Summer 2012 - 15 Day Europe Itinerary. Thoughts?
 

My husband, 13 year old daughter, and I are taking our first trip to Europe.

Below is our tentative itinerary. Our objective is to see at least 1 or 2 specific attractions in each city, take a city tour, and leave time to hang out and enjoy. It averages to about 3 full days in each city.

Any thoughts or comments?

Fly into Amsterdam and depart from London

Day 1 - Day 3 - Amsterdam
Day 4 - Mid-day train to Berlin
Day 5 - Day 7 - Berlin (Night Train to Paris - for the experience)
Day 8 - Day 10 - Paris
Day 11 - Mid-day train to London
Day 12 - Day 14 - London
Day 15 - Fly Home out of London

Read more: http://www.frommers.com/community/fo...#ixzz1f7GdXETI

Itineries with relatively short stays in major cities and lots of travelling in between don't usually get the thumbs up on Fodors; however you have picked cities that are fairly close together, so it'll work in this case.

What are your must-sees?

Leave out Berlin. It will give you some breathing space.

Our "must sees" are below . . .

Anne Frank House in Amsterdam.
Checkpoint Charlie Museum and Schloss Charlottenburg in Berlin.
Eiffel Tower in Paris.
Tower of London and a Shakespeare play.

We'd plan to do some type of "city tour" that would show us the highlights on our first day, put in our "must see" the next, and leave the 3rd day open. We'd like to use our travel days to hang out, enjoy scenery, etc.

Ok for lots of info on planning the rail portion of your trip I always spotlight these fantastic IMo sites - www.seat61.com (lots of good info on online discounted tickets available for the Amsterdam to Berlin and Berlin to Paris train trips - much cheaper than just showing up and paying full fare) and www.budgeteuropetravel.com and www.ricksteves.com. check out the German Railways web site - www.bahn.de for sample schedules and fares, including online discounts that are sold in limited numbers and must be hopped on far in advance often to secure but the savings can be immense if you know exactly when you take the train as these are I believe train specific and non-changeable nor refundable. You are not traveling enough by train to make any railpass pay off.

Yeah, I'd leave out Berlin. You need more time in Paris - and you could be very sleepy on day 8. Or if you have limited interests in Paris and think your time there really is adequate, you could venture into Germany, but going to Berlin takes 9 hours or so. Leave Paris on the 9:00 train and you'll be in Trier, Rome's former outpost, at noon - a great place to visit along with some smaller cities and towns on the Mosel River. A daytrip by train to Cochem from there takes 45 min. each way:

http://www.cochem.de/
http://www.burg-cochem.de/
http://www.burg-cochem.de/english/falconry.htm

It occurs to me that with your interest in WW II, you might want to skip the Mosel suggestion and visit the Natzweiler Concentration Camp near Strasbourg, very close to the German border. Strasbourg is only 2 hours and change from Paris via direct train

http://www.struthof.fr/en/the-museum...weiler-museum/

From there, you could bounce into Germany quite easily. Freiburg or smaller Black Forest towns like Gengenbach would require less of your time.

Hi JP,

Well, you will get to see a lot of trains on this "If it's Tuesday, It Must be Belgium" tour.

Have you considered a week in London followed by a week in Paris as a good way to introduce yourselves to Europe?

((I))

I'm with Ira - this itinerary is a lot of hopping about and not much time in any given place. London and Paris are each easily worth a week just for exploring. Berlin seems like it is too (never been, but wouldn't go for fewer than 5 nights if I did). Seems a waste to bugger off for Amsterdam, Berlin, Paris and London to see a major sight and a superficial city tour for each destination to occupy two of the three days and leave just one open for the (numerous) sites you hadn't hit.

The overnight trains are neither so comfortable nor so inexpensive that the "experience" is a don't miss. Thinking there's a reason that budget backpackers and young folk from the Anglosphere are the usual non-European overnight train riders.

In defense of the OP, the main interests in their travel do not seem to include major art museums which are time consuming. They could hop around using cheap flights.

http://www.flylc.com/directall-en.asp

I would agree that you're trying to fit in a lot. Keep in mind that you'll be doing a lot of coming and going from train stations to hotels, which eat up more time than you'd think, especially if it's your first time to Europe, and you're visiting four different countries. Each of them will have slightly different ways of finding your train, getting on, etc. Not that it's a big deal, or even difficult, but consider how much of your precious vacation time you want to spend navigating between locations, rather than being IN them.

Also, you're visiting only cities. Would you want to consider some time in the countryside, to get a different perspective?

We are not big on those city tours; we're more active, and prefer walking around on our own, even if it means seeing fewer places. We did take the HOHO bus on our son's first visit to London (when he was 10yo), and while it was fun for a bit - it was a double-decker, and we rode on top, even he found the commentary not very informative.

I like that you're not counting your travel days as time in either your departing or arriving city. That's being realistic about the time and attention lost when changing cities.

I like the suggestions on the Frommers thread about re-ordering your itinerary. In particular, I agree with the elimination of the overnight train which sounds fun and interesting in concept but never works well for me. I don't slept well on trains, and the arrival day is then not as enjoyable as it could be.

If Berlin stays in the mix, I'd only spend two full days there which should be more than enough time to see your target sights. If Amsterdam remains your first destination, consider trimming a day here too but only if your arrival day is not "Day 1" and your flight from home is not crazy long. Add the saved day or days to Paris and/or London depending on your target sights in each city.

3 cities in 2 weeks is more than enough. Cut one of your destinations out of the mix and I guarantee you will be happier.