Oh, and if money is a concern, I would definitely try Priceline 'name your own price' for a London hotel. I've done this and gotten the Thistle Marble Arch for as low as $60 plus taxes per night.

There are lots of charming, inexpensive hotels to choose from in Paris. People generally seem to recommend not to use Priceline in Paris.

I have no idea what to do for budget accommodations in Rome...

Good luck!

saltymuffin
While I enjoyed our 2nd trip and loved seeing so many things...it was too busy. The itinerary was as follows:

1 Fly from Orlando to Paris

2 Fly from Paris to Athens
Tour Athens

3 Tour Athens

4 Tour Athens

5 Fly to Fira, Santorini
Tour Santorini

6 Tour Santorini

7 Fly to Venice
Tour Venice

8 Tour Venice

9 Drive to Bolzano
Tour Bolzano
Drive to St. Ulrich

10 Tour Dolomites

11 Drive to St. Moritz

12 Drive to Bellagio
Tour Bellagio

13 Tour Lake Como Region

14 Drive to Milan
Tour Milan
Elipsos overnight train to Barc.

15 Tour Barcelona

16 Fly to Orlando

We were spent after that trip. As I mentioned above if I had to do it over I'd skip the St. Moritz/Bellagio leg and add more time in Santorini and Venice. That would have been an awesome trip.

NOW I am ready for a slower Europe trip. I feel that taking two trips that skipped around a bit was good for us as it let us see many things all at once and get our European legs under us. We're already planning our next trip which will just be Paris and a bit of Switzerland. Definitely a slower pace than we are use to.

Anything can be done (okay, not anything - but you can certainly go to one country a day if you want!)

You'll get less out of each country if you try to do too much. At this point, 3 nights is pretty much a minimum for me, unless it's close to someplace else (like Amsterdam isn't so far from the London/Paris route, so I could maybe do a couple of nights there). You can see more in each country if you spend more time there - I once did 3 weeks in Switzerland, and certainly didn't see all the country! I am debating now as far as maybe 3 nights Rome, 4 Paris, 1 or 2 in South of France and the last night London (I've been to London twice since last year, so that is okay). Plus we may go back again 6 months later, so London can wait more for then.

With 2 weeks, you could spend 4 nights in 3 places. That is not bad, you will never "see it all" anyway.

I like family-run type places, I try not to spend too much on hotels.

Travelgirl & Nbodyhome,
Thanks for your suggestions. Maybe I can leave Amsterdam in since it really is pretty close to London. If I do London first, then Amsterdam - is it pretty easy to get to Paris from Amsterdam? I assume I could then either take a train or budget flight to Rome. My last problem is that flying to NYC from Rome is so expensive. It is a lot cheaper to fly back from to the US from another location. How can I set up my trip so that Rome isn't the last place in my destination? Maybe I can do London, Amsterdam, Rome, then Paris?

I will definitely have to pick up a guide book. I've never travelled overseas, so forgive me for the inexperience. I'm not sure where else I can look to get answers like this.

danijake
You could turn your trip around and fly into Rome and out of London. I like having my longer flight on the way over anyway since I'm excited and don't mind the extra hour or so.

I really don't think you should do London, Amsterdam, Rome, then Paris? You are really backtracking from Rome to Paris.

Go here to get train info between the places you are looking at: http://www.raileurope.com/us/rail/fa...ules/index.htm

danijake

If you are really worried about cost, I would recommend that you cut out London. It's much more expensive there than the other cities/countries. It would also slow down your pace a bit.

Switzerland is also quite expensive.

Stu Dudley

Why not fly to London, then get RyanAir or BA or whoever (flight) to Rome, then a train or flight to Paris, train to Amsterdam and back to London?

That is along the lines of what I hope to do in May - but instead of Amsterdam, Nice or somewhere similar.

danijake, You could arrange the trip in a loop, rather than a line, so that you can fly out of the same place you fly into, but you probably wouldn't save much $. It isn't cheap (or quick if you go by train) to travel from Rome to Paris for a flight home. You will likely find that the cost difference for the flight out of Rome is worth it.

Have you tried pricing an "open jaw" ticket into London and out of Rome? It shouldn't cost THAT much more than a London return. Even if it is an extra $100 each I wouldn't hesitate to go for it. It will cost you more than that for the train ride alone. Plus you'll be loosing a full travel day.

Wekiva, your itinerary for that actually does work pretty well considering how much ground you covered! I can see you'd be exausted by then end of it all, but you did a great job of putting together a trip that covers a lot of ground!

I looked through Expedia just to get a general idea, and it looks much more reasonable to fly into Rome then to fly out of Rome. The quote it gave me is from JFK to Dublin via Aer Lingus, then a 30 min. layover and then a flight to Rome. This comes out to $887 for two people. Is this reasonable? If we were to plan to go at the end of Sept., when might be the best time to actually book a flight? I did sign up to receive deals from Continental. also.

Hi D,

>We would like to see as much as possible, but a reasonable amount. Rome, Paris, London and Amsterdam (to see my friend) are a must. ..<

I suggest that you stop there.

Each city is worth a week in itself.

You could fly into London, fly to Rome, fly to Paris, train to A'dam.

See www.whichbudget.com for cheap flights.

See www.bahn.de for train schedules.

If you skip Rome, you could make a very nice visit out of
Fly to London, train to Paris, train to A'dam or do it in reverse.

((I))

From Travelocity:
DELTA AIRLINES

Fri, Sep 28
7:05pm Depart - New York-Kennedy, NY (JFK)

Sat, Sep 29
7:25am Arrive - London Gatwick, UK (LGW) Nonstop

Total Travel Time: 7 hrs 20 min


--

DELTA AIRLINES/ALITALIA

Fri, Oct 12
1:50pm Depart - Rome Fiumicino, Italy (FCO)

5:10pm Arrive - New York-Kennedy, NY (JFK)

Base Fare (2 adults) = $ 1296.00
Taxes and Fees = $ 161.40

Total Price = $ 1457.40 (728.70 Average per person)

Sigh, to live in New York . . . I wish I could get flights to Europe for those prices! The $778 per person seems really reasonable for that itinerary.

Now check into flights to Rome from Paris and Amsterdam - you may find MUCH cheaper flights from one destination on a "no-frills" airline.

London-Paris (by Eurostar or cheap flight), then Paris to Amsterdam (very quick and easy by high speed train), then flight to Rome sounds best, but you might want to switch that up if it is cheaper to get a flight to Rome from Paris.

Salty--
I'm actually from NJ (not too far from Newark), but it won't be too difficult for me to get to JFK. I would rather do that since the flights from JFK are cheaper.

I don't really understand all the differences on the Eurostar tickets (flexible, semi-flexible, etc). I just want a one-way trip from London to Paris.

That $750+ airfare looks reasonable if you want to fly on specific dates to specific cities.

However, I have to tell you that from Newark (all non-stop flights) I have paid:

Summer 2006 - $413 to London
May 2006 - $650 to Paris
February 2006 - $384 to London
Summer 2005 - $650 to London

And, I almost booked a $288 flight to Cologne Germany in April 2007 a couple of weeks ago, but decided to go in Summer 2007 using frequent flier miles. The low fare was only available through mid-May.

If you keep an eye on the fare sales and are flexible on dates and locations, you can save a lot of money.

Don't forget to sign up for airfarewatchdog's newsletter, in addition to Continental. Great information.

P.S. Newark is often cheaper than JFK...

I got an email today from Travelzoo. Go-today.com is having a special. $999 for airfare and 3 nights London, 3 nights Paris, 3 nights Rome. It looks like a very economical way to do the trip you are envisioning (although a bit shorter...)

"Here is what you get for $999:

R/T airfare
9 nights hotel (3 nights each in London, Paris and Rome)
2nd class Eurostar from London to Paris
2nd class overnight train with couchette sleeper from Paris to Rome
Daily breakfast
Hotel service charges and taxes
Airline fuel surcharges
Depart daily between Jan. 4-Mar. 7

on the Go-Today.com deal, it says at the bottom of the offer that up to $110 in additional air taxes and fees are not included...

Wow that sounds amazing, travelgirl. Is it on the website? I can't seem to find it.

I was just looking into this a bit, as I've never used Go-Today. You can extend your return date at no charge.