Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - Is this a GOOD itinerary? please feel free to critcize

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Is this a GOOD itinerary? please feel free to critcize

day 1 Arrive in Paris at noon day 2 Paris day 3 Paris day 4 Take the overnight train to Rome day 5 Rome ( It will Be New Year) day 6 Rome day 7 Rome day 8 Rome day 9 Take the morning train to Florence day 10 take the morning train to Venice day 11 Venice day 12 Venice day 13 Take the plane to Vienna day 14 Vienna day 15 Vienna day 16 Vienna day 17 take the morning flight to London day 18 London day 19 London day 20 london day 21 London day 22 Going home

Either skip Florence or spend at least a full day there.

I guess it depends if you don't think you'll ever want to go back to Europe within the near future or not, how easy you get bored in places, and how much so much constant travel and the attendant checking in and out, transportation, etc, bother you (not to mention the expense). Basically, you are spending a lot of money and time to travel around to distant places, but only spending a few days in each or entire countries. I would scratch Vienna from the trip myself and add those days to other places, perhaps Paris. You don't give any ideas as to why you chose this itinerary, where you've been before, etc.

I forgot to mention I have been to Paris before and that is why I am not spending as much time. My favorite place in Europe is London and that is why I am going there in the end. Michael- I will be in Florence for a whole day (24 hours). I am not much of an art lover.

Too much Vienna. Not enough Florence.

I think that the amount of time you spend in each of the cities you list is a function of your own priorities and the attractions you favor the most. Trips to Europe for most of us are a series of compromises involving time, money, and interests. I don't think you can go far wrong with the schedule you have. It is therefore a question of fine tuning. Being in Rome on New Year's day is something of an unknown factor to me. I don't know what, if anything, will be open and what will be closed. I was in London on New Year's Day once, and nothing was open except a few restaurants. For Vienna, you might consider trimming a day, depending on your desire to attend musical events. I could spend more time or less time there after learning the opera and concert schedule. If I interpret your schedule correctly, you will have 3 full days in Paris, plus the day you arrive. Even so, I think you are cutting Paris a little thin, but without deleting a day or two from one of the other major cities, I don't see how you could allot more time. For me personally Paris would command the most time. I would add at least 1 day to Paris and cut one from Rome or one from Vienna, or Venice, or even London. I say that because I have spent 14 days in Paris in the last 3 years, plus 5 days several years ago, and I still have enough unvisited attractions on my list to use up 3 or 4 more days. After doing your pretrip planning in more detail, and reading the suggestions written here, you will have the necessary facts to make your own choices that best fit your interests and budget. Unfortunately, few of us have unlimited time with liberal budgets. So we select as best we can within the various constraints.

OOPS. I was writing my response when you posted your comment that you had been to Paris previously. So my comments on Paris are somewhat diluted.

Skip Vienna and do Prague or Budapest. If you have to do Vienna, then 4 nights there are too much. Also chop 1 night off Rome and have 2 nights in Florence so that you can have 1 full day to do the Uffizi, see David and see the cathedral.

I posted this once before, but seems to have disappeared. Skip Florence unless you plan to spend a full day there.

It's up to you, but this is an awful lot of transportation for the time allocated to each city. I am of the opinion that the worst part of traveling is leaving one place and getting situated in another, and that the first thing you do when planning a trip is to eliminate all of the stress, agravation and sheer boredom that you can.