It takes time to change cities. Doesn't matter if that is by train, bus, car, or cheap airlines.

I would prioritize from those 5 cities, which 3 are the most important and of interest to your group. Maybe take a vote among the four of you. Also check flights because if there is a substantial price difference flying into one over the other could be a swing vote.

I would do:
1- Amsterdam - 4 nights
2- Paris - 5 nights
3- Barcelona (or Venice) - 5 nights

September is our favorite month to travel in Europe. No matter what cities you choose to visit be sure to fly open jaws so you do not have to backtrack for your flight home. Also be careful counting the days/nights. If you are flying from North America that's adding a night to your trip. You may arrive mid-day and by the time you clear immigration and travel to your hotel there's not much left of your first day in Europe. If you will be doing a bit of train travel or flights between cities you do not want to lug around big heavy bags. Choose centrally located accommodation so you are not spending time and money traveling from your hotel to what it is you came to Europe to see.

If you drop Prague from your list you still have long distances between Rome & Barcelona, Barcelona & Paris. Think about flying into Prague, then flying to Paris and finally high-speed train Paris to Amsterdam. Paris and Amsterdam are good rail and air hubs.

I think trying to cover multiple countries in one Europe trip means that you are not really seeing any one place. We did one trip with just Italy and another one with Austria and Switzerland and a third trip with Croatia and Slovenia. And in each of those countries I felt I could have used more time. So my suggestion is to think beyond just the big cities and focus on 1 or 2 countries in Europe. I share details at my blog site https://www.diyfamilytravels.com/

2 cities would be perfect, but 3 would be OK. I would simply take a vote among the 4 people traveling and just see which ones win.

My personal trip vote would be Paris & Amsterdam. Or Paris & Venice. Or Paris & Barcelona

My two cents for a first timer...visit the big three:

• Fly into London
• London - 5 nights with a day trip (Hampton Court?)
• Eurostar to Paris
• Paris - 5 nights with a day trip (Chartres? Versailles, which is close but takes a whole day to see)
• Fly to Rome (or sleeper train with a 4-bed compartment @45€/person - must change in Turin -- arrives Rome around 10 am Seat 61 Website)
• Rome - 4 nights with an overnight or day trip to Florence (which is only 1:40 by train)
• Fly home from Rome

ssander

Or take the overnight train Paris-Venice and then go straight to Rome - night train saves a day of travel even if flying.

PalenQ...

Good idea -- since going to Venice allows you to avoid changing trains in Milan (I mis-spoke in my previous post and said change in Turin.) . Spend a day (and overnight) in Venice...then on to Rome for 3 nights. If you catch an early train, you effectively get 2.5 days in Rome. If you wanted more time in Rome, you could cut a day off London or Paris, depending on your tastes.

ssander

"Rome - 3 nights
2- Barcelona - 3 nights
3- Paris - 4 nights
4- Amsterdam - 3 nights
5- Prague - 2 nights"

How about Amsterdam first, then take train to Paris. Fly to one other city to finish. Discuss what the 3rd city would be.

You lose 1/2 to a full day when you change venues. Have a super time!

uh.. I was checking raileurope and I saw that they have a train leaving Amsterdam daily at 19.00 and arriving in Prague at 9.00
Checking again and it looks like I have been mistaken

Another reason not to use the Raileurope site for information on trains in Europe.

BETS-European Rail Experts site you mention looks way worse than Rail Europe. are you really advising us to use this instead?

No, I have never used BETS (and it wasn't I who mentioned it). I tend to use www.trainline.com. For trains in France I always use the official SNCF website. There is also Bahn.de for general information, and the marvelous Seat61.com.

Rail Europe is a middle man that marks up prices and isn't always accurate. Fine if you want to buy one of their usually overpriced passes, but for general info and pricing, not fine.