californiatravels

Hey guys, my friend and are planning a trip to Europe. We plan to go for 3 weeks and would love some advice if our rough plan is feasible:

SFO Fly in-1 day

Spain
• Madrid-2
• Toldeo-1
• Pampalona -1
• Barcelona-2

France
• Paris-3 days

Belgium
• Brussels-1

Netherlands
• Amsterdam-1

Austria-
• Vienna-1
• Salzburg-1

Italy
• Florence-3
• Rome-3

Leave-1 day back TO SFO

Total: 21 days

Any advice on places we should skip or places or should check out? We're pretty open to all places but we'd love to check out running with the bulls for sure. Also is this trip do-able in under $4,000? We're both in our early twenties and are on a budget. Let us know if you have any ideas!

Hez

You seriously need to pare down your destinations - all you'll be doing on this trip is travelling from place to place, which is expensive and won't allow you time to actually see anything.

Is that $4000 for one or two? Does it include airfare?

england1780

Per person, I should think $4000 is doable, although Paris is VERY expensive (from what I've heard). You could save a lot of money and time just focusing on 3 cities. Maybe:

Barcelona
Vienna
Florence (1 week each)

or

Madrid
Paris
Rome (1 week each)

You could even do:
Barcelona ( 5 days)
Madrid ( 5 days)
Rome (6 days)
Florence (5 days)

artsnletters

You are not allowing for travel time between places. For example, speaking to the part of this trip that is on familiar territory for me, it will take you half a day to get from Paris to Brussels, so you'd have at best an afternoon there, and the same for Amsterdam. Then you will need to fly to Austria, eating most of a day, so you definitely wouldn't have time to see two cities in Austria - you wouldn't really have enough time for one.

I'm not knowledgeable about Spain, but I believe Pamplona is far away from your other Spanish destinations, and it will take most of a day to get there, so you won't be able to allot a single day to both get there and see it.

Distances in Europe are farther than they appear on a map.

justineparis

Your plan does not work out.. I think you think when you say "amsterdam one day" you are actually getting a full day. but since you are moving almost every day or so for some parts of your trip you actually only get max a half day there.

Edit your trip.

Remember this.. two nights in one destination equal one FULL day.. and frankly anywhere not worth seeing for one FULL day is maybe not worth seeing at all on this trip .. ( you are young you will be back one day )

Also trying to keep to a budget but all that travel is going to cost you.. less travel is cheaper.

PS
I would skip :
Brussels ( it bored me when I was 23) and although the running of the bulls is a priority to me its just not conveninent..

I assume your trip is first three weeks in July right.. since the running of the bulls is july 6-14th. If you do go I will say time it so you are there for the first day or two and make sure you get to Paris for Fete Nationale( like your 4th of July) for a great evening of fireworks and picnicing on the park behind the Eiffel Tower.. its very fun,, just you and thousands of others drinking wine eating bread and cheese ..also there are firemans balls that night all over Paris.. they open up certain firehalls and its all for charity ( to support the firehouses) firemen serving food and drinks,, dancing.. often situated outside the firehall on the streets.. also very fun. the balls are held on the 13th and 14th .

justineparis

Book train tickets sooner rather then later for best deals.. they offer the best price if you buy well in advance. Same with cheapo flights .

And book hostels or hotels now as cheap good clean ones fill up too..

In Paris if hostelling MIJE is well reviewed and Hotel Diana and Hotel St Pierre are good clean centrally located budget choices( and the two hotels have a.c not easy to find on a budget!)

RonZ

$4000 for 21 days translates to about €138 per day, unless my calculations are way off. Plus another couple of thousand to get over and back.

To keep this within reason, I suggest you cost out your trip with two countries max and go from there. Also, do not let the time it will take to get from one place to another and all that involves overwhelm the time you have left to enjoy yourself.

Bamaman

I would suggest you start in Spain, ending in Barcelona. You've got a new fast train service to Paris from there.
When finished touring Paris, catch EasyJet.com out of CDG to Venice--Marco Polo.
Then you'd have a 149 mile fast train down to Florence and Rome.
Fly home from Rome.
I'd suggest you split each week--Spain, Paris, Italy. You might be hitting the high points, but that's a pretty efficient use of time and money.

StCirq

Agree with all of the above, but also wanted to point out that no way is Paris VERY expensive.

You might want to look at Bruges, Antwerp, or Ghent as substitutes for Brussels. I like the city now, but it bored me silly when I was your age.

KTtravel

It takes usually takes half a day or so to travel between cities so your original itinerary will not leave you enough time to see much at all of your short stay cities. You have 11 destinations. Which places are your priorities? A half day travel between each means you really lose 5 of your 21 days just in transit and travel between cities increases your expenses. Assuming your 1 night stops are not your priorities, you could cut them and create something like this:

Madrid - 3 nights (best to stay in your original city extra time to recover from jet lag)
Barcelona - 3 nights
Paris - 4 nights
Florence - 3 nights
Rome - 4 nights

You have 2 more nights to play with to add on to whichever places above are priorities.