Advice please general Europe trip
 

We are first time travelers to Europe and would love some advice. We are planning to travel mid April/May/June, hoping to avoid too many crowds and not too cold weather. We are 70yrs & 54yrs old, my partner is relatively tall and broad so plan to travel by train, possibly first class where affordability allows, for the extra leg room & space. We are both fit. We are keen to visit the normal tourist attractions for first timers but also plan a day visit from Rome to Cassino War Cemetery where my partners father is buried.
I have mapped out an itinerary but not sure if I have planned it in the best/most economical order. I have looked up length of travel times etc and done comparisons, but would been open to your opinions please. Also length of time in each stop, if there are any that are just way too short.
Auckland-London (4nights)
London-Brussels-Brugge (3 nights)
Brugge-Brussels-Amsterdam (2nights)
Amsterdam-Bacharach (2nights)
Bacharach-Rothenberg (1 night)
Rothenbert-Berlin (3 nights)
Berlin-Vienna (3 nights)
Vienna-Venice (2 nights)
Venice-Florence (2 nights)
Florence-Rome (4 nights)
Rome-Clinque Terre (2 nights)
Clinque Terre-Gimmelweld (3 nights)
Gimmelweld-Paris (4 nights)
Paris-Edinburg (3 nights)
Edinburg-London (2nights)
London-Auckland
Thank you very much. I appreciate any feedback.

You're lucky that you have such a long time (around 40 days?) but at the same time, that's ALOT of moving around. On my last trip we stayed at 4 different hotels/B&Bs and that felt like too much. If I were you I'd try to find a base where you could stay from 5 to 7 nights and do daytrips from there.

Consider that 2 nights in a city nets you between 1 and 1.5 days. 3 nights = approx 2.5 days. A 1 night stay = 1/2 to 3/4 day. Then deduct day 1 which is generally a jet lagged fog.

Now recalibrate everything.

I can see you are trying to see everything in Europe in one trip because you live so far away. I don't think the number of nights you have in any city is too short in particular (although I think those days must include the travel time, don't they). SO it isn't the number of nights in a place that would bother me, it's just all of the traveling every few days to get to these places. I am very fit and in-between your ages and I would be exhausted in the middle of that trip, but that's just me, I just can't do that kind of running around. If you have done these kind of trips before and know you like to travel that way and have no trouble with it, go ahead, it sounds okay.

Of course anyone can say they like a place so much you must spend more time there, but to be honest, I've been satisfied with a couple days in some places that I liked okay but wasn't in love with. And I've been bored in some places when I was there four days. There isn't any place where you are definitely spending too much time IMO (although Bruges would be the closest to that, with 3 days there). You have chosen these times based on your own interests though, obviously, so it seems fine if you know you are not going to regret all that moving around all the time.

While keeping in mind that you are both fit and healthy, traveling becomes very tiring after a while. Somewhere in this plan I think you need at least a five night stay so that you can rest a bit. It's also nicer to settle into the pattern of a place and not be hurtling from one landmark to another.

I'm Australian and so I understand the desire to cram in everything you can after traveling so far to get to Europe, but your plan is going to involve lots of time on trains and not too much time in the places you want to see. Don't forget that you will lose a minimum of half a day each time you move from one place to another so your current plan means you will lose about 7 full days just moving from one place to another, it would be good to reduce that a bit.

I'd probably drop Scotland and add those days to Paris. Venice, Florence and Rome are also worthy of more time than you have planned. Good luck planning and I hope you have a great trip.

I think your trip is well planned out, but I agree it is a lot of moving around for a lot of weeks. It may not seem like too much while planning in the comfort of your own home, but once you hit the road, it can get tiresome with all the hopping on and off trains, lugging baggage, accessing and planning local transportation, moving in and out of hotels, and just the general disorientation of being in one strange city after another, back to back.

I am younger than you and love fast-paced itineraries, but you might want to consider cutting out one of the countries. I would probably skip Belgium, and add one day each to London (at the beginning), Amsterdam, and either Venice or Paris.However, only you know which country is most "expendable."

You could also cut out Scotland as suggested above, and do an open jaw ticket, i.e., fly into London, and home from Paris. You could then reallocate the extra 5 days accordingly. Or keep all of the countries and fly home from Scotland, which would give you 2 extra nights elsewhere. In any event, I don't see any advantage to backtracking to London.

Good luck to you, and have a wonderful trip!

Agree you have way too many short stops and will spend a very large part of your time finding and checking in and out of hotels, wandering through train stations and sitting on trains (when you will probably sleep a lot of the time). We make it a rule never to spend less than 3 night in any spot - and in first visits to major cities at least 5 nights. In 2 weeks we never do more than 4 different hotels - but expanding this to so many weeks can be very tiring.

I know at the end of longer trips when I go home what I want most is a meal served to me without having to look at a menu.

All the above posts are absolutely on target. I also think you're moving around too much.

You might be able to make your trip a little more relaxing if you book an open-jaw ticket; fly into London, work your way south to Rome and fly home from there. By doing that and eliminating, for example, Edinburgh, Cinque Terre and Gimmelwald, you can spend more time in The remaining locations. Start in London, visit Amsterdam and Belgium visit Paris, Continue to Germany, Austria and Italy. By doing this, you free approximately 8 nights which you can reallocate to major cities such as London, Paris and Rome.

I think you will find that less is more and you will still be enjoying your trip on day 39 as you did on day one.