European Itinerary - 1 month - November to December

To each his own. You seem to be moving every three days for the month. After a number of trips we have extended our stays in each location, visiting fewer places per trip and counting on hitting other places some other time. You have not mentioned why you have picked these destinations (art, history, etc.?)

But, Madrid segment - Sevilla is a long way for a day trip. If it is an important side trip to see something special stay at least one night..... Or visit Toledo (an easy day trip) or even Cordoba. And I could spend several days in the Prado gallery alone.

I find Seville much more interesting than Madrid (aside from the art museums), and the weather is likely to be nicer in Seville, but I agree that it's not a good day-trip from Madrid. Time on trains alone will be 5 hours. To that you have to add the time to travel from your hotel to the train station in Madrid and from the Seville train station to the sights you want to see--and they are likely to be fairly scattered, because Seville is a large city. Toledo, Segovia or Cordoba would make more sense. They are all very interesting, closer, and smaller. In addition, the train ticket all the way to Seville and back will probably be quite costly if not bought well in advance. That is not the case with Toledo, for which fares do not vary.

Only sheer desperation would drive me to day-trip from Paris to Mont-St-Michel. It will be a long trip, and you will obviously be there during day-tripping hours, when it will be most crowded. Of course, it will help that you'll be there during the off-season.

I'm puzzled about why you are allotting 2-1/2 days to Milan and only 1-1/2 to Athens. I certainly would not fly all the way to Greece for such a short visit.

Have you taken this kind of trip before, heading out to an airport 7 times in the course of about a month? I simply cannot imagine that.

At the time of year you are travelling, places such as Milan and Paris have sunset around 4.30/5pm and places you may want to visit may have reduced winter opening times. Many museums close on a Monday, so check this with your schedule. Madrid will be very cold then.

You are short changing Amsterdam and Lisbon by at least a day each.

MSM isn’t a practical day trip in summer from Paris but even less so in the depths of winter. Ditto Seville from Madrid - why not drop Madrid and stay in Seville? I would also drop the one night stay in Parma.

As it stands, you have a tiring pace with too many different locations requiring flights versus the amount of time spent visiting places IMO.

My first question is: in your previous visits, have you done them at the same pace? It doesn't really sound that way. Since you lose about 1/2 day each time you move, that gives you a pretty low ratio of sightseeing time to travel time. Are you traveling with only a carry-on bag? Have you checked the airlines for cabin baggage limits? Flights within Europe often have lower limits than long-haul flights. They may have strict limits on "personal item" in addition to the hand luggage, and weight limits can be low. Assume restrictions will be enforced. If you have to check a bag, add time at check-in and especially on arrival for waiting at the luggage carousel. Winter clothes don't make it easy to pack light.

My next question is what are your interests? You'll get better advice if you let us know what you are more interested in.

And why Athens? Did you get a good deal on flights? Are you planning to spend any time in the city? There's a lot to see and do there!!

Paris - you can day trip to Chartres or Versailles but not both. Sunset's around 5.30. As acraven has said, a day trip to Mont St. Michel is not recommended.

Brussels - is that a stop on the way to A'dam or an overnight. Unless there's something special you want to see/do there, why not go straight to A'dam and use the extra day there for a day trip to another of the Netherland's interesting and attractive cities?

Spain - unless you want to wallow in European painting (I have done it twice, so I'm not certainly not saying it's a bad thing) Madrid has little to offer compared to just about anywhere else in Spain. You could fly to Sevilla and day trip to Cordoba. Ryanair flies to Milan from Sevilla.

Italy - Why Milan? Somewhat like Madrid, it's one of the least appealing Italian cities unless you have special reasons to visit.

Lastly, Christmas markets begin in late November, sounds like that's about the same time you are beginning your trip. That can make some places more desirable, some less.

I’m exhausted reading it. You’re spending far too much time moving around and on day trips.

I’ll tackle the day trips, I assume you’re doing them by train. You need to figure out where the train station is and many cities have multiple ones. Then get there and wait around and find your train. Get to your destination and find the tourist stuff you want to do there and then you’re dealing with the exact same thing in reverse when heading back. Remember this assumes no headaches because of strikes, weather, or the random stuff travel will throw at you.

Same thing with all the moving around between countries. Security, wasted time to and from the airport and who knows what? The virus stuff today is going to mess with the travel plans of everyone, even those who only know China through take out food.

All the

I know you're from Down Under. But Europe in November & December is often very cold and rainy.
Many would consider keeping their itinerary "down south" and not moving from place to place so many times that time of the year. Or better yet, delay your trip until April--or go a month earlier when weather is milder.

Not just damp, but dark, at least in the north, where the sun starts going down around 3-ish. Be prepared.
A day trip to St-Michel will be an awful lot of driving for a short spell on the pinnacle.
Have you considering using a multi-city flight search function to land in Paris and fly home from somewhere else, saving a lot of time at about the same cost as returning to your arrival city?

Not a bad itinerary, just a terrible time of the year.
Of course, I am not a big fan of cold weather. We lived in Germany four years and around Christmas it got dark about 4:30pm.
Also, you have to bundle up, wear heavy overcoat, gloves and hat. It's ok if you are in a museum.

Thanks for all the informative replies. I'm a university student so I can only really travel from Nov to Feb which is our session break. The itinerary is mainly focused on visiting cities I haven't been to before (I've been to Barcelona, Malta, Venice, Berlin, London, Florence, Athens) and which would be nice to travel to during the winter. I also want to revisit my favorite cities which are obviously Rome and Paris. I'm not really into museums (though I don't mind it on a rainy day) and would rather spend it on photo-walking and sightseeing. I don't mind the cold weather as well as I've been to Europe before around Nov-Dec. I will have a look again on the itinerary and probably do changes. Thanks.

Why not fly from Australia to Paris and fly home from Rome?

Your trip is heavy on big cities. I would work in a few small towns to get a better flavor of these countries.

You are also planning on 13 cities in 29 days, that's 2.2 per city. I would try to cut the list down to 7 stops so you give yourself an average of about 4 nights in each place.

On the smaller-city theme: How about Padua rather than Milan? It's a university town with an attractive historic center (at least in summer...) and some actual sights to see. It's a short train ride to Vicenza (Palladian architecture).

If you do go to Milan, you could side-trip to the hill-town of Bergamo.

I'll repeat my earlier advice to skip Athens if you don't have more time for Greece. Athens is not a physically attractive city because it grew in an undisciplined manner. You aren't much interested in its museums. Substitute something like a side-trip to Orvieto from Rome.