Need help planning!

Whether this is doable or not depends completely on what you intend to do. Before you can decide whether you have enough time in a particular place you have to know what you plan to do there. You also must factor in travel time between the cities. It takes longer than you might think to get from place to place, get settled in accomodations, find your way around, etc. Take a look at several city guidebooks for London, Rome, and Paris to see what interests you there. Many will suggest a length of time that is needed to take in those activities. That, plus travel times in between, should give you some guidance as to whether you can do three cities or four in your time period.

You can do that with Frankfurt being your base. Paris is 3:48hrs by train from Frankfurt. You could do it as a 2-days trip. Same with London. Book a flight from FRA to London City Airport (LCY) from where the docklands light railway takes you into downtown in 15 minutes. You could do a 2 or 3 days trip to London. Same for Rome. Lufthansa, Alitalia, Air Berlin all fly Frankfurt to Rome. Don't do it on Ryanair, their "Frankfurt" airport is closer to Luxembourg than to Frankfurt ;-)

I would cut out Rome, you could spend a week in each London and Paris both great cities, I would suggest flying into London, take the train to Paris and then onto Frankfurt, you can fly out of Frankfurt back home or get one of the many cheap flights from Frankfurt Back to London, and then fly home, amy be cheaper than buying an open jaw ticket.

Save Italy for another time, Rome is not even the nicest city, save Rome for when you can experience more of italy!

Train travel is not always the least expensive and time efficient way any longer.

You might want to consider a few low cost carriers in and out of Frankfurt for example to get you to Paris, London or Rome.

Ryan Air, Easy Jet, Vueling

As well as British Midland, British Airways, Lufthansa - potentially you might find a way to save a bit of time flying to London from Frankfurt - then train to Paris - then fly to Rome followed by an either another train or flight.

If you are wanting to stick with the cities themselves this might be an option.

Hi, I took my then 14 yr old son to England and France two years ago. We took 18 days, and barely were able to do what we wanted to do. In England we stayed with friends outside city. We did side trips to Bath, Warwick Castle( highly reccomend) Stratford on Avon( son found boring) and Brighton. We also spent two days in London doing the Tower, and the Royal British Museum( highly recommend both).
We then took Eurostar to Paris. Then a train to some hole in the wall village my relatives lived in, there we spent two nights, and since they were close to Disney we spent one day there( a waste, but son liked it) .
We then moved to Paris and spent about 10 days there.We did side trips to Versailles( excellant , did it on our own) and The Loire Valley Chateau( took a one day bus trip, efficent) . The rest of the days filled so easily. We ran out of time.

I have no idea how you could fit 4 countries into less then 14 days( travel days don't count) and really see anything.

cont.

If I was you I would fly into Germany and see friends, I think there is HUGE value in that, seeing things more " local" that way. Then you could easily take a train to Paris or Rome.For your time I think 2 big cities are enough, but, if you want you could make it more of a dash about( your kid will not tire out before you do, LOL )

OR , consider buying an open jaw airline ticket, fly into Germany and out of London. May be just as cheap as backtracking. Fly into Germany, spend 4 or 5 days take train to Paris, spend 3 or 4 days there, and then take Eurostar to London( book ahead for cheap tickets, I did and only paid 45 euros return as opposed to 300+ that travel agent seemed only to be able to find. ) You can then fly back out of London. Spend least amount of time in London as pound versus dollar is awful and it is so expensive.

Good luck.

PS In Paris , besides all the usual, my son loved the " Les Catacombs" , google that, LOL .

You didn't mention why London and Rome are "musts" but if they are the musts, focus on those two places. As prior posters mentioned, though, account for travel time eating up your days (1.5 on the way, 1 on the way home, and probably a good chunk of another getting from London to Rome). This leaves you basically 4-5 days just for two cities. See Paris and Frankfurt another time, unless you can figure out a way to fly through FRA on the way there and back, so you can fit in an overnight visit.

All the post have been a great help. Though it would be nice to see old friends etc... I am thinking the best way to really enjoy our trip would be to drop Frankfurt and save for another trip. To answer some of the above questions (and help with my planning): Rome is the one place that my son really wants to see. He has been studying Roman empire for several years. He is currently working on school project regarding ancient Roman sewer system. Yuck! London is like an initiation to first time European travel. There is also alot of family heritage surrounding London. (My grandmother's aunt still in living in London. She is 100 or 101 so she probably will not remember me).I am think of 5 days in London, 3 days in Paris and 3 days in Rome. I read horror stories regarding overnight train from Paris to Rome, so I am thinking the best would be to fly.

Your plan -- "5 days in London, 3 days in Paris and 3 days in Rome" -- sounds feasible, if you mean no less than 3 full days in Paris and in Rome, in sightseeing mode (i.e., not coming or going).

Otherwise you or your son might feel shortchanged. In that case, I'd suggest shifting time from London or dropping Paris.

For reasons of time (not safety--don't believe everything you read on the internet) I think your plan to fly to Rome is a good one.

If your son is doing a project on the Roman sewer system, he may be interested in the Paris Sewer Tour. You can walk through a small portion of the sewer system and see how it all operates. It might give him some good info on comparing old and new sewer systems. It's mentioned in Rick's book. The smell isn't too bad, but don't have a large meal just before you go...

Personally, I think it's way too much. Last year, my husband and I went to London for 6 days but lost a day in travel time and then we went on a cruise along the Mediterranean. We saw several ports (Marseille, Nice/Monaco, Rome, Florence/Pisa and Naples) but were there for only 12 hours each day and we were exhausted and frustrated as we wanted to spend more time at each site. My suggestion would be to pick a couple countries and explore each area. Give each site some time to enjoy it and live like the locals. While I was glad to see so many places, I was frustrated too. This next year my husband and I are only planning on visiting one area/country and relax and enjoy it. We learned so much from our last trip and now plan on picking just one country/area (specifically, London) and enjoying it! Give yourself a good excuse to come back! Don't exhaust or frustrate yourself by seeing so much in so little time. If you follow Rick's books, you can always go back inexpesively! :)