Travel in 3 weeks

Start with http://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips/sleeping-eating/europes-hostels, which gives an average price range of $20-40 per night per person in hostels, plus relevant links. Many more trip-planning tips are in that section of the web site.

As a general rule, we'd want to spend at least 3 nights in a larger city and 2 nights (one full sightseeing day) in a smaller one, so you are limited to how many cities you can see, more than how many countries. Keeping the travel distances short between destinations also reduces the time, cost, and stress of connecting them. Leaping across countries by train may not be as fast as you expect. Rick’s Train Travel Time & cost Map gives you an overview of faster train travel times in hours, as well as regular (full-price) 2nd-class fares. For trips that take 6 hours or more by train, flights may be both cheaper and faster; see www.skyscanner.com.

I think a typical "mistake" is stringing together just larger cities, perhaps not being aware of interesting smaller towns you could visit in between them. That's where Rick's guidebooks and his prioritized lists and itineraries at http://www.ricksteves.com/europe can help you to find even more places that you'll want to see.

The more time that you're able to dedicate to advance planning, the fewer decisions/conflicts have to be addressed on the road. You can leave some plans open, but it's nice to know what the trade offs are when it's time to decide.

Which 4 countries are tops on your list? Are they contiguous? Even if not, fast trains (or night trains) can connect far-off locations. Or you can often find a flight that can get you around Europe very fast and at a pretty good price, although it means getting to the airport on time, dealing with Security, etc.

If you're just going to do a hit-and-run and move on to the next destination, you can actually fit in many countries, but your overall experience could be diminished. Four countries in 3 weeks is certainly doable, depending on what you plan to see and do in each country, and how long it takes you to get from one place to the next.

Are you getting around by train, plane, bus (coach), and/or rental car?

Thank you for all the info guys. We wanted to see England, France, Spain and Italy. We wanted to see if we can possibly fit Germany in somehow. But we have no idea in what order is best. France and Spain are the ones we have most interest in. We plan to take public transportation and trains. Anything that keeps costs down.

If you only have three weeks, I would suggest no more than three countries. Save either England or Italy for another trip – depending on which interests you least. If you're trying to keep costs down, I'd suggest Italy as your third country – since London is a really expensive city for lodging.

Fly into your first city, and home from your last (on airline websites, pick something like "multicity" when you're searching for flights). Also, I would suggest the discount airlines for flying between countries. For the best prices, purchase tickets early for both long-distance trains and discount airlines, provided you're not going to change your scheduling. Those discount tickets typically cannot be changed.

The Eurostar train between London and Paris only takes 2.5 hours, which is faster than going out to the airport, etc. But you have good budget flight options between other big cities, for instance:

• from Paris to Madrid, Barcelona, or any major city of Italy
• onward from Madrid or Barcelona to Nice, Pisa (small city), or Rome etc

All of those big cities are places people often want more than the minimum 3 nights I mentioned before. They also generally are cities where you can do some easy daytrips to smaller towns nearby, if you want to stay longer in one spot.

For first timers, I'd suggest you visit London. Then take the Eurostar fast train to Paris. There's a relatively new fast train service from Paris to Barcelona (6 1/2 hrs.)

Or, you could take EasyJet from Paris to Rome. You could easily hit Rome-Florence-Venice by fast trains in a week's time if you're energetic.
Or if you're young bohemians, I suggest trying to fit Budapest, Munich or Prague into your plans.

Stick to Spain and France for this trip, you'll only have time for a few places in those countries as it is. Read Europe Through the Back Door before you book anything.

Both Spain and France are pretty large countries with lots to see and do in each. We've stuck to one region at a time, unless we were only spending a day or so in a place, which doesn't give you much time except for a quick look. In Spain, both Madrid and Barcelona are in the northern half of Spain, and both offer daytrips to interesting places just outside of the city, in addition to the great things in each city (Segovia and Toledo near Madrid, Girona, Montserrat, and Sitges near Barcelona).

Southern Spain (Andalucía) is great, but deserves a separate visit on another trip, unless you were just going there and skipping northern Spain.

Likewise, France has Paris, of course, but also worthwhile regions, including Normandy, Alsace, Champagne, the Loire Valley, the Dordogne Valley, Bordeaux, Provence, and Savoie among others!

Then there's the Basque region that straddles both part of southern France and part of northern Spain!

As mentioned above, Rick Steves' guidebooks help you sort thru the many highlights to make the most of your time and money.

diana,

It would certainly be possible to visit the countries you mentioned (including Germany) in four weeks, but keep in mind this would only be a "sampler" trip and you wouldn't have a lot of time in any of them. Using open-jaw flights is highly recommended and you'll have to plan transportation well between countries to minimize costs.

It would help to have some idea when this trip is taking place and whether you're working with a "limited or generous" budget? Also, which part of the world are you travelling from (some of the group here may have good information on getting the best flight deals from your area)? Also which cities are you most interested in seeing in the countries you listed. It's difficult to suggest an Itinerary without having that information.

Hostels are generally the cheapest lodgings but note that their prices are usually "per bed" in Dorm rooms and "per room" with private double rooms (which are often not much cheaper than using a budget hotel). You might have a look at the HI Hostels website, as they have properties all over Europe (and the rest of the world) and having a membership will provide slightly cheaper prices. For Hostels stays, you'll also have to pack along a towel (the microfibre types work well), soap, flip-flops for the shower and a small but robust Padlock (DON'T use the cheap TSA luggage locks!).

As this is your first trip to Europe, I'd highly recommend reading Europe Through The Back Door prior to your trip. After that use the country or city-specific guidebooks to plan lodgings, sightseeing, transportation, etc. You can see the details on all the guidebooks HERE. Note that many of them are also available in E-book format should be travelling with a tablet, Netbook or whatever.

Good luck with your planning!

I think you can see a lot in 3 weeks. If you start in London, you can go to Paris, Belgium, and Holland easily, maybe even cram in some Germany (certainly Germany if you skip stopping in Belgium). Or you can do something like London, Paris, Strasbourg, Frankfurt, Munich. Sadly Spain and even Italy won't fit in because of the distances, unless you want to use budget airlines. With either of my suggested routes (and there are lots of variations you can put in), you will only need to get to train stations in or very near city centers. If you choose to fly, you have to add hours of time to your journeys, to get to/from airports, check in, security procedures, wait for luggage (strict carry-on limits) on arrival - which is why I don't recommend Spain or Italy this time. If you want Spain and France, then I suggest you only try to add one more and London would be the best choice because of the good train connection to Paris. Spain is a good choice to keep costs lower. London and Paris are expensive (food, sights). One important thing to take into account is the time of year. Summer is high season, hostels are likely to be crowded and it may be hard to get smaller dorm rooms without booking in advance (you will definitely have to book well in advance if you want to have a double room to yourselves occasionally). Flights will be more expensive too. Tourist sights will be crowded, etc. Different regions of Spain have very different climates. Andalusia, for example, is very hot in summer (which can be 4-5 months of the year).

Use a website like Hostelworld which will help you locate hostels (with detailed descriptions and reviews) and price them. The German train site is great for finding trains all over Europe. To get prices, you will have to use the country's train websites, though. For the high-speed trains (like London-Paris), you can get huge discounts by buying non-refundable, non-exchangeable tickets 4 months in advance. Rail passes may save you money, depending on the countries you plan to visit and the number of trains you'll need to take.

Plan your itinerary in Europe before you buy airline tickets. Use rome2rio to find flights. You will want to fly open-jaw, so when you look at airlines, choose the multiple destination option (not one-way flights). Start with a U.S. airline that flies to both cities (arrival and departure), so you can fly non-stop. If you have to change planes, you may be better with a European stopover than a U.S. one.