Hi everyone,

We finally booked our plane tickets for next march! We're flying in/out of Paris. Here's how I have the days laid out so far (by city, don't have details as to what we'll do yet).

What do you think? We like to spend at least 2 nights in each city. I've got a couple of blanks where I don't know where we should go...any ideas? we've been to europe but none of these areas before. We'll be traveling via train.
thanks!

Day 1 - Arrive in Paris in the a.m.
Day 2 - Paris
Day 3 - Normandy - stay in Bayeaux?
Day 4 - To Belgium - stay in Brussels
Day 5 - Brussels
Day 6 - Day trip from Belgium to Bruges (or should we stay a day or two in Bruges?)
Day 7 - Arrive in Amsterdam
Day 8 - Amsterdam
Day 9 - Tour Tulips / smaller town
Day 10 - not sure?
DAy 11 - not sure?
Day 12- Head to Champagne region of France (Reims?)
Day 13 - Champagne Region
Day 14 - Train to Paris in a.m. - Leave from Paris in the afternoon (sigh)

I think it's a crying shame to fly in and out of Paris and allot yourself basically only one day there. That first day is essentially lost.

And forget Normandy for just a day, especially since you're going to turn around immediately and head in the opposite direction.

Basically this isn't my idea of a sensible itinerary, from the standpoint of either direction you're moving in or number of days in each place.

I'd spend 4-5 days in Paris, allot 4-5 days for Amsterdam, Brussels, and Bruges, and 4-5 days in either Normandy or the Champagne region. And plan it out so you're moving logically from one region to the next.

I know you've already booked your flight plans, but consider changing them. An open jaws plan (different arrival and departure cities) is far more efficient because it eliminates backtracking. Most airlines charge about $100 per ticket for a change in the flight itinerary. In this case I think it's well worth it. Since you seem interested in Paris, Brussels, and Amsterdam, here is my suggestion.

Fly into Paris. Stay in Paris for 4 nights.

Normandy area, 2 nights.

Champagne area, 2 nights.

Brussels & area, 3 nights.

Amsterdam & area, 3 nights.

Fly home from Amsterdam.

With this open jaws itinerary you can do all the same things you had planned, but have much more time to do them. It may cost you a little to change your flight plans but it's NOTHING compared to how much more you will get out of your vacation.

..you really have 12 days..yes, I know you will arrive in Paris in the am but unless you are a real road warrior you will feel like the bottom of a birdcage on day 1 and the last day is again a write off. I would limit my trip to 3- 4 hotels with day trips from there. Each time you change a city your loose 1/2 day which means -2 days..so think about this rule of thumb which I have found helpful.

Thanks for the feedback.

We've done open jaws in the past but unfortunately, do to limited dates we could go and trying to use freq flyer miles, we couldn't get it to work.

STCirq - my DH didn't want to go to Paris at all so 2-3 days will be the extent of our compromise i'm afraid.

Thanks to both of you for the feedback, i'm definitely going to make some changes.