We are newlyweds and this will be my husband's first time in Europe! We wanted to start in Barcelona and end in Paris. We have 10 full days (2 travel days) and will be going the end of May. What would be a good itinerary?

Congratulations! Where you go will all depend on what you are interested in doing and seeing on your honeymoon.

Does the 8 days include your time in Barcelona? If so, that would typically leave you 4 to 5 days to explore. If you are interested in wine, then you can head to the Rioja and then up to San Sebastian-Donostia on the Basque coast. From there you can take the train to Paris.

Another option would be to visit the Dordogne region of France before ending up in Paris.

Hi L,

>We have 10 full days

An excellent amount of time to visit Paris.

>... this will be my husband's first time in Europe!<

I usually recommend that first-timers fly into London and out of Paris - split the time equally.

>We wanted to start in Barcelona and end in Paris.

Fly into Barcelona - 4 days and then fly to Paris. Keep in mind that travelling between cities is going to take up most of a day.

I can very highly recommend the Columbus room at http://www.marinaviewbcn.com/ in Barcelona for a honeymoon stay.

What's your budget?

I think 10 days is perfect for just those two cities alone. Its depends how you like to travel, of course, but I think splitting it evenly would work great. We visited Barcelona for 6 days last year and I felt like it allowed us to really relax and explore, rather than rush from site to site in a mad rush to see everything. Same experience with Paris.

Why do you need any time "in between"? Do each for 1/2 the nights and take day trips as you wish. There's more than enough to see and do in both Barcelona and Paris to fill up the 4-5 nights in each place.

Thanks! We went to South Africa on our honeymoon. It was amazing and will be hard to top. We are an active couple and I thought we could do 3 nights in Barcelona and 4 nights in Paris. That leaves 3 nights for somewhere else...maybe the Costa Brava? Or fly from Barcelona to Nice, spend a night in Monaco and a night in Cannes on the way to Paris via train? Is that too ambitious? We do not have a strict budget but we do not want to spend as much as we did in Africa.

I personally think its stretching it. Like one of the above posters said, there is definitely plenty to do in Barcelona and Paris to more than fill up 8 days. Nice is gorgeous though!!

I agree - 10 nights is not alot for Barcelona and Paris. In the off chance that you get bored there are plenty of daytrip possibilities to keep you occupied. You'll spend a good 1/2 day traveling between Paris and Barcelona (assuming you fly) by time you get to the airport, wait for luggage, get to hotel and pack/unpack. So 4 nights in Barcelona is really just 3.5 days at most. Then you need to consider jetlag your first day. For my honeymoon I'd err on the side of having too long in a base cities w/options to do more daytrips versus rushing around and not being able to enjoy as much.

Thanks to everyone for your responses. I'll keep you posted on what we decide

Found this thread on a search....

My wife and I are planning a 25th anniversary trip this May/June and are thinking of a Barcelona / Paris trip with some time spent in Normandy.

We have a total of 14 to 18 nights and are looking for some places to spend between these two cities. We're open to flying between them or a train, and I actually would consider driving. I've driven all over Tuscany if that matters, never been to France or Spain.

We're open to most anything, my wife is real interested in castles.

Lodging tips appreciated too.

Thanks for any help.

YMark,

This might assist you in some of your driving decisions. It appears to be roughly 650 miles from Paris to Barcelona.

http://www.viamichelin.co.uk/web/Routes

Specifically,

http://www.viamichelin.co.uk/web/Rou...AvoidLNR=false