Travel to Europe in 2015

First off, since you are retired, why are you going to Europe at the height of the tourist season when every popular place will be overrun with tourists, it'll be HOT, and prices are higher? You are at a time of life when you have flexibility and can travel off season when things are cheaper, calmer, and the weather is generally more reasonable.

Travel agents are not so necessary these days thanks to the internet. Most of them have not even gone to the places they recommend! You can pick up a couple guide books (not just Rick Steve's, also Frommers and lonely planet) to help you narrow down where you want to go. Rick Steve's Europe thru the back door is an excellent guide for first time travelers to Europe that gives you the inside scoop on how to travel smarter. Plus these boards are an excellent source of info. Plus there is a link on this website to all of Rick Steve's travel programs on YouTube, so that is another great source of info.

BTW, 12-14 days isn't going to be enough time to REALLY see and appreciate all those countries on your list. That amount of time might be enough to cover some of the highlights of perhaps 2 of the countries. I spent 12 nights in Italy alone, and as soon as I got home I started planning another, longer, trip to Italy to get to the places I missed the first time around!

Almeter, I have found that very few if any travel agents have much experience planning trips like this, and often end up recommending that you book into a bunch of higher end American style hotels. If you are comfortable with a big budget trip, then that can work. I would begin by doing some reading, and yes, the Rick Steve guides and videos are full of great information to help you figure out what is worth seeing and what isn't. You have time to research a little, and if you do go to an Agent, at least you won't be at the mercy of their interest and experience.

I would also take a look at the tours on this site and see if they interest you, even just to get ideas on reasonable itineraries. If the cost looks high to you, I guarantee whatever the travel agent comes up with will be a lot higher and the trip much more stressful.

http://www.ricksteves.com/europe has our overview of favorite destinations, with general articles and video links. While we often stay two nights and one full day in smaller towns, the bigger art capitals need 3-4 nights. Many of us could split two weeks between just London and Paris.

Plan the destinations first, in a logical order. Flying a "multi-city" itinerary, such as into London and out from Madrid or Rome saves time without much extra cost. You don't have to think much about other transportation until next January or later, but do build in time for it on your calendar. Railpass options for 2015 will be better known at that time and there sometimes are specials for sale. Don't overlook the option of flying longer legs of the trip, which can be cheaper than trains. That's especially true if you're hopping between 4 countries in 2 weeks, rather than focusing on a tighter area. See http://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips/transportation.

Rick's Best of Europe guidebook covers several key cities in your region, but maybe not everything on your mind; see the list of contents. For instance, it covers Barcelona, Paris, Nice, and Provence, but not other regions that are in the separate France and Spain books.

Congratulations on your retirement! I agree with Angela about getting your hands on Europe Thru the Back Door. Do that first and read it then start working on your plan. I also agree that 12-14 days is not enough to cover the 3 countries and 1 city you have on your wish list. When you fly to Europe you will arrive the day after you leave the US, so there are 2 days shot, then your last day will likely be consumed with getting to the airport for your return trip. Already you have used up 3 days, so you are looking at 9-11 days for actual touring. If you go with the shorter time frame, you could easily do London and Paris, taking the Eurostar train between the two.

Consider flying open jaw, which is in to one place and out of another. That is not 2 one-way tickets (expensive) but when you look on the airline site you look at a multi-city trip.

You might want to look at Rick's tours. I've done the Heart of Italy and it was wonderful. If you tack a couple of days on in Rome ahead of time to get over jet lag and a day or 2 at the end you have used up a little more than 14 days.

I also agree that I would probably look at May, even tho your birthday is in June.

Have fun planning!

editing to add: Cross posting with Stan and Laura!

Begin by cutting back on the number of countries. 12-14 days is a short trip. You could probably enjoy London and Paris splitting your time between the two, flying into London, home from Paris and taking the Eurostar between.

You might also pair any 2 cities by flying into one, home from the other and flying between them.

There are so many options! A third one could be week long tour of one place and then exploring around that location on your own for the rest of your time. Check out the tours here on the Rick Steves website for ideas.

You don't need a travel agent to plan this for you. You can do it yourself.

But first you need to decide what you want to see and do compared to all the other things you want to see and do. If you are ruthless with your comparisons, what you really want to see and do for this first trip should become apparent.

Implied in that comment is that there will be more trips in your future.

Late June is not the "height" of the tourist season in Europe. That would be from early July until the end of August, when most countries have their school summer holidays.

Almeter and Bernard

Do yourselves a favour. This is a public forum and, unfortunately anybody can read all the posts. We are a pretty nice group and very helpful and friendly but we do get our fair share of scammers and other low life.

By giving your whole names, your town, and the dates you will be away you can be making life hard for yourselves. You even said when your birthday is.

Can I suggest that when you are logged in, click on the edit button next to your posting. You can make subtle changes there that may foil the bad guys...

selenakd ,

if you don't want the hassles of dealing with travel planning then i would suggest doing some minimal homework/research into where you are going and what you want to do instead of leaving it up to the travel agent. that way you won't get any surprises when after the fact.

The way you layed out your list of places, its in a path already so to me, why not follow it? Just so you know, you don't leave yourself a lot of time. If you choose 1 city/country for 3 days each, that gives 12 days. That doesn't include any day trips outside of any place where that could take time away from the city. it also doesn't include travel.

here is what i do. it may not fit your style or you may not like it but here goes.

1. get some travel books on where i want to go or going.

1a. Read travel books and make list of where i want to go. Details such as city/towns and to dos/see. google is good for this too or here or other travel forums. Friends can be a good source too. i use excel since i can add/delete at will. If i don't see something the first time, i may leave it on the list for the next time.

1. Look at booking.com or other lodging search engines where i would like to stay.

2. Look at seat61.com for train information. Dbahn.com is good to. I also look at the individual countries train web sites too. But when I'm looking at info i jot down the price for the ride and duration of the ride. Sometimes the travel books will have train info and travel times too. I will also add this in my spread sheet.

3. Skyscanner.com & Kayak.com along with other flight search engine. I use whatever i can to find flights that suits my needs as close as i can. $$$ and time. the way i travel is that if a train ride takes more than 4~5 hours, i will look at flights. Trains are nice since they take you from a city center and drops you into a city center. no need to get a ride into the city. Also the trains are sometimes really fast, no turbulence and you can walks around more and not have someone to tell you to take your seat. Security to board/debark the train is a lot less too.

the order may not be necessary, but you WILL need to get over there and back. Everything else you can "wing it" if you choose. Getting your plane tickets ASAP would most likely be less expensive.

some trains too, may fill up (Eurostar London/Paris) and may benefit you to buy early. If you're rolling in $$$, then it probably doesnt make a difference. (thank your husband for being in the service too)

I agree about going during "tourist season", but if its important to you to be there on your BD then go for it.

there will be more hints too.

good luck and happy trails.

Happy retirement !! Now that you're not bound by 2-weeks-a-year vacation limits you can think about longer, slower travel -- the biggest single cost is the trans-Atlantic airfare so consider stretching your trips to 3, 4, 5 weeks and doing more strolling and less rushing. For a 12-day trip I would pick one or two cities ... maybe London and Paris... and just enjoy being there.

Two suggestions: one - follow Nigel's advice; two - get a copy of RS "Europe Thru The Back Door" as it is full of very useful for new travelers to Europe - it can be ordered elsewhere on this web site. My first trip to Europe was a RS Best of Europe Tour which then was for 21 days. They now have a 14 day version. That tour gave me a great overview of many, many places to which I wanted to return which I have done in the last 12 years. Happy travels.

Almeter and Bernard -
Congratulations on your retirement! Now it's time to have fun….!

First off, I can imagine how big this may look to you as it looked very big to us the first time we "crossed the pond" as well. It's going to be much easier if you try to digest it in little bits instead of all at once. Guidebooks are going to be a big help, and the net is simply stuffed with good resources.

I'm going to agree that four destinations are too much for the time you have. As Pam pointed out, you could easily lose 2-3 days in transit processes between the U.S. and your first/last locations, and you'd lose the better parts of another three transiting between the other countries: that's 5-6 days of precious time out of your 12-14. Narrowing the field to two would provide you with more time to sightsee, and to really become comfortable with the layouts of your chosen cities, local transport systems, customs and whatnot. It would also allow for a day trip or two, and some flexibility should you need some "down time" or if the weather doesn't exactly cooperate.

Looking at moving your trip to spring or fall is a good idea as well: slightly fewer tourists, a bit lower prices, and more comfortable temperatures in a couple of destinations on your list.

As far as agents go, I'm going to cheerfully duck the shoes the others may pitch at me and tell you that while I wouldn't employ one to completely plan your trip, you may feel more comfortable using one for help with just parts of it - like your flights. I know well-traveled people who do just that because they either just don't like certain pieces of planning, don't have time for it all, or feel that their agent may have access to tools/systems which they don't. A very good, very experienced agent can also sometimes pull some strings for the occasional perk. True, many of them don't have the personal travel experience that I'm betting some of the previous posters on this thread have under their belts so it's good to do some homework before engaging their services.

But we all travel a little differently, and all of us on this thread have the benefit of hindsight so it's OK to do it your way - especially if it helps you to relax and enjoy the planning and anticipation. Can you do this all yourself? Absolutely. Do you want to? That's entirely up to you but the confidence and sense of accomplishment you'll gain by doing as much as possible is well worth the effort!

We have found the forum member recomendations to be a great help over the years for our planning & sometimes change of plans. On our first European trip we did not know who Rick Steves was. For that first trip we found his books in a college book store and followed many of his suggestions as we traveled through multiple countries and cities. We drove too much and attempted to cover way too much ground. Returning home we saw Rick's ETBD TV show covering areas we had been in and realized how much we had passed right by and missed. Upon retiring we joined his Best of Europe 21 day tour. We have always done and continue to do addtional stuff on our own. This fall will be our 13th ETBD tour. We always find plenty of time on the tours to do our own thing when we want to; and we appreciate the superb Rick Steves tour guides and the excellent local guides who are included in the tour plan. We have always enjoyed the company of the many interesting fellow tour members.
We wish you lots happy planning and fun traveling.