First trip to Europe Itinerary help...Sept 2013

Absolutely switch to open jaw and come home from Rome. Save a lot of money and full day of travel. Personally I don't like two night stands because it is really only a day at that location. I would drop the Dublin side trip because of the activities associated with the wedding. You are doing a lot of traveling with long distances. Save Switzerland for the next trip.

I agree with Frank. Drop Switzerland and add it to Venice and Rome. Don't underestimate the time it takes to travel between your destinations. If a train takes 4 hours, it is actually much longer when you factor in getting to and from the station, finding your train, etc.

Looks like one day, two nights, in Switzerland. So you spend all day getting to, say, the Lauterbrunen Valley from Paris, and on your one day it rains. Bummer, and next day you are off to Venice, another all-day trip. Two days much much better, or save it for another time.

After Dublin I would do London,Paris,Rome. That would be a fantastic first trip to Europe with the minimum amount of time that I would want in any of those cities. Just passing through (and two nights is just that) doesn't give you a chance to do much more than see the place from the window of the vehicle you are traveling in. The urge to go as many places as possible is understandable. The experienced travelers will all agree that staying more nights in fewer places makes for a more enjoyable experience.

The Lauterbrunnen valley in Switzerland is my favorite place in all of Europe but the others are right ... scratch the one day in Dublin and both nights in Switzerland, fly directly home from Rome and use that time in London, Paris, Venice and Rome. September is a good time to travel but a little bit of rain can mess things up especially if you are relying on public transportation. Start your next trip in Switzerland.

Hopefully this will be your first of many trips to Europe. I'm going to suggest something quite different-spending more time in each location (closer to 3-4 nights) and choosing cities that are closer together to minimize travel time. Your itinerary could look like this: Dublin, fly to Edinburgh, train to York and stay for 2 nights, train to London, take Eurostar to Paris. Fly home from Paris. As already mentioned, you would be in cities where language should not be a problem and all of these places have enough things to see and do to keep you busy for several days. As mentioned, don't underestimate how much time it takes to travel to a new location, get to your hotel, etc.

I agree with Richard. London, Paris and Rome can easily absorb three days or more of sight seeing. You get a better feel for the cities at this pace and you don't come home needing to recover from your vacation. You could could also, after London, either do Paris, and see some other parts of France or go to Rome from London and go through Tuscany (Florence) to Venice and fly home from there. This would allow you to do one country at a deeper level. You have a lifetime to visit/revisit places on the Continent.

I like Richard's advice. OR: You might consider going to Venice rather than Rome. Which is better? They are very different, but after Paris the better "change of pace" might be Venice. I think I would consider flying back from the airport that has flights best serving your home airport. And that would help me decide which city to visit. If you like long train rides, you might consider an all-day train ride from Paris to Venice. I've done that several times; I changed trains in Milan.

On the schedule you're considering, figure that you'll lose AT LEAST half of the day on the 22nd, 25th, 27th, and 29th and 1st (sometimes the whole day, given unavoidable surprises like getting lost, missed connections, transit strikes, glitches re hotels, figuring out a new city/language/country, etc). This doesn't leave you much touring time. Since you'll be starting in Ireland, have you considered spending a few days there? You probably won't have energy to see a lot on your arrival day and it might be nice to have a day after the wedding in Dublin. Outside of Dublin, the Newgrange megalithic passage tombs are about an hour north of the city; and 2-3 hours south are rural beautiful areas that include Powerscourt gardens, the lovely monastic ruins of Glendalough, and very scenic drives/hiking areas. You could continue inland to areas with large horse farms/racing culture, or to coastal villages in the southeast, or... If you head west from Dublin, you can cross the country in a few hours, reaching the ocean at Galway, the Burren, etc. It might be a more relaxing way to start your trip than immediately going to another country. You could then fly to your next destination, or if you're on the east coast take a ferry to UK or France, which was enjoyable the one time I did it. Since it's your first trip to Europe, unless you have a lot of language facility, you might want to do just one non-English-speaking country on this trip (eg, visit Ireland, UK, and either France or Italy). Changing language every every few days, which you are considering, is demanding and can be disruptive.

I too vote for Dublin, London, Paris, Rome. Split the days in Switzerland and Venice in Rome and Paris.
You just cannot see it all on one trip.

Thanks everyone for your input! I am looking at cutting out Switzerland and saving it for next time. Is there a night train from Paris to Venice? Or would you recommend Paris to Rome? I enjoy doing and seeing lots so I can get a taste of where I want to return. I am used to the fast pace of taking several cruises. I do think I had too many places scheduled. I will consider cutting Venice if I am unable to get our flight changed. Any other tips/advice is appreciated!

Tanya, The easiest way to get from Paris to Venice would be an EasyJet flight from either CDG or ORY. They currently have flights listed as low as €46.49, which will likely be coniderably cheaper and easier than a night train. Flight time from CDG is 1H:40M, so that's a much more efficient use of your very limited holiday time (but of course, extra time will be required for all the usual airport hassles). I'll have a closer look at your Itinerary later to see if I can offer any other suggestions (have to attend a luncheon in a few minutes). Regarding your flight from Dublin to London, your two best choices will likely be RyanAir (my condolences!) or Aer Lingus (but I haven't checked). Cheers!

hello, the first part of your trip mirrors what i did early last year. afa flights from Dublin to London, id look at the budget airlines. you can try Ryanair, Airlingus (sp?), easyjet and such. Note that AirLingus will only allow you 1 carry on. no if ands or buts. They also charge you for the checkin. also, they dont allow you you change your seat once youre on since they have supposedly "balance the load" of the plane. its a short flight so it isnt that bad. read the fine print on any of the budget airlines contracts and fees. Afa side trips in Dublin, i went to the Irish Nation Stud. since i love horses, its horse mecca for me. happy trails

Tanya, from London to Paris you should take the Eurostar, its city center to city center so no wasting time getting to and from airports and you save money that way too.. book on eurostar.com website, enter "antartica" as your country so you don't get switched to raileurope site . If using budget airlines I can recomemnd Vueling and Easyjet, read the websites thoroughly, re luggage , and carryons,, they are strict but I have had no problems with them. If you use Ryanair be very aware of the airports they use, the one they use for "Paris" is actually almost 100 kms away and no direct train in, its bus and train and 1. 5 hrs commute, so note that if you use them for other cities. I looked at a nightrain once for a route , think it was Parist to Rome, but the price was higher then flying, so since I wasn't looking forward to sharing a six bunk cabin with strangers ( yes male and female together) I opted to fly. If you have alot of money you could get a more expensive private cabin I imagine.

I don't have all the experience of the other posters but, last year I also was planning an ambitious trip to lots of places and could not imagine cutting any of them out of the trip. So many of the RS friends recommended less cities, less travel equals better experience. So, I made adjustments accordingly and I can say the saved my trip. They are right. There is so much to do in each place. It gets burdensome to repack and handle luggage every few days. I've heard Ireland is beautiful. Stick with Ireland, London and Paris. You will need a whole other trip just to see parts of Italy. When you see Venice and Rome, you don't want to skip Florence. You need at least 2 nites in Venice and 3 nites for Florence and surrounding countryside. We loved Switzerland. Stayed in the Alps near adleboden. Had to walk up into the Alps from the nearest bus station about 30 mins. Save Switzerland and Italy for another trip. If you have enough time, you could do Switzerland and Italy together next trip.