I would probably either spend more time in Greece or save it for the next trip. IMO, it is not worth the time and money to get to/from Greece if you only end up with a day or two in Athens. You could easily spend the better part of 1 day getting to Greece, the better part of another getting from Greece and the better part of a 3rd getting to/from a single Greek island. Check flights and ferry (plus bus or train connections to Athens) schedules before you decide, but 6 days would probably be a better stay — at least 1 full day plus a second for a day trip and the part days (resulting from transportation logistics) for Athens, plus 1 or 2 full days and the part days involved with getting to/from an island.

Okay,

Copy. Paste.
the same advice I gave here: http://www.eurotrip….

slight edits:

Okay, submit reply.

While I appreciate your “advice” (luvthebeach) you offer no alternatives. You just suggest that I am doing the wrong thing. As a frequent poster on this forum, shouldn’t your goal to offer concrete advice, not just criticism? Give me alternatives, some favorite places of yours, advice on my budget, etc. You must remember, this is my first time going to Europe. I have never been there so those large cities might be a tourist trap that I want to fall into. While your pictures are nice, they give me no names, routes, planes and train ticket things, etc.

I am going to echo Oldlady: Drop Greece or add more time to it. It is a long way to go for such a short time.
Alternatively, you could scoot across the Adriatic from Italy to Croatia.
Another idea is to leave Cinque Terre and make your way southwest into France, eventually ending your trip in Paris.
Flying into London and returning home out of another city would save time.
It’s nice to start planning now, as time goes by and you do your research your itinerary will present itself.

turnitblue,

I have written more about Greece than any other country, for over ten years. There’s a sticky thread in Favorite Places titled How To Use Favorite Places. It provides some very helpful tips on how you can make the best use of Favorite Places, not just asking people for advice, but by also researching past threads by using the search function. I know very few people are inclined to look at sticky threads…they’re so excited about their trip, they just want to get started with their question. And I don’t blame them. But by using the search function, you’ll come across a wealth of information…and my find your own question previously answered countless times.

My previous post wasn’t intended as “criticism”, but rather as an awakening to everyone reading this that countries are not just limited to their biggest city. Don’t view research as a chore. The anticipation and the planning should be half the fun, and that includes browsing travel books or flickr.com or eurotrip to see what else is out there that you might find breathtaking.

And of course you can ask questions here too. I’m not sure why you were under the impression that I had no intention of following up with this thread. A simple “so, what do you suggest, LTB?” would have sufficed.

Best Regards,

LTB

There’s a reason off the beaten path places are off the beaten path: because there is not much there to see and do. If you go to an out of the way community, you are likely to find that they speak only their own language, that transportation is limited, that lodging is not as easy to find, and that there are often few if any places to eat regularly.

Having said that, from Amsterdam I would visit Haarlem (some people advocate staying there as it is less expensive), primarily for the atmosphere and food, and the church, containing arguably the best organ in the world. You will be a little late for tulip season, but perhaps some will still be in bloom. And I would visit The Hague, which has a nice beach, and a museum containing some great art.

I would spend less time in Cinque Terre, and add Florence, birthplace of the renaissance and great food and wine (and gelato).

I prefer Paris to Rome because of the variety in Paris; Rome, while nice, is primarily a bunch of antiquities, but they do have good food. Others would certainly disagree with this preference.

You don’t really say what you want to see, and that should be the main consideration in planning an itinerary. I suggest you and your friends do some research on what is where, then discuss what you want to see. A nice month might be flying into London (if you must), then Amsterdam, Berlin, (possibly Munich), Paris, and Florence/Cinque Terre, possibly Venice, and flying home from there. A multiple destination ticket, where you fly into one airport, but back from another, can give you more time to see the sights and save some transportation costs.

I prefer Rome to Paris — no one will sneer at you for not speaking Italian, for speaking Italian poorly or for speaking Italian well but with an American accent.