1st time in Europe need a little help.

Where in Switzerland, where in Germany, where in Italy? One day for London and one day for Paris? That's good if all you want to see is the railroad station or the airport.
You don't seem to have factored in the travel time from one place to the next.
Way too many destinations for the time you have.
I would choose London/Paris and/or Munich/Salzburg for all the 13 days.

Sorry. London just a place to land and do some sight seeing not big into London. From there travel on train to Germany 2 days at rhine valley then travel to munich for 2 days or so. Switzerland I really I want to see Junfraujoch so I want to stay near there probably for 3-4 days. Travel to Italy visit rome and maybe Florence but most likely just rome. Then to Paris maybe 2 days there at most. I would taking the train system when I get there.

Best way is a (more or less) straight line. London-Paris-Rhine-Switzerland (say Lauterbrunnen), Rome, fly home from there. Back tracking to Paris wastes time and money. The Eurostar will get you to Paris in 2 1/4 hours. Paris to Bingen, Germany (on the Rhine) 5 hours. Bingen-Lauterbrunnen, 6 1/2 hours. Lauterbrunnen-Rome, 7 hours.

Thanks Sam seems like u know what are talking about. I don't mind taking the train everybody tells me how beautiful the sight seeing is.

You and your girl friend need to set some priorities and narrow things down a bit. You've already made a good start by identifying London as a low-priority destination. Scratch it off your list. Now for the hard part.

First time travelers are rarely nimble and 13 days is not much time. If it's really 11 days (because you are counting your flight days in the 13) it's barely a week and a half. And there is jet lag.

I'd say, pick 3 destinations, where "destination" is a specific city or town, not a country. Draw a line through them ABC. Fly into A and home from C; use trains or planes to connect to B. See the rest on subsequent trips.

You are much better off making these decision in advance than on the ground in Europe! Have fun.

rudy,

As this is your first trip to Europe, you might find it helpful to read Europe Through The Back Door prior to your trip, as that provides a lot of great information on "how" to travel in Europe. You should be able to find a copy at your local Library. After that use the country or city-specific guidebooks to plan hotels, sightseeing, transportation, etc. Doing some research would be prudent, as there are some "pitfalls" you need to be aware of.

As someone else mentioned, you have too many destinations for a trip of that length. Is there any possibility you could get more time? In planning your Itinerary, keep in mind that you'll lose two days in flight times so will only have 11 days to work with. Although the trip from NY is shorter than from the west coast, you'll still probably be dealing with jet lag to some extent. I'd recommend skipping London as it's not worth the effort or expense for one day, and using open-jaw flights would absolutely be the best idea.

You might consider something like this.....

• D1: depart NYC
• D2: arrive Paris / CDG (shortest flights appear to be overnight and about 7H:15M). If you can sleep on the plane (I never can) and arrive in the morning, you may get some sightseeing in. You'll have to decide which of the areas you want to stay in Paris. You may find it helpful to have a look at the Paris or Pocket Paris guidebooks.
• D3, D4: Paris, sightseeing
• D5: Train to Berner Oberland via Interlaken Ost (shortest run appears to be ~5H:05M, with one change at Basel, which is a departure from Gare de Lyon at 10:23 and the first leg will be via TGV at 300 kmH - note that there are about six rail stations in Paris, so you'll have to leave lots of time to get from your hotel to Gare de Lyon - from Interlaken Ost, you'll connect with the small Berner Oberland train to Lauterbrunnen or wherever you decide to stay but that leg is only 20 minutes). I find that Lauterbrunnen is a good "central" location for exploring both sides of the valley. You'll arrive in the late afternoon, so will only have time for a bit of exploration.
• D6, D7: Berner Oberland, sightseeing (note that the Jungfraujoch is EXPENSIVE so budget accordingly - one of the Regional Swiss passes may save a few bucks, but that will depend on exactly where you'll be travelling in that area). If the weather is bad, the visibility won't be good at the top, but of course you can still explore the indoor displays, buy some authentic Swiss trinkets in the shops or have an expensive meal at 11,000 feet. You could also visit the famous Schilthorn and Piz Gloria for a fine hot meal.
• D8: Train to Munich (one of the easiest trips will be a departure from Interlaken Ost at 08:00, arriving Munich at 15:11, time 7H:11M, one change - there is one quicker route but it involves two changes and a Bus, so I figured the simplest solution might be better).
• D9, D10: Munich and possible day trips (Castles, Dachau).
• D11: Train to Rome (one of the quickest routes will be a departure from Munich Hbf at 09:38, arriving Roma Tiburtina at 18:39, time 9H:01M, 1 change - this only has one change, which may be a bit easier for you). Most trains arrive at Roma Termini, but it's easy to get from Tiburtina to Termini using the Metro.
• D12, D13: Rome, sightseeing
• D14: (I'm hoping you might be able to find one more day) - Flight home. Take Leonardo Express to the airport, DON'T forget to validate your tickets prior to boarding the train on the day of travel.

As you can see from this example, you're using a considerable portion of your very short holiday time for travel between destinations, so that's why it's a good idea to have fewer stops.

Good luck with your planning!

Thanks guys this really helps. London isn't a top priority but the other 4 are. Paris from what I heard of is expensive and to be honest I'm just looking to stay for a day or 2 at most. See the tower do some minor things and that's it. But I really like the info you guys are giving. Thanks lot. Well look more into it.

Paris is really not that expensive, compared to London or Switzerland, I consider it an outstanding value. A ride on the metro is 1.70 euro, 1.34 euro if you buy a 10-pack of tickets. In Zurich that will run you the equivalent of 3.50 euro. You can still find hotel rooms for under 100 euro. Try that in New York. An Egg McMuffin and a coffee are less than in Green Bay.

Thanks Sam. I'm gonna keep looking for things to do. I might just keep to 4 places Swiss Paris Germany n Italy.

First of all, if you aren't really interested in London then don't fly into that airport. Paying for transport from London to where you really want to be is a waste of time and money. Plus you'll be jet lagged and won't be able to do or see very much before moving on the next day. You only have 13 days.

I would do the trip in this order or reverse order; Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Paris; open jaw from your starting and ending cities. It's easiest and most cost-effective to plan your trip in a straight line rather than backtracking. Since your destinations are a fair distance apart I would sandwich a day of travel time in between each place so that your planned number of sightseeing days aren't eaten up by travel.

Now...regarding your number of travel days. You will lose the first day to jet lag and most of a day in between each destination. That leaves you with only 9 days in reality, which leads me to my next comment...

If it were me, I would eliminate Italy from your itinerary. The other three destinations will give you plenty to see and if you have planned only one day in Paris you might as well not go. You will be kicking yourself for not scheduling more time there! Three days in Italy is barely enough to even begin to scratch the surface. Once you go to Europe you'll be hooked and you WILL go back. Consider saving Italy for another trip when you can do it justice. Spend 3 full days in each of the other destinations you want to see.