Lauratosi

Hello out there! I am looking to take a 12-14 day trip to Europe with my 19 year old daughter in January. We'd like to hit roughly 3 cities by rail. I am thinking Venice-Siena-Florence or Vienna-Prague or Amsterdam-Bruge-Paris. Any and all advice welcome. Safety is a concern so would love any input you all might have. Thanks in advance!

mjs

You can do Venice, Florence and Tome and do Siena as a day trip from Florence.

dfourh

Since it's January, I'm thinking Amsterdam Bruge Paris would be sweetest, because that time of year, when it is dark all the time, you need cities that are lit up like a Christmas tree, and have vitality and bustle despite the gloom of the season. These cities have charm and vitality even that time of year (and they have enough native life of their own to feel vibrant even without tourists).

lavandula

If you had 14 days you could do Amsterdam - Bruges - Paris and actually use those places as bases to see more. Were you thinking something like this:

1 Arr Amsterdam
2 Amsterdam
3 Amsterdam
4 Amsterdam - day trip to (take your pick: Haarlem, Delft, Rotterdam, Den Haag, Zaanse Schans, ...)
5 travel to Bruges
6 Bruges
7 Bruges
8 Bruges - day trip to (take your pick: Ghent, Ieper, coastal towns (although blah in winter), Brussels ...)
9 travel to Paris
10 Paris
11 Paris
12 Paris
13 Paris - day trip to (take your pick: Giverny, Versailles, Fontainebleau, Chantilly, ...)
14 travel home

If you actually have 14 days at your discretion, so much the better. This allows you to see those cities in a lot more depth or pick two side trips. I agree with dfourh, these are really pretty cities in the winter because of the lights.

Lavandula

PS - Giverny won't be much at that time of year, as it's based on a garden. Not sure if it's even open - what about Reims instead?

janetkupfer8032

--I would use googlemaps to actually see where they are located and it struck me that there is a great distance between them, especially for a rail trip.
-Giverny is closed in winter. Other sites with gardens are desolate looking in winter although the buildings will still be spectacular.
-use rome2rio.com to plot out train travel and plug in your dates. Sat/Sun/holidays will change the schedule so you might need to be fairly specific on your dates.
-you might want to check your flights to see what cities might work better than others.
-Xmas decorations is a good point and Xmas market dates can be gotten now (or last years could work) for you to also determine what city to visit.

Sassafrass

I think most Christmas markets end at the latest by 9th or 10th of January.
Most of the big festivals do not happen until February.
However, Amsterdam has a big light festival in January. It would be fun to time the trip to be in Amsterdam for that.

Debbielynn

How about London, Amsterdam and Paris?

Sassafrass

Consider Barcelona. It has more pleasant temperatures than the others in January and lots to see.

stokebailey

Paris is especially magical when the Christmas lights are still up, if you can manage being there early enough in January.

hetismij2

Assuming the EU call to reduce electricity use doesn't put the kybosh on it this site tells you about the Amsterdam Light Festival.
Best seen from the water, there are plenty of boat tours.
https://amsterdamlightfestival.com/en

However it may have reduced hours, same as in Paris, where the Eiffel Tower now has reduced lighting times.

Fodorite017

I agree with the earlier poster - if doing the Amsterdam Bruge Paris route then use these as bases to explore over nearby places. Ghent in my opinion is just as nice as Bruge, and we’ve just returned from Rotterdam and really enjoyed it. Safety has never been an issue in either for us, and we travel with a child