Traveling to Europe for the first time!!

For one month, your list of countries might be a bit ambitious. It'd be hard to spend less than a week in each country - even if you just do the major cities like London and Paris.

England, France and Spain can all be done via train. Once you are in Spain, then it might make more sense to fly to Italy. Same thing if you are in Paris and are heading to Rome. Once in each country, trains are the way to go. Getting to Greece will involve flying and going to islands require flights or ferries. Any other places on mainland Greece pretty much require a car.

Absolutely fly open-jaw - flying into your first city and flying home from your last city.

On planning my past six trips, I usually try to fly into a northern city like London, avoid backtracking as much as possible, then fly out of a southern city like Rome or Barcelona. Last trip we traveled from London to Paris (Eurostar) then TGV to Lyon, bus to Turin in Italy, trains all over Italy and on to Monaco and Provence. Then we rented a car in Avignon and drove all over Provence, the Languedoc, over the Pyrenees to Andorra, and finished in Barcelona. All hotels were wonderful recommendations from Rick Steves' guidebooks. For good food and comfy sleep, Rick has never steered us wrong! Use his books extensively and have a fabulous journey.

Since it is your first trip, it would be best to start with England because it would be less of a culture shock (and less of a language barrier) than the other countries you want to visit. If you want to visit several countries, though, it would be best to fly into London and fly out of whatever major city you are nearest to at the time. You can book such tickets as "multi-city" tickets.

Start by reading a LOT of guidebooks to get an idea of things you would like to see. Only you can decide what might be of interest to do or see. Once you get a list made, start looking at how long it will take to get from place to place by various means. If you haven't traveled for this length of time before, you can't imagine how tiring it is to move all the time - packing, unpacking, travel, find your next hotel, etc. You will probably find that you will need to cut back on the number of places you want to go, simply because there won't be time to do everything. Assume you will be back!

I agree with Nancy - start in England and then take the Eurostar to France. If you're in southwestern France, Spain would be the nearest next stop and from Southeastern France it would be Italy. I'd be guided by the football schedules if that's your main interest. I'm assuming here you're talking about soccer. Greece is somewhat off the beaten path; if you go there, I'd fly home from there if possible. It is relatively cheap to fly around Europe on the numerous European airlines (often cheaper than the trains)....except for the usual airport hassles.... but if you do that be aware of severe restrictions on baggage weights and sizes. I would not backtrack to England to fly home if you start there. When you reserve your tickets, chose the "multi-city" option. Again, I would build my trip around the various football schedules and go from there. Of course, this means that you might start in Spain, go to France and end up in England. Once you know where you're going to be, you can explore the accommodations and European travel options.

Polly is absolutely right, no need to waste a day traveling back to London.

Everyone... I appreciate all the comments! They are great. I will go get his books and start looking.

Any other suggestions on places to visit while in these countries would be great.

Does anyone suggest getting a Eurorail pass?

Zahra,

As this is your first trip to Europe, my first suggestion is to pre-read the Guidebook "Europe Through The Back Door". Given your location, you might consider taking a short drive to Edmonds and picking it up right at ETBD.

You could also speak with the experts there regarding your travel plans. Buying the country-specific Guidebooks (or at least browse through them in the Library at ETBD) would be a good idea also. If you're going to buy country Guidebooks, wait for the 2011 editions (some are available now).

Using open-jaw flights is absolutely the best idea! I definitely agree with a previous comment that starting in England would be a good idea, as it will be less of a culture shock, and no language issues (although that point is sometimes debatable!).

Mid-August is going to be PEAK tourist season, so pre-booking accommodations would be a REALLY good idea! September is "fall shoulder season" so it will probably also be busy.

Using a Railpass is not necessarily the best idea. You don't need to decide on that until you have a more-or-less definite Itinerary worked out. One thing to remember with Railpasses, is that these DON'T include reservation fees that are compulsory with some trains (usually the fast trains such as the TGV in France, which travels at 300 kmH).

With a trip of only a month, I'd suggest dropping Greece this time, as it's somewhat "distant" from your other locations and you won't really have enough time. Spain is also somewhat distant, but more manageable with fast trains or budget airlines.

You might also find it helpful to watch "Travels in Europe" on KCTS. The new series (filmed this year) usually air on Wednesday nights at 19:30. Other nights have re-runs, but they're always interesting. There are clips of the shows available on You Tube and other sites.

Good luck with your planning!

Hello All, Thanks for the responses. So I picked up Rick Steve's Best of Europe 2011 and it is great so far! So we want to fly nonstop from Seattle and it seems flying to London is the only option?? Correct me if I'm wrong. So we kind of started thinking of a route and would love feedback. Fly into London- Stay 5-6 days Eurostar to Paris- Stay 3-4 days Train (overnight) to Milan- stay 2-3 days Train to Venice- stay 2-3 days Train (overnight) to Rome- stay 2-3 days Train to Florence/Pisa- stay 2-3 days Train (overnight) to Nice France- stay 2 days Train (overnight) to Barcelona- stay 2-3 days Train to Madrid- stay 2-3 days Train to (Santander or Bilboa) and ferry/Cruise to Portsmouth- 1 day (overnight) Train to Bath- 1 day Train to London- 1 day and Fly home to Seattle! Seems like a ton but might be a good loop. Any ideas would be great.

Zahra, Since watching a little footie is one of your objectives for this trip, remember that games are generally played on Saturdays and Sundays. Further, the season for the Premiership in England begins mid-August, La Liga in Spain and Serie A in Italy start at the end of August. I can't tell you exactly when the season starts in France - not a big fan of French football. So one of your limiters is going to be having to be in a city that has a team in one of those leagues on each of the weekends that you are in Europe. Further, if you have specific teams that you want to watch play, you also have to ensure that your team is playing at home on the weekend when you propose to be in its city. For example, in Milan both Inter and AC Milan play at the San Siro, but obviously only one will be at home on any given weekend. So, if you plan on watching specific teams, their playing schedules may have to be the item that establishes your itinerary. If you aren't especially particular about specific teams, life becomes easier. Also, next season's schedules don't exist yet, so at this point your planning may be on a wing and a prayer. Your best bet may be to try to choose cities with multiple teams so that you may be sure that there will be a game available on the weekends you plan on visiting. Finally, if your intent is to watch some of the really big guys 0 barcelona, real Madrid, Inter, Arsenal, Chelsea, etc., remember that tickets may be hard to get.

Zahra: In reading your proposed itinerary, it is clear that you rely heavily on night trains. This could be a problem for several reasons. One is that night trains do not connect all of your destinations. In playing with the DB schedules, I do not see any direct night trains between Italy and Nice or Nice and Barcelona. Lee or Tim might be of assistance here...perhaps you should start another thread focused specifically on night trains between the destinations of interest? Second, unless you know from prior experience that you have no problem sleeping on night trains, you ought to be very cautious about scheduling them. Some people cannot sleep on a night train (I am one), and if you are also, this could be a trip from hell. Third, night trains sell out quickly...you'll need to plan for and make advanced reservations.

Nonstops available from Seattle: In addition to the British Airways flight to London, there's a nonstop to Amsterdam via Delta (codeshare KLM), Lufthansa to Frankfurt, Germany, and AirFrance to Paris. (Also Icelandair, but no footie there...) Frequently it is cheaper to fly a one stop to Europe than a nonstop. For example, my last flight to London I flew nonstop to Paris and doubled back via Air France. Saved me three hundred dollars over the BA nonstop to London.

"I do not see any direct night trains between Italy and Nice or Nice and Barcelona. Lee or Tim might be of assistance here...perhaps you should start another thread focused specifically on night trains between the destinations of interest?" I think the only night trains from Nice go to Paris and Luxembourg/Strasbourg. And not always on weekend.

A couple of other thoughts: If you have to book your plane tickets now, then pick somewhere you like. EasyJet and Ryan Air can get you in and out of most cities fairly cheaply for your return flight. Also, as a Real Madrid fan planning a trip for this Feb, I can tell you the majority of tickets don't go on sale until about 3 weeks before a game for non- season ticket holders, and even then, it's not until the Wed before that you find out which teams are playing on Sat and which on Sunday, which could totally mess you up! I like the suggestion earlier of picking a major city such as Madrid, Rome, London, and then seeing who's playing and roll with it.
You may find you need to use a ticket broker to get your tickets with your trip being so close to when schedules are released, and that's ok if you budget it in. I also found that (unlike NFL games here), ticket prices vary depending on the opponent and they rival NFL ticket prices, so be ready for that. Real playing some little team, the tickets were 100E. Against Barcelona, 500E. And that was face value!

Congrats-sounds like a great trip. My hubby and I made our very 1st intl. trip to London, 5 days, in March, 2004 (British Airways was running a $200 roundtrip deal to Gatwick; those were the days!!). We read Rick's book about London as well as "London For Dummies". Since our time and budget was limited, we made a list of non-neogtiable sites we had to see. We ended up booking 2 day bus trips; one hit all the major sites in London including the Tower and lunch at a pub. It was delightful as was our tour guide, and we got a good overview of the City. We also booked a day trip to Windsor, equally enjoyable including a guided tour of the Castle and shopping in the town. The other days we hopped on the Tube (our hotel was one block from the Notting Hill stop) and wandered to our hearts' content. We found everyone friendly and delightful. I'd recommend not overdoing it anywhere you go. Make a list of places you absolutely must see, and check into the guided tours in each city. Worked like a charm for us.

Zahra, A few comments on your most recent Itinerary...... As someone else mentioned, the Best of Europe provides somewhat of a "summary" of the most popular locations in Europe, but the country or city-specific books provide a lot more detail. I'd still suggest having a look at Europe Through The Back Door as it has a lot of good information on "how" to travel well in Europe. If you take a drive to Edmonds, you can peruse all the Guidebooks in the Library at ETBD at no cost. I've haven't checked specifically, but doubt that non-stop to London is the only option? I often depart via Vancouver, and the flight options are probably similar. I would highly recommend looking at open-jaw flights, as that will save the time and expense of returning to London (you could visit Bath when you first arrive). You might consider travelling during the day from Paris to Milan. There's a direct train (no changes) departing 07:41, arriving 14:50. OTOH, one of the night trains departing at 20:40 has FIVE changes at various times during the night. Trust me, you won't get much sleep and you'll likely be too tired to enjoy your first day in Milan! I would definitely recommend travelling by day from Venice to Rome. The travel time is only 3H:46M via EuroStar Italia / Alta Velocita, and the train travels through some incredibly scenic areas. Good luck with your planning!

Zahra, very ambitious! Also remember that Paris, Italy, Spain, maybe London will be very hot, more than you're used to in Seattle. I'd re-think Milan.