" . . . although the difference is that the dollar was much stronger." Unlikely since the € is currently very low against the $ - almost at parity.

Of all the beautiful places in Switzerland, why on earth Geneva?

Boy oh boy, you can say that again :-)

I've lost track... are you flying into London and out of Paris? Or do you have to return to London at the end?

Enjoy. Consider deleting both Verona and Milan, as they are both outliers in your plan. You have a miserable itinerary planned.

What are your sight seeing or activity goals for Geneva, Milan and Verona? Are there performances or events or a particular cathedral of interest or shopping, etc? If not, consider cutting one or more of them.

Reasons for trains1) climate change. I guess you've seen large areas of Europe are on fire today, while the Po and Danube are extra low. Australia had major flooding and Texas grid is in danger of collapsing due to Aircon use. How many more messages do you need. Just burning fossil fuels is no longer acceptable2) airports across Europe are is chaos causing cheepo flights to be cancelled with little warning, right now. Trains outside UK are working fine3) within 500 km trains are often faster than planes door-to-door.

I would highly recommend doing an itinerary matrix with the dates down the side and then each column represents a different itinerary. Excel works great for this...or you can use Google Sheets. Below is a trip I planned several years ago. We use this type of planning tool early on as we're trying to make overall decisions like which cities to see, order of the trip, how half or full days of travel effect time at each location. Then once we firm up the trip, buy airline tickets, book hotels...then I moved into a more detailed itinerary using Word or Google Docs. You need to carefully consider how much time each of the travel legs takes...usually a full day or half day is needed. When I read your initial itinerary above I was thinking travel would really impact what you can actually do - as many have already mentioned. I guess the main thing I'm adding to the dialogue is a good way to better understand your trip and see each day what you'll be doing, factoring in travel time.

As you'll see below there are days when a half day of travel and a half day of touring is possible - like on May 29 when we factored a morning of travel then touring Paris in the afternoon. Then there are days like June 7 when it took a full day to get from Salzburg to Prague. You need to at least have that level of understanding to really know how well your itinerary works.

BTW...we travel at a faster pace than many on this forum. But we typically never plan less than 3 days in a city so we get 2 full days of touring and the 3rd day is usually a half day of touring and a half day of travel. Our first stop is usually a full 3 days to allow for a bit of jet lag.

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...6c9adbacbf.jpg

I'm with Wekiva,
I love making a chart/spreadshhet/google doc, . It gives me a realistic idea of how much time I will spend getting from Point A to B, and what I plan to do once I get there. I also add costs of my preferred hotels, trains, entry fees. However, that's not to say I stick to a regimented itinerary, but it's helpful. You might enjoy doing something similiar.

Others have given you lots of good advice. You have a lot packed in, and will spend a lot of time getting to train stations, buying tickets, etc. and less time enjoying the sights you've chosen.

Plan to return to Europe for another trip at some point.

Good luck.

Yes it was and that was before the creation of the euro. Meat prices were high from the European point of view, low from the American point of view. The strength of the dollar in terms of purchasing power was similar but not equal to what it is now for countries like Mexico and some of the countries at the edge of the European Union, like Romania and Bulgaria. We had a brief but interesting conversation with a taxi driver in Bucharest, who pointed out that the taxi fares are based on local population affordability and local currency, but having joined the EU, imported items, such as cigarettes are in euro prices. BTW, the euro started at $0.85.

"Yes it was and that was before the creation of the euro."

Oh - jeeze, so you are talking more than 20 years ago not 2018/2019 like your post suggests.

" BTW, the euro started at $0.85."

I think you have that backwards. The € started well over $1 - around $1.16 at close of trade the first day. The US$ was approx 0.85 €

If preventing climate change is the #1 priority, then nobody should be going to Europe or they should walk/bicycle once they get there.

As far #2 is concerned, I am not sure the OP is going this summer, so cancelations are unlikely to be a major problem.

People need to figure out their own ways to plan travel. I know a spreadsheet itinerary like Wekiva showed would be valuable (not for me personally, but for all those newbies who want to go here for 1 day there for 2 day here for 1 day, etc. in places they have picked for no specific reason or because they saw it on Insta - as someone recently said when I asked "why?" -haha).

I think for many a spreadsheet for financial matters would be useful. I read so often people saying "I've got $3000" or whatever but haven't bothered to figure out what that will get them. Dividing the budget by number of days of the trip is a good place to start.

Oleonius, you just have to be able to weed out the useful info from the snobbery on this forum. There's NOTHING wrong with moving around more than those who like to sit in one place for a week or a month. Good for them....but shoot me if I had to travel that way.

The most important thing is to make sure you clearly know what each day will look like, and determine if the amount of travel vs. touring is something you're comfortable with.

For me the year of planning is a lot of the fun, even if I get into the details like a "newbie" :)

Two months in Europe gives you an opportunity to settle in one place for at least a couple of weeks and almost become a local;
shop, do laundry, go to the same cafe until they know what you like without asking.

On the other hand, if "It is Tuesday it must be Belgium" is your favourite movie or are participating in a scavenger hunt, your original plan is perfect.

Oleonius: You've been posting questions about your first trip to Europe for more than 5 years. 8 or 9 threads and nearly 200 responses so far. I do hope you are finally able to fulfill your dream trip -- just don't bite off more than you can chew.

Unfortunately, I've been too busy with work and family stuff in the last five years. Plus, a worldwide pandemic happened and we were on lockdown for almost two years.
I have just been approved for a two-month holiday and I'm leaving for real this time,
Thank you though.

My error on the value of the euro, which I could explain but won't as it sounds as if I am weaseling out of a mistake.

But when it comes to car travel, and the exchange rate, we did travel by car in 1967, as already described, then in 1971, in 1975, in 1985, in 1994, and then almost every year since 2000. Gas prices were always high, but before the euro food and lodging were relatively cheap when traveling on the dollar. My original point was that given a young age and energy as we had in 1967, a crowded trip is not out of the question, and I can see it as touring by car in the present not because I did it 1967 with no ZTLs and less traffic, but because until the pandemic hit, I have toured by car almost every year since 2000.

As someone who does a LOT in a given day, the time spent in each location sounds doable though you will need to be prepared that you are only skimming the surface in some of the places you’ll be visiting.

I will say this as someone who has previously done similarly and visited 8 countries in 6 weeks, in some respects you will feel satisfied that you have seen and done what you wanted to do, and in others you may feel like you should have spent more time in certain places or exploring more of a given country – for example I spent 2 days in Bergen and 3 days in Oslo in Norway and when I (one day who knows when) go back to Scandinavia I plan to spend much more time in Norway’s countryside since I only saw a tiny portion of it and that was what really blew me away.

Anyway, some comments on some of the places you are visiting based on my travels to date:

• Berlin I found very underwhelming, especially after having travelled from Munich and enjoying the charm of Bavaria. If you have time, I would highly recommend visiting Hamburg – I spent 2 days there and it is a lovely city to visit (fun fact, it has more bridges than Venice and Amsterdam)
• Following from the above, Salzburg is closer to Munich than it is to Vienna – not sure if your itinerary was listed in the order you actually plan to travel (I hope not because it would result in a bit of back and forth) so depending on the order of places you visit, it may be more convenient to visit Salzburg after Munich
• I spent 5 days in London (I intend to one day go back to do a proper UK and Ireland trip) which included a day trip to Hampton Court and a day trip to Windsor, Bath and Stonehenge and I found that to be satisfactory
• I have not been to Brussels but everyone who I have spoken to that has found it to be a bit lacklustre and recommended only a day there, so I would look at maybe doing Brussels as a day trip from Bruges rather than an independent stop
• If time permits, Maastricht in the south of the Netherlands is a really lovely city that I would recommend (though it is closer to Cologne in Germany than to Amsterdam)