I need some big advice!
 

I am travelling with a friend from November 5 - November 23 and we are going to Barcelona, France, Ireland, and Germany. Our tentative itinerary looks something like this:

Spain: November 5th - Nobember 9th
France: November 9th - November 13th
Ireland: November 13th- November 18th
Germany: November 18th - November 23rd

We originally were only going to do Spain, Ireland and Germany but my travel partner is in the Canadian Military and we would both like to go to Vimy Ridge on November 11th. Where we really need the advice is on France. Since we are going to be there we want to go downtown as well to see the Eiffel tower. We plan on renting a car to drive to Vimy Ridge but are not sure whether to fly into Beauvais (more north on the way to Vimy Ridge) or Charles De Gaule (downtown) Should we try to do downtown Paris on the 9th/10th then drive to Vimy the evening of the 10th, then drive back to see a bit more. Is it possible to pick the rental car up at one airport and drop it off at another? Or would it be best to leave to change our itinerary leave Barcelona sooner or leave for Ireland later.

Hopefully I make sense. Any advice or tips would be greatly appreciated!

First if all, Is your while trip Nov 5-23, or do you land in Spain on the 5th?

Assuming the trip is actually Nov 4 - 23, you are still working w/ less time in each country than you may think.

What you'll really have is:

Spain: November 5th - November 8th (3.5 days)
France: November 9th - November 12th (3.5 days)
Ireland: November 13th- November 17h (4 or 4.5 days)
Germany: November 18th - November 23rd (4.5 or 4 days)

Which is long enough for 'single city' visits, but not 'countries'

CDG is not 'downtown'. The driving distance/time to the Memorial is almost exactly the same from either airport.

One-way rentals in the same country are seldom a problem.

Sorry - but you seem to be thinking that all of France is a suburb of Paris. Vimy Ridge is about 120 miles from Paris -so you will need to allow sufficient time to get there.

It's not clear from your list of places where you will be when - which days you will be traveling on.

Suggest you draft out a complete itinerary - showing where you will sleep each night and what you will be doing that day - as in local sightseeing or traveling from one place to another.

Without knowing what specific cities you wil be in - and when - it's impossible to make a lot of recos - for instance -if flights make more sense than trains - in terms of cost or timing.

Suggest you lay out a detailed itinerary - allowing at least a half day to get from one city to another and which cities you will be in - so people can make sensible recos.

Paris does not have an "uptown" and a "downtown." Areas are referred to as right or left bank and by arrondissement.

There are no airports in Paris; they are all on the outskirts.

You need to allow lots of time to get your rental car and drive to Vimy and do the return trip. The obvious time to rent the car is when you arrive at one of the Paris airports so you don't spend time and money getting to the airport and back to Paris. You can pick up at one airport and drop off at another. CDG is probably the easiest airport to drop off the car if you're going to Paris.

Advice/tips? You cannot see an entire country in a few days. Choose one location per country which will not be indicative of the whole country. Or choose one country and see several areas of that country.

You are dreaming--in that short time pick two, and make them adjacent.

Yes you can pick up at one airport and back to another.

You don't want a car in Paris, actually you don't want them in most cities unless you have tonnes of gear.

I don't know how much you have pre-brooked but I would cut one country out of this lot and in November I'd cut Ireland as it tends towards the damp and chilly.

Although Beauvais appears much closer to the Vimy memorial, they are about the same driving distance and the travel time is the same.

CDG has much better connections (rail) to central Paris so if you intend to visit Paris first, flying into CDG, visiting Paris and then picking up a rental car somewhere in Paris (not to central, but not to far from your hotel) and driving straight out of the city to Vimy would make sense. You can then return the car to either CDG or Beauvais depending on how your flight planning to Ireland works out.

Alternately, you could land at either airport and head straight to Vimy before returning the car to CDG for quick efficient access to Paris for the remainder of your stay. You would ten have to get to either CDG or Beauvais for your flight on to Ireland.

And enjoy all four stops - you don't have to take these other posters with you

For Ireland you can fly in from Paris to either Cork or Dublin. I would suggest flying into Cork and making an arc up and round to Dublin depending as has been said your key aims for the country.

I would scrap Ireland tbh and concentrate on the other three.

Thank you for taking the time to respond. I really appreciate all of the advice and I will be sure to use it. I'm looking forward to my trip.

I also feel if you skipped Ireland entirely, then you'd have the chance at a more realistic itinerary. Ireland just doesn't fit with the others, and you truly don't have enough time for what you propose.

Did I miss the part where the OP asked if she should go to all 4 places and if not, which one she should drop?

Did I get confused about the part where she said that France, not Ireland, was actually the add on to an earlier 3 country itinerary?

Or the part where everyone elses personal pace and preferences (we don't seem to like Ireland in November, do we?) for travel should actually inform the OP's choices of what she and her friend want and planned to see and how much time they want to spend doing it?

Maybe you missed the part when she said:

<Any advice or tips would be greatly appreciated!>

She tagged four countries. Tagged countries are sacrosanct. Please see Poobahs versus Rogandgee, 2014.

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...er-visited.cfm

I know this trip sounds a bit crazy and we are only going to be able to see so much in each place but my friend only has so much vacation. I on the other hand will be living in Hungary for 6 months so if there is a place that I fall in love with, I will more than likely go back. I am going to Ireland because I have a friend living there that I really want to see and she will be showing me around. She is only home for the month of November before she takes off on her own travels. Weather doesn't really bother me… I am from Canada after all!

Thank you Aramis, we won't be renting a car for downtown Paris but are going to rent one for Vimy Ridge.

This is our tentative itinerary… it isn't ideal but hopefully doable:

Nov 9: Land in Beauvais at 8:35am
Air Bus is at 8:55-10:10
Check into hostel
Go sightseeing

Nov 10: Go see some more stuff until that evening
Shuttle to Beauvais Airport (75 min)
Pick up rental car and drive to Vimy (about 2 hours)

Nov 11: Do Vimy
Stay in Vimy that night

Nov 12: Leave Vimy that evening or stop some where on the way back
Sleep somewhere close to Beauvais

Nov 13: Leave for Dublin at 9:30am

>>Nov 9: Land in Beauvais at 8:35am
Air Bus is at 8:55-10:10 <<

I wouldn't count on making the bus w/ just 20 mins. Beauvais isn't large but that is a really short turn around.

>>Nov 10: Go see some more stuff until that evening
Shuttle to Beauvais Airport (75 min)
Pick up rental car and drive to Vimy (about 2 hours)<<

Why?

You are going to be staying in Paris - right? (didn't make that totally clear)

If so there is no need to collect a car at Beauvais. You can pick it up at CDG and drop it at Beauvais. Shouldn't cost any extra. So you plan on driving to Vimy late at night?

I think people use the term downtown to mean city center, that's all. I understood it perfectly well. Not that I think CDG is convenient to it. If you have a choice, Orly is closer to city center. Most people don't have that much choice as to where to fly into, though.

You're staying TWO nights in Vimy - versus in Paris? I would reorganize that - either leaving the morning of the 11th or only staying the night of the 10th.

so that is what downtown means, I thought it was something on TV
:-)

Here is what I had to say about my trip to Vimy Ridge without even being Canadian: http://anyportinastorm.proboards.com...ridge-memorial