Europe in Dec-Jan

Yes, it probably will.

Weather is not always predictable, but I think it's fair to say that given your planned itinerary and dates of travel, you can pretty much count on at least some snow and ice in some of those places (really...Switzerland...Austria....mid-December through early January? Yeah, I think you'll see some snow.) Exactly how much snow and ice, and how big a deal that will be....hard to say, but I probably wouldn't bring shorts. It may or may not be "horrible" but it will be winter.

By the way, that itinerary might be a bit ambitious for 3 weeks (especially in the winter, when days are short and transportation may be complicated, and especially if it's your fist time there). But that's another discussion (so is the "and back to France and England" part...).

I'm looking for a way to give accurate advice but be tactful: 10 countries in about 20 full days on the ground is going to be tough. Just so you have a frame of reference, we see a lot of proposed itineraries here and 10 countries in 20 days puts yours among the most aggressive we've seen here in the last year.If you're interested in considering alternatives, let us know. We'd like to help you plan the trip that will be best for you.

I'm going to agree with Kent that you are probably looking at a few too many destinations in your time frame. I'd like to suggest that since you are afraid of ice and snow that maybe you consider doing an open jaw trip starting in Italy - go through France and then up to England. (Open jaw means you would fly into Italy and out of England avoiding backtracking) You will be more likely to avoid the snow and ice, and it will be a more realistic itinerary.

I have to agree with the others...way too much! It will take two days just to get feeling normal after the jetlag. I always like to allow some time to sit in cafes and people watch, you will be tired of seeing churches, castles, etc. after a few days. Also, remember there are all the Christmas markets in December that you will probably want to wander around. Our first trip to Europe we drove to a different place each night and we did have fun, but we were exhausted! Now we try to spend two or three nights in between some of the single nights.

I love Europe in the winter (mainly for the winter sports, Christmas markets, and classical music seasons), but you have to plan different sorts of itineraries than you would in the warmer months. First of all, due to the greatly reduced hours of daylight (as little as 8 hours), you have far less time to explore the countryside. Especially in NW Europe, thick fog often further reduces your chances for sight-seeing. But, these restrictions apply far less in the cities, most of which are well illuminated.

Your question about ice and snow- you are most likely to encounter a significant amount of snow near the mountains in parts of Germany, Austria, northern Italy and Switzerland. Lasting snow cover in the other countries isn't too common. But, unless you find yourself caught in a particularly bad storm, snow removal in most of the areas where it commonly falls is VERY efficient. Barring a freak storm-of-the-decade, snow rarely disrupts transportation, especially trains, for more than a few hours. You can minimize potential delays by using public transport whenever possible.

Finally, adding to the other comments- your wish list is simply too long for 21 days, especially in the winter when you might hit transport delays. I would carefully plan and prioritize what you want to see in each destination, and research travel times at Viamichelin.com and the various national rail sites. The more ambitious your itinerary, the more you need to allow flexibility for the weather. You can plan around "most likely scenarios" for weather, but as the freakish blizzards of the past winter show, sometimes anything is possible. So, the watchword of planning a trip to Europe in the winter has to be this: Flexibility, flexibility, flexibility. That being said, I would still rather travel to Europe in January than July. I can always put more clothes on to stay warm, but you can only take off so much clothes when it gets oppressively hot.

I'll chime in with the others...thats a pretty ambitious itinerary. You'll get home and remember a blur of trains, planes and old buildings.

Given the time of year, I suggest (like the others) you do perhaps England, France and Italy. Fly openjaw.

Kassie,

Good news: You are getting married!! December timeframe will have far fewer tourists. You won't be too hot and sweaty. You won't see too many tourists in shorts.

Slightly not so good news: Cut your destinations in half to fully enjoy the trip. Think about cutting out France and Italy - that hurt to say since Italy is our favorite- You will get back!

You got good advice about the number of countries, so I won't add more to that.

On the weather though...you will be travelling in winter so anything can happen.

We were in England and France last year and had lovely-ish weather in England in mid December. In Brittany it was quite cold, and by the time we got to Paris in early January we had snow and thankfully left before the bigger storm hit. Mind you, it was a magical experience to see Paris covered in snow. If you don't want horrible weather (which is quite possible), and want to avoid snow and ice, then look into other warmer countries in Europe. Is that an option?

Thank you all for such quick replies!

I guess I should clarify a bit. We will already be in England. My fiance's family is all there and so we're having a reception there before starting our journey (which is why we want to go back to England at the end). We've traveled through Italy and some in Germany, but we've only been in March-July time frame. We're okay with cold and snow, just want to see if it's the sort that regularly shuts down the continent. On this trip we are mostly interested in seeing the big cities at Christmas time and seeing the countryside. We will be provided with a car for the trip.

Also, we'll be spending two weeks in England in August and so won't be doing any real sightseeing in England in December.

We aren't against changing things up at this point though. :)

" We will be provided with a car for the trip. "

Magic car? That would be a TON of driving in 20 days.

Kassie, If you're scared of driving on ice and snow maybe you should turn down the car and take to the rails! It would make your trip much more relaxing!

Kassie: Before you can possibly know whether it's even feasible to drive to the "big cities and countryside" of 9 different European countries in about 20 days, (I'm only counting England once since you're not doing any sightseeing there, but you are departing and ending up there, so we'll count it once, that makes the big cities of 9 countries in approx 20 days), you need to make some estimates of the actual travel time it will take just to get from city A to city B to city C, etc. You can do that using this map:Google MapInput your starting location in the box at the top. Click around and you'll find the From and To hypertext. The map will give you times that are road times only, and which most travelers here find to be at least 25% faster than they can actually do.You then must add to the Google Map times the time needed for all pit stops and all stops of all other kinds, stops of any type are not included in the times the Google Map will give you. And then add the time to find parking, especially in the big cities you say you're mostly staying in, finding your hotel, checking into the hotel, unpacking, hitting the street to find dinner, packing up the next morning, checking out, getting back to your car, finding your way out of the city and on to the next destination. Repeat that for every day you change sleeping locations, which will be many days if you intend to do the big cities of 10 countries in 20 days. Just the logistics of changing sleeping location in Europe usually takes about 4 hours, that's a rule of thumb used by travelers here--and that 4 hours does not include any actual driving time.When you've done this for all your destinations, add up the times, and remember those times will not include any time for actual seeing or doing anything that you're going there to see and do.

"Just the logistics of changing sleeping location in Europe usually takes about 4 hours, that's a rule of thumb used by travelers here--that 4 hours does not include any actual driving time."

I agree with Kent's 4 hour rule, so let's put this in perspective of a winter travel day. You have 8 hours or less of sunlight, depending on how far north you are. The absolute shortest travel time you will likely encounter on your itinerary is probably at least 2 hours, and you can count on greater than 5 hours on at least a few days. I count at least 9 days that you will spend in-transit if you only visit a single destination in each country (although if you plan on going from the Netherlands through Germany all the way to Austria, you can add 2 days travel time. Same with going from Switzerland all the way through France to England). So, that leaves you with only about 12 full days of daylight (or possibly as few as 8) to explore 9 different countries, and maybe add 2 days extra where you may barely catch 2 or less hours of sunlight to explore. Now, add that England, northwest France and the Benelux countries often experience dense fog in the winter, so you lose even more hours of useful daylight. And finally, I would add that most of Germany outside of the cities is very dimly illuminated at night, so effectively, you can't do any sightseeing once the sun sets - even seeing the road can be a challenge sometimes.

Hopefully this number-crunching helps put things in perspective...

I would save the Netherlands for another trip. So much of the draw of the Netherlands is outdoors (biking, tulips, canals, windmills, architecture, sidewalk cafes). Even though the average winter temperature is just above 30 degrees, we have found the wind to be awful many days. I remember planning a day trip to Rotterdam in late November to walk around the city and visit a museum or two. We stepped out of the train station and the wind so strong we couldn't hold the map open and it was painful to walk into. Neither of us was interested in site seeing at that point and we returned to our warm apartment.

Now that being said, if the canals freeze the opportunity to ice skate on them is priceless.

I agree. Forgo the car, use the train, fewer destinations, more time to enjoy.

My guess is that someone from the family in England is lending you a car. If so, you are going to be driving "backwards." In any event, you will be on unfamiliar roads, with some bad weather and hilly/mountainous terrain. That sure doesn't sound like fun to me. Snow tires? I wouldn't try mountains in rain or snow without all-wheel drive.