First Trip to Europe Itinerary

If you are planning your beginning trip to Europe, it tin exist an overwhelming feel. Where should you go? How much volition it cost? How many places can y'all visit?

Does this sound familiar?

We become emails every 24-hour interval from people who want advice planning their first trip to Europe. And nosotros see the aforementioned questions over and over once again. So we wrote this post to answer your questions and give you some things to call up about as y'all plan your Europe itinerary.

How to Programme Your First Trip to Europe

Don't Try to See Everything on Your First Visit

I can't tell y'all how many times we get emails that go something like this: "I have 10 days in Europe and I am planning to visit Rome, Venice, Paris, London and Belgium. Do you think that's too rushed?"

It'southward simply similar saying "I have 10 days in the United states of america. I would similar to visit Boston, New York City, Washington DC, Miami, and Chicago. Do you think that's besides rushed?"

We get it. Europe is huge and it's loaded with "must-see" spots. Paris, Rome, Barcelona, London, Amsterdam, and Venice all make the must-see list for many first time travelers Europe. They are all amazing places to visit. And with then many fantastic sites to see, information technology tin can be very difficult to narrow your list down to just a few destinations.

You will have a much better time if you don't try to become to a new city every day. The longer you spend in each identify, the more than y'all go to know it. In that location are some cities, like London, Paris, and Rome, which literally could keep y'all very busy and very entertained for a expert five or more days.

Here are some basic guidelines for how many places you can visit depending on how much fourth dimension you have:

  • With 7 days: 2 cities OR i city with day trips
  • With ten days: 3 cities OR two cities with twenty-four hours trips
  • With fourteen days: 4 cities OR a road/railroad train trip through 1 or two countries

Barcelona

Barcelona, Spain

If yous wait at your itinerary and you wonder if y'all are moving too fast or yous are trying to squeeze as well much in, odds are, y'all probably are.

If you have 10 days and yous plan to visit iv major cities, it can exist done, but it will be a rushed, exhausting experience. And y'all will exist spending most of that time on trains and planes. Don't forget that yous will have to spend time traveling between destinations likewise as packing, unpacking, and checking into hotels.

Here is a sample itinerary through London, Amsterdam, and Paris:
  • Twenty-four hours one: Arrive in London
  • Solar day 2: London
  • Day 3: London
  • Day 4: London
  • Day 5: Morning time train to Amsterdam, sightseeing in the afternoon
  • Day 6: Amsterdam
  • Twenty-four hour period seven: Morning train to Paris, sightseeing in the afternoon
  • Mean solar day 8: Paris
  • Twenty-four hour period 9: Paris
  • Day 10: Fly domicile

On this itinerary y'all become to iii major cities. And even this itinerary is a bit rushed. You could really apply an extra mean solar day in each urban center but because there is and then much to run into and do in each of them.

For some more examples on how to plan ten days in Europe, check out these itineraries:

Examples of visiting 3 cities:

  • x Days in Central Europe: Budapest, Vienna & Prague
  • 10 Days in Poland: Gdansk, Warsaw & Krakow

Examples of exploring i region:

  • 10 Solar day Bavaria Itinerary
  • 10 Days in Kingdom of norway: The Ultimate Road Trip through the Fjord Region

Amsterdam at Twilight

Amsterdam

Don't Forget to Cistron in Travel Fourth dimension

And then permit's say that you have ten days in Europe and you've narrowed downwardly your itinerary to 3 cities. How do yous get around?

That depends on where you are going.

For cities that are close to one another, say Barcelona, Madrid, and Seville, the railroad train would be your all-time option. If you lot are visiting Stockholm, Copenhagen, and Amsterdam, then you volition use a combination of planes and trains to become effectually.

Getting from city to city takes time, of course. And you demand to factor this in, not simply when planning your itinerary but also choosing where to go.

Merely as a crude estimate, information technology will accept about 4 hours, or half of a day, to get betwixt two cities. This time can go up if the cities are far apart. And so, if y'all are visiting three cities, y'all will lose virtually one twenty-four hour period in total just traveling from place to identify.

We usually program to transfer betwixt cities kickoff matter in the morning. By taking an early train, nosotros can usually bank check into our hotel by noon and accept the entire afternoon for sightseeing. Occasionally, we will take an evening train if nosotros want to have a picayune actress time in our departure city.

PRO TRAVEL TIP: What about luggage? Let'due south say you arrive by train to Florence at 11 am. It'south too early to check into your hotel, so what should you practise with your luggage? Y'all have 2 options. You lot can either store you luggage at the luggage storage area in the train station (and retrieve information technology at the terminate of the day) or have your hotel hold your luggage for you. We email our hotel ahead of fourth dimension just to make sure they can hold our luggage for us (merely so far no 1 has told us no).

Dubrovnik Croatia

Dubrovnik, Croatia

Using Trains versus Planes

In some scenarios, you lot might have the option to fly or to take a railroad train to get from one city to another. When looking at travel times, a one 60 minutes flight may expect a lot more fourth dimension efficient than a 3 hour high speed train, but that is not always the case.

At that place is much longer cheque-in process for flights (we usually bank check in two hours before our flight). For train travel, in almost cases you can make it just before your divergence fourth dimension, although some high-speed trains request that y'all arrive 30 minutes earlier departure fourth dimension.

Train stations are located in city centers. From the station, it might be just a short walk or metro ride to get you lot to your hotel. Airports are located outside of the cities and it can accept 15 to 30 minutes (or even longer in some cities) to get into the city heart. You'll have to do this twice and this could tack on another hour to your travel time if you plan to fly.

We tend to lean towards train travel whenever possible. Information technology'south fast, it's cheap, and it's much more eco-friendly than aeroplane travel.

PRO TRAVEL TIP: You can relieve time (and money on a hotel room) by booking an overnight train. It might as well be worth getting a rail pass if you lot programme to hop from city to urban center.

Use Open up Jaw Flights to Maximize Your Time

Open jaw flights get in in ane city and depart from a dissimilar city (for example, you get in in London and depart from Paris).

You lot can relieve a lot of time past booking different arrival and departure cities.

Let'southward say you want to visit Rome, Florence and Venice (who wouldn't?!). If you fly to Rome and so fly dwelling house from Venice, yous relieve most half of a day, the time it would take to backtrack to Rome.

In many cases, it is not more expensive to exercise this. We have flown open up jaw many times for the aforementioned toll every bit a round trip flight.

In some cases, it may be more expensive to wing open jaw. If information technology is, then yous have to decide if it is worth spending a little extra money to save some fourth dimension. Maybe it's worth spending a little more coin for extra time in Venice than to take the train back to Rome (and don't forget to effigy that train cost into the decision to take an open jaw flight).

Hallstatt Austria

Hallstatt, Austria

What well-nigh Jet Lag?

Jet lag is the feeling of fatigue you get from crossing multiple time zones. Some lucky people accept minimal symptoms while others tin experience exhausted for several days.

If you are flying to Europe from the USA, well-nigh likely you will be on an overnight flying, arriving in the morning time or midday. There is a very good adventure that y'all will feel tired on your commencement day merely if y'all had trouble sleeping on the airplane, you lot may feel more like a zombie.

To become over jet lag quickly, it's usually all-time to stay awake that start day and go to bed early. I will admit that there have been a few times where we took a midday nap because we desperately needed it.

With this being said, information technology is commonly all-time not to schedule a busy list of things to do on the kickoff day of your itinerary. Sure, you lot will be excited to be in a new place and that can exist energizing, but it will notwithstanding be hard for virtually people to office at 100% on that first mean solar day.

Should Yous Rent a Motorcar?

There are some spots in Europe that are simply perfect for a road trip. Norway, Republic of ireland, Slovenia and the Balkan Peninsula are all some of our favorite spots to explore with the freedom that a rental car provides. But before you rent a machine at that place are some things you lot should know earlier you go.

If you lot are considering renting a car for your European trip, we have an article all about exciting things like International Drivers Licenses, how to choose a rental car visitor, vignettes and more. Read information technology here:

10 Things to Know Before Renting a Car in Europe

Colmar France

Colmar, France

How Practise We Program Our Itineraries?

Before you plan out your itinerary y'all demand to do some research first. Flight costs, time of year, hotel availability, and tour availability all need to be factored into your controlling.

Let's say you decide to spend 10 days in Ireland. What do you lot need to know before you beginning making reservations?

We get-go off by researching flight costs. If you can exist flexible with your dates you might exist able to save money by flight mid-week versus the weekend.

One time nosotros take our flying dates, nosotros plan out our itinerary within those specific dates.

If y'all are planning a tour or a visit to a major attraction, make sure those dates align and work with your itinerary.

Yous tin too exercise a quick hotel search to make sure that there are no surprises with hotel costs or availability. If y'all are booking your trip well in advance (4 months or before) this will exist less of an issue. Merely at destinations similar the Island of Skye, the Lofoten Islands, the Cinque Terre, the islands in Republic of croatia, and the south coast of Iceland, hotels tin can sell out many months in accelerate, leaving either no availability or dreadful places that you normally wouldn't consider.

Once everything looks similar it works out, we book our flights and and so volume the hotels, the rental car (if necessary) and activities.

Present, with the increase in tourism, information technology also helps to research the main sights yous are visiting so book your tickets in advance. We recently went to San Francisco and missed out on touring Alcatraz because tickets were sold out for three months!!

In our articles, we let you lot know what y'all need to reserve ahead of time to avoid disappointment (similar our Alcatraz experience). It may be extra piece of work to book your tickets ahead of time, only in today's earth it has become a necessity in gild to see some of the globe's most popular sites.