Three week itinerary?

In my experience, by the time you get to the airport, take the 1 to 2 hour flight, and then get to your new destination, one half day has passed. If you are taking discount carriers, be sure to look into the weight and size restrictions on carry on bags.

Mark, That's an ambitious Itinerary, considering the locations you plan to visit extend over a fairly wide area. Visiting 8 locations in 24-days allows only about 3 days per stop, with no allowance for travel times between cities. I suppose it's possible for "blitz Itinerary", but if you actually want to see much in each city, I'm not sure this is the most realistic plan. For a start, I'd suggest cutting Athens, as the distance and travel time is not really worth the effort for just a couple of days (IMHO). Keep in mind you'll lose two days in travel times (you'll usually arrive in Europe the day after you depart the U.S.). If this is your first trip to Europe, I'd highly recommend pre-reading the Guidebook Europe Through The Back Door, as it provides a lot of information for travels in Europe, including Itinerary planning and rail skills. As the previous post mentioned, when travelling with European budget airlines, you'll have to be very careful with both size and weight of luggage, as some of them are ruthless and if you exceed the limits you can expect a hefty surcharge! Also, the usual rule is one carry-on item only. That doesn't mean one plus a "personal item", it literally means ONE ONLY of the approved size and weight. Rail travel is a much better option when possible. If none of your group have been to Europe before, I'd suggest starting in London, as there will be less "culture shock", and no problems with the language (although for some that's debatable!). Using open-jaw flights would be the best idea (inbound London, outbound Rome?). My suggestions would be to spend more time especially in London and Rome, as there's a LOT to see. One city that's noticeable by it's absence is Paris? Continued.....

Mark, Part 2..... Regarding your question "how much time can we expect to spend in airports", that will vary depending on the airports used on a particular route and which airline you choose. For example, if you were to choose a RyanAir flight out of Paris / BVA you'd have to allow extra time and money to reach the airport as Beauvais is a considerable distance outside Paris. If your destination airport was Frankfurt / HHN, Hahn is also a short distance outside Frankfurt, so same situation. Time for check-in, security and the other usual "routines" may vary depending on how many flights are departing at about the same time. If you get "nicked" with an overweight baggage charge and have to go to a separate window to pay the charge, before resuming your place in the check-in queue, that will add time. Generally speaking, travel by budget airlines will require at least 4-6 hours per trip, and sometimes more. That's one reason I prefer rail travel whenever possible. Good luck with your planning!

Hi Mark, Mike and Ken have given you some great advice. I agree that your proposed itinerary is pretty ambitious. I'd suggest getting your group together to determine priorities - if it's hiking, I'd concentrate more time in Interlaken, it it's art, I spend more time in London and/or Amsterdam, etc. Check maps, train (www.bahn.com) and budget airline (www.whichbudget.com) schedules to make a plan that maximizes that time that you have. I'd allocate 1 day for travel between each destination.

Look at it this way. By the time you leave one hotel, fly, and get to the next hotel, a whole day is shot. That's seven days down the tube right there. You're probably counting departure and arrival days as vacation days - - nope, they're shot to hell too. You've got eleven days to look at stuff by your plan. Start slashing.

Mark, When I was around your age and dragging around Europe one place I did not want to go was Paris. I was arm-twisted to go there and it has been my favorite place in the world since. It would make more sense to see it then some of the other spots on your list. One possible route would be London - Paris - Amsterdam - Prague - Munich - Rome. Paris and Amsterdam are short train rides so you wouldn't spend too much time in transit. You could be on the ground for your first 12 days with minimal time spend traveling around. A good website you might like is EuroCheapo. They have a great guide to budget airlines. You can sort by departing city or country to see where you can get to by budget airline. Go to the bottom of this page. http://www.eurocheapo.com/flights/ Lots of other good resources too.

I would not want to spend a day (as Ed points out) getting to one of these great places unless I had a plan to spend the time to make the visit worthwhile. The airport-to-piazza ratio is just not good enough, and you increase the possibility of your too-tight itinerary getting completely derailed by mishap. Suppose you allocate one day to see the Alps and it rains. You are out three days (travel to and from, and the rain day). If you can spend two days the odds are much more in your favor. And you are going to need a rural break from your urban itinerary I'd make some tough honest choices and cut the list down, based on your own priorities. Be brutally honest and your trip will be great.

I agree with the other posters.... You've got to prioritize and cut. Personally, I'd suggesst London- 1 week at least, Amsterdam- 3-4 days max, Munich/Bravaria- 3-6 days. And I'd use trains, too, whenever possible. I agree with one poster that you could easily add Paris (though I personally don't enjoy it). Or perhaps Prague- though it is a bit out of "range". That is why I also cut out Barcelona, Rome and Athensa and Interlaken. One thing to think about- If you narrow it down to 1, 2 or 3 locations, not only will you save on travel expenses, you could also rent an apartment and save even more by fixing some of your own meals. Maybe you should even consider just one location- or at least one country. Rome could take up the whole trip- so could London. Lots of good day trips (or short 1 or 2 nighters). 22 days (ground time) seems like alot, but when you think of ALL there is to do in places like Rome, London, Paris, etc. it really only allows you to scratch the surface.

If this were my trip for 24 days with the above possibilities, this is what I would do. Add Madrid (3), then off to Barcelona (3), then maybe a night train into Munich (3), then off to Prague (3), adding Berlin (3), then to Amsterdam (3), then off to London (6). I would even consider a few nights in Belgium (I love bruges) as they do have the best beer, even compared to England, Germany, and Czech Republic, In my opinion. Then you may want to only have 4 nights in London or just eliminate the Berlin option. I have never been to Athens, Interlaken so really don't have the opinion of going there. I am not a Rome fan either but realize its importance as a first time visitor.
What ever you do, have fun!

Thank you so much everyone. I need to get together with my roommates and share our priorities for this trip but as it looks now we're cutting out Barcelona to allow for travel time between places and changing the order around to take more trains, hopefully cutting down on the travel time. Any more recommendations are greatly welcomed!

You are all so young so can almost guarantee this will not be your only trip to Europe although not together as a group. Therefore, I would eliminate at least Barcelona and Amsterdam, those you can easily do on a future 5 day trip. Talk with roommates and see what is their must see and go from there.

A suggested itinerary for active, eager college grads, with 4 or 5 days in each location: AMSTERDAM-BERLIN-PRAGUE-MUNICH-ROME. Each of these has good sidetrips to get out of the city for a break. One option for doing this trip by Eurail Pass would be with a 5 country pass Youth 2nd Class: http://www.ricksteves.com/rail/.htm Fly into AMSTERDAM. My favorite gateway to Europe with a welcoming airport, easy train to downtown, English spoken by nearly everyone. It's a relaxed city, with friendly locals, good hostels, and easy to negotiate. Overnight direct train to BERLIN. Young travelers love this city and it's fairly easy on the budget. All recommended train connections can be found here: http://www.bahn.com/i/view/USA/en/index.shtml Train to PRAGUE. Train to MUNICH. Consider a sidetrip to Salzburg, Austria. Overnight direct train MUNICH to ROME (goes through Austria). Fly home from ROME.