Help with Europe 2026 Itinerary

The transfer from Cinque Terre to Piran will be a slog. Monterosso to Trieste takes 7-1/2 to 9 hours by train, then there would be a bus to Piran unless you want to take something like a GoOpti shuttle (if available).

4 nights in Piran seems rather a lot of time unless you plan to rent a car and explore Croatian Istria. I don't think it would be very convenient to stay on the Slovenian side of the border (which is just a sliver of territory) and use public transportation to get around the Croatian side--though I confess I've never researched doing that. Piran itself is quite small, and 3 days there coming right after 3 nights in the Cinque Terre wouldn't be my choice.

Hmm yes, I was worried about this. I do find this planning in Europe rather tricky and I always find myself back at sqaure one. Thanks for you input, we probably won't hire car but there is always that possibility.

Will you hike while staying in the Cinque Terre? If not, then two nights is all you need.
Three nights in Ljubljana allows a day trip to Lake Bled.
I’ve never been to Nürnberg but I bet two nights is sufficient instead of four.
Paris deserves a minimum of six nights. Buy Rick Steves guide book that will come out next Mar (26th edition) and take his suggested self-guided walking tours.
You can get by with three nights in Haarlem.

What’s the idea behind 4 nights in Haarlem? What do you plan to explore there? If it’s to visit Amsterdam from, I would recommend to actually stay in Amsterdam proper.
I’m just back from a hiking trip to Cinque Terre, do you plan to hike as well? If you don’t, you could probably stay just 2 nights there.
If you’ve never been to Paris, I would definitely try to spend more time there. How set are you on your Seine cruise? It does take up a lot of your vacation time.

Hi Anne,
I'd be inclined to skip Piran altogether and spend three or four days in Ljubljana if you can figure out a convenient way to get there from Cinque Terre. I assume you'll have a rental car in Slovenia. You'd need one to get the most out of your time outside of Ljubljana there (Bled is great and the Skocjan Caves are definitely worth a visit.)
Happy plannning!

About your travel to, from, and within Germany....

24–27 Apr: Ljubljana (4 nights)

28–29 Apr: Rothenburg ob der Tauber (2 nights)

Ljubljana > Rothenburg might take 9.5 - 12.5 hours... it entails an all-day train ride on 4 different trains OR an overnight sleeper train ride to Augsburg with 2 trains after that.

30 Apr–03 May: Nuremberg (4 nights)

04–06 May: Paris (3 nights)

Rothenburg > Nuremberg takes 1.3 hours on 3 different trains.
Nuremberg > Paris takes 6.5 - 7 hours on 2-3 different trains.

My thoughts:

• The direct overnight sleeper into Germany (4/28) from Ljubljana seems quite advantageous.

• Augsburg (where you would get off in the morning to change trains) is right on the route from Ljubljana to Paris. It is a major destination on Germany's "Romantic Road" route with good rail access to nearby destinations.

• If you were to stay all 6 nights in Augsburg, your morning train ride to Paris could be a direct journey of just 5 hours.... Or you could stay 3-4 nights in Augsburg, then 2-3 nights in another town that lies a bit closer to Paris on this same train route... like the old-world town of Esslingen: https://www.esslingen-info.com/en/discover Esslingen is what I'd call a "backdoor" as Rick Steves defines it... similar to Rothenburg in certain ways, different in that it's not given over entirely to tourists. See comments on T/A from those who have visited both. The trip to Paris is of course even shorter from Esslingen.

• There are many day trip options by train from Augsburg... Nuremberg, other Romantic Road towns (Noerdlingen, Harburg Castle, Füssen, Donauwoerth, Landsberg) and Munich are all within striking distance. (The same places and a few more can be reached if you rent a car.) Rothenburg could also be a daytrip, but it's not necessary IMHO with the other fine daytrip options at hand to make that long journey.

Where to stay in Augsburg? I recently stayed here. Really nice stay: https://www.ostamkoe.de/en

I would skip Piran and spend that time in Florence. Lake Bled, IMO, is underwhelming. We spent one hour there--the parking machine was broken so that's all the time we had. There are better hikes near Lake Bohinj . Skocjan Cave and Predjama Castle make a great day trip.

Lake Bled is picturesque, but it is tiny. You can walk all the way around it in 2 or 3 hours. Time for taking one of the little boats out to the island church would be extra. I didn't go up to the castle located above the lake and have no idea how time-consuming that visit would be, or whether there's any sort of local transportation up there.

There's a bus stop fairly close to the Skocjan Caves. I didn't time the walk but would guess about 20 minutes. There probably wasn't a sidewalk (it was 9 years ago, so I don't remember), but I didn't feel unsafe during the walk; I guess the traffic along the road must have been rather light.

The Postojna Caves are more touristy and somewhat easier to reach by bus. I don't remember how much walking was involved, but it was considerably less than for Skocjan, at least as of 30 years ago.

I assume there are bus tours from Ljubljana to both cave systems.