blan1000

Our family of 4 (all adults) will be making a 3 week trip to Europe this summer to visit exchange students we have hosted. We will definitely be visiting Denmark (Copenhagen), Germany (Frankfurt), Finland (Helsinki), and Italy (Venice). Other stops we would be interested in making include Berlin, Prague, and the island of Sardinia in Italy (primarily to visit other exchange students we have met). On previous trips to Europe we have spent the entire vacation in one country or in one city, so we have no experience traveling between countries.

I'm looking for advice on several fronts. First, should we add on any of the additional stops, or just focus on our 4 primary stops?

Second, is flying between our stops the best option? It is more important for us to spend time with our students than to save a few bucks and lose time sitting on a train. Where is the best place to purchase tickets for travel within Europe?

Finally, is the best way to layout our stops just looking at the map and travel north to south (or vice versa)?

michelhuebeli

Much good information about train travel is available at www.seat61.com. Spend an hour perusing that site, it will be worth the effort.

The website of the German railways, www.bahn.de, also brings up schedules beyond Germany, mostly accurate.

For flights within Europe where there are a great many budget airlines that are not familiar to Americans, see www.whichbudget.com, www.skyscanner.net, http://matrix.itasoftware.com, and always google the website of a city's airport from which you consider flying, and that of a city into which you consider flying.
By looking at the arrivals and departures listed on those airport websites you get clues about airlines serving that airport that could be valuable.

Once you have looked at your options, you'll have to realistically compute the hours it takes door to door - flights always sound so quick when compared to hours on a train, but getting to the airport and all the rest of it can make that a much more level playing field. Plus - you don't get to see much from the air, and getting up and moving around and switching seats with family member etc. is more relaxed on a train than trying to do that on planes.

Hope this helps you getting started.

For what it's worth, you are visiting four important cities, each with lots to offer, and I would not consider adding any targets to that list. If you deduct the days of relocating, it leaves only a few short days in each of those four - barely enough to do each and their surroundings justice in the short time you have.

FuryFluffy

If you want a relax vacation then I recommend that you stay in your 4 primary stops. They are 4 big cities, in 4 different countries. It takes time to move between them, and to adjust to new environment.

For those 4 stops, flights would be best because there are no direct train between any two of them. To search for flights you can go on
https://www.skyscanner.com/
they'll point you to the optimal flight.

If you want to add stops, then add no more than 1 stop, preferably within train distance with one of your 4 primary stops, for example Berlin which is train-connected to Frankfurt. Adjust your flight and train schedule for these 5 stops. One useful website for transportation planning in Europe is:
https://www.rome2rio.com
It'll give you a rough idea of how to move between cities and countries, after that you can make more explicit search on internet.

sparkchaser

Flying is probably the smartest option but my only word of caution if you do this is to be wary of low-cost carriers because fees add up quickly.

blan1000

Thank you all for your advice! I definitely have something to go with now.