Help with travel route please
 

We (2 people) are only just now trying to organize the route for our short trip to include a. Belfast, Ireland, b. Saltburn by the Sea, England, c. Vicenza/venice, Italy, and d. Gothenburg, Sweden. We are not averse to flying into or out of anywhere in Europe/UK/Ireland to/from Boston or New York, but want to spend the most time in the 4 main cities above in no particular order, and see other places traveling between them by train. Excluding our days to fly in/out, we only have 17 days for our trip, from May 22, 2014 to June 7, 2014. We want to spend one night in an upscale lodging, with the remainder in hostels/inexpensive lodging. Any ideas on travel routes/itineraries, rail/ferry, flights would be greatly appreciated.

Interesting itinerary. How did you choose these cities in particular--your interest in them?
What kind of plans have you come up with for yourself? Guide books? Interest in those cities--museums, buildings, etc. I'm feeling a tug.

I'm intrigued, beginner. how did you come up with that selection? Saltburn in particular is way off the beaten tourist track [or any other track come to think of it - I'd never heard of it and I've lived in England for 57 1/2 years!]

getting there from Belfast might be fun too - and then to Gothenburg, which is logically the next place you should head for.

Presumably you know why you're going to these places?

OK -- you must have a reason?? Unlike annhig, I <i>have</i> heard of Saltburn by the Sea -- . . . But never been there. The only reason I once considered visiting was to see the funicular after visiting Whitby. But we ran out of time and never made it there.

This is a VERY unusual list of places. And not at all an easy itinerary. Do you have relatives/friends in these places or did you pick them for some other reason(s).

Belfast - are you also interested in more of Northern Ireland/Ireland?

Saltburn - are you interested in other parts of NW England or just Saltburn?

Gothenburg - are you also interested in other parts of Sweden and/or Denmark?

Venice -fine - but do you want to see other part(s) of Italy too?

Easyjet fly from Belfast to Newcastle. You could rent a car there to get to Saltburn.
From Newcastle you could fly BA via Heathrow to Gothenburg, and then from there fly to Venice. Book an open jaw flight from Boston or NY so you don't need to back track.

All these places are far apart so flying is the only practical solution.

Get a multi-city flight from NYC to Belfast and then Venice back to NYC. Buy "cheap" flights for the legs within Europe.

From Belfast, fly to Newcastle, train to Saltburn.

Train to Manchester fly to Gothenburg

now the tricky part - either an indirect and likely expensive flight from Gothenburg to Venice, or the train to Copenhagen and fly to Venice.

Won't be cheap but that's one way to do it. I think you need to have a close look at a map and see how practical this really is if you are on any sort of budget.

Geocaching?

There's almost no way to get between any of these places by train. You could take a ferry from Larne (near Belfast) to Stanraer and possibly take a train or bus the rest of the way to Saltburn. It would be a very long trip, I would guess about 12 hours total, maybe more. I would think it would be better to fly to some city closer to Saltburn.

You'd have to fly to Gothenburg, as there's a lot of water between England and Sweden; I don't know which airport in the UK would give you the best connection. You'd certainly have to fly to Venice, as it's a very long distance, partly over water.

You're going to lose three whole days in the transfers between these four cities, so you'll only have 14 days left. If one is your arrival day and one is your departure day, you'd have 12 days.

The most logical order would be Belfast, Saltburn, Gothenburg, Vicenza/Venice. You should book flights landing in Belfast and returning home from Venice to avoid backtracking.

As I said, I'm feeling a tug on my leg. LOL

This is soooo cool to have this many responses. Thank you everyone. I have never written on one of these forums, and I really appreciate the replies. The trip came about b/c my daughter is thinking of giving me a eurail trip for my 50th bday. (sounds like plane tix may be better?) My best friend and I each picked 2 cities each that we want to see. Belfast for where the Titanic was, and anywhere around there for Irish culture, music, dancing. Saltburn b/c it is near Kilton Castle with some geneology interest. Vicenza to see my birthplace and Venice b/c it is nearby. Sweden to visit long lost family, more than tour the area. It sounds like we were naive in thinking we could link these together, but it is a once in a lifetime trip, so we are going to do our best, and will research any ideas you can offer.

Well, Eurail is not your best use. It is so sweet to link all this up with your best friend. I am almost overcome!! Maybe a map and guide book?
OH, yes, do you have a budget? We deal better knowing that. How interesting to be born in Vicenza and have family in Sweden--they DID get around!

Eurail is useless in the UK so won't help you w/ Belfast and Saltburn. Then you are headed to Scandanavia which is a LONG way from Italy. So there is no place trains will help you much -- except for w/i Italy - and no pass makes sense there.

Kilton Castle is a tiny ruin - barely anything standing and it is on private property. Assuming you get permission to go there, I don't know how you'd get there w/o a car

Thank you for all of the information and route ideas. You have given me lots of things to look up. Do you know of any inexpensive, safe, clean lodging near train routes in any of those areas? Is the total price for 2 in a hostel less than one hotel room? We only plan to “splurge” on one fancy overnight stay somewhere. Any suggestions? We are working with a budget of under $10,000. for all flights to/from US and between our destinations, trains, lodging, food, etc. for both of us. What are thoughts on this?

Without Scandinavia, your budget is fine. But even just a few days there will eat up a lot of your funds.

When time is limited, you really do better traveling to cities that are in the same general vicinity. I try to travel open jaw into one city and out of another.
We're getting ready to hit Budapest, Bratislava, Vienna and Prague for 15 days--all great cities in close proximity.
We also have visited Venice, Florence, Chianti and Rome. Or, Vienna, Salzburg, Munich.
You might want to reconsider an itinerary that's easier and cheaper to get to in order to maximize your trip enjoyment.

You won't be using trains except for a couple of short trips maybe so I wouldn't worry about being close to stations which often isn't a desirable location.

>>>b/c my daughter is thinking of giving me a eurail trip for my 50th bday<<<

A rail pass is pretty useless and expensive for this itinerary. It would take much too long to attempt rail travel between your list. Sounds like you would need a car for part of it and some areas are better served by buses.

In such a short amount of time, with such long distances to cover, you will have to fly. I would fly to the furthest point and start there. Get the bulk of long travel out of the way as you will be jetlagged anyway and not up to sightseeing arrival day. Perhaps start in Sweden, fly to Belfast or Saltburn and end in Venice area (Vicenza is not far from there and you could fly home from either Venice or Milan).

Does your $10,000 include the money your daughter would have spent on the railpass?

>>>It sounds like we were naive in thinking we could link these together, but it is a once in a lifetime trip, so we are going to do our best, and will research any ideas you can offer.<<<

It's a mistake to think of this as once in a lifetime as once you travel, you will find a way to go again.

Sweden is expensive. Will you be staying with relatives there?