September is probably a great time to travel as the crowds wont be as thick as it is during the summer and the weather is genuinely good (take a rain jacket just in case).

My advice would be to stick to italy/france or italy/germany. Keep it to 1-2 countries and maybe 3-4 cities. Don’t try to jam pack as much in. It all depends on what interests you guys.

thanks , however , if we make Paris the hub and want to see possibly one more city in France ; is it then advisable to do Venice & Florence in Italy and Madrid and Barcelona in Spain ? This is our first trip to Europe hence …

Spain is kind of out of the way, I would stick to France-Italy-Germany if you were gonna do 3 countries. Paris, night train to munich (and surrounding area), then train down to venice, then florence. Any particular reason you don’t want to see Rome? most people say venice is easily doable in one day.
If you do around 3 days in each place, that would be your whole trip.
Maybe like—
Paris- 3 days
Versailles- 1 day
Munich-3 days
Dachau or Neuschwanstein- 1 day
Venice-1 day
Florence- 2 days
Rome- 3 days
That’s 14 days which leaves you an extra day to loop around back to Paris (or wherever you are flying out of).

thanks – i get your point … Spain we wanted to cover because of emotional reasons ! I support Real Madrid Football club so thought would catch up a match at the stadium itself ! In Germany , would you recommend Hamburg , besides Munich as well ? Thanks once more for the tips !

fellow travellers, would like an opinion on the following queries

1) 2 out of 3 ( Venice / Florence / Rome ) : Choose 2 ( maximum time 5 days )
2) If we have 5 days in France , which place besides Paris can we do ?
3) How many days would you recommend we do in Amsterdam ?

Any help / views will be deeply appreciated !

Cheers

You would need 3-4 days for Florence. and 1-2 days for Venice. And 3-4 for Rome.

So maybe considering you have 5 days in Italy….Perhaps go to Venice for a day, then over to Florence for 4.

Have you considered travel times as well. Venice to Florence isn’t too far though.

France, you could stop off at Nice for 2 days. and then go to Paris. But Paris is such a great city to visit, you could spend all 5 days there.

For Amsterdam, I would recommend a minimum of 3 days.

Which would bring your total to 13 days, leaving you two days for somewhere.

I would also suggest getting an Open Jaw ticket (fly in at one point, fly out another point).

Thanks Trent – great help in terms of timing adequacy for Venice and Florence !
Just one more thought – if we leave out Amsterdam and want to do some 5-6 days in Spain , besides Madrid what would you recommend – Barcelona or Valencia ?

Thanks once more and have a great trip!

If you were gonna go to Spain instead of Amsterdam. I would definitely go to Barcelona. You have a much more cultural city to explore. And with things like the Gaudi architecture you wont have trouble finding things to see.

Also its a major hub for transport so it will be much easier and cheaper to get to than valenica.

Thanks for the tip Trent ! Valencia is out of the schedule now . we will only cover Madrid and Barcelona in Spain . 3 days each ! Are there any good day trips from these cities ?

Many Thanks once more !

Toledo would make a good day trip from Madrid, and Figueres is an option from Barcelona. However, with the fast pace of your trip overall and only three days in each of those cities I really don’t know if I would try to cram in day trips. Also, I think three days is adequate for Florence.

Augustin25 – What is at Figueres and Toledo? I’m making a trip through Spain as well, but haven’t really looked at these destinations.

Your experience may could help me too. It will be my 1st trip to Europe and I have to enter Italy 1st and preferly Rome 1st. and must back home from Stockholm -Sweden, but I love to see Paris too. Taking night-train is a good option to save the time. I have enough time but must be care about my budget. Then have not waste time in each city more than enough. I am thinking that may can spend 1 day the city between these cities just to see that city in hours that I will have. what is your comment?

Hi there

Dont know how much value I would be able to add on here but just a small tip basis what all I have learned from other travellers : dont hop from one city to another – as all you would be doing is travel around !

Also Paris needs a minimum of 3 days to be able to do some kind of justice to the trip …

Recommend you rethink your trip and try and maximise your time in 3/4 places – leave the balance for your next trip ( in that way you will waiting for more ! )

Hope this helps !

CHANGE IN PLANS !

Thanks to all the great feedback on not “ cramming “ up the trip , we have rescheduled our trip in the following manner

1) Land in Spain , spend 3 days in Barcelona and Madrid each
2) Move over to France , spend 3 days in Loire Valley ( make base in Blois and check out châteaus and vineyards there )
3) Spend 3 days in Paris
4) 1/2 days in Brussels
5) Spend 2 days in Amsterdam and fly out from there

Would like your views on – what do you think on the trip composition ( or re composition ! ) … – what all can be done while you are in these cities – what would be the best way to travel from Barca to Madrid ; Madrid to Paris ; Paris to Blois and back ; Paris to Brussels and Brussels to Amsterdam?

All great advise would be welcome ! Thanks once again folks ! This is really helpful

Happy Travels !

You really could probably pull this trip off, see as much as you can….you just wouldn’t get as in depth as you may like in each city….I just did a similar trip and surprised myself by hitting all but one city on my agenda, (though we did add a city along the way, so it evened out). I say you can do this, but it would not include going on the tours of museums, etc….When we went we just wanted to see as much as possible, cover as much ground, that way we could plan another more in depth trip to spend some quality time in the cities we really enjoyed. But I must emphasize before people berate me for saying you can do it all, you would not be getting the full experience of ALL the sites in EACH city. I opted not to go on cathedral/castle/Anne Frank house/museum tours, but instead, went to each place, got to have a look around then headed off to grab food and hit another site. So we ended up seeing a lot, but not learning all the history etc… Also, you would spend a great deal of time on trains, so bring books and book as many night trains as possible, I found those to be amazing.

Super -many thanks ! Intention is the same , certain things will be left for “on ground “ execution – as we travel !

Night trains are definitely an interesting option ! Will do that

Thanks once more …

Hi there

Dont know how much value I would be able to add on here but just a small tip basis what all I have learned from other travellers : dont hop from one city to another – as all you would be doing is travel around !

Also Paris needs a minimum of 3 days to be able to do some kind of justice to the trip …

Recommend you rethink your trip and try and maximise your time in 3/4 places – leave the balance for your next trip ( in that way you will waiting for more ! )

Hope this helps !

DHIR, this is true, if you city hop you will do a good deal of traveling…all depends on the type of trip you want. Night trains, and visiting cities close to each other, (ie, pisa/florence, munich/fussen, interlakken/zurich) are an easy way to see more without feeling like you’re on a train all the time.

Thanks Rockadiva –

We are planning trains between Madrid and Barca ; Paris and Loire , Paris and Brussels and Brussels and Amsterdam. The long haul ( Madrid to Paris ) we will do by flight – in any of these , do you recommend any night journeys ( is the distance that big ? )

Also wanted some tips on accommodation at Barcelona and Amsterdam

Thanks once more !

If it helps you, there is a night train between Barcelona and Paris. I know because I took it once . Only thing is, I took it from Paris to Barcelona (I think the reverse of what you need) but I’d imagine it would work the other way as well. Although now that I think about it, I had to change trains on the Spanish border coming from France, but no big deal really, it was at like 8 AM after you’ve been sleeping on the train, not like it’s in the middle of the night or something

and I do believe there are night trains between paris and both brussels and amsterdam…not 100% sure on brussels, but i can find my eurail schedule and look it up if you need….i stayed in both the bulldog and st. christophers in amsterdam….bulldog had a better lounge/bar/breakfast st. christophers had better rooms. your call. we didn’t spend too much time in the rooms….

Thats cool – we also wont be spending too much time in the rooms as well as this will be the last stop before we fly back ! Any idea on the cost of a double room in these ?

Also would you recommend a night train keeping in mind that Paris and Brussels are not too far apart ?

Also , would like to take your advise on should we be taking eurail passes or book directly / online ? Whats your take on on the spot train reservations ( at the station itself ) – is it too difficult / expensive ?

This is our first time in Europe so some of these questions would sound stupid !

Cheers

By leaving Germany and Italy for another time, I think your new itinerary is very doable. Blois is a good base as is Amboise (slightly more central) or Tours. Rent a car to do the loire valley since some of the chateau are in towns (BLoise, Amboise), but a few are in the countryside (I.e. Chenonceaux, Chambord).

there is no night train between paris and amsterdam or brussels….I was thinking of a different city. the hostel rates change rather frequently, best bet is to just look a few days before you plan to be there and book then. I booked 2 days ahead of time from whatever city i was in. hostelbookers.com has all the rates/pics/info you’ll need.

Wow that sounds cool !
I am convinced we did the correct thing by pruning it down ! Thanks to all the seasoned travellers here …

So , do you recommend we rather stay in Amboise and not Bloise? Is Amboise a better place in whole , considering that we would prefer to be in a place close to nature – near to Loire river , and at the same time have good access to 2/3 best châteaus ( Chambord / Chenonceaux, and one more city château) , and also close enough to access a couple of vineyards …

You seem to be a pro in this region ! So will await your views

Thanks once more !

Thanks once more ! we will get to booking hostels on-line once we are closer to the date of travel !

Any other sites on which we can check out hostels ?

cheers !

I would actually recommend booking your hostels through eurotrip. We have the lowest prices and we do not charge a booking fee. You can book your hostels directly through your trip by clicking on the ‘Book Hostel’ link in each city. This is the easiest way to book because you do not need to reenter your dates for every city. Enjoy…

cool – will check it out – and will reach out for help if needed !

Blois is a smaller town than than Tours or Amboise ,and has a bit more character. There are public buses than run to Chambord and Cheverny which are quite cheap and run fairly often. Blois also has good transit connections so catching a train to paris from Blois should be no problem. I was in this area a few years ago in late fall and it was very rainy, otherwise we were planning on renting bikes: http://www.chateauxa…

Thanks Finnegan

We are planning to do this in August – is it the right time ? will it be raining at that time ?

Hi Folks – can anyone provide us an idea on the weather in the following cities :

Barcelona : around 11-14 august
Madrid : 14-17 august
Loire Valley , France : 18-21 august
Paris : 21-25 august
Brussels / Antwerp : 25-27 august
Amsterdam : 27-29 August

Should we be carrying light jackets / rain attire ? Or will it be really sunny ? Look forward to your advise !

Cheers

DHIR:

Ok, now you’re overplanning but to answer your question:

Spain and southern France: Mediterranean climate. Sunny sunny sunny, cloudy days will be very rare. Hot dry summers, rain very unlikely but a quick thunderstorm can happen. Areas with Mediterranean climate go through a dry spell during the summer. The humidity is also very very low, so it feels pleasant. Nighttime can get pretty cool, as there is little humidity in the atmosphere to trap the daytime heat. North America comparison: California (except Mojave desert) and northern New Mexico

Netherlands, Belgium, northern France: maritime climate. Warm summers. Rain is more evenly distributed throughout the year, as opposed to Med climate areas which go through a dry spell during the summer months. So chances of rain and/or cloudy days are much more likely, and cloudy days can get pretty cool. But you will get sunny days. Northern France will generally be warmer and sunnier than Belgium and Netherlands. North America comparison: Mid-Atlantic and New England.

All the locations you mentioned: it’s summer. Pack for summer, but bring a light jacket for cooler days. And bring (or buy when you’re there) sunblock for France and Spain.

Rain gear: a compact umbrella is enough. You won’t melt. No need for boots and ponchos…you’re not going crab fishing in the North Atlantic.

That’s great !
We are definitely not carrying our boots and ponchos …

Sunny Spain , Moderate France , Belgium and Netherlands is my take away !

Cheers