of thought . You are a mom of 6 and I'm sure you are used to a break neck pace. My only suggestion might be to consider renting a vehicle. My girlfriend and I did a 3 week road trip of Europe a few years ago. Parts of our itinerary were very similar to yours. Renting a vehicle just gives you a lot more flexiblity and can cut down on your travel time.

About your itinerary. I did not love Amsterdam, it is a dirty, nasty city. If sex, drugs & rock&roll still hold some appeal you might like it. Avoid the boat tours of the canals, they're nasty. That being said there are a couple of sites to see. I would definitely recommend the Anne Frank House. There is a great Van Gogh museum there (the name escapes me.) Even if you aren't a big art museum fan, I think the audio tour will make it enjoyable. You could easily do that in one day and still have time to walk around Amsterdam (it is a very interesting city.) I would use the other day to visit another area of the Netherlands. We visited Keukenhof Gardens in Holland. It was amazing. You will probably be too late for the tulips but it is worth checking into.

I would also suggest using Rick Steves guidebooks. We had great success with them.

Enjoy yourself and make sure you have time to rest when you return from your vacation!

Ohmygod, nay-sayers for sure - I asked for traveler's city sights advice, not such negative critisism, givemeabreak, please! Thanks NEHolmes for the only real advice I got, thanks for the encouragement and tips on Amsterdam, I appreciate it so much. Will consider renting the car, however, do you have to rent seperately in each country, and id not, would we have to return the car to point A? That might be difficult. As for the others out there, I hear you, but we will go and do and see however much we can in the tme we have - we are quite flexible in our travel plans so we can account for any late trains, train
strikes or any other major world catastrophes that might occur while we are abroad. We realize it is a hefty itinarary, but we will do as much as possible. And as NEHolmes says, I will sleep forever one day, so for now, I will choose to travel instead. But thank you to all who respond, and have no fear, I am hearing you!

Being a European, this schedule makes me sad. It is just hopping from one attraction to another. You will not able to catch the spirit of each place.

After your trip, you will be complaining about Europe: Food was not good, people not friendly, museums not interesting, attractions not spectacular...

This is the usual consequence of a schedule like this. I admit, there are many Europeans who do the same when visiting North America: A whole continent in three weeks. Afterwards they boast "we have seen everything", but they experienced nothing.

BTW, "it's Tuesday, so it must be Belgium".

I think the reason people haven't given advice about what to see in each city is because you won't have time to see anything. The people here have kindly tried to advise you of that, but you won't listen. You say you "choose to travel" (because someday you will sleep forever), but so do all of those who have tried to advise you. We choose to travel in a way that will allow us time to see, experience, and enjoy the places we visit.

You are choosing to just ride trains, and check in and out of hotels, I'm afraid. If that is travel. . . well, to each his own.

Have you looked into a train tour? Don't remember the official name. Sort of like the Orient Express. Because you have a cabin on the train, you just go from one location to the other. At certain cities you can stop and have the day to walk around.

You call it "negative criticism", we call it helpful input on your proposed itinerary.

We're not trying to be critical - merely to be helpful by pointing out the realities of what you're trying to do.

I'm not sure how you can account for delays or strikes - unless you just start cutting cities to catch up to the hotels you're reserved (and hope some sort of transit can get you to the next place).

Have you been to any of these places before - so have already seen major sights? Or do you plan on just seeing 1 or 2 sights in each city?