First visit to the UK + Europe
 

My sister and I will be visiting the UK + Europe for the first time in August/September 2017. Is this itinerary realistic, or am I trying to cram too many destinations into a travel period of 5 weeks? Please advise, many thanks.

Edinburgh 3D
Manchester, Liverpool 3D (must-visit places as a pilgrimage for footie fans like us!)
London 11D (for sightseeing and to visit relatives)
Amsterdam 3D
Paris 5D
Venice 2D
Florence 3D
Rome 5D

Well, looking for the bad things first. August is high season so you get to enjoy travel opportunities and hotels with a shed load of Europeans gadding about.

Assuming jet lag hits you Edinburgh loses the first day and the last day due to travel to Manchester, so you end up with 1 whole day in town.

Similar Manchester but at least not jet lagged.

London great

Venice is being short changed with 2 days one of which will be travelling on.

Probably worth redoing as nights rather than days.

Doable but 7 days when you travel.

Adding up your days, I see you've accounted for 35 days, which is exactly five weeks. I don't see any allowance for travel time. How about travel time from your home? And, as Bilbo says, you have seven travel days in your schedule. Some destinations are close together (Venice, Florence, and Rome, for example) but even a short trip will occupy at least half a day, between packing and unpacking, getting to and from the train station or airport, and a couple of hours for check-in and security if you're flying.

I agree with Bilbo that it's better to count the nights you'll spend in each place, keeping in mind that two nights give you one full day, and, for short trips, you'll also be able to use bits of the travel days for sightseeing.

Same. 2 days in Venice is short.

Ps : UK is still part of Europe even with Brexit.

It does amaze me that so many people think the UK isn't in Europe.

It helps if you lay out your itinerary in nights instead of days.

To get 3 days in Edinburgh you'd need 4 nights, 3 days for Manchester and Liverpool is 4 nights and so forth.

Using that method shows you are well over 5 weeks if you actually want that much time in each destination. The easy thing would be to cut a few nights from London and add to places like Venice. But if you have free accommodations staying w/ relatives you might not want to do that.

So re-figure your plan/and juggle a bit -- or maybe eliminate a city or two.

I hear a lot of people who live in the UK say that they're "going to Europe".

Everybody is correct when they say you'll be spending more time travelling and standing in line than you think.

I'd cut at least one day from London and add it to Venice.
Maybe skip Amsterdam?
Maybe skip Rome or Florence if you're on the fence about what to see and do there?

How are you planning to get around?
To make things quicker, I'd look into discount airlines for short trips like Paris to Venice.

But first, you should check some maps, flight and train schedules to see how you could arrange your trip the way it makes the most sense and will be the least expensive.

This is a good website that should help you:
http://www.seat61.com/Europe-train-travel.htm

"I hear a lot of people who live in the UK say that they're "going to Europe".

I'very heard "mainland Europe" or "continental Europe" but usually the name of the country (France or Spain etc), never heard just "Europe" because the first question would be "where in Europe")?

<<I hear a lot of people who live in the UK say that they're "going to Europe".>>

People in Brooklyn used to say they were "going into the city" when they took a train to Manhattan. No less daft of a concept. But Europe outside the UK is usually referred to as "the Continent" as in "fog in the Channel, Continent cut off."

To the OP:

(1) Edinburgh in August is festival season and the 480,000-person city has about twice that in tourists. Either set your plans now or you're going to miss something. There is also more to Scotland than Edinburgh (not just whisky either).

(2) You will not find accommodation that charges by "day" therefore you should not structure your trip by "day" - do it by nights.

(3) Take out a loan for any attempt to purchase footie tix in Liverpool or Manchester. If you're not a team fan club member or current season ticketholder, EPL tickets are hard to come by for teams that aren't up just to be relegated and neither Liverpool, Everton, nor the Mans will be fighting the drop.

I'd consider dropping Amsterdam for more time in the Italian cities but that's dependent upon your interests, not mine.

One of my relatives in Northern Ireland this summer said she had never been to Europe, which struck me as odd.

How about this:

http://www.independent.co.uk/travel/...-a7099931.html

I've also seen this more than once on this forum, but searching isn't going to get me anywhere.

Yeh Venice and Amsterdam could use another day - maybe less in London.

Trains - Edinburgh to Liverpool-Manchester then to London www.nationalrail.co.uk

London to Brussels by Eurostar train (www.eurostar.com) -connecting train to Amsterdam (www.thalys.com) - should take 4-5 hours maybe less.

Amsterdam-Paris Thalys 3.5 hours www.thalys.com

Paris to Venice overnight train so gives you two full days there at least www.thello.com

In Italy Venice to Florence about 2 hrs

Florence to Rome about 1.5 hours - www.trenitalia.com.

Booking tickets way early can result in huge savings on all those trains with discounted but limited in number tickets.

Not doing enough for a railpass.

For lots of great train info check www.seat61.com; www.budgeteuropetravel.com and www.ricksteves.com.

Stadium tours are available for both red and blue clubs in both cities. You need to book them in advance through the club websites normally. As BigRuss says you are unlikely to get tickets to a match, assuming of course any of the teams you are interested in are playing at home while you are visiting.

If this is your first visit are there likely to be further visits? If so then I would drop Italy altogther this trip and devote a new trip to it when you can spend longer exploring the cities and countryside. You can then use the time you save for travel to other places on your list, spending a bit longer in some of them.

I think you need to decide what are your priorities to see, if this is likely to be your only trip, and plan by the nights you have, remembering to figure in jetlag, and the fact that if you are flying from the west coast of the US you arrive a day later, so lose a day of your five weeks there and then.

"One of my relatives in Northern Ireland this summer said she had never been to Europe, which struck me as odd."

Ah, the Irish!!:-)

But Europe outside the UK is usually referred to as "the Continent" as in "fog in the Channel, Continent cut off.">>

I was going to say that, BigRuss, ditto the warning about the Edinburgh festival being in full swing in August.

i too would think about losing Amsterdam and using the time to add a night each to Edinburgh, Manchester, and Venice.

makes sense to me too

Avoiding Holland is always making sense ;-)

"Avoiding Holland is always making sense"

If we didn't have to go through Belgium to get to the other side we'd avoid Belgium :). Especially driving - the Belgians are awful drivers.

I always thought the Dutch were terrible drivers.