Our Improved June 2012 Europe intenrary.

The Berner Oberland is your biggest outlier here. It might make more sense to hit the Alps in France on your way to Spain.

Or the Pyrenees.

I think you would be better off traveling within France. That is a lot of ground to cover. It would not even occur to me to combine these countries. Drop Switzerland, and it make a lot more sense. I am assuming you will have a rental car -- if so, you can drop in Collioure and take the train to Barcelona. That would work.

Here's my two cents - considering the Berner Oberland is probably my favorite place in the world. Have you considered flying into Zurich - starting your trip in the Berner Oberland - then heading to france? Looks like it would take you 6 - 7 hours on the train from Lauterbrunnen to Paris.

Brendon Just a heads up on the travel time for the cities /areas you have chosen. You have 4 destinations in 13 days to visit. Is Day 15 the day you return to the US? That day is lost. Most of them are very far apart. As others have said, the more you change cities, the more money and time it costs! Normandy to the Berner Oberland by train, depending on the way you go, is 9 to 11 hours with several changes of train so you would be losing an entire day. Wouldn't work for overnight travel. And not for flying. May I asssume you are staying in Paris even though you are going to Versailles on Day 6? That's the way to do it. Train is 45 minutes between the 2. IMHO, if you want to see 2 different countries, do Paris/Versailles, Normandy and Barcelona. Fly on discount airline from Paris (Orly Airport) to Barcelona. Check www.skyscanner.com for flights. Buy soonest so you get the cheapest rate. Read the fine print and reviews so you know about severe luggage restriction, need to pay to reserve a seat, etc. This itinerary of 3 areas allows 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 days in each place without including travel time! Flight plus added time (getting to the airport from Paris hotel, for wait before flight, then airport to Barcelona, and finally to your Barcelona hotel) will probably be about 5 hours. Save Switzerland (along with Austria and Southern Germany) for another trip! Have a great time!
Bobbie

Brendon This is a way to View your itinerary rather than just listing it. Use a paper or online calendar (so you can adjust easily and share). 1 - Put your international travel times on the calendar. 2 Put train (to Caen, Normandy) using RailEurope or other train site or car use viamichelin.com to determine the time, Not the distance. Or combine with train to Rouen and car to Caen. 3 Put the flight time from Paris (Orly) to Barcelona. Check Skyscanner.com for times and discount airline prices. 4 - - Don't forget to add these additional time-eating components to get the Real Time. For Paris, add Customs and Immigration and transport time to hotel.
For others, add time from 1st hotel to airport/train/rental car site, time to wait at airport/station before departure, and then station/airport to 2nd hotel. Figure half a day, I bet. 5 -Put Travel Day on each day you travel from one place to another or take a day trip. 6 - Once you have your itinerary more firmed up, check the major sites you want to see to make sure they are open on the days you are there. For instance, Paris museums closed Mon or Tues, Vatican closed Sun, etc.. And put the dates open and closed on the calendar so you won't forget. RS Guidebooks have a special BOX in the beginning chapters that show a summary of the open/closed days. By doing it this way, I find it easier to See how my time is spent. And then adjust accordingly. I advise my friends to do this to. Often, that is when they have their Ah Ha moment. Listing just doesn't do it. Hope this helps! Bobbie

Last summer we did 6 nights Austria, 4 Murren Switzerland, 4 Fussen Germany, and 7 Paris. Looking back we wished for more time to hike in the Swiss alps. So looking at your intenary I wold probably lose Barcelona. That would give you more time in Switzerland, since one of those is a long travel day. Have a great trip.