travellingismylife

I am planning a trip to Europe for 7 weeks in 2015. Currently, I am at phase 1 of my planning: to decide which places to go and i can't make up my mind because there are so many places that i want to go as it will be my first time there.

I know I will not be able to cover much for 7 weeks but at the very least, i hope i will be able to visit the main landmarks of each country.

Below is my draft itinerary and i need some comments if it is feasible. I am also not very sure about the travelling time between each country.

Days Places
Day 1 Arrived at London
London – Paris
Day 2 – 5 Paris
Day 5 Paris to Bordeaux
Day 5 – 7 Bordeaux
Day 7 Bordeaux to Barcelona
Day 7 – 9 Barcelona
Day 9 Barcelona to Nice
Day 9 – 11 Nice / Monaco
Day 11 Nice to Florence
Day 11 – 14 Florence
Day 14 Florence to Rome
Day 14 – 17 Rome
Day 17 Rome to Athens
Day 17 – 19 Athens
Day 19 Athens to Santorini
Day 19 – 24 Santorini
Day 24 - 25 Santorini to Venice
Day 25 - 27 Venice
Day 27 Venice to Zurich
Day 27 – 29 Zurich
Day 29 Zurich to Munich
Day 29 - 35 Munich/Cologne/Frankfurt
Day 35 Germany to Amsterdam
Day 35 -37 Amsterdam
Day 37 Amsterdam to London
Day 37 - 40 London
Day 40 London to Manchester
Day 40-42 Manchester
Day 42 Manchester to Liverpool
Day 42 – 44 Liverpool
Day 44 Liverpool to Scotland
Day 44 – 49 Scotland
Day 50 Scotland to London

Also, i have given up places like Milan, Vienna, Prague, Berlin, Brussels and the places stated above is the place i would really really hope to visit. It would be great if you all could let me know which are the places i can reduce the number of days or could even eliminate.

nytraveler

First of all - this is NOT a trip report. Contact the editors and ask them to remove that listing.

Second there is no need to start and return in the same place - it's better and will waste less time and money not to do a return to your starting point.

And you are bouncing around like a ping pong ball - being London 3 or 4 different times for no discernible reasons. You need to get a map and look at travel times between places (go to bahn.de to see train schedules for all of europe).

Finally, not sure why you are picking some of these places.

Bordeaux is not really a tourists center versus many other place sin France unless you are a true wine fan and have the connections to get to wineries.

Also Zurich is primarily a business city - for Switz you shold head for Lucerne or the Berner Oberland to see the mountains and adorable mountain villages instead.

And finally you are counting many days severla times. For instance you have one day listed s being in Florence, traveling from Florence to Rome and being in Rome. It's true that you will wake in one and sleep in the next - but you can't sightsee in both and also travel between them.

You have a long time before the trip so time to do a LOT of research. You should research where you really want to go and why (best sights) and how long you need to spend there. Lay it out day by day - and don't count the same day multiple times - so you have a better idea what will really be doing.

Finally I would run a zero-based budget now - starting with airfare and realistic budget so you know how long you will be able to stay. (One of my DDs went with 2 friends a couple of years ago and spent $8k in 5 weeks - including train fares, transit within cities, modest hotels (but WITH AC), a full range of sights, modest meals and practically no shopping - and student type nightlife (NOT expensive trendy dance clubs) with a couple of expensive evenings (one ballet, one opera and 2 London shows at discount).

kybourbon

I agree that you should not be going to London more than once. Wastes time. You also didn't state time of year. I like to fly to my furthest point (in your case Athens) at the beginning of a trip and fly home from the closest. The weather/time of year would determine whether I did that or not though.

You also need to list hotel nights (not days) as I also think you are counting too many days that you really don't have. If you departed the US day 1, you arrive London day 2. It would be silly to fly into London, leave immediately for Paris. Why wouldn't you just fly into Paris (would save time and money)?

hetismij2

You have received some good advice.
An example of replanning your trip would be to fly from Amsterdam to Scotland and then work your way back down to London, spending your last few days there before you leave. Alternatively take the night ferry to Newcastle from Ijmuiden, and train from Newcastle north to Scotland.
There is no need to keep going through London.
Why not fly to Paris (or another city on your wish list) and out of London?

mamcalice

You have plenty of time to do research on the places you have listed but, if it were my trip (and it isn't), I would eliminate Bordeaux, Zurich, Manchester and Liverpool. I would add someplace in the Swiss Alps, Vienna and Prague.

You have left no time to visit the beautiful countryside of Europe. You might want to consider a couple of days in Provence while in France and/or some time in Tuscany while in Florence.

By all means fly open jaw (i.e. into Athens and out of London).

bilboburgler

As above and remove Monaco.

Scotland is a whole country and a pretty diverse one at that, so you need to choose somewhere in it.

StCirq

Tear this up, get a comprehensive map of Europe and a few guidebooks, and start reading and plotting your route all over again. Don't think in terms of days until you have figured out the travel time between places (do that using the national railway sites for each country, viamichelin.com if your driving, and airline websites if flying). Pick 7 places at most.

Dump Bordeaux, Zúrich, Manchester, Liverpool, and Monaco. Get an open-jaw flight.

Mimar

How do you plan to travel? Train? Plane? Bus? Car? Or a combination? Have you worked out transportation between all your stops? When you're researching travel times, look at the German train schedule: www.bahn.de/i/view/GBR/en/index.shtml. And investigate cheap airlines between smaller cities: www.whichbudget.com and skyscanner.net. (Note: cheap airlines can charge a lot for bags; pack light.)

Open jaw plane flights to and from Europe should cost about the same as round trip and save you the money and time needed to backtrack.

You have a lot of time in Santorini. A couple days is enough. Why Manchester? Why Liverpool? To my mind, there are a lot more interesting and scenic places in England.

What time of year do you plan this trip? If in the spring/summer/fall, it would be nice to spend some time in smaller towns, see something of the countryside. Instead of almost all cities.

janisj

As the others say - start over. Don't even think of days til you get a semi-firm-ish list of destinations.

Re Liverpool - my guess is most advising you to drop it have never been. Even w/o the Beatles connections, there is PLENTY to see/do in Liverpool.

But whether you go there or not . . . Depends on what sorts of things interest you.

Sue_xx_yy

Hi travelling.

It does all seem overwhelming to plan a trip, doesn't it.

Start at the top, the most general. Think in terms of countries first, then cities. I see you want to visit France, a snippet of Spain (Barcelona), Italy, Greece, and then Venice through Germany to Amsterdam and then London and the UK. It's good to have a wish list, but you need to apply a benchmark to see how fast your itinerary will feel to you once you actually start. It may be that you will need to revise your list, especially the countries at the most distant ends, e.g. Greece and Scotland (and also Barcelona since this is your only Spanish city and involves a bit of a detour.)

The trick is to get a sense of the space and time you are trying to transit, before committing to an itinerary.

Are you familiar with Google street maps or viamichelin.com? Both offer excellent trip planning, in that you can find out how long it takes just to drive from A to B; or you can use bahn.de for train schedules. The biggy in trip planning is the number of hours spent moving around. It gets old really fast to travel more than an average hour a day, or 3 hours every 3 days - and that's not counting time spent waiting for the train, or walking to the car, unparking it, driving it out of the city, etc. etc.

As in carpentry, travel requires one to measure twice (or maybe more often) and cut once. Once you've done this bit of general research, you will have a better sense of the overall shape of your itinerary and then you can come back here and we'll refine it for you.

Good luck.

dwdvagamundo

Re planning: I would also include Liverpool, if only for one day. But I would drop Bordeaux and Manchester or at least cut the time there down unless you have some specific interest that takes you there.

Cut some time from Santorini and add it to Venice, Florence or Rome. You've got more time in Santorini than in any of those cities and that ain't right! Two days max. Maybe try to see a couple of the others islands, though. All of Rome, Florence and Venice deserve more time. I second Mamcalice's suggestion to spend some time in Provence and Tuscany.

Why have you given up on Vienna and Prague? I can see leaving the others out on a first trip, but both of those (plus Salzburg) really have a lot to offer. But if you've looked at them and decided not, then that's o.k.

Are you going to travel by train or by car? That will make a big difference on what you can do.

One planning tip: plan by nite rather than day. For example (based on your plan) nites one through four in Paris; nites 5 and 6 Bordeaux, etc.

suze

How I looked at your proposed itinerary is this.

7 weeks = 49 days
20+ destinations

So I'd subtract 20 from 49 (allowing 1 day for travel each time you change locations)... now you have 29 days left to actually BE places.

Divide that 29 by the 20 places and you have less than 1-1/2 days each place.

Not the trip I'd want to try to take! It's would be expensive and exhausting.

StCirq

Google street maps are great, but google does a lousy job with driving itineraries, IME. Viamichelin and Mappy are far more accurate and offer more selections.

PalenQ

Most important is to tell us if you are going by train or car or some plane, etc.

That would make very different responses - like you ask about traveling time between places - trains go often now up to nearly 200 mph - faster even than German autobahns, about half of which have no speed limits!

Train or Car or Plane or Some of each?

scotlib

hi travellingismylife,

I was recently asked how I planned my trips. My answer began, I read, a LOT. You'll want to read about creating itineraries, traveling between locations, finding places to stay, how to access your trip funds once on the road, packing. Like everything else in life, to learn something, you have to climb a learning curve.

I've since seen an article that describes how anticipating your trip can increase your happiness with the trip. It's an interesting read and includes some ideas you may enjoy (ex: reading books of the locations) .. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/11/tr...there-yet.html

You've lots of time for reading, planning, fine-tuning, and anticipating your trip. Enjoy it all.

IMDonehere

As others have suggested

Start with a list of the places you want to see most. Then cut off everything below ten. Then get some guides and maps and plot your invasion of Europe, time and cost of travel and eliminate at least one other place, if not two.

Remember even though it is 7 weeks you will from 1/2 day to a full day every time you move.

travellingismylife

Wow so many comments! Thanks all for your inputs, greatly appreciate it.

Accidentally clicked the trip report and i have no idea why can't i edit it! Emailed the administrator and currently waiting for reply from them.

Firstly, i would be travelling from late march to early-mid june 2015 and secondly, i would most probably be travelling around by trains and planes. For example, from Paris i would take a train to Bordeaux or straight to Barcelona and from Greece i would take a plane to Venice.

I am also thinking of getting an open jaw ticket. Probably fly to Paris and back from London or fly to Scotland and back from Athens. Either way works for me.

After looking at the comments, i will be eliminating Bordeaux and Monaco, added in those 2 places as i thought it would be on-the-way.

For now, i will do more research on each places and will post a revised itinerary once i have firm up on the places that i really want to go.

Just want to know if anyone are able to share a draft itinerary for Europe? It will be great as this will help in my planning.

travellingismylife

Opps! My bad. Should be from late April to mid June.

sartoric

Here's what we did about 10 years ago.
Flew to Manchester for several nights with friends in the Lakes District.
Train to London, 5 nights. Flight to Amsterdam, 2 nights. Train to Paris, 5 nights, train to Bordeaux, 3 nights with day to St Emillion. Train to San Sebastián, 3 nights, bus to Madrid, 5 nights.
Train to Sevilla 3 nights, bus/ferry to Tangier where we spent a week travelling around Morocco.
Flew to Marseille, 3 nights, train to Nice, 2 nights, long train to Milan for a week (had friend to stay with and took in 2 nights in Venice and one Pula during the week) Train to Rome, 5 nights, with a quick visit to Amalfi Coast for one night. Flew home from Rome. The trip was 8 weeks, all on the fly and using Internet cafés to book hotels a day or so in advance.
It exhausts me to even type this now, and we needed a holiday to get over the holiday !
It is so much easier now, you'll be fine. Just decide what your priorities are, and use the fabulous resources available on the web.
Enjoy !

janisj

travellingismylife: >><i>Accidentally clicked the trip report and i have no idea why can't i edit it! Emailed the administrator and currently waiting for reply from them. </i><<

As I recall - you first tagged this as a Trip Report but apparently the moderators removed the TR tag soon after nytraveler's post. FYI there is no 'edit' function once an entry is posted. Only the moderators/editors can delete or change things. But that doesn't apply here since they already took care of it for you.