October Europe Trip Itinerary

Old Nov 14th, 2021, 08:59 PM
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October Europe Trip Itinerary

This is my rough itinerary for Europe in October 2022:

24 hr flight
2 nights Paris
2 nights mid France
2 nights South France
Road/train trip through Italy: 1 week
(Cinque Terre, Florence, Bologna, Venice)

Tour: Vienna- Prague- Krakow- Budapest- Vienna: 9 days

2 nights Munich
2 nights Frankfurt
2 nights Cologne
2 nights Amsterdam
2 nights Paris
Depart PaRIS.

Does anyone have any advice or tips?

Last edited by MIACHARLIE; Nov 14th, 2021 at 09:00 PM. Reason: Adding
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Old Nov 14th, 2021, 09:40 PM
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It would be a good tour of the transportation systems of Europe. I think otherwise some research as to what you want to accomplish at your destinations would help you decide if you have allowed enough time during your trip. How do you propose to move between all your destinations? It takes generally a half day or more to move between the locations you have listed.
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Old Nov 14th, 2021, 09:49 PM
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All that's missing is "if it's Tuesday, this must be Belgium." Have you been to any of these places before?
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Old Nov 14th, 2021, 09:56 PM
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You are going to spend as much time getting from place to place as actually seeing anything, especially where places are far apart. It is about 16 or more days of travel for 16 or 17 days of sightseeing. That is going to be very, very expensive money-wise and time-wise for what you are getting. You may think you will get more by racing around trying to see so many places, but you won’t.
You allotted the same amount of time to each place? How did you pick these places? It looks as if you may have copied some bus tours. Some places can be seen in a day. Others need days or weeks. Think seriously about what you want to see or do in each place and give more time to the more important places. Cut some places. Perhaps do some day trips and save so many checking in and out of hotels.
Where exactly in France besides Paris?
Do not spend time and money backtracking to Paris. Book multi-city tickets (not two, one-way) into one city and home from another.
Your trip is super rushed. You can do that for a week or so, but you can’t keep that pace up for so long. You will crash or every thing will start to look alike and you won’t remember anything much after a few days. Allow a couple of down days to relax, take a class, hike, picnic, meet people, do laundry,
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Old Nov 14th, 2021, 10:29 PM
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Welcome to Fodors. Sorry to say -- that is not an 'itinerary' but just a list really and not an efficient list at that. It is a REALLY difficult plan -- almost impossible. Sassafrass is being kind when saying you would "spend as much time getting from place to place as actually seeing anything," It is actually worse than that IMO/IME.

You need to realize that every 2 night stop nets you ONE day to see and do things . . . Unless you have a helicopter or private jet. Do you actually want to spend that much time and money to have 1 day in Paris (twice), 1 day in the south of France, 1 day in Florence, 1 day in Venice, 1 day in Munich . . . etc etc etc. Either cut the number of destinations in half - or double the length of the trip.

Back to the drawing board.
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Old Nov 14th, 2021, 10:30 PM
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. . . oh and book an open jaw ticket so you don't have to return to Paris. Fly in to one city and home from another.
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Old Nov 14th, 2021, 11:47 PM
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I think also what a tour can achieve, is not really doable by an individual in terms of timings. So you might be covering a fair bit of turf in your tour but you won't be travelling at the same pace individually, especially if you are inexperienced at travelling in those places (or at all).

Factor in your travel time (at the very least, 1/2 - 1 day between locations) and you will be off to a good start. That will also show you that you have too many destinations and you will have to pare back a bit. Fast travel is OK - some people's travel style lends itself to this more - but you still want time to see the sights, no?

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Old Nov 15th, 2021, 03:23 PM
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Originally Posted by mjs
How do you propose to move between all your destinations? It takes generally a half day or more to move between the locations you have listed.
At least for the first half of the trip, I'm trying to keep travel to only a few hours so we still have time to see things on travel days, hence stopping in mid France for a day or two instead of going all the way south in one day. But I do agree that travel will probably take longer than I expect.
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Old Nov 15th, 2021, 03:24 PM
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Originally Posted by janisj
. . . oh and book an open jaw ticket so you don't have to return to Paris. Fly in to one city and home from another.
I want to return to Paris, 1) because the trip is circular and it's not that far from Amsterdam where I'm finishing and 2) I anticipate wanting to buy a lot of souvenirs from Paris and I don't want to have to lug them all through my trip.
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Old Nov 15th, 2021, 03:27 PM
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Originally Posted by janisj
.
You need to realize that every 2 night stop nets you ONE day to see and do things . . . Either cut the number of destinations in half - or double the length of the trip.

Back to the drawing board.
I agree, I'm going to add days I think. But I also think I might be able to make it if we travel at night or early morning, to maximize daylight hours in our destinations.
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Old Nov 15th, 2021, 03:28 PM
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Originally Posted by kerouac
All that's missing is "if it's Tuesday, this must be Belgium." Have you been to any of these places before?
No, never. I want to see as many places as possible since idk when I'll be able to go back and it's so far to travel.
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Old Nov 15th, 2021, 03:43 PM
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Originally Posted by MIACHARLIE
I agree, I'm going to add days I think. But I also think I might be able to make it if we travel at night or early morning, to maximize daylight hours in our destinations.

One might think -- but not always. Traveling early in the AM means you arrive in the next city maybe hours before yoyr hotel or hostel room is available. Which best case means schelpping your bags to the hotel, dropping the luggage, sightseeing several hours, then making your way back to the hotel right in the middle of the afternoon sightseeing time to check in and unpack. That can be a big waste of time. And traveling over night has the same issues plus not everyone can sleep on night trains and few sleepless nights can ruin a trip.
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Old Nov 15th, 2021, 03:52 PM
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Originally Posted by MIACHARLIE
I want to return to Paris, 1) because the trip is circular and it's not that far from Amsterdam where I'm finishing and 2) I anticipate wanting to buy a lot of souvenirs from Paris and I don't want to have to lug them all through my trip.
If you want to end up in Paris . . . then fly in to someplace else and fly home from Paris. Still open jaw. The problems with doing a loop and ending up back in Paris - it adds an extra hotel check in, check out, lost travel time for no reason. So your 4 split up nights wiil give you a grand total of 2 days for Paris. Whereas IF you lumped all 4 Paris nights together you'd net at least a full extra day there.

If you really want to fly in/out of Paris . . . Then treat it sort of like an Open jaw: Arrive at CDG and immediately catch a train to your destination in mid/southern France. Then follow your itinerary around half of Europe (hopefully without all the 2-nighters) and end up in Paris.

Either way, put ALL of your Paris nights together at the end.
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Old Nov 15th, 2021, 05:00 PM
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You still need to zero in on what you want to see in each place. Where are you going in “Mid-France” and “South France” and what do you look forward to seeing and doing when you are there? (chateau, cities, special foods, Roman architecture, markets, landscapes, art things, vineyards and wine)? Have you thought about transportation and where will you depart to get to Italy?

When you are going far and unsure of a return, it is hard to figure things out, but your two nights each place is not the way to see things. People here are not being critical or unkind. They understand and want you to have a wonderful and memorable experience. Many have traveled a lot or lived in Europe. They know you must pick carefully to maximize your visit.

As one example, with places like Paris, Venice, Prague possible, what is the draw of Frankfurt? It is an OK city. I have been there many times for a variety of reasons, but would never, ever put it in a once in a life time trip! So, right off, cut Frankfurt. I would add one of those nights to Paris and the other to another city or Southern France. Is the Cathedral in Cologne a big deal for you? If not, cut it and add time to Italy. In Italy, stash luggage at the train station in Bologna and make that a day stop between Venice and Florence. These are only some ideas of how to look at things. You have to determine what you personally want to do in these places. They can’t be names picked at random.

You also said “we.” Does the other person or persons going have any input?

You have some work to do. Have fun planning.

BTW, when it comes to souvenirs, you will find many things that are unique to a particular place, interesting and often cheaper than all the reproduced stuff in Paris.

Last edited by Sassafrass; Nov 15th, 2021 at 05:06 PM.
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Old Nov 15th, 2021, 09:22 PM
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Revised:

1 week Paris and mid France (?)

1 week Provence/French Riviera

1 week North Italy

2 days Zurich

1 week Eastern Europe tour

1 week Germany

3 nights Amsterdam

possible 2 nights Paris

Depart Paris
I'll work out exactly how long i want to spend in these places as i research. I'll be travelling by train most of the time i think.
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Old Nov 16th, 2021, 12:01 AM
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I think you also posted this plan on Trip Advisor. You received the same advice there. Listen to it. You will remember very little of this trip other than a blur of rushing from place to place without having time to appreciate anything. All that money wasted in my opinion.
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Old Nov 16th, 2021, 12:23 AM
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You cannot work out a reasonable itinerary until you have figured out where you might want to go and how you plan to connect your destinations. You also need to research how much time you need to adequately explore each of your destinations.You than need to figure out if you have enough time and money for this trip. If there are limits to your time and or money you need to cut back on your destinations. What in the world is mid France? One week does not cover much of northern Italy so where exactly do you want to visit? Germany is a country and again you cannot see all of Germany in one week. Just out of curiosity why Zurich? Less can be more as you are going to waste a lot of time in transit and not enough time exploring. You also need to realize that you cannot keep up a pace like what you are planning for more than about 2 weeks. You are going have to plan some down time in a long trip.
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Old Nov 16th, 2021, 01:34 PM
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Originally Posted by mjs
You cannot work out a reasonable itinerary until you have figured out where you might want to go and how you plan to connect your destinations. You also need to research how much time you need to adequately explore each of your destinations.You than need to figure out if you have enough time and money for this trip. If there are limits to your time and or money you need to cut back on your destinations. What in the world is mid France? One week does not cover much of northern Italy so where exactly do you want to visit? Germany is a country and again you cannot see all of Germany in one week. Just out of curiosity why Zurich? Less can be more as you are going to waste a lot of time in transit and not enough time exploring. You also need to realize that you cannot keep up a pace like what you are planning for more than about 2 weeks. You are going have to plan some down time in a long trip.
I know where I want to go. most likely Dijon, Lyon or Beaune in mid france, i'll figure out which one closer to it. Florence and Venice, possibly a stop in Bologna in the middle. Zurich bc my sister has friends there and she'll be resting there for the week while i go off on my tour, since she doesnt want to go (her loss, i cant wait to see eastern europe). We'll probably meet in Munich and continue up to Frankfurt or Cologne, whichever one has more to see. the last few days in Amsterdam and Paris will be more for resting before we fly out. I don't doubt that we'll be absolutely exhausted by the end of it, but this is the way we're used to traveling. It's how we tackled much of south asia. If all goes well i think we'll be able to handle two destinations a week, easy, except for the tour, which isnt up to me.

I do understand everyone's concerns and i will try to simplify this trip as much as i can, but this is probably a once in a lifetime thing and i dont want to regret not seeing things. im already regretting not seeing spain, portugal and greece.
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Old Nov 16th, 2021, 04:02 PM
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Throwing out other possibilities.

Rather than another city in France (you are already going to fabulous Paris), head to Avignon by train, only a couple of hours, tour a bit of unique Provence for a few days (car, bus, train or taxi) and drop down to Barcelona by train for three nights.
Fly from Barcelona to Venice. (Easy flight connection)

Skip Bologna (unless food is a huge draw). See Venice and take the train directly to Florence. Do day trips from Florence to Siena, Luca or Pisa.

In Germany, since you are going to Munich, consider skipping more big cities, especially Frankfurt, and go to Bavaria (Garmisch, Berchtesgaden, etc.) so unlike any other place except parts of Switzerland. You could also skip Frankfurt and keep Prague.

You won’t regret missing so much if you choose carefully what you do see.

As Zebec often finishes, “I am done.”

Last edited by Sassafrass; Nov 16th, 2021 at 04:25 PM. Reason: Addition
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Old Nov 16th, 2021, 04:18 PM
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Originally Posted by Sassafrass
Throwing out other possibilities.

Rather than another city in France (you are already going to fabulous Paris), head to Avignon by train, only a couple of hours, tour a bit of unique Provence for a few days (car, bus, train or taxi) and drop down to Barcelona by train for three nights.
Fly from Barcelona to Venice. (Easy flight connection)

Skip Bologna (unless food is a huge draw). See Venice and take the train directly to Florence. Do day trips from Florence to Siena, Luca or Pisa.

In Germany, since you are going to Munich, consider skipping more big cities, especially Frankfurt, and go to Bavaria (Garmisch, Berchtesgaden, etc.) so unlike any other place except parts of Switzerland.

You won’t regret missing so much if you choose carefully what you do see.

As Zebec often finishes, I am done.

That seems like a lot of doubling back. The draw of big cities is more variety in accommodation and easier access to public transport, as neither of us will be comfortable driving in europe. I may take your advice on Bavaria, however.
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