Comment on 4 week itinerary please
 

Hi, any comments on this itinerary for a 30 day backpacking vacation in the fall?<BR>3 days - Portugal (Lisbon and Belem)<BR>4 days - Spain (Madrid and Barcelona)<BR>3 days - Switzerland (Gimmewald)<BR>7 days - Italy (Florence, Rome, Naples, Pompeii, Venice)<BR>2 days - Austria (Salzburg)<BR>11 days - Germany (Munich, Neuschwanstein, Frankfurt, northern Germany visiting friends)<BR>P.S. We are young, healthy and active.

Three messages, and thefirst two might seem a little bit contradictory:<BR><BR>1. Hope you work in enough "rural" with all the cities. I realize that you probably can/will in Germany (and maybe Switzerland). Just want to emphasize that this is as important as the "city" half of Europe.<BR><BR>2. At the risk of talking you out of your jaunt into Gimmelwald - - this is a lot of travel to get from Barcelona to to Gimmelwald to Florence with only three days - - unless you have your own personal private jet hovercraft. Take it out altogether and substitute somewhere in the south of France or Lombardy.<BR><BR>3. Seven days to see the five major destinations you have listed for Italy (even though Naples/Pompeii might be counted as one) means your trip "through" Italy will be nothing but a blur. Consider dropping at least one (maybe Rome - - you're young, it's eternal, it will still be there for a nother trip) - - and maybe Florence or Naples/Pompeii also. There are a ton of neat LITTLE destinations in the vicinity of Venice - - Verona, Sirmione, up into the Dolomites, so much more.<BR><BR>You're covering a huge itinerary, but I think you'll have a great smorgasbord. I would tell you to re-think the first seven days, but you'll have your maxium eneergy at the beginning, and I'm hoping you'll stop and smell the roses a little bit in the second and fourth weeks.<BR><BR>Best wishes,<BR><BR>Rex<BR>

up. any more opinions?<BR>

Thanks for your thoughts Rex.

My suggestion is to take advantage of the fact that you are young, healthy, active, backpacking, and travelling in the fall to consider your itinerary to be very flexible. Agree on what your absolute priorities are and then see what you feel like doing/seeing as you go along. I really really really loved travelling that way when I was young, healthy, active, backpacking, and travelling long enough in one stretch that I could do that. Now, for a variety of reasons, I have to have things more planned out. While you certainly need some idea of what you want to see and what your options are, there's a real joy in being able to decide what you want to do as you go along.<BR>

<BR>7 days - Italy (Florence, Rome, Naples, Pompeii, Venice)<BR><BR><BR>There's no WAY you can see all these places in 7 days. Suggest you eliminate at least Naples and Pompei, (depending on your preferences). Even then, you are RUSHING through major cities of Europe, with one or two days at most. Even with three left, including travel time you've got barely time to skim the surface. That's too bad. Personally, I'd skim some time off the Austria/Germany part of the trip and add it on to the Italy part of the trip. <BR>

Any other thoughts?

TOO MUCH. You are not going to see anything, it will all be a blur. Do you want to enjoy Europe or just say 'oh, i've been there'? What about travel time between destinations? Check in and check out? Opening and closing times of sites? Public transportation schedules? Skip Portugal and add 1 day on to Madrid and 2 days on to Barcelona. In Italy you need to skip Naples and Pompeii. Too far out of the way. Do 2 in Florence, 3 in Rome and 2 in Venice. Even that is going to be wicked. If you MUST go to Pompeii, add one more day onto Rome and do a day trip - train to Naples 3 hrs, bus to Pompeii 1 hr, 3 hrs Pompeii tour, and evening train home. You could also get by with 1 day in Salzburg. Very small and not much to see.

Trust me--I have done all of these and you will kill yourself doing all of this in a month. I see this trip starting in Barcelona. You seem to be on a Rick Steves kick, but he did not hit all of the good places. Do not miss the Dolomites after Venice. You also need more time in CH--probably Ticino.<BR>Too much travel time--forget Lisbon and Madrid--that is next year.