April 6th- Fly into Amsterdam
April 7th-10th- Visit Netherlands
April 11th- Travel to Germany
April 12th-16th- visit Germany
April 17th- Travel to France
April 18th-20th- Visit France
April 21th- Travel to Italy
April 22th-26st- Visit Italy
April 27th- Fly back home

I'm new at this so hopefully this is pretty good. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. My boyfriend and I have been to all these countries when we were younger. Please offer any suggestions of places to visit within each country. Also, I dont want to do too much but if you think that we could sneak in a country, please let me know.

No, I would not add in another country. Don't you have cities that you would like to see in these countries? It would be like me saying I am going to NY, Florida, Arizona and California, without specifying what I want to see there, what my interests are, how am planning on traveling, and so on. Where are you flying home from in Italy?

<< Also, I dont want to do too much but... >>

You're already doing too much. 4 entire countries in 3 weeks.

At the top of this screen click on "Destinations" which will give you a reasonable idea of what to see in each country in the few days you have.

You could go to all of these countries in this time frame, but it would be so..quick.

Another option you might want to consider is an organized tour. These countries are common ones for toru companies, so you could see all of them, not need to worry about transit detaisl, not woory about findng your way around, and be guaratneeed to see all of the main sites...and be able to enjoy the countryside while not driving.

travel...how to balance "being" there and "seeing" there.

What do you want to see in these countries? Just an Amsterdam/Paris/Berlin/Rome type of trip or are you hoping to avoid cities? If the former (though of course not necessarily those four cities) then it is doable but exhausting. If you want to see more than just the museums/city centres then you should perhaps consider reducing the number of countries by at least one, probably by two or better yet by three.

Let us know what you hope to see and how you are planning on getting from a to b and we can help you further.

Hi eri,

Your itinerary is fine; assuming that you are in reasonable health, and going by train, but you won't have time for more than 1 (maybe 2) venue in each country.

Now you just have to fill in where you will be in each country.

eribert;

Whether this itinerary "works" well or not will depend on where you go in each country. Will you be staying all 5 days in one area? One hotel? Do you plan to stay somewhere different every night? If you decide to see Hamburg, Berlin, Dresden, the Black Forest, and Munich in your 5 days in Germany, most of us will cringe and some who respond would probably even insult you (seriously - it's sad).

Depending on where you want to go in each country, it may make more sense to go Netherlands - France - Germany - Italy. It takes about 18 hours to drive; Amsterdam - Paris - Munich - Venice, but 26 to drive Amsterdam - Munich - Paris - Venice.

You really need to identify the specific places, or areas you want to see in each country before better advice can be given.

Um- I don;t know how you visit an entire country, such as France, in 3 days. Could you visit the US in 3 days?

Four days for the Netherlands isn't bad - assuming you mean a couple of days inn Amsterdam and a couple in the countryside. it's a compact country and you can see quite a bit in 4 days.

But in 3 days you can barely scratch the surface of Paris - never mind anything else in France - all the other provinces and cities. Same for Germany and Italy.

Which CITIES are you going to? (You can briefly visit one city in each country - but to see anything of one of the larger countries you need to allocate from a week up to several weeks or months - depending on how many places you want to see.

You need to get a general guidebook and do some reading to determine what you really want to see. Get a map and look at locations and distances. If you plan on using the train check out bahn.de for schedules, if you want to drive look at viamichelin.com for routes and timing.

And without knowing anything about you - are your interests museums and culture, churches and architecture, hiking, beaches, wine and fine dining - clog dancing??? Without some info from you we can;t make useful recos - beyond that fact that you simply can;t see countries in the very brief time you have.

(My first trip to europe we saw small parts of Germany, France, Spain and Italy and one town in Austria. And that was 6 weeks.

I agree with Ira. I think it is fine if you are going to stay in one place for at least 3 days. Many on this forum travel a great deal and we have learned to take it a little easier, but I think it is fine as long as you realize that you will need to choose exactly where you want to go in each country. For instance, are you going to Paris or Provence or ? Do you want to be in the city or the countryside?

Have fun planning and don't get discouraged by the comments. They are trying to help!

WT