25 Days in Europe....Is This Schedule Possible???

Other than Amsterdam, you don't say what cities (or how many) you plan to visit. After spending 2 days in Amsterdam, you'll have approximately 23 days to see eight countries! That's an impossible schedule. Have you even thought about how long the travel time would be between places? You'll spend your entire trip either packing up, waiting for a train and traveling, and unpacking again. You should seriously rethink your itinerary to allow time to actually see the places you are going.

Hi Cierra,
I've tried to estimate the number of travel days in your itinerary and I'm guessing a minimum of seven plus one day to acclimate and adjust for jet lag. That leaves, if I'm guessing correctly, about 17 days to see what it is you want to see. Also packing and unpacking, when changing lodging places takes it's toll. Your plan sounds a little ambitious to me, but I'm a 69 yr old senior and my wife is just a few years behind me. We recently got back from a 28 day trip, with two days being travel from USA and back and one day to adjust. We slept in 10 different lodging places plus one night train during the trip, and in our case we wouldn't have been very eager to go on to another stop or two had we more time. We had five nights each in Paris and Rome. We also spent seven days traveling by train with most of the day spent on a train. Others will probably tell you it's doable, and I think it is, but I also think you will be tired when you get home.

I hate to say it..but I think you are right....We'd like to go to the following places: Nice, France, somewhere to go snowboarding in Switzerland, Italy for a few days ( Rome, Venice ), Split, Croatia, not sure about Austria, definetly doing Germany, Munich for Oktoberfest-then flying out of Belgium...Can you give me some recommended countries with this schedule-which ones to cut out, which ones to keep???? Thanks!

Firs time we went to Europe we had 25 days also and I wanted to go as many places as I could. My itenerary was very similar to yours but I had to cut out Italy, (we went there 2 years later)Switzerland, and I didn't plan in Croatia but I cut out Prague.
It turned out to be a great trip.
I'm sure it's going to be great no matter what you decide, just try to have time to really enjoy the trip. And you'll be back to Europe, traveling is addictive!

Ciera, I definitely agree with the others! While this Itinerary might be feasible, it's very ambitious and would have to be carefully planned.

I'm assuming that you've bought your air tickets already? It would have been easier and more logical to return home from Italy or perhaps Germany, rather than returning to Belgium.

Given the "limited" time frame, I'd probably drop Croatia from the list in order to allow more time in the other cities, and more importantly some "breathing room" in the travel times.

Regarding snow boarding in Switzerland, it might be difficult to find somewhere with adequate snow packs at that time of year. Which area were you considering?

If I were planning this trip, it might be structured something like this:

Fly to Amsterdam (Schiipol) - 3-4 days (first day is lost in flight and time zone changes - allow a few days to get over jet lag and adjust to new time zone)

-- train to Belgium (2-3 hours?)

Belgium (Bruges or Brussels?) - 2 days

-- train to Nice (Long trip, perhaps use night train, although changes will probably be required). Consider budget air?

NIce - 3 days (allow one day for side trips - Monaco?)

-- train to Switzerland (time will depend on which city you choose - probably better part of a day?)

Switzerland - 2-3 days

-- train to Venice (trip probably 6-8 hours+, with changes)

Venice - 2 days

-- train to Rome (about 4-5 hours, depending on which train you choose)

Rome - 5 days minimum!

-- train to Munich (full travel day!)

Munich - 4-5 days (especially if daytrips to Castles or Dachau planned - book accomodations NOW for OktoberFest!)

Fly home from Munich (perhaps via Frankfurt - I used that method about a month ago and it worked well).

At this point we're already over 25 days, so you can see the challenges.

Good luck with your planning!

Ken - As you and I already know (after a couple of years of PM's between us), you're my kind of traveler--nicely done itinerary suggestions in your post, you took a lot of time with that!

Ken, great itinerary.

My question for Cierra is: Do you have to fly in and out of Belgium?

If you haven't commited any funds yet, check out the price differences between an open jaw flight (three or more cities) and a simple round trip. You may find the price difference is not great enough to offset the time lost (time is your most precious commodity while on vacation). Ken's schedule with flights into A'Dam and a flight departing Munchen would make your life much easier...

Hi Cierra,

I was in Switzerland in October in 2006. There hadn't been any snow yet for snowboarding, so unless you are into hiking you may want to skip the stops in the Swiss Alps?

I agree, you will have much more fun if you really pair down your itinerary and allow time for jet lag, travel between destinations, etc.

Kent & Bill thanks for the kind words! I tried to structure the Itinerary as somewhat of a "compromise", as I don't think all of the countries originally listed would be possible in 25 days.

Hopefully the suggestions will be useful for Ciera?

Cheers!

I would cut out Croatia and Austria and save that for another trip. Otherwise your trip is very doable. If you aren't too into the museum thing I think 2-3 days is good enough to get a grasp of each city. I have done a few whirlwind tours myself and I was a little tired afterwards but in no ways regret doing it too fast. Some people think that you need a week whereas others think you need a couple of days. I saw Amsterdam in 2 nights (one full day, and I was happy to leave!!) I could have spent a week in Nice though! In Rome I was happy to see it in 3 days whereas others would disagree. There is no set time of how long you should spend in each place, but I think a minimum of 2 nights is a good guidline to prevent burnout. I was able to see everything that I wanted to see and if I liked it that much I will go back!!!

Unless the weather is very nice during the time you are there, and in Oct. that is not guaranteed, there is not much else to do in Nice that would take more then 1-2 days.
Doubt you will find snow in Oct for snowboarding, year before last the hills didn't have enough snow in Dec. ,, so I wouldn't plan my route around a snowboarding day .
No Paris?? Nice for 3 days, but no Paris ??

I agree with Pat above, you're traveling back and forth across Europe totally omitting Paris, why?

For Austria limit your trip to Salzburg which is easily reachable from Munich.

Don't worry about snowboarding. If there is a run open in October, it will only be on man-made snow and not worth going out of your way for.

My rule of thumb for planning is don't plan to travel more than every other day and limit travel days to three or four hours of transportation time. That means about 12 stops for your trip.

Generally when you have to reign in a plan, it's best to eliminate the stops that take a lot of time to get to.

From Cierra-Well, the cheapest flights we found were flying into Amsterdam and flying out of Belgium....So it stands as such. Great advice! I think we may cut out Switzerland being that one of the main reasons for us going would be to snowboard. I have also heard some conflicting opinions about Paris and am considering the South of France, Nice or Provence...Not sure yet. Can you just stop off along the way for a few hours on the Eurorail to check things out and then hop back on? Also, how is traveling by train at night?

Finding accomodations in Munich for Oktoberfest at this late date is going to be next to impossible. I started looking in April/May, and cannot find anything remotely affordable - the only places I can find to stay are about EUR250/night. Places book up very far in advance for this celebration.

Cierra, a few comments on your most recent questions.

I'm curious on the "conflicting opinions" you heard about Paris? I've had no problems at all in Paris, aside from occasional problems with the language, but you'll find that anywhere in France (including the other areas you planned to visit).

Regarding travelling by trains at night, I generally try to structure trips so that I can avoid that. The only time I'd consider a night train is on a "direct" route (ie: no changes). If one has to change trains several times during the night, it gets to be very tiring.

Good luck with your planning!