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-   -   Itinerary for Europe and cheap accomodation (https://www.fodors.com/community/europe/itinerary-for-europe-and-cheap-accomodation-1080008/)

HillarySiz Dec 2nd, 2015 05:47 AM

Itinerary for Europe and cheap accomodation
 
Hie everyone,my husband and I are planning a Europe trip for October 2017 (earlyplanner!).We plan to visit 7 countries in 30 days and our itinerary is as below;
Amsterdam 3 days (day trip to Copenhagen )
Paris 3 days (day trip to Belgium)
Spain Barcelona 3 days and Madrid 3 days
Italy Milan 2 days – Venice 2 days -Athens 2 days- Rome 3 days
Berlin

Is this itinerary alright?Please and also if anyone knows of affordable and central budget accommodation in any of the above cities.It will be helpful.

Thank you!

sparkchaser Dec 2nd, 2015 05:59 AM

"You're fitting in too many cities in too few days" - half of the responses.

For affordable* and central* budget* accommodations, have a look at booking.com.




*The terms "affordable", "central", and "budget" are meaningless because they mean different things to different people.

hetismij2 Dec 2nd, 2015 06:04 AM

Day trip to Copenhagen from Amsterdam???? Really????

Have you looked at a map at all?

3 days in Amsterdam will be fine. No time for a day trip to another country, and certainly not to Denmark. Visit Belgium (where?) on your way to Paris from Amsterdam.
Athens from Italy? Why?
You need to look at a map as I said.
Also you are not allowing travel time in your plans.

bilboburgler Dec 2nd, 2015 06:14 AM

As above, low cost basically means hostels or monasteries.

Have you calculated how much of 30 days will be spent travelling door to door?

Certainly day trip to Copenhagen is crazy, 30 days, I'd look at 6 cities but others like traveling.

Gretchen Dec 2nd, 2015 06:20 AM

No, it isn't reasonable. And I DO wonder if you have looked at a map.
But I think we have a royal leg pulling here. Tromp tromp tromp. My favorite nursery rhyme.

traveller1959 Dec 2nd, 2015 06:28 AM

You appear to have not the slightest clue of geography. A daytrip from Amsterdam to Copenhagen! A daytrip from Paris to Belgium! That's bizarre.

First, you underestimate time and effort of travelling between cities grossly. With so many destinations, you will spend half of your vacation in taxis, airports and planes. Second, you underestimate the destinations. A city like Paris deserves at least four full days alone. The same is true for most of the other destinations.

Look on a map. Make yourself familiar with the geography of Europe and read some guidebooks. After that, come back and we will be happy to help you with more specific questions.

StCirq Dec 2nd, 2015 06:55 AM

No, it looks as though you haven't ever looked at a map of Europe or taken into consideration the travel time between places.

Start over. You can't do all of this in the time allotted. Get some guidebooks and above all a map and get a grip on a realistic plan.

Or was this a joke?

greg Dec 2nd, 2015 07:03 AM

Is someone else paying all your airfares but not the accommodations? If your goal is to manage the overall expenses, your accommodation savings would be blown away by the expenses of moving around long distances. Also, the time to move around would erode this trip into a fraction of a 30-day trip. Even if you are paying less, you are actually getting less also.

BigRuss Dec 2nd, 2015 07:05 AM

<<"You're fitting in too many cities in too few days" - half of the responses.>>

Which would be right.

As would the criticism of your geographical knowledge.

Last I checked, Athens was never part of Italy. Even when the Axis powers occupied Greece, Athens was in the German zone.

State your nightly lodging budget in dollars or Euros. Don't speak in abstractions.

bvlenci Dec 2nd, 2015 07:17 AM

While a daytrip to Copenhagen from Amsterdam is downright impossible, because you'd spend nearly 24 hours on the train, a daytrip from Paris to (say) Brussels wouldn't be bizarre. The train takes less than 1 1/2 hours. I once did a daytrip with my mother in the opposite direction.

Tulips Dec 2nd, 2015 08:30 AM

A daytrip from Paris to Brussels would be very do-able, but traveling through Belgium to Paris, and then returning for a daytrip would be silly. That would leave only 2 days for Paris. If you want to visit Belgium, do a stop in Antwerp or Brussel on your way to Paris.

Hillary, go back to the drawing board, get a good map, use a site like rome2rio.com to plot your journeys and see how much they are going to cost you, in time and money. Think in terms of nights; 2 nights gives you only one full day to sightsee. You have plenty of time to read some guidebooks and do more research.

nytraveler Dec 2nd, 2015 08:40 AM

While what you have listed is physically possible (except the day trip to Copenhagen - can't be done except by private plane) this will end up being an exhausting (forever on another plane or train), frustrating (not time to see/do what you want) and very expensive (think of all those plane and train fares) blur that will leave you with little feel for the many places you have been.

Strongly suggest you

1) get a map and locate the cities you want to visit
2) go to the bahn.de website and find out actual travel times between cities (then add another 1.5 hours to get your travel time from hotel in city 1 to hotel in city 2)
3) Pick out your top sights in each city and see how long it will take to visit them (Michelin green guides have all of this info)

As for lodging you need to provide a specific nightly budget in $ or euros or whatever - and then tell us how modestly you are willing to live. Can you work with a shared bath, stairs versus elevators, etc? Will you stay in shared rooms in hostels?

kimhe Dec 4th, 2015 07:35 AM

In Barcelona, I can recommend basic hotel standard (private bath, tv, A/C, safe, 24h desk etc) and great value Hostal Orleans. Close to "everything": http://hostalorleans.com/index.php?lang=en

About the area: http://www.barcelona-tourist-guide.c...s/el-born.html

In Madrid, La Perla Asturiana is also fabulous value and in the heart of the city, just off majestic Plaza Mayor: http://www.booking.com/hotel/es/la-p...ana.en-gb.html

200 meters from Plaza Santa Ana: http://www.gomadrid.com/sights/plaza-santa-ana.html

FHurdle Dec 5th, 2015 12:05 AM

Hillary, your plan is a nightmare, and I am Mr. Fast Travel. A couple of bits of advice.

First, you should not view a trip to Europe as a once-in-a-lifetime affair. You should keep a very careful eye out for cheap tickets, sometimes only a few hundred bucks, which will allow you to just visit Europe economically for only a few days.

I'm actually missing something on your itinerary. You say you plan to be in Europe for 30 days, but you only have about 21 days listed. Perhaps you are the rare person who has truly accounted for all of your travel time.

In any event, you must not visit Copenhagen on a "day trip." You should not waste your time visiting Brussels on a day trip. I'm not sure why you feel Milan worthy of a visit.

CaliD Dec 7th, 2015 03:00 AM

I stayed outside the center for part of my trip and then used hostels. October was a bit more expensive but hostelworld.com and booking.com were both really helpful sites. what do you want to pay per night? You're probably working with a bit more money than I was. I didn't use this site for Rome on my trip but I'm hopefully planning another one before its high season again and am really interested in this: http://www.monasterystays.com It costs more than hostels but less than hotels and a lot of these places are in great locations and sound like they're very clean.

HillarySiz Dec 9th, 2015 12:07 PM

Thank you so much for your comments all of you


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