Retired couple extended stay in Europe

Most of Europe has good train access to anywhere else in Europe (there are some exceptions of course). Please add some information about your interests and where you want to visit (Europe is very diverse). One thing that I would strongly consider is your budget since there is a wide variation across some countries, so your money could last longer in some cities/base locations versus others (Central/ Eastern Europe/Balkans are cheaper than Western Europe, generally, but still are easy to get around by public transport). Also, having a single location will really limit your travel possibilities - you aren't likely to be able to travel across different countries in one day (unless you're in Liechtenstein or some other location close to a bordering country).

Well my friend Mary and I are doing something similar. We are not a couple however just friends. We are in Europe for 4 months. This is my friend Mary’s first time here. I have lived and worked and traveled here over the years.

I would just caution that Europe is a big place actually and depending on how far you want to go from where you base yourself could take two days of travel. (Unless you fly). While your idea is sound I think you will only get to a few neighboring countries.

Train access is good from all of the countries but the distances can be long. Basing yourself in a really central location such as Austria would work and make you closer to many places. Germany and France are large countries and even with TGV type trains can take up a lot of time just traversing them.

Have you considered haveing two or more bases for differing periods of time? Maybe staying longer? Perhaps one base in Belgium for 2 weeks and then move to another location for a few weeks perhaps Milan?

We have stayed in some great AirBnbs which have worked so well for our extended stays. We have one coming up in Italy for a month and another in Bulgaria for a month.

I would get the Michelin Map of Europe and ponder that along with the website www.themaninseat61.com which is arguably the best and easiest all-round all Europe railway site anywhere and think about journey times and schedules for the places that interest you.

Good Luck and Hanve Fun

Pick the one country that you are most interested in, and base yourself there. But I think it would be difficult and unnecessary to do this with just one base. Not sure what the advantage would be. Distances are deceiving on the map, and the time it takes up to travel back and forth, will eat up a lot of days. Have you been to Europe before? If no, then what I'd do is either Rome and Paris, or Paris and London, as two bases.

@aarthurperry, you gave the wrong URL for the "Man in Seat 61" website. It should be: https://www.seat61.com/
Definitely a place to learn how everything works.

Ed, I think you will have to keep moving location every week or two. There is no one location that allows coverage of all of Europe. For example, even Paris with the French TGV network only has about half of France within day trip range. Paris to Marseille is 3½ hours, but there the High Speed line ends. Paris to Nice is 6 hours, much too far for a day trip.
Doing everywhere as day trips is a lot of travelling, and you only get a few hours in each place.

For your 60 days, I recommend 6 places @ 10 days each, with possible a few 2 night stops en route.
How about: London - Paris - Amsterdam - Berlin - Prague - Vienna - Venice - Florence - Rome. But that is leaving out Budapest, Poland, Greece, Spain, Portugal, the whole of Scandinavia. You have a hard choice.

Some cities are both attractive and well enough positioned that access to other countries and good destinations is easy.

Aachen, Germany is a handsome city only a few miles from the NL and Belgium.

Freiburg, Germany is only minutes from the French and Swiss borders.

Lindau, Germany is just across the border from Austria and not much further from Switzerland.

Strasbourg, France is less than 2 hours from Paris and a springboard for Germany's Black Forest.

A homebase means you are paying both a homebase and a hotel when traveling away overnight. As suggested above, ten bases and day trips may be the way to do it.

One month or two? It makes a big difference to what you can see, obviously.

What is the aim of your trip? To experience local life in some depth or to see as many countries as possible in your 2 months? If the former, pick 2 bases and if the latter, move every 1 or 2 weeks depending on where you are. Renting apartments will be easier if you take it in multiples of a week, rather than finding somewhere for 10 nights.

When are you travelling? There are some great deals to be had for a month long rental between October and the end of March in Portugal and Spain and others. I met a Canadian couple in Portugal last month who were there for 10 weeks in Tavira, but they flew for a 5 day trip to Malta in the middle of this stay.

Europe is vast and you can’t cover much of it in your timescale. You don’t indicate what your interests are, so it’s difficult to give guidance without further information.

Chris you are right I did screw up the URL...that’s what I get for doing it by memory.

Ed, I think you will have to keep moving location every week or two.
There is no one location that allows coverage of all of Europe

A good point from Chris: Europe is just too big to be short-tripping from any single location around the continent. Spending a fair amount of time on multi-night trips would also sort of defeat the point of a base apartment and significantly increase your costs.

And, as Jennifer pointed out, one month is a great deal different than two! How long to stay is usually dependent on budget, which can be stretched by going on off-seasons and/or choosing less versus more-expensive cities/countries. As we don't know what your financial situation is, the cost factor is something you will need to take into consideration yourself.

All that said, I'll vote as well for choosing several different bases in countries which appeal to you. What I or anyone else would choose may not be your cuppa so again, those will be personal considerations.

A couple base locations for day-tripping/multi-night stays away which spring to mind would be:

Ghent, Belgium: easy reach by train to Bruges, Antwerp, Brussels, Lille, etc. For a couple nights away, you could trip by train up into the Netherlands, down to Paris or over to Aachen. We liked Belgium VERY much and could easily spend quite a bit of time in that country.

Florence, Italy: within easy reach via public transit of Lucca, Pisa, Fiesole, Siena and other towns in Tuscany. For a couple nights away, Rome, Orvieto, the Cinque Terre, Bologna, Venice and others are within roughly two hours or under by train. Italy is a personal top-of-list for us; lots to love!

Leiden, Netherlands: within easy reach of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Haarlem, the Hague, Delft, etc. For longer getaways, Paris, Brussels, Antwerp, other locations in Belgium...

First trip? Or in-depth trip?
We spent one full month in Italy and it wasn't long enough.

There is something to be said for making a temporary home in Europe.

It depends on your interests in the various countries, sights, cultures, languages, cuisine, etc. but I note that Frankfurt is within about a 4-hour train ride from:
- Paris
- Berlin
- Munich
- Zurich
- Bern
- Brussels

Just an hour or so further to London, Amsterdam, Prague, and Salzburg. Even closer to Rick's Rhine Blitz, Rothenburg OBT, Black Forest, Strasbourg, Heidelberg, Trier, etc.

Lots of options for short trips from a home apartment. I've done this from London. Visited other parts of England by car; France, Belgium, and Luxembourg by train and bus; flew to Switzerland and Italy (train travel between cities and sights).

If you're willing to fly on budget airlines, London and Frankfurt present tons of great options for short trips - find an apartment within easy distance of the airport.