MotherSon

My son and I are planning 2 1/2 week trip for next summer. We are taking the icelandair stopover. Suggestions for Iceland. Then travel to Edinburgh by overnight train from London. We plan to take the overnight from Amsterdam train to Zurich. To buy Merkur chocolate in Switzerland.Then travel by train to the Black Forest,possibly Baden Baden?? From there we will head toward the Bavarian Alps. Another question-what is the best way to get from Rome to Munich, I would love an overnight train. Looking for suggestions thanks

justineparis

Have you sat down and put down how much time you will end up with in each place.. I think you have about 7 or 8 places..

Two nights in one place is only one full day.. if a place is only worth one day.. maybe leave it for another trip, because some of these places .. really they are worth three nights at least.. which still only gives you two days..

Night trains.. are you sure.. you think you would love them,, but most folks end up exhausted, dirty and hungary.. and then arrive with a full day of sightseeing planned?

PS I hear Iceland is amazing.. but also amazingly expensive.

PatrickLondon

You have a list of places, but you seem to have some leaps and gaps in there. Where do London and Rome fit in? If you listed the timings for each potential destination in the order you have in mind, it would not only help us to understand what you have in mind, it might help you to see how much inconvenience you're planning to impose on yourselves, and help you to prune your list realistically.

Heimdall

Reykjavik is a great place for a layover, even for only 12 hours. I took the Flybus from the airport, walked all over Reykjavik (small for a capital city), seeing among other things the waterfront and the unusual Hallgrimskirkja church with the statue of Leifur Eiriksson. I found a bus back to the airport that included a stop at the Blue Lagoon where I had a relaxing swim in its geothermal springs.

With more time I could have taken a excursion outside the city. One website that give you various options is https://www.re.is.

annhig

I would suggest two nights in Iceland which will give you time to see Reykavik and to do a trip out to the Golden Circle which I'm sure your sone would love.

then select 4 other places that you can't bear to miss and forget the rest.

neckervd

"Overnight train from Amsterdam to Zurich in order to buy Merkur chocolate".
I suppose you mean Laederach Swiss chocolate.
There is no ned to travel to Switzerland for that, there are Laederach chocolate shops at Baden-Baden, Karlsruhe, Basel too.

Rubicund

That is one heck of a disjointed list of places, with no apparent thought being given to how to get from one place to another other than "night trains". As justine and Patrick point out they are not the best way to get from one place to another, they drop you at your destination in the early morning and you then then have all your luggage and can't check into your hotel because it's too early. Forget the perceived romanticism, they aren't efficient.

You list eight or nine places to cover in 17/18 days and it seems like a very expensive bar of chocolate that you're going all the way to Zurich to buy. You mention Edinburgh but "summer" is too loose a description because of the Festival and Fringe in August.

Cut it down to no more than 4 destinations and if you have to go via Iceland and want to visit Edinburgh, then fly into Scotland first, Aberdeen or Glasgow and catch a train. It's then only about four and a half hours from Edinburgh to London.

Choose a couple of other destinations max and relax.

StCirq

You're all over the map and haven't even begun to connect the dots. Night trains are a huge PITA. You don't need to go to Zürich to buy that chocolate. How are you getting to Rome? And how much time there? You can't possibly do all these places in 2.5 weeks. I think you need to start over. This is a big mess at the moment.

nytraveler

Agree that you are bouncing around like ping pong balls - and seem to have at least twice as many places as you have time to see. Even if you do a lot of night trains (which are not cheap esp if you want a private compartment, leave you tired and dirty in the am - have you ever taken an overnight train?) and often not up for a full day of sightseeing.

You really need to lay out your trip day by day, listing where you will start, what travel there will be and where you will sleep. And remember than 2 nights in a city is only one day of sightseeing. You will be bouncing from one country to another, with different languages, customs, local means of transit and get yourself oriented to a new city almost every day. I fear you will have a very expensive, exhausting and confusing blur for all the time and money you are spending.

Fussgaenger

You are visiting 7 countries in 20 days? How will you reach Amsterdam from Edinburgh? That's too many hours on planes and trains for the time you have. And probably too little sleep if you fill your trip with overnight trains - they are indeed a PITA.

You need fewer destinations - preferably ones that are closer to each another. You will just scratch the surface if you split 10 days between Iceland and the UK. London itself requires 4 days or more for most. After that you might take the Eurostar to the continent and A'dam (about 4.5 hours from London) and spend 10 days in the Netherlands and Germany.

Switzerland and Italy are good destinations - for a future trip.

P_M

I took a trip very similar to yours except I did it in 5 weeks and I still felt a little rushed. You have only half the time I had which makes this plan completely insane. I'm not trying to be mean by saying that, I'm trying to help so please take this in the spirit in which it is given and cut at least half of these stops from your trip. When you make a better plan please post back and we will help.

DebitNM

How old is your son? (adult or??) That may further complicate your ability to move about so much. Slow down and enjoy the cities you visit, as of now, you will be doing more time on trains than standing still.

Lois2

looks like someone is having some fun...throw a bunch of craziness out to the Fodorites and see if some really try to make some sense and do the research that the traveler needs to do....giveaway is the remark about going to Swiss for the chocolate...clearly a wind up.

suze

You need to look at a map. Clearly you aren't working from one.

I like overnight trains OK. Just one time during a trip is enough for the experience.

My main question is why do you want to go to the places you list? You've got way too many of them and with no apparent priority.

Dukey1

Night trains are only a PITA when you are stuck in a compartment next to a whiner from France

suze

I have only done overnight trains in a private compartment. I'd never do it in a couchette situation myself.

P_M

Lois2, you are probably right.

sheila

Did you know you can fly straight to Scotland from Iceland?