Need help planning a 2 week Europe trip

[eurotrip2k7]

Hi, my friend and I are planning on taking a 2 week vacation to Western Europe. (not counting the flight to London and the flight from London back home.) I'll be 17 years old, and my friend will be 18.

We want to visit the following places:

-London
-Paris
-Amsterdam
-Berlin
-Italy
-Barcelona
-London, long enough to fly back home

I'm not sure if this is a good order to go in. I also don't know how many days/nights, and where in Italy is the best place to visit. Any suggestions would be great! Thanks!

[Jen05]

First off, welcome to the boards! Is this your first trip abroad? You're going to find a lot of useful info here!

Your trip sounds fun, but maybe a little too ambitious for 2 weeks. A good rule of thumb I find is 3 days in a major city. I could spend longer in cities like London and Barcelona, and further, there's so many great cities to see in Italy. If you spent 3 days in the places you mentioned, you'd already be at 3 weeks! You also have to take travel time into account. A train trip from anywhere in Italy to Barcelona is going to be at least 8 hours or something. Also, with getting to airports, etc. you're practically commiting a day to get from London to Paris.

You can always use this trip for getting a taste of Europe. Maybe you could just see London/Paris/A-Dam/Berlin this time, and add another city like Munich or something. Believe me, once you've been to Europe once, you're very likely to go back for more!

[foofiter]

My suggestions:

Do this:

London-Amsterdam-Paris-London

There is so much to do in those 3 cities you can easily eat up 2 weeks. You can catch a cheap flight from London to Amsterdam via Ryanair or Easyjet and then train it from A'dam to Paris (overnight train to save you time and you get a place to sleep) and train from Paris back to London.

It doesn't sound like a lot but trust me it is. And you can come back again and see Barcelona and Italy and other places on another trip. And Jen is right you will go back for more. On Aug 22 I will go back to the EU for my 4TH time!

Enjoy whatever you decide!

Foo

[eurotrip2k7]

Thanks for the suggestions!

P.S. FooFiter, I take it that you like the Foo Fighters, huh? They're my favorite band in the universe!!!!

[Elizabeth]

Hey welcome to travelpunk!

May I suggest postponing your trip for a while? Just a few months ago I found myself in the same situation as you. I'm 17 and I had saved up a modest amount of money. Just enough for two weeks. I had been dying to go to Europe. So should I stay or should I go now? I decided against it. Staying and working about 8 more months would allow me to save more money and stay longer in Europe and ultimately have a better time.

[rousseau5550]

Personally I plan on doing a 2 week tour of Europe with an average of 3 days each in Brussels, Amsterdam, Berlin and Paris. Trust me, you'll want to do a lot of things in these cities and a maximum of 3 days should be good enough. For my trip, i'm taking only 2 days in Brussels as it's a starting point for me. Also, I heard that their isn't much to do in that city.
Happy travels

[LostFarmboy]

I agree with what everyone has said about your itinerary being a little too ambitious. You've listed Italy as a whole, but there is A LOT to see in Italy - Rome, Florence, Vatican City, Venice, Cinque Terre, Pisa, Pompeii - just to name a few. It would be impossible to see what Italy has to offer as well as the other places you've listed in 2 weeks. I would say simplify your itinerary to something like what Foo said, or maybe just stay in Italy, and you'll have a much better time.