JeanneB's answer is the best so far. No Germany; no third country; Italy is like 10 countries in one all by itself, and Holland is no "single flavor" either.

My only minor tweak would be to sacrifice one day/night somewhere (Florence? - - or doesn't even have to be overnight), and get out into rural Europe (Holland or Italy), rather than stay in all major cities the whole two weeks. This will add another dimension far more worthwhile than traipsing into another country.

By the way, what season are you planning to do this?

Best wishes,

Rex

<<Fly into London, then go to Amsterdam, then Paris, then down to Venice and fly out of Rome?>> Better, but I would skip Rome. 5 major cities in 2 weeks is really a bit much imo.

Investigate plane tickets. I'm not sure who's telling you that, but there is certainly no universal rule that flying into Germany is cheapest. Especially if that isn't even on your itinerary for places to see!!

Fly into London, fly to Amsterdam, train or fly to Paris, train or overnight train to Venice. Fly home from Venice.

Even "cutting back" to just those 4 cities, you will barely have 2-1/2 days to see each one... by the time you figure in plane arrivals and departures, hotel check ins & outs, and transportation between one to the next.

oops I meant PLANE or overnight train for the leg Paris to Venice

Rex has a good point. You haven't mentioned art or museums, so maybe from Florence you could take day trips to Siena, San Gim, or Lucca. (I wouldn't want to move to spend just one night somewhere).

Wekiva-
How'd you manage this trip?

1st trip in 1999...London, Paris, Wengen (Switzerland), Florence and Rome.

How long was this trip? Some advice?

Rex-
"By the way, what season are you planning to do this?"

We're hoping for end of Sept./early Oct. 2007.

We mostly want to see the touristy stuff. This is our first trip to Europe. We want it to be an exciting, whirlwind trip. We want to see as much as we can. We will go back to Europe in the future to the places we liked most, but for right now, we want to visit whatever big cities we can. I don't want to cut out destinations, because I have seen some websites where people have seen more than we are trying to see in 2 weeks time.

>> I don't want to cut out destinations, because I have seen some websites where people have seen more than we are trying to see in 2 weeks time.<<

If you want to see as much as possible, buy a Rick Steves video & save yourself some money. If you really want to enjoy Europe, slow down the pace.

Like I stated earlier, the first time we went to Europe we dashed around so fast that we really didn't get to stay at any one place long enough to really enjoy it. Two years later, we returned to many of the exact same locations and stayed longer & enjoyed the experience a lot more.

It took me 3 visits to Paris before I realy enjoyed it. A visitor needs to find some hidden/quiet nooks & crannies in Paris to fall in love with it. On our first visits, we did Paris last. We were so exausted with the pace (we were in our 20s then) that we were "brain dead" & didn't want to explore Paris like we should have.

Do less, enjoy more

Stu Dudley

Here is a question to help you decide:
If this were your first trip to the U.S, would you choose to see NYC, Miami, Dallas, and Chicago? If you want to visit only major cities, and don't mind long distances in between, then by all means stick to your original Paris, Rome, Amsterdam, London idea.

But if that sounds like crazy-talk, you need think about staying in a single region (like, the atlantic seaboard cities). Pick two adjacent countries: Italy/Switzerland, Germany/Holland, Holland/England, England/France, France/Italy, fly in to one major city, make a path through attractive-looking places to another major city, and fly out.

Next, what do you want to do -- eat well, visit museums, view breathtaking scenery, bike in the countryside, see old buildings? Do you know any languages? Maybe you have some special interests that can narrow your focus.

As far as airfares go, there is nothing special about German. Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam, Milan, Paris, etc., can each be cheap if you catch a good deal.

With research (and help from this board) you can probably find decent places to stay for close to $100 per night. Small cities/towns cost less than big cities. Staying in one place costs less than travelling around. My rule of thumb is to stay at least 3 nights per locale, otherwise there is too much packing/unpacking.

Sorry, didn't see your most recent post. It sounds like you have decided what you want to do.

So go north-south. Fly into London, stay 4 nights. Then go by bus/boat to Amsterdam, stay 3 nights. Then to Paris by train, stay 3 nights. Then fly to Rome on one of the European discount airlines, and stay 4 nights. Then fly home.

I rarely recommend this, but I would look into an organized tour company since the main goal seems to be to cover a lot ground in a short period of time.

I'm not sure what other websites you are basing things on, but do make sure you are reading about people who have actually done the trip, not ones who are just in the planning stages and *think* they can do the pace.

Please understand, it's not that it is not possible... but this kind of an itinerary means you are spending a good percentage of your time checking in and out of hotels, going to and from airports, riding on long train journeys, etc. That's the price you pay for the fast pace.

<i>We want to see as much as we can. We will go back to Europe in the future to the places we liked most...</i>

If you see the Colosseum and Notre Dame...how to know which you &quot;liked best&quot;: Rome or Paris? &quot;Seeing&quot; is not experiencing.

That said, there's nothing wrong with exciting whirlwinds. I just wouldn't do it again in Europe...too expensive. Pack light and have a great time!

I'm 100% w/ Suze on this one. I seldom if ever recommend guided tours. But the logistics of what you want makes a commercial tour probably the best option. Check out Globus and other mid-range tour companies.

For first-timers, trying to squeeze in as much as you plan is awfully difficult. There is a lot of acclimating and just learning your way around.

A guided tour will do what you want - whirlwind, brief stays in lots of places, but they take care of all the logistics.

(BTW - most &quot;whirlwinders&quot; see less than folks who slow down a bit since all the packing/unpacking, traveling between places REALLY cuts into your time.)

danijake
That first trip I mentioned went like this:
day
1 flew to London
2 arrived London/toured London
3 toured London
4 toured London
5 train to Paris/toured Paris
6 toured Paris
7 train to Wengen, Switz
8 toured Wengen
9 train to Innsbruck
10 toured Innsbruck - night train to Florence
11 toured Florence
12 toured Tuscany/train to Rome
13 toured Rome
14 toured Rome
15 flew home

The only problem I had with the trip above was the Innsbruck leg, but the other couple traveling with us had to see Innsbruck for family reasons so we added the leg. For you I would take out the Innsbruck leg and spend another day in Paris and in Wengen area and then take the train straight from Wengen to Florence.

I also agree that a tour sounds ideal for you and what you are looking to see and do. To assemble a whirl wind tour (and actually enjoy it) requires some skill, experience and compromise. (tour company's have all 3). Check out Rick Steves' Best of Europe in 14 Days tour. It starts in Paris and ends in Rome. This tour has a nice mix of city and country and sounds like you would get a really good taste of things without having to worry about all the logistics. You could arrive a couple of days early and visit your friend in Amsterdam (and get over jet lag) before the tour begins in Paris.

I love packing a lot into a trip. I plan by working with and around the local transportation connections. I take advantage of convienient train connections, and severely limit flights and long train rides.

There have been all sorts of suggestions here from seasoned travellers who have a great grasp on what it takes to get from A-B. If you really want to plan this trip yourself, then get out a calendar. Write in you departure and return dates, and then research all the transportation connections and fill them in. Keep in mind how long it takes to get from the city to airports, security etc. You are not going to grasp how much time moving from city to city takes until you research each connection.

Wekiva, I was interested in hearing the itinerary of the 2nd trip! I don't know how you managed it!

Planning trips takes experience and some basic know-how to be successful.

Honestly I am not sensing that you have the background to pull this off.

I say that because you don't seem to be taking in what everyone is saying about how many destinations you are trying to cover in too short a time, and the difficult logistics of moving that fast traveling independently.

Also statements like you've heard &quot;it's cheapest to fly into Germany&quot; are an absolutely ridiculous.

I mean this kindly, but I would seriously look at a few good organized tours (Globus et al.) and see if you don't see one to match your needs.

..agree with the above. If you want to see a bit of everything, get on a bus tour. For midrange, Globus, R.S., Trafalger and Insight. Otherwise, stay home, buy a good bottle of wine and watch some travel videos. If you try to do the whirlwind yourself, you will get more from watching &quot;French Kiss&quot;, S abrina, &quot;European Vacation&quot; with Edith piaff records in the background. I think given what you want to do, get on a tour bus. This is NOT derogatory. I think it will meet your needs with no lost time. Maybe after that trip, you will go again, relax, and focus your itinerary.

I spoke with my husband about the trip. He thinks that maybe we should drop Amsterdam. Fly into London, then go to Paris, and fly out of Rome. Those are the 3 places he'd most like to see. I'm wondering if we have time to see Venice before going to Rome. He says Venice isn't a top priority to him, but I'd like to see it. I would like to see my friend in Amsterdam, but I guess I'm not dying to see Amsterdam in general, and it might be difficult to figure out when to meet up with him anyway. I don't want to plan my trip around this, so if it's more convenient to leave it out, then that's what we'll do.

When might be the best time to start planning if we want to go at the end of Sept/early Oct? Would it be better to head back to London or travel back from Rome to the US? I looked around online, and prices seem good to London, but very expensive coming back from Rome.

I think London, Paris and Rome sounds great. Those are my 3 favorite cities in Europe, so far.

The train from London to Paris is pretty quick, so you don't even feel like you waste the entire day travelling. Also you travel from city center to city center, so you don't have the hassle of getting to the airport.

I have found, as a general rule, the airfares from Newark/NYC to be best to London. Paris is usually just a little more, although sometimes comparable. Rome seems to be much more, for some reason.

You can also check www.whichbudget.com to see what budget airlines fly between those cities. A quick flight might be easiest. Or maybe one overnight train ride would be fun. I don't know much about overnight train prices anymore, as we haven't done that in quite a while, but the budget flights can be cheap, cheap, cheap. Especially if you book them as soon as they are available (usually a few months ahead of time).

It might be nice to start in London. As a first time visitor, it is an easy city to get acclimated to the European culture, without any language differences.

If your travel dates will be flexible, I would sign up for all the travel newsletters that you can. Airlines frequently run special fare promotions and catching one of them can be a great saver.

We have found the best fare sales from Newark to be on Continental, so I'd definitely go to their web site and sign up to receive email alerts from them.

I have also found great airfare sales through &quot;airfare watchdog&quot;. This is a fabulous travel newsletter.