Itinerary help 6 weeks France, Italy and Spain

I'd steal 1 night from Bordeaux and 1 night from Granada and add the fabulous city of Cordoba for 2 nights to your itinerary, it's conveniently on the same high-speed rail line between Madrid and Sevilla.

Solely relying on trains and buses on some of the parts of the itinerary is going to start being expensive and time consuming, I'd look into low cost air travel to bridge some of these longer train travels that will eat up entire days. You could easily drop Bordeaux and fly direct from Paris to Madrid and also fly direct from Granada to Barcelona instead of a train, will save you around 3-4 days.

Bordeaux is a pleasant city, attractive, but quite an unusual choice for a first trip to France when you have only 4 nights in Paris (just 3 full, reasonably-non-jetlagged days) and 2 nights in Provence. Most folks heading to that part of France would be planning to visit the Dordogne or perhaps the French Basque Country. In addition, Bordeaux to Madrid is a nightmare by train; you'll have to fly.

Avignon to the Cinque Terre looks like a whole-day slog by train (10 hours or so). And the Barcelona-Carcassonne and Carcassonne-Avignon legs are 3-1/2 or 4 hours just on the train. By the time you add checking out of your hotel, getting to the train station and reversing that process upon arrival, you've lost more than half a day. That's a lot of time in transit to get a bit over a day in Carcassonne and a bit over a day in Avignon. I liked Avignon, but most people going to Provence, in particular, hope to see more than just one city. They like the small towns, the markets, etc. Provence, to me, is a minimum 4- or 5-night destination.

The best order would be - London, Paris, Bordeaux Carcassone/Avignon, Barcelona, Mardrid, Seville, Granada and then fly to Italy and fly home from there.. I will be honest, I think you are trying to see way too much - especially with a first trip to Europe. Bear in mind that each change of location will take anywhere from 1/2 to 3/4 of a day when you take into consideration packing, check out, transport to departure point, train or plane, transport to new accommodation. Using public transportation (which I'm a huge fan of) does result in delays on occasion and your itinerary doesn't leave a lot of wiggle room. Travel is tiring and for a trip of this length, this is a punishing schedule even for seasoned travelers. I would recommend reducing the number of cities and add day trips to some of them - Paris, Madrid and Florence all are good bases for day trips.

I see you’ve noted that you travel regularly in Asia; are you comfortable with traveling with three and four night stays on a 6 week basis? I’d personally be inclined to drop Bordeaux and add a night in Paris. I’d add the other two nights elsewhere in your itinerary, like Provence. Like acraven and Nancy have mentioned, it takes a big chunk of time to pick up and move between destinations. YMMV but I’m afraid it’s too much travel time and not enough sightseeing time.

I'd restructure the trip:
Paris region with day trips
Fly to Spain: sightsee within Spain
Fly to Italy: sightsee within Italy

You are trying to do too much. Your French destinations are way spread out and lopsided on different sides of the country. Why have you chosen such unrelated stops on different sides of the country? Bordeaux resembles Paris on sleeping pills, Carcassonne is a one-night stop and difficult to reach from Bordeaux by train, while Avignon is on the other side of the country and deserves more time as the gateway to Provence.

Sorrento, Rome, Paris, each deserve at least a week and you shouldn't miss Cordoba and add a night to Seville

Thank you all for your suggestions. I have revised our itinerary and am thinking this is a bit more doable and less rushed. I have taken onboard your suggestions to fly the longer distances but am wondering what the overnight sleeper trains between Paris and Florence, and Barcelona to Granada would be like?

Paris 7 nights

Florence 4 nights

Sorrento 4 nights

Rome 5 nights

Barcelona 4 nights

Granada 3 nights

Seville 4 nights

Madrid 4 nights

Thanks for your responses.

As far as I can tell, there is no night train between Barcelona and Granada, meaning there is no train with sleeping accommodations. You can leave Barcelona at 9:25 PM and arrive in Granada at 10:54 the next morning, but the reason the trip takes so long is that you get to spend almost 8 hours cooling your heals at Atocha Station in Madrid, not sleeping (or trying to sleep) on a train. Daytime trains make the run in between 6 and 7 hours.

There is a EuroNight train from Paris to Florence. It leaves Paris at 7:15 PM, makes a stop at Dijon just before 10 PM and then runs with no further stops until Milan (much better than most night routes). You arrive in Milan at 6 AM and wait there until the 7:10 Frecciarossa departure for Florence, arriving at 9 AM. So this is almost 14 hours on trains or waiting in train stations. Far better to fly from Paris to Florence, Pisa (larger airport) or Bologna, I would say.

Some people sleep better than others on night trains. I'm not one of the lucky ones. If you don't get much sleep, your next day is pretty much shot, and your body-clock may be off-kilter for a day or two.

Florence - Rome- Sorrento, then fly from Naples to Granada. In Spain, Granada - Sevilla - Madrid - Barcelona. That eliminates a little backtracking in Italy and one flight.

Depending on what you want to see in Sorrento, Salerno may be a better base.

Not a terrible plan, but I think a bit spread out.

Paris for 4 nights is a bit short. Also, Madrid for 3 doesn't give you much time to see Madrid, especially if you do day trips to Toledo (MUST) and Segovia. Seville is a gem, don't cut it short.
Three nights in Granada is unnecessary, go with two.

Your French plans in route to Italy are short sighted. Carcassonne is great, but only two nights. Also two nights in Avignon is not enough time to see Pont du Gard, Arles, Avignon, Nice, Monaco, Cannes and much more in Provence.

For Italy, I would add more time to Rome. Four nights is not enough. Also, you skipped Venice.
In my opinion, for Italy do the big three, Rome, Florence and Venice.

You might consider skipping Bordeaux this time, since if you go there and don't see the Basque region of northern Spain, it is a big miss.

Thank you all so much for your suggestions. I feel like the itinerary is coming together now. That is a good suggestion to fly from Naples to Grenada. I initially wanted to visit Cinque Terra as well but have decided on Amalfi Coast as I really want to see Pompeii. I will do some research into Sorrento or Salerno as a base for day trips.