First Timer, 3-4 weeks in Europe

[buck]

Newcastle - Amsterdam 1 day

Amsterdam 2 Nights

Amsterdam - Hamburg 1 day

Hamburg 2 Nights

Hamburg - Copenhagen 1 day

Copenhagen 2 Nights

Copenhagen - Stockholm 1 day

Stockholm 3 Nights - Staying with friends

Stockholm - Prague (Flying) 1day

Prague 2 Nights

Prague - Vienna 1 day

Vienna 1 Night

Vienna - Milan 1 day

Milan 3 days (inc trip to San Marino, one day)

Milan - Paris 1 day

Alencon (Just outside Paris) 4 nights, Staying with friends

Alencon - England 1 day


Any hints or tips would be gr8

Thanks Buck x

[herrbert]

2 nights mean you will only have 1 day in some places, If possible see if you can turn that to two days whole days, as one day is very short to be in some places.

I would skip Milan, and add all of those day to Vienna. Seeing Vienna 1 day is not possible. 4 days would be much better. There is much too see, and do.

Milan is overrated, and fine to spend 1 day, to see the Duomo and the last supper painting by Da Vince. If you want to stay longer, you better start to love shopping for shoes

For Prague I would also get 1 day extra, I think 2 days is not that much for a city like Prague.

[buck]

Thanks very much for your advice, the thing with Milan is we are palnning on going to see the San Siro which would be fantastic and amybe take in a little bit of shopping for our mothers on our way home ha ha!

Thanks for your reply

Buck

[herrbert]

You state Newcastle - Amsterdam as the first leg of your trip, if that means you are located in Newcastle, then why not make the trip to Milan as a seperate weekendtrip. If you plan in right, it should be possible to even get tickets for a match at San Siro.(AC or Inter?)

Ryanair flies to Bergamo, which is not that far from Milan, (on their site, they state it as Milan). So if you can plan ahead these flights can be done really cheap, and it would save you the long haul from Vienna, and would save you some time to add to other places.

[buck]

Would love to, would save us a ten hour train journey but my friend is adimant that we go to Milan, it was one of his defineats on our list, i was jus wonderin also, i have been confused alot by the rail passes, what would you reccomend for our plan at the moment?

Thanks

Buck

[pointofnoreturn]

It's all about making compromises. If you friend really wants to go to Milan, guess you'll have to go along with it.

Note: I'd only stay in Milan for 2 nights maximum. There's not much to see except for the Duomo and the Last Supper painting. You can do that in half a day really.

Also, if you want to see the Last Supper painting, book your tickets 3 months in advance.

[herrbert]

buck said:

Would love to, would save us a ten hour train journey but my friend is adimant that we go to Milan, it was one of his defineats on our list, i was jus wonderin also, i have been confused alot by the rail passes, what would you reccomend for our plan at the moment?

Thanks

Buck

I would first plan the trip, and then see which passes, or combination of passes / p2p-tickets and some flights would work out best.

Most passes allow you to travel in a couple of countries (benelux is counted as one country), for a number of days. A 5 days - 3 country pass, would allow you to travel for 5 days in three countries. Also if you just pass the country it will count to the number of countries. For some countries you can just buy normal p2p-tickets, because it works out cheaper, then a pass.

If you are done planning your trip, take a look at railsaver.com. The can give you the best combination.

Your trip at this moment looks a bit rushed, so I would rather take out some places, and save them as for a future trip. If you are from England, making citytrips, is something you can do more often, as flights are cheap. You don't need to see everything in one long trip.

[buck]

Ah cheers guys, I had looked a that railsaver.com earlyer, they reccomended a Eurail Global Youth pass for me and my friend with the exception of getting a Youth City-to-City Ticket from Prague to Breclav then using my Eurail Global Youth pass to get from Breclav to Vienna, is ther a limit to the number of journeys you can make on say a 15day consecutive pass??

My apologise for all the questions its just like i said i am very new to all of this

Thanks, Buck

[me]

regarding your itinerary, Buck: i agree with herrbert, Vienna rates much more time. it's a beautiful city!

you've also left out the most important place in Italy: Rome!

- d

[me]

buck said:

Ah cheers guys, I had looked a that railsaver.com earlyer, they reccomended a Eurail Global Youth pass for me and my friend

as a European, aren't you eligible for an Interrail pass, www.interrail.net? i think, perhaps, railsaver.com is set up for non-Europeans.

[buck]

ah good spot squire