Europe June 2006 Itinerary

[Playmaker]

I'll be traveling for a month in Europe this coming June with a group of friends after graduation and the task of designing an itinerary has fallen upon me. Here's the plan...

Fly into Amsterdam
Train to Prague
Train to Munich
Train to Venice
Train to Rome
Train to Florence
Train to Monaco/Nice
Train to Barcelona
Train to Paris
Train to London
Fly Home

Assuming roughly 3 days per location including travel, that's a full month. Does this seem reasonable? Amsterdam and London are the cheapest airports into and out of the US, so that's why those cities were chosen. Eurail pass for the rest. Will hostels w/o reservations be an issue? I traveled in Scandinavia and Germany for awhile in August 2004 and didn't have a problem, but with it being early summer and a World Cup year, would reservations be necessary? Any advice/input appreciated.

 

[kami333]

From experience I can say you will definately want to for Amsterdam, especially if it is during the weekend.

Venice, probably, especially if you want something in Venice and not on the mainland.

You might want to look into getting a apartment in Prague, I got one right by the Charles Bridge the first weekend of June for 50euro a night for up to 4people.

 

[TheWart]

As my semester here in France comes to a close, let me offer you a few tips that we learned while travelling around.

First, I am assuming that you will be getting a Eurail if you are taking the train that many days. However, I would definitely check into flying...especially on the longer legs of the journey. A train from Barcelona to Paris will take forever, since you will basically have to go to Marseille first to get the TGV if that is what you want to do. Many times flying is a lot cheaper than taing the train, especially if you do it in advance. Check out www.skyscanner.net and www.kayak.com Those are two great resources. Also, I may be blanking here, but I think it would make more sense geographically to go from Amsterdam > Munich > Prague instead of your proposed trip.

You are hitting up a lot of the coolest cities (I have visited Rome, Venice, Florence, Paris, Barcelona, and am studying in Aix-en-Provence in southern France...near Marseille). Barcelona is probably the most "fun" city I have been to, but Paris is my all around favorite snce there is just so much to do.

Also, depending on your ages, definitely check into the student specials as they can often save you a lot of money.

As for the hostels, I think you will be fine, although you may want to be safe since that is a popular travel month. The best site I found for hostels was www.studentuniverse.com and then click on "Hotels/Hostels" and it runs a search for the cheapest ones. Since you have travelled around before, I am sure you already realize that it is kind of either a hit or miss type deal with hostels since some end up being pretty sketchy and others are really nice.

Feel free to PM me if you have any other questions....

 

[Turkish]

Originally posted by: Playmaker
I'll be traveling for a month in Europe this coming June with a group of friends after graduation and the task of designing an itinerary has fallen upon me. Here's the plan...

Fly into Amsterdam
Train to Prague
Train to Munich What do you want to do or see in Munich?
Train to Venice Expensive. If you are fresh grads and money means something to you, Venice should be left out for later in life.
Train to Rome
Train to Florence I'd take Florence first, then Rome... Rome is far south so I think its more meaningful.
Train to Monaco/Nice
Train to Barcelona
Train to Paris
Train to London
Fly Home

Assuming roughly 3 days per location including travel, that's a full month. Does this seem reasonable? Amsterdam and London are the cheapest airports into and out of the US, so that's why those cities were chosen. Eurail pass for the rest. Will hostels w/o reservations be an issue? I traveled in Scandinavia and Germany for awhile in August 2004 and didn't have a problem, but with it being early summer and a World Cup year, would reservations be necessary? Any advice/input appreciated.

by the way, if I were you, i'd have limited my trip to 3 or 4 countries. that way you can see most of what that country can offer. eurorail is awesome, i know, sounds like a great deal but the problem is, you cannot use it for the fastest trains and you'll be spending a lot of time in trains, which will really get tiring after a week or two. and just so you know, i have seen people get cheaper traveling by plane in europe. just a few ago i flew from frankfurt to rome for 19Euros.

 

[Turkish]

oh and definitely need reservations for germany (+ and Prag as people will probably overnight in the CR and drive or take the train for games in Germany).

 

[GTaudiophile]

Of those listed, only Amsterdam, Munich, Rome, Monaco/Nice, Paris, and London would be on my list.

I would probably do something like this...

Fly to Frankfurt. Train to Munich. Train to Rome (via Vienna). Train to Cinque Terre in northern Italy. Train to Monaco/Nice. Train to Paris. Train to Interlaken, Switzerland. Train to Frankfurt. Fly home.

Speaking from personal experience, I have done the following in six weeks:

Fly in to Milan, Italy.
Train to Bellagio and back to Milan.
Fly to Athens, Greece.
Boat to Naxos and back to Athens.
Train to Petras, Greece then boat to Ancona, Italy.
Train from Ancona to Modena, Italy (visit to the Ferrari factory).
Train from Modena to Cinque Terre.
Train from Cinque Terre to Barcelona via Genoa and Marseille. (Takes nearly 24 hours to do this.)
Boat from Barcelona to Ibiza and back to Barcelona.
Train from Barcelona to Interlaken, Switzerland via Geneva.
Train from Interlaken to Koblenz, Germany.
Train from Koblenz to Duesseldorf, Germany.
Train from Duesseldorf to Bilund, Denmark (LEGOland).
Train from Bildund to Copenhagen.
Train from Copenhagen to Stockholm, Sweden.
Train from Stockholm to Cologne, Germany (takes all day).
Train from Cologne to Frankfurt.
Fly out of Frankfurt.

Here is a graphical version of the above.

By the time I left Frankfurt, I was EXHAUSTED!!!

 

[Playmaker]

Thanks for the advice. I'll probably look into reservations for hostels. When I traveled before, I spent 4 days in Munich, but the rest of my time was spent in Scandinavia and Scotland, which seemed much less crowded so we didn't have to worry about reservations (also had a car in Scotland which made that much, much easier).

A Eurail pass for 21 days is around $700 I believe, so it looks like flying might be cheaper. Maybe I should make a specific itinerary with days and then book flights/hostels over winter break. When I traveled before, I liked not having a specific itinerary of flights/hostels, but in this situation maybe that's a better idea.

Also, I agree with cutting the list down a bit as I would like to spend more time in fewer cities, but I'll be with a group of people that have never been to Europe and would like to see as much as possible for the first time, then go back if they want to spend more time in a specific place they liked.

We are all graduating with good jobs, so money isn't a major issue, but I'd like to keep it under $4000 total (including plane ticket over there), $5000 absolute max.

In looking at the itinerary, am I making a mistake leaving out Switzerland and Greece? What about more of Spain? I don't want to cut anything, but I'd really like to see some of Switzerland.

 

[toekramp]

I doubt it will be very busy with the world cup going on in Germany 😛

edit: perhaps i should read the whole post 🙂

 

[Playmaker]

Another question...for those of you that have been both places, would dropping Monaco/Nice/French Riviera for Ibiza be a good idea? I'd drop the train from Rome to Barcelona along the coast for a boat from Rome to Barcelona. I get the feeling that Ibiza is more in the early 20s age group and the French Riviera is quite a bit older and a lot more expensive. Then again, is Ibiza just a Spanish Cancun?

 

[GTaudiophile]

Originally posted by: Playmaker
Another question...for those of you that have been both places, would dropping Monaco/Nice/French Riviera for Ibiza be a good idea? I'd drop the train from Rome to Barcelona along the coast for a boat from Rome to Barcelona. I get the feeling that Ibiza is more in the early 20s age group and the French Riviera is quite a bit older and a lot more expensive. Then again, is Ibiza just a Spanish Cancun?

Ibiza is expensive/touristy but not as much so as the French Riviera. Now I like techno music, and I like to club from time to time, so Ibiza was great. I got to hear some top DJs like Sasha and danced in the largest club on earth with about 10,000 other maniacs. Ibiza is a party. You dance at night, go to the beautiful beaches by day. Perhaps the best three days of my life. It's insane. If you can handle that, go.

But since I have, the French Riviera is now on my short list of places to go. I took the train from Genoa to Barcelona, and it's a gorgeous ride!

Here is my European travel guide.

 

[chcarnage]

Like TheWart said, Amsterdam-Prague is too long to travel by train in a reasonable time. I've traveled Zurich-Vienna and Zurich-Hamburg in a sleeper cabin but longer distances are overkill in my opinion. I'm not sure if Eurail tickets are entirely invalid on high speed connections or if you just need to pay an additional fast connection/obligatory seat reservation fee.

From the Italian cities I've visited so far, I liked Venice the least. The only unique thing is that it's built in the sea and the seawater sometimes gets a bit smelly 😉 But I can't imagine what one does three days there. I think that Rome, Florence and Milan all are more promising. I also was in Pisa which is a bit less crowded than the other four cities but maybe needs a bit preparation to catch more than just the Leaning Tower.

Spain: Like I've recently written about Barcelona: "There is no lack of parties or alcohol (Sangria ftw!) and I liked my stay there. Six years ago I was there with my ex-class in a cheap hotel at the Ramblas (the biggest street there).

The city also offers some sightseeing possibilities like the Sagrada Familia, the eternal construction site for a church, and buildings from Gaudì (also tons of museums)."

It is an interesting city that doesn't need very much preparation. That said, Spain isn't just the islands and the mediterranean coast-my Spanish friends emphasize this now and then. Regrettably until now I wasn't in the Spanish heartland to discover the "other" Spain but it exists.

Greece in some aspects is similar to Italy. Both have many ancient ruins (most of Greece's are older than Italy's) and museums where you can look back at more than two millenniums of culture. Both have an in my opinion very good and rich cuisine but they are different. So if you'd like to stay at the Mediterranean Sea for a long time or if you're interested in the antiquity, yes, Greece as the origin of European culture would be a worthwile destination. I can't tell you anything about the nightlife there because I visited Greece on a cruise where we traveled during nighttime and I also was slightly too young for these things then 😉

Switzerland has a variety of things to offer and I can go more into details if specific questions pop up (you also may PM me if you like). Glaciers, impressive natural landscapes, medieval castles, Swiss cuisine and chocolate, err... Just to name a few, I have to finish for the moment, maybe I'll write a bit more tomorrow.