bradmcq

hi guys. I'm going to london for work for a while. iv got 13-15 days off at the end to travel around Europe. I know it's not a long time so will have to plan the trip carefully. I will be travelling with my partner. we are both 24 years old. we are interested in going to:
croatia
Rome
Greek islands
Paris
Barcelona
ibiza

i know we will have to cut the list down.
any help would be much appreciated on the best ways to get around, time to spend in each place, or even other places to go etc.

thanks heaps guys

janisj

Before anyone can REALLY help, we need to know when the trip is. For instance the Greek isles are tough in the off season/winter.

In any case, you need a much shorter list.

Aduchamp1

Chose two places, max three if they are geographically near, and enjoy slowly and fully. Since you are young you will return to Europe and there is little sense in racing.

Michael

Do three cities: Paris, Rome, Barcelona, and look for cheap flights between the cities.

http://www.flylc.com/directall-en.asp

CYESQ

You could actually spend two weeks in any of these countries and still not see everything there is to see. But if you want to do more than one country, I would recommend that you narrow it down to two countries in close proximity such as Spain/France, France/Italy, Italy/Croatia. Then try to see as much within those two countries as you can with a week for each, which is really not that much time. Remember that you will loose significant time getting to your destinations (planes, trains and buses) and in and out of your hotels. And if you're flying all around from place to place, this won't be a trip that you'll remember except for the inconvenience factors.

Why don't you consider selecting one of these countries and really see and enjoy what it has to offer. For example, you could easily spend two weeks in Venice, Florence and Rome or Paris and the south of France. Most of the posters on this site will tell you to slow down and really enjoy the time you have in Europe rather than trying to cover so much territory. You are young and have lots of time for travel. Making the most of your time doesn't necessarily mean trying to hit so many places as it means enjoying the time you spend where you are. Please reconsider your plans so that you can enjoy your travel.

Lifeman

CYESQ has it right, in that you should choose just two and then look for information. To be able to assist you, we need to know:

What time of the year will this be?
What your budget for hotels etc?
What are your likes/dislikes--museums, walking, food?

KayF

How long are you working in London for? If it's a few months at least, you could travel to some of these places for a long weekend, such as Barcelona or Dubrovnik for example, and certainly Paris is easily reached by train from London so a weekend is very easy. You can even fly direct from London to Mykonos or Santorini and have a long weekend that way, but these flights only run in summer.

That way, you get to scratch a few places off your list and also get a feel for that country to know if you'd like to go back for longer.

I'd suggest either Croatia or Greece for your long trip but only if your trip is from roughly May - Sept. Outside these times it may be too quiet with things closed down. Two ideas for you -
Athens, Mykonos, Naxos, Santorini OR
Trieste (italy), Piran (Slovenia), Rovinj (Croatia), Opatija (Croatia) and back to Trieste to fly back to London. We have done both these trips in the time you have.

Kay

qwovadis

ryanair.com cheapest usually booked in advance

for me fly into Treviso for venice-tourism.com

train around from there cheaply seat61.com

Relax enjoy do not cram for best experience and to

tour something beside the inside of transport vehicles.

qwovadis

The Prince of Venice leaves in Season for Croatia

Costa also does short cruises to Croatia Greece from

$299 out of Venice might look into that.

You can do train bus it is a long slog and expensive.

Cheapest if superbudget www.eurolines.com buy the pass

backpackeurope.com hostelbookers.com go anywhere you

like cheaply for more of a road trip.

Used to do this a lot when younger these days too much hassle

Happy Deciding!

bradmcq

sorry i didn't even think to tell people half the things you are asking haha. will be finishing work on the 28th September and will be going from then. don't really have a budget. so don't mind if we fly or get a train, we will just do whatever is best suited at the time. was thinking it would help if all the travel between countries was done overnight, therefore we would not lose time during the day. there is so many more places we would love to go to but such short time! also we will most likely be returning in the near future, but we have never been OS besides Bali, so just wanted to go to the beat places this time to make us love it so we would get the travel bug! all your advice so far has been very helpful, and would love some more!!!

thanks again!!

KayF

I'm guessing you're Australian if the only place you've been overseas is Bali. We're Australian too and spent the last 5 years living in the UK. If you've got oodles of money it doesn't matter but if not, then to get the best prices on flights or trains, you must book ahead. You can save a fortune. There are loads of cheap airlines in Europe, Easyjet and Ryanair are well known but there are lots of others. Look at http://www.whichbudget.com/ to see who flies where.

If you want to get the Eurostar from London to Belgium or France, tickets become available 3 months prior, if you can nab these when they become available it it's very cheap and the price climbs steadily from there. If you wait until you are ready to travel you will pay a lot more than necessary.

The overnight train journeys will only work if you have a really long journey in Europe and none of the flights will be more than a few hours so will not be overnight. The Seat61 website mentioned above is fantastic for train info.

Kay

Lifeman

Here are my 3 choices from your list, to allow you to get the most out of your relaively short time off.

Paris first, maybe 3 days, then Barcelona maybe 5 days and finally Ibiza. I presume that you fly back to the UK before heading back to Oz. Ibiza gives you lots of cheap airline choices back to London.

bradmcq

yep we are from Australia. and we do have to fly back from the uk. so our last few days we would like to be pretty close to the uk. ibiza does sound like a nice way to finish up! thanks Kay for the heads up on booking early, we will definately be doing that now. after all the info I think we will only go to a couple of countries. lifeman your idea sounds good. should we book places to stay before we leave also? or just find a place on arrival to each place?

spaarne

I suggest that you ask your boss for a one month leave of absence so you can do most of what you want to do. Six weeks training around Europe will change your life forever.

Lifeman

brad..I'd definitely book ahead as you have such a short time. Don't waste it trawling round potential hotels. As a rider to that however, you are likely to find availability in most places at the end of September into mid October.

You pays your money....

Alec

If you finish your trip on Ibiza in mid-October, then most of the famous clubs will have closed for the season (end of September), though there are smaller venues that stay open all year. If you are going there for nightlife, bear this in mind. You can still have a good time there and weather should be pleasant, though probably not beach weather.

CYESQ

Brad, as Lifeman suggests, go to the numerous hotel booking websites and at least check out availability and amenities of hotels in the areas you're going to. Making your choices and reservations now will take additional stress off the trip once you're there. If you research some of the sites such as Trip Advisor and Booking.com, you'll have a chance to read guest's actual reviews of the hotels. If you just show up at the front doorstep, you don't know what you'll be getting and you will be wasting time.