mamcalice

In my opinion, Toledo and Andalucia are must sees. But since you are not going to Madrid, I would be tempted to skip Toledo and add a day to Andalucia and a day to Rome. Your Italy portion is pretty hectic.

dulciusexasperis

Every time you move you lose most of a day. When you write 2 days here and then 2 days there, it is not 2 days in either unless you put a travel day in between. Even when the distance travelled between places is only a couple of hours by train, you have to consider, checking-out, have breakfast, go to the station, wait for the train, take the train, find your way to your next bed, check-in, go for a meal, find an ATM, etc. Most of a day is gone before you even start to look around.

To spend 2 full days in any place you must spend 3 nights there. That allows for travel between places.

So, day 1 and 2 in X, day 3 travel to Y, day 4 and 5 in Y. You are not allowing those days in between. You can't just say we've allowed 5 travel days. Your arrival day is one day lost, your departure day another. That would leave you with 3 days of moving in your entire trip.

With 4 weeks I would not plan to visit more than SEVEN places. That allows for 3 days in each plus arrival/departure and moving in between.

When you write '2 days', that actually means no more than 1.5 days IN the place seeing/doing things. I see no sense in spending less than 3 full days in any place. Doing so just means you are wasting time moving more often.

Moving also costs on average double what staying in a place for a day costs. So the more you move, not only the less you will see/do but the more it will cost.

Plan a route that is either one way or a circle. Venice is not the easiest or cheapest place to fly into. I would fly into Paris and out of Madrid or into Paris and out of Rome. I would not include France, Italy and Spain in the one trip. I would choose France and Spain or France and Italy. That makes it much easier and wastes less time moving.

A route from France through Switzerland to Italy for example is a pretty straightforward route to plan. The same from Paris to Madrid. Make 5 or less stops along the way and that is your 4 weeks gone. For example, Paris-Montreux-Florence-Venice-Rome. That's doable in 4 weeks.

NO ONE can see all they want to see in Europe in one trip unless they have years available. Yet people continually try to fit a list of places into a defined period of time. 'Oh, I can't spend 3 days there or I won't have time to get to X'.

That is the wrong approach. First fix the number of places. In your case a maximum of 7. Then pick a place based on priority. If Paris is your priority for example then pick that first and decide how long you want to spend there. No less than 4 nights. Continue down your priority list deciding how many nights in each (no less than 4) until your time available is gone. You'll probably run out after listing 5 or 6 places.

isabel

Start in Venice - two nights is enough to get a taste, especially if your arrival is early on the first day. You may be jet lagged but wandering Venice is a good thing to do in that situation.

Train to Florence (2 hours) - spend three days. Try to get an early morning train then you essentially still have the whole three days.

Train to Cinque Terre (3 hours) - this is really your only coastal destination so I would not eliminate it. There are no major 'sites' but it's gorgeous, you can do as little or as much hiking as you want, there are other towns in the area - Rapallo, Portovenere, Portofino, etc. Spend 3 nights, this gives you 2 1/2 days.

Train to Rome (3 hours). Spend 3 or 4 nights.

That's 10 days for Italy and seeing four of the major areas. Rushed but not crazy and a good intro to the country.

Fly to Paris. Spend 7 nights and do the day trips.

Fly to Barcelona. Spend 4 or 5 nights.

Train to Granada - 2 or 3 nights,
Train or bus to Sevilla - 3 or 4 nights
Train to Madrid (can stop in Cordoba en route for a few hours) Spend 4 or 5 nights, with a day trip to Toledo (and also one to Segovia).

Fly home from Madrid.

This is a fairly rushed trip but it does cover some of the highlights of each country. On no day do you have really horrible travel, the minimums in each place are enough to not be frustrated. Most likely you will want to come back to all these destinations. But you gotta start somewhere and many people would rather do a sampling of three countries rather than an in depth of one.