HELP! First time to Europe!! 14 day itinerary
 

Hi! My friend and I will be traveling to Europe for two weeks in mid-July. We have these goal cities: London, Paris, Lisbon, Barcelona, Rome, and Venice.

Is this way too many cities? I would REALLY like to see them all! I'm not sure of the order in which we should do it also for maximum efficiency. Do you suggest taking the train to each one? If we had to cut one because it was too far out which would you say?
please any suggestions on a good order/past itinerary that hit these cities would be great. It will be my first time to Europe and I see so many itineraries but not with all these cities. we plan to fly into London after flying into Dublin from the US. and I guess we can fly out of wherever we are when the trip is over. or wherever is cheapest.

thanks for ANY help and advice!

6 major European cities in 14 days? NO.

Dump Lisbon and Barcelona and you might have a reasonable trip. You have to account for your travel time between places.

Trains are the way to go if all you want to see is cities. If you want to see the countryside, which you don't seem to have time for, other plans are necessary.

Get a map of Europe and study it to get a sense of what a reasonable itinerary might be.

Research open-jaw (multi-city) air tickets.

Don't be afraid to consult guidebooks and local websites to glean tons of information. You sound as though you are just winging it at this point, which is not a way to save money or make the best use of your time.

Though all rules are meant to be broken, when starting out, I think a good rule of thumb is to allot three days per city. So, yes you should pare down your list. Train tickets add to your budget as well, so you will actually get more bang for your buck with fewer stops.
At just a quick glance though, I'd say save Italy for later and do a loop. Compare cheap flights from Paris to Barcelona and there to Lisbon. If you are looking at Aer Lingus, I know they have great deals, but they often include a long layover in Dublin--great idea to take advantage of that.
Be sure to go check out some general guide book for European travel like Lonely Planet--it will be far more instructive than a bunch of rich old people like me telling you what to do, lol!

We have these goal cities: London, Paris, Lisbon, Barcelona, Rome, and Venice.>

Yes way way too much - figure a day of travel between each of those.

Workable:

Fly into London and take Eurostar train to Paris - take overnight train to Venice from Paris or fly and end in Rome and fly out of there. Barcelona and Lisbon are way off that itinerary.

London 4 nights
Paris 4 nights
Venice 2 nights
Rome 4 nights

You really have a day less in each as traveling between them takes much of day, relocating hotels and transportation, except with the overnight train to Venice *if you can sleep on overnight trains - most can some can't - there is always some noise from inside and outside the train. But get a private compartment and bring any food and drink aboard and chill!

Forget anything about railpasses - book your own tickets well in advance for nice discounted fares - www.seat61.com has loads on doing that yourselves online before leaving home and you just have to show up for your train. General info trains - www.ricksteves.com and BETS-European Rail Experts.

Paris for 4 nights followed by Venice for 2 nights nets you a mere 1 day in Venice - not worth it, especially if you're continuing on to Rome. Dump something else and limit yourself to 3 destinations. You have no idea how time flies when you're traveling in Europe, or how much time can be wasted in transit.

If they took the overnight train Paris to Venice you'd have two days. Even with one full day IMO just seeing Venice is awesome but yes even this itinerary I proposed is rather rushed.

This has all been super helpful! Now I'm thinking of following @palenQ's travel thread. and next summer going to Spain. I"m also considering saving Italy for next summer. If I saved Italy for next summer, would it be too ambitious to keep Lisbon and Barcelona?

THANK YOU ALL! Yes I do have more research to do! Just got done with finals so time for some research!

Yes 7 major cities (if you include your arrival in Dublin) in 5 different countries is "way too many" for only 14 days!!

You need to allow for the time it takes to move from place to place when you plan an itinerary (which PalQ's numbers don't include)... It takes most of a full day to go between Paris and Venice by train, for example, so either Paris is 3 not 4, or Venice is 1 not 2. See how that works?? :-)

Everyone prioritizes differently. For me I would keep Paris, Barcelona, Venice for sure, maybe add Rome. Skip London and Lisbon but only because to me those aren't of as much interest.

Do you have to backtrack all the way up to Dublin for your flight home?

Have you ever negotiated a night train with four kids, Pal?

I didn't think so.

St Cirq - This isn't the family with 4 kids and 2 adults, this is only two people together "my friend and I" on this thread.

OOppssss! Thanks, suze. But my general comments still apply, I think.

Oh believe me I agree with you 100%!

PalQ's itinerary is not realistic because you need to add in transportation time between the cities/countries to give an accurate picture. It is simply not accurate the way it is written, would not work like that since you can't magically beam yourself from one city to the next in zero time.

Yup! D'accord:)

we plan to fly into London after flying into Dublin from the US.

We really need to know if you are flying both IN and OUT of Dublin from the US. That makes a big difference if you have to get back north (say from Rome) for your flight home. Or if that's what you need to do, it might make sense to change the order of the cities IF you have to go back to Dublin that is.

Can you clarify about your plane tickets?

Agree with Suze and St Cirq. You do not have as much time as you think, especially if you cannot open jaw it to one destination and out from your last destination.

PalQ's itinerary is not realistic because you need to add in transportation time between the cities/countries to give an accurate picture. It is simply not accurate the way it is written, would not work like that since you can't magically beam yourself from one city to the next in zero time.>

Well look at my post and and I mention that there would be a day of travel between each leaving two full days in Venice (if take night train from Paris) and 3 full days each in Rome and Paris - that is workable to me:

London 3 nights
Paris 3 nights
Venice 2 nights
Rome 3 nights

full days - 4th day for transport to them - overnight train to Venice from Paris makes two full days there.

Workable for sure to me at least but I would also suggest say cutting off London and add nights to Paris, Venice and Rome/

Well sure PalQ... now that you changed your numbers from 4/4/2/4 to 3/3/2/3 :-) is more realistic. But still does not address that they need to be in Dublin at BOTH the beginning and end of the trip. Where's that accounted for in your plan?

(1) Arrive Dublin and sleep 1 night then fly to London the next morning
(3) London then train to Paris
(3) Paris then train or fly to Venice
(3) Venice
(3) left for Lisbon or Barcelona or Rome
(1) fly back to Dublin for your flight home
=
(14) days total

OK here's the details from pk (being a new poster they can't reply to this thread yet often enough to answer our questions)!

we plan to fly the cheapest route into Europe and flying into Dublin and connecting to London seemed like a good option. this isn't set in stone though and we are not bound to fly out of Dublin. I'll prefer to fly out of wherever we end. or wherever you all think is best. thank you so much for your help!!!! I really appreciate all the advice.

Knowing these details really frees up the planning, if Dublin isn't even necessarily in the mix.

pk - Since you don't seem interested in Dublin, I would continue researching airfares and try to get the best price you can flying into one city (that you actually want to see) and out of the last city (again choosing a place you actually want to be). Unless you are saving thousands of dollars, a cheap flight to where you don't want to go... isn't really worth it (ha-ha).

yes as of now we are just trying to fly into any of those cities that is cheapest and we heard from others to fly into Dublin and then fly into London. but we are by no means bound to this, especially if there is a reasonably priced flight into one of the other cities on our list. if we were to fly into a city, which city would you suggest? I plan to do some research into flights into Paris, London, etc and see which is cheapest. any advice on what would be the best city to flight into is appreciated! thank you ALL!