There is no one answer. But you're on the right track. You don't mention where you are coming from (what is your closest international airport to where you live) so we can't really help specifically without knowing that.

You just need to play around online and see which cities have good prices. Just use a general website like Expedia and try different cities, different airlines, different dates, different times.

Also remember it's not only about money, if you take flights with a bunch of stops, long layovers, whatever, probably isn't worth saving $50 bucks (for example). I look for the best flight times, the best airports, the best connections (least amount of them), along with a low price.

For me, from Seattle, London/Heathrow is usually my best bet (then a flight onward to Amsterdam or Geneva or whatever).

There is no one "best city" is what I'm trying to say :-)

Listen to suze and follow her advice. You do have to devote a bunch of time to playing around online and researching to get the best deals. For some of us, this is the joy of travel planning - for others, I suspect, it's a PITA. We live in France and can get fabulous deals to travel to other spots in Europe, but I spend HOURS looking up flights from Bergerac and Bordeaux and Toulouse to a gazillion places in Europe and North Africa. I suppose it all comes down to how much it means to you to save a few hundred dollars on airfare, but it does mean a lot to me. I feel like a "winner" when I can get to Marrakech for under USA$50. Or Milan for 19 euros.

Very true. It is a lot of researching. Luckily my friend is also looking into the best flights so I'm not alone. but I'm thinking overall to follow suze's travel plan unless a good flight comes my way and its better to fly into one of those cities :)

found a $1200 roundtrip from Paris from RDU. do you think this is a good option? my proposed itinerary modified from the great one Suze made:


(1) Paris then train or fly to Venice
(3) Venice
(3) left for Lisbon or Barcelona or Rome
(2) London?
3) back to Paris?

Thoughts? Thank you so much for your help!

I do not think the time you have allotted for London and Paris is sufficient. I would drop (3) or just do Paris, Venice and Rome. You would already be in Italy if you go to Venice and Rome is a very easy train ride.

There is a reason you don't see this itinerary. Everyone is trying to get you to see the reason. ;) You seem like a young person. You will be back. Just pick your top two or three cities and then keep the rest on the back burner for the next trip. You can't do it all in two weeks...

Don't discount the option to use discount airlines and possibly one-way fares.

Eg Fly OW RDU to Lisbon (or RT Dublin and then on to Lisbon via Ryanair). With a red-eye you can arrive in the morning. Three days Lisbon. Lisbon airport is very close to the city center and you can reach the airport by Metro or Uber in less than an hour (20 minutes with Uber) $20 or less

Lisbon to BCN (Vueling).. Three days Barcelona.

BCN to Paris (EasyJet or others) Three days Paris

Paris to London (train is only 2-3 hours and you wouldn't need to deal with the London airports). Three Days London

London to Dublin (Ryanair) connecting to your flight home.

That is 12 days sightseeing plus two travel days (assuming that the final day is lost entirely to travel) . I don't think I would add another city but you can get a taste of the above 4 cities in 14 days.

I assume you're young and have more energy than most Fodorites.

I am! that is a great itinerary! thank you very much!! will post if more questions arise!! if anyone else has other ideas/advice feel free to post or private message me! thank you ALL!

Found a great itinerary we are thinking of doing. Thoughts on this? we would fly into Barcelona:
day 1-3 barcelona
day 4 train Barcelona to Paris
day 5-8 Paris
day 8 to 9 - overnight train to Venice
day 9 and 10 - venice
day 11 - Venice + train to rome
day 12-14 - rome, then fly back to barcelona
fly back from Barcelona to home

Thoughts?? my friend got it from this itinerary: https://www.zigzagonearth.com/2-week...ain/#tab-con-8

I think its good but open to other opinions!

Flying into and out of Barcelona means that you have to back track, which is rarely a good option. It is usually better in terms of time and money to fly into one city and out of another (aka "open jaw").

For me, this trip would be unsatisfying and frustrating, as it would not give me enough time as I would want in any of these wonderful cities. But maybe it will work for you.

Note that you will likely "lose" a chunk of time in Barcelona to jet lag.

Hope that helps!

To earlier posts, yes, this itinerary where all the cities of Europe are visited with enough time in 2 weeks doesn't seem to exist! darn!

It is cheaper to fly home from Barcelona than from rome. Flying home from rome is very $$! but a flight from rome back to Barcelona is only $50! thats why I chose to backtrack

Open jaw flights ideally are preferred when possible. Unfortunately, for many the cost of flying in or out of certain airports, or open jaw possibilities, can be a lot more expensive, at least in "money." The individual traveler has to decide how to value their "time". I have backtracked numerous times, where an extra couple of hours of travel might save us $1,000 or more.

Beyond that, your newest itinerary is do-able. If the cost of flying between some of your destinations is not dramatically more than rail, I might consider that. It might give you more time in your various destinations. We do enjoy rail travel, though, and often meet interesting people and see a lot of countryside.