I am taking my daughter to Europe as a graduation present. She wants to go to:
1. London
2. Berlin
3. Vienna
4. Venice
5. Florence
6. Rome

Any suggestions as to the most economical way to get to each place? Thank you.

Before people can help you much we need some further info:

How many days do you have for this trip?
(That's 6 places pretty widely spaced out - do you have at least a month?)

When are you planning to go?

Are you interested only in the cheapest way directly from one place to another - not in any other issues? Are you interested in cities only and not at all in the countryside? (Obviously flying you'll miss that - with train or car you can see at least some of it.)

If you've only got two weeks I would narrow it to three cities. But have a ball.

I took my daughter (now 23) to Europe for her graduation from community college in 2001, She was only interested in Greece and I convinced her to add Italy and Germany because I'd been stationed both places in the military.

We took 16 days and flew to Frankfurt, rented a car, and spent the first night in Heidelberg because I knew I'd be jet-lagged. The next day we drove to Garmisch for three days, then to Venice for three days (where we returned the car), then flew to Rome for three days, and then flew to Athens and island-hopped for six days before flying back from Athens. It was a wonderful trip.

Personally, I think six places is too much. You'll be traveling an awful lot. Have you asked her why she wants to go to each place? My daughter, for example, liked Rome for the first day, when we walked and shopped, but then the hordes of tourists bothered her and she couldn't wait to leave.

The Vienna and Italy portion of the trip would be easy travel-wise but I wouldn't want to spend less than 12 days doing it. Unless you have three weeks, I wouldn't try to add London and Berlin.

I suggest you and your daughter do a lot of research on each place and see if any can be deleted. Right now you're looking at an awful lot of time and money.

I agee with the others who said to narrow it down. For example: You may want to fly Lufthansa to Berlin- visit some sites in Germany and go then go to Vienna. If you want to go to Venice, Florence, and Rome then I'd focus just on Italy...you could start in Vienna and take a train to Venice then hit Italy. But, the more countries you do the less you will experience the sights, people, and culture of a particular place. Traveling is exhausting...planes, trains, unpacking, getting use to different languages. Take it slower, focus on one or two countries depending on your time.

I need to make a correction - it was Venice, not Rome, that my daughter was ready to leave after one day! And it was May, not even the busy tourist season!

ttt

I wasn't aware that the OP mentioned a particular time frame or did I miss something?

IMO &quot;the most economical way to reach each place&quot; is largely going to depend on the <b>order</b> in which they will be visited. There can be cheap flights between some of these pairs such as London-Berlin and then the route Rome/Florence/Venice is probably best by rail.

I was also wondering why everyone was saying to cut out some places, since charlieg did not say how many days he has for the trip. Maybe he has plenty of time to see them all.

So, charlieg, how many days do you have? If you tell us that and answer nytraveler's other questions, you can get more help.

For starters, look into an open-jaw air tickets. FLy into London and out of Rome. For Italy probably train travel between the 3 cities would be best. I would think from London you'd have to fly to the next city (Berlin or Vienna). There are airlines that fly within Europe that can be very economical.

charlieg: No one can give you much useful advice until we know <b>how long is the trip</b>?

I said, IF you've only got two weeks...&quot; I realize I wasn't really answering the OPs original question as I could not offer any great suggestions for transportation.

I was simply bringing up a point I thought the OP might not have considered. Many people optimistically plan to see a new city every 2 days for a whirlwind trip of Europe and miss alot in the process.

Thanks to everyone for the replys. We are going for three weeks.


London - 4 days
Berlin 3 days
Vienna - 3 days
Venice - 3 days
Florence - 3 days
Rome - 4 days

My daughter is keen to go to each of the places except Vienna (I threw that one in for me) and I suppose I could eliminate it if necessary. We have been to London many times, so we don't need a week there. Also, she went to Italy last year, so this will be a revisit.

Does anyone know which of the budget carriers fly London/Berlin, Berlin-Vienna and Vienna/Venice?

Thanks again to everyone for taking time to respond.

Use www.whichbudget.com to find the carriers. I can recommend EasyJet for London/Berlin.

For Vienna, look at Bratislava, because many budget airlines use that instead.

You could use either EasyJet for London-Berlin or AirBerlin; AirBerlin also flies Berlin-Vienna

www.air-berlin.com

Just remember you'll lose the better part of a day each time you travel from place to place.

I cannot imagine going to Europe for 3 weeks and staying only in big cities. She will not get a good feel for Europe.

bob - the daughter has already decided where she wants to go. For her, seeing Europe means seeing these cities, not your interpretation of Europe.

I think the point for itineraries is that some people have things they WANT to do, and that is the purpose of their vacation or trip, which is almost always using limited resources (money or time). A lot of folks think a vacation is supposed to be a history or anthropological expedition, and it may not be for someone. It may be just what they want to do and see.

When I first traveled to Europe for the first time, I did not have unlimited funds or time (who does?), so I mainly saw big cities also, because those were places I always wanted to see. My goal was not to explore every niche of Europe nor every segment of society.

Charileg -

Just be aware that one of the days you have listed for each city is really a travel day. I know that sounds like a lot - but when you count packing up, checking out of the hotel, getting to the ariport r train station, waiting, getting to wherever you're going - and then doing the reverse in the new city - you have really eaten up an entire day. (Also, be advised that many of the low-cost airlines don;t land at the major ariports - but at secondary ariports often far from the city they &quot;serve&quot; taking even more of your valuable vacation time.)

If you really want to see all those places - fine - but understand that you will be missing many major sights in each - and that you have left yourself no time for the countryside at all.

If I were you I would do London and then either Germany/Austria - or Italy.

Within Italy train is your best bet. From London to any of those places flying is most efficient (not cheapest- that would be a combination of local train/bus - but would be interminable - like 24 hours from London to Berlin or Rome).