5 weeks in Europe

Well, so much open spce to answer, some of your answers may not be that useful, so some very, very genersl thoughts.

• If you are familiar with London, that is as good a place to start as any, with god transportation connections to nearly everywhere
• I would firure out what the farthest you want to go from there is....Eastern Europe? Greece? Turkey? also how far ranging you want to be....Central Europe? From Far west to far east or north to south...the idea is how much do you want to see, list the highlights, even if it is London...Paris...someplace in Southern France...Rome...etc. Then add blocks of time (3 days here, 2 there, 5 there) and see how it stack up to your 5 weeks.
• Take caution with travel, unless you are heading to a new spot an hour away or less, figure that you lose the whole day in travel (getting ready to leave, transport to your train or plane, the plane or train, finding your new hotel, etc.) Do not make you 2 days in Rome one day getting there and leaving for someplace else the next.
• I prefer to plan well, but will actually commit to only part of my hotels and transportation, leaving some flex (Book Paris, but leave some flexible days between there and planned bookings for Rome)
• Planes (budget flights) offer a great option for far ranging jumps, just be aware that good prices require far advance planning and plan on paying to check a bag, even if you think you are travelling light.

Probably lots more to add, but something to think about.

Hi liz.e - as a Coloradan, I don't know how close you are to DIA, but with direct flights from Denver to London Heathrow, we've used British Airways almost exclusively for getting to/from Europe for the past 15 years. Even when we've continued from Heathrow to Sofia, Bulgaria; Madrid; Paris; Brussels; Shannon, Ireland; etc., we've come back thru Heathrow on our way home. You may or may not find "open jaws" (flying from the USA into one city and returning home out of another) more efficient and/or cost-effective. Sadly, BA no longer automatically issues free sleep masks (eyeshades), but they'll give you one upon request. Sleeping on the plane really helps cut down on jet lag, and a sleep mask can help. Don't wait too long to get your tickets with B.A., as the flights have been full the past few years and the price goes up closer to the departure date.

You may have observed this already during your U.K. sojourn, but rental cars are a pain in big cities (traffic & parking) but can get you to smaller locations on your schedule. With 2 people, get the smallest car you can (cheaper & easier to park) that accommodates you, with your luggage hiding in the trunk or under the cover in the hatch. If you can drive a stick shift, great, but the smallest cars sometimes aren't available with automatic transmissions.

Leasing a car can be a better deal than renting, if you need the car for 3 weeks or more. If you're looking at flying, as mentioned above, budget airlines more and more are available to get you around Europe fast and cheaply, but can come with strict baggage and ticketing policies -- read the fine print. If you're looking at train and/or bus travel, that's pretty readily available.

Paris, Rome, and other big destinations offer passes or Tourist Cards that give you discounts on sights, sometimes let you cut the admission lines, and can also include public transportation -- check out your options. Hope your final year of school goes quickly, and happy travels!

You might want to start in Paris for 1 week, then take the Eurostar train up to London. From London area airports, you can fly just about anywhere you wish on the continent really cheap.

We flew to Pisa from Gatwick and took a train over to Florence for a weekend. We went to the Tuscan countryside for 4-5 days staying in an agriturismo before turning our rental car in at Orvieto. The train into Rome only takes 70 minutes.

You can also fly inexpensively to many great places from the two Rome airports for the remainder of your time. Budapest, Prague and Munich are especially great for young adults.

Five weeks a marathon not a sprint. Plan some mountains and beaches strategically to recharge.

Provence and Tuscany two candidates for a 5-7-day anchor for your whole trip. Stay in a small town the whole time with a car. There is plenty to see and do.

Does this mean you'll have to sacrifice the umpteenth Great City on your list? Yes, but totally worth it. You'll have a travel experience most Americans never get.

For 5 weeks, it;s all about pacing, rhythm, and variations on speed and tone. Have a blast!

Thanks, everyone! It's nice to get such great input and advice so fast. I'm definitely writing down your suggestions and will factor this all in as we start planning. There's been a lot mentioned about air travel, but any advice on buying a rail pass? Also, if we're going to cut out either Spain or Portugal, which do you vote for? And Finland...we're intrigued but undecided. Thoughts? Appreciate it all!

It used to be in Finland, if you ordered a vodka, you got a whole bottle, not just a glass. . . but it's been a long time.

Portugal is great (Lisbon, Sintra, Obidos, Evora, etc.), and you can fly into Lisbon or drive in from Spain, but train or bus options make for long, slow travel to get there. Also, as Spain is such a large country, we've split it into North and South and stuck to one region or the other over 2-3 weeks, and still haven't nearly seen everything Spain has to offer. Spain and/or Portugal could make a trip by themselves!

Haven't shopped for rail passes in over a decade (have driven, bussed, bicycled, and/or bought individual train tickets as we went), but Rick Steves' Website and guidebooks offer lots of suggestions -- click on Travel Tips on the left, or www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips/transportation.

For less expensive options, consider Portugal, Spain and the "East" - Hungary, Romania, Croatia, Czech Republic, Poland. There are wonderful sights everywhere, tons of history, great food and drink. If you rent a car, plan a loop. Often there are hefty drop-off charges within a country and invariably huge ones in another country.

Rail passes are probably not a good investment. Many fast trains cover long distances and include a reservation, with a pass you have to pay for that separately; it adds up.

If cost is an issue, Eastern Europe is probably a good place to spend more time rather than less. Italy (I know it well) is inexpensive compared to France, Germany, England, Scandinavia and Switzerland.

Check out some of the RS travel videos and see what appeals to you.

Part of the problem with Railpasses is that over the years train companies have added fast trains that require a pricey reservation or have very limited seats for passes or have added restrictions that limit your options. Add to that, that a railpass is no longer cheap, figure $60-$70 a day for a select pass, $30 a day for a continuous pass...but you won't travel every day...so not much different. If you are making long hops frequently in countries other than France, Italy, Greece, or Britain then do the Point to Point vs Pass comparision, if you will be mostly in the countries mentioned, then do not bother, just get point to point.

I still recently did get good use out of a Benelux/Germany select pass, saved a bunch. For Great Britain, the Britrail pass can still be a good deal, especially if travelling with kids, but no plan in any way works out for France and Italy. Just have to do the math.

Hi,

Are you going to France and Germany for sure? If so, then I would suggest Finland be added since that country is under consideration. Adding Finland as the 3rd country makes it a Select Pass but check if you qualify for the InterRail Pass since you've been in the UK for some time. If you do qualify, the InterRail Pass wouls even be better.

If you just get Select Pass with Finland added, then going by ferry from Travemünde or Rostock, Germany to Helsinki gives you a 20-30% discount, otherwise flying a discount airline to Helsinki from Berlin, London, etc on one leg will also work. Basically, going to Finland from Germany is pretty easy with a number of options available, depending on the itinerary you've got worked out. The discouint airline option is not the only one available.

liz.e ,

in my opinion this is your trip, not mine or others. So go where you want and when you want. just be aware of the +/- of doing what you want to do.

If you want to do a lot of hopping around, again, its okay to do so, again, just be aware of the +/-. If you want to spend a lot of time in a small area, again, its okay and again, just be aware of the +/-.

the way I like to do my trips, so far, is to see one city in a country and move on. So, its more hopping around. Again, this is MY CHOICE, MY MONEY, MY TIME and MY TRIP, so i do as i want. I am aware that i won't see ALL there is, but i again, am aware of that. But i choose to say to myself, i will come back and move on. Im happy with the way I've been traveling, so far, and i will choose to do so for my next trip.

If you do some planning up front, you maybe able to minimize your travels/hopping around. but in the end moving around is what its all about, isn't it?

This year i want to:

Munich > Prague > Vienna > Budapest > Krakow (in order) a lot of moving around for some, not for me, but sort of in an small area. All of the places via train. An overnight (my first) train from Budapest > Krakow. No issues and i was able to do 95% of what i had planned on doing/seeing.

If you dont know where you are going, you really cant fly in/out of anyplace.

First, figure out where you want to go and then look for the fly in/out of. Also, while you're doing that look for some path to take. Connect the dots so to speak. At least thats what i do. Back-tracking isn't good in my opinion. try a linear or circular path.

happy trails.