touchthesky

Hello everyone,
I am new to this, but I would love any advice on my trip to Europe this coming summer. I will spend 5 weeks in Europe and me and my sister wanna make this a great experience. We will be there for 5 weeks, and the places we are visiting are the following:
London, Paris, Bruges, Munich, Berlin, Athens, Prague, Rome, Florence, Venice, The French Riviera, Barcelona.
Any tips, recommendations, or anything for our trip. Thank you

Michel_Paris

Hi,
Might help to give an idea of how you have scheduled the cities...2 days in London would get different suggestions versus 5 days.

This is a lot of territory to cover. You may find that all of the travel between the cities will add up to a lot more "getting there and settling in " time versus "enjoying being there" time. Do you want to get a feel for each place or simply see the main sites? I see twelve cities and 8 countries...did I say this seeems like a lot of ground to cover? Assuming 1/2 to 1 day between cities, that's under 3 days per location.

How are you getting around?
Where are you staying?
What are your itnerests?
Budget?

ira

Hi T,

>Any tips, recommendations,....

12 major stops in 35 days.

You will be totally exhausted by the 4th week.

You are not planning this trip in the order given, are you?

Are you flying or taking trains?

janisj

That is a laundry list - not a "plan".

Tell us more about your itinerary and how you are getting around (if you know).

But even w/o knowing the details, it is a LOT of stops over a LOT of territory in just 5 weeks.

touchthesky

I am flying most of the time in domestic flights. I am trying to see as much while enjoying as much as possible. Chances are I might not go again to Europe any time soon. We dont have a set budget, but we are trying to stay at hostels, cheap domestic flights, train.
As of now, i have the following:
Flight from LA-London 3 days in London, fly from London to Paris 3 days in Paris, take the overnight train to Bruges stay just one day there, take the overnight train to Munich just to see the Neuschwanstein castle, overnight it to Berlin stay 3 days, fly to Athens and stay 5 days there, fly to Prague and stay 2 days, fly to Rome and stay a week in Italy ( Rome, Florence, Venice), take the train to the French Riviera stay 4 days, arrive to Barcelona 2 days and go back to London. I have all the domestic flights purchased and the cruise we are taking in athens. I am still looking for hostels and the train.
Thanks for all your help guys.

AisleSeat

I travel at breakneck speeds but this is a little on the ambitious side even for me. If it was me I think I would decide to not try to conquor all of Europe in one trip.

In my humble opinion I would cut Barcelona, the French Rivera and Athens off of this trip. Then make a day-by-day plan and come back and let us help you tweak it to get the max out of it. Plan on an extra day or two each in London, Paris and Rome because they each have a lot to offer.

Mimar

Well too bad you made so many reservations before asking for help. Personally after flying from the west coast I would still have jetlag on the third day in London. And I'd take the Eurostar from London city center to Paris city center and not deal with airports. Also train from Rome to Florence and Venice.

Have you flown much lately? Getting to airports early and back into the next city, security lines, flight delays, luggage losses/delays all make it stressful. And budget airlines often fly into inconvenient airports. Consider checking no luggage, just doing carry-on. Out of London they no longer limit you to one piece only.

TexasAggie

Consider Mike's Bike Tour for Neuschwanstein. I did it in 2002 as a 22-yr-old and had a wonderful time.
http://www.mikesbiketours.com/

I wouldn't dare try your itinerary as I'd be afraid of spending most of my vacation looking at Europe from an airport or a train window... but since you've already booked... I highly recommend bringing some cold medicine and extra Vitamin C. If you do get rundown and get sick, this itinerary will be a complete nightmare. Try to get as much sleep every night as you can to keep your immune system healthy.

In Venice, I stayed at Ostello Santa Fosca (a hostel). It was the nicest hostel I stayed in (in Italy) during my backbacking days and the location is great. I believe it's in the Let's Go guidebook if you're using it to plan.

zooey91

This reminds me of my first trip to Europe. I had a rail pass and often slept on overnight trains, but in 1977 you could often sleep relatively comfortably without paying for a bed (and I slept much better on trains when I was 19).

Where'd I go? Let's see, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, France, Spain, England, Scotland, Israel, and back to London.

I did this in three months, and still was somewhat exhausted. You seem to be looking to do a similar trip in less than half the time, so I concur that you should scale back.

The key to any travel is to convince yourself that you'll be back, that it's a small world these days, and somehow, some way, you'll manage to return.

Otherwise you go nuts trying to see everything, and you end up with little quality time.

StCirq

Did a trip something like this once, though actually more laid back than yours. Don't remember a thing about it.

janisj

&quot;<i>I am trying to see as much while enjoying as much as possible. </i>&quot;

That is the the thinking behind a lot of first-time itineraries. Unfortunately - as often as not, just the opposite happens. You end up enjoying some and seeing - not so much.

Every time you move from one city/country to another you lose from 1/2 to 1 full day just to packing, checking out, traveling, checking in, unpacking. And when flying is involved it is even worse since the budget airlines have very stringent checkin requirements and use more remote airports. You really will spend most of some of your days looking at the insides of planes/airports/shuttle buses/security queues.

Since you've already bought all your transport - you are sort of stuck w/ what you have.

Good luck and hope things work out better than they look now.

jeremygil

Your schedule looks pretty good to me, I think with 3 days in Berlin and 5 in Athens, and time on planes and trains you'll have time to catch your breath. I would suggest researching the museums and sites you want to visit and find out how to get in w/o spending all day in line.
Louvre: use the entrance underground in the shopping center.
Uffuzzi and Acedemia: Call ahead and make reservations.
Vatican: Book tour through the Vatican to skip the line. You can take the tour or just figure you paid a premium to skip the line and guide yourself.
Coloseum: Buy tickets at Palentine Hill, use the Roma Card, or walk past the line and go to the last booth on the right. It's where you buy tickets for the guided tour and it's only slightly more and worth skipping the line even if you don't take the tour.
These are just a few, do some research and make a plan and you'll save lot's of valuable time.

travelbunny

..if you insist on doing something like this, book a bus trip. You might as well as you are creating a &quot;Tuesday it must be Belgium &quot; itinerary. Rules of thumb- everyday you switch hotels represents a lost day. Travel costs money. Do ;ess, see more. With these rules in mind, for a 5 week trip, focus on 5- max 8 places to stay but do day trips. london for almost a week with day trips to Oxford or Bath for example. Maybe a week Amsterdam, Bruges and Brussels, Paris another week..again with day trips ect..That or just book a bus trip if you want to have a lot of photos but no memories.

tuscanlifeedit

Can you cut Athens? I think more time in some other places would be more enjoyable. IMO 5 days there is much too much.

If you read any lists of folks' favorite places in Europe, you will not see very many mentions of Athens.

3 days in London, 3 in Paris, and 5 in Athens is very hard for me to understand.

And oh, the airport time you will be suffering through. And the expensive rides to and from all these airports... can you rethink your trip?

tuscanlifeedit

Oh, I apologize: you are taking a cruise from Athens. And you already have the flights purchased.

But when you say domestic flights, does that just mean your flights to London?

If so, and you are committed to the cruise, I would still do some trimming. And training. And I mean that last in every sense of the word.

janisj

tuscanlifeedit: That is what I thought at first too. But if you read the OP's later post it may be that 5 days is for a cruise since he says &quot;<i>I have all the domestic flights purchased and the cruise we are taking in athens.</i>&quot;

touchthesky

Thank you so much everyone for your help. This will help a lot. Even though as i said, the INTERNATIONAL FLIGHT ( from LA to London), domestic flights ( e.g. Berlin-Athens, Athens-Prague, Prague-Rome) have been bought, I have not planned much after Italy, maybe cutting the French Riviera and staying in Italy would be the best. I have to be honest, i did this w/o much knowledge. My cousin who spent 5 months in Europe helped me somewhat, but I guess he was just trying to kill me, hahah. Thanks again and I will print all this out and take notes.
Thanks,

GSteed

Wow! Get the map out. Plot your journey. As mentioned, allow one day of travel between each city. You will probably be travelling more than you are being a tourist. Try, RTE News for a list of hostels. Note the prices, they are often higher than 2* hotels. I also suggest you try a week long 'whirlwind' tour of your own state or region. Try using trains and busses and sleeping in hostels or campgrounds.

suze

I would go back to the drawingboard &amp; make a list of what you have already purchased.

And stick with only those. Because somehow you need to cut back your itinerary.

12 places (traveling by plane) in 35 days is not a reasonable plan in my opinion.

Nonconformist

So you've boked your flights and probably can't change those (NB Berlin-Athens, Athens-Prague, Prague-Rome are all international flights, from one country to another).

So your only options to cut back and survive the trip are between Paris and Berlin, where you had planned three days in Paris, one day in Bruges, detour via Munich to see Neuschwanstein, then Berlin for three days before you take another flight. I think you would be better off adding two days to Paris, or one each to Paris and Berlin, and skipping Bruges and Neuschwanstein this time, lovely as those places are. For one thing I wouldn't really advise two overnight trains one after another.

Then later on you have a week pencilled in for three cities in Italy, four days in the French Riviera, then two days in Barcelona. I would cut down here too. If you want to keep all three of the Italian cities, cut the Riviera and Barcelona, and fly back to London from Italy. If you've got a flight from Barcelona already and feel you have to go there, then cut one of the Italian destinations.

Ultimately, it is up to you what you choose to do.