Please help with 3 weeks in Europe...so many choices!

We are also planning for Europe 20-22 days trip this August 2016. I can completely relate to your confusion. My thinking was, since I was visiting in summers I would not venture into south Europe (Italy). So I targetted only north of Alps countries. Moreover you need to think about crowd in Italy during this time. I would suggest not to miss Switzerland (atleast few days, if budget is constraint). Allocate more days for London - it is worth it.

Praveen makes a good point - Italy will be hot in July. Maybe you should concentrate on northern locales and leave the south for a trip in shoulder season - along with Greece. Instead of the south, consider flying from London to Dublin, then flying to Amsterdam, then train to Paris and back to London. I hope your deal on flights makes up for the time and cost of backtracking.

I have no idea what hotels would be available. You can check each hotel to see their locations. Come back with addresses and we'll tell you which locations are preferable for each city. Not-to-miss attractions are subjective. I have been to London a number of times, never seen the changing of the guard or been on the London Eye. For many, those are must-sees. I go to the theatre as often as possible in London, most tourists don't even think about seeing a play. Airline choices are more a matter of schedules, airports and prices - choose the flight that suits your itinerary. For travel and packing advice and much more, read Rick Steves' Europe Through the Back Door.

Given your final night is locked in at Heathrow, you really only have 20 nights to play with. You are looking at big cities on your list, so I'd say an average stay of four nights, making for 5 destinations all up. I don't think Nice is worth your effort for 2 nights. Enjoy 14 July in Paris instead.

July 5 London
July 9 Paris (including 14 July Fete Nationale)
July 15 Rome
July 19 Florence
July 22 Venice
July 25 Heathrow

I was going to say the same as David, Drop Nice, and put Florence between Venice and Rome! :)

Kim

If you stick with the Nice flight to London, we used British Air and flew into Gatwick (cheaper). I think it was about $85 Canadian.

We stayed at a hotel (I think it was Il Campanile) the night before as we took the 10am flight. The two nights before, we stayed at an airbnb in Villeneuve. We just walked to the airport from the hotel - but we only had carry on luggage so it wasn't too bad. There are more than a few hotels right along there so lots to chose from.

But here is the lesson we learned - I'm not sure if all the flights to the UK leave from terminal B, but we stupidly didn't pay attention to what the person at the check in desk told us and hung around terminal A eating breakfast and waiting for the gate to be shown. The reason we didn't go to terminal B is because we walked over, saw a place where they checked your passport and stupidly thought it was a mistake (because neither of us could rem having our passports checked when leaving the airport after already going thru security - tho it probably has happened - we are just used to it happening when we arrive at an airport). Anyhoo, when they showed the gate and we wandered over there was a HUGE line - I mean - hundreds of people and we had 25 min to get on the plane. Panic ensued (and we weren't the only stupid ones who did the stay in terminal a). We thought we were going to miss the plane. There was an airport worker who gathered up all us stupid people (well, there were 5 or 6 of us) and had us butt in line up near the front (much to the consternation of some cranky British dude - I understand, but God, have some compassion for us idiots!). We got on the plane with minutes to spare - even the pilot said something about the delay getting to terminal B because the passport control was short-staffed. The moral of this story - if you are flying out of Nice and have to go to term b - don't wait!

But - with this trip, personally I'd leave out Nice as it seems like a bit of an outlier (and only 2 nights- really won't see much) and add those nights to Venice or throw another night on London. We've flown Venice to London a few times very easily (it's generally much cheaper flying into Gatwick).

Wow, Thanks all!

We jumped on the flight to from JFK to LHR becasue it was too good to pass up. We had to move quickly to secure the flights at that rate so we just guessed 3 weeks would be enough time to visit the cities at the top of our bucket list. I never considered the crowds at that time of year so venturing no further south than Paris is a thought - although I'm a bit hesitant just in case we don't have an opportunity to come back to Europe!

We will look further into staying north this trip and would love some more feedback about this alternative to our original plans. We will certainly try to plan Paris with July 14 in mind!

If we do decide to go south....we will heed your advise and drop Nice and go to Florence before Rome.

Since you are going to drop Nice, consider adding those two nights to Venice. The nights in your original plan just will not give you enough time in Venice to really do justice to a very unique city.

Two nights somewhere is only one day there. Having just returned from a week in Venice this week, I think that only spending one day there and in July when it will be hideously busy and a waste of your time. You need 3 night minimum stops and longer in London. Personally, I would scrap Italy in July and visit when the climate is more favourable. Dublin and Amsterdam would save you time and be more amenable weatherwise.

Thank you all for your kindness and generosity in replying. We are tweaking our itenarary in response to your advise.

We booked Eurostar to Paris and our Paris hotel yesterday. We now have 5 nights in London and Paris that are firm. After that our schedule is fluid with 4 nights in Rome and 3 each for Florence and Venice.

We are considing a change in either of two ways. First, we may forgo Florence, Rome, and Venice this time in favor of adding Belgium and Amsterdam or...we are thinking of spending sometime in the countryside outside of Florence instead of staying in the city. We could do a day trip into Florence. The problem with the later is that we would probably need to take a night from Rome or Venice to make the relaxing countryside stay relaxing! Does anyone have thoughts about these options?

Thanks again!

If you take an evening flight on 25 July from Rome to London Heathrow it will effectively give you a 3rd day in Rome after a stay of only 3 nights.

July 5 London
July 10 Paris (including 14 July Fete Nationale)
July 15 Venice
July 18 Florence
July 22 Rome
July 25 Heathrow

15 Jul 2016
Air France–AF1426
10:25 AM Paris Charles de Gaulle
12:00 PM Venice Marco Polo
1h 35m

25 Jul 2016
British Airways–BA557
6:45 PM Rome Fiumicino
8:25 PM London Heathrow
2h 40m

Thanks, David. Your suggestion changed my thought process and in turn, I believe we've found a better schedule for our visits. You prompted me to delve further into flights to and from our destinations. I discovered a real problem with the original plan. In the end, we are going visit Venice earlier and make Rome our last stop. We will however begin our journey home on the 25th becasue it would be an incredibly long adventure over-nighting and then flying from London to JFK then on to RDU with an hour drive home!