itinerary help, please

[osfd36]

Manchester 2 days
London 4 days
Barcelona 3 days
Monaco 2 days
Switzerland 4 days
Florence 2 days
Rome 4 days
Venice 3 days
salzburg or Vienna??? 2 days
Prague 2 days
Berlin 3 days
Amsterdam 2 days
Paris 4 days



I'm not sure if this is to ambitious and i will be spending too much time on planes/trains. i fly into Manchester on April 20 and out of Paris may 29. the first week is pretty much set as i have booked a flight from London to Barcelona. I'd like to see Barcelona play soccer on April 29. I'm traveling by myself so the rest of the trip is pretty flexible, this leaves me two extra days to stay in a city if i really like it or to hit Brussels on the way to Paris.

thanks in advance,
Andrew

[herrbert]

Hi osfd36,

There are a few things that would worry me. First is the number of days you spend in some cities, and it seems you leave too little time for travel between the cities. Rome and Florence needs one extra day (both), maybe taking one day out of Venice, would cover one of those extra days.

As you only have two days for a city in Austria, then I would choose Salzburg, as you won't have nearly enough time to see Vienna properly. (needs 4 at least). I would recommend adding a day to Prague and Berlin as well.

The travel from Barcelona to Monaco is a long train ride, as there still is no budget-flights between Barcelona and the Provence (Nice or Marseille). You might find that it is easier to access this part of France from Paris or Italy. I would fly Barcelona - Venice (RyanAir, but. note that both airports (Gerona & Treviso) need some traveling time), and after Rome continue with a flight from Rome to Nice (easyjet), or Rome - Marseille (ryanair).

After this you might not find a budget airline to take you to Salzburg, but there is an option to take a nighttrain, but it also takes a long time to arrive. At this point I am starting to doubt, if getting to Monaco is worth it. (can't find flight to either Salzburg or Prague)

[me]

hi, Andrew!

HerrBert is right on about Monaco. Switzerland, you don't even list specific places - so i wonder if you have anything in particular you wish to see there, is more expensive than elsewhere on your itinerary; so you might wish to drop it. well, UK prices are also up there.

if it's mountains you wish to see in Switzerland, you could instead go to Innsbruck or Bolzano from Venice. [or, if you stick with Monaco, might Turino - recent site of Winter Olympics - be an option? (4 hours by train)]

if you were to drop Monaco & Switzerland you'd have more time to see Florence area & Rome (the most important city in the history of Western civilization), as well as enough time to see Vienna.

depending on what you wish to see there, Berlin & Amsterdam could also use more time. [both of these are big art museum cities. do you enjoy that? but the culture in both is fairly unique, each in its own way.]

[Eagle]

osfd36, as the others have indicated, there are some "logistical challenges" with the present Itinerary. It would help if you could provide a bit more information on your plans. For example:

-- Were you planning on visiting each city in the order you've shown?

-- What were you planning to see in Manchester?

-- What cities in Switzerland were you hoping to visit?

You've indicated that your trip is 39 days long (it will likely be 38, as you'll lose a day at the beginning due to travel times and time zones, assuming you're flying from North America). Your present Itinerary uses 38 days, and I'm wondering whether you allowed for travel days? It should be possible to minimize both the number of travel days as well as the duration of these with efficient planning.

I agree with the others that some "adjustments" might be a good idea in terms of the time spent in each city. My preference would be to add a day each to Florence, Rome and Paris. IMHO you have too many stops listed for the time you have available. You've probably already booked your flights, so probably too late to change anything, but unless you have some specific reason for stopping in Manchester you might want to head directly for London when you arrive in the U.K.? I'm not sure you're going to have time for Brussels?

It's great to see that you've arranged your trip using "open jaw" flights! Good planning!

Cheers!!!

[osfd36]

thanks for all your help, you've all made some good points.
the reason i'm flying into manchester is to watch manchester united play. your right about monnaco, it will be too long a train ride, with no flights available. i'm really set on the swiss alps, i was thinking of interlaken but it's not really in stone. i think i'm going to leave out amsterdam as i cant find any flights from berlin-amsterdam-paris, and the train is really expensive, but i can get a cheap flight from berlin to paris. so anyway here is my new plan. thanks again.

manchester 2 days
london 4 days
barcelona 3 days
rome 5 days
florence 3 days
venice 3 days
interlaken 4 days
salzburg 3 days
prague 3 days
berlin 4 days
paris 5 days

thanks again,
andrew

[herrbert]

Looks good to me.

Three days in Salzburg might be a little too long (depending on your time of arrival, and daytrips you might have planned), you could get from Salzburg to Cesky Krumlov, and make a stop for one night there. It is on-route to Prague, and it's pretty place.