baroroy

Hi everyone -

I am pretty new here and was hoping to get some insights from experts. I have read a lot that what I am planning to do is not really recommended but since this would be the only time I would able to travel to Europe I might as well give it a shot.

I am planning to on a trip to the following places in 23 days (August 21-September 13):
Prague-Venice-Florence-Rome-Seville-Barcelona-Paris
The primary goal of the trip is to watch our national team play at the FIBA world cup on September 3-4 (Seville) and then in Barcelona on September 6-8.

Questions:
1. I plan to distribute the days as follows:
Prague (3 days)
Venice (2 days)
Florence (3 days)
Rome (4 days)
Seville (3 days)
Barcelona (4 days)
Paris (4 days)
thoughts?

2. What would be the best means of transit for each leg of the trip?
Below is what I was thinking of:
Prague-Venice (Train)
Venice-Florence (Train)
Florence-Rome (Train)
Rome-Seville (Plane)
Seville-Barcelona (Train)
Barcelona-Paris (Train)
--- I have no problems sleeping in sleeper trains, so train is preferred

3. Any suggestions if I should change anything?

Again, I am more of a person who would just like to see things and not really deep dive into everything. Appreciate your thoughts.

Thanks everyone.

Roy

Aramis

Prague to Venice is a 12 hour plus slog with no night train that doesn't include the slog. It would be better to fly this route. You may get cheaper fares into Florence or Even Rome from Prague and your time in Italy affords you the most flexibility to juggle things and days so consider that.

The rest of your proposed modes of transport make sense. It may be possible to get a flight from Seville to Barcelona that rivals the train fare, but the train is excellent and takes only 5-5 1/2 hours. Barcelona to Paris now has a fast train but, again, there may be a flight that rivals the fare and time involved, making up for the convenience of going centre to centre via trains.

adrienne

My first question is how do you know that this is the only time you would be able to travel to Europe.

Your distribution of time in each city looks ok if travel time between cities is in addition to the time you've listed. For example, you have 4 days in Paris. Is that really 4 days or does part of the 4 days include getting there from Barcelona?

Three of your four days in Barcelona are devoted to sport, leaving only one day for sightseeing. Perhaps you want more time in Barcelona. The same for Seville.

<< I am more of a person who would just like to see things and not really deep dive into everything >>

I have no idea what this means. Do you mean that you don't want to sightsee but only walk around and look at things from the outside? That you do want to sightsee but don't need to spend enormous amounts of time at each venue? To me, dive deep into something means you'll be getting a master's degree in the subject.

baroroy

@Aramis - thanks for the suggestions. I'll try to check out plane fares to get an idea to compare.

@Adrienne - Planning to start a family. Highly likely that I'll be spending money on that rather than travelling. So I'm treating this as a once in a lifetime opportunity.
Sorry if I didn't explain properly, I don't need to see every little thing and check and every detail. Just seeing the major spots is fine with me.

Bamaman

I try to travel into regions of Europe with cities that are relatively close to each other.
Two of your cities are out of the way.


Fly into Prague (3 days)
Fly to Rome FCO on EasyJet.com (4 days)
Fast train to Florence (3 days)
Fast train to Venice (2 days)
Fly to Barcelona on Vueling Airlines (4 days)
Take the new fast train to Paris (4 days)
Skip going to Seville, which would require a round trip from and to Barcelona on Vueling.

Just remember to pack light.

suze

But Seville and Barcelona are his most important places (according to the OP).

I'd skip Prague and Paris.

Gretchen

Hey Bama, as is pointed out, Seville is a given. I'd skip Rome.
Or I'd skip Prague. Fly into Rome and out of Paris. Reverse the Italian portion, and realign days.
I can NEVER skip Paris, of course.
Prague is the outlier.

Jean

Interesting to me that your one-and-only-in-this-lifetime trip to Europe is dictated by the FIBA world cup schedule. And without knowing if your team will make it to Barcelona! Oh well, to each his/her own.

You'll lose at least a half day moving from one city to the next.

I would skip Prague to simplify the logistics somewhat.

Gretchen

C'mon Jean. Give him a break. What would you suggest. He's planning a trip around it.

suze

My favorites on the list are Paris and Venice, but as the itinerary is proposed it makes no sense. So something's got to go!

Aramis

>>>Interesting to me that your one-and-only-in-this-lifetime trip to Europe is dictated by >>>the FIBA world cup schedule. And without knowing if your team will make it to Barcelona! >>>Oh well, to each his/her own.

If only you had kept this pompous drivel "your own"

Jean

Aramis, that's never stopped you...

uhoh_busted

I've been to all these places, oops, except for Seville. I think you can drop Prague and just add those days to Barcelona. THAT is one fantastic city. It adds a lot to a trip to be able to hit memorable sporting events. Your first priority will be to obtain tickets to those games....although even if you can only get to one, know that you will be able to find somewhere very cool and fun to watch the other.

THEN plan the rest of your schedule.

Aramis

Excellent justification of your post, Jean

nytraveler

The problem is that you say you have 23 days and you have listed 23 days in varioua cities.

Two questions:

Does the 23 days include the day you arrive and the day you depart?

Do you have some sort of Star Trek transporter device that will get you from one place to another in 10 seconds? Assuming not you need to allow the best part of 6 days getting from one place to another - so you actually have only 17 days in cities (or 15 if you have counted arrival and departure).

IMHO you should cut back at least one place and preferably two. I would kill Spain in August since the weather is hellish (110 is common in Seville) but you seem to have specific reason to be there. So I would drop either Italy or at least Prague which, much as I love it, is an outlier.

adrienne

Sorry to hear that your family is never going to grow up and leave home, allowing you to return to Europe.

I would give Florence a day between Venice and Rome (you can leave your bag in the train station). There aren't many major things to see in Florence unless you're interested in churches, sculpture, and frescoes but it sounds as though you're not. Add the time to Barcelona (because of all the world cup time), Rome, and/or Paris where there are lots of major sights.

Trains are fine except the Prague to Venice run - flying would be better.

tailsock

sounds busy. drop (dare i say it?) Paris and probably Prague which would give you logistical problems from a "spending too much time traveling between A and B" standpoint. You'll see more of train stations and airports than the cities themselves. good luck though

greg

There exists a difference in value proposition involving time between you and the people who have traveled and can continue to travel frequently. I know many people whose dreams of traveling together with spouses never materialized due to fatal events. I also know many others whose wanted to travel more, but cut short after the first trip due to fatal events. Many, however, manage to travel multiple times to Europe. However, no one knows which bucket one would fall into. I think the prudent thing is to take steps in such a way that even if one falls into more unfortunate bucket, one does not have to regret not having taken available steps. Here is a video you might have seen that on whether one goes ahead with his intuition or not. The key message starts at time stamp 12:16. www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1R-jKKp3NA.

The difficulty with your itinerary is that you are trying to connect four regions quite far away by ground transport. Barcelona-Paris got easier with TGV, but it is still a long trip. What you can do is to examine not only the flight time, but also how well it integrates or how much it impact other agenda. A short trip is not necessarily desirable over long trip if the short trip takes place at a premium time during the day. For example, if the short trip take place 2pm-4pm, while the long trip takes place 7am-11am, the short trip pretty much kills the time you can visit museums or palaces while the longer trip actually allows to visit more places and actually have a full lunch.

If you compromise, I would suggest looking at the issue in a way relevant to your situation. If you have to drop destinations, think not only the present, but also the future. If you come back later, which one would pair with what you left off given the environment at that time? If you travel with your family, which one can be done easily with family and which should be done now without children?