Europe Itinerary
 

I am assuming approx 3 weeks for this, it may be more but for now its 3. Its just a rough one and may be a heavily packed as most other Europe itineraries but it can be narrowed down, I am listing everything that has been on my mind for a while. My plan is definitely not to just touch every city but I have done single country Europe trips before and want to try multi country once.
Rome (4 days)

Florence (3 days)

Venice (2 days)

Milan (2 days)

Interlaken (2 days)

Innsbruck (2 days)

Salzburg (2 days)

If time permits then, Vienna and Prague (3 days each)

To accomplish your current list (w/o Vienna and Prague) would require about 4 weeks including travel time -- to get 2 days in a city, you need to stay 3 nights.

Multi city/multi country as totally fine -- but a bunch of 2 day/3 night stops back to back to back means a LOT of travel and relatively little seeing/doing.

What time of year would you be traveling? What are your interests? Are you traveling alone, with a friend or spouse, with a group? What is your activity level (e.g. lots of walking & stairs are OK; prefer a leisurely pace, etc.)?

I agree with Janisj: Italy is worth 3-4 weeks all on its own. But if you want to do 2 countries, then Florence > Milan > and a couple of stops in Switzerland make sense.

The more you move around the less time you have to sight-see.

@janisj thank you..I would remove vienna and prague then..and try to extend the duration
@halfapair either I would be traveling alone or with my sister. We are ok with lots of walking and neither of us is a museum person. We are more into architecture, nature and nightlife
Also, @janisj and @halfapair do you have any other suggestions as far as places are concerned. May be if some places in Italy can be missed or included? Or if the entire itinerary has to be changed it will be alright. I just thought all of Italy is worth visiting as compared to other places

IMO - the entire itinerary needs to be changed/reconsidered. Every place on you wish list is 'worth' visiting. The thing is, if they are worth visiting they are worth more than 1.5 days (which is the most two nights gets you.

Rome (4 days)

Florence (3 days)

Venice (2 days)

Milan (2 days) CUT

Interlaken (2 days) ADD 1 DAY AT LEAST

Innsbruck (2 days) CUT

Salzburg (2 days)

If time permits then, Vienna and Prague (3 days each) CUT- or end in Vienna or Prague and fly out of there. As janis says traveling between those places will take much of a day.

Trains are super and much better for such a city-oriented itin than cars -look at a Eurail Select Pass valid in Italy, Switzerland, Austria - for lots on trains check www.seat61.com; www.ricksteves.com; www.budgeteuropetravel.com.

If you are in your 20-30s, I am not sure I would cut out Milan as they have a great night life (as you stated as one of your interests) for this age group.

I have go agree with the others that you will be spending a great deal of time traveling between cities. In order to maximize your time it would be better to cut out 1 or 2 cities, even if one of them is Milan.

@janisj @palenQ @jmb67 thanks a lot..I will modify it as suggested

Consider staying in youth hostels or youth hotels where you will not only save money but meet others your ages from all over the world and though I would not call them party centers many now have pubs on the premises that can be fun - or you will meet others to go out on the town on perhaps.

http://www.balmers.com/

Balmers Youth Hostel in Interlaken is legendary and has a night club too!

Since you say you're not a museum person, maybe change your stay in Venice to 3 nights and cut a day from Florence.

@PalenQ thanks..I usually book Airbnb but since this will be a long trip with multiple stays I would definitely try youth hostels :)
@Mimar thank you..I have not kept 1 day for any place to avoid making it more hectic

we just did a 10 day trip which gave us 4 bases with stops of 3 nights, 2 nights, 2 nights and 3 nights, all within the eastern side of Sicily where most of the time the journeys between one stop and another were less than 2 hours.

By the end if we hadn't been going home, we'd have wanted a longer stay at somewhere restful just to recuperate for a while.

3 weeks of that sort of schedule would certainly not suit me, and your journeys between bases are generally going to be longer than ours were. I know that I'm a lot older than you but another point is that if you are looking to socialise with people of your own age, you will just have got to know them and you'll be off again.

IMO this sort of trip works best with a loose plan but no bookings, unless you really have to [first and last perhaps]; then you can suit yourself about when to move on and who with!

@PalenQ thanks..I usually book Airbnb but since this will be a long trip with multiple stays I would definitely try youth hostels>

Hotels and airbnbs tend to be isolating - meet lots of folks in hostels and less institutional youth hotels.

Let's Go Europe is a great guidebook for hostels- the best IMO.

@annhig sure I would drop a few places..any suggestions which ones?
@palenQ I'll definitely book youth hostels ..thanks

palenQ I'll definitely book youth hostels ..thanks>

but note that there is a difference between official HI hostels and their rules and possible curfews and youth hotels -more client-oriented and fun. Let's Go Europe is the Bible for hostel type accommodations:

https://www.amazon.com/Lets-Go-Europ.../dp/1612370497

Preet, I think that I would think about dropping Interlaken and Innsbruck, unless you are intending to head for the mountains to do some walking or skiing. Also Milan. If you look at a map of Europe, you'll see that once you get to Venice, it makes sense to head through the Dolomites to Salzburg, then east to Vienna and then north west to Prague.

if you use some of these places as bases rather than hopping about so much, you'll get better value for money and have more fun, IMO.

Or Venice to Vienna
then to Prague
then to Salzburg

can catch overnight trains Venice to Vienna and Salzburg too - another adventure and save on the cost of a hostel too.

@PalenQ oh. I didn't know about this difference... Thanks :)
Also, would consider these overnight trains
@annhig thank you for the suggestions. I am planning to drop Milan but Interlaken I had chosen because I wanted to go to the mountains, also paragliding etc.

The Interlaken area is well worth the major detour if you want to see the Alps at their most majestic - but go up to say Grindelwald or some mountain village to be eyeball to eyeball with the soaring glacier-girdled peaks. Interlaken itself is not in the Alps- there are some paragliding things here:

http://www.paragliding-interlaken.ch/en