Hello everyone! I'm a college student who will be studying abroad in France next summer. Afterwards, I plan on taking a month-long backpacking trip through Western Europe. It will be my first time leaving the country, and I'm very excited! I've been working on my itinerary for a while, and since I'm completely new to this whole process I would love some feedback regarding my trip! Thanks in advance! :)
2009 Backpacking Itinerary:
June 25 – 30 – Paris & Versailles
July 1 – Paris --> London (AM arrival)
July 2 & 3 - London
July 4 – London --> Brussels (1/2 day) --> Frankfurt (PM arrival)
July 5 – Frankfurt (Rhine River cruise)
July 6 – Frankfurt
July 7 – Romantic Road bus tour from Frankfurt --> Munich (PM arrival)
July 8 & 9 – Munich & Fussen (Neuschwanstein Castle)
July 10 – Munich --> Salzburg (PM arrival)
July 11 – Salzburg --> Hallstatt
July 12 – Salzburg
July 13 – Salzburg --> Swiss Alps (night train)
July 14 – 16 – Swiss Alps (Interlaken, Berner Oberland)
July 16 – Swiss Alps --> Venice (night train)
July 17 & 18 – Venice
July 19 – Venice --> Florence (AM arrival)
July 20 – Florence & Pisa
July 21 – Florence --> Cinque Terre (AM arrival)
July 22 & 23 – Cinque Terre
July 24 – Cinque Terre --> Rome (AM arrival)
July 25 - 27 – Rome
July 28 – Rome --> Athens (AM flight)
July 29 & 30 – Athens & Olympia
July 31 – Athens --> Santorini (AM ferry arrival)
Aug 1 – Santorini
Aug 2 – Santorini --> Athens (ferry)
Aug 3 – Athens --> Vegas :(
P.S. Previous to arriving in Paris, I will have been studying in Pau, France for 5 weeks. Also, I will be doing all of my traveling by train with a Eurailpass unless otherwise stated.
Posted by
Anaheim, CA, USA
1455 posts
Caroline, your schedule is do-able but I'm exhausted reading it. I would trim a few places and stay in the place for at least 3 days. You figure by the time you arrive on day 1, you'll have a part of your day hunting your hotel/hostel down, and then the last day its hauling yourself to the train station, leaving really 1 real day to see the city.
Remember, Rick said always assume you will be back. Give yourself the chance to see the sites, not run thru them
Posted by
southwest, Missouri, U.S.A.
1717 posts
Hello Caroline. It is good that you have plenty of time for planning the trip. You said you want to go to Frankfurt, July 4. I recommend have your overnight accomodations at St. Goar or Bacharach (at the Rhine River). I advise : no night trains. You said "July 20 : Florence and Pisa". How will you have time for going to Pisa ? You said "July 29 and 30: Athens and Olympia". How will you have time for going to Olympia ? I think a better day trip for going from Athens is going to Delphi. The ferry boat ride from Athens (port of Piraeus) to Santorini is many hours. Plan a whole day for that. Or fly from Athens to Santorini. I was in ITALY in 2004. I was in GREECE in 2005.
Posted by
Elk Grove, CA, USA
6898 posts
Very ambitious. Go do it. You'll love the whole experience. I would only have a couple of suggestions. First, I would investigate your night train desire from the Swiss Alps to Venice. You will first need to take a regular train out to Spiez to even transfer to a sleeper. Then, the sleepers I see go to Bologna and then you change somewhere in the middle of the night to another sleeper going into Venice. Not really a good value as you won't get much sleep.
Second, build a spreadsheet of your dates and travel times on the train. You may have already done this. Your spreadsheet should include the date, time, point of origin, destination, train number and travel duration times. You can get this information on 3 main websites. www.bahn.de which will cover almost all but your Greek travel. The Swiss site www.sbb.ch and the Italian site www.trenitalia.com/en/index.html. The Swiss and German sites have English pages. You're going to need it.
Posted by
OP
Las Vegas, NV, USA
68 posts
Thank you to everybody for your responses!
Michelle, I think I'm going to take your advice and skip Greece so I can spend a few extra days in Rome, London, and Munich. I now realize that it would be too much of a hassle for me to cram in Athens & Santorini (especially considering the lengthy ferry ride that Ron mentioned), and I think both destinations deserve more time than I am able to give them this first trip.
Larry, I had no idea that the train ride from the Swiss Alps to Venice would be that complicated! Thanks for the heads up! I'd much rather make all of those connections after a good night's sleep, or who knows where I'd end up! I will also definitely take your advice and make a spreadsheet outlining my train travel times.
Thanks again for all of your responses! :)