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Post by noodles on Jul 9, 2005 10:42:05 GMT -5
Me and a friend will be travveling around europe this summer. We have got a 2zone rail pass for denmark, germany, austria, switzerland, france, belgium and amsterdam and would ideally like to visit all countries in the 29 days we have booked out there. we have worked out it gives us about 4 days in each country, but we are now beginning to wonder whether we are giving ourselves enough time, as obviously travelling from place to place will take up alot of time. if anyone has any advice it would be much appreciated! we firgured maybe to leave one country out but its choosing the right one!!!! we cant seem to make up our minds and need a little direction as this is our first time exploring the world out there!
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Post by Kim on Jul 9, 2005 11:24:43 GMT -5
Noooooo not enough time. Basically, you are going to need a good 3 days in a city, so that will only allow you one city in each country. Add that to the fact that you will travel for hours and hours on the train to get to each country, stay in one city then spend more hours and hours on the train, well, it's just not worth it.
Don't think of this as your only trip to Europe - you will get back there.
I know you probably just want to see the highlights this time around, so I've made a schedule that will give you an idea. You will need to cut at least 2 countries for 29 days. Where I've added "add travel day", this means that one of your whole days will be eaten up for travelling, so you need to factor those in.
This intinary is good for 25 days. What you may want to do with the other 4 days is pick a place somewhere along the way to break up long train rides. Either that or add on a day to places so that you don't feel like you just got off a long ride and then have to do another.
This will give you a good idea of how to plan it out - even if you don't use these cities.
Amsterdam - 3 days
Travel to Brugges (Approx 3.5 hrs on the train)
Brugges, Belgium - 3 days
Bruges to Paris (Approx 2.5 hrs on the train)
Paris - 4 days
Paris to Interlaken, Switzerland (approx 7 hrs on the train - add travel day)
Interlaken - 2 days
Interlaken to Lucerne, Switzerland (approx 2 hours on the train)
Lucerne - 3 days
Lucerne to Munich, Germany (approx 5 hrs, 45 min on the train, add travel day)
Munich 3 days
Munich to Berlin (approx 7 hours on the train, add travel day)
Berlin 3 days
Berlin to Amsterdam (6 hours on the train, add travel day)
Day to rest up in Amsterdam before leaving for home.
Kim
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Post by LHR02 on Jul 9, 2005 11:43:50 GMT -5
I like Brugge as much as anyone......and did spend 3 days there myself. But in truth the town can 'quite easily' be seen in one full day, actually even as a day trip. I do suggest spending the night as the best part of the town is late afternoon, evening when the tour buses leave! But if you are on a hurried trip spending 3 days in Brugge could well be seen as a great waste of days. It's not that big and while sooo much atmosphere and charm...there is really not all that much to see specifically.
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Post by Kim on Jul 9, 2005 13:25:43 GMT -5
Yeah, true enough - I guess I was thinking more along the lines if you wanted to do a bike beer/waffle tour or something like that. If not, maybe scale it down to 2 days. We spent 2 weeks there so I guess my opinion is slightly skewed!  Kim |
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Post by LHR02 on Jul 9, 2005 13:55:58 GMT -5
For a trip of 25 days I'd say one full day and 1 night is more than enough.....heading out the following morning. You can see it all, enjoy the evening, and then move along. This is a 'number of days' short trip.....even two days in a spot, lovely as it might be, that can actually be done in 6 hours just seems a waste of valuable time. JMHO. Those other two days would be much better used in Paris, Berlin or any number of other spots. For example, I'd take those two days and go to Salzburg for example.
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Post by noodles on Jul 10, 2005 17:53:28 GMT -5
I thought we may be getting way ahead of ourselves. as its got nearer to the time ive started to be more realistic about time management. the thing is we have booked flights out to denmark, copenhagen, flights back 29 days later from amsterdam. any ideas for a similar route including denmark? thanks! i have found your comments really useful!
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