Itinerary for 21 year old girls- help!
 

There are three of us going to Europe for about 5 weeks leaving July 14. Our plan right now is to fly into London, take the chunnel to Paris and from Paris buy the Select Eurail pass to go Paris-Munich-Interlaken-Barcelona. We have a 10 day period to go from London to Barcelona where we have an apartment rented for 3 weeks.

Have we hit the good spots? Any suggestions? We've heard Munich isn't the greatest city in Germany but we're trying to stay somewhat close so that our train trips won't be too long.

You're going to get dozens of replies telling you how stupid you are to even CONSIDER visiting X, Y, and Z, when L, M, N, O, and P are not too far out of the way and much nicer, but I think that's a fine route. As for "suggestions", what do you like? Castles, shops, sports, drinking, history, movie locations? Harry Potter or Henry I? Fish and chips or beet foam?

Yes, we know it is quite a jump around and we're trying to cover a lot in very little time. We're young and don't mind being a bit scrambled for time as long as we're having fun. We mainly want to see big cities with a lot for us to do, with decent hostels for us to stay in. One of us is a history major and I think she'd appreciate seeing castles, museums, etc. We're excited about Interlaken because we're planning on doing some adventure sports. If there are any suggestions for somewhere to go for a day-trip wine tasting in southern France, we would be interested in that and probably cut out Munich from the plans.

For anyone planning a rail trip and never done before i always refer three sources: www.ricksteves.com site has lots on using trains, budget flights you may want to mix in, buses, etc.

and www.budgeteuropetravel.com whose site also has lots on train travel - itineraries, etc. - on the homepage request their free and excellent European Planning & Rail guide that has a chapter on each country - rail maps, etc. - a great primer on using trains for novices and third - the best source i've seen Fodor's - right here where there are experts to answer any specific question.

The Eurail Select youth pass seems like a good deal for your plans. if you take overnight trains it's still one day on a pass if you leave after 7pm - the next day would be your unlimited travel day. say leave Geneva on the hotel train to Barcelona and your pass would be valid all the next day, etc.

Hi L,

>We have a 10 day period to go from London to Barcelona...

Am I correct that you will spend about 4 days in London before going to Paris?

10 days for Paris-Munich and Interlaken isn't too bad.

However, I would skip Munich this trip and add th time to Paris.

Before buying passes, check the prices.

The Eurostar can be had for about $100 pp.

See www.voyages-sncf.com for Paris to Interlaken and http://www.sbb.ch/en/index.htm
for Interlaken to Barcelona.

Have you looked at the train schedules for Interlaken to Barcelona? It is not a direct route.

Have you considered visiting London, Paris, somewhere in France before heading for Barcelona?

You could visit Carcassone by rail (direct or via Toulouse). It is easy to get to Barcelona from there.

Enjoy your visit.

((I))

cheapest Eurostar youth fare in US$ is $53 one way but to get that you'd have to reserve now - can be much much more - even passholder fares start at $77 but only few seats at that price.

I'd cut Germany and make it London, Paris, Interlaken, then on to Spain. 10 days will still be a plenty peppy pace for visiting those 3 cities.

My daughter is leaving in 2 days for 7 weeks in Europe. After landing in Munich she would like to go to Barcelona. Any idea what the travel time is? Should she stop in Switzerland on the way?

quickest way

Munich-Geneva

overnight train to Barcelona

she may have benefitted from the bargain Eurail Select Youth Pass, giving her five unlimited travel days in a 2-month period - that's if she talking about buying at stations as full fares are generally only available and may cost more than the pass.

If she has time definitely stop in the Jungfrau (Grindelwald) area then go to Geneva or Milan for the overnight train to Barcelona via France.

Thanks for your reply!!! She purchased the 15 day youth travel pass for 2 months. I will advise her as you suggested! If it were you, would you spend a day in Geneva on the way to Barcelona?

the cheapest way would be to fly www.whichbudget.com to check airlines but reserve early as possible.

Train time is about 16 hours. Milan-barcelona.

there are also buses that may go direct and be very cheap - google Eurolines buses.

>After landing in Munich she would like to go to Barcelona. <

If she wants to go to Barcelona, why is she flying to Munich?

((I))
Rhetorical question, doesn't require an answer. :)

PalenQ: travel time from Munich to Barcelona is 16 hours or did you mean Milan?

Thanks for all of your responses! We've decided to cut out Germany and want to add a day in Southern France.. we would appreciate any suggestions! We really want to do a wine tour if possible.

Hi Laurose8,

I am in my mid-twenties and 3 summers ago I visited all of the places you named on a whirlwind 6 week backpacking trip across all of Western Europe which began in London and ended in Athens.

I wanted to try to add a few suggestions for your trip so that you can learn from some of the mistakes that I made:

1) book the Chunnel in advance! This might seem pretty evident, but we didn't know it would be so busy and ended up having to waste half a day waiting for an available train. It's also pretty expensive (as is everything in London, so be prepared)

2) Any interest in going to Amsterdam? you could probably see it in 2 days and it's not far from London on the way to Paris. Just a thought...

3) I went to Interlaken to go hiking and also ended up going canyoning. Stayed at "Balmers" hostel which was pretty good, but only has bigger dorm-style rooms. It was all backpackers, so we ended up meeting some really cool people. It took us forever to get there because of many train switches - again, just be prepared. Go hiking to Grindenwald and Gimmelwald, we really liked it - it's so beautiful! Also, Switzerland is really expensive - just a warning.

4) south of france is really nice for relaxation. We stayed in Nice and did day trips to Monaco and Cannes - which we thought was a good way to go b/c the nightlife is better in Nice (at least, in our opinion)

If you have any specific questions, please feel free!

but 6 weeks is a lot more time then 10 days!
:-)

I found Geneva cold and boring, so no I would not stop for 1 day. If you have some time for Switzerland at least take the train from Geneva out to Lausanne, Vevey, Montreux... smaller and imo much more interesting places to visit.

many 21 yr olds would revel in Amsterdam, the youth travel capital for Europeans it seems. One of world's most gorgeous and historic cities plus one of the most eclectic - great museums and coffeeshops! A totally unique place

PalenQ: travel time from Munich to Barcelona is 16 hours or did you mean Milan?

i was referring to munich not Milan - Milan is 12 hrs by overnight train but a bit longer in the day as there is no direct train. If you buy a railpass i'd take the train overnight but if no pass i'd look at flying

I wasn't comparing 10 days to a 6 week trip! I was just saying that I am a twenty something travellor who has visited a lot of places and could give a twenty-something prespective.

Another thought that I just had - If you are renting a place in Barclona for 3 weeks could you do any weekend travelling from there?

If yes - then it might pay to save south of france for a weekend trip because it's relatively close. You could go to London, Paris, Amsterdam, and another place near there and then look into flying to Barcelona. If you look on the web you can probably find a pretty cheap flight.

Hope this helps, at least a bit!