3 weeks in Europe: Where to go? Starting in Paris and ending in Malaga, Spain

So many choices!

I will divide your trip into three phases due to what you stated.

1) Paris - Rome 27 May-6 June. You have 10 days perhaps a little more if you stay in Rome past dropping off your Daughter.

Paris deserves a minimum of4-5 days and Rome about the same. That would give you very little time in-between. Consider flying from Paris to Rome if the cost is a savings, otherwise take the train. We did an overnight train decades ago from Rome to Munich and then Munich to Paris. Needs some research. If you have time to stop somewhere between Paris and Rome you have several choices: Switzerland (I like Interlakken and Lucern), French Riveria (Nice, Monaco, Cannes). Munich is too much out of the way.

Going to Venice and Florence are a great idea, but your time is limited. You could fly to Venice and take the train to Florence, then Rome, but not sure how you allot enough time for those places.

2) Rome- Spain. Again, compare flights (remember that those cheap European budget flights don't allow much luggage). Other ways to go are the train. You could train to Granada, but I think you might have to go through Madrid. If interested, check out cruises, there are cruises that go from Rome to Barcelona (3-4 days).

3) Spain. You have probably 8-10 days in Spain. You are right to consider Sevilla and Granada as travel choices. Both great places. Plan on 3-4 days in Seville and 2 days in Granada. You are leaving from Malaga, but I wasn't impressed with Malaga when I visited there. Also, I wasn't too keen on the Costa Del Sol area. Rhonda is interesting. Cordoba is good also consider Cadiz.

Have a great trip.

I agree with flying from Paris to Venice and then taking a train down to Rome for a few days. (EasyJet.com flies from both Paris airports to Venice.) Rome is one of those cities worthy of spending 4 days in.
You could then take the train back up to Florence after dropping your daughter off and a quick visit to Tuscany.
Vueling flies from Florence to Barcelona, and on to Granada.. It's only 83 miles from Granada to Malaga and it's easy taking either a bus or a train down there.
Better get humping on your travel plans as times ticking.

Are you going to be flying between places, and/or taking trains, and/or driving? If you’re spending time on the ground, it makes sense to visit places along your path of travel, like Milan on the way from Venice to the Cinque Terre, and then along southern France into Spain.

If you’re flying, then points in between airports are less of a concern than what’s in, or near, your destinations. How much of France do you want to see with your daughter between Paris and Rome? Would she be going with you to Venice, (Milan?), Florence, and/or the Cinque Terre before Rome, or are you mostly looking for places for the 3 of you to visit by yourselves after she’s started her study program?

Our Spain trips, covering more than 2 weeks each time, have been to either northern Spain or southern Spain, but not both parts of a large country in just 2-3 weeks. We took in a lot of museums (Madrid, alone, has some of the worlds finest), so you may have more time available for transportation and hitting several places if museums aren’t a big consideration.

Since a big part of the trip seems to be seeing your daughter off in Rome, I’d depart Paris and make half your time in Italy (Rome plus one or 2 more spots), and the other half in Spain. Since Granada is your last visit destination, and Barcelona and Gibraltar are quite a ways apart, where to start so you finish in Granada on the 15th might take some time to figure out an efficient route. Again. will you be flying or using ground transportation?

@David @Cyn Thank you. Yes we do need to get this planned ASAP. Our daughter's travel friend backed out so we just decided to do this trip a few weeks ago and figuring out flights with points was a big part. Now that we have the framework we are ready to fill in.

What I am thinking right now is what you suggested @David - flying from Paris to Venice. Check out Venice then from there we can make it to Cinque Terra and possibly Pisa with daughter before Rome. Then after dropping her off we can do Rome, skip Florence, and then get down to Naples/Sorrento/Capri. From there (whichever cities we visit) we can fly to Barcelona. Two or three days in Barcelona, train to Sevilla, then after two days make our way to Granada. Stay in Cordoba or Cordoba de Priego and do day trips or however it works. Then train or bus to Malaga to leave.

This won't be a long and lingering in anywhere trip but more a sampler plate for a next time trip.

Thoughts???

@geovagriffith A cruise sounds great. I looked into it a few days ago but unfortunately none of the dates work. Next time when we plan the trip well ahead we are going to have to try that.

As I mentioned in my first response, this trip will be more sampler plate than long and lingering. No more than 2-3 days in any one place. And honestly, we like museums, cathedrals, and architecture but more than a few is too much for us. We want to check out the scenery, food, and where the locals hang out. We'd like to catch the tourist highlights but nothing too in depth. We can dive in to a place on another trip.

And do your friends in Granada have any recommendations?

Friends in Granada are also from US. Granada is just where our trips meet up so we extended our trip in order to visit the Alhambra with them. But they will be just barely starting their trip and we will be ending ours. They are flying from Paris to Estepona via Malaga, settling in Cordoba de Priego and doing day trips to Morocco, Granada, and Cordoba. Then after we leave they make their way up to Sevilla, Madrid, Valencia, Barcelona et al. They will be there a month focusing only on Spain since they did the "sampler" trip last year.

I think what you are proposing is going to add up to considerably more days than you actually have. The general rule of thumb is that it costs you 1/2 day of your vacation every time you change hotels, but it can be longer, and I believe some of your transfers are going to fall into the "can be longer" category. If you stay somewhere for 2 nights, that's just one full day and a few hours. That may get you to one or two top sights, but it doesn't allow much time for enjoying the environment.

Quick trips to Barcelona are especially problematic because so many of the top sights require pre-purchase of timed tickets. Figuring out how to cram a bunch of timed entries into just a day or two is a challenge.

Trains will be faster than any alternative for a lot of your transfers within countries. The Deutsche Bahn website is easy to use for checking travel times by train, though you'll need to go elsewhere to buy your tickets.

You can check schedules and fares for flights on skyscanner.com, but be sure to take note of the airports used by each flight. Some budget carriers use very inconvenient airports that are time-consuming and costly to reach. You'll generally need to be at the departure airport 2 hours before each flight. By the time you figure in transportation to the airport and then getting to your next hotel, you can see that many hours will have evaporated. Also check luggage allowances; carry-on weight and size limits can be shockingly low, and the checked-bag fees can be very high.

With the flight and train schedule information you'll have a better idea what 2 or 3 nights actually means at each destination.

I highly recommended that you spend your last night in Malaga or very near the Malaga airport. It's too risky to stay in Granada when you are connecting to a transatlantic flight the next day.

Florence will make a great destination, on a future trip. For this one, we found Sorrento (actually, Piano di Sorrento right next door) to be a good base, and took the train to visit Naples (museum and pizza) and the ferry to Capri for a day, although the Blue Grotto boat trips were all cancelled that day due to rough waves. We also visited both the ruins at Pompeii and Herculaneum, but had a car then, and several days.

In Granada, the baths were one of the most interesting parts of the Alhambra palace complex, and I’d recommend soaking in a hammam at one of the modern baths in town, maybe opting for a massage, too. Dinner overlooking the Alhambra was also a very fond memorable experience.