3 Week Itinerary (Is this Possible)

[joetacoma805]

I am trying to plan my first trip to Europe and would like to visit the following Countries/Cities in 3 weeks. Traveling alone. Below is my rough draft itinerary. I do not know if I should depart from Netherlands or travel back down to Spain and fly out from there or where I will even arrive. I just want to see if I can see all the cities listed below in a 3 week period or I should plan the route differently. I left a few days open for travel. But I plan to be in Europe for 21 days.

Arrive in Madrid Stay 3 nights
Madrid to Barcelona and Stay 3 nights
Barcelona to Monaco stay 1 night
Monaco to Venice stay 3 nights
Venice to Paris stay 3 nights
Paris to Amsterdam stay 3 nights.


Please help! Any suggestions??? Advice???

[Eagle]

joetacoma805,

First of all, welcome to GFE! I have a few comments on your travel plans.

As this is your first trip to Europe, I would highly recommend pre-reading the Guidebook Europe Through The Back Door, especially as you're covering several countries. It will provide a lot of information to make your trip go smoothly.

You didn't specify where you're located but if you're flying from North America, keep in mind that you'll lose the first day in flight times and time zone changes, and the last day will be spent on the flight home. Be sure to allow adequate time for travel between cities. In some cases this will be short, and in others considerably longer.

Rather than stay in Monaco, you might consider Nice or other nearby locations. Lodgings in Monaco or Monte Carlo are probably going to be on the "expensive" side. It's easy to reach Monaco by Bus or train from Nice (as I recall, the Bus fare is only €1 each way).

Travel from Venice to Paris would probably be best by budget airline. I'd suggest adding a day to Paris and dropping a day from perhaps Amsterdam. Using open jaw flights would be the best idea (inbound Madrid, outbound Amsterdam).

Good luck with your planning!

[herrbert]

A single ticket from Amsterdam back to Spain (or the other way round) might work out cheaper. Easyjet is flying Amsterdam-Madrid, and so does KLM (for which it might be cheaper to buy a returnticket, instead of a single one.) max. price should be 99 euros. For Easyjet check the max. kg's for the baggage.

I don't know when you want to travel, but if you want to get from Madrid to Barcelona fast and cheap, you can check on the renfe website cheaper webdeals for the AVE (the Spanish version of the TVG.), which can be booked only 2 months upfront, and sell out quick.

[joetacoma805]

Thank You!!

I live in California so I will be leaving from Los Angeles.. WOW i have to fly over all of the U.S. to get to you Europe! I want to go in either April or May. I was planning to budget for $5000 but may not be able to save up this much in time.. Would $3500 be enough for everything (including airfare)?

[Eagle]

joetacoma805,

The average "ballpark figure" for expenses is US$100 for lodgings, food and incidentals. This normally doesn't include air fares or Railpasses. It's difficult to say whether $3500 will be enough, without knowing how much your air fare will be. Try to save as much as possible, as it's always good to have a bit of a "cushion" for unexpected expenses.