Solo Trip/Beginning Itinerary (Part 2!)

[francefiend]

My heart aches when I see such a short stay in Paris But you must move on to other adventurous places...

Aix is pronounced like the letter X ("eks").

[herrbert]

francefiend said:

My heart aches when I see such a short stay in Paris But you must move on to other adventurous places...

Aix is pronounced like the letter X ("eks").

Well my heart aches, when I don't see Spain included

In my opinion most of the days awarded to these cities, is a little short. In most places I would spend at least 1 day more. Maybe I would ax one day in Venice, but at least spend a day more in Rome, London, Berlin, Paris and Barcelona (esp. if you also visit Figueres). (Vienna really needs 4 days)

[jessus]

So I made a couple edits on my last post (and bolded them!).

My next step is figuring out transportation issues! I'm going to start planning, but I have a general question:

If I count all the longest possibilities with only my definite stops, I'm already at 52 days without accounting for travel between the places. I'm planning this trip to take 60 days + 2 days for flight there and flight back... so would 8 days be enough for travel between these places? (Or would it be more than enough and I can stick in some of my maybes?)

[herrbert]

The travel time really depends on how you want to travel, how the connections work out, and of course the distance. Sometimes it also depends on which flights are availble.

If you travel by train, the website of the Deutsche Bahn. www.bahn.de/international/view/en/index.shtml is a great tool to take a look at how long a train actualy needs to get from one city to the other.

For flights you need to be aware of what is available. Some connections have multiple flights at one day, and a couple of airlines to choose from, but some connections are flown by airline, and sometimes only once or twice a week.

If you can start to make a plan with dates:
Like this:

1 March: Amsterdam
2 March: Amsterdam
3 March: Amsterdam (14:57h train to Hannover - 4,5 hours)
4 March Hannover.
etc

you will see that you have 2,5 days in Amsterdam, but it is likely that you won't see too many things on the third. If you think you want more time in Amsterdam, you can decide to take the train later, meaning arriving late in Hannover, but start the day there, or maybe you will decide to stay in Amsterdam, and take a morning train to Hannover, and still have half the day in Hannover.

(above is just an example)

Also don't forget that you need time to do you laundry once in a while, some shopping etc. It doesn't take ages, but it takes away precious sightseeing time.

[francefiend]

- Aix en Provence - 2-3 days
- Another Place in France, for ~ 2-3 days: Marseilles, Arles, or Carcasonne?

Using Aix-en-Provence or Avignon as a base, combine these to form 4-6 days in the South. Spend 2-3 full days in Aix, then add Marseille and/or Arles as day trips. Retire in Aix/Avignon for those nights (or go clubbing!). Travel is extremely easy between these cities. In Aix, you can take the TGV (faster) or the Bouches-du-Rhone bus (cheaper) to Marseille/Arles. Avignon is just outside of the Bouches-du-Rhone, so you only have trains as an option (slow train to Arles, TGV to Marseille). After that, travel to Carcasonne and spend the night there before heading to Spain (?).

If you have enough time, that is :-)

[jessus]

And I've moved into the "Post Your Itinerary" section! I figured that'd make more sense, as I know have an actual itinerary to post!

Check it out if you want: pretravel.proboards1.com/index.cgi?board=intinary&action=display&n=1&thread=7325&page=1