too many cities?
 

2 Adults (mom & adult son) traveling Europe - wondering if trying to smash too much into too little time. We will be in Europe for 16 full days (plus 2 days of travel - total of 18 days).

We fly into Paris & then this is our plan:
Paris for 4 nights / 3 full days fly to Barcelona.
Barcelona for 3 nights / almost 3 days - fly to Porto
Porto for 2 nights / 2 days - fly to Lisbon
Lisbon for 3 nights / 2+ full days - fly to Rome
Rome for 3 nights / 3+ full days - fly to Paris
Paris for 2 night - fly home

The only thing finalized so far is our flight to/from Paris. This is a short notice trip & we will be there in just over 2 weeks!! We plan on traveling very lightly & using Ryanair. I realize there has to be the 2 hour wait @ the airport, flying time & then traveling to our hotel, apt or b&b. Will we be overloaded & not enjoy anything? What would you cut out?

Have you been to some of these places?

If you're familiar with them, you might be able to revisit more efficiently -- know where to go, know the best itinerary, etc.

Otherwise, if it's first-time only, yes, 6 cities (including Paris twice) seems to be a lot for slightly over 2 weeks.

I think it is too much but not necessarily too many cities, if that's the way you like to travel, but that Rome is areal outlier and so is far away from teh rent of your itinerary. If it were just some other city nearby, it would be fine.

Why on earth you are flying back from Paris??? That is a big waste of time and money to have to get back there. Have you already bought these tickets? If not, don't.

Ryanair could be expensive if you are travelling in two weeks - it may be no cheaper than the legacy airlines, and with a lot worse service.

You have too many moves, which are expensive in time and money. Slow down. Maybe Paris and Barcelona, or Paris and Portugal. A pity you have to return to Paris. Maybe look into travelling on to your second city on your arrival day - but do allow plenty of time to go through immigration, security and any terminal changes, plus the (faint) possibility of bad weather at the Europe end at least. Then return to Paris for the second half of the trip.

I have been to Spain, but 30 years ago. My son really wanted to see Spain. I suggested he see it another time. ;)
Sadly, yes the ticket back to Paris is already booked / yes, my suggestion was to fly in to one city & out of another, but what is done is done. Live & learn

Why would you fly from Porto to Lisbon? It would be faster to take the train.

Also, if you have three nights in Rome, with a travel day before and a travel day after, you can't possibly have 3+ full days there, unless they've moved the International Date Line.

Six cities in sixteen days would be too many for me. Even worse would be the idea of seven airports in sixteen days.

Oh my, that's a lot of flying... Either drop Portugal or Rome, that would be my suggestion.

Of course your son wants to go to Barcelona, so cutting that is not a possibility.

I know Rome is out of the way, but I like the idea of seeing Rome with lighter crowds. Last May I found it stifling, there were such crowds everywhere we went. Rome is definitely a city where you could stay a few more days and see a lot without having to fly to another city.

If you're flying Ryanair make sure you have carryon luggage, and check Ryanair's allowances/ measurements. Paying extra for luggage can really add up.

Too many airports, too much time flying around - that gets OLD so quickly! Drop Portugal or drop Rome. You can't do justice to an entire continent in the short time you've got.

Have yous ever been to Europe -if not I'd suggest planning more on cities closer to each other and use trains - as of now you will be seeing a handful of tourist cities but nothing of the Europe in between - just airports and a few cities.

How about a radical change -like Paris - Amsterdam - Germany -Switzerland- Paris

or Paris - Italy (can take a night train to Venice from Paris)- Switzerland

or Paris- Amsterdam- Bruges- London -Paris

or Paris- Italy -fly to Spain - train Barcelona to Madrid - overnight train or fly to Lisbon-train to Porto, etc.

Anyway for lots about trains and planning a rail trip check www.budgeteuropetravel.com; www.seat61.com; www.ricksteves.com.

At least take train Porto to Lisbon -quicker than flying and cheap

Or Rome to Switzerland to Paris.

Anyway just a thought.

I don't mind fast-moving trips but this would be too many airports for me. I would drop at least one location.

Have you run this schedule by your son? I would consult him before some strangers on the internet.

A full 1/3 of your time will be spent traveling, not exactly a relaxing holiday.

Whenever you ask, the presumptive answer is yes.

You've not overcome the presumption.

I'd drop all the Portuguese and reallocate.

>>A full 1/3 of your time will be spent traveling, <<

And it is even worse than that . . . flying which is mostly not pleasant.

Most people are saying to cut Portugal or Rome -- if it was my trip (which it isn't) I'd cut one of those for sure - and possibly even more. There will be mornings when you just want to sleep in, or relax in a cafe or just ditch that darned schedule and ad lib a bit. As it is you will always be packing/unpacking worrying about getting to an airport in time, hoping there are no flight delays/cancellations which would blow the next city's plan out of the water.

AND you are making the hassle even worse building in an extra pack/unpack/transit by splitting up Paris into two stays. I would not split my Paris time. Arrive in Paris and immediately continue to Barcelona or Rome - then spend the last 6 or 7 nights in Paris.

Personally, I don't mind a Paris split as, depending where you are flying from, you may well be too exhausted to continue onwards. I, too, would also advise cutting Portugal and save it for another trip. You can add an extra night on to Paris when you land to give you lots of time to get over jet lag and enjoy the city. I would also add another night to Barcelona, and another two to three nights on to Rome.

If Portugal is a high priority, then you might consider cutting Rome and Barcelona.

Way too many places in too little time. And why waste the time to go to Paris twice? I would pick 3 or at very most 4 cities.

You should get open jaw flights (called multi-destination on most web sites) into your first city and out of your last to avoid wasting time circling back

Sorry, but yes, I agree that this plan is WAY too rushed -- at least, it would be for my tastes!

Please note that you are not counting any time for relocation -- time to actually travel between cities, to get to/from your transportation, to check into/out of your hotels, to pack/unpack, to get oriented to (and lost in) new places with different languages and norms, etc. As a rough idea, assume that you will lose about 1/2 day with each change of location. That's a chunk of time!

I think your trip would be likely to be much more enjoyable and much more manageable -- and probably much more memorable -- if you drop of few cities from this plan.

Hope that helps!

Drop Rome maybe - rather an outlier- and drop one flight and spread the time out in Spain and Portugal. I agree with the chorus above saying too much too quick too many flights.

I agree, and as I'm guessing you already know since you said "too many cities" in your title!

I don't see any travel time allowance, changing cities 5 times needs to be accounted for. None of you "2 days" or "3 days" are really that, since you haven't subtracted the (at least) half day it is going to take changing places each time.

I agree with dropping Rome entirely... for starters!

If flying Ryanair you better check to see at which airports you'll arrive at/depart. I believe for Paris you arrive at Beauvais, which is way outside of Paris. Will take at least a one hour or more bus ride just to arrive at the outskirts of Paris.