Please help us maximize our time in each European city
 

In early September, my boyfriend and I are doing two weeks in Europe, and we'd love some help maximizing our time in each city. I've spelled out our itinerary below. I'm sure many of you will say "That's too many cities in too few days" but we both have short attention spans. One half day in each city seeing the main tourist/historical attractions is quite enough for us. Otherwise, we'd like to spend our time eating, drinking and partying with locals. We're also interested in doing a little shopping and finding some fun, non-touristy things to do (sorry if that sounds cliche).

At this point, our itinerary is set, as we've purchased all of the tickets (planes and trains). We have yet to book any AirBnBs (our lodging plan for most cities) so it would be really helpful to get some neighborhood suggestions in each city that will help us reduce the time we spend moving around the city and maximize our enjoyment. Also, if there are routes you recommend to see all of the main sites in just a few hours (again, short attention spans), that would be amazing. Something like: walk here, spend 20 min looking, walk another 20 min, check this out, then go here for lunch, etc.

Here's the itinerary:

Day 1 - Arrive in Copenhagen at 9am from the USA
Day 2 - Copenhagen
Day 3 - Copenhagen, 4-5pm flight to Berlin
Day 4 - Berlin
Day 5 - Berlin
Day 6 - Berlin, 12:30-5:30pm train to Prague
Day 7 - Prague
Day 8 - Prague
Day 9 - 12:30-5:30pm train to Berlin, 8pm-9am night train to Paris!
Day 10 - Paris
Day 11 - Paris, 12:30-3:30pm train to Amsterdam
Day 12 - Amsterdam
Day 13 - Amsterdam, 8pm flight to Copenhagen to fly back to USA (for me, my boyfriend is continuing to London)
Day 14 - London
Day 15 - London
Day 16 - London
Day 17 - London, 1pm flight back to Copenhagen

So there it is, our grand European tour. I'm slightly nervous that we'll be spending too much time traveling, so it would be great to get suggestions on how to make the most of this time. If you think we are seriously mistaken with the number of cities we plan on visiting, do we still have time to make changes on our train tickets? They're through bahn.de and Thalys train companies.

Thank you so much and please also let me know if we should also check out any other resources to get a better idea from the locals.

I assume you are returning to Berlin for the night train to avoid the night train direct from Prague to Mannheim which requires that very early train change.

Frankly, I would consider taking a trip to Amsterdam FIRST and THEN go on to Paris and then to London; geographically it makes a bit more sense at least to me. Also, if you do that you can take the CityNightLine direct service which requires no changes.

However if you've already made your return air reservations...

If your itinerary is already set then why ask if it looks ok?

Anyhoo, you picked an odd path to get to Paris from Prague. The DB website shows a 1 connection trip that takes less than 11 hours total time (bus from Prague to Mannheim and then the TGV from Mannheim to Paris).


<i>...drinking and partying with locals...</i>

What does that even mean? If you're hoping to make friends with some bar folk and sit around all night drinking, I would plan on disappointment given your hectic see as much as possible schedule.

Thank you both for your insights. I'm not looking so much for comments on the itinerary, but rather ideas on how to make the most of our time in each city. That means suggestions on neighborhoods, touristy things actually worth visiting (non tourist traps), etc.

"Drinking and partying with locals" means finding the right neighborhood to visit for casual drinks where locals won't be too closed off from a couple fun-loving Americans. We're both in our 20s and plan on being up at 8am everyday and out until midnight at least.

If you are looking to party, try Madrid or Barcelona.

How many foreign languages do you speak?

English only

Like I said, don't hold your breath.

We travel extensively in Europe and at first we went looking for the "we're strangers but we want to party with the locals" experience and it never happened so we stopped expecting it. After that it happened a grand total of twice: once in Scotland where we were locked in a bar with the band (I credit Mrs. sparkchaser's being a musician as the entry ticket for that one) and That being said, we have been in several countries where we knew people there and we went out with them and met up with others and had a grand time "partying with the locals" but we knew them beforehand. If you do end up hooking up with locals, expect to spend some time explaining why Americans feel the need to own machine guns and why they oppose gun control, why Americans don't think affordable health care is a basic right, why America needs to stick its nose in other countries' business, and why there are so many poor people in the richest nation in the world.

tl;dr: If you want to party with locals, have locals as friends there before you go else it probably won't happen. Just go and have fun.


Also, drinking till midnight and out the door by 8 mixed with jetlag does not make for a fun day.

I don't mean to be a wet blanket, I am just sharing experience.

<<How many foreign languages do you speak?>>

C'mon now, that's fairly irrelevant. In Denmark, anyone who is in their age range plus a couple of decades will speak English. Same for Berlin, Prague (although that's more limited to somewhat close to their age range), and Amsterdam. London is also irrelevant, the boyfriend will likely understand a lot of what the Brits are saying.

To maximize your time: get maps of each city (online or actual paper), understand their transport systems, plot out where the attractions you want to see are.

As for what to do: check out this site and others and plot your must-sees. Honestly, if you present yourself as people who bore easily, blow through major metropolises with centuries of history in a few hours (London is the size of NYC, Berlin and Paris are larger than Chicago) and then just want to sit at cafes and hang out, it's hard to tell you what to do if you haven't presented a "how about this" list.

Thank you very much for your advice sparkchaser. We'll calibrate our expectations based on your input.

Are we still in for a good time with this itinerary? I know it's not perfect, but I would like some assurance that we haven't completely botched our vacation plans.

Central Copenhagen is small enough to walk around in a short time, there is shopping, restaurants and sights to see in the centre. Without knowing your interests (apart from drinking, eating, partying, limited attention span), hard to recommend sights you would be interested in. Get a guide book and work out what to see or take a look at this link and see if anything appeals.

http://www.visitcopenhagen.com/copenhagen-tourist

<i>C'mon now, that's fairly irrelevant.</i>

It is true that more or less everyone in Western Europe in their 20s had mandatory English in school but that doesn't mean that they are comfortable speaking it, or even want to speak it.

Want to break the ice? The odds of getting a favorable reaction are better if you speak their language.

That's my point.

Your itinerary is doable. Lots of traveling but it's doable.

for parties Amsterdamned cannot be beat - stay in one of the city's many youth hotels and have a continual party with folks your age from all over Europe and the world.

going back to Berlin to catch a night train does not make sense since as others have said you can get a night train from Munich direct to Paris - at least you'd see a bit of Munich instead of returning somewhere you've been.

Anyway for lots of great stuff on European trains and night trains I always spotlight these IMO superb sites; www.set61.com - great info on discounted tickets that you can score from the national railways' web sites - a lot cheaper than just showing up and buying tickets - www.budgeteuropetravel.com and www.ricksteves.com.

I'd try to add a day onto Paris - 1.5 days so little there in the City of Love!

Honestly, I would cut at least one city from your itinerary. Yes, you will be doing more traveling than experiencing the cities. With the itinerary you currently have, I dare say Paris is the city to drop. You only have one groggy day there, after an all-night train ride. You will probably be too tired to enjoy much, and it's large city that could easily fill a week, even for folks with short attention spans.

Additionally, keep in mind that there are very few major sites anywhere that can be seen in twenty minutes. You will not be the only person there. At most major museums or other sites, expect to spend time waiting to buy tickets (although sometimes can be bought on line in advance), then queuing to enter, then spending a couple of hours enjoying what you came to see. Why travel so far and go through so much effort, without taking the time to absorb whatever history or culture you came to experience? By the time you get there, get in, and see whatever you came to see, you can usually figure about a half day for each major museum or site as a general rule of thumb.

So think about why you selected these particular cities. What is it YOU want to see there? For example, Amsterdam has Anne Frank House, Van Gogh Museum, Rembrandt's house, canal boat rides, Vondel Park, Tulip gardens, the Rijksmuseum, a great opera house, lots of opportunities to bike ride, the Heineken factory, and about a zillion other things too. You only have one full day there, plus part of the next, so which of these things would appeal to you? You will need to make careful choices about which sites and experiences you will most enjoy.

You are young and will be back. So consider this trip a "sampling" of Europe, and enjoy the time you do have in each city. Have fun!

I must admit that I am amazed that anyone thinks they can see the major sights in any of these cities in half a day.

Also agree that becoming best friends with locals in an hour or two in a pub isn't going to happen.

And if you have determined this is the trip you want (I would rather not go at all) why ask advice?

Oh, and do check which days things are closed - it will avoid wasted time trying to get into things not available.

Oh- and flying in and out of the same city is a BIG waste of time - why not open jaws into the first and out of the last - doesn;t cost any more?

Sparky: you and I both know that Americans have this notion that they'll pop in at some foreign land and start chirping at the residents and the residents will be more than happy to party with them. But just going to a cafe and striking up a conversation doesn't necessarily lead to that - it's like cold calling.

Unless you're in exactly the situation that creates such opportunity, the hanging with the locals scene is not common. Happened for me and the (now) wife when we were on a fireworks NYE cruise in Sydney harbor because there were 40 others in close quarters. It happened in Edinburgh when I went to the WC and some weegie came to the bar and began hitting on the wife (he and his friends then hung out with us after I busted him and he offered to buy us both drinks).

This is true because the OP and her BF are a COUPLE. If she were traveling with a girlfriend, there'd be plenty of locals more than happy to chat them up.

And yeah, a day and a half in Paris is really short.

>>One half day in each city seeing the main tourist/historical attractions is quite enough for us.<<

:D :D

1/2 a day will let you see ONE major site in some cities, and perhaps two major/semi-major sites in other cities.

So basically you really don't want to see almost ANY major sites and mainly want to party. That is fine, not everyone wants to sightsee. But just don't expect the 'locals' to be sitting around waiting to party w/ you.

>> Are we still in for a good time with this itinerary? I know it's not perfect, but I would like some assurance that we haven't completely botched our vacation plans.

That depends on how you define a good time. I would hate every minute of this trip, too many places, too little time in each of them, too much moving around.

Nobody can give you any assurance that you haven't completely botched vacation plans.