Itinerary Help - Amsterdam to Tangier via trains!

That's a lot of distance to travel for not much time in each place! What draws you to Tangier? Of all the places you've listed this would be one that I would drop.

There's also the threat of high winds causing a cancellation of the ferries to and from Tangier, sometimes for days at a time and which is something that is a regular occurrence. What would you do if this caused you to miss your flight?

The plan above has several serious issues, IMHO.

First and foremost, I think this pace will kill you. Looking at your itinerary, I see several issues.

2 nights in any place = 1 day in that place. You have one day each in Amsterdam, Strasbourg and Colliore (a place I'm not familiar with, maybe an odd choice?). One day each in Valencia, one in Seville, one in Tangier.

While I'm sure Valencia is a nice enough city and there are things to do/see there, you're basically skipping almost all the top things/places in Spain. Same for France.

I think you need to be more selective and pick places in which you want to linger a little bit longer.

I would especially urge you not to follow your plan for Day 14 & 15. A waste of both time and money. Morocco is absolutely worthwhile, but Tangier is about as Moroccan as Tijuana is Mexican - at least what you would experience on your drive-by. Specifically, you would burn 3-5 days (if you count honestly) getting there and getting away (how are you getting back from there? Probably not a single ticket nonstop flight home), and all you would really get for that is an artificial, made-for-tourists experience. If you want to check out Morocco, great, but give it more than a day, and by all means, don't do that in Tangier. Fly to the "real" Morocco, in Marrakech or Fes, and spend a few days traveling around the country. Even on a rushed trip, you can do 3-5 days in Morocco and see great things. Also, don't take the ferry - flying is cheaper, faster, better and gets you where you actually want to go.

Bottom line: your limit of 2 weeks is a killer. Recognize that this is a major limitation, and reduce the scope of your trip to fit that limit, rather than going on a forced march across 4 countries and two continents.

For starters, I'd look at your current plan, and split it in two. Pick either the northern half or the southern half, slow it down and tweak the itinerary so every stop isn't a one- or two-night stand, and make it work. You have plenty of time in your lives to do the other half of the trip. "I shall return."

Hope the above helps. Good luck.

David wrote what I was thinking.

Also, late-April into May is a really good time to see southern Spain from the weather standpoint, as long as you can deal with the crowds in the most popular celebratory cities. Why not see more than just Seville?

6 of your 16 days are essentially travel days.

For whats left ( 10 days) you have 7 destinations.

can sleep when we get home

And you will wake up and your trip will be like trying to recall a dream. Your trip will likely be just bits and pieces of fuzzy thoughts/recollections. ( But when you have to buy new zippers for your luggage you may recall a bit more, especially the trains)

You should focus more on enjoying the trip, rather than packing it to be a challenge of 'how much can we do and survive' expedition.

Cannot help myself so will ask, Is this an audition for The Amazing Race?

It would be a boring trip to me sitting on the train most of the time trying to stay awake so no one walks off with my bag.
Amsterdam to Strasbourg and then Strasbourg to Collioure on the train?

Amsterdam to Strassbourg takes 6 to 7 hours by train. There are connections with just one change, but also some that require 3 or 4 changes. That is about the same time as Amsterdam - Berlin. In my opinion that is doable.

Strassbourg to Collioure takes a bit longer, 9 to 9.5 hours with one or more changes. That means you would be in a train all day. Even if you leave early in the morning you arrive late in the afternoon/early in the evening.

As previous posters said, you might want to slow down the pace. Stay a day (or two) longer in each of the cities. You could even take a short day trip to nearby cities/villages.

Before your My Way tour, did you arrive any days earlier in Paris? I would always prefer more time in Paris than the two nights that the tour stays there, and could say the same for Amsterdam.

You probably should reduce the number of stops, or else look at where you can reduce transport time by either:

• Trading the furthest points for another stop along the natural train routes in Germany or France (then end in Barcelona) or
• Trading out an interim stop for a flight between those destinations that are most important to you.

The furthest point at Tangier is obviously the easiest to cut. But if you really wanted a taste of Morocco, then you could fly from either Barcelona or Seville to Fes or Marrakech; see www.skyscanner.com.

Thanks so much to everyone who replied!

I took your advice and re-tooled our itinerary. We have scaled back to just France and Spain and the distances on the train are much shorter. I'll be spending the next few months devouring the rest of the threads for hotels and restaurant advice!

That was quick. Looks like someone actually took our advice for a change. I was fully expecting a response along the line of --- that is how we travel !!! You were smart to cut it back and to drop Tangier. If you want to do Tangier in the future, then you should probably start there and probably fly from there. The ferry crossing is always a little risky because of the weather.