111op is correct.

Even typing just www.fodors.com will appear "hot", without doing anything special.

Odd, isn't it? You'd think that it would be better to make all links active (as they do in MS software) or something.

They don't want all links to be active, only those Fodors can absolutely trust (on its own site). Use your imagination to think what a mischievous person might do with hotlinking powers.

That's a decent explanation, I suppose. I guess having to paste a link into a browser is a bit of a deterrent. But maybe Fodor's just doesn't want the implied liability or something.

(Sorry to have taken this thread off-track, as usual....)

I love your planned list of cities. Yes they are all "must sees". In fact with the exception of Athens, it's much like my itinerary for my first BIG trip to Europe and it was wonderful. There's only one major difference in my plan and yours. I spent 5 months doing it.
If your goal is to be able to check off places you've been rather than places you've seen or experienced, then yes what you say is possible. But your trip will be more about traveling from point to point that actually experiencing Europe. Listen to what everyone is telling you.

These days with cheap airfares between cities, it is possible to cover three of four more distant places and get more variety to your trip rather than sticking with one country, and I'd understand that. I think for a first trip it might be nice to see SOME of Austria, France, Italy, and Spain for example, but you need to focus on just one or two cities in each with your 20 day maximum. And frankly as a first timer, I think I'd appreciate that more than all 20 days in one country.

Thanx a ton for all the seasoned advice. We might just be cutting the destinations to half and take it from there. I guess 2 & 3 week packages are more stressed than they look on the travel brochures. I actually wonder who the biggest segment of customers are?

Cheers

Kiran

Hi Kiran,

>We might just be cutting the destinations to half and take it from there.<

Much better.

May I suggest that for a first visit covering 2 weeks that you do

London and Paris or
Rome and Paris or
Venice and Paris or
Florence and Paris or
Barcelona and Paris or
French Countryside and Paris or
Italian Countryside and Paris

When will you be going?

I think the reason the travel brochures can pack more into their itineraries without being "stressed" is the fact that they ARE group tours. It is a different beast, when you are planning and doing your own transportation, hotels, meals, touring, etc. than when you are simply getting on a large bus, and going when and where the tour director tells you.

You could use an itinerary from one of these packaged trips, and try to follow it, but I doubt you could do it quite as quickly as the tour company proposes on your own.

I just came back from a 2 week vacation in Europe, we did Paris, Locarno, and a bunch of cities in northern italy. My advice, is to do at least 2 nights in each location, take the eurail but no more than 3 or 4 hour train rides. Also, we didn't book any of our hotels and I'm SO glad, b/c we didn't consider things like the weather being bad and you don' twant to go to cinque terre w/bad weather! So it's nice to have some flexibility. by the way, trip report coming soon, just haven't had time yet

We have done two trips that were each just under 2 weeks long. Munich/Rome and Paris/Normandy. If I had an extra week in either case, I would have added Venice to the first trip and Amsterdam/Brugges to the second. Understand that you'll want to spend different amounts of time than planned in various locations once you arrive and see what is there, travel between cities always takes longer and a more indepth experience is probably a better way to start than just glossing over too many sites - they will all blur together.

Here's just one idea - take a city tour where ever you are - the bus tours sound hokey but you go get a good overview in a short period of time with plenty of commentary and minimal wear and tear on the feet. Take a look at raileurope.com and map out various routes since they will show the routes, times, etc. For instance, Munich to Venice is listed at 7hours - that's a full day for the most part and i don't think they have an overnight. Munich to Rome is overnight and quite nice however. Fly open jaws so you can avoid circling back unless you want to do so.