Southern Europe Trip for New Travelers
 

Hi all! My husband and I are planning our first trip to Europe and have been considering Northern Europe (London-Paris-Amsterdam) but have recently been exploring Southern Europe traveling from Spain to Italy to Greece. I would love your thoughts on this new travel plan and if it is doable? We have approximately 16 days to spend total travel time and would like a nice mixture of relaxation and history. We want to primarily rent from VRBO or other rental sites to save on accommodations and spend 3-4 days in each city. If you have any thoughts on a better Mediterranean route as well, we would love to hear your thoughts.

Thank you!

Three stops is the right number for your length of trip. (Remember it takes 4 nights somewhere to get three full days)

When are you traveling, as this would make a difference in my recommendations.

Summer, do the northern route, by train. Spring or early fall, do the southern. I would do Spain and Italy (maybe taking the ferry from Barcelona) or Italy and Greece (flying into Athens or taking the ferry from Bari).

16 days is 'enough' for 3 cities, but not for 3 countries. Especially 3 countries so far apart. You won't have any sort of 'relaxation' trip if you try to squeeze in Spain, Italy and Greece. That would be a good length of time for a taste of Italy; OR - Athens/an island or two plus maybe one city in Italy; OR - Spain.

But none of them would be good in the middle of summer -- VERY hot.

. . . re your original idea -- 16 days (which is only 13.5 days free to see/do) would be enough for Paris and London and a small taste of Amsterdam) . . .

Agree that this is just enough time for a brief taste of 3 cities. And that the choice depends on the time of year. I would especially avoid Spain from May through September.

Plan one country at a time and plan 3 trips in advance.
You will return to each---we have returned 17 times to Italy, 5 times to Spain, and 2 times to Greece. They are too vast to mix for one trip.

As you become more familiar with countries you will get to know them as regions and not as countries, since all of Europe is really defined as regions. Think Veneto or Tuscany or Piedmont, not Italy. Think Andalusia not Spain.

16 days. Does this include arrival and departure days? How many do you have on the ground, excluding those?

London, Paris, Amsterdam are just three cities, all easy to do by train - works fine.

Spain, Italy and Greece are very big countries - must fly or have long ferry rides in between. You would probably eat up more of your vacation time traveling. You would have to choose only one or two places and even then, it would be rushed if you do not choose carefully.

Just think about
Italy: Rome, Florence, Venice, Amalfi Coast, Tuscany, wineries and hill towns, etc.
Spain: Andalusia area including Seville, Cordoba, Granada, etc. Then there is Madrid and Toledo, Barcelona, San Sebastian, etc., etc.
Greece: mainland with Athens, the many different islands, Santorini, etc.

You could easily spend two weeks in any of these countries and still have only a taste, but think about choosing just one city in one country for three or four days and all the rest of the time exploring one country.

sassafrass: >>16 days. Does this include arrival and departure days? How many do you have on the ground, excluding those?<<

From the OP I was assuming it is 16 days total including travel.

>>We have approximately 16 days to spend total travel time . . .<<

But maybe the OP can clarify

We were thinking of traveling in May 2016.

May is a perfect time of year to go to these countries. Spring blossom is here in full and the summer heat is usually some weeks away. May is also serious festival time in Spain, mostly very local events that gives you the opportunity to get under the skin of things and experience the food, wine, music, song, dance and fiesta spirit. Serious festivals in Madrid (San Isidro) and all around Andalucia, but Cordoba in May stands out: http://www.andalucia.com/cities/cordoba/festivals.htm

London, Paris, and Amsterdam are cities relatively close together, while Spain, Italy and Greece are countries wide apart. I can think of at least three cities in Italy alone I would visit were I to go there again.

If you decide on the southern European option you need to either extend your travel time or restrict your visit to fewer countries. With the northern option you would be able to do much of the travel by train, giving you the chance to see at least a little of the countryside between cities.

Of course you can see three cities in that time. Some of the above posters are quite presumptuous in their assertion that you can return to Europe time and again. You may not have the time, money or health to revisit.

I've spent four nights in Rome, four in Barcelona and four in Paris with a friend who knew this would be her one and only visit to Europe - all taking low cost airlines between the three - and we had a wonderful time. Sure it was compressed but it worked.

My point being...you don't have to choose between south and north - you can combine - and your time frame is fine providing you fly out as early or as late as you can to maximise your time in each place.

>>Of course you can see three cities in that time. Some of the above posters are quite presumptuous <<

Who said they can't see three cities in their 2+weeks? Just about everyone agreed that 3 stops is good. No one was "presumptuous".

I think you may have mis-read some of the responses.

I am mystified as to why you can't go to 3 countries if that is what you want to do. Some people have a psychological block about it, I guess, but plenty of people do it quite easily and happily. Some of my favorite 3 city, 3 country trips have combined the UK, France and Germany. Another combined The Netherlalands, Belgium and France. Still another was Greece, Italy and Spain. I've also combined Austria, Ireland and France.

Some of these trips required travel logistics that were not obvious. If you are traveling in summer, you can get wonderful easy non-stop flights between Greece -- including Greek islands -- into fantastic Italian destinations, like Tuscany, and from there take an overnight boat to Spain.

Depends on what you want to do, but it can be fantastic fun to go to a variety of destinations in Europe that are culturally very distinct from one another.

But you might want to work this out on another travel forum where people would be more sympathetic to your desires. Just a thought.

In case my post wasn't clear, you can not only go to 3 cities in 3 different countries if you like, you can also go to 3 different countries and not go to the cities if you would rather be in the countryside or small towns. For instance you can fly straight from Sevilla in Spain to regional airports in central Italy, where you can pick up a car and visit wine country. And from there you can drive to an airport or dock that will get you to Greece. People might disapprove, but it's doable.

Of course you cant's see 3 ENTIRE countries in 16 days. But -- isn't this obvious too? -- people who spend 16 days visiting 3 european capitals have seen the ENTIRE cities either. Were they miserable? They probably had a lot of fun.

I just got curious and looked, because I hadn't looked before, at how long it takes to drive from Madrid to Athens, that includes driving though Italy part of the way.

34 hours.

I'm not sure I personally would enjoy a 16 day driving trip from Madrid to Athens, and I might not recommend it to new travelers, but it actually doesn't seem all that daunting to me, and could be a lot of fun if you picked the right spots for overnights and excursions.

So many different people, so many different ways to travel. So many rules to break. So many ways to have fun.

Ok, my penny worth, I would assume you were going to fly between the places. May is great. Three places are fine but I'd like to give you some options

Spain
1) Madrid and Toledo (day trip) or
2) Barcelona or
3) Cordoba and Seville one a day trip

Fly to Italy and look at
1) Rome or
2) Naples and Capri (day trip) or
3) Venice

Fly to Greece
1) Athens
2) Rhodes
3) Santorini (where the yoghurt adverts come from)

Now I might be bored in/dislike some of these but I'm not you and so I suggest you do some googling and see how accessible each is and if you'd like to go.

Sandra makes a good point, you may not be city visitors and might prefer to holiday in the country (or indeed seaside). In which case the issue is going to be airports. If that is the case come on back.

The good thing is that public transport in the first two countries is pretty good so you don't need to get into the whole car hire thing, while the Islands of Greece don't need a car and/or Athens where you will not want a car.

It's certainly doable but the devil is in the detail. You suggest VRBO to reduce costs - can I suggest you take a look at Airbnb - you should find it significantly cheaper with a better range of accommodation options - many people were wary at first, some still are, but there are more and more fans. We've used it several times now and its my first choice.