AlaskaBella

I have been dreaming about going to Europe for years and I am finally taking the leap. So here's the rub, I have an idea of what countries I want to go to but don't know the best route to take. I have worked it out where I am arriving and departing from London. I want to go to Ireland, France, Greece, Italy and Spain. Anywhere else is just a bonus. I have already bought a global 10 day 2 month Eurail ticket. I find the biggest problem I'm having is figuring out how to plan what country to start in and the best way to use my 10 days. I have about two months (May 1 - Jul 1) to travel so I plan on staying in most places for about a week.

Does any one know if you can use the Eurail pass in London as the departure and return point? I know I can't use it in England but what about going to another country.

AisleSeat

I almost paniced for you. I thought you only had 10 days total and you wanted to go to 7 countries. I read it again and figured it out. Traveling by train you kind of have to travel in more or less straight lines. Because England and Greece are far apart I would arrange my Flights on an open jaw ticket where I fly into London and out of Greece so I am not spend a lot of time backtracking.

I don't know how the Eurail pass works but I would start with a map of Europe. As a first time "conquor the continent" trip just make sure you know which spots are the most important to you, then you can fill in around the edges. I would mark up the map with big stars on places like London, Paris, Rome, Venice, Athens, etc. you mess up the map but youll get a better idea of your travels.

dfourh

Aisle Seat nailed it: book an open jaw ticket (into Greece or the UK/Ireland; back from the other place).

You can arrive and depart from London, because from London there are cheap airfares to anywhere in Europe, but your time may be better spent flying into, say, Greece, and flying back from, say, London or Ireland.

Also: look at www.skyscanner.net for airfares that will save you time and save you a rail day versus taking the train for any larger segment of your trip (you can do some very broad searches on Skyscanner, like searching within an entire month from a city like Athens to "everywhere"). Spain & Greece in particular it may be smarter to get a cheap flight, versus wasting a rail day on your pass and the sordid misery of what constitutes overnights in a train.

AlaskaBella

The Jaw ticket sounds interesting. I've never heard of it before. I am using a buddy pass from united airlines to save money and my only options are London/ Germany to fly in and out of. So, I'm going to have to backtrack no matter how you look at it to get back to London.

ellenem

"Open Jaw" is the phrase people use, but most airline website refer to that flight choice as "Multi-City"--costs about the same as "Roundtrip". (People make the mistake of choosing two one-way tickets, a different, much more expensive choice.)

mariha2912

Check is Shannon on Ireland is an option as your entry or exit point...
Although your trip is doable, and I know it is just a small sample of Europe for you, I would consider to drop one or two countries and explore some spots on the other countries more in leisure. Do you have some particular locations on each country on mind?

adrienne

8 weeks sounds like a lot of time but it's not much time when you divide it by 5 countries. That's only a week and a half in each country. I would drop Ireland from the mix.

I prefer to start at the farthest point and work my way back.

Arrive London and take an inexpensive flight to Athens and then to one of the islands - begin your trip. Tour 1 or 2 islands, return to Athens to sightsee there and then visit Delphi and Meteora.

Fly to Rome - 4 days. Take a train to Florence - 2 days; train to Venice - 3 days.

Fly to Madrid - 2 days; train to Seville (2 days), Cordoba (2 days), and Barcelona (4 days).

Fly to take a train to Nice (3 days), Lyon (2 days), Strasbourg (2 days), Paris (7 days).

Return to London and home.

I doubt that the Eurail pass is good on the Eurostar but you can easily check on the Eurail web site or call them up.

isabel

You HAVE to arrive/depart London, and you already have bought the train pass. Correct? If so then all the suggestions to fly between points won't work for you. However, you can and should do at least one flight so that you don't have to take the train in both directions.

I would probably spend a couple nights in London at the start to get over jet lag, and so you don't have to worry about tight connections, but then take a flight to Greece. Check easyjet.com and whichbudget.com to find fairly inexpensive flights. But do it soon as they increase in price closer to the date of travel. Booking six months out (which you don't have) I have often flown on easyjet for ridiculously low prices like 14€ but you can probably still get something reasonable. You can fly directly to several of the islands including Santorini. From there you can ferry back to Athens. A popular route (I did it) is Santorini, Naxos, Paros, Athens. A few days in each, short ferry rides between them, don't have to book ferries in advance.

Trains in Eastern Europe are not as good as in Western Europe, and distances are far so if you can afford it I would book another flight, from AThens to Rome and then start your train portion from there. From Italy you can easily take trains to France and Spain and back up to London. Obviously there are no trains to Ireland so if you really wanted to keep Ireland you'd have to fly or ferry. Or if you can afford another flight you could fly from Spain to Ireland (Ryanair) and then just take the ferry back to London for the England portion of the trip before you fly home. But given that you have the train pass I would probably add in a few more countries on the continent and skip Ireland.