Europe for 30 days

I am 65 and my wife is 59 and we go to Europe for a month every summer. During that time we take a RS tour so we are on our own before, and/or, after the tour. We only hope to be able to spend two months there once my wife retires. If your stays starts to drag on you, you can always hang out some place and just relax. Go for it. Happy travels.

Tom, my last European trip was for six weeks. I had the same doubts you do - is it too long? Besides, I was already over 70 and traveling solo. So, I told myself in advance, if I get the urge to go home sooner, sleep in my own bed, etc. etc. I will just try to get an earlier ticket home, paying whatever difference was needed. Even during high season, it's always possible to find a seat (in your case two), especially since you're presumably near a really large airport at home, with lots of flights going there. In my case, I stayed the entire six weeks and really could have stayed longer. There are plenty of resort towns in Europe - really reasonable in a lot of cases - you could just spend a week in a lakeside or mountain resort hotel if traveling around gets too much and explore the local area, enjoy the daily ambiance of a great breakfast buffet, nice local lunch, afternoon coffee and cake on a terrace with a view, lovely dinner, etc. etc. There are also plenty of so-called farmstay places in Germany, Austria, Italy - you don't sleep in the hay but rent a room or small vacation apartment in an area of dairy farming or fruit growing region or wine growing region. Some of these are really quite luxurious and usually located in beautiful areas of the various countries. The websites mostly have an English version. Also, explore renting a small apartment for a week at a time - in France and Germany quite reasonable, if that's where you're going. Plus, remember, at 60, you're just kids!

You don't have to be moving the entire time. Pick one or two places to stay a week. Link those places with moving around and that month will disappear. I spent 8 weeks in Europe about 8 years ago. A two week tour was part of it. I stayed in the Cinque Terre for maybe a week, and traveled to a few other cities and stayed a few nights in each.

We retired at age 60 and began to take month long trips doing one country each year. That was ten years ago. We preplan and pre-reserve the trip entirely. We download route plans and drive ourselves. We pour over guidebooks and websites. We also did a month in Hawaii and a month in New Zealand. We have been very fortunate and have had wonderful trips. For us, a month works very well but you will have to make the plan that works best for you. You have done two weeks. Perhaps you could try three and see how you like it. Typically in a four week trip we might stay in eight to ten different places so we aren't always on the move. When we hit a particular highpoint in a trip such as Paris or Santorini we stay longer. In Hawaii we did four islands - one week each. Loved it. Happy travels.

Stay longer in each place. Relax a little more. get up at 9 instead of 6.30. A month is not a long time, enables you to spend more time in each place, and go back to the restaurants or neighbourhoods you enjoyed

Tom, IMO, a month is definitely NOT too long to spend in Europe. I'm about the same age as you, and my trips are never less than a month. I've done a couple of longer trips, and I've found that two months is about my limit. My trip this year will be 5 - 6 weeks. You didn't say which parts of Europe you're planning to visit, but I'd suggest spending two or three nights (or longer) in each city so that you're not changing locations too often. Happy travels!

We make three month-long trips a year and don't manage to get bored. It'd be odd if we spent more than two nights anywhere.

I'm jealous!!! For more than 20 years we took 1 and 2 (at most just over 2) week trips twice a year to Europe. Then I had to start caring for my mother-in-law after she had a stroke and helping my mom care for my dad and sister (both ahve passed away now, but mom's had to have back surgery). I wound up retiring to do all this. We had planned that when I retired we do some LONG trips. We haven't been able to do anything more than a night or two locally for 3 years now.
Said all that to say- DO IT AND DO IT NOW! You never know when you might have to stop traveling for some reason. Personally- I'd pick 3 or 4 places and rent apartments, houses or at least where you have a kitchen or kitchenett and a laundry. Plan on a slow pace and enjoy each place and each other. Plan a few day trips from each location- maybe to a nearby town or site, or maybe just out into the rural areas for a picnic and some quiet time. Just my fantasy....

Thanks to all who responded. My high level plan is as follows: 1) Chicago to Frankfurt 2) Bacharach/Rothenburg 3) Salzburg 2 nights 4) Munich 5) Murren 3 nights 6) Bellagio 2 nights 7) Tuscany 3 nights 8) Cinque Terre 2 nights 9) Overnight Train to Paris 10) Normandy 11) Paris 3 nights 12) Bath 13) Stow-in-the-Wold 14) London 4 nights
15) Chicago It totals 28 days. Thanks again Comments are welcome! Tom

One thing a 30-day trip lets you do is rent a room or a house for an entire week in one charming place, dig in a little, catch your breath. It's a whole other dimension to travel that will enrich your trip immeasurably. For us, it was a week in Provence, following a week of energetic sightseeing across SW France, and preceding 2 more weeks in Paris, Belgium, and the Netherlands. Tom, I don't see anything comparable on your itinerary. Yeah, you'd have to give something up, but your trip would be qualitatively better for it.

Tom, you're "on the move" alright. In your place, I'd make England a separate trip - maybe even in the off-season, when there often are really good offers. Do you really want to keep unpacking and packing and heading for trains and planes every few days? This fast-paced schedule doesn't really give you time to let your new experiences sink in. What does your wife think of your schedule?

After reading your recently posted itinerary, I'm exhausted. For example, it looks like you are arriving from Chicago (jet lag), and seeing Bacharach and Rothenburg in one day. Spend at least one night in Bacharach and then move on to Rothenburg for another 1-2 nights. When you are in Munich, are you planning on just seeing the city or going south to visit the castles? You also may want to spend more than one night in Munich. I'm assuming you are travelling by train. Don't forget to take into consideration your travel time. So, having breakfast in the a.m., packing, getting to the station and getting to your destination. Sounds easy but can be complicated and tiring. This past fall we were in Europe for five weeks. We also recently retired at 57 yrs. old. After driving 3,000 miles, my husband announced it's not happening again anytime soon. It would have been just as exhausting if we took the train. He was just "done". I would save London for the next trip. Your weeks are already pretty full and, like you said, you want to be able to relax. Just a thought.

There's no way to see Bacharach and Rothenburg in one day. The train trip between the two takes quite a while with train changes and the possiblity of missing a train since some of the connections are very close. why don't you fly into Frankfurt, take the train to Bacharach and spend your first day on a Rhine cruise? Getting out in the sunshine and fresh air will help your jet lag and you'll see some amazing scenery. See Bacharach/St. Goar etc. the 2nd day, then move to Rothenburg for one full day.I promise you'll regret it if you move any faster.I've taken groups twice in the last 2 years and this was one of the very favorite legs of our trips. Instead of going to Salzburg, which is beautiful, consider traveling to Schwangau and staying a couple of days. Take a break at the spa (for about $10 you can spend 2 hours in heated pools ending up outside hot, salty pool facing the Alps) and travel up into the Alps for a day. You can then see the castles if you like but you may just want to look at scenery.
As to the rest of your itinerary, I think you're moving too many times and aren't planning enough travel time. If you make a home base in Florence for a week, you can rent a car and travel all over the region. The bottom line for me would be to stay longer in fewer places. Traveling by train eats up more time than you realize (another hint is to travel in the late afternoon after spending the full day in your chosen city) and driving in a foreign country can be challenging. Anyway, go and have a great time. I'm only 4 years and 360 days away from my month in Europe!

My wife and I just did this 30 day trip. I am 62 and she is 60. We flew into Heathrow spent a week in England and Scotland, took the EuroStar to France, did Paris for 4 days picked up a car on a lease purchase in Paris, traveled through France visiting small villages and towns (like Narbonne) then drove into Italy and went to Padua, Venice, Assisi, Florence and Rome and then headed back to France. GREAT WAY TO SPEND 30 DAYS.

Tom, my husband and I are recently retired and spent 34 days in Europe last fall on a totally self-guided trip. Our plan was to spend at least 4 nights in each location so that we would have adequate time to see each place. The exception to that was Avignon where we stayed for 7 nights. We also included some 'down' days where we did practically nothing as Rick says, take a vacation from your vacation. It also helped to alternate major city with smaller cities, e.g. London/Bath, Paris/Avignon, Cinque Terre/Siena/Rome, so that you get an opportunity to get a break from the hustle and bustle of Rome, etc. I like the suggestion to rent an apartment. We rented a great place in Bath and it was so relaxing. Stop and smell the roses.

We were away from home for 46 days last year - it may have been two days too long. We took a RS tour of England with a week in the Cotswolds before the tour, and 2 extra days in London. We then took the train to Paris and leased a car to tour France, ending in Paris for the last 5 days. Loved driving through France. This year we will do 2 RS tours with a week in Italy between tours, for a total of 42 days. We are 66 and 73.

Tom, I have to agree with the others that your proposed Itinerary is far too ambitious for a 30-day time frame. Visiting 13 geographically diverse locations in 28-days only provides ~2-days in each place, with no allowance for travel times (which is some cases will be lengthy). Keep in mind you'll lose the first and last days in travel times, and will be jet-lagged for the first few days in Europe. While this may be feasible, it won't allow much time to experience or enjoy each place. You'll spend the majority of the trip seeing Europe through the windows of a train, packing / unpacking and checking in & out of Hotels. Also, try to avoid one-night stops; they get to be very tiring, very quickly! I'd highly recommend either reducing the number of destinations OR adding some more time to the trip. If you want to stay with the 30-day time frame, perhaps you could indicate which places are most important to you. That would make it easier to offer more specific suggestions. As Rick often says, "assume you will return". Cheers!

I prefer to travel about 30 days at a time, even though I can't always do it. Even with 30 days, I keep my trip confined to a specific region and come home wishing I had twice as long to see the area I covered. I consider England, France, Germany and Italy to be four seperate regions of Europe. You may be able to do two in 30 days but don't try to do all four. If anything makes you feel exhausted, it will be trying to cover too much during your time there.

Thanks to all for your comments. I will likely adjust my plans. I think I will drop off the 7 days in Italy and spread the time around to the other areas. Tom

Most of our trips, too, are 30 days and I definitely don't think that's too long. During our month in France a few years ago, we spent the 3rd week on a self-drive barge on the River Baise. It was so much fun ... a highlight of our vacation. We went from there to a week on the French Riviera and were definitely not ready to leave when our month was over. If you like boats, you might think about breaking up your trip with an adventure like that. You can rent boats in many places in Europe; France has some especially beautiful rivers and canals.