Preliminary Itinerary suggestions - London, Paris and Beyond

Any thought on renting a car? You can rent a car in Paris, head south toward Lyon and then head east to Switzerland and/or Italy. My next trip to France is going to include a drive south to the Millau Viaduct and then I will flip a coin and either go west to Spain or East to Italy.

Hope this gives you some inspiration!!!

Janet

I would suggest you start your trip in Paris and later take the less than 3 hour Eurostar train to London.

From London Gatwick, you can catch the budget airline EasyJet for an inexpensive flight to virtually any popular city in Europe. If you're wanting to see the Alps, you can fly into Innsbruck, rent a car and take in the incredibly beautiful region south of Munich. You could also turn the car in at Salzburg and take a train into Munich.
Munich is a great airport to fly home from.

September and October are usually ideal timing to visit any of the areas you mentioned; November could start to get cooler and wetter. At this stage of planning, I'd focus on choosing maximum 4 major destinations that you want to visit. Your mix of connections by train or plane can be decided later.

For instance you can use trains for a route such as London-Paris-Berner Oberland-Munich. Rick’s Train Travel Time & cost Map gives you an overview of faster train travel times in hours. How to Look Up Train Schedules and Routes Online gives you the DB train schedule link and tips for using it. You can also easily fly longer distances with budget airlines; see also www.skyscanner.com.

You say you are planning a 14 day vacation (two weeks). You could spend the entire time in Paris or London and still not see everything you might want to see. We have spent an entire day in the Louvre for example–and we've been there many times. Each of these grand cities is ancient and overpowering compared to whatever city in the US you choose. Each is also a wonderful hub for venturing out by train or Metro, If I were you, and I once had similar choices, I would study Rick's guidebooks on each city and make a list of everything that interests you. For example, my husband is an artist, so the last springtime we were in Paris we chose to visit Monet's home in Giverny. The trip takes most of a day. It rained, but the cozy small van that took us there was nearly empty as was the entire garden and home. We popped our umbrellas and strolled through the glorious site unfazed by the weather. This illustrates that no matter what you plan for, the unforeseen often happens. So, relax, take it easy. Be a Parisian for a week. Be a Londoner for a week. When you travel like this, you get to know people where you dine, where you shop and the memories are vivid. Much more fun than dragging your single suitcase from city to city to city. The Eurostar train speeds you between the two cities also, which makes flying to Europe and home again easy. Have fun and trust Rick! We have used his guidebooks for 25 years and he never steers us wrong. We are traveling to Spain, France and England in July to visit friends we met...in Europe on previous trips! So relax and have fun. And meet people whom you can visit next time!

I think Laura's giving you the most useful advice so far. I also agree with others that trying to fit London, Paris, and 2-3 more "major destinations," plus maybe some "smaller destinations" into a 2-week trip won't do justice to anywhere you visit. I like to stay at least a week in a big city like London or Paris but you may want to fit more into your limited time. David had good advice -- fly into Paris, Eurostar to London, then fly somewhere in Germany or Austria where you can find a good castle or three. Fly home from there.

One thing to remember about rental cars is that you pay a big surcharge to return them in a different country. The Paris-London-Germany plan will keep you a pedestrian till Germany, where you can get a car, visit your castle(s), dip into Austria if you want, and bring it back (to Germany, not necessarily the same city where you got it).

But I'd urge you and your wife to collaborate on an itinerary that gives you both memorable experiences and makes you want to return to see more, rather than trying to "do it all" in two weeks. Hope that helps.

Thanks to everyone for their help so far. You have provided some excellent insight that will help us narrow down our choices. There is one thing I should have clarified in my original post. My wife and I spent 2 weeks in Italy for our honeymoon a few years ago, but that's my wife's only experience in Europe. Before we got married, I traveled through some of the big cities, including Paris and London. I enjoyed my time there, but I'd also love to see some place new. That's one reason why we're only staying in those cities for a few days. The Louvre itself could monopolize the entire trip, but we're hoping to spend at least half of the trip in the Germany/Switzerland/Austria region.

I like David's suggestion of arriving in Paris, taking the train to London and then flying to our next destination. I hadn't even considered this as an option and it makes a lot of sense. In my mind I was just thinking of the trip linearly, moving from one place to the next across the map.

Does anyone have a favorite destination in the the Germany/Switzerland/Austria region? We're major history buffs so anything along those lines would be right up our alley. Should we try and experience Oktoberfest or is it not worth it? We live in New Orleans and take part in Mardi Gras every year so the crowds don't intimidate us, but I understand the hotel rates are a lot higher and rooms can be hard to come by.

Given your request for castles, how about spending the rest of your time in the Rhine/Mosel valleys? You can see a nice range of castles, from old fortresses in various states of repair [Marksburg, Rheinfels], to Burg Eltz which is still inhabited, to Reichsburg in Cochem, restored during the 19th century. And there's Trier, with Roman and medieval sights. Plus lots of nice scenery, history everywhere you look, and vineyards... It would be a change from the big urban centers of London and Paris, and a pleasant, relaxing way to end your trip.

Chris,

If it's Castles you want to see, look no further than the Loire Valley in France. 1 1/2 hrs from

Paris there are 30-40 in various states of repair. 11 of them are perfect!

Chris,

You asked about favorite places, so here goes. Two places that quickly come to mind for me are Salzburg and Berlin. Though Salzburg is a day-long train trip (or flight) from Paris, it seems to provide much of what you are looking for--beautiful scenery, a great base for excursions, Austria, and close to Munich which you can visit and from which you can fly home.

The other place is Berlin, which I visited quickly but liked very much and want to return to.

Given the first part of your trip will be in two major cities, I would consider Salzburg. It's one of my favorite places in Europe.

You can do it! Happy wife, etc. so go to London and Paris. Your wife will be aware that she will not scratch the surface. Sometimes just being there is enough. Start in London or Paris, take the Eurostar to the other, get to Germany, fly home from there. 4 days in each place or 5-4-3 or 4-5-3, you decide. Munich is close enough to Austria to see a little of that.

We are spending 10 days in England (London to Newcastle), arriving in Munich via Amsterdam, renting a car in Garmisch, staying just over the border in Austria, seeing as many castles, etc. as we can in three days, dropping off the car near Salzburg, seeing Salzburg for two days and getting to Paris for two weeks. We are not expecting to see everything but have some specific things to see and do. We spent 3 1/2 weeks in Paris 3 years ago and still didn't get to everything on our list. That's why we go back over and over!

Maybe it's too much in too little time, not to everyone's taste, and, of course, one can't see everything It will be enough to know what you like for next time.

It seems to me that there's a fellow, with the initials "RS", who has a Best of Europe tour that hits a lot of countries in a short period and covers a lot of ground. A superficial survey of a bunch of places is, apparently, not against the law of travelling.