Must sees in Europe in 14 days...

You have an ambitious trip. Get a good guidebook--like Rick Steves "Best of Europe"--and decide what appeals to you. I mostly use his recommended hotels --not because they're the only good ones out there, but they're pretty good, and it takes some of the guess work out of trip planning. Now, it caught my attention that you are unaware of train times. That's an easy problem to solve...Follow the Favorite Links at the top of his web page, go to the Deutsche Bahn website, and type in your routes. Magic--the information comes up on the screen.. Happy travels.

You're planning to cover a LOT of cultures and many, many long distances in two weeks. Where are you catching your return flight? If your return is also out of London, maybe the best use of your time is to stay in England and France. If your return is from a city in Spain or Italy, maybe you could visit London and Paris and then fly to that third city. Give us more information about your flights.

Anita

Thanks for your reply, Anita. Yes we are trying to do too much. We are flying right into and out of London because of cost, we are not interested in staying in London.

Based on time constraint we are thinking the following...

Land in London, take the train directly to paris for 3 nights, train(?) to barcelona for 4 nights, fly to rome for 2 nights, train to venice for 1 day, fly out of venice to amsterdam for 2 nights....

Not sure how long the train rides would be and if it would cut out too much so may be better to fly(?)

Is there a better route to take based on the cities we are trying to get to? Not sure if amsterdam should be first or last...

That is way too ambitious of an itinerary. All that you'll remember is the airports and tran stations. First off, I would suggest staying in London for at least a few days. Since this is your first trip to Europe, there will be enough differences such that you don't need a language barrier in order to adjust. Second, going on to Paris, Amsterdam, and Brugge (in Belgium) would be far more than enough for a 14-day trip. We did a 15-day trip to London and Paris and had tons of stuff to do. And that was our second time in London. Keep in mind that being in a city does not limit you to seeing what's in just that city. Day trips by train can easily extend your time in a city. Pick up a guidebook or three and plan out your trip based upon what looks interesting.

Trying to do too much can hurt rather than enhance the trip experience. Assume you will be back.

I agree with the previous posters this is way to much! You have at least 2 if not 3 seperate trips here. I would stick to whats geographically easy to do. First like the other poster suggested don't dicount London. I wasn't gonna go to London but as you said it is cheap to fly into, I ended up staying a week and still didn't get to all the things I wanted to see, I just loved London. I would not do anything less than 2 if not 3 days in each city, you can't truly enjoy a city in 1 - 2 nights. Paris really deserves at least 4 nights, with Versilles being a great day trip. I would suggest because your flight from the us to London will be a long one do not try to get on a train on your first day, don't miscount jet leg you need at least a day to recover. I would do 3 days London, 4 days Paris, and 7 days Italy. If Spain is really important I would do London, Paris, then fly to Spain and then back to London. Don't think you'll make Amsterdam!

I am also planning a 14 day trip to Europe this fall, my first. I am flying into London and out of Milan (it only cost me $100 more to do this and I don't lose a day going back to London). I will spend 2 days in London, 4 days in Paris, then 8 days in Italy where I plan on visiting Rome, Florence, Venice, and Turin (I have relatives there).

One suggestion is to look into overnight trains as well as cheap flights for longer distances. They minimize the number of days you lose to traveling between cities/countries and cuts down on hotel costs.

I feel that my trip is a lot for 14 days. I can't imagine trying to do more.

I hope you will take the advice to heart about scaling back!

It sounds as though you will have maybe 11 days outside of London. You could spend those rewardingly in Amsterdam and Paris alone. To add in some Mediteranean sights you could most easily add Provence (not the Riviera--too far) by rail from Paris. If Amsterdam is not a priority, try Paris - Provence - and then either Barcelona or one Italian destination, whichever has the cheapest flights back to London.

A pity you are locked in to those tickets! You will spend more money and time getting from and to London--where you say you do not want to be--than you would have spent on an open-jaws flight.

Kaline,

You'll have a great time. A friend and I did the same thing for our first trip to Europe -5 cities in under 10 days. While I didn't get to see much in each city, I did get a good feel for which countries I would want to spend more time in, which greatly helped me plan my next trip. If you are young, it's easier to do a fast paced trip like this than later in life. ;)

The type and cost of rail passes may help define your trip. Check out the bordering country passes.

My personal favs:
South of France/Monaco (Princess Stephanie hostel in Monaco), Paris, Rome (allow as much time as possible here-it's overwealming), Verona/Lake Guarda Italy, Pompeii, and Dublin Ireland. I've not yet been to Spain or the UK.

There is a map on page 48 of the 2007 Let's Go Europe book. It shows train travel times and costs through major cities in Europe.

If flying, ensure the location of the airport. Some are far from the city center!

Happy planning!

-also-
For further distances, take overnight trains when possible. It's productive time--getting there, and you won't have to pay hotel or hostel for that night!

There is a section in RS 2007 Backdoor Europe that says something about the Chunnel from Paris to London that only takes like 3 hours. Sounds like a super quick way to get where you want to go to me. The trains move quickly and efficiently.
Staying cheaply? Hostels, but check out the family stay thing that RS talks about in the book. It sounds like the best way to get aquainted with the culture in a relaxed enviornment.