Hi. I am new to this board, and find it quite interesting and informative. My husband and I will be traveling to Europe on June 6 - to London, Paris and Vienna, spending 5 days in each country. Would this be enough time to see all the major sights/attractions? I would appreciate your input. Thank you.

Carmen

If you're asking about the countries of England, France, and Austria, no, five days in each is not enough time to see the highlights of each. However, five days each in London, Paris, and Vienna is adequate time to cover those cities' highlights. Though I might lean towards cutting a day or two from Vienna in favor of Paris and/or London.

"Would this be enough time to see all the major sights/attractions?"

No, it wouldn't. Especially in London which is huge, and in Paris, which is smaller but has nearly as many major sights/attractions. You can spend a month in London or Paris and still not see all the major attractions.

Vienna is different - you could see most of the major sites in 5 days and not be all that rushed.

But what is your traveling style - do you like to rush through and see some of the highlights, or do you want to "smell the roses" a bit and see things at a more leisurely pace?

If you want to see more and slow down a bit I'd suggest you pick two of those cities. Every major travel segment eats up the best part of a day so it really does cut down on your time in each city.

Are you flying open jaw into one and out of another? If so go to the two cities you are flying in/out of. Then do some day trips out into the surrounding countryside of each.

If you aren't flying open jaw - then there is another day used up getting back for your departure.

If you are set with the general London/Paris/Vienna itinerary - I would d 6 days London, 6 in Paris, and 3 in Vienna.

No certainly not enough to see "all" of anything, but I do agree that 5 days is sufficient to get a taste of each of the cities you mention (though certainly not enough to see an entire country or multiple cities within one).

As far as your question- do you have more time so you could take a longer trip? Is that an option? Have you made reservations yet? Would you cut one of the cities in order to spend more time in the other two?

Welcome to the board, Carmen.

No.

Do you have 15 full days of vacation, or are you still planning?
Which cities are you flying into and home from? How did you choose L, P and V?

Carmen came in here to ask a simple question, and elaine just bombarded her with all of these question !! Oh My God elaine! shut up already!

(MMHH,Nellyannus,....,.....,.....,....)
I may be a troll, but I AM right this time.

I actually think that these cities make the perfect combination for a first European trip.

It's going to be so hectic in London; there is so much to see in that city. And Paris is just exquisite, but crowded and not so relaxing. So after all of that hustle you can head to Vienna, which is kind of laid back, and yet so charming and wonderful.

I know you're going to have a wondeful trip.

All:

Thank you very much for all your suggestions. It seems the general consensus is that 5 days is not enough time. So I would probably do 7 days in London, 7 in Paris and 5 in Vienna. Also can someone explain to me what “flying open jaw” is all about? I think it is flying to one country and out another. How does that work? I was going to fly from BWI to London, London to Paris, Paris to Vienna and back to BWI. Is there a better way to do this? Once again thank you for your input.

Carmen

Open jaw means flying into one location and out of another, not necessarily different countries. It's a great deal because it does not force you to plan your trip around a "loop," enabling you to cut down on time backtracking. I haven't done it myself very often, so I can't speak to how the costs would relate to a simple RT, but I'm sure others can.

Definitely fly into and out of different cities if you still have that option. Otherwise you spend valuable time backtracking. Last early June we flew into Vienna and out of Munich, with Prague in between, and it was ideal. Airfare actually cost less to do it that way, as round-trip Vienna put us through Munich anyway, so we dropped off that flight and paid less. Took trains between the cities.
The weather was beautiful, with flowers blooming all over Vienna especially.
We spent 5 nights in Vienna, 3 in Prague and 4 in Munich. If we'd been able to, I would have preferred 4 nights in each, but we had business in Vienna. We felt four nights was the minimum for our preferences.
You definitely can't see "all the major sights" in 5 days, but you can get a good feel for a place and see plenty. Don't be discouraged-- your plan can work. Read up on your destination cities, prioritize and decide what you truly want to see and do. We enjoyed the day-trip we took from Vienna up to Melk to see the beautiful monastery there, then to Krems by boat to view the countryside. You can get a "combi-pass" at the train station which will cover the train to Melk, an admittance ticket to a sight in Melk, the boat ride to Krems, and the train ride back to Vienna. It's a nice way to spend a day, if you want to get outside the city.
Once you decide, post questions for each city for suggestions on hotels, and you will get good recommendations. (We LOVED the Hotel Kaiserin Elisabeth in Vienna.)
Enjoy your planning and your trip.

Timecop, Every time someone asks "is this enough time to see all of ....?" the people who love that place and who can never get enough of it will come back and say "no no you can't possibly see it all or enjoy it all in that amount of time." Keep in mind that the big bus tour "do" the major cities in a 2-3 day whirlwind. Now you may just see a lot of stuff from the bus window that way but you will get an overview and an idea of where you want to go back to to dig deeper next time.

All of us on this board had a first time experience in each city we've visited and probably missed a lot of the stuff there was to experience there. Take the time you have available, plan well, enjoy your trip and start making plans for where you will spend time next time. Hopefully you will join those of us who never get enough

You didn't mention if you have ever visited any of these places before. I think 5 days is enough to get a taste of London and Paris if it is your first visit. 5 days is plenty for Vienna. If you have a little more time, you could add a day or two each to London and Paris. If not, you should have a great trip and probably will decide to go back to see more!

If this is your first trip to each of those cities, which I am assuming it is from your post, I would not arbitrarily allocate the same number of days to each city. Rather, ask yourself--do you speak German or French? Maybe that would be a good reason to spend extra time in Vienna or Paris. Do you have a special interest in some aspect of British history? Plan extra time in London/ UK to visit castles, battlegrounds, Oxford libraries, etc. for that. Are you a gourmet? There are numerous suggestions for fine dining in Paris to be found on this board. In other words, try to arrange your trip in terms of your own interests, not just a "highlights of" trip---unless that is what you'd like to do. For a highlights tour, I would spend 3 days in Vienna and 6 each in Paris and London.

And yes---that is long enough for a dedicated sightseer to see the main areas of his or her interest. Not everyone goes to Europe for 3 or 4 weeks each trip---in fact, MOST people do not.

Please see http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34575960

Best wishes,

Rex