If new to Europe travel, it will take longer than you think to do what you want

Especially to travel to new locations (whether by plane, train, bus or self-drive), then find your hotel/hostel/apartment, check in, find local transportation, etc. Most newbies forget/don't know to include all of this in their calculations.

For sure. It's the holy cow look at that church! factor. It's not like leaving your house in your hometown and walking to the store-you know exactly how long that will take. It's just not possible to "make time", too much visual stimulation. Enjoy.

Maybe that's why just one big attraction per day at the most...so there is time to wander. Anyway, that's my plan.

I'm an incessant planner. And I seldom get around to eating at all the great restaurants and staying in all the great hotels I intend to see. I do hit the high points and top tourist sights, however. But I never have time to do it all.

Yes, it takes awhile to get really efficient when you hit a strange city. My best suggestion is to learn how to get around cities using public transit. And study city maps and transit maps very closely.

Kent,

I definitely agree! One of the common things I've noticed with newcomers posting Itineraries is that they often don't include enough time for travel from one location to the next. Some assume that they can visit London, Paris, Barcelona, Rome and Prague in a space of a week or so, and feel that will provide them an opportunity to really "experience" those places. Even transportation within cities or with day trips is underestimated.

assuming you are trying to have fun on your trip, less will be more. On a tour arranged by someone else, you can get dragged around to more places in a day. On your own trip, you cannot do it that way.

" On a tour arranged by someone else, you can get dragged around to more places in a day. On your own trip, you cannot do it that way."

Kent, I agree. I see it so often on this forum, new travelers wanting to duplicate the itinerary of an organized tour (RS or otherwise) in the same amount of time. They just don't realize how unrealistic that is - the transportation factor alone can throw the whole trip off starting with the first move from one place to another, and it's dominoes from there on. They are just setting themselves up for disappointment and frustration. I love to read the responses to these inquiries from the well-traveled setting the OP's straight. It's usually the best advice a new traveler will get from us.

Never mind getting from one city to another, look at how people plan to time-travel across town! All it takes is one late bus, or getting disoriented in the metro station, then being surprised by lines at sights, to add an hour to travel time.

I once had six (silly me) train/bus connections in one day - the dominoes started falling when the first train was 15 minutes late. I got to my destination the next day.

The above posts are IMHO excellent with insights from experienced travelers that will help less experienced travelers to Europe.

3 day trips we've done from Paris in the last 3 days are:

1. Paris to Vaux le Vicomte and Fontainbleau by bus excursion with Paris City Vision (can be booked through Viator), it's a full day, the excursion bus simplifies travel to these two chateaus in the Paris area (30 miles south of Paris).

2. Paris to Giverny (Monet's gardens and home), six to seven hours total including transportation by SNCF train.

3. Paris to Reims, book the TGV train in advance.

These insights are part of weighing the benefits of all-access transit passes vs. per-use transit tickets -- a pass means making on-the-fly adjustments are easy and actually reduce the average price-per-segment over the life of the pass, while per-use tickets mean that every change in plans is another chit torn out of your booklet. Passes encourage flexibility, while individual tickets encourage conservatism.
Example: the Orsay line is even longer than I feared, but the Rodin is just a few minutes away on the bus passing by as I stand here.
A good instance of the cheaper choice often not being the right choice. And that time spent well is worth a lot.

The corollary is it will take even longer with children OR (as Zoe often reminds us) you can only travel at the speed of the slowest member of the group.

Another things new travelers may not think about as much is time of day. We have always made great use of early morning hours being naturally early risers. Many people take the attitude "I am on vacation; I am NOT getting up at 7:00AM!" These are the folks we see entering a line at 10:30AM that was non-existent at 8:30AM. then things really start to take longer.

So true, Kent! Like David, I am an incessant planner and had nearly every day of our 3 week trip to Britain last summer planned out, including train connections, things to see and places to eat. Thanks to incredibly great advice from the regulars here at the forum, all our connections went off without a hitch. I had a little notebook with copious notes on what was to transpire every day. However--when on vacation, things happen. On day 2, I began part two of my notebook, which I titled "What really happened". We got lost a few times while driving, in cities like Edinburgh and London we found ourselves enjoying walks through neighborhoods, a drink and a rest at a friendly pub or a long visit with new friends we made while kayaking in Scotland. All the things on my list we didn't see, we both agreed we'd get to "next time". A great reason to return.

From reading newbie questions, I think what people underestimate most is the actual time it takes between arriving at a given city and settling down at a hotel, ready to go (or departing early to catch a train/flight, to a lesser degree). This is why I think most people spread their days too thin trying to cover many places, therefore turning their vacation into a transportation rally.

I also think many newbie travelers overestimate their ability to travel without a glitch in urban transits they don't know. Even in countries where information is widely available online, there is always room for error, you might know know whether that subway exit that reaches the exact point in front of the museum entrance is open, and you might get lost in a tram terminal with many vehicles around.

I've seen some drastically over-planned "days" on Helpine that always make me cringe, to the point they resemble a tight and fast-paced external work visit schedule of a salesperson or agent. Little or no room for error. I wonder how people react when plans go astray.

Same goes for driving trips carefully timed to cover many sites in a single day.

RS is in part guilty of this himself with strategies like "5 villages in a day on your own"

Good advice from Andre, newbies should read this thread twice.

I agree completely. I research, research and do more researching to see what we want to see. My list starts big then is reduced as I realize seeing everything is impossible. For example my trip last year was 10 days split between Paris and Luzern. I was planning so much but then realized it was driving me crazy. So I consulted my travel partner and we decided not to plan out every day. We picked a few highlights and started from there. Purchased Eiffel Tower tickets 3 months in advance. Purchased tour of Roland Garros 3 months in advance. Had a lot of other ideas for Paris but scrapped them because we had our must sees locked in. Best thing ever because it gave us freedom to do something if we saw it then. We discovered the Velib bikes upon arrival and decided to use them to discover Paris on our own. This gave us the chance to come upon the highlight of the trip: test drive a Ferrari from the Champs to ET and back. We never would have discovered that if we planned every minute of the day.
Paris to Luzern tickets were booked months in advance. Just wanted to see Switzerland with 2 goals: lake cruise and mountain visit and paragliding. These were not booked in advance but our hotel booked them for us and turned out be lifetime experiences. The remainder of the time was just discovering a beautiful part of Europe.
My advice is plan the majors and the rest will be better than imagined. Happy travels!!

Me too. My approach is to plan for two big sights a day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. I expect to grab lunch between the two and don't plan anything for the evening other than generally "getting dinner somewhere" (I'm not a foodie, so the meal is anything the locals are eating).

I research all possible sights like crazy before my trip (hours, cost, location) and keep a list of sights that are "good to see if I have time". If I finish somewhere with extra time or a sight is closed unexpectedly (it happens more often than you would imagine), I consult my list and find an alternate or, if I need to, just take the time to relax in a park.

If I feel like doing something in the evenings, I consult my list - otherwise I relax. Sleep is important when you travel.

On travel days I often plan an intermediate stop (which is why I rent cars now more than I used to). I keep the travel legs short to give me time to do all the travel day stuff and have time for meals. Occasionally, I'll get settled-in early enough that an activity in the evening makes sense. If so, I go back to the list.