Best time to do the 21 Day Best of Europe tour

I simply look at this from the "sooner is better than later" viewpoint. No one knows what the future holds and I encourage you, if it works financially, to go ahead and take the trip in fall 2019. You can't go wrong with either time.

That Is what I am thinking just Little worried about the weather in late September and early to med October

"Best time to do the 21 Day Best of Europe tour"....just book it and go. Sooner is better than later as to travel in my opinion.

It might depend on what you mean by Spring. If you're talking about May, I might prefer that to late Sept. But if you're talking about March or April, I would stick with September. Late Sept weather can be very nice in London and for Europe in general so I wouldn't let that be the determining factor.

I would go in Fall of 2019. It might be getting chilly in Switzerland so you’ll need a jacket and light gloves but Italy will be pleasant. My tour started the last few days of August so we hit Italy in early Sept and it was too hot for me!!

I do suggest at least one night ahead of the tour in Haarlem with 2 being better. It gives you some flex in case of transportation delays and a chance to recover some from jet lag.

You can easily take the Eurostar from Paris to London for your days there. I did London before and took Eurostar to Brussels and the fast train to Amsterdam with a short commuter train out to Haarlem.

Mark your calendar for this Fall for when the 2019 tour dates come out. They are usually $100 off until November or so.

Joe, we went on the last tour of the season in 2015. It started on October 11 and ended on Halloween. We spent ten days in the Netherlands before the tour and the temperature was often in the mid 60's and mostly sunny. The tour started, a cold front moved through, and we needed our warmer clothes. In fact, I had to buy a sweatshirt as I hadn't brought something long sleeved and warmer. It even snowed lightly one day during transit but that didn't last. It rained on 2-3 days but overall the weather was fine. I wore light long sleeve shirts and added my sweatshirt when needed in the cooler climes. The fall colors were beautiful. We just traveled London, Paris, and Amsterdam for the month of October and into November. It was often cool but we were prepared except my need for a souvenir scarf. It was also hot a few days so we purchased a few t-shirts. I think you could find this same type of weather during spring. Either choice is good but as one poster stated, sooner is better.

Joe,
We took this tour in 2015. It started on April 16th, I think (may have been the 19th). Here is the link to my online scrapbook if you care to see what we wore, clothing-wise and the sites we saw during that time. You may want to look at that scrapbook when you have oodles of time as it's pretty involved! lol Kathy and Steve's Excellent European Vacation

I loved the opportunity to see Keukenof Gardens and it's only open during the spring so that would be one vote in favor of spring...however, life is short and it tends to throw us curveballs....that being said, I say go on the vacation now. You never know what may come up to prevent you from traveling 6 months later. A disadvantage of traveling in the spring would be the possibility of some of the trails in Switzerland could be closed in the spring due to too much snow.

Kathy, I tried to follow your link, because we're going on the mid-April tour this year, and got an error message - 404 Page not found. I'll try the search box and let you know what happens.

edit to add: OK, found it. Try this link:

https://www.livingthedreamvacation.net/

Thanks, Kathy. Looks like I may need to add another layer, or at least make one of my layers a bit warmer. And add gloves.

Great scrapbook, BTW.

Thank You Kathy! I have viewed your scrapbook and both my wife and I enjoyed it very much.
The photos are great!

And I think the Last week of September will work because my wife will be retiring the First week in September 2019

I did the 21 Best of Europe beginning September 3, 2017, and added extra days at the beginning and end of the tour. The weather was very comfortable. Even though It rained in Germany and Austria, and snowed in the Alps, it wasn't a problem. Dressing in layers kept me warm. Wearing a waterproof jacket with hood and hiking shoes kept me dry. To hike in Cinque Terre in the sunshine, then the Alps in the snow two days later, was amazing. I have so many wonderful memories from this trip. Do it as soon as you can.