Heididennisse

Hello all! I'm planning a trip of about 4 weeks next summer 2013. I would like to visit Spain,France, Greece and Italy. I need all the help that I could get . Where should I fly first and how long should I stay in each country? Places to visit, suggested months to travel and modes of transportation between countries. Any tips would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Aduchamp1

Well a car is out.

While a month seems a like a long time to see four countries it is easy to spend a week just in Paris, Rome, and Madrid.

I would choose to two countries and see them well and remember how much time you will lose just traveling from place to place.

isabel

I also think two countries for two weeks each if you've never been. But I also think three is quite doable if really want, but four is pushing it.

I'd fly first to Athens and at least you are from NYC so it's easy to do. It's the furthest and get the longest flight over with. Spend a couple of days in Athens, and then depending on your interests I'd do a few days in the Peloponnese. You could rent a car for that. Napflion is wonderful, and I loved Dephi. Then ferry to one or two islands depending on how many days you are giving to Greece. Paros, Naxos and Santorini are on the same ferry route. Santorini is in my opinion a life time must see. I'd probably say that since you want to see two more countries that you could keep Greece to ten days and still have a wonderful visit (I'd do two of those three islands in that case).

EasyJet flies from Santorini to Rome and Milan so I'd do that next. Italy you have to narrow down what you want to see, you could easily spend the rest of the trip there (you could easily spend the entire trip there). If you are going to also do France I'd give each of them about ten days. Give more information on what you want - do you want to rent a car or would you rather take trains (very easy in Italy). Do you like cities or small towns. One of my favorite places in Italy is the Amalfi Coast but since you will have just been in Greece I'd probably skip it for this trip. Since you'd be landing in Rome you'd want at least three days there, then pick two other places (perhaps with day trips) such as Venice, Florence, the Lakes, etc. France is also huge so you have to narrow down what parts. But flying home from Paris is the obvious last step and you need at least three days there.

If you click on my name and scroll back there are trip reports for all these countries and links to my photos of them.

ira

Hi H,

>Any tips would be greatly appreciated.<

Now is a good time to get some guide books out of the library and do some research on the internet.

After you have a draft itinerary, come back and we will help you improve it.

mamcalice

You have chosen 4 wonderful countries but the dilemma is that if you visit all 4, you will miss a lot in each. I would limit your visit to 2 - my choice - if you haven't been - would be Italy and France but all are fabulous.

Good idea to fly to the furthest point, say Rome and start from there. Visit the Amalfi coast, then Rome, Florence, Tuscany and Venice. Take two weeks or more. Then fly to Nice and visit Provence. Finally, end in Paris. I would leave 5 days for Paris at a minimum.

That is a packed trip and you may want to see other things but I think you can see that there is so much to cover.

Good luck with your plans. The summer will be hot in Southern Europe so travel as early as you can.

aguamineral

I think it is a fabulous idea to go to 4 European countries over 4 weeks, and you have chosen well. For reasons of history, I would go first to Greece, then to Italy, then to Spain and finally to France.

In Greece, I would be sure to visit Athens, and then your choice as to whether you would rather see the Peloponnese or visit an island.

For Italy, following Greece, I would visit Naples and Rome.

From Rome, I would probably fly to Barcelona, but very shortly thereafter head out to Granada, Cordoba and then to Madrid, including a day trip to Toledo. If you do not much care for museums of painting, you can limit your time in Madrid.

I'm such a foodie I would probably try to squeeze in San Sebastian on my way to Paris, but that might not be for you. Anyway, I would spend the remainder of my time in Europe in Paris.

If I spend a month in Europe visiting 4 countries, I would put the emphasis on understanding the development of Europe in terms of Western civilisation (and the founding of America), not "picturesque" and shopping and "woo-hoo I'm traveling!" Others have different styles.

BigRuss

If you have any interests, you may wish to state them or else you will end up with a pretentious construction of your itinerary ("I want to teach you about Western Civilization") that may be irrelevant to your wants and needs.

You can't "see" Italy, Spain or France in a week so tailoring your trip with your interests is necessary.

Aramis

Well, unless you have a specific reason to visit one of your choices for a longer period than another, this looks like 1 week for each. Doing some research through guidebooks, as suggested, may lead you decide that you want to focus more on one or two places for a longer period of time, or even change your plans.

Of course you can't "see" (whatever that means - you did say visit not see) 4 countries in detail in 4 weeks, but that doesn't matter. Ignore anyone who tries to lecture you on your failure to appreciate any particular place for the length of time they think it deserves much as they think you should. When they pay for your trip, they can decide where you go and for how long.

When you say "summer" what months do you mean, exactly. Greece, southern Italy and Spain can be excruciatingly hot in July and particularly August. Can you handle 100 degree plus temperatures for days, and possibly weeks, on end? June and September would be better based on that alone, and May and October even better.

Greece, Italy, Spain, and then France makes a good ordering for historic reasons, as well as logistically. SE - NW, with a slight jog even farther west for Spain.

If you want these four countries you have some tough decisions to make about which areas you really want to see because most of them have 4-5 very distinct (I know, I know DOZENS of distinct regions cry out each country lover/expert). That is where the guide books and some work on your part come in handy. If you don't narrow this down for us somewhat you will get (in addition to the chastising already observed for the audaciousness of your "too-short" visits planned) a dozen different people telling you you cannot miss a dozen different places in each country. How is that going to help more than a guidebook when you don't know what their interests are and if they are your interests? (A great many people in here think that their interests are, or should be, everyone elses interests, too - hence the chastising).

Good luck.

220volt

I agree with the above post. You obviously already know you are not going to "see" 4 countries in a month. You will see what you see -- and it will be amazing! There is nothing "pretentious" about traveling to learn, but if you want to travel for relaxation, for music, for socializing, to collect hotel room keys -- that's up to you.

But you may not know what your interests are exactly, and organizing your trip to further your understanding of the roots of your own culture is not "pretentious," so don't fall for that anti-intellectual attitude.

RonZ

"Good idea to fly to the furthest point, say Rome and start from there. Visit the Amalfi coast, then Rome, Florence, Tuscany and Venice. Take two weeks or more. Then fly to Nice and visit Provence. Finally, end in Paris. I would leave 5 days for Paris at a minimum."

Or Paris first, train to Nice. Overnight train to Venice, trains from there.

Schedules here:

http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en?

220volt

""Good idea to fly to the furthest point, say Rome and start from there."

But Heidi wants to go to Greece. If she is coming from America, the furthest point for beginning the trip is Greece, not Rome -- and Paris is even less far.

He-lllllll- ooooooooooh. Time to look at a map of Europe before giving itinerary advice.

mamcalice

Anything else to contribute 220volt? If you carefully read my message, you will see that I suggest she cut back on her trip a bit and not go to Greece, thus making Rome the farthest point. If she decides to go to Greece, Athens would be the farthest point as you so sagely observe.

hollywoodsc

I spent 5 days in Rome and it wasn't nearly enough.
I did a trip like you're suggesting when I was 20 - 3 months across Europe. I barely remember much except the heat, and what the seat on the bus felt like.

Get some books from the library, get a map of Europe.
You're going to lose days traveling to and from Europe and between countries. 2 days flying, 3 days between countries. You've already lost 5 days, more if you do multiple cities in each country - that leaves you around 3 weeks to do 4 countries.
You could use all 3 of those weeks in Italy alone!

Once you've narrowed your list to: budget, cities, interests, dates, you'll get much better help.