Itinerary Advice for an 18 Night Europe Trip

6 countries in 18 days? In a word, yes, it's too much. If you are 18 and don't care about "experiencing" anything and just want passport stamps then by all means, go ahead. You will barely get your bearings before you have to pack up and run to another destination.

I think it would be exhausting to try to experience 6 different cultures/languages in such a short time. Also, all that travel within Europe would be very expensive. I would cut the number of cities down to 3 - London, Paris and Rome.

That all depends upon what your goals of the trip are. Remember that each change of location will require about 3/4 to most of a day when you consider checking out of existing lodgings, travel to departure point, travel time to new location and travel and checking in at new location. - and with 4 people and your admitted lack of experience in Europe, that is perhaps an optimistic estimate. So, given the listed itinerary, that's 6 days of a 17 day trip in transit - and this of course assumes that everything goes as planned!

Each of the cities you have listed has a significant amount of things to see and do and you've left yourself very little time to see and do them.
My advice would be to cut the list significantly - London, Paris and Amsterdam with day trips from each provide plenty of things to see and do given your time frame while significantly reducing your time spent in transit.

Your itinerary is all fabulous cities--most worthy of 4 nights/days to properly see the sights. Your itinerary would be very difficult to navigate and not have the trip turn into a blur.
I prefer to travel open jaw into one city and out of another--doing no backtracking. You should cut a couple of cities off your list however. I suggest:
London--4 nights Take the Eurostar to:
Paris--4 nights Take the relatively new fast train (6 1/2 hrs.) to:
Barcelona--4 nights Fly Vueling Airlines (cheap) to:
Venice--3 nights Take a fast train (reservations required) to:
Rome--3 nights Fly home from there.
Save the other cities for your next trip.

Andy, with all due respect - yes, its too much. Physically possible, but its a tour of airports/train stations. With the travel time mentioned above, two nights is really only one day. Not enough time to see much, but only to check off a city on your bucket list. Compare if someone proposed a trip that included Los Angeles, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Seattle, Portland, Phoenix and Denver, all in one 18-night trip. Cut it in half.

Every time I travel to Europe I try to squeeze too much in and I'm afraid that's what you're trying to do. Because of the distances between your destinations you will only have 1 full day in each place where you're planning to stay 2 nights. You'll get tired of the time you waste traveling - and you will be traveling a lot. London is a good starting point and my suggestion is 4-5 nights. Moving on to either Amsterdam or Paris makes logistical sense. I've never been to the former but am aware of its attractions and would plan for 3 nights if it was me. We spent 5 nights in Paris and that was about right. My opinions on the other cities are Berlin 3 nights, Venice 2-3 nights, Rome 4-5 nights, and Barcelona 3-4 nights. All are great! Also, remember there are fabulous day trip opportunities (i.e. Versailles) from the cities so you can see other areas without changing hotels so often. My recommendation: London 4 nights, Amsterdam 3 nights, Venice 2 nights, Rome 4 nights, and Paris 5 nights. Regardless of your final plan you'll have a fantastic time!!

The secret ingredient for a great trip, esp for 4 people, esp for newbies, is:

A little slack.

See what you can in the time you have but don't push it. You'll have a fabulous time.

I would drop Barcelona to free things up. It means one less flight and more time for Berlin, Paris and Amsterdam.

Start in London: 3 nights
Train to Paris: 4 nights
Train to Amsterdam: 3 nights
Train to Berlin: 3 nights
Fly easyjet to Venice: 2 nights
Train to Rome: 3 nights

Take out Berlin and Barcelona...add Florence before Rome. Fly Amsterdam to Venice and everything else is three hours or less by direct train.

Hi,

Can your travel mates handle a "packed" trip? Do they get jet lag? Are you willing to split up and meet up later, or do all of you have to be everywhere together? What about common or divergent interests? That's very important as to avoid bickering. For 18 nights I would suggest London, Paris and Berlin, drop the rest, unless you all want to see Venice?

Just to put it in perspective, this is the time you have for sightseeing:

London - 2 days, when you are still jetlagged and catching up on sleep
Paris - 2 days
Amsterdam - 1 day
Berlin - 1 day
Venice - 1 day
Rome 2 days
Barcelona 2 days

If you want to take a trip at a pace like this, you should book an RS tour. You'll have door-to-door transportation, a guide to skip the lines and show you the main sights. Otherwise, you are going to spend way too much time getting oriented, getting to/from airports and train stations, and missing out on the best experiences when you get lost or, worse, your group wastes a lot of time deciding where to go and what to do. On a tour, there's pressure to be on time and keep to the schedule. 4 people on their own . . . someone's going to sleep in or linger over breakfast. Someone's going to want to stop for a break or a meal. And unless you are all easy-going and flexible, three weeks of whirlwind can be a recipe for fraught nerves, frayed tempers and worse.

Doable? Yes. Practical? No. You will move six times. It always takes longer to go from one place to another that planned, even if things go well. As pointed out above, you will lose at least 3/4 of a day (or maybe the entire day) each time. That means you will lose about 1/3 of your time just relocating. With this being your first trip, I strongly suggest that "less is more". To keep the amount of lost time to a minimum, I'd shoot for London, Paris, and Amsterdam. But for the sake of harmony, have the group decide on the three (four maximum) main points of interest and stick to those.

Is this your first time in Europe?

Perhaps that is why you planned so many cities, most not close together that will require spending about 1/4 of your time on airplanes or trains.

Plan on going back to Europe in the future. Cut down about half these places and spend more time there or take day trips to places in the countryside, like for London, you could visit Bath, Salisbury, Windsor Castle, Canterbury, Oxford, Cambridge, etc.

I traveled at a pace like this in college and did not enjoy it. I would suggest cutting it down. 4 destinations would give enough time to experience each city. Or to pickup your pace, you could do 3 destinations with 4 nights each, then two destinations with 3 nights each. Barcelona and Berlin are the most distant from the main path, but you can determine your itinerary. Where ever you land needs to be a 4 day stay.