Very basic Itinerary

[Slacker]

Alright, here is my plans so far:

Depart from Denver International May 10 ish.

Arrive New York, New York Spend 2-3 days.

Depart NY, NY.

Arrive London - Spend 2 ish days.

Depart London, go to France - Paris spend like 3 days.

Depart France go to Amsterdam spend 2 - 3 days.

Depart Amsterdam...than I am not sure. I am thinking of hitting Germany, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary (budapest) maybe like Romania or something and Austria. A week? 2 weeks?

K time for Italy. I want to hit Venice and Rome and Cinque Terre for sure, maybe Florence but I dunno whats there to go see? Take like a week or more maybe.

Depart Italy by ferry, arrive Greece. spend 2 - 4 days.

Depart Greece, Arrive Cairo. Spend about 2 weeks goin all over egypt.

Depart Cairo, arrive Greece. Take Ferry back to Italy.

This is where my plans kinda taiper off. I am not sure where to go from here.

At this point im at the like 2 month is point. Which is kinda bad because I was planning on getting the 15 day in 2 month Eurail pass....?

I was thinking about going to Spain and Portugal, maybe a bit more france maybe some norway or sweden? Who knows. I'm just not sure....what to do lol. Hmm if I am goign to be there for 3 months, it might be to my advantage to get a Eurail unlimited 3 month pass for 1000.

As of right now at this moment, I have saved up about 2100 for Transportation (tickets to and from NY and Europe, Eurail, and Plane tickets to Egypt). This should be about enough (maybe a little less 700 ish for europe tickets, 300 for egypt 1000? for trains??) Right now I have about 1800, but plan on having at least 5000 for hostels, food, souvenirs or whatever.

Bah! I probably am trying to do too much with too little... specially for a first over seas trip by myself!

Well I KNOW I want to see NY. I know I want to see England, Netherlands, Italy, Greece, and Egypt. Probably Switzerland and Germany too. I woludnt mind seeing Spain/Portugal either.

Well what do you all think?

Oh, and I was thinking of the possibility of hiking from city to city through Cinque Terre?

Bah...yea my Itinerary is kinda retarded at this point...good thing im planning ahead!

So what advice would you have for me at this point?

[travelpunk]

I counted like 12 different countries before you even hit Egypt. Man, thats a lot of territory in a 2 month period. Throw Egypt into the mix, which probably will take up at least a week or two (ask U2Fan or someone thats been there), and that only gives you about 3-4 days per country.

In my opinion, you won't be in a country long enough to really know what it's like, if you're only spending 3-4 days in it.

Literally, you'll have a grocery list of all of the tourist traps to go to in each city(out of obligation, I guess). I mean, who visits Paris and doesn't want to go to the top of the Eiffel Tower to see the phenomenal view? Know what I'm saying, chief?

The Louvre, itself, takes like 3-4 days to get through it to really see whats in it and to take it all in. It is massive.

Amsterdam. Homes, I spent a whole 2 days walking through the Redlight District, viewing the eye candy :greenguy: , and took a couple of lunch breaks to visit Anne Frank's old house/museum and the Van Gogh Museum (pronounced Van Hoff...according to my audio tour operator). I felt like DeNiro's Travis Bickle in the movie Taxi Driver. I had to exit stage left and head down to Southern France to meet up with a French gal...

Same thing when I went to London for 2 days. Not enough time at all. Didn't meet a single soul. Too busy trying to fit in some must see spots.

Anyways, you'll need more than 3-4 days to give any country (or city for that matter) any kind of justice.

I suggest that you either extend your length of travel for that many countires, or streamline your plan and knock out half of those countries off your list in order to get the most of the countries that you will be visiting.

I'm not saying that you can't do all of those countries in that time frame. I'm saying that you wont' be able to fully relax and "take in" all of those countries in that time frame.


My opinion....but, forget that I even exist

[MissChick]

When I first started planning my trip it looked a lot like that but then I did alot of revising I figured I could get a taste for each country on this trip then I can go back again. I picked the main cities I wanted to see and went from there. I'll be in London May 7th-tickets already bought- and have 55 days of adventure to look forward to. ANyway I'd start writing down the cities you want to go to not just a country.....then people will probably be able to give more direction on how many days you should spend in each....well happy planning!

[GoKrazy]

Just a month ago I did 4 countries in 3 weeks and found that 3-4 days per city is the bare minimum you want to do. For bigger cities (Paris, Rome, London, etc) I'd reccomend at least a week - this way you'll have enough time to get there (traveling will take a lot out of you even if it's a night train and you try to sleep), get yourself settled in (finding the hostel, figuring out the layout of the city or seeing how the metro/buses run) and fully experience the city.

For smaller cities it's all right to do day trips, but then you have to have it planned out, so you don't waste time on trying to find where the museum of Such-and-such is located. I mean - get there in the morning, check in, go sightseeing and exploring, crash for the night at the hostel of your choice, wake up, do some more exploring and leave at night for your next destination.

I also found that it's a good idea to have a day off every now and again, especially if you are doing a lot of traveling. Just go to the beach for a day or read a good book at an outdoor cafe.

Good luck!

[travelguy]

i hate, i mean envy everyone who can travel for 3 months. i dont think ill ever get to do that.

hey slacker you could probably get a good idea for an itinerary if you take a look at some tour itineraries. i suggest going to www.contiki.com and see what their longest tours look like. for being a major company im sure they plan everything pretty sensibly.

[RootBrewskies]

Here's what I'd suggest. I think 3-4 days a city is alright with the exception of a few cities. Obviously you wont get a true sense of what the city or country is like but your not going to get that in a week either, try maybe 2 months before u really know what its like to live in a different city or country. I would suggest a few days in London and definately a few days in Amsterdam, you might want to check out Brussells too, I loved it there. Munich is my favorite spot in Germany and Prague is a must. All in all I think Italy is a little overrated. Its awesome but I think Spain is more fun than Italy in general so I would say hit a few choice spots in Italy but don't overlook Spain. Other places I would suggest would be vienna and prague, both lots of fun. Portugal I wouldnt be so hot on going to, its cool but nothing there is so great that i would want to go way out of the way for. and of course dublin is a good time with lots of beer.

[jeza]

i agree i thought italy was overrated, and def spend more time in london...i was there for 5 nites - 2 at the start 3 at the end of my trip and it wasnt enough. try for at least 5-6 days straight there. make sure pragues down on the list, ahead of austria or swizerland

[Slacker]

Alright Im trying to get the ball rolling on some of this stuff now. Heres what I'm looking at:

NY 2 - 3 days
London 2 - 3 days (its VERY EXPENSIVE!)
Paris 3 - 4 days
Amsterdam 3 - 4 days
Venice 2 -3 days
Cinque Terre 2 days?
Rome 3 - 4 days
Athens 2 - 3 days (like 2 days before and 1 day after Egypt)
Egypt like 1.5 - 2 weeks

Spain? Whats to go do/see in spain? I know for a fact that I want to go to spain now (specially since I speak a little spanish). I just dont know where to go or whatnot.

Maybe should I go to germany? Im still undecided about that. Or Switzerland? Or Poland? Or Ireland? Or Scotland? I dont mean all of them, I just honestly dont know where else would be the best choice to go!

Oh and one more thing, would it be best to use the chunnel to go to Paris and than amsterdam, or use a ferry to go to amsterdam and then use the train to go to Paris? I am speaking moneywise, ive heard its VERY expensive to go through the chunnel.

What do you think now?

[chelseafc05]

europetracker.com is priddy handy with workin out costs, traveltime, your route etc etc

[worldwidemike]

I think Scotland is awesome, so I'd highly recommend it. And it is not nearly as expensive as London is...of course, that's a general thing for Europe. The more remote areas will tend to be cheaper than the big cities.

In Spain, there a tons of things to do...check out some excellent recommendations on the other threads. Personally, I love the historical sights of Segovia and Toledo (done as a day trip via train from Madrid)...and others on the boards rave about Avila, too. And in the south, Sevilla was cool, as well as Grenada...

Good luck, and feel free to post more questions!

worldwidemike

[space virgin]

And don't forget Barcelona. Ah, Barcelona...

[trade1964]

On my first round the world trip I used www.airtreks.com out of San Francisco. They have a GREAT web site where you can plan your trip and get estimates for prices. My air fare for the trip was a total of $1700 USD. here's where I went: ( "On my own" means I did not buy my tix through airtreks but either took a train or bus on my own )

San Francisco ( my home ) to
London: 3 days ( too damn expensive!!! )

Travel on my own to Amsterdam
Amsterdam 3 days then back to London to fly to Prague

Prague: 5 days
Travel on my own to Berlin
Berlin 3 days then fly to Athens

Athens: 3 days
Greek Islands: 3 days

Fly to Cairo:
Cairo / Luxor: 7 days

Fly to Bangkok
Bangkok and Thailand / Islands: 7 days

Fly to San Francisco

I spent about $4000 for the whole trip including air fare and occasionally treated myself to a nice nice and posh place to stay especially near the end of the trip.

I currently live in Bangkok Thailand but will be moving to Mexico City in April 2006.

Good luck

Ernest