Europe itinerary

Do you want to visit the major cities (Paris, Madrid, Barcelona, Berlin, Munich) or do you want to "roam" the countryside? France, Germany and Switzerland are well-connected by trains. You may want to fly to/from Spain. You will definitely want to fly open-jaw. Maybe start in Spain and fly home from Croatia.

Yes probably the major cities in spain and germany. In France i would like to go to Bordeaux and nice.
what do you mean by open-jaw? i have found a flight that is really cheap from melbourne to london at $1330 which is amazing. would it be okay to travel from london to go to europe? we have a contiki in croatia on the 15th of july for 7 days so just considering if bus about would be a good option or not.
Thankyou for your reply

Open Jaw (open your mouth look at the side of the head with the back of the mouth as Melbourne and the top jaw as London and bottom jaw as you final point before heading home, and you do your own connection between the jaws during your 6 weeks) is the traditional name for Multi-City.

In either event you DO NOT buy two one way (single) tickets, you tell the airline that you will go into one city and home from the other. It is usually very close in price to a simple round trip (return) to the first city but you eliminate the backtracking at the end of your holiday. You wind up quids-in.

For getting around, besides buses (coaches) and trains, cheap intra-Europe flights may be worth investigating. Airlines like Vueling and easyJet can be fast and surprisingly cheap, and can get you to your next destination saving time and money. Some have highly restrictive baggage limits and policies, or offer minimal frills, but can be a good deal. Of course, flying involves the whole airport check-in and security scenario, so you have to get yourself to the airport in time to check in, then get thru security, then get to your plane, but it might be worth comparing to the time, cost, and convenience (or lack thereof) of going by ground. On our Spain trip 2 years ago, we even had to run our bags thru X-ray scanners prior to boarding trains, but didn't have to remove shoes, put our liquids into little baggies, etc.

Speaking of trains, if you are flying to London, then continuing to France from there, you might want to look at the super-fast Eurostar train. I haven't ridden it personally, but I understand that the earlier you book your tickets, the better price you'll get. Trains in Europe range from slow to fast, to super-fast, so look at where you want to get, how, quickly, and at what price. You didn't mention renting a car, and you'd be dealing with driving on the right-hand side of the road, but that might be another option for part of your trip.

Unless you want to time in London, it's not going to save you money to fly round-trip there. You will pay at a minimum £39 per ticket for the train (Eurostar) to Paris. That's the current rate for a no-change, no-refund ticket if you purchase 4-5 months in advance. That means staying at least one night in London. If you buy tickets for a train on the same day you land, and there's any delay (let me count the ways) you will lose the £78 and then have to buy full-price tickets on the next train (currently £141 each). At the end of your trip, you have to get back to London - some 2000 km away.

Are you planning to continue (for how long?) traveling after the croatia tour or is that the end of your trip? Croatia isn't the easiest place to get to/from on the one hand, but on the other, it is the logical end of your trip. Find out what are the nearest destinations wherever your last planned stop is and look for flights. One of the easier ways is to use a site like expedia.com for round-trip flights from Melbourne to figure out your flight home. For the countries you've listed, I'd start in Spain - the earlier it is, the cooler it will be, the rest are northern Europe and the weather is simply unpredictable.

Figure out a rough outline of a route and how much time you want to spend in each place. What are the major cities you want to visit. You might start by reading a couple of guide books, maybe Rick's Europe through the Back Door, to get a better idea of what you think you'll enjoy and what's reasonable to accomplish in the time you have. AFter you've narrowed it down, it will be easier to figure out how to get from place to place and what route to take. Then you can start the long process of planning the details.

Holly,

I dont have my map handy, but giong by memory, theres no reason you cant do trains for france, germany, spain, and switzerland.

Croatia may ve a longer train ride and maybe worth a flight. Again, not looking at a map.

Also this woud depend on where in those countries you want to go to.

One thing i like to do is to go furtherst out first and work my way back. But that me
Happy trails.

It is usually a false economy to fly somewhere just because it's "cheap," then have to spend valuable time and money getting to where you really want to be. Of course, if you have 6 weeks, you can certainly fly into London and spend a few days there; then, an inexpensive pre-booked Eurostar to Paris will work fine. But I agree that if you don't want to see London, spend the extra to fly to a place you do want to see.

Yes, flights from Croatia are "complicated," as they often require changes. And land travel there can take a lot of time; trains only go down the coast as far as Split, and you have to take a bus from there to Dubrovnik and points in between. I don't know where your Contiki cruise starts from. You definitely want to plan to be in your cruise departure city 1-2 days before your sailing, to avoid (literally) missing your boat.

To research flights from Australia to Europe, start with Kayak: http://www.kayak.com/flights. And do use the "multi-city" option to avoid backtracking. Again, it may or may not be cheaper to fly into and out of the same city, but you'll waste time and money doing so.

For trains in Europe, use the Bahn website, following Rick's tutorial: http://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips/transportation/trains/online-schedules. Note that in Germany, France, and Spain, the trains on many routes use "airline pricing," where the fare starts out low if you book in advance and can accept non-refundable and non-exchangeable tickets. As the cheaper tickets sell out and as you get closer to travel, the price goes up (in some cases, a LOT). In Switzerland there is no discount for advance purchase for domestic tickets, but there are deals to save money if you will be taking enough trains there. When you figure out your itinerary, post it and others can help with this.

To find flights within Europe (both budget and "legacy" carriers), use Skyscanner: http://www.skyscanner.com/. For longer distances, these can be cheaper and easier than trains - IF booked far enough in advance (prices go up as the plane fills, and popular routes often sell out).

For buses within Europe, start with Eurolines: http://eurolines.com/en/. If you have more time than money, and/or if you need last minute travel on some routes where the trains use "airline pricing," buses can work. But if you can book far in advance, and can accept the restrictions on the cheap tickets, trains will not be more expensive than buses on many routes and will be MUCH faster. Within Spain, however, buses are often the best connection between cities.

If you post exactly which places in each country you are considering, you can get much more specific transportation advice.

Hi,

Another bus company to consult is berlinlinienbus.de. Going by bus in Germany is totally unlike here. They're NOT comparable to Greyhound. It's a good cheap means worthy of serious consideration for getting from point to A to B.

Fred, they are coming from Australia, not the US so the references to Greyhound buses isn't going to be very relevant to them.

That said, I would rather travel on a train than on a bus any day. More comfort, better toilets, dining car and a whole lot faster.

Yes, the reference to Grehound was not needed. True about the dining car factor on a train. But in Germany ( and Poland...once) I've gone by bus, the max was one hour or so, and always quite satisfactory, comfortable, absolutely no problems.

Holly: Six weeks sounds as if it's a long time, but it's really not long enough to see everywhere. You'll need to be hitting the high points of so many countries. These are my suggestions:
I can see why you'd be visiting London--the only European flight out of Melbourne. It's a great place to start your trip, as you can take the Eurostar down to Paris. From there, I'd suggest taking the new 6 1/2 hour fast train down to Barcelona--it's a seriously long way.

I suggest skipping Madrid this trip. From Barcelona, you can take a train or bus across the bottom of France and end up in Nice. I personally would skip southern France, and fly to Berlin on whatever budget air carrier goes there (like Vueling or Easyjet).

From Berlin, you could take an easy train ride down to Dresden and on to Prague. It's an easy bus ride from Prague down to Munich--another great city.

Substituting the incredibly beautiful Austrian Alps for Switzerland is good--easier to get to out of Munich and it's much cheaper. You could take a train through the Brenner Pass (out of Innsbruck) to Venice and Northern Italy. Maybe you could catch a ferry over to Croatia from there. You have so many options--depending on the time you have.

Have a great time.