How do I plan this itinerary?

I have no idea what your previous trips were like, but this idea just won't work. You've got too much transportation time. A batch of the trips are half-day affairs, door-to-door. Copenhagen-Amsterdam and Paris-Venice are probably over twelve hours each. That looks to be about five cumulative hard days of travel - - one third of your total days. That gives you, on average, a day and a half in each city. I've been to all of them a bunch of times, often showing others around. I don't care much for either Venice or Florence, so I could blow by them in a day each and one day for Brussels is almost enough. That leaves seven days for Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Paris, and Rome - - not even two full days in each. I couldn't begin to give anybody more than a glimpse of each in that amount of time and I know the intra-city transportation systems cold - - and also know exactly where all the sights are and the minimum amount of time you need in each. People need to eat and put their feets up every once in a while. Throw away the scissors and get out the ax and chain saw. This is my revised, polite comment - - the original one wasn't fit for viewing in polite company.

Any time you change cities you can figure on losing half to a whole day in travel time, packing, waiting for your train, travel, finding your new hotel, unpacking, etc. So that only leaves about a day for each of these major cities, and that isn't nearly enough. You will be happier with your trip if you cut out at least half of your destinations. That will give you some time to actually see something besides the inside of a train.

Your itinerary may be physically possible but I would not subject my worst enemy to that kind of a schedule. I would suggest you cut the list in half.

Thanks everyone for your thoughts and advice. I have taken the advice and will cut this itinerary in half. The problem was my traveling partner wanted to go to Italy for sure, and I wanted to go to Sweden for sure...and we BOTH wanted Paris for sure. Now we will just have to decide which goes.

I agree with the others - it would be like a marathon without a lot of enjoyment. I know Paris-Venice has an overnight train, so if you persist in this crazy schedule, make a list of all the overnight trains and plan your route from here. I think Copenhagen-Amsterdam-Brussels-Paris or Paris-Venice-Florence-Rome would be a more reasonable combo. I am exhausted just thinking about seeing everything on your list in 15 days. If you could extend your trip to 3 weeks (or closer to 21 days) you could get it done and preserve your sanity. (But you still wouldn't see a ton).

Ed and Nancy are dead right. Too much in too little time. If you absolutely must fly into Copenhagen and out of Rome, then a look at the map shows the most direct train route, which will also be the cheapest and the quickest, would run something like Copenhagen-Hamburg-Frankfurt-Zurich-Milan-Florence-Rome. Any deviation west or east of that approximate line will add costs and especially time, which you don't have. Cut cities out, then examine discount airlines like easyjet to see if some long jumps can be made by air. For example, is it possible to fly from Copenhagen to Rome, train north up the peninsula, then fly home from Milan or Zurich? For rail trips, when and only when your itinerary is set in stone, buy point-to-point advanced purchase (not refundable) 2nd class tickets for day trains to save the most money.

Sweden? You don't have Sweden in your original lineup at all!

J Scot, To begin with, did you mean Sweden or Denmark? I didn't see Sweden on your original list at all, and Copenhagen is in Denmark. I most definitely agree with the others. The original plan would NOT have been a pleasant trip. Here's a hypothetical suggestion, assuming you start in Copenhagen: > Depart U.S. - 1 day > Arrive Copenhagen - 3 days > Flight to Paris ( EasyJet currently has flights listed as low as €67.45) - 3 days > Travel to either Florence or Venice (pick one). This could be done by train or budget flight (possibly via MXP) - 3 days (possible day trips to Siena or ?) > Train to Rome - 4 days (possible day trips) > Flight back to U.S. - 1 day Based on the information you provided, this would cover the locations that are most important to you and your travel partner. With such a short trip, I'd advise skipping Amsterdam, Brussels and one of the destinations in Italy. Good luck with your planning!

Yes.....I most certainly meant to type Denmark. Don't know why I entered Sweden. Thanks to everyone for your help...We are going to drastically cut the itinerary down. Concerning trains.....I guess it is better to just buy point-to-point tickets versus the Eurorailpass...is that less expensive?

The only honest answer to "which is cheaper, p to p tickets or Eurailpass" is...it depends. P to p tickets, if bought in advance--with awareness that they are non refundable and non exchangeable--can be immensely cheaper. Tickets in Italy, even bought on the spot, are cheap. Eurailpasses do not include reservations, which are required for many high speed trains, especially in France. Check out the website run by the "Man in seat 61" for lots of detail on rail travel.