First wedding Aniversary in Europe (16 days)

Congratulations on your upcoming anniversary! So, assuming that the 16 days doesn't include travel days, that leaves you about 4 days per city - remember you will lose about 1/2 to 3/4 of day in transit between each city. Adding a 4th city in another country will cut that down to at best 3 days per city. Doable? Yes, but perhaps not the best use of your time - 3 days will barely scratch the surface in these cities. However, if that style of travel suits you, you could add London at the front end - fly to London, spend a couple of days and then take the Eurostar to Paris and from there to Madrid and then train to Barcelona flying home from Barcelona. If the 16 days does include travel days I strongly recommend keeping to the 3 cities listed - otherwise you run the risk of being very well acquainted with train stations and airports and not so much with the cities themselves.

As Nancy says, you don't have enough days for another city and country. Paris and Barcelona and Madrid are will spread out. Would you consider flying into Madrid and home from Barcelona so that you would see Spain very well? Save Paris for another trip. Have a loop around Madrid, down to Toledo, Cordoba, Sevilla, Granada, and home from Barcelona. Keeps travel distances reasonable and efficient.

My wife and I saved for years to go on a 10 year anniversary trip last year, it was almost the same trip but we went to Portugal, Spain, Italy and London in 16 days, with London being a complete disaster, thankfully it was the first stop and the rest of the trip was amazing! We had so much fun that we are going again this year same time Oct 2nd-20th and we plan on doing 8 days in Italy, 6 Days in Spain and 4 driving through Slovenia and northern Croatia.

I would say depending on which city you last visit would determine where I would go. The nice thing about travel in Europe is it’s cheap! If your last stop is Barcelona I would not fly back to London it’s a big pain to fly in and out of and it’s very expensive! If you’re into British Royalty than you would love London otherwise it’s just very busy, expensive and over modernized. I would go to Italy, they have short cheap flights from Barcelona and you won’t be sorry! You could go to Rome or Milan if big cities are your thing or you could stay in Florence and take the train to Venice one day.

If you happen to be in France or Madrid and look to travel from either than I would also say don’t pass on Portugal, if you think you’ll love Spain, you will love Portugal even more! It’s so beautiful, not crowded, extremely cheap, the coolest people and Lisbon was by far my favorite city we visited, though it does have the most “street venders” who like to try to sell you drugs or rip you off but that is everywhere in Europe so you should get use to it.

Have a fun and safe trip, maybe we will cross paths on our travels this October? Stay excited, you’re going to have a life changing experience!

Seconding the info above, IF you wanted a fourth city and a third country, Lisbon, Portugal would be in the closest country to your France/Spain part of the world, if you find the time to squeeze it in. We flew on Vueling air to get from Spain to Portugal, fast and cheap.

Only other thought is London, England, if you use the super-fast Eurostar train to get there from Paris at the end of your trip and fly hone from London, or if you start you trip by flying to London, then taking the Eurostar to Paris, then heading to Asia in from there, flying hone from Spain. Happy anniversary, and hope you see and do everything you want in your 16 days!

Thank you for all your responses 🙂.
The 16 days excludes the round trip US-Europe. We will arrive to Europe for Paris, and the return will be from Madrid. I had been in Barcelona before and I know that 2 days is enough time for my husband, I really would like to visit a third country this time, and I’m really thinking in Lisbon Portugal as an option because everyone talks beautiful things about that city!!
But there is also: Amsterdam, Venice, Rome, Prague lol. I need like a year to go to all the amazing destinations that Europe has!!!
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On another trip, use trains to connect Prague and Vienna, with lots of wonderful Czech and Austrian places in between!

The very obvious option is Andorra - small but beautiful.

And by the way: even if some regions are located in one country it is by far not the same culture, especially not Barcelona (Catalan) and Madrid.

So even in Spain you could add Bilbao for a third different Spanish culture - the Basque.

Santiago de Compostela and Galicia would be a different culture with bagpipes music.

16 days,
Paris for 5, Barcelona for 4 and Madrid for 4. Take the high speed trains from Paris to Barcelona and then to Madrid.

You have three extra days. Seville would be nice, but I don't want to add to your travel, you have enough so far. Do day trips from Barcelona to Monserrat. From Madrid do Segovia and Toledo.

Lisbon is nice and warm still that time of year and to fly back to Madrid would be a short and cheap flight. Northern Italy is good to with cheap flights to Madrid from Bologna or Venice. It really depends on what you like to do and what you want to see?

If you want a city with a youthful vibe that’s fun and relaxing go to Lisbon, if you want history and romance with great food and culture try Italy, you can’t go wrong with either. When we got home my wife wanted to move to Italy and I wanted to move to Portugal. Also if you chose Lisbon look up Sintra Portugal it neighbors Lisbon and has beautiful Castles and beaches.

Having spent more than 600 days as EU tourists, our top cites are Prague, London, Rome, Vienna, and Barcelona, We rarely agree on anything, but we agree that Paris is the most overrated waste of time in all of tourism. Under current plans, it will another2-4 years before we get to Lisbon, but given its proximity to Madrid, go for it. Note: look at the overnight train instead of flying.

...we agree that Paris is the most overrated waste of time in all of tourism..... Come on !!!! What is the point of being so bombastic? More the act of a troll. So you don't like Paris. Not a big deal in spite of your "vast travel experience."

In this era of high speed trains and discount airline overnight train travel is nearly dead and rarely recommended anymore.

Paris is a beautiful, romantic city! Don’t miss it!! Wonderful food, nice people and gorgeous everywhere you look. My favorite city!