travel between countries on a budget and which direction to do round trip?
 

Hi People.
so my partner and i have just under ten days to see parts of Europe, we arrive in Barcelona Late June 2014,
countries we would like to see,or maybe just day trips.
Barcelona, - attractions then to Paris day trip then head to London like spend 3 days see London cdb and family- then off to Germany and see family for 3days and visit Amsterdam. and fly back to Barcelona from Germany??????

SO QUESTION 1> which way is best?

Starting point Barcelona: visiting Paris,London,Amsterdam and Germany.
or
Barcelona, Germany, Amsterdam then off to London then Paris then back to Barcelona???

Q2: best transport to each destination eg, by air,bus,train?

Q3: any ATTRACTIONS for above destination as a MUST SEE! Would you recommend?
Q4: other suggestions???
Q5: recommend any websites for cheap airfares? and what months to look out for the sales

Thank You,
for your time.

KB

You have under 10 days which means 9 days. Three days are allocated to London and Germany. That means 3 days to visit Paris, Amsterdam, and Barcelona.

It doesn't matter which way you do the trip as most of the 3 days will be spent in transit.

Here's your itinerary:

Day 1 - arrive Barcelona (1/2 day sightseeing)
Day 2 - fly to Paris (1/2 day travel)
Day 3 - Paris (you said a day in Paris; day 2 is not a full day)
Day 4 - London (1/2 day travel)
Day 5 - 7 - London (you said 3 days London)
Day 8 - Germany or Amsterdam
Day 9 - return to Barcelona

Before you book anything you need to re-work your itinerary and cut out at least 2 (preferably 3) of the 5 destinations.

Also look into flying home from your final country, rather than back tracking to Barcelona.

Too many places, too few days.

You can't day trip to countries from London nor is it practical to try to visit Paris in a few hours stop on your way to London from Barcelona. Your list is like saying you would day trip from NYC to Chicago. Simply not practical.

If your 10 days includes travel to and from the US, then you should limit your visit to Barcelona and London only as you really won't have time for anything else. Find a budget flight between the two.

If you haven't booked airfare yet, book into one city and home from the other using the multi-city selection (not one way tickets). It will save time and cost will be similar. It wastes time backtracking to your arrival city to fly home.

Way too many places in too few days. If you have 9 days - and does this include the day you arrive and depart - so you really have 7? - is enough for two (2) cities at most.

Your itinerary would have you spending most of your time just getting from one place to another (check out the length of thee journeys by train or plane - it's just really a big mess.)

If you're concerned with your budget, you need to slow down. As others have noted, you're spending all of your time moving. That includes, getting to hotels, finding the hotel, waiting for desks clerks, if something goes wrong you've lost an hour in a city you've given yourself 6 hours to see.

Plus, considering that you want to save money. You might get better deals in hotels if you stay longer.

"ATTRACTIONS for above destination as a MUST SEE!"

Don't worry about that, you'll have plenty of time to read the guide books while you're on your way to the next destination.

I hope, for your sake, you reconsider this plan.

It really does not make any sense at all to go back to Barcelona at the end of the trip. Especially from Germany, but there isn't any purpose to it from anywhere.

Not do-able. Start over.

Apart from the fact - as many others have already pointed out - that this'plan' is nigh on impossible, just what do you mean by Germany?

Germany is a COUNTRY, and a large one at that. So I assume you mean maybe one city or town within this country? But which one?get to Germany unless you ditch France and England.
You will never manage to

I think you've over-estimated your ability to get around, whether taking trains or flying. These take time and you're not going to be able to squeeze all of this in.

If you're seeing family in London and somewhere in Germany, that's about all you would be able to do in a meaningful way. At most, you could go London for a couple of days, take the Channel Tunnel to Paris for a couple of days and then to Germany. That way, you would fly into London and out of, say Munich, or whatever is close to where you will be visiting.

Barcelona doesn't really make sense in your short itinerary. Trying to do five cities in essentially seven days will not permit you to see anything other than whatever form of transport you are taking and hotel rooms.

I agree - way too many countries to fully enjoy any of them. It is so tempting to do it but I think (imho) you might end up spending more time in transit than actually seeing much. I am not sure if anyone mentioned this above, but there is not only the transit time, but the time taken to get to your accomodations and check in and get your bearings.

Thank you all, for your advice,suggestions and comments!!! :)
Yes agree to many places n not enough time to c each place with not doing it in a hurry etc.....
i am transiting in Barcelona before heading to Brasil/Brazil. so extended the stay to c abit of Europe. I think as for now, I may give Paris and London a miss.
n see Germany, Frankfurt and Amsterdam.
Thank you!!! again, people.....:)

Q2: best transport to each destination eg, by air,bus,train?>

If down to Barcelona and Germany and Amsterdam take the train - cars are rather useless in large cities and trains go up to nearly 200 mph between cities - you can take an overnight train from Barcelona to Paris - which is not on your list but lies smack on the route to Germany or Holland from Barcelona (www.elipsos.com for Elipsos night train info and discounted advance tickets - save on a night in a hotel to boot.

For loads of great info on European trains check out these IMO fantastic sites - www.budgeteuropetravel.com; www.ricksteves.com and www.seat61.com - for travel in Germany and Holland check out the Benelux-Germany Railpass which allows you to hop any train anytime or go to www.bahn.de/en for fares of trains involving Germany with discounted ticket available but those are non-refundable non-changeable and sold in limited numbers so must be booked way in advance - but they can save you a lot of money - for full flexibility look at the Germany-Benelux pass or German Railpass (Twin).

Just hard for me to think of coming to Europe and not seeing Paris. London is the total outlier here, and Amsterdam could be a day or 2 trip from Paris. Frankfurt is not a great destination.

Frankfurt - unless you have some special thing or people to see there and though it can be a nice city to spend time there are FAR better places to fulfill your romantic notion of Europe probably etched in your minds'e eyes.

An alternative suggestion that would allow you to see a bit of London and Paris. Fly with one of the cheap airlines from Barcelona to London. Spend time in London, and go by train (Eurostar) to Paris for the day. If you book long enough in advance (3 or so months) you will get cheap tickets, and plenty of Londoners do just that. Set off at 7.30 a.m. and you can arrive in Paris at around 10.30 a.m. local time. Get the last train back to London at around 10 p.m. local time, arriving at 11.00 p.m.

It's really not logical to go from London to Paris, return to London and then go to Germany. From Paris she's half way to Germany. Better to go onward to Germany from Paris.

Sorry - Thought you were seeing family in London and Germany. I didn't realize you were traveling in/out of Barcelona.

Thank you! PalenQ. the information would be great help!!! :)