Two Months!!! Whoohooo...

[ven2raw]

Here's how the first 3/4 of my trip Sept 12-Nov 13 Looks.

Spain-Sept 13-26

Morning Travel: Sept 26 to Paris by way of plane

Paris: Sept 26-Sept 29

Afternoon Travel: Sept 29 to London by way of plane

London: Sept 29-Oct 3

Early Morning Travel: Oct 3 to Berlin by way of plane

Berlin: Oct 3-Oct 6

Morning Travel: Oct 6 to Vienna by way of plane.

Vienna: Oct 6-Oct 8

Here's where I need help. Over the next 20 days I plan on visiting:

Italy: Venice, Florence, Rome (2-3 nights each)---PLANE TO GET TO VENICE AND RAIL OR BUS TO TRAVEL WITHIN ITALY?

Athens and Greek Islands --FERRY TO GET TO ATHENS AND ISLANDS??? HOW DO I GET TO GREECE FROM ITALY??

Lisbon, Portugal--PLANE TO GET TO PORTUGAL

Barcelona: Oct 29 I have to be back to Barcelona to meet a friend. Travel by plane.

So far I've found really great rates on plane travel, so I think I'll use it throughout the rest of my trip as I've noted.

But I'd appreciate some input!!

Thanks always!!! ;D

[herrbert]

I see you are in Spain, on some of the same days, that I am in Madrid! (22-26 of Sept). Just a very quick answer, as I need to go to sleep (it's 2.00am). Maybe you are a little bit too ambitious.

To my opinion you give most of the cities too little time especially if you have to travel from one city to another. You have two whole days in Paris, and two half days. in my opinion, I should advise 3 whole days for Paris, as well as for Berlin and Vienna

I don't know what your plans are in Spain? (unless you are visiting a lot of places, like Sevilla, Cordoba, Granada, Valencia, Madrid etc etc, you might want to skip some days there, to add to some of the cities)

Fly as much as you can, you can get cheap flights (as you already noticed) between most of the European cities, as you want to cover huge distances in little time.

Spain (Madrid?) - Paris is not a morning travel by way, Madrid-Paris by bus will take you at least a day,(if not more). Check the website of Vueling Airlines or Air Europa for a cheap flight out of Spain to go to Paris.

Paris - London, you can do by train (eurostar) or by plane, you choose (I would choose the plane, again)

London - Berlin is also a flight. (Easyjet has a flight leaving at 6.30 at Luton Airport on the 3rd of October)

Berlin - Vienna: Air Berlin has the cheapest flights (leaving at 6.20 from Tegel Airport, and another leaving at 9.55 also from Tegel, which is 10 euros more expensive, but makes you leave your bed at a decent time).

When you want to go from Vienna to Italy again take a flight, to save time. Most people here will advise you give Rome at least 4 (if not 5) days. you can do this by visiting Venice for only 1 day (at least one whole day). From Venice to Florence and Roma, you can go by train.

There are quite a large numbers of ferries between Greece and Italy, so you can go by ferry ... but the places you want to visit in Italy, are way up North, and even the most efficient crossings with a boat from e.g. Venice to mainland Greece will take quite some time. So, and you will guess it by this time: take an airplane to Greece. (unless you would like to take a nightboat)

The Islands

The only problem with the airlines in Greece is that if you want to visit a couple of the islands, it is almost impossible to find budgetflights to and from the Islands (there is another topic, on this board, about someone going to Santorini), Olympic Airlines seems to be the cheapest, but are not cheap if you compare with Easyjet or RyanAir

I need to sleep, as I have to get to work tomorrow.