16/17 days Europe Tour

n6600

Hi All

I have 16/17 days holiday in April and would like to travel to europe with my hubby.
our initial plan are travel from London-Paris-Barcelona-French Riviera-Pisa-Rome-venice-london.

we are somewhat worry for the following:-
1. Do we have enough time to travel to all these places?
2. How long should I spend in each place? are there any destination that i need to stay longer?
3. Did we miss any places in between our planned destination that worth dropping by?
4. any good hotel that you would recommend?
5. any place that i must visit?

We not not really into night life but more to great sight seeing and eating nice local foods.

Any comments will be greatly appreciated

n6600

I would also like to add.

Should I travel by air, train or coach?

blue_haddock

Whilst the idea of covering so many places in such a short space of time seems great you will spend half of your time travelling, whether thats on a train, in a car on a motorway or sat at 30,000ft on a plane.

in answer to your questions.

1. I'd basically say no.
2. Some people could spend a week in each place and not fully explored each city, you would have a day and a half in each one so you may see the major bits but not fully appreciate each city.
3. You wont have time to add anywhere else onto the list.
4. Check out tripadvisor for each destination.
5. You already have half of europe on your list, i'd leave it there!

Lower_North

blue_haddock wrote: »

Whilst the idea of covering so many places in such a short space of time seems great you will spend half of your time travelling, whether thats on a train, in a car on a motorway or sat at 30,000ft on a plane.

!

I agree with the travelling issue, your itinery is very busy and you will see more road/trains/clouds than sightes.

My suggestion would be down size the trip slightly. I think April is the perfect time for visiting Rome (not too hot) and Venice (not too smelly) so maybe do that side of your trip

Maybe fly to Rome and have a few days there, then train to Venice, few days there, then train Pisa (just for one night, not much else to see once you got your picture of you holding up the tower) then to Paris few days then home. You could squeeze in South of France, but is April the best time for the Riviera.

Even this would be a busy holiday and you will need a break when you get home!

poet123

I would stick to Italy too. Fly into Venice and work down by train, and maybe fly home from Naples. That way you can see Venice, Rome, Pisa, Naples and the Amalfi coast if you want to. Positano, Amalfi and Capri are amazing.

slinga

I've just started a similar thread about the cost of plane v train.

We are happy with the fact we may only spend 3 or 4 days in each place although we may cut down the number of stops, not yet decided but I'm looking for a good site to find and book, if necessary, train journeys.

martindow

Overnight couchettes or sleeping cars can be a good idea for travelling by train and saving a night in a hotel.

Seat 61 is the place for all rail travel info

http://www.seat61.com/

chrestomanci

I recently completed a 12 countries in 10 days railtrip - slightly hectic and incredibly exhausting, but oh, it was so, so, so worth it. We visited Pisa, Florence, Venice, Budapest, Belgrade, Zagreb, Ljubljana, Vienna, Bratislava, Liechtenstein, Zurich, Amsterdam, Copenhagen and Munich!

The way we did it was by using Interrail tickets - we paid about €250 each for "any 10 days within a 22 day period" tickets. Basically, you have unlimited rail (and sometimes, metro) travel - we used ten consecutive days, and that was us! We visited places during the day, and travelled during the night; you have to pay about €5 - €15 in "reservations" per night train - so you're guaranteed a seat! You can also go more expensive and book couchettes (bunks), or actual sleepers. Re: the ticket, they have '15 consecutive day' tickets which might be more suited to what you want to do?

Some people might disagree at the idea of seeing so much in so little, but I think it's a fantastic idea - it gives you a little taster of each country so you can decide on whether you'd ever return for a longer period (I'd never considered Zagreb before, but now think it's an amazing little place, and can't wait to see more of Croatia, e.g.). Think of it as a cruise, but on rail!

There's loads of planning involved, but it can be loads of fun to do so. Should you decide to do the rail trip, the European Rail Timetable will be a MUST - you'll need the Winter 2010/11 edition, which you can get here:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/European-Rail-Timetable-Winter-Guides/dp/1848483325/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1291061470&sr=8-1-fkmr0

Should you wish to read about my experiences, I'm currently speaking about my actual journey (i.e.: what we did) on my travel blog at http://shenanigans2010.wordpress.com/. If you're interested in seeing how I planned the whole thing, start from here and click the '->' underneath the banner to progress; basically I blogged my whole planning process, from listing things I wanted to see, to packing, to figuring out what essentials I needed, to deciding what countries to visit, etc.

Should you need help, don't hesitate to ask! Rail trips can be great, and so so fulfilling.

blue_haddock

I cannot for the life of me see how you can see 12 countires in 10 days - you will be travelling every day so you would have a few hours in each place.

chrestomanci

I certainly did. I didn't 'see' all the countries, but I got a good feel for each of them, spoke to people from all of them, and quite frankly, had a blast. My visit averaged at 6 hours per place, which was plenty of time to see what I had planned.

I'm under no illusions - I'm not stating I've "seen Croatia". But I've visited Zagreb on one day, and two days later, I was on a little boat next to the Rhine Falls. The day before that, I saw Gustav Klimt's "The Kiss", and that very same morning, I was walking around the countryside of Liechtenstein.

It is very possible - it needs to be incredibly well-planned, but for the right-minded person, it's one heck of an adventure.

Re: travelling - every night, we slept on trains headed from one place to the other - the 'bulk' of our travelling happened there. For the ones that didn't fit, we spent the morning/early afternoon in one country, and took an hour-train to another country, where we spent the rest of the afternoon, the evening, and most of the night.

poet123

If it suited you fine, but sleeping on trains and having a very finite time in each place is not my idea of fun. Akin to reading the synopsis of the book on the back cover rather than reading the book imo, but each to their own.