First trip to Europe

You're going to be covering a lot of ground. To do that and to have some leisurely kick back time now and then will take up to six weeks. If you move at a faster pace, you could do it all in five weeks. If you have to limit yourselves to four weeks, you'll need to cut back somewhere.

You'll probably need to travel by a combination of bus, train, budget airline, and rental car. That means that railpasses will not be cost effective.

Just for starters in your planning process, you could spend one week in Portugal (as you said you wish to do), one week in Spain, two weeks in France (including up to a week in Paris), and two weeks in Italy.

For four weeks, too ambitious. For six weeks, maybe, but remember to pace yourself.

Do not underestimate how slow life, and travel, can be getting around in Iberia and, especially Italy. This is more true the further south you go.

A loose itinerary is great, especially during April and May. For six weeks, you will benefit by learning a lot about all the places you intend to visit before you go.

This is not to lock you in, but to give you the freedom to say, someplace in France, Wow, this is fabulous, what can we steal an extra four days from down the line? (Or the reverse). It lets you use your freedom wisely. Yeah, it's work, but also fun, and essential, so you and your wife should start reading some guidebooks.

Your itinerary is not bad for six weeks, but you might want to think about whether everything on it is really of equal importance. One thing that is very nice to do on a long trip is to hunker down in one place for a week. It saves money (you can rent an apartment or cottage) and lets you recharge your batteries with a change of pace.

The southwest of France is awesome, but if are not interested in anything between Madrid and Normandy you should probably fly. If so, you might as well look at flying from Madrid to Rome, then from Italy to Paris. This will get you up north towards the end of your trip, when it will be warmer.

Have a great trip!

Greg,

As this is your first trip to Europe, my first suggestion would be to read the Guidebook Europe Through The Back Door. That will provide a lot of information to help in planning your trip.

As the others have said, that's a lot of ground to cover in 4-6 weeks. As you'll be spending a full week in Portugal, you'll only have 5 weeks to cover all the other locations. Planning the most time efficient transportation links between locations will be important. With the number of places you've listed and the distances involved, I'm not sure a "loose Itinerary" will work?

Using fast trains as much as possible will minimize travel times, and perhaps budget airlines in a few cases.

It appears that you're planning to use "open jaw" flights, inbound to Portugal and outbound from Rome. That's definitely the best method.

I'd recommend spending at least 5-days in both Paris and Rome, as there's so much to see. Could you clarify your destination in the south of Italy - Calabria is a fair distance south of Rome and not as easy to travel as other parts of Italy. Is there a particular reason you want to visit that area?

Note that if you're planning on renting a car in Italy, each driver will require an International Driver's Permit. You can be fined on the spot for failure to produce an IDP if requested. You can obtain these at any CAA office. Also, motorways (especially in France and Italy) have frequent tolls so be sure to budget for that. Also, you may want to do a search here on the HelpLine regarding the "ZTL" zones that are prevalent in many towns in Italy. If you inadvertently pass through these, you'll receive violation ticket(s) several months after you return home (€100+ for each one!).

As you noted, April isn't far away so you'll have to work out the details fairly quickly.

Good luck with your planning!

I just want to thank everyone who responded to my post, First trip to Europe, great advice and suggestions by everyone, thanks again.
Greg