Itinerary

31 stops in 36 dsys!! You won't have time to see, much less enjoy, anything...and you will be exhausted!! Transportation is going to eat up a lot more time than you think. Assume you WILL be back....Lisbon, Barcelona, Rome, and Paris will be there when you return.
Some suggestions would include leaving out Lisbon, southern France, and Brussels and Amsterdam for another trip. Certainly Lisbon and southern France take longer journey times than the other legs, with the lack of high-speed rail or cheap airline flights. You can find discount airlines that will get you from Barcelona to Rome, then start working north from there to avoid wasting time backtracking.

Ryan - I have to agree with Norm. You will be spending all your time on transportation and logistics, that you won't have much time to enjoy Europe... I would also cut Lisbon and the South of France. I think you should keep Amsterdam.

As for other comments:

Barcelona - why go for only one day? Cut Lisbon and spend more time in Barcelona. Agree with Norm on flying to Rome from there - it's really cheap on Vueling and no backtracking. Head to Tuscany from Rome.

Florence - once again - why go for only one day? Spend a few nights in Florence or Siena with other Tuscany day trips. Rick does say you can see some towns on the same day, but sometimes it's just not worth it.

Cinque Terre - One day? You might need another day to really enjoy it and relax.

My travel philosophy is I will sleep when I get home, but I do have to plan occasional breaks. I didn't do it on my second trip to Europe that was 5 weeks and ended up missing out on some of the things I really wanted to see just because I needed a rest. Also, be flexible because public transportation (and associated logistics) takes longer than you think and sometimes things just don't go as planned.

One last thing - check the schedules of the attractions you really want to see. If you are only in a town for one day and the things you want to see aren't open, then you might have to adjust your schedule or skip it.

Enjoy your trip!

Other people will suggest how to cut down travel days by skipping some places, so I will leave that alone. However, do yourself a favor and build in a mini vacation in the middle of the trip. You are going to get road and city weary.

I would suggest taking 3 or 4 days in the Cinque Terre. You can relax on the beach, food is fairly cheap, and there are more than enough amazing vistas to sit and gather your thoughts.

It doesn't have to be CT, there are lots of fine spots in Europe to unwind.

Thanks for the input.

I'm probably going to drop Southern France and spend my time elsewhere. I can probably also drop Florence.

The mini vacation in the CT sounds like a good idea as well. I'll play around with the itinerary some more and see what comes out.

You should be most soundly reprimanded. :)

Ryan,

I'll be interested to see your revised Itinerary, as this version is WAY TOO AMBITIOUS (and perhaps not even possible in some parts). One line that particularly stood out is "Nice, Eze, and Monaco, in the Morning, 2 PM train to La Spezia". That's ludicrous!

In planning your Itinerary, it will be very important to allow sufficient time for travel between locations. Keep in mind that you'll be travelling in July, which is peak tourist season.

Good luck with your planning!

Yeah, I'm scrapping the parts between Barcelona and CT. Another reason to come back, I guess.

I chose to utilize those days to extend my stay in Iberia, mostly. I have some interest in seeing Lisbon, so I made my stay there longer. But I wonder why it was proposed for a cut twice? I know the Italy portion of my trip is pretty rushed. I cut out Venice and kept Florence, and I would like to spend another day in Florence or Siena. Also, any advice on the latter half of the trip? Say, Switzerland on to the end? I still have some cutting and replanning to do. More input, please!

1: Last Day in Seville [Night bus to Lisbon]

2: Morning Arrival in Lisbon

3: Lisbon

4: Lisbon, Night train to Madrid

5: Morning Arrival in Madrid

6: Madrid

7: Madrid

8: Madrid, Afternoon Train to Barcelona

9: Barcelona

10: Barcelona [Ferry to Civitavecchia then Rome, or Fly direct to rome?]

11: Rome

12: Rome

13: Rome

14: Siena/Orvieto/Civita

15: Florence

16: Cinque Terre

17: Cinque Terre

18: Train to Bern, Night in Bern

19: Interlaken

20: Interlaken in the Morning - Luzern at Night

21: Morning train to Munich

22: Munich

23: Munich, Afternoon train to Augsburg

24: Romantic Road [Augsburg --> Rothenburg --> Wurzburg]

25: Baden Baden

26: Day in Koln, Night in Amsterdam

27: Amsterdam

28: Amsterdam

29: Belgium [Day in Ghent, Night in Brussels]

30: Train to Reims, Day in Reims, Afternoon train to Paris

31: Paris

32: Paris

33: Paris

34: London

35: London

36: London

37: Afternoon Return flight to US

Ryan,

The revised version is better, but still not workable in some parts. In this version, No. 14 stands out quite noticeably:

"Siena/Orvieto/Civita"

It appears you've allowed one day for this, including transportation times. WHICH of the three locations are you going to see? Given the travel times (especially to Civita), I don't think there's any possible way of seeing all three in one day.

Back to the drawing board.......

James: I've scrapped the route to Wurzburg. I'm using trains, exclusively. I made Fussen a day trip from Munich and added a day for Bamberg. How does that sound?

@Ken: Well, which one would you suggest? I'm leaning towards just spending the day in Siena. But seeing as Orvieto and Bagnoregio are about 5 miles from each other, maybe I could hit those two instead. What do you think?

Your $3K budget sounds very skimpy for 36-37 days. There will be unexpected expenses along the way. If you stay in hostels, eat from grocery stores and bakeries, buy drinks at the store rather than a bar, limit admission costs for museums, and walk or take local buses in cities, you can save a lot of money. You may be able to survive on $80/day. When I was young I traveled on a limited budget (with a Eurail Pass) and had a great time. I assume you are planning to use the rail pass beginning day 1 until you arrive in Paris? Fly or take the train from Paris to London.