Holiday Planning Help Please!

pappuyogs

Hi, My Girlfriend's sister is coming from Indian in March for the Bank Holiday Weekend and we were thinking of going to a few places in Europe as well. I am keen on making it a mix of everything but a bit worried about costs. Ideally it's far easier if we book a package holiday through a company like Cosmos. But I am keen on exploring ourselves. I was wondering if any one had any tips for booking the holiday for three including accommodation and the costs in this order:

We would like to leave on 16th/17th Sunday and return on 24th on the Bank Holiday Monday.

16th Morning - To Paris and stay overnite.
17th Evening - Leave to Brussels for an overnite stay
18th Evening - Amsterdam and Overnite stay
19th Evening/20th Morning - Leave to Athens
22nd Evening/23rd Morning - Leave to Budapest
24th Return to London


It looks a bit tedious to work this out, but we have to send the booking details to India for the Visa to be processed. Is there any travel agent I could contact to on this?

Many thanks in Advance.

Rikki

Personally it looks like too much traveling.

You are not going to spend much time in one place without worrying about traveling to your overnight stay.
You are not going to be able to relax and take in the experience and delights each place has to offer. Yes you've been there but what have you seen.

Sorry to be so negative but would you not be better just going to one or two places and spending more time seeing the sites.

Alikay

I think you're trying to visit too many places too far apart...kind of "if it's Tuesday this must be Belgium" type of trip. If you really want to see a few different places in Europe it would be better to choose a maximum of 3 adjacent countries to visit. Maybe France & Spain, or Belgium,Holland and Germany. Find out where they'd MOST like to visit, and go from there. A travel agent will help, but to be honest when I was working in travel people often wanted our help with this type of trip ( using low-cost flights, trains and budget hotels) and it was very time consuming with very little commission to be made by the agent, so they may be too busy to do much other than hand you a load of citybreak brochures!

pappuyogs

Yeah its a bit too tight on time, since she's coming only for two weeks and she wants to see all the prominent places I thought this would be easier. Alikay, thanks for the input on what the agents think, sounds feasible on the agents perspective.

Am a bit confused as to what to do now!

Alikay

How about a really great tour of the UK? I don't know where you live but include a good day trip to central London with a narrated bus tour featuring the major landmarks, Thames boat trip, London eye possibly and maybe an hour somewhere like Camden or Brick Lane? Harrods? Visit York and then across to Whitby. Maybe Cornwall, staying somewhere really quaint like Polperro. Padstow or Fowey - depending on where you live you may be able to see Stonehenge, Salisbury, Winchester: some of those historic and romantic places en route.

I really think belting round Europe at breakneck speed will just tire your relative out and she'll miss some of the fantastic and diverse scenery we have right here in the UK. 2 weeks will only just scratch the surface anyway, but the money saved on flights could make a really special holiday in this country, and you could tailor your trip according to her interests.

pappuyogs

Alikay, many thanks for that. We live in London and the first few days of her trip we plan to show her around.

We are really keen on going to Greece at least, I was wondering if we could add Greece, Budapest and probably one more country for 8 days instead.

Alikay

If you really want to see Greece, it would probably be best to visit Athens then get an internal flight to one of the islands (maybe Rhodes) and possibly pop over to Turkey by ferry for a day trip. Or try one of the Greece specialists island-hopping tours (like Olympic, Sunvil, Kosmar etc) even if just to crib tour ideas from their brochures and tailor your own trip

If you're planning to go on a multi-country tour, please be careful to check out each country's visa requirements , especially if your relative has a non-uk passport.