How much is too much?

Megan,

As neither of you have been to Europe previously, my first suggestion would be to read Europe Through The Back Door. That will give you a lot of information not only on Itinerary planning but also transportation between locations.

I'd definitely recommend using open-jaw flights. However, I don't have any information on the flights available from your area. You might want to speak with a Travel Agent.

If possible, I'd try and spend at least a few days in London as it's a wonderful city. You don't necessarily have to go through London to get to Ireland, that will depend on flight availability. One advantage of London is that there are LOTS of flights available to either LHR or LGW.

As this is your first trip, I'd suggest starting in Dublin (least culture shock) and then moving east onto the continent (possibly via London). With only a month for the trip, I'd leave Barcelona and Prague for a future trip, as that will provide more opportunity to "embrace the culture" in the places you are visiting.

Could you provide some info on your reasons for visiting Hamburg? That's not a city that comes to mind for a first visit to Europe.

The consecutive Eurail Pass may or may not be the best option for your trip. You can decide on Passes once you've got somewhat of a "firm" Itinerary. You may want to download the free PDF Rail Guide from this website (click the Railpasses tab at the top and then look in the lower right corner).

In your planning be sure to allow for losing the first day in flight times. Plan at least 4-5 days for the "big three" - London, Paris & Rome, with less time in the other cities (will depend on what you want to see).

As your planning progresses, I'm sure the group here will be able to provide lots of advice and tips.

Happy planning!

I agree with Ken to leave Barcelona and Prague for the next trip. I too would start in Dublin and then go to London and then Eurostar to Paris. I'd would probably fly into Dublin and fly out of Berlin or Rome. London is a fantastic city -- my favorite and I would give it at least 4-5 days.

Megan:

I am not going to give you specific advice. Rick's mantra is "plan to return". You are young and, hopefully, will have many opportunities to revisit Europe. Having said that, it comes as no surprise that I recommend you limit the number of places you visit. Spend longer rather than shorter times in the places you chose. You seldom hear people saying, "I spent too long in..."; the usual compalaint is, "I wish I had spent more time in...".

While on our first "continental" trip (we had been to the UK many times) we went by rail, with a rail pass, you may want to consider flying. Flying in Europe is cheap, provided you abide by the airlines' rules, especially baggage weights. Most of the complaints about bargain airlines are from people who do not read the fine print. Yes, you do lose time due to tranfers to and from the airport, but it can be cheaper. Rail on teh other hand puts you right in the centre of the places you are visiting and allows you to see some of the countryside, though not as much as you might think.

Rick's rail guide - see previous posts - have the URL of the German rail site and we found it the best for scheduling, if that is the way you decide to go, but check out point-to-point prices and the various rail passes before you settle for the consecutive day pass. It is expensive and you will not, I hope, be travelling every day.

Once you firm up your choices, come back and many people will help with the details.

Thank you all so much for your advice! After a little more looking and consideration, I think I've narrowed it down even more to Dublin, London, Paris, Rome, and Berlin. I think in that order. I may switch Rome and Berlin depending on which will be cheaper to fly out of.

I like what Iain mentioned about never hearing people say they spent too much time in a place, which is why I've narrowed it down even more so I can spend more time in each city. I've looked up airfare and maybe I'm not looking in the right place but it doesn't really look very cheap. Is there a better website to visit? Also, would it be possible to make day trips to places like Florence and Pisa. I'm mainly interested in Rome but I would like to see some the surrounding cities if possible. But yes, I am young and I do plan to return, so I will be satisfied with Rome only.

Thanks for the book suggestion, I'll be ordering it from Amazon shortly. :)

I look forward to the next few months of planning and finalizing and I am VERY happy I found this site! Everyone is so helpful and has so much good information to share!

Thanks!

As you only have a month, we would suggest limiting yourselves to UK, France, Netherlands and Germany.
You would be wasting time and exhausting yourselves by trying those other places. London is a good place to start. followed by Paris then Amsterdam and Berlin. There are reasonable places to stay in all those cities and the suburbs of each one are almost always cheaper. Use the web to check em out

Megan: You should be able to find direct flights from DFW to Dublin and London via American. You might find better prices if you fly DFW-Chicago or NY - and then to Europe. You should be able to find something below $700.00 from DFW if you are flexible in dates. Best time to check is Wednesday night after midnight. Sign up for travel fare watches on Travelocity, Expedia, Kayak, and other fare watch sights. You can sign up for fare watch changes with open jaw (fly into Dublin, fly out of Berlin). I don't buy my tickets until about 4-6 months prior to departure. You'll find some better airfares after in February and March. Fare watching is all part of the experience.

When you get your RS Best of Europe book, you can check for day trips out of the major cities. London and Paris have a lot of day trip options --- just depends upon what you are interested in seeing and doing. Half the fun is planning.

Megan: If your question about airlines related to airlines WITHIN Europe, easyjet.com, ryanair.com and airberlin.com may be good starting points, but each has their own quirks. As I said, read ALL the fine print before you decide and watch the baggage allowances.

The best train timetable site for virtually all of Europe is www.bahn.de, the German Rail site. Click on the flag drop-down menu for English. After you enter a departure point and an arrival point and get summary timetables, click on the arrow to the left of each departure time to see the connecting points, if any.

You might find it cheaper to fly into London rather than Dublin. You can fly on a budget airline from London to Dublin and from Dublin to Paris. Or fly into Dublin, fly to London, and take the Eurostar to Paris. Or take a train + ferry combination between Dublin and London. See here.

Have you read all the information in the Railpasses section of this site? If not, click on the tab at the top of the page and dive in. You and your friend are young enough to buy youth passes.

Since you plan to linger awhile in each city, you may find that a consecutive pass is not your best choice. You'll be paying for days you don't travel. It might be cheaper to buy multi-country Select passes and only use them on days you'll be taking long rides. Buy point-to-point tickets for short rides on regional trains.

I agree with the others who have encouraged you to not try to visit every city on your list. However, it wouldn't be hard to include Prague. It's less than five hours from Berlin by train.

A good search engine that lists all carriers, both national airlines and budget airlines, is www.skyscanner.net. Two other good budget airline search engines are www.flylc.com and www.whichbudget.com.

A couple of things. Kent's post on Planning Itinerary and Travel times is informative and willbe helpful to you. I would also check out both the Lonely Planet and BootsnAll websites. Many more young backpackers contributors to those websites. Lastly, use google maps and to get a good sense of the distances between the cities you are interested in visiting. Florence really isn't a day trip from Rome if you want to really experience it.....public transportaion in Europe is plentiful, buses, ferries, trains. Use them all and have a wonderful up close and personal view of Europe and the UK.

Megan,

A few additional comments....

I'd suggest making Rome your last stop, however as you mentioned the availability of flights to/from your area will probably be the deciding factor.

You might arrange your trip along these lines:

Dublin, 4 days? (this includes the one day you'll lose in flight times and time zone changes).

• Flight from Dublin to London. If you use LGW, you'll have a choice between Aer Lingus and RynaAir.

London, 4 days?

• EuroStar from London St. Pancras to Paris Gare du Nord (I don't think budget airline would be as fast or easy on this route). From Gare du Nord, use Metro to reach the area where your Hotel / Hostel is located.

Paris, 5 days?

• Flight from Paris to Berlin (you can fly from ORY either to Berlin Schoefeld via EasyJet or Berlin Tegel via Air Berlin. Flight time is about 1H:45M, but plan at least 4-6 hours for the entire trip - getting to the airport, check-in & security and getting from the destination airport.

Berlin, 4 days?

• Flight from Berlin to Rome. You can use either Schonefeld or Tegel, and EasyJet or GermanWings depending on which airport you choose in Rome. I'm not thoroughly familiar with the Berlin airports, but hopefully one of the group here can offer some suggestions.

Rome, 5 days? (Plan your touring carefully, as there's LOTS to see!)

• Flight home (it's easy to reach FCO from Roma Termini station via the Leonardo Express).

A few things to note about the Euro budget airlines. Tickets are often non-refundable and non-changeable once booked. Some airlines use a "sliding scale" so the prices increase as the plane "fills". Also, they have VERY RESTRICTIVE baggage limits. In most cases, only ONE CARRY ON item is allowed! Also, checked luggage which is over the weight limit will usually incur extra charges (RyanAir is really strict with their weight limits)!

Good luck with your planning!