I am a US citizen and am planning for my first-ever trip to Europe, which will probably take place in late April to early May. I’m trying to find out if I can take the trip sooner, but alas, priorities at home get in the way. The whole trip will last at least three weeks.
My trip will start out in London, where I have family. I’m not sure of what to do from there. I definitely want to go France and Spain. Thinking of spending some time in Switzerland (probably Lucerne) and briefly going into Italy? Is 3 weeks enough time? I definitely want some time to truly explore the cities and towns. Should I just forget about going to Italy?
Any recommendations on how to set up my itinerary? I’m open to museums, typical tourist stuff, not-so-typical tourist stuff, whatever! Plus, I will be traveling by myself after London, so preferably safe places for female solo travelers.
I think three weeks would be cutting it really, really tight. If you have any hope of doing it, you’ll need to fly from city to city, imo. Does the three weeks include the time in London? because you really need at least a week in london – I lived there just under a year and am constantly discovering things I missed! you also wouldn’t have any time to see anything outside of London itself. London sucks up time, because the city is big and crowded and there is no true tourist centre to base yourself in, so you spend a lot of time on trains and buses and queing etc.
If you’re going to Paris, you probably also need close to a week there. the thing with Paris is that if you go to, say, the Louvre one day, that’s a pretty full day all on its own, it’s hard to squeeze too much into a day or you get museum’d out. there are lots of things like that – going out to versailles, say, also takes a full day and is well worth doing. you need to allow yourself a bit of time to pace yourself. it is also a big, spread out city, so the comments re London also apply.
I think for Italy, the bare minimum would be 3-4 days in Rome, and at least, say, 2 days in Venice and 2 in Florence, and then there’s travelling time too. that’s what I’d consider the minimum to make it even worth going there, because if you allow less than that, you’re just not going to see much and will probably end up wanting to go back again anyway!
I only went to Barcelona in Spain, I think I spent about 4-5 days there, that was plenty, but Spain is a big country, and I wish I’d had time to see more of it, in an ideal world you’d probably want to at least see a bit of the coast of Spain, Barcelona and San Sebastian too.
Personally, if you really are limited to only three weeks, I’d do, say, 7 days in London, 5 in Paris, a few days in the UK outside London, even if it’s only daytrips, and then fly to one other European city from Paris or London and have a week there. Or else I would go from Paris to say, Barcelona and San Sebastian by train or coach. in three weeks you’re only going to get a taste anyway, so you might as well just pick a few places to see fairly well, especially if you want to get out of the cities a bit. I think it’s better to do a few places well than rush and have your lasting memory being a kind of ‘if it’s Tuesday this must be Paris’ feeling. lol.
anyway. personally Italy would be the last place I would chop from your itinery, because it is wonderful, but I also think that you need to have time to do Italy justice. also, there is so much just in Italy that if you are going to make a later trip, you could probably save all of Italy for then, whereas you probably wouldn’t make a trip back specially to go to Lucerne, say. When I went to Italy I saw Rome, Venice, Florence and Cinque Terre, was there for three weeks and it was an absolutely breathless rush and I really wish I’d had more time. and yes, one day you can go back, but you’ll never be able to go back and see it for the first time, so better to do it properly the first time! so if you are time constrained, I guess I agree it might be better to save Italy for a separate trip, but it is absolutely fabulous.
anyway. that was a rather convoluted answer, I hope it perhaps helped a bit. I travelled alone through Europe, although I was always meeting people, and I really think it’s all pretty safe for a lone female traveller, although I did find in northern France and Italy you’d get comments and whistles and stuff, but nothing serious, just annoying! If you stay in hostels, you should pretty much be able to meet up with people to go out and about with. and, eh, as for places to go, the tourist places are pretty standard, I doubt I can tell you much that lonely planet can’t! although my favourite places were probably the jungfrau (mountain) in Switzerland (from Lauterbrunnen, which is near Interlaken) and, hmmm, Paris in general, although my fave things in paris were probably musee d’orsay and versailles. I loved Barcelona, for some reason, it has a really cool vibe, and also really loved Edinburgh and Bath in the UK.
thanks for all the info!
ideally, i would have 1 1/2-2 months, but because of my schedule at home, i only have 3 weeks. i definitely don’t want to be rushing about. i’m always rushing about here, and want to enjoy my vacation and the cities i’m in.
my tentative plans were to spend 5 days in london, swing over to paris and take some day trips there. go over to lucerne then off to the south coast of france then over to barcelona. i would fly out of barcelona back to san francisco- home. italy would definitely be its own separate trip. my bf and i want to spend 1 1/2 months there and to greece.
i also didn’t want to spend most of my time traveling on a train when i could be wandering the city. with the cities i plan on visiting, it is more feasible to fly from city to city, or is the train ok? that’s where i’m totally confused, too!
i’m really not worried so much about traveling alone, it’s my bf and family. but hey! if i wait for other people to be able to go and afford the trip with me, i’ll never go!!!
*nods* yeah, rushing will just ruin it for you, and people I know who’ve tried to do the whistelstop tour thing ended up sick and exhausted and not having too much fun!
I think that proposed itinery sounds pretty good, definately much more doable than trying to include Italy too.
I think you should be able to fly from most of those places. the big discount carriers mainly fly out of the UK and Ireland, and they’re not always great for flying between european capitals, without backtracking to london or something each time. I think what I would do is go speak to a travel agent, tell them exactly where you want to go and see if they can suss out a round the world fare that will give you, say, your trip from the US to London, a few flights within Europe and your trip home. Because of all the airline alliances nowadays, you can put together some great rtw itineries. Then you can just fill in the gaps with trains or ryanair/easyjet flights. For instance, I wouldn’t waste a flight on the London-Paris trip, because the train is easy, fast and cheap.
without actually looking it up, I’d think you’d be able to fly from Paris to Lucerne. You may also be able to fly from Lucerne to the south of France, because Nice has an airport. I’m not sure about flights originating out of Switzerland, but I know easyjet fly there, but probably only from London. Again, you may be able to fly Nice-Barcelona as well, or else you’d be able to do that by train. anyway, I’m not up on all the ins and outs of the various airline schedules, so what I would suggest is make a travel agent take you through your options really thorougly, and then also look at ryanair.com and easyjet.com and any other discount carriers you can find and see if you can put a cheaper package together yourself, or mix and match the two.
the trains can be really good. I used trains in Italy, France and the UK, and the French ones in particular were great. I went from Paris to Barcelona via a town called Cahors by train, and I loved that, the scenery was beautiful and the train really comfy. the trains really depend on what country you’re in, too, I know the swiss and german ones are meant to be fabulous.
and hehe, your attitude abotu travelling alone was mine exactly! I had all these friends who supposedly wanted to come with me and then when I was scraping money together, they were off shopping and whinging about how they really really wanted to come and couldn’t afford it. so I got sick of it and went alone and it was perfectly fine. you meet so many people anyway that it doesn’t really matter. I think I actually had more fun than I would’ve with my friends.
based on recommendations, i think i’ll be going to zurich rather than lucerne. the only flights in and out of zurich are coming from london, so that’s a possibility, just go there first then to paris.
i definitely will see a travel agent. i just want to make sure i won’t be rushing about and will actually have a chance to enjoy what i’m experiencing.
i think i’ll more fun by myself with friends, too!
did you ever take night trains while you were travelling alone? been hearing major horror stories. i plan on taking mostly night trains to cut down on travel time and renting a couchette… just for added security.
I love night trains. No horror stories at all! Great way to get from Zurich to Rome :)
Also.. easyjet.com and ryanair.com are your friends!
No, I didn’t. I travelled mainly by bus, and when I did take trains, they were during the day. I have heard those stories too. In my experience, most of the Europe horror stories are hugely exagerrated. Not to say that there isn’t some risk, but just be careful, and chances are you’ll be fine.
I did a night train from Bratislava to Prague and had no problems other than being woken up all the time. Eeek! I’ll be doing another night train tonight. I fly into Prague from Dublin and then Prague to Bratislava… Joy of getting in at midnight. If you’re doing a night train, my suggestion would be to buy the ticket the day before and arrive at the train station a half hour before the train leaves… otherwise, you might spend more time with the drunk and homeless than you want to. The half hour will give you time to figure out what is what and to head to the platform to wait. (And the drunks and homeless are generally not there.)
yes, the less time with drunks the better!
thanks for the tip!
i personally am not fond of the uk. i would only spend 4 days or so in london, though it may be a bit different for you as you have family there. i adore paris, i think 6 days would be a good amount of time there. and it would give you enough time to spend a day in montmarte. definitely try to visit luxembourg gardens, it’s a wonderful park in paris full of sculptures and parisians playing chess and fountains. i would save italy for another time. maybe visit a small city that only takes a couple of days, like brugge, beligium which is amazing.
at the most, i would probably spend 4-5days there, mainly to visit my family and just to take advantage of free lodging! jk… paris and barcelona are the places i can’t wait to see!!!
I am not a big fan of the UK either, and I am actually living here now. I just finished up living in Switzerland for 14 months, and I think it is a very under rated country. The UK is expensive, and London is a massive city. I would take more time to explore some places in Italy, Switzerland, and Spain…I loved all three of those countries.
Also, if you want a fun out of the way place, check out Luxembourg….great place, I did my study abroad there and all. Very nice location.
Ask anything if you want more help!
my mom always wanted to go to the alps, so she instilled this desire to visit switzerland. i only have time to visit one city, so what city do you think i should go to? i’d probably go there straight from paris…
thanx!
I love Zurich, because that is where I was. Great museums and all. There is a really cool train that goes to “the top of zurich” and you can climb a tower up there and get amazing pictures down the lake all the way to the alps! The bratwurst up top is great as well. There are tons of hostels and cheap hotels as well….i can point you in the right direction. Also, a good day trip from Zurich will take you to Rhine falls, which are amazing waterfalls between Germany and Switzerland :) I know there are trains from Paris to Zurich as well.
If you want a different city you could check out Geneva, Lausanne, and Lucerne….
obviously I am biased to Zurich.
I always felt very safe in Switzerland :)
To avoid tourists, stay away from Interlaken Switzerland.
i’m not familiar at all with switzerland, so thanks for all the recommendations! the alps!?!? my mom will be soooo jealous! how many days do you recommend staying in zurich?
I would give Zurich 3 days….enough to do some stuff, but not everything. I just really enjoy that city. It has a good nightlife as well. There are also tours run out of the city. There is one called the Heidi Land tour….you go to Leichtenstien and all…touristy, but my parents liked it :)
did you stay at a hostel or a hotel?
nothing wrong w/ touristy- once in awhile, anyways! =)
Nah, I am more than happy to help! I actually was living just outside of Zurich for 14 months, so I had a place. However, I did stay in a cheap but nice hotel right on the Niederdorf Strasses which is a main going out street and lots of people visited me and I also met a lot of random travellers, so I can come up with varying accomodations :) I really like helping people, I just hope you like it as much as I did. It is really my second home, next to Boston :)
BTW, in Zurich most people can speak more than decent english :)
i’m looking for a hostel that is clean, near major sites, and safe but is well within my student budget! basically, the impossible! =)
so you’re from boston, huh? i bet you’re pretty excited about what’s going on w/ the sox, hm? that’s probably an understatement!
Yeah, it is an understatement….but it makes me wicked homesick. Good thing I could still watch the games from the UK….
You can do good searches for hostels online and stuff as well, usually user reviews are good. I never had a hosteling card and I never had issues in the 18+ countries me and my backpack have managed so far :)
I use HostelWorld and they are generally right on. (Though I’m going to crap on a place I stayed…)
oh yeah? how bad was it?
i’m pretty picky about cleanliness… so i’m a little hesitant about hosteling it, but hey… it’s a great way to meet people!
Ummm. They moved me around twice… and moved other people around at least twice. I don’t know how that mess got sorted out. :/ I had a reservation but it was annoying to have the over booked thing and moving not just me but others. They had to move some one out of the bed they put me in and move them to another bed.
I just spent 8 days in Belfast… and I am amazed at how expensive THAT was even with free lodging. I’d been to London before and that was bad but I didn’t assume Belfast would be almost as bad.
I would also like to toss in the suggestion of Vienna and Prague. :) I’m partial to BRatislava but that’s because I want to move here/there as I love living there. (Currently in a hostel in Dublin.)
i would love to go to prague, but then, i only have 3 weeks to spend in europe. i wish i had twice as much time!
The people I met on the plane doing study abroad there said 2 months isn’t enough time to know Prague… :/