Me and two business associates will be traveling to Germany for business for a week in February and plan on taking an extra week’s vacation to do some pleasure traveling outside of Germany, which we have all canvased fairly extensively in the last year. Our main goal is to get a taste of some of western Europe’s larger cities. We will be spending a week traveling through Germany and will be finishing business / beginning our trip following a night in Frankfurt. Our general intenerary is as follows:

2 nights in Amsterdam
2 nights in London
3 nights in Paris

The questions we have are as follows…

1. What will be the best mode of transportation, rental car or train? According to some sites I’ve checked, drving time between all of these cities is roughly 5 hours. Is this accurate? If rail is the best mode, what form of ticketing is our best option (week pass, destination to destination, etc.)?

2. What would be a good area in each of these three cities to stay? All three of us are in our mid to late twenties, so we feel like we may be a little to old for a hostel, although we would like to go as cheap as we can.

3. What are some good night life spots in these cities? All three of us are guys who like to drink beer, meet new friends, and have a good time.

4. Finally, all of these cities have fairly famous attractions (Louvre, Big Ben, etc.), but what are the can’t miss attractions given only a few days in each city and an interest for history amongst everyone in the group.

Sorry about all of the questions, but I thought this forum may be a good resource to ensure a fun trip for everyone involved.