First time travel to Europe

So you have 7 days and 6 countries. Surely you jest.

That itinerary is completely undoable in 7 days; the geographical area you wish to cover is so broad that you'll spend all your time in transit from one place to another without any time to enjoy seeing anything. You don't indicate whether you seven days includes flight time to and from Europe, or whether its seven days on the round. If you have seven days on the ground, I'd recommend limiting it to two cities, preferably Amsterdam and Paris since that is where you intend to fly into and out of (I have not been to Amsterdam, but to me at least even 3-4 days in Paris isn't enough). If your 7 days includes flying day, you might want to limit to just one city, maybe with a day trip somewhere close added in, and fly into and out of the same airport. If you haven't booked your travel yet I'd seriously consider either extending your trip by several days or scaling things back. Good luck!

Yes, with 7 days, you can 2 at most 2 cities. And if you've never been to Paris, that would be a good place to spend all 7 days. In Germany (a vast country with hundreds of towns that are worth a visit), there are good towns for history (Berlin, Leipzig, Munich), good towns for wine (the Rhine and Mosel areas), beer (Bavaria including Munich), and so forth.

You need to
1) limit your interest
2) get the Rick Steves guide for that area
3) plan your trip.

Don't buy the book until you limit your location.

With only 7 days you can only pick 2 cities on your list, preferably in the same geographic region. For example, you could fly in to Barcelona (3 nights), take the high speed train to Paris (4 nights) and fly out of Paris

Do your 7 days include your travel days? Remember when you are planning that 2 nights in a location = 1 full day for touring.

Are you spending your time in Amsterdam with your son?

For a 1st time traveler to Europe I'd suggest your arrival night and the next 2 in Amsterdam, take the train (the fast train is called Thalys) to Paris and spend the remaining 3 or 4 nights there.

Distances in Europe are further than you might think AND you need to give yourselves time to actually visit the location - so a minimum of 2 nights in maybe Milan and Monaco, longer in Barcelona and I'm not sure what you are wanting to see in Germany - it's a huge country.

You'll need to edit your wish list for this trip or add a few weeks.

You've already picked two destinations, each worthy of your whole time: Amsterdam and Paris. All those places on your wish list are nice, but they are not that close to each other. Unless you want to spend your whole trip in airports (needing no hotels), cut back your planning.

For such a short visit, not only don’t you want to waste time traveling but you don’t want to lose more valuable time checking into and out of hotels. As suggested, limit yourself to Amsterdam and Paris with one hotel stay in each city.

Amsterdam, Germany, Milan, Monoco, Barcelona, and end in Paris. Question, is this a Do-able iteniary? Also, what is a good city to go to in Germany after Amsterdam?

LOL...smh, ok, humor aside, such an itinerary would be insanely ambitious, 7-days really limits the number of destinations while balancing the amount of transit time in-between; you'd barely have time to relax. All of those locations are hot-spots so, what are you and your husband into: art, music, outdoors, food, nightlife, historical spots, etc...? Is the idea of this trip simply to tick-off a list of places or, actually relax and enjoy your time? I've got a friend who's wife simply traveled in order to check the box, she really couldn't elaborate what she saw or, ate but, could recite all the places she visited....whats the point of traveling then(?)

Sounds like you've already locked-in your flights into/out of Amsterdam; Cologne/Essen is just over the border is near however, you may find Brussels/Ghent in Belgium more interesting with more attractions.

Paris alone would be fine for 7-days...spend 3-days poking around Paris to include visiting Versaille, and 2-days each in Normandy and Loire Valley. Barcelona & Madrid could be split with 7-days.

If you're going all the way from the USA to Europe, how can you not include London, Prague, Rome, and Budapest in your iteniary?

You're thinking too small! You have 7 days to hop around. Let's see some hopping!

Sounds like spam.

If you could just stop time and fold space...

"Sounds like spam." - talking of spam, my Welsh gran used to spoil me and my five brothers with spam, eggs and baked beans on special Saturday evenings. With chips if none of us were naughty that particular week. Now, spam or its equivalent can be had almost anywhere in Europe, and even Albert Grimaldi looks as though he might partake in the delicacy. It's the coalminer's foie gras, if you didn't know.

"Also, what is a good city to go to in Germany after Amsterdam" - Chemnitz. It's a terribly ugly city but worth the efffort. On the very unattractive main street there's a greasy spoon which fries a mean frühstücksfleisch and eggs swimming in lard.

Well, what do you expect from a city that used to be called Karl-Marx-Stadt?

Spam, eggs, sausage & spam with baked beans
updated

Good one Big M.

Question, is this a Do-able iteniary(sic)?

Only if you can get Capt Kirk or Capt Picard to loan you the transporter system from the Enterprise.

Go to Berlin after Amsterdam. If you prefer staying in the western part, then choose between Hamburg or Frankfurt.

Based on your proposed itinerary, I would drop Monaco, Barcelona. After seeing Amsterdam, ie, spend one night there, you can fly to Berlin or take the regional train to Düsseldorf to be on time for the night train to Berlin.

If you want a small place in Germany after Amsterdam, then I suggest Münster in Westphalia, direct connection by train, or Minden.

"Visiting our son in Europe" -- where is the time for the son ??

My mom had a crush on Captain Kirk.

For any first timer to Europe reading the itinerary of cpc1083, I would drop Monoco a very disappointing stop on the itinerary. I don't care for Milan either.

My favorite part of Germany is the Bavaria area, an area that inspired Swan Lake and the Nutcracker.

Was it ever determined if this is a satire post, designed to gin up us travel advisors?

Suspect OP realized what they proposed was akin to doing Seattle- Portland- SF-LA-Phoenix-Las Vegas in 7 days and is back at the planning board ( hopefully)

Anyone remember the old move “If it’s Tuesday, this must be Belgium”?

Come to think about it I don’t think they moved around that much in that movie

Was it ever determined if this is a satire post, designed to gin up us travel advisors?

Apparently, if I suggest such a thing then I'm considered a killjoy.