Hello,

I am planning to travel to Europe in summer 08 and after some initial research, I have come up with the following itinerary. This is very preliminary and would like your input on how good or bad it is. Also please let me know if I have skipped any important cities or places within the cities I have chosen. My time line is 25 -30 days and I am planning to travel by air throughout (dont know if its a good or bad idea.).

Seattle - Munich - Venice - Pisa - Rome/Vatican City - Paris - Amsterdam - Berlin - Cologne - Munich

Venice - 2 days
Day 1: Murano, Burano and Torcello Islands
Day 2: Saint Mark's Basilica, Rialto market and the Rialto Bridge, Grand Canal

Pisa - 1 day
Leaning Tower, Duomo di Pisa, Baptistry

Rome - 2 days
Day 1: The Colosseum, The Pantheon, Roman Forum, Piazza Venezia
Day 2: Vatican City (Official guided tour)

Paris - 2 days
Day 1: Eiffel Tower, Notre de Triomphe, Sacré Coeur, Arc de Triomphe, Champs-Elysees
Day 2: Sainte Chapelle, Musee du Louvre, Tuileries Palace, Picasso Museum
Do I need 3 days for this?

Lorie Valley - Can any one tell me something abt this? Is it worth visiting?

Amsterdam - 1.5 days
Day 1: Anne Frank House, Oude and Nieuwe Kerks, De Gooyer Wind Mill
Day 2: Heineken Brewery, Boat Tours

Berlin - 2 days (leaving the plan to my friends in Berlin)

Cologne - 1.5 days
Cologne Cathedral, Kölner Dom, Die Kölner Synagoge,

Munich - 3 days (leaving the plan to my friends in Munich)

Eagerly waiting for your responses.
Thank you guys.

That is quite a bit. To me you will be spending a lot of time packing, checking in and out of hotels, and in the airport.

On Day 1 when you arrive in Venice you will probably have some pretty good jet lag. If you must schedule some thing that day, I would say Saint Mark's square and basilica and the grand canal. Add in a nice lunch/dinner and I think you'll be ready to call it a day. Plus I am not sure what the ferry schedules are to the islands. If you are doing all three you may want to start that day fresh with time tables in hand.

While in Venice you may also want to tour the Doge's palace/ museum which is next door to St. Marks. You'll also see the bridge of sighs.

To me (and this is my opinion) Pisa is over rated. Unless you've always dreamed of going to the leaning tower, catch the train from Venice to Florence and spend the rest of the day there, even over night and catch an afternoon train to Rome. By the time you'd do airport security the train is shorter.

In Rome, the Pantheon is closer to the Vatican than the Forum. But it is all doable. You might want to add the Spanish Steps and Trevi fountain. Also Piazza Navonia is on the way. Castle San Angelo is 2 blocks from the Vatican is also an interesting place.

I haven't been to the other places so I can't comment on if there is enough time.

By my count you've outlined 15 days. You may just want to add a day in each place. There is so much to see and do and toting your luggage around day after day get old.

Happy Travels

Anything is possible but your plan
is a bit of a whirlwind and you might
have a hard time remembering just where you've been when you get home!

Once you're in Europe flying is not
a bad choice. But I would seriously
cut down on the number of places you're planning.

You have friends in Munich and Berlin so why not spend more time in those 2 places? I'd then pick ONE city in Italy and Paris. You'll actually have a chance to enjoy yourself and savour the places you go.

Is the Loire worth seeing? Yes, but
don't add it in on your current crowded plan!

Rob

I agree with Diane - Pisa is overrated.... and full of touristy stuff.

And I agree with ParisAmsterdam - cut it down to Berlin and Munich (to visit your friends) and one other place... and increase the time spent in each city. Paris and Rome each deserve many more days than two to explore, as do Amsterdam, Berlin and Munich.

And the Loire Valley is beautiful but needs several (5+) days to explore as well.

IMO train is the way to travel within continental Europe... much more convenient than flying. Not only do you avoid any lengthy security lines and arriving ahead of time as required, you usually end up in the heart of the city when you take the train.

Good luck with your plans!

You say you have 25-30 days, but you only account for 15 that I can see. If you really want to do the things you've mentioned in only 15 days it will be very very rushed, you won't have any time to eat much less just sit and soak up the atmosphere. But if really have 25-30 days and could spread it out over that time it would be a very nice trip. You could even fit in the Loire Valley.

If you fly to Venice, then train to Pisa (over rated, Florence is much nicer and you could do Pisa as a day trip if you had 3 days there), then train to Rome. Then fly to Paris. But then train again after that to Loire Valley (or do day trip from Paris if you have 4-5 days there), and train to Amsterdam (much quicker than flying that leg).

But we really need to know if you have 15 days or 25-30 in order to advise you.

You have four whole weeks in Europe, which is a fantastic trip. I wouldn't be very happy with only two days in each city, though. It's tiring, and it doesn't allow much time for sightseeing or relaxing.

If it were me, I would probably allow about 2 weeks for Berlin, Cologne, and Munich, since you have friends to visit. That leaves about 2 weeks for other destinations. You might want to consider something like:

Amsterdam(with possible daytrips
-train-
Antwerp or Bruges or Brussels
-train-
Paris (with possible daytrips)
-fly-
Berlin
Cologne
Munich

or

Rome (with possible daytrips)
-train-
Venice
-train-
Munich
Cologne
Berlin

or

Venice
-train-
Switzerland or Austria (?)
-train-
Munich
Cologne
Berlin

or

Paris(with possible daytrips)
-fly-
Venice
-train-
Munich
Cologne
Berlin

Everyone is different in how they like to travel, though, some people like keeping on the move and others not so much.

It makes no sense to me unless you have a private jet--but you must with that schedule. I have been planning itineraires to Europe for 20 years now--more than 200 and counting. My advice is to AVERAGE 3 nites per destination and make the next destination no more than 4 hours from the last---door to door.
Another tip is to spend half of your time in destinations of less than 50,000 population---10,000 is even better.

The thought of going through airport security that many times gives me a headache.

Hi Uk,

This is not a visit; it is an expedition.

2 days in Venice!

2 days in Rome!

2 days in Paris!

2 days in Berlin!

Just getting from place to place will eat up 4-5 days.

With 3-4 weeks, choose 3-4 destinations and actually see something.

If 6 days in Paris or Rome gets boring, you can take a daytrip.

Please, rethink this.

And investigate open jaws tickets, into one city, out of another. No need to go to Munich twice. And they cost little more than round-trip tickets.

Plus any trip Seattle to Munich is at least 2 legs before you add another leg to Venice. You could fly nonstop Seattle to Frankfurt (Lufthansa), then on to Venice. Or nonstop Seattle to either London (BA, NW/KLM) or Paris (Air France), then on to Venice.

Finally I agree with taking a least some trains. On your itinerary, Pisa to Rome, Paris to Amsterdam, and the inside Germany trips would be more interesting on a train.

Absolutely cut out about a third of your destinations!! Because you are visiting friends in Germany, why not stay north and really see Germany and Holland and Paris this time? You asked "do I need three days for this?" speaking of Paris. I almost fell off my chair! You need a week for Paris at least! So cut out the southern stuff this time.

Someone on the Italy threads said, "You have to experience Italy, not just "see" it." The same is true of all the places you list. Don't treat Europe as a "been there, seen that" checklist. Slow down!! Learn how life is lived there. Wander away from the tourist areas and sit in cafes and city squares!! Go to street markets and look at the foods sold there. Eat in little family-run restaurants without tourist menus. Wander down a French street and stop to buy a wonderful pastry.

I guarantee you will go back!! Then you can do Italy and southern France and the Loire, which, by the way, is not a place you zoom through.

Charnee

I would take the train from Venice to Florence for at least one day. Then take an early train to Rome via Pisa. you can check your bags in at the Pisa train station. We saw The leaning, etc in just as couple of hours.

If it were me, I'd skip Amsterdam and add that time to Paris. The food in Amsterdam is not great, and although the Anne Frank house is wonderful, the canals and the architecture is charming, I didn't find much else appealing.