Itinerary advice
 

Hi all
I've really enjoyed reading all of your comments as I've tried to put together an itinerary for our first European holiday. I'd really appreciate any feedback, suggestions or ideas you can give about my first draft plan as below.

From Perth, Australia for 4 weeks

Rome 5 nights
Florence 4 nights - visit Lucca, Sienna
Munich 4 nights - Salzberg and Dachau trips
Prague - 3 nights
Berlin - 4 nights
Paris - 6 nights - Villers-Bretonneux, Versailles

We're leaving Spain, Greece, Austria, Netherlands, Switzerland until another trip as we are trying to avoid over planning. It's obviously an exercise in making difficult choices as I'd really love to go everywhere! We have been to London and Dublin in recent years so have deliberately left off UK this time.

I'd really appreciate any suggestions or tips you may have and any comment on this plan.
Cheers
Shelley

It would help if you keep a single thread going, but now that you've started a second one, please help us out by (a) providing the link to your earlier thread and (b) summarizing what you changed in response to the comments you already received. Thanks!

My apologies. I'm new to this and didn't realise I had mucked that up before it was done! I'll see what I can do about creating the link etc.
Thanks.

Sorry for the confusion. Please see original thread at http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...e-511644-2.cfm
Thanks.

I think it looks really good (and I know how hard it was to cross off Greece!... but that is a good move)... I would move a night from Munich to Prague. That said, I am not the Prague fan here - so 3 days/nights is more than enough for me. I just would spend more time there than Munich.

(or do you have friends in Munich?).

Length of train rides:

Florence-Munich 7.5 hours (overnight train possible)
Munich-Prague 5 hours
Prague-Berlin 5 hours
Berlin-Paris 9 hours (about half that if you fly)

Unless you find an organized excursion, the day trip from Paris to the Villers-Bretonneux memorial involves at least a 1.5 hour train ride (some options take longer) plus a 3 km. one-way walk or taxi ride. So, two hours minimum each way.

no worries, Shelley6 -- I wasn't trying to criticize, just trying to help. thanks for giving the link to your original post.

To comment further on your plans, I think it would help to know more about your interests. As an example, those of us who really treasure art would want at least 5 days for Florence itself; others might just want a day or two there. So can you tell us a bit more about what you want to see and experience on this trip?

Sorry but I don't understand the point of asking the same question again. You have not made any changes to your overscheduled itinerary (that I can see).

Hoping for different answers perhaps...?

Hi and thanks again everyone
centraleurope - no we don't have friends in Munich and we may well choose to leave Munich out as well. That leaves Berlin as our only German destination. I think I added Munich just to try to sneak something extra in. I'll add an extra day to Prague. Thanks for an encouraging start.
Jean - fantastic information on train travel times. Really appreciate it and will take it all on board - pardon the pun!
kja - That's fine. I've got top start somewhere. So again apologies to adrienne and Jean who have also seen my error. Original post is at http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...e-511644-2.cfm
Thanks.

Since I am unimpressed by Munich and find Berlin too sprawling I don't think you should mind losing them. Germany has some great cities just not those two.

Hamburg, Hanover, Trier, Ulm, Wurzberg, Konstanz, Magdeburg even Stuttgart come to mind as far more interesting.

If you scratch Munich but still want to experience another German town, Dresden would be an easy one-or two night stop between Berlin and Prague. It is a beautiful city, yet small enough to see the highlights in a day or two. Would break up the train ride between Berlin and Prague nicely.

You then get to redistribute the four nights you originally allocated to Munich. I agree that adding one to Prague is a good idea. Then 1 or 2 to Dresden, and at least one more to give to the city of your choice. I'd probably add it to Paris, but you've picked lovely cities so an extra night in any of them would be very enjoyable. Have fun!