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Itinerary Help

Planning a 10 day trip for the first time to Europe. I have found great flights by way of Iceland, so here is my general thoughts as of now.
Fly to Iceland - stay 2 nights
Day 3 - fly to London - stay 2 or 3 nights - see Westminster Abbey, possibly go to Bath
Day 5 - possibly head to Munich? Bavaria area? Switzerland? Salzburg (Sound of Music tour) Not sure. Have also considered Budapest or Brussels/Amsterdam. How to decide how to spend the time between London and heading home from Berlin or Amsterdam? Can we do Northern Italy with Southern Germany/Austria area?
Fly home Day 10 from either Berlin or Amsterdam - good prices

Open to suggestions! Thank you!

Posted by
1743 posts

Welcome to the forum, and congrats on planning your first trip to Europe.

The first piece of advice I have is to count nights, not days, planning where you will sleep each night and considering transportation on the days when you are not sleeping at the same location where you slept the night before.

If you do that, I think you will find it's easy to waste a lot of your time getting from one place to another. Ten days is not a lot of time, and if that includes your travel days, it's really more like 8 days on the ground, and what you're thinking about is spending 2 of those 8 days in transit.

If you are committed to flying into London and out of Berlin or Amsterdam , I would stick to the two cities and not try to explore regions. Northern Italy with Southern Germany and Austria is just too much to see in too little time. You could just do a couple of nights in Reykjavik, 3-4 nights in London, and 3-4 nights in Berlin or Amsterdam. I wouldn't try to do any more than that, and I've been to Europe nine times.

Don't be discouraged, though. Iceland, London, and either of Berlin or Amsterdam makes a great first-time itinerary. You'll love it!

Posted by
4132 posts

Hi broms,

You are not going to see Bath, or very much of London, on that itinerary. You say "2 or 3 nights," but you actually only budget 2. Which is 1 day.

With 10 days--is that 8 nights? That's really only a week, you know. I'd only visit more than 2 places if they were very close together. Heck, you could spend the whole week in London.

Is Iceland really a priority? Maybe split your time between that and 1 other place, Amsterdam or London.

Otherwise, A'dam and London.

Have a great trip.

Posted by
13 posts

Thank you both for your suggestions. We are doing Reykjavík because I have heard good things, and the flights are great. Two nights there should be good. Maybe we extend London to 4 nights. Then probably need to choose BerlIn or Amsterdam for the last 3 nights. Total of 9 nights. Thanks!

Posted by
26829 posts

If I had only 3 nights I'd go with Amsterdam. It's a very interesting place, but it doesn't have the large number of very time-consuming museums that Berlin does. Leave Berlin for another trip when you have more time.

Posted by
7595 posts

Too little time in Britain. Why not do the entire 10 days there. Otherwise fly directly into Germany and do Bavaria/Austria.

Posted by
13 posts

So I am thinking either 3 or 4 nights in London, and then that leaves me the remaining 3 or 4 nights of my trip to plan. Thoughts on where we should consider spending the last 3-4 nights? I think the suggestions are either Amsterdam, Berlin, Munich.... should we consider Florence or even Budapest instead of those?

Posted by
26829 posts

Three or four nights isn't a lot of time. I'd focus on places that are relatively quick to get to and won't leave you feeling that you really, really needed two extra days. So I vote yes on Amsterdam or Munich, and no on Berlin. Amsterdam will be faster to reach, so it would be my top pick.

I haven't been to Florence or Budapest recently enough to have a valuable opinion there, beyond noting that most people who head to Florence are at least as interested in seeing the Tuscan countryside as in the city itself, and I don't think you have enough time for Florence + countryside, given the travel time you would lose getting there.

Posted by
13 posts

Now thinking we will just spend the remainder of the trip in Great Britain, and maybe end in Dublin if we can work on an itinerary that may cover the London area and Dublin. I don’t know if we can also do Bath or York, or Scotland? Too much to do!

Posted by
228 posts

OK, I'll be the one to ask......

What sort of thing do you most enjoy when travelling and what time of year is your trip? I concur with the advice suggesting you stick to the UK given your time constraints, but your itinerary should focus on the topics/places/experiences you most enjoy.

I would suggest not more than three nights actually in London however, unless you're the sort of person who can happily peruse a single museum or art gallery for a whole afternoon! I confess that I am, so Mrs Wife usually has to drag me back outside after an hour or two, but that's another story.

So, what would you like to do? Visit medieval cathedrals? Sample the local beer in a country pub? Eat fish & chips at the seaside? Abseil through a forest? Buy something stupidly overpriced from Harrods? Partake of high tea in a grand old hotel? Hike along a windswept ridge in the Lake District? Watch vintage cars racing at Brands Hatch?

Posted by
14481 posts

Hi,

With 10 days you could spend the entire time in England, if that is high enough in terms of interest....very easy to do. If not, then 5 nights in London, then fly to Berlin for the rest of the trip. Fly home from Berlin. ...all depends on the level of your interest and desperate you are to see the sights.

Posted by
257 posts

Always consider whether less is more.

I agree about counting nights, and the pleasure of spending three or four nights in one location. More time visiting and less time traveling, though there are times when a night here, then there, on the way to somewhere that you will truly stay can be great. For example, we once spent a few days in Venice (3 nights), then took the train (one hour by train) for lunch and an afternoon in Padua, then another 60 or 90 minutes by train to Verona for the evening and part of the next day. Then, travelled on to Lake Como for three nights.

You only have 10 days and you don't get to London until Day 3. Day 9 is your last full day. That gives you a total of 6 full days, 7 nights in Europe (not counting your one full day and two nights in Iceland).

--Fred, Seattle

Posted by
13 posts

I would say we are interested in tourist spots, history, castles, churches, beer pubs, tours.

I like all the suggestions and input. I definitely think we will spend more time in Great Britain, still wondering if we could possibly also visit Ireland. Thanks again!

Posted by
228 posts

bromsTravel said: "I would say we are interested in tourist spots, history, castles, churches, beer pubs, tours."

If that's what yu're interested in, a holiday in the Uk isn't what you need.

You need to emigrate to the UK instead. ;-)

Tourist spots and history are all covered extensively on the interweb and elsewhere on here. As for "beer pubs" my advice is to point out that the 'pub experience' varies between city, town and country, but also between counties. The pubs in the UK these days also fall generally into two categories: the old style traditional pubs, many of which have existed for hundreds of years and the new 'family pubs' which have sprouted all over the place in recent years. The latter are to be found mainly in the cities and larger towns, less so in the villages and rarely in the country. I doubt your interest will be satisfied by these new pubs, though they are a cheap place to have lunch or dinner compared to conventional restaurants. They also tend to be owned by national chains and so the beer served will be the same, more or less, wherever you go.

For a real British pub experience you could head out of the cities, and the further away you get, the better that experience is likely to be. You will also find that the smaller, village pubs may offer real 'local brews' made by some bloke down the road in his shed. I recall one such pub in Yorkshire. It was so small the bar was full if more than six patrons were there - seriously. They sold an absolutely beautiful beer that was made by the aforementioned old fella down the road, who supplied just the one pub. We soon learned which day he delivered the sole barrel he made each week, because it usually sold out within a day or two.

The other pub experience, perhaps less well known outside of the UK, is the 'beer garden'. This is simply the garden(s) attached to a pub and are used - obviously - on nice days. Some of these are really cute and have gorgeous views. In the North, it is law that visitors to the UK have a 'ploughmans lunch' and a local ale when they visit. These consist of various cheeses (ideally locally-made 'farmhouse' varieties) plus pickles and bread. One of the things I really, REALLY miss from the UK (we now live in Oz) are the full-fat, hard, farmhouse cheeses such as Cheshire, Lancashire and White Stilton. The best place to look for these are farm shops and country markets. Now I'm drooling.

If I might bore you some more, another thing you must do when in a British country pub, if you visit the 'West Country' (Devon, Cornwall, etc) is sample some 'scrumpy'. This is full-bodied, full-strength, cloudy cider and again, is usually made locally. Just be aware that it is quite strong. Now I'm drooling AND thirsty.

Posted by
26829 posts

Adding Ireland means flights there and back. You have very, very little time, and I wouldn't want to spend any extra time in airports.

Posted by
13 posts

Please take a look at this possible itinerary after some of the various input. Thoughts?
Night 1 fly to Reykjavik
Night 2 Sleep in Reykjavik
Night 3 Sleep in Reykjavik
Day 4 Fly to London
Night 4 Sleep in Bath?
Night 5 Sleep in London? or area
Night 6 Sleep in London or else up toward Edinburgh?
Night 7 Sleep around Edinburgh?
Day 8 fly to Dublin
Night 8 Sleep somewhere in Ireland?
Night 9 Sleep somewhere in Ireland?
Night 10 Sleep somewhere in Ireland?
Last Day Fly out of Dublin

Basically wondering if we can fit in England / Scotland / Ireland - or what should be cut. Thanks!!

Posted by
228 posts

That would still be too much time spent travelling for me. You have six or seven travelling days/nights in a 10-day trip. I would drop either Scotland or Ireland and add that time to the UK.

Posted by
143 posts

Honestly, I would skip Iceland. I know it has gotten a lot of press lately, but in IMO it does not measure up to the rest of Europe.

Fly directly to London
Fly to Munich. Combine it with Bavaria, Salzburg (I love that sound of music tour by bicycles).
or fly into Zurich and train to Bernese Oberland Area which is stupendous.

Posted by
13 posts

Ok - another modification, I think I am getting closer.
2 nights in Reykjavik. Probably one good day of touring.
Then 4 nights in England. Need to decide what to tour mostly. I think we want to do Bath & London. Not sure if we have time to also drive up to York or if we should just stay mostly around London. I know we will want to see Westminster Abbey, and traditional sights.
Train from London to Paris. I am interested in then taking a train to Bayeux then D-Day tours. Probably 1 night in Bayeux. 2 nights in Paris before heading home.

Still sounds like Overlord tours for D-Day tours is highly recommended. I am hoping to find a B&B in Bayeaux. Other thoughts/recommendations?