Where to start my Best of Europe trip?

Hi Claire. It sounds like you have already worked out your trip so that you aren't backtracking. I would either fly into London and out of Paris, or into Paris and out of London. Check flights to see which option is cheaper. But you might have too many destinations planned for a 6-week (or 42-day) trip. 11 destinations in 42 days only gives you about 4 days in each, without taking into account travel time to and from each place. Travel between Venice, Florence, and Rome won't really add up but Amsterdam to Munich is a bit of a distance. You also may not need or want 4 days in each location, but I would recommend at least 4 days in big cities like Rome.

When you start and finish is not terribly important. Get a map and put some pins in and try to get as straight line as possible to min travel. Do an open jaw ticket. Obviously starting in London and home from Rome could be a possibility. That is a lot of ground to cover even for six weeks.

I would fly in or out of London as it a spur you can map out a path that ends or begins in any other city. As for the other city...which one has the most direct and/or cheapest flight from Gatineau?

Claire, To begin with, it would help to know whether you've travelled in Europe before? If not, I'd highly recommend reading Europe Through The Back Door before you get too far in your planning. I tend to agree with Sarah that this is perhaps too many locations for a 42-day trip. Visiting 11 places in that time frame is an average of 3.8 days per stop, with no allowances for travel times! I'd suggest spending longer in "the big three" (London, Paris, Rome), and spend 2-3 days in each of the other places. The order you listed the cities is close to the way I'd organize the trip. My suggestion would be London - Amsterdam - Vienna - Salzburg - Munich - Venice - Florence - Rome - Cinque Terre - Berner Oberland - Paris. Starting in London will provide an "easy" first stop in Europe. Do you have a preferred airline? You should have NO problems finding flights. I assume you'll be departing from YUL / Montreal? I've been using Air Canada for the last few years, but you may be able to find flights with Air Transat, Thomas Cook or Canadian Affair (UK). Unless you can increase your time, I suspect you may have to drop one or more cities from your list. As Rick frequently says "assume you will return". Good luck with your planning!

Also factor in your preferred method of travel within Europe. For example, do you want to take Eurostar from London to Paris? Any sections you want to train to see the scenery? Some long sections you may want to fly. But it does seem like London and Italy as arrival and departure minimizes back tracking

My tactic of where to fly into or out of is seeing which city is the cheapest to do so. You may want to plug in your cities and dates into something like expedia and see what is affordable. On the other hand, starting at the top and flying out of the bottom (or vice versa or east to west, etc) so that there is minimal to no back tracking. Maximizing time is almost as important as what is affordable.