May-July Summer Eurotrip - How's this sound?

[Toulouse]

Hello all! ;D

Me and a girlfriend of mine are doing a post-college graduation Europe trip! She's only been to Italy, and I've been pretty much all over Western Europe (used to live in Denmark), though some places I haven't been to since I was 10. We're planning on spending approx. May 13th through the very beginning of July with her traveling around Europe, and then spending a few weeks in Denmark from the beginning to mid-July staying with friends. I'm planning on spending $5500 on the whole trip (excluding airfare).

Our list of countries is tentative and constantly changing, but here's a rough idea:

May:
- London, England (1 night)
- Amsterdam, Netherlands (2 nights)
- Belgium (Bruges & Brusells - 2 nights)
- Kaysersberg and Colmar, France (3 nights)
- Paris, France (5 nights)
- Vernazza (Cinque Terre), Italy (4 nights)
June:
- Florence and Siena, Italy (4 nights)
- Rome, Italy (5 nights)
- Dubrovnik, Croatia (3 nights)
- Plitvice, Croatia (1 night)
- Zagreb, Croatia (2 nights) - staying with friends
- Ljubljana, Slovenia (3 nights) - staying with friends
- Hallstatt, Austria (1 night)
- Vienna, Austria (2 nights)
- Cesky Krumlov, Czech Republic (2 nights)
- Prague, Czech Republic (3 nights) - staying with friends
- Berlin, Germany (2 nights)
- Rothenburg, Germany (2 nights)
- Nuremberg, Germany (1 night)
- Frankfurt, Germany (2 nights)
July:
- Denmark (12 nights) - staying with friends
- London, England (1 night)

Are we being too ambitious? Obviously we aren't going to be able to see everything, but do you think our amount of nights in each place is going to be enough? Are there any places we should spend more or less time in, in your opinion? Don't try to persuade me to not go to Denmark for so long though, because I used to live there and need to spend that amount of time to catch up with old friends and such.

We'll be getting around mostly by Eurail pass. We'll be staying hostels except for when we stay with friends. The Eurail pass will cost us each around $1000 USD. So that leaves me approx. $4500USD for 2 months of travel (about $75USD a day for food, hostels, and other expenses). Keep in mind though that about 20 of those nights I'll be staying free with friends, so on some days I will have more money to spend or save to use another day for a splurge.

Do you think Europe for 2 months and on $4500 is do-able with the itenerary I've listed?

Thanks so much!

[me]

wow! quick itinerary! at least in some places.

you do give more time in Paris <never been>, Cinque Terre <spent 5 nights due to a mix-up getting reservations in Venice - started getting a little bored after 3> and Rome <spent 5 nights, could have easily spent a week - so much to see in Rome!>

a place near Colmar that i enjoyed was Strasbourg. [it might work better to go to Eastern France between Paris and CT]

later in the trip, i'd suggest more time in Vienna, historically the 2nd most important city in Europe - after Rome. another beautiful place near Hallstatt is Salzburg.

the places with just one night would be better off dropped. you just can't really enjoy a new place in such a short time.

some of these hops would be much better in a plane than on a train. tix can be really cheap!

sometimes several shorter, country-specific rail passes are cheaper than one long eurail pass. go to www.railsaver.com and plug in your plans to see.

- d

[Toulouse]

Thank you for your help!

I'm thinking I should trim things back some, but I don't know what to trim... I've already trimmed off Spain and Greece from our original plans, because it was just too much!

One idea would be to skip staying in Plitvice, and take the 2 1/2 hour bus ride from Zagreb, Croatia instead.

It'll be a very fast-paced trip, but I think we can do it!

[madamtrashheap]

Toulouse, a few points to add to David's notes:

London - only 2 nights? Or have you been before and it's just the flying in/out destination?

I'd be inclinded to reduce the 2 nights in Frankfurt to 1 night (I assume this is for the flight to Denmark) an add the time to Berlin as 3 nights will give you 2 full days and that's just scratching the surface there.

Brussels and Bruges - you could spend 1 night in Brussels (unless you want to visit the art galleries there) then 2 nights in Bruges as it's the prettier of the two (even though I always enjoy Brussels)

Ditto on David's comment for Vienna - at least one more night will give you 2 full days plus the afternoon once you arrive from Hallstatt.

I few other questions - is this the route you plan to take? Are you flying anywhere withint Europe (eg Frankfurt - Copenhaven, London-Amsterdam ?) Are you the type of travellers who like to simply see a few things and move on or explore for a time? Once you've identified that, it will help you decide on time in places. Happy planning!

[me]

madamtrashheap said:

I'd be inclinded to reduce the 2 nights in Frankfurt to 1 night (I assume this is for the flight to Denmark) an add the time to Berlin as 3 nights will give you 2 full days and that's just scratching the surface there.

if the flight is from FRA, the main Frankfurt airport, i'd even suggest sleeping in Mainz. Mainz is really no further from FRA than Frankfurt, yet is a more interesting town. it's the hometown of Johann Gutenberg and the Gutenberg Museum, which commemorates what was probably the most important development to the enlightenment - invention of the movable type printing press in Europe, c. 1439.

- d

EDIT: i'd suggest heading back to London a little sooner. it'd be costly if a delay caused you to miss your transatlantic flight back to the East coast.

[pointofnoreturn]

I agree, you never know with London when it comes to flights. I'd add on another night there at the end of your trip for safety. Besides, you'll have a day of resting and relaxing before your flight home.

Book a cheap hotel room (i.e. Travelodge) ahead of time and you're all good.

[Eagle]

Toulouse, I haven't looked at your Itinerary in too much detail, but have a few thoughts to add to the others......

> Your plans look fairly well organized, although I'm not a big fan of one-night stops.

> If there's no specific reason for going to Frankfurt, I'd drop that from the list and use the time in another location.

> It would be much more efficient to use "open jaw" flights, rather than return to London. Also, is there any way you could add more time to London. There is LOTS to see there, so one or two days is not really the best.

> Is there any way you could add one day to Hallstatt? It's not that there's a lot to see there, but with the travel times and so on, you won't have time to see much or enjoy the beauty of the area.

I wasn't sure if the order you posted is the same as the order you'll be visiting each city? You'll need to plan your travel routes carefully (ie: use efficient routes, no "backtracking" - for example, going from Belgium to Colmar, then back to Paris and finally to Vernazza seems a bit inefficient?). If you could elaborate a bit on the order, it would help.

Good luck with your planning!

[herrbert]

No doubt that you can do this trip in a logistical way, but I wonder if you can have decend amounts of time to see the places you visit.

I would add days to London, Vienna and Berlin, these are cities with a lot to offer, to see and do. If you can't add days, it might be better to skip some towns/cities, and to go there on a future trip.

I also would try to get from Prague to Nurnberg, skip Frankfurt, and see if it is possible to go from Prague to Nurnberg - Rotherberg and Berlin.