Itinerary HELP!!!!

[kealani]

Ok my best friend and I are doing a whirlwind tour of southern Europe and are at a complete loss... We are leaving June 29 and flying into Lisbon Portugal. We are planning to travel through Portugal, SPain, France, Switzerland, Italy and Greece. I am completely overwhelmed because there is so much I want to see with so little time. We are flying open jaw and so we are flying out of Athens Greece.
I would absolutely love some advice at cities that are absolutely mandatory to see.
My rough rough time-line is somthing like
-June30-4 Portugal (Lisbon and Tavira)
-July 5-9 Spain (Madrid, Barcleona day trip to Pamplona)
-July 10-14 France (Bordeaux and Paris)
-July 15-16 Switzerland (NEED HELP HERE)
July 17-23 Italy (Rome definitely and I am so confused because I want to see so much of Italy and I cannot narrow it down)
July 24-30-Greece (obvisouly Athens but I can't figure out specific Greek Islands to see yet)

It is such a short period of time to see so much so i am really startign to get wound up and stressed if anyone could help me narrow it down or other suggestions etc that would be AWESOME

[herrbert]

If you keep a shedule like that you will be stressed. Take your time at the places you want to visit, and there is always another trip to see the things you miss on this one. At this stage you want too much. I know it is normal to want to see aas much as you can, but it's a pity, if you feel you are leaving a city too early, and feeling that you should have been seeing more.

The good thing is that you have an open jaw ticket, especially flying out of Greece can be time consuming and costly.

June 30, I wouldn't really count as a day. I presume you are leaving on the 29th, getting to Lisbon on the morning of the 30th? (right?) So this day can be a hard one, as you will feel tired, and you need to adjust to European Time. You will have 4 days calculated for Lisbon and Tavira, which is in the South. I would recommend 3 days in Lisbon at the least.

Alvira is all the way to the South. Which takes a while to get there, and if you want to go to Madrid, you could make the connection via Faro Airport (ryanair to Madrid). Otherwise it's 6 hours to Sevilla, and the AVE to Madrid. Personaly I would choice to stay in Lisbon and to make a daytrip to Sintra, or to go to Spain earlier, and spend the saved day, somewhere else (don't forget to adjust your watch, when you pass the border).

5 days to cover Madrid, Barcelona and Pamplona, is crazy. To visit these cities properly, you need at least 4 in Madrid (daytrips to Toledo and Segovia), and 3 in Barcelona. Pamplona I have not been, as there is nothing that makes go there.

The same for France, Bordeaux I would skip, and I would head for Paris, straight from Spain. You will need the days there (or maybe 1 less). Switzerland: If you want to see the mountains, than head for Interlaken or Gimmelwald. But I think you will need most of the first day to get there, so more or less one day is left to see something. I wonder if it is worth the effort. Instead I would take a flight from Paris to Florence, and spend 3 days there, and then 4 or 5 in Rome, before flying if possible directly to one of the Isles (I think Aegean flies Rome - Santorini (Thira), before getting back (by boat) to Athens for another 3 days.

Note, to have a good chance on some budgetflights, you are already pretty late. Check www.flightassistent.com to see which airlines, are flying the desired routes.

In Spain make the choice between Madrid or Barcelona, and take into account that Madrid in July can be really hot. Probably I would head for Barcelona. Take at least 3 days here. I am not sure if Pamplona can be done as a daytrip, check www.renfe.es, for the timetables of the trains.

Do yourself a favor, and see if you can get a flight from Barcelona to Paris (I would say Vueling, is likely the cheapest option). It would save you a long ride, and money.