We are planning a trip to Europe for the first time early June 2020. Traveling from Texas.
Would like to see London, Paris, French Riviera, and Venice.
Are we trying to see too much in 10 days? How many days do you recommend in each city?
Thank you
First, don't include your arrival and departure days when counting your days on the ground in Europe - especially on your first trip.
I would say you are trying to see too much. You could have a wonderful trip by sticking with London and Paris, with day trips from both cities, depending on your interests.
Would like to see London, Paris, French Riviera, and Venice.
Are we trying to see too much in 10 days?
Yes, ..... well actually YES!
Ten days is a good time to get a quick introduction to London and Paris, flying open jaw, assuming you have 10 full days on the ground not counting your arrival and departure days. You need at least another week to include the Riviera and Venice, accounting for lost time in transit.
I recommend London and Paris - 5 to 7 nights each as a minimum.
Venice - 4 nights /3 full days there minimum
Riviera - if you are going all that way, why go for less than 3 nights?
Mimi, my rules are:
1) Count nights, not days.
2) No one night stops, minimum 2 but 3 nights is better.
3) You loose ½ day minimum when you change locations.
4) The big names (London. Paris Rome) require 5 nights as a first visit, unless you just want a taste to whet your appetite for a "proper" visit.
10 days = 9 nights, so two, maximum 3 locations. So drop the French Rivera (sorry).
London and Paris are conveniently close by High Speed Train (2½ hours city centre to city centre). London or Paris to Venice requires flying, which takes longer city centre to city centre.
QUESTION: Can you get an open jaw flight, into London and out of Venice?
If so, for an appetiser only:
Not to mention that changing cities uses up lots of your energy that could be better spent on sightseeing.
I recommend that you visit no more than two locations on a trip of this length.
Cities like London and Paris need a week, but 5 days each is good. I suggest London and Paris.
The more that you travel in Europe, you will understand that when you visit somewhere, it is best done without hurrying.
After being able to make many trips to Europe over many years, I appreciate more and more spending more time in fewer places. Having said that, there are still folks, especially if they've never been (and there's no guarantee that anyone will ever get another chance - things can happen), who can justify an "If it's Tuesday this must be Belgium" kind of adventure, seeing more places but with less time in each place. And Nice, France really is nice!
One of my earlier trips included England (connecting through London on my way to France), France (Provence and French Riviera, and Italy (Cinque Terra on the northwest coast, plus Venice), but that was over 3 weeks, not just 10 days. This was also almost 20 years ago, before the super-fast trains in France and the budget airlines like EasyJet made it possible to get from one place to another a lot faster and cheaper today than in the past.
So, if you were just getting a taste of a few must-see highlights in each location, you could hit London for a 2-3 days, fly or Eurostar train to Paris for 2-3 couple days, fly or take the TGV super train to Nice over a couple days, then fly or train across northern Italy to Venice. I haven't been to Venice since my third trip there in 2004, and my understanding is that cruise ships now deposit thousands of people a day, so it's a lot more crowded than 15 years ago, but it's always been a magical place - for centuries - and see it when and how you can, while it's still there. Once the cruise passengers go back to their boats for the evening, you'll have the city, canals, and Piazza San Marco with just yourselves, locals, and the overnight visitors.
As mentioned earlier, flying Open jaw, into one place and home from another, maximizes your time when covering a lot of ground. Either way, you'll be in great places, but moving around can be more hectic, and going to fewer places can potentially feel like you missed seeing something when you were so close . . . or it's the inspiration to come back on another trip to see what you didn't see this time! Happy planning!
Yes , too many - and French river is is a region - you could spend a week alone just skimming Nice , Cannes , Monaco etc
Beg for more time off ( I know hard for Americans ) or cut trip down - which is your number one pick ?
London and Paris is a good first trip to Europe. You do best to start in London and take the Eurostar train (2 1/2 hours) to Paris.
We just returned from Paris 2 weeks ago.
I'd do 4 nights London, 4 nights Paris, and 2 nights Venice. Or, better yet, skip Venice this trip and pair it with Florence/Rome on a future trip, and do the last 2 nights in Amsterdam. London, Paris, and Amsterdam are very easily connected via fast, nice, and frequent trains. Personally the French Riviera has been one of my least favorite places in Europe (Cannes and Monaco in particular were "meh" for us).
Mimi, referencing a post which, I suspect, may be removed on Monday, there is absolutely no need to pay a 'travel coach' to help you plan your trip when you have a large community of experienced travelers on this forum who can help you for free!
You've gotten some great advice from the gang. I'll go with the votes for narrowing the field to just London and Paris and saving Venice for a trip which includes more of Italy. And as someone said, the French Riviera can be a trip all by itself. Having been to both London and Paris for a week apiece, I can promise that you'd have to work hard to run out of things to do in 5 days!
You also don't mention if your 10 days include your flight time to Europe and home again, and you'll lose a good chunk of a day traveling between the two cities so you may have less time than you think you do.
From TX, a 10 day trip and 10 days in EU are not the same thing. 2-3 days will be consumed by airplanes and airports. When doing air, look out for super low fares for airplane trips that take 31 hours. You will cross 6-7 time zones which will give you jet lag which will make you feel miserable for at least 3 days. The Bottom line: aim for at least a 15 day trip (13 days in EU) This really is the shortest reasonable time for a trip this long and expensive (air fare is relatively independent of how long you stay, so your cost per day for air drops markedly the longer you stay).
In one way of looking at it, you are not going to see Europe. You are going to see a couple big cites that happen to be located in EU. If would expand your experience to take some time to see a bit of what EU is outside the big cities. From London, a fast sample of real England would be to spend a couple hours exploring St Alban's (a half hour train ride). St Albans is not a tourist center, and that is the point. It is daily life England, which London is not.
From Paris, take a day trip to the Route de Vin Alsace. TVG train to Strasbourg (just over 2 hrs) rent a car, hire a car and driver, go by bus or sign up with a local tour operator (Viator will give you an idea) and take a trip through one of Europe's best places. Spread out over 50 years, much to our regret, we have spent 15 days in Paris (mostly not our choice. We were trapped by tours that instead on wasting time in Paris before going on to the good stuff), and about the same in Alsace. While I hope to never again go to Paris, I was in Alsace last November, and I'd go back tomorrow.
Congratulations on taking your first trip to Europe. You have already received great advice from this forum. I agree with the other forum posters that on a 10-day trip (assuming that the first and last days are travel days and therefore, really not designed for site seeing), trying to visit all four locations is just too much.
One option is to visit London and Paris and take day trips from there. I would spend 4 days in each, flying into London, then taking EuroStar or low-cost flight to Paris and spending 4 days in Paris. You can then take a day trip from each. From London, Windsor, Oxford, even Bath can be done in a Day Trip. From Paris, Versailles or Giverny are some of my favorites.
A more fast pace option, but still have time to enjoy the sites, is to add French Rivera to your trip. I would stay in London three days, fly or take Eurostar to Paris, three days in Paris, then fly or TGV to Nice, two days in Nice and fly home from Nice. You can get a good overview of London and Paris in three days. Spend a day in Nice and then visit one of the other towns (my favorite is Antibes). Save Venice for another time.
Once you decide what you want to do, come back to the forum for questions on your destinations. I am relatively new to the forum and have found the people here to be enormously helpful in making a trip a great experience.
Sandy
I agree that you have too many places to go in too short a time. Ten days may seem like a lot (is that 10 entire days in Europe, not counting your arrival and departure days?), but it will go fast. I also plan by how many nights I will be in a place. Two nights is only one full day, three nights is two days, etc. If I had 10 actual nights I would divide them between London and Paris. I would fly into London and spend 5 nights (4 full days), then take the Eurostar train from London to Paris. That takes you from city center to city center. Flying would take longer. Spend 5 nights in Paris (4 full days). Fly home from Paris. With 4 days in each city, doing a day trip should depend on what you want to see in each city. Depending on your desires, a day trip from each city is doable. Bath is easy from London, as are other closer options. From Paris you might like to go to Versailles. I like going to Giverny. I'm a big Monet lover and enjoy the gardens there. It's an easy train trip to Vernon from Paris, then a very short bus ride to Monet's house in Giverny. If you like to ride bikes, I've heard the Fat Tire bike tours to both Versailles and Giverny are fun.
Thank to everyone’s feedback. So we decided to do London, Paris, Venice, and Rome. We will have 10 full days and nights not including travel days.
London (3 nights)
Paris (2 nights) We like the museums and the history, but we feel 2 nights is long enough in Paris.
Venice (2 nights)
Rome (3 nights)
Which hotels and restaurants do you recommend in each city.
I assume you're planning to fly from Paris to Venice? That will occupy the better part of a day with checking in and out of hotels and getting to and from airports which are not located near tourist areas. Venice to Rome is at least 4 hours on the train. I would consider eliminating Paris from your itinerary. I assume you're planning to fly into London and home from Rome?
You need to think carefully about what your travel days are going to look like. What with packing up, checking out of your hotel, traveling to the train station or (2 hours in advance) the airport, getting to your new city, finding your way to your new hotel and checking in, and getting oriented, you will have lost a half day or more. Your 10-night vacation will consist of just 6 full, non-jetlagged days and some scattered hours, spread across 4 cities. What you are going to have is not remotely a 10-day vacation, because you're going to be spending so much time in transit.
Please read acraven's comments at least twice. Then if you aren't convinced, here's an example:
Paris Day 1.
7.00 Get up in London and get ready, pack your bags, have breakfast and check out.
8.00 Leave for train station - this is cutting it a little close, figuring no more than 30 minutes. It can take longer, depending on whether it's a weekday (rush hour traffic!!) and how far your hotel is from the station. You need to be at the station an hour before departure to go through all the security and passport procedures. 45 minutes is cutting it close.
9.24 Train leaves London
12.47 Train arrives Paris. If you are lucky there won't be a long line for taxis and city traffic will be light so you'll be at your new hotel before 1.30. Allow a few minutes to check in.
1.30 - 2.30 Now you can begin getting oriented to your surroundings (adjusting to a new currency, learning to use the bus/metro, even finding a place for lunch can be a challenge) and start your sightseeing.
Paris Day 2
A full day to sightsee
Paris Day 3
You should get to the airport at least 1.5 hours before departure (big airports - maybe you need more time, especially if checking luggage). If you don't have traffic issues it shouldn't take much more than 1/2 hour to get to either Orly or CDG airport by taxi, but it could take longer. The flight's 1.5 hours. So you've already "used up" 4 hours and you still have either a long or a very expensive trip from the Venice airport to your hotel. How much time you have in Venice depends on the time of your flight. You won't have time to do much in Paris because you'll have to go back to your hotel for your stuff before heading to the airport.
I think your plan is fine, but it just depends on what you want to do in each city. 2 nights in venice may be too much, or not enough, have you mapped at what all you want to do in each city, and how long you think each of those things will take?
Four destinations in 10 nights is a lot specially since you include 2 major ones like London and Paris. About 3 nights per location is minimum since you will loose at least 1/2 day traveling from one to the other.
Please read acraven's comments at least twice. Then if you aren't
convinced....
...then read Chani's followup at least twice!! The sort of moving around you're looking at doing is going to eat more time messing around getting to and sitting in stations/airports, sitting on transport, getting to the next hotel, packing/unpacking, checking in/out and getting acclimated to a new city than you think it will. That's time you could otherwise spend sightseeing and having fun. From that standpoint, less can definitely be more.
Hi,
I would suggest dropping Venice or the French Riviera. For 10 nights I can do 3 places easily, depending where and planning exactly and keeping a strict disciplined schedule but I do factor in the unexpected. Then I know what I'm doing in terms of tracking down where I want to go.
It also depends on your travel style, comfort zone, other subjective variables, I stay in the area of train stations, so no need wasting time or expense taking a taxi or public transport to/from the hotel or B&B. On departure day I just walk 3-5 mins over to the station. You may or may not choose to do likewise.
In London I suggest staying in B&Bs in KingsCross/St Pancras. You catch the EuroStar in St Pancras station for Paris. Taking the EuroStar in June, You should be at St Pancras one hour prior to departure. There have been times I showed up ca 40 mins prior, the place was packed, and thought to myself that I should have been there another 30 mins or so earlier.
Like others have said, it’s your trip, but that’s a very aggressive itinerary with so much time in transit over a short period of time. It reminds me more of a hectic schedule for a business traveler rather than a vacation. And, of course, you’re allowing no flexibility for strikes, weather, or mechanical delays.
I did 4 UK cities in 15 days earlier this year and I wish I would have cut one city, too much time on trains and packing and unpacking.
This all depends on a lot of factors.
First, is this supposed to be a taste trip where you are not ready to explore the whole city or is it intended for full city exploration, because if it is, then 10 days is not nearly enough (by my standards).
If all you have is 10 days (including the actual travelling days) I would suggest going with London and Paris alone or French Riviera and Venice or however you may want to mix it up but just two cities at a time.
Now if you are for an appetite whetting sort of trip, then yes you could go to all four places ( but it will be packed) you could do two days in each city and the remaining two days, be incorporated as traveling days.
Hope this helps.
Sometimes the thrill is in the travel. My first trip 40 years ago was Italy, Greece and Egypt in two weeks (guess my profession). I discovered a lot about myself and it helped me focus in later trips. So there is no wrong answer.
If you are young, you dont need 4 nights in London and Paris. The first time I went there 20 years ago, I I was in my early twenties and saw most of what I wanted to see in Paris in 2 days. Know that you will come back to Europe and hopefully see more of it next time. My recommendation is 3 days in London and 3 days in Paris at best. If you have time, consider taking a flight from Paris to Interlaken, plenty of budget airlines have low cost fares for that route. Spend 3 days in the most beautiful part of the switzerland - the bernese oberland (areas around interlaken, jungfrau joch etc). Save Venice for another trip. Always make sure Europe trips a mix of city and scenic countryside.
If you really want to see a lot of places in a short time, take an escorted tour. In addition to acraven's and Chani's points (absolutely correct), remember that if you're guiding yourself, you have to find your way everywhere - train station to hotel to museum to restaurant to hotel. This can be hard and tiring even for experienced travelers, but for first-timers, it's even more so.
On the other hand, when you take an escorted tour, they can move much faster than you can on your own, since they know the way, and know plans B and C in case their initial plan won't work (say, if there's traffic, or an attraction is unexpectedly closed). So, you really can see a lot in a short time. You can still find all the movement tiring, but far less so than if you have to organize it all on your own.
