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60 days England and Europe, itinerary help please (first time to Europe)

Hi there, Im working on our first Europe trip and I need to some advice on my itinerary.

I found it is very hard to plan Europe trip, there are so many cities and so many things we want to see. We both like art, music and nature, we are hoping to cover northern, east Europe this time.

My partner and I will be flying from Melbourne to London for Glastonbury music festival, so we will be looking at traveling from mid June to mid Aug. We have friend in London, so we will book a return flight to London as we can leave the luggage at my friend's so we dont have to take it with us all the time.

We are going to rent a car at Berlin then do a round trip to East Europe then Italy then return the car at Berlin, and we will travel by bus or train for other cities. (Im still struggling between Italy and Spain, as Spain is on the other side, and I can fill Italy in this self-drive-round-trip, so I have to give Spain a pass this time.)

We have budget around 15000 euro for both of us, we will be looking at cheap hostels and cheap eats.

Heres my itinerary, we would really appreciate any advice here. Thanks in advance.

Day 1 london
Day 2 london
Day 3 london
Day 4 glastonbury music festival
Day 5 glastonbury music festival
Day 6 glastonbury music festival
Day 7 glastonbury music festival
Day 8 glastonbury music festival
Day 9 glastonbury music festival
Day 10 glastonbury music festival back to london then fly to iceland
Day 11 iceland
Day 12 iceland
Day 13 iceland
Day 14 iceland
Day 15 iceland
Day 16 iceland
Day 17 iceland
Day 18 paris
Day 19 paris
Day 20 paris
Day 21 paris
Day 22 paris
Day 23 amsterdam
Day 24 amsterdam
Day 25 berlin rent car
Day 26 berlin
Day 27 prague
Day 28 prague
Day 29 prague
Day 30 prague
Day 31 prague
Day 32 Austria
Day 33 Austria
Day 34 Austria
Day 35 budapest
Day 36 budapest
Day 37 Slovenia
Day 38 Slovenia
Day 39 venice
Day 40 venice
Day 41 florence
Day 42 florence
Day 43 sorrento
Day 44 sorrento
Day 45 rome
Day 46 milan
Day 47 milan
Day 48 swiss alp
Day 49 swiss alp
Day 50 munich
Day 51 nuremberg
Day 52 frankfurt
Day 53 berlin return car
Day 54 copenhagen
Day 55 copenhagen
Day 56 stockholm
Day 57 stockholm
Day 58 stockholm
Day 59 new castle soccer match
Day 60 london fly back to Melbourne

Posted by
3 posts

I want to cover venice, florence, sorrento, rome ,milan in Italy, roughly 2 days for each place. or should I cut off 1 day from other city and add to rome?

Posted by
3580 posts

If you eliminate Milan and Sorrento (outliers) you can add the days to other Italian cities. I would add them to Venice and Rome.

Posted by
1529 posts

A couple of thoughts.........
You are on the road for sixty days, which is a long time to continuously spend with anyone. From experience I suggest discussing some ground rules for when it is ok to say "I need my own space from you" even at the expense of not seeing some places on the itinerary.

After you pick up the car in Berlin the number of destinations increases, but the amount of time at each place decreases. I encourage you to utilize
http://www.viamichelin.com/ To plot your car routes and travel time and calulate the amount of time spent in the car in contrast to the time you will effectively have to "do something" in each location. In short, this portion of the trip is far too much car time and too little quality time. Also, your Italian destinations will prove most challenging for finding parking and navigation. Also important is the hassle and stress of needing to monitor your luggage in theft protection while using a car.
Forthrightly, your most efficient means of travel will be via train.
Finally, your pace of travel picks up just as the stress of long term travel may start having a greater impact. This is a first time visit to europe and there is a lot to "do" which is more valuable than using your time to "see" europe.

Posted by
8710 posts

Pick 4 or 5 countries and be done with it. Europe isn't going anywhere. SLOW down and experience where you are traveling. Not trying to drive around all of it at once. I'd also fly open jaw, into one city and out the other. You are also traveling when airfare is the most expensive, heat can be dismal, and iconic sites over run by hordes of tourists. That said I'd fly into London, spend 5 full days there, then off to the music festival. Back to London and fly to Rome, 5 days in Rome, train to Florence, 3 days there, train to Venice 3 days there, train back to Milan. See the Last Supper. Fly from Milan to Barecelona. 4 days Barcelona, train to Madrid, 3 days Madrid, train to Seville, 3 days, then off to Lisbon. Stay a week. Fly from Lisbon to Berlin. Rent your car, see your German cities, fly Berlin to Paris, 5 days Paris. Fly home from Paris. My math sucks so I'm certain days don't add up but trying to tell you limit your choices of cities, extend your stays in each city, use cheapo airlines ( ryan Air, easy jet) and travel by train. Pack light and off you go.

Posted by
23329 posts

I am not sure I understand seven days in Iceland and one in Rome. Or even why you are going to Iceland.

Posted by
11359 posts

First of all, redo your itinerary in terms of how many NIGHTS you will spend in each location. This better defines your travel days and how many full days you have in a place to actually experience it. When you have one day listed for a city, are you spending the night before and the night after there? If not, you don't have a day which means you are making a stop to sleep and not much else.

I think Claudia is onto some good ideas for you. Consider what she has to say. Personally, it strikes me that you are spending a lot of time in Prague and not enough time in other places. Many people only spend 3 nights. It is not as full of blockbuster sites as Rome. :-)

2 nights in the Swiss Alps is not worth the bother. You need to add time here or drop it.

Drop Sorrento and Milan and add those nights to Rome and Florence or Venice.

I have not been to Frankfurt in a VERY long time, but I think your time is better spent elsewhere. Nuremberg is close enough to Munich to make it a day trip, so why not three nights in Munich?

Renting a car will eat up your budget when trains and budget airlines can serve you well. FYI, parking is a nightmare -- not to mention driving! -- in many of these places. I live in Rome and I don't drive here.

Posted by
4548 posts

For someone on a budget (does 15,000 include airfare?) I question going to Iceland at all. Iceland must be really trendy since it shows up a lot on Australian Europe dream itineraries posted here. Also question Stockholm for budget reasons.

Suggest that you ditch the car as all of your sights are cities easily served by rail.

For 2 people hostels may not work out to be cheapest.

You need to get some reading in about places so you can better choose what to see. Maybe cluster your time in 3 areas, e.g. UK, Paris/Amsterdam/Berlin/Prague, and Slovenia/Italy to help plan and schedule a flight or two.

Posted by
7175 posts

You seem to have squeezed in Italy with too little time allocated. I'd leave Iceland and Scandinavia for another time to free things up a bit.

10-14 Paris
15-16 Belgium
17-19 Amsterdam
20-22 Berlin (pick up car)
23-32 Germany & Switzerland by hire car
33-35 Munich (drop off car)
36-38 Prague
39-41 Vienna
42-44 Budapest
45-46 Slovenia
47-49 Venice
50-52 Florence
53-55 Sorrento
56-58 Rome

Posted by
6113 posts

Iceland, if you do go there is 4 or 5 days, not a week. It is very very expensive, but the scenery is unlike anything else in Europe. If you do go there, curtail other parts of your trip.

I would suggest that you start south and work back north, as Italy in August is hideously hot, accommodation scarce and expensive.

Berlin is great and even 4 full days there won't scratch the surface, plus it's cheap. For financial reasons, drop Scandanavia, Venice and Switzerland.

It will take you half a day to change location, so work out how much time you will have in each place as opposed to stuck in traffic jams. A car is a disadvantage in many cities such as Rome, Venice, Budapest etc. In fact, most of the places you are proposing! Car parking each night will be expensive and if you are proposing to stay in hostels, these are generally very central. Look at rome2rio.com to get an idea of options. Mix up your longer and shorter stays rather than doing little moving around in the first three weeks then going manic. Your Italian stops mean either half or one day in most locations- far too much moving around.

You need a few odd days in a trip of this length just to catch up on washing, having a rest from the travel and from each other!

Posted by
7049 posts

Renting a car in Berlin is not necessary and will add a lot to your costs - you can cover every place you listed by train. I agree, you're trying to see too many places for very short stints which will leave you exhausted...the time and expense to just "get to" some of your cities is greater than the very few (1 or 2) days you are allowing yourself to spend there. The many days in Prague stand out...Prague is nice but not the same size and scale as Berlin which you gave less time to. Ignore the negative comments about Iceland. It's an awesome place (great music and nightlife scene) but it can definitely burn a large hole in your budget. It's very expensive, as is Scandinavia, and it will be difficult to skimp in expensive places without foregoing some really great experiences. You mentioned "East Europe" but none of these cities is truly Eastern Europe (rather Central Europe). If you actually go to Eastern (or southeastern) Europe, then you won't be using the Euro currency and your budget will go a lot further..places like Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Poland, etc.

Posted by
1443 posts

You should build in some down time or this itinerary will grind you down to a little nub, unable to give or feel love.

A couple days every two weeks -- do and see nothing, sleep in, read a trashy novel, drink fruity drinks. No museums or tours. No culture of any kind. It will recharge you.

Posted by
703 posts

I agree with the other replies, drop some off and enjoy the other places more. is there a reason for dropping the car back in berlin.
we find leasing a car a viable alternative for longer trips and we usually pick it up in one city and return it in another for little to no extra. this totally frees up our plans. ( it is easy to lease an auto as well) that said having a car ( while it can be interesting ) absolutely makes our tips, visiting small towns and not being tied to large cities is great.
an alternative is to mix car hire/lease with fast train. that has worked for us.

Posted by
18087 posts

If you only have 2 days for Budapest, then skip it and do it some time in the future. It requires at least 3 full days. A full day is a day when you wake and sleep in the same town. I see a few others that you are rushing too. Actually, after day 31, its more of a road show than a vacation.

Posted by
3 posts

Thanks so much for everyone's reply. Sorry for my massy itinerary, as this is our first time to Europe, and we mainly want to cover Scandinavia and central Europe, and yes, Iceland is a must, Melbournian are talking about it every day lol

The reason why we want to drive around Germany coz we heard theres a huge fee if you pickup and dropoff car at different city, the main route we want to do is from Vienna to Hallstatt or some other scenic route to see the countryside. The other route my husband wants to do is from Paris to Normandy and explore the countryside near Paris. So should I rent the car at different place just for a day or two? and train between other cities? We love driving as we road trip a lot when we are in Australia, and we are thinking in Europe if we can drive we can drop by different cities and more flexible timewise.

After I read the comment above, we decided to cutoff Iceland to 5 days, so the first part of our trip will be London-Iceland-London-Rome-Florence-Venice-Milan-Barcelona-madrid-paris, we will looking at fly and train. Then if we rent a car in Paris and explore around Paris then drive to Berlin and drop off the car somewhere in Germany, is it gonna be very expensive? Coz I just checked the rental price in Paris which is doubled compare to Berlin.

And is there any self-drive route you can recommend in France near Paris and central Europe along the way?

Many thanks!

Posted by
7175 posts

Scaling back Iceland by 3 nights is a start, but you now also mention Barcelona and Madrid. How are you going to fit them in?

Posted by
703 posts

when we first went to europe like you we wanted to fit in everything. but i am glad that we did not and we have gone back and are planning to go back again next year.
in australia we think that europe is only relatively small, but believe me it can take days driving from place to place, and if time is not on your side then it needs to be considered. we allow about 200kms most days for driving that way we fit in things along the way and/or get to the next destination and look around in the afternoon. we try and spend 2-3 nights at each place ( depending) and then move on to another.
if driving then a good gps is a must ( i bought a tom tom in Australia and loaded up the europe maps at home - cheaper than buying it in europe!!) and buy good paper maps ( michelin have good , large scale maps, buy them in europe as then the town names are correct) money spent on good maps is worth it as they also make a good memento of your trip. phone apps like Pocket Earth with off line downloadable maps are also fantastic.

having another look at your itinerary IMO it is way too much. you haven't allowed time to get from place to place.
work out what you 'must' see and then plan around that. if it is not a 'must' see then consider going back and seeing it another time.

Posted by
15601 posts

First check with German rental companies if they will allow you to take the car into all the countries you are proposing and if there are any additional costs involved (including additional insurance).

Prague/Vienna/Budapest are well-connected by high-speed train. Slovenia is a real outlier - getting there and back will use up a lot of time. Maybe fly from Budapest to your next destination. There are direct flights to Bologna (close to Florence).

It makes more sense to take a car only for Austria/southern Germany/Switzerland. There may not be big drop-off charges. The Swiss Alps are expensive. Consider the German/Austria alps instead.

There are a lot of cars on the road in Europe. You won't get long stretches of open road with few cars (which is what I imagine you have in much of Australia). European cities were built bit by bit, mostly without any urban planning and long before cars were invented. Streets are narrow, many are one-way, traffic is awful and parking is scarce or expensive or both. In summer the highways are crowded and you are likely to find yourselves creeping along on them rather than zooming to your next stop. Keep in mind that automatic cars are more expensive to rent and to run than manual transmissions, which are available in smaller models. You'll be shifting gears with your right hand, and negotiating tight places while driving on the opposite side of the road to what you are used to.