Need advice for first europe trip itenary
 

Hi all,

I've just made the first step of my dream vacation by purchasing the air ticket from Kuala Lumpur to Paris, June 2nd 2011 and leaving Paris, June 12th. My interest is photography and architectures.. love to take pictures.

I'm undecided between 2 choices. Would appreciate some advice what would appeal for a first time traveller in Europe.

Itenary 1 - Paris , London
Day 1 - 6 = Paris->London, London
Day 7- 11 = Paris

Itenary 2 - Brugge, Brussels, Amsterdam, Paris
Day 1 - Brugge
Day 2 - Brussels
Day 3-5 Amsterdam
Day 6-10 Paris
Day 11 Leaving in morning from Paris

Thank you....

Given your interests, it's a difficult choice. All these places have fantastic architecture, it's very different in style though. In your Itinerary 2, you don't seem to have allowed any travel time. To get from the airport in Paris, all the way to Brugge, will take some time and then you leave the next day for Brussels. You will barely have time for a walk around.

Also, if you get the train , it goes from Paris, through Brussels, then you connect to Brugge so you would be backtracking to do your suggested trip. I would suggest skipping Brussels if you go with No.2 (though Brussels does have some amazing buildings).

One thing that does occur to me is that Paris and London are both huge cities where the other places on your list have a smaller town feel. It might provide a good contrast to do No.2.

Kay

KayF, Thanks for your valuable advice.

I'm arriving in Paris in the morning 9am. I was thinking to hop on to the next available train and hoping to cover brugge in the afternoon till late.

As for my itenary one, i've only placed london as the point of arrival. However, I'm wondering if i would have enough time to do Bath and Stonehenge? Or any other suggestions?

kevinckh, do not forget the affect of jet lag on you when planning this trip. Your plans make no allowance for that at all.

Is it possible to book your flight into Paris and out of Amsterdam/London? You could then spend the start of your trip in Paris, and have a bit of time to get over any jetlag before moving on to either Brugge and Amsterdam or to London, and save yourself a day of travelling between destinations.

kevin,

Both of these are good rough frameworks, but need minor tweaking.

If you go with Itinerary #1, there are day tours that will take you from Central London to both Bath and Stonehenge and returning early evening, but you would use your time more efficiently if you just took a train to Bath for the day (and skip Stonehenge). However, I would suggest you stay in London as there is a world of things to do you won't have time for even if you take no day trips from London at all.

If you go with Itinerary #2, I would drop Brussels and stick with Brugges for 2 days (2 nights?). Your plan for flying into Paris, getting out of the airport to central PAris , getting yourself to Brugges, and "seeing Brugges in an afternoon" is unrealistic, at best.

Go to Bruges after two days in Paris, if that is where you want to go. In terms of architecture, Bruges is an ensemble, while Brussels has more variety: the Grand'Place is an early 18th century ensemble, and there are many Art Nouveau buildings to be admired. End your trip with 2 days in Paris.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mksfca/...7622957887247/

Yes, brugge and amsterdam offer great photographic possibilities.

How about a combination of the two you propose? In 10 days I think London, Amsterdam, Paris would be a perfect trip.

Thanks all for the advice given. Would need to plan it out more in detailed.

BTW, if you do manage to find time for Stonehenge (and if it's a high priority for you), I very much recommend doing a private tour or stone circle access visit. For normal visitors, the site is fenced off, whereas with one of these visits, you go after hours, and you can freely walk amongst the stones in a small group. On the tour I took, everyone was very considerate of each other's photo-taking, and I got some beautiful shots.

I did my trip with Astral Tours back in 2007, but apparently they ceased operations later that year. I can't give any specific recommendations for current tour operators.