2-Week European Honeymoon
 

I'm new here and I'm planning a little 2 week honeymoon to Europe next June (2012)! I'm hoping to gather a bunch of info on how best to travel and how much I can expect to see in a short 2-weeks! I've traveled throughout New Zealand and Australia with just my backpack and hitting the hostels but I've never been to Europe before. My fiancee has never even been out of the States before so I want this to be a great experience for her! We are thinking of hitting France, Germany, and Switzerland but other than that we don't have much else planned. We were thinking of getting a Eurail Global pass so we could travel around without a hard-set itineray. What cities would be "must see" in those Countries? We want to hit Paris for sure but otherwise are pretty open and we do enjoy "hidden" gems and the local scene as much as the "touristy" stuff. Any suggestions would be much appreciated! Thanks!

My only advice for a 2 week trip is to take it slooooow, and enjoy your time instead of always being in transit on a train.... Paris could easily eat up 5 days of that 2 weeks ya know.... Oh and Berlin for sure!!!!

I can second that. Take your time, pick out three or four spots you are really interested in and enjoy :)
Just as Marc said, you can spend weeks in Paris and still have the feeling of not having seen all the places you wanted to explore. Less than four days certainly isn't enough!

I don't know much about Switzerland, but if you are planning on going to Germany I'd recommend Munich. There is so much stuff to do, you have a lot of touristy areas like the Hofbräuhaus, the Marienplatz, the church, but also great shops, a vivid nightlife, lots of interesting architecture, fantastic museums... and by train it takes less than two hours to get to one of the lakes like the Chiemsee or the Starnberger See. The scenery is beautiful and usually the weather is quite warm in June. If you are into castles you might want to squeeze in a daytrip to Neuschwanstein (it's splendid but very very crowded, which kind of ruins the experience). And Berlin is a must-see! I'd save up at least 5 days for that.

I think a Eurail-Pass is a good idea because it gives you the chance to decide spontaneously how long you want to stay at each place and where to go next. Plus you don't have to spend your precious time hauting for cheap tickets. ;)

Maybe do Paris -Bordeaux (or any other city in France)-Switzerland-Munich-Berlin. Bordeaux would be good, because it takes only 3,5 hours to get there by train and you can do nice daytrips to the atlantic coast, even though the water might be a bit chilly in June.

You could also go Paris-South of France (Toulouse, Montpellier, Marseille, Nice) and do Italy instead of Switzerland...Cinque Terre is beautiful, I also liked La Spezia. It really depends on what you are interested in.

Switzerland is pretty expensive... but Germany is a must. As noted, Paris can take a lot of time on it's own. Berlin, Munich?, I may even say Brussels if you go that way to get to Germany. I've always had a desire for Austria. I'd definitely start scouring websites to get an idea of costs if that is a concern.

The eurail website has interactive maps so you can find the railpass that will work best with your trip... such as 4 days travel over 10 days or so. (assuming you start in paris and stay for a few days, you will only need the pass for 10 days.)

Good luck and keep us posted! :cheers: (and congrats on getting married.)

Geneva is really awesome for couples, the old city is just magnificent. They have this thing called "art in the city" and there's really cool lights and stuff that really dials up the ambiance into magical romance mode. (I was there by myself and in no other place did I wish I brought along a girl or met one there.) Ppl talk a lot of smack about Geneva, about how its boring, but don't listen to them: while there are less "sights" to see than, just say, Rome, there is still tons to do as in live events and weekly stuff.

Across the lake from Geneva is Lausanne which is really nice too, basically a small city build on the side of a mountain where you are always walking down or up. The cathedral in the city center is just amazing, the statues actually stare you down, invoking the fear of god. It is also the starting point for Swiss wine country, and there a number of interlinked charming little towns within walking distance from one another.

Have a good honeymoon!

Thank you for all the replies! Deferry, that is some good information, travel times really help as I'm not sure how long it takes to get from place to place so I'm not sure how much time to budget for travel between cities.

After doing a bit more research we would like to fly into Paris (any suggestons on good plane ticket sites? Travelzoo...) and stay the first two nights (maybe 3) then head out. Here are a few cities we might like to check out. This is not a list of "must see" cities, just ones we thought we might like and we think are "doable".
France: Bordeaux, Dijon
Germany: Berlin, Frankfurt, Dusseldorf, Munich
Switzerland: Berne, Gruyères, Luzern
Any suggestions on other cities to see would be great!

I think we want to spend the majority of time in Germany so I'm thinking if we head there right out of Paris, spend time traveling around Germany, then head to Switzerland for 2 -3 nights, then back to France for the last few nights and fly out of Paris, that should be a decent itinerary. What do you all think?

Yes, This is very useful tour plan, I wanted to know something about it.