Opinions on my Itinerary

You could add in those extra days as travel days. Travel time will vary depending on driving or taking the train. For instance, Swiss Alps (again, depending on where you're at) to Cinque Terra will take the better part of a day. Also Paris to Madrid, are you flying, driving, train? No matter what way you travel, make sure you allot for travel time!

You say you don't have a lot of money for traveling between places, yet you have about eight expensive/long transits and maybe a half dozen shorter ones . . . . and you're wondering if you should go to even more places? Throw a ruler on a map and use really rough numbers. I don't know what the total distance is, but a wild guess would be something on the order of 3500 to 4000 miles. Fly, train, drive, anything but walk, and it's going to be close to sixty hours of travel time, plus whatever time you spend getting to and waiting for transportation. Your so-called extra days are going to be used up traveling, so you'll have to spend more nights in each place if you want to see anything. As a single example, you'll be hard pressed to leave Barcelona at daybreak and get to Nice by midafternoon - - what are you going to do there for the few hours before you go to bed? You said that London is expensive so you'll only spend two nights - - Venice is probably more expensive and you're spending three ??? Grenoble's not cheap, neither is Florence, Nice, or Switzerland. Since you're new and don't know how to cut corners, I'm guessing (and wild-guessing) that you'll need minimally $125 day plus and average of $100 per move. That's close to $7,000. You've got that, plus a reserve in you hip pocket, right? As far as your distribution of days go, it looks like it would work. I'd dump the CT for another night or two in London. Nice is a no-brainer for only an afternoon, so demands another day. Beats me on what you mean by the Swiss Alps, that's a big place - - sort of like saying you'll spend two days in the Rocky Mountains. Work at it a bit.

Luis, I'm not a huge fan of Rick Steves, but one tip I gleaned from him is to stay at least two nights in every location. That way you can feel more comfortable and familiar with a place the second night, and do not feel so rushed. That being said, Granada is my favorite place in Spain, and deserves at least two nights. Agreed that the "Swiss Alps" portion needs several more days since travel time is considerable. Most here would suggest spending the whole time in the Lauterbrunnen Valley. Traveling from there to the Cinque Terre would take a whole day on the train, I believe.

You say London is "too expensive" to stay longer. Have you checked out the Youth Hostels? You could save a lot of money by staying there instead of a hotel.

These days London is not as expensive as before (pound is down), whilst Switzerlands is more expensive than ever. In any case: I'd add the remaining 8 days to the destionations you already scheduled to slow down the pace of your travel.

London is outrageously expensive but you can certainly cut costs by staying at a hostel/backpackers hotel. I would also add those 11 days back into the places you're only planning on spending 1 or 2 days. You will spend a lot of time traveling, so you might consider staying longer in one place and perhaps eliminate one of the countries you're going to see. What is your budget for this trip? Seeing the amounts you've set aside may helps us come up with some better options for you.

Thanks for your replies so far! To answer some of your questions, I'm traveling btwn countries by train and plane (depending on what's cheaper). I have a budget of $8,000 for the entire trip (plane US-EU already taken care of). As far as accommodation goes, I'm staying in hostels, Couch Surfing and AirBnB. Best,
Luis

I would add nights to: London - as many as time and money allow - wonderful city Segovia - easy day trip from Madrid - 2 nights Sevilla - add a night Granada - add at least 1 night, more if possible
Rome - as many as possible I am not a fan of one night stays unless it is just for an early morning flight the next day. I would also not add any more countries (you already have 6) but again much of this is personal travel style.

Take a look at the Andy Steves blog pages.I accessed this trip's page from his London blog: http://www.wsaeurope.com/destinations/london-united-kingdom It is a two and a half day tour around London, including some meals, entrance fee to places like the Tower of London, a bike tour of historic sights, walking tour of historic sights and 3 nights in a hostel for $250. A very good deal. It's designed for students or first time visitors.

I would add your nights to London (at least 2 more), Sevilla (my spanish epiphany), Granada (my other spanish Epiphany), and Rome (because it is exhausting without being exhausted by your pretty jam packed trip).

I would add more time in the Alps, but perhaps cross over to the Italian side or the German/Austrian portion. It's not as impressive perhaps, but beautiful for sure and worth more of your time. I would stay another night at least in London and consider taking Fat Tire Bike tours guided tour - well worth it. I can understand the concern about expense though. Unfortunately, Paris and Rome are also very expensive cities. If you want to minimize costs, consider staying in the smaller cities more and not traveling as much between them. Each trip will probably be a minimum of 30 euro, plus all the traveling within any city you go to. Some of the trips will be far more expensive in the range of 100-200 euros. You can minimize some costs by prebooking everything.
Do your friends in France happen to have other friends you could stay with in other countries?

I suggest you take your present itinerary and plan transportation from each place to the next. Take into consideration the train/bus/plane schedules AND the time it takes to get from wherever you are to the station and the lead time you need at the station - for instance, Eurostar to Paris - you need to be at the station about an hour before the train. Even from city to city on the Continent, you usually need to allow for delays in getting to the station and a few minutes to find the train. You can take a fast train from Florence to Rome, less than 2 hours, but you may want to spend half that fare and take a 4 hour train. After you've blocked out your travel times, you will have a much better idea of how much time you will have to sightsee and then have a better sense of whether you have extra days.

The London Travel is a great idea. The city appreciates timely travelers to boost their Eco. I think, your itinerary is cool enough. You don't have to change it. :)

Luis - It's your trip, your time and your $. If you have the stamina for thi sitinerary - I say: go for it. See as much as you can. Some people think travel between cities is not really "travel" and is a waste of time. Personally I enjoy watching the changing scenery from a train window.

"I don't have a lot of money to be traveling to different countries" - then you probably should skip Switzerland, which is one of the most expensive countries on Earth- and now that the Swiss have unilaterally devalued the franc, expect things to only get more expensive. Plus, following your schedule, it looks like you'll be there in early November. This is just about one of the worst times of the year to visit the Swiss Alps because many of the hospitality businesses in the mountain will be temporarily closed in preparation for the ski season. If you want to catch the Alps, spend more time in Grenoble.

Luis, Here's the deal with one night stays: Odds are you arrive in the city sometime in the afternoon (having checked out of your previous hotel, made your way to the airport/train station, travelled for 2+ hours (and in some instances much more). Now you have to make your way from the station/airport to your new accomodation and check in. This gives you from sometime mid- to late afternoon until sometime mid- to late morning the next day to enjoy your new location! As you can see one night in a city does not necessarily translate into one DAY in that place. SO - my 2 cents: - add Toledo nights to Madrid and day trip to Toledo (and possibly Segovia) - choose between Sevilla and Granada or add one night to Granada
- skip Nice and add that day to Grenoble. Also add your swiss days to Grenoble. From here it's possible to day trip to Geneva (train ride approx 2 hours) if you desperately want to see Switzerland. As for your 8 unaccounted days, add 2 to London if your possibly can, 1 to Granada, 1 to Barcelona, 1 each to Venice, Florence, Rome. The biggest time eater of travel is, well....TRAVEL! Your trip should leave you with memories of more than countryside whooshing by at 300K/hr. Leave yourself time to sit in a cafe and watch the world ooze by. Take a deep breath, and have a fantastic first trip to Europe - may it be the first of many. Ruth