Zunling

Hello! Need advice for my first family trip to Europe.

We are from Malaysia plan to go on our first family trip to Europe from 22nd December 2014 to 11th January 2015 (about 3 weeks). My main concern is that we have to be in Leeds, UK (currently my son is studying in West Yorkshire, Leeds & completing by December 2014 and we need to stop over at Leeds to pick up his belonging and luggage) before fly home to Malaysia.

We are looking for itinerary advice on if we could visit the following places in 3weeks?
Places: Paris / Dubrovnik, Croatia / Venice / Switzerland / Amsterdam / London.

If not, what would be your best advice & comments on the plan, budget airlines and accommodation?

Both of us are in early 50 & my 2 children (22 & 17 years). My son will meets us on the arrival of our first destination in Europe.

Thank you for your help!

janisj

Just time for a very quick response right now:

That would be a very difficult itinerary at any time. But you will be traveling over the Christmas and New Years holidays. Plus w/ the very short daylight hours that time of year and the wintery weather you are bound to hit somewhere - You need to cut back on the number of destinations.

StCirq

Too many places, not enough time. And yes, a difficult itinerary that will eat up lots of travel time between places. Pick 3 destinations, 4 at most.

Seamus

I'd agree with limiting destinations to three max. Perhaps something like:
Fly into Amsterdam, recover from jet lag, spend Christmas and a few days there.
on 12/27 or 12/28 take high speed train (Thalys)to Paris, where you will ring in the New Year.
on 1/4 or 1/5 take the Eurostar train to London. Sometime during the stay make a side trip to Leeds to pick up the belongings, then fly back home from London.

That schedule should lend itself to finding an apartment in both Paris and London if you are so inclined. (I would be)

IMDonehere

Remember you will lose between 1/2 day and full day moving from country to country.

adrienne

I agree with the above posters about too many destinations in 3 weeks.

Remove Dubrovnik as it's far from the other destinations and is very small (the pretty, interesting part) so you would not need more than a day there.

I'd also take out Switzerland as you don't have any definite destination here and you won't have time to wander around the entire country.

That leaves Leeds, London, Amsterdam, and Paris. If you can fit in Venice then start there and return home from London. It would make sense to visit Amsterdam next, then Paris.

bilboburgler

Yikes, what a tight trip. It will be cold and wet with short days.

I understand the wish to visit lots of places but you need to think as above.

adrienne's itin. looks good. Leeds is pretty small but you might like to look at visiting the medievel city of York (walls, cathedral) for a day. Leeds has a medieval section but it is very tiny and not worth the visit (about one small block and two odd buildings) but it has great shopping while York has a largish out of town "Designer Centre" (if you like that sort of thing).

Zunling

Thank you to all for the useful information.

@ Adrienne - Thank you. I am a newbie here & my computer knowledge is really bad. I realized it was double posted but
I don't know how to delete it. Sorry!