Maomi

Our family is going to visit Europe. We have never been in Europe before. Can any one else kindly give us some suguestions.
1. Which season is best season to visit;
2. We only have two - three weeks, which cities/countries we should go for this first time visit;
3. How to get around in Europe? Train or air flight? How to get cheap price tickets of the train or airline?
4. We are Canadians. Do we need a visa to visit the European countries?
5. We possibly will go to Europe in May or June or July. Is it too cold to visit North Europe in May?
6. How many days needed for one city? We want to see as many cities as we can within 2-3 weeks.

Any advice will be very much appreciated.

Thanks.

Michael

Start reading guide books. That will help you narrow down your travel goals.

Lorac1127

You really need to narrow down your choices before you can make any plans.

Your family really needs to discuss first the type of vacation--what they expect out of this vacation. Will it be hiking or biking in the countryside or visiting museums and cathedrals in large cities or a combination of both?

What attracted you to Europe

Lorac1127

Sorry, I hit the wrong button.

Whatever attracted you to Europe in the first place is probably where you should begin your planning. Also decide if you wish to drive?

Once you have made a general itinerary, then you will have lots of recommendations and suggestions from lots of Fodorites.

MFNYC

Figure roughly no more than 2 cities a week. A major city (Rome, London, Paris, etc), probably requires 5 full days at least, especially if you've never been. I think May or Juen would be better than July. July is busy and hot. The type of transportation between cities really depends on which cities and how far. You don't want to spend too much time in transit.

You may consider the 3 biggies, London/Paris/Rome. You can easily keep busy spending a week in each, and there are day trips you can take to see other parts of the countries. If you want ot travel this spring/summer, I suggest you start pricing tickets now. You can try different open jaw combos (ex. arr London, dep ROme) and see what the best deal is. Last year we got a great airfare flying into Madrid, and departing form London, with a flight from madrid to london in between. I used expedia to try different scenarios. This one was such a good deal I booked it and planned the rest of the trip from there.

nytraveler

Also -

Who, how many are you?

What is your budget - overall or for hotels?

IMHO in two weeks you can see perhaps 3 cities - with a little countryside in between. In 3 weeks you can up that to 4 comfortably or perhaps 5. (For first time visitors to London, Paris or Rome I think that 5 nights is the absolute minimum - but some people like trekking constantly - rather then seeing a little more in each place. Which is your style?)

Maomi

Thanks to all of you for your suguestions. We will make a plan and will post the plan here. Hope to get your suguestions again. Thanks again.

Before I talk to my family, I want to tell you that we want to visit Norway, Denmark, Germany, UK, France, Italy, Czech, Austra, and Switz. Do you think it's possible to visit these many countries in three weeks? If couldn't visit these many countries in three weeks. Then which countries we should visit in this first time visit? How many days for each city? We want to see most popular things for each city.

Thanks again.

mr_go

I don't mind answering very general questions with very general answers. But we really do need to know how many people, what ages they are, and a very loose idea of what you want to do once you're there.

At first blush, knowing nothing else...how does Paris-->Central Switzerland-->Venice in late June / early July grab you?

StCirq

<<we want to visit Norway, Denmark, Germany, UK, France, Italy, Czech, Austra, and Switz. >>

That's really unreasonable. Have you looked at a map? How do you plan to travel between countries? Nine countries in three weeks is three countries a week - not a good plan.

As others have mentioned, a good average is two CITIES per week, or one city and some countryside per week.

It sounds as though you are leaning toward a northern Europe trip. A nice combination might be Germany, Denmark, and Norway, maybe using open-jaw tickets.

Maomi

Thanks to MFNYC. I think your answer is what I wanted. We want to see so many countries/cities. But with limited time we have to choose the countries/cities we most wanted to go. I will talk to my family and ask you again. Thanks a lot.

The following reply is to nytraveler:
Thank you for your answer. We have three people to go. Husband, wife and a kid. The kid is an elementary school kid. I am very interested in to know how many cities we could go if our style is "trekking constantly - rather then seeing a little more in each place"? Any advice would be appreciate it. Thanks.

suze

Nope, I don't think NINE countries in 21 days is reasonable at all.

People who have not been to Europe don't realize the logistics. Here's how I look at it:

Depending on your flights maybe the 1st day& definitely the last day are lost in airport arrival/departure. So now your 21 days becomes 19. Each time you change countries (or even cities) by plane or train there is certain time involved checking in&out of hotels, transportation to the airport or train station, checking into new hotel in new place. So for each destination I subtract another 1/2 day. If you attempt 9 countries that's minus at least 4.5 days more. Now your original 21 is down to 14.5 days. Divide that by 9 and you have basically 1.5 days only to see each country. To me that's a problem!

My suggestion is to get a map and mark the places you mentioned wanting to visit. Check out which ones are closest to each other, where you can get good flights into, and pick 2 places each in 3 countries for your trip.

Some important things like visas I suggest finding out from the governments involved, not a website like this one (which is a fabulous resource but it IS only a collection of opinions).

mamc

The first time I went to Europe, we visited 9 countries in 5 weeks. To this day, I have only sketchy recollections of the trip. Even if you like to move around very fast, I wouldn't suggest more than three countries in 3 weeks and 2 would be better. If you plan to visit north Europe, June would be better. If you decide on further South, May is lovely in the UK, France and Italy. Once you have decided what kind of trip you want, posters on this board will find it easier to help with the details.

ira

Hi maom,

> we want to visit Norway, Denmark, Germany, UK, France, Italy, Czech, Austra, and Switz. Do you think it's possible to visit these many countries in three weeks?<

Of course it is possible. I don't suggest it.

For first timers for three weeks, I suggest London, Paris, Florence and Venice.

You can fly into London and out of Venice.

See www.whichbudget.com for cheap flights from Paris Orly to Pisa (PSA), about 1 hr from Florence.

Have a nice trip.

AisleSeat

I'm with Ira on this one. Think of London, Paris and Venice as the crown jewels. If you have a really strong family interest or tie to another city you might work that in but most people I meet start with those three then work in other cities like Rome, Amsterdam, Munich, etc.

If you flew into London and out of Venice or Rome you might connect in between on one of the cheap intro-europe airlines like Ryan air but even with air travel that takes up some of your time. You can have wonderful experience in the top cities them come back to the areas you fall in love with at another time. Enjoy the planning part. This is where you get to dream.

nytraveler

Maomi -

the list of countries you gave us would take at least 6 weeks - hitting only very the top high spots - not all the major sights. to do all the majot sights in all those countries ouwld take months.

Agree with Ira that you need to pick about 4 cities (not countries - all of Italy or France would take a month each) - for a two week trip that is moving FAST.

Judy_in_Calgary

>>>>>>We are Canadians. Do we need a visa to visit the European countries?<<<<<<

You will need to check this out to be absolutely sure, but I do not believe you will need visas. We went to Serbia, Hungary, Austria and Czech Republic (and briefly passed through Slovakia) in September 2004, and we didn't need visas.

On previous occasions we've gone to the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, and the Republic of Ireland, and have not needed visas.

Most countries insist that your passport is valid for six months beyond the date that you enter them, so you may want to check that your passports are not close to expiry.

suze

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