hi everyone,

i am planning an anniversary trip for my wife and i, and was wondering what is the best way to visit multiple cities in europe? we have about 10-12 days and would like to see paris, venice, rome, and maybe florence or london. i saw a website http://www.europeandestinations.com, and it looks convenient to use, but i wanted feedback on it. also if that site isnt trustworthy, what is a good way to plan a eurotrip? thanks a bunch!

Start with the basics, and the total time in Europe comes first. Decide how many nights you will sleep in Europe--not travel days. If that is 10, then you can see perhaps 3 destinations. I would stay in Italy for this trip and save the others for next time.

You have too many destinations and not enough days. Since it will take at least half a day to get form one place to another, if you actually have 10 days on the ground (you can;t caount the day you arrive or the day you leave) - with an 8 day trip - minus 2 days for internal travel you have 6 days - or 1 day per city for 4 cities.

Frankly, this is just silly. If you actually have 8 days on the ground you should do 2 cities - and actually see a little of the, If you have 10 days on the ground you can squash in a 3rd city - but realize you are rushing around.

IMHO for a first trip to London or Paris you need to allow at lest 4 days (5 nights) - and that's all you've got.

What you are planning is like taking a week to see Boston, New York, DC, Chicago and San Francisco. Doesn't make a lot of sense - does it?

thanks i appreciate the input! we have 10 nights in europe. that does make sense too many cities too few days.

has anyone used europeandestinations.com? or any suggested sites to book?

thanks!

Decide your itinerary and then ask about hotels here. Using a 3rd party to book is not a good idea to me.

I have never used a booking agency, just book your own flight and hotel and train tickets.. I like knowing what I am getting by doing my own homework, and I dont like maybe paying inflated prices.
8 days/nights do 2 cities.
You can fly into London, 2-3 days, take Eurostar to Paris, 2-3 days there, and then if you want to push it, you could concievably flight ( look at Easyjet for inter europeon flight) to Rome or Venice for last 2-3 nights. Fly home from there, to do this you are booking what is known as an open jaw flight, on airlines booking sites as "multi destination".. this saves times backtracking. I would only do 2 places, but some people would rather have a taste of more places then relax and just enjoy the places they can comfortably see, there is no right or wrong.

If you use a 3rd party you are limiting yourself to the hotels that are willing to pay them commissions - and the trip will end up costing more.

If you are willing to pay more to have them do the planning fine - but do realize that's what happening. Srongly suggest you get exact location of any hotel - and check it out here and on tripadvisor - before signing onto anyhthing. these companies have a habit of using US style chain hotels that are out by the highway and not near anything you want to see or do.

Second bobthe navigator--Rome, Florence, Venice--3 or 4 nites in each. You'll just scratch the surface of Italy in the time you have.

And you can book your own--use an airline site to book tickets--open jaw ticket--fly to Venice, fly out of Rome. (or vice versa) then Tripadvisor to find hotels. Finally, once you get the flights and hotels booked, Trenitalia to buy train tickets within Italy.

Buon Viaggio!

I've never seen the purpose for a middle-man. I just plan my trip, buy a plane ticket, make hotel reservations, and go.

For London and Paris you would want an open-jaw ticket, into London, out of Paris. Like dwd recommended above. These are called multi-city tickets on the airline websites and should cost about the same as round-trip tickets, saving you the time and money you would have to spend to backtrack.

Between London and Paris, you can take the Eurostar train underneath the channel. It only takes 2.5 hours, city center to city center. Buy the tickets early for big savings: www.eurostar.com.

If you want to do Paris and Rome, you can fly from Paris Orly (smaller, easier to get to) to Rome on Easyjet for something like 75 euros each, depending on your date. Another option is the overnight train.

As you can infer, I'm in the DIY crowd. If you want hotel recommendations, tell us your budget per night.

thanks for all the helpful tips!

for booking multi city tickets do you have to use the same airline when you fly in and out of different cities? or can you use one airline to get to europe and another to fly back home?

Thanks so much!

Go to ITAsoftware.com and select " multi-city" option.
That will give you all of your flght options but you cannot book on this site. You can use different airlines.

iatasoftware.com isn't what you want, it's a technology services group.

Use something like kayak.com or skyscanner.net to track down open jaw/multi-city flights. Choose where you want to fly into and where you want to fly home from, and the website will do the rest.

Ah I see there is a airfare search facility on itasoftware.com so you can use that.

All you need to choose is arrival point, departure point and work how out how you get between the two and that's your vacation solved - easy peasy!