My wife and I are planning our first anniversary trip and we're thinking about going to Paris and Barcelona. Here is our proposed itinerary. Please provide any feedback and/or advice:

Sept. 3 - Depart from SF and fly into Paris
Spend 3 full days in Paris
Sept. 8 - Take a plane or train to Barcelona
Spend 3 full days in Barcelona
Sept. 12 - Fly home from Barcelona to SF

Does this sound pretty good?

I was in Paris last year, and it seems that 3 days is not much. It was my first time there and though i got to see a lot I also would have loved to have spent more time in the Louvre.

3 days in Barcelona seems fine. I personally think that if you are going for a romantic trip I would land in Barcelona and go to see the Alhambra. Try to stay at the Parador on the grounds of the Alhambra, that would be good and romantic.

..I dont think i would do both paris and barcelona...If it is a first trip i might limit myself to Paris..with day trips to the loire ..but that is just me.

Sept. 3rd until Sept. 12th is nine days surely?

Eitherway, you should spend at least a week in Paris, and quite why you want to couple it with Barcelona is beyond me, London would be easier to get to!

It sounds like a great itinerary if you really want to visit 2 cities, but I'd tweak it a bit, myself. You're right not to count your arrival day (Sept.4) in Paris. You may do fine, but jet lag may keep you from taking full advantage of it. I rarely feel very energetic the day I arrive in Paris after a flight from SF.

I would stay another day (Sept. 8) in Paris, however, and go to Barcelona the next day. It's a quick flight and doing it on September 9 would give you nearly 3 full days in Barcelona, which I think would be enough, while three days in Paris is definitely not enough, IMO.

Oh, and happy anniversary!

I misread your most confusing itinerary - it'd be far easier to describe your trip in terms of nights, then full days as appropriate.

I'd prefer to see you doing London and Paris - a far more classical trip. I'd save Barcelona for twinning with a Spanish tour - Madrid, Bilbao etc. etc.

I have to agree,London and Paris is a natural.Save Barcelona for a trip to Spain and Portugal.

My husband and I just did Paris and Barcelona in March and had a wonderful time. We did it in nine days and even flew easyjet to Marseille, rented a car and drove to Barcelona (what a beautiful trip). We spent a couple of days in Barcelona and drove back to Marseille and then on to Paris. We did not feel rushed at all and of course piqued our interest to go back for another trip. I think you should go where you want- For some people 10 days isn't enough in one city while others can satisfy what they want to see and do in 3. Good luck!

I would go to Paris/Barcelona before Paris/London and if that what you think you'd like to do, I think you should go for it. I suggest you check out whichbudget.com for possible flights between Paris and Barcelona to save time.

I too live on the West Coast and think it's a very long flight for that amount of time, but you're alot younger than I am, so it should be fine (maybe take some Nojetlag as well.) Of course, if you could take a few more days, it would be even better.

Happy Anniversary!

THANKS ALL! I appreciate all of your input. We're not really interested in London, so we'll probably end up doing Paris and Barcelona. Now to start planning all of the details.

Anyone else that wishes to provide any input, please do so!

If you are interested in Paris it's only natural that you are interested in London - they're both cities that aren't subject to wonderful weather and as such the hours kept are similar. The fashion and the art is again comparable.

Barcelona is something completely different. Why not see Nice, Cannes, etc. if you are in France - what's the point of wasting money to go to somewhere completely different for a few nights just for the sake of it?

"Wasting money" to go to somewhere completely different seems to me to be the point of a travel, so by this reasonning the poster would be better off staying home.

Similarily, I can't see why staying in Nice would make more sense than staying in Barcelona. Fying there or taking the night train to Barcelona from Paris isn't significantly more complicated than going to Nice.

The poster should go to the places he's attracted to. 3 days might seems not much to visit a large city for many posters (including me), but it isn't totally unreasonnable, contrarily to some planned itinerary posted from time to time on this board.

You may want to think about scrapping Paris and doing just Barcelona. Or maybe flying into Nice and driving down the coast to Barcelona. Three days in either city is not enough. Just a suggestion....

My husband and I were in Paris in April for a week and we did a lot, but not as much as we wanted. Three days to me seems too short, but it depends on your interests, I suppose. I am a huge francophile, and this was my first trip to Paris (I'd been to Strasbourg on an exhcange in high school), so I wanted to be there as long as possible. It is a beautiful city, and although we saw many of the major museums and sights, we took time to wander the neighborhoods, have picnics in the parks, sit at a cafe for hours, etc. It is important to do that so you actually have time to relax on your vacation, which is the point, right? Alas, we could only stay a week b/c of school vacation timing(we are both teachers).

Even if you could add one day onto each city it would seem like you could do more, especially since you are flying all of the way from SF. We flew out of Boston and thought that was a long trip! Have a good time whatever you decide!