my new itinerary

[cableguy]

i will be leaving towards end of april or start of may for about 3 months. i shouldnt have any worries at all about time. i made a itinerary couples months ago but im starting to like the idea of this one.

start of in liverpool uk
- glasgow
- paris
- madrid
- seville
- granada
- valencia
- barcelona
- nice
- mt. blonc (maybe)
- milan (maybe)
- rome
- naples
- vatican city
- flonrence
- venice
- prague
- warsaw
- gdansk or gydnia, im not sure about these 2
- berlin
- brussels
- amsterdam
then maybe some where else if i still have money

i tend to stay roughly 3 days in each place. some places i will be staying longer and others or just days out. i will be traveling by plaine and train, does anyone have any suggestions on which places i shouldnt bother or any other places where i should go. i would like to see alot of mountains so if you could name some places that would be great.
ty for looking let me know what you think

[pointofnoreturn]

Vatican city is IN Rome or to be politically correct, it is an independent state in Rome. Avoid Milan. For the Italy portion of your trip, do it like this with the no. of days in brackets

Nice (? - not familiar) --> Florence (3)--> Venice (2)--> Rome (5) --> Naples (could be 1-2 days or a daytrip from Rome itself). Naples is supposed to be the mafia city of Rome. I kind of would know - my godfather, an Italian, is associated with the Mafia but not like the way you would think he is! LOL!). After Naples, go back to Rome.

Flights you could consider

• Paris to Madrid - with easyJet or Vueling
  
• Naples to Prague - with SkyEurope
  
• Rome to Prague (if do Naples as a side-trip) - with Smart Wings

I honestly think you should leave off Nice, Mt. Blonc (how will you get here?), Milan (not worthwhile), Gdansk, Warsaw and Brussels.

Concerning mountains and hiking summits, there's Mt. Vesuvius near Naples that you could hike up and you can peer into the crater of the volcano. There's also Mt. Zeus in Naxos Island --> supposed to be really pretty and worthwhile. I am honestly not familiar with the Alps so I'll leave it up to other posters!

[Eagle]

cableguy, a few comments on your proposed Itinerary, listed in somewhat the same order......

> Start in Liverpool
> Glascow (Edinburgh is perhaps more interesting - would you have time to include this, or have you been there already?)
> Flight to Paris (5 days is good, but will depend on what you're interested in seeing?)
> Flight to Madrid
> Rail or Coach to Sevilla
> Rail or Coach to Granada
> Rail or Coach to Valencia
> Rail or Coach to Barcelona
> Rail or Flight to Nice
> Mt. Blanc (Chamonix?) as PONR mentioned, you might delete this, but of course this depends on why you want to see this area?
> At this point, a suggestion - if you want to see mountains, you might consider Gimmelwald, in the Berner Oberland area of Switzerland. Sitting on the patio of the Mountain Hostel having a Beer and watching the late afternoon sun turn the glacier a pink colour is a wonderful experience (IMHO). Travelling the Cable Car to the 10,000 foot level on the Schilthorn will give you a tremendous view of LOTS of mountains! This is where the James Bond movie "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" was partially filmed back in the '60s. Just a thought.....
> Milan - again I agree with PONR. You could probably drop this unless there's something specific you want to see?
> Venice - 2 days should be good here?
> Suggestion - if you're interested, a 2-3 day stop in the Cinque Terre might be a good addition here? Hiking the trails between the five towns is a favourite activity, and it's also a great place to relax and recover from "strenuous travels" if needed. If you want more information on the area, post another note.
> Florence - at least 3 or 4 days?
> Rome (and this includes Vatican City, which as mentioned is in Rome - there's a Metro station within a short walk, but see the other posts here regarding changes at the Vatican this year - be prepared for queues and airport style security and DON'T forget the "modesty" rules!) - allow at least 5 days for Rome as there's LOTS to see and do!
> Naples - 1 or 2 days, with day trips to Pompeii. You could also base yourself somewhere on the Amalfi coast (Sorrento or Positano?) and day trip to Naples and Pompeii? Watch your money and wear a Money Belt!
> Flight to Prague (perhaps from Rome?)
> Another suggestion - have you considered Krakow? Might be a good time to fit this in on your way to Warsaw? If you're interested in WW-II history, a tour of Auschwitz is an interesting albeit "sobering" experience.
> Gdansk or Gydnia - my preference would be to delete these - your choice?
> Rail to Berlin from Warsaw
> Rail to Brussels - most here seem to prefer Brugges over Brussels. You've got three months to work with, so visits to both should be possible.
> Rail to Amsterdam - this is a good "last stop" as it should be relatively easy to find budget flights back to the U.K.

I've noticed that you haven't listed any cities in Austria and only one city in Germany? If you want other destinations to fill in your Itinerary, it should be easy to add a few other cities. Also, Cesky Krumlov is a popular spot in the Czech Republic, which could be squeezed in on your way to Prague?

Once you have a more definite list of cities you want to visit, it should be easier to work out the transportation (ie: using rail or budget airlines). One thing to keep in mind is that the latter part of your trip will be taking place during the "peak" European travel time (July & August) so you might consider pre-booking at least some of your accomodations. Otherwise you might find yourself spending considerable time and probably some of your travel funds to find a place to sleep, and of course perhaps getting "less than ideal" accomodations in a remote part of town. Just a thought.......

Good luck with your planning. Hope this is some help.

[cableguy]

thanks guys think i mite leave nice, mt blonc i hear it is kinda hard to get to them, i will leave out milan. i was thinking of doing day trips to pompeii aswell as doing krakow i will give them a think. see what i come up with good chance i will be adding other places

thanks again

[herrbert]

I am tossing in, just a couple of loose remarks ...

If you like you can add, a visit to Cordoba, when you are taking the train from Madrid to Granada, you will pass Cordoba anyhow, and there are some great sites to visit there.

As you have time enough, you might want to take a look at the Hohe Tauern region in Austria, at least if you like the mountains, and like to go for a good walk. For hiking it is my favourite territory! Look at places like Zell am See/Kaprun or Mittersill (actualy my favourite place is Habachtal near Bramberg, but it meight be a little hard to go places, without a car, there), reaching it can be a little bit harder than other places, but it is worthwhile. If you don't want to take this ride. You can opt for Salzburg, and making a daytrip to Werfen, or some other places just South of Salzburg. And another good option would be Innsbruck, and maybe getting yourself to Imst. (a smaller place, but with a lot of options, going up by cablecar, and getting downhill on the alpinecoaster is great fun. alpine-coaster.at/ix_sommer/index.html, it's only in german, but your will get the picture.

Just to add to pointofnoreturns post: you can also take a flight Paris - Madrid by Ryanair, only donwside is, that you will need to go to beauvais airport (about 1hr. 15 minutes by bus/outside of Paris) (and this time I am sure ;D)

If you like mountains, maybe adding Norway for a couple of days would suit you. Maybe visiting Olso and Bergen, and staying for a couple of days in the area around Geiloo. (But know that Norway is expensive than other countries)

No London