High school graduation trip around Europe?

Question

Hello. For my high school graduation, my mother and I are going to take some time out of my summer and go traveling around Europe. I need some help. We are in the midst of planning and we have picked out some places we want to go to within the time we spend.

London, England

Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Paris, France

Marseille, France

Madrid, Spain

Barcelona, Spain

Venice, Italy

Rome, Italy

Pisa, Italy

Vienna, Austria

Prague, Czech Republic

Santorini, Greece

Athens, Greece

Are we leaving anything out? That is the order in which we are going in so far. Starting in England and ending in Greece, than coming back to America to start college. Now, another thing we are trying to figure out is the travel time in between. So if we start in London, how long will it take to get to Paris and Paris to Marseille and so on and so forth. If you can help me I'd really appreciate it.

Answer 1

i think ending in greece wouldn't be the most efficient route. try a clockwise motion - london to amsterdam to prague, then austria, then all the way down to greece. then, northwest to italy, france, then finally spain.

you can probably go to all of these places by train - buy a rail pass (eurail.com), where you can go on the train for something like 15 days for 700 or so per person.

i think you should definitely check out germany while you're in europe! berlin is an amazing city, and has great culture, and is generally as safe as the rest of western europe. it's right between amsterdam and prague, so it's on your way.

in rome, what about milan and florence? i would suggest staying out of the more southern parts of italy, opting for central or northern italy.

in france, there are a lot of other good cities, like nice, bordeaux, or the island of corsica.

otherwise, looks like a great itinerary. i hope you guys have a great time!

Answer 2

You should really go to Valenza, Spain. They have the America's Cup Town, and it's amazing!

What about Scotland?

You can look up a tour on Delta Airlines...

Good luck, have fun on your trip!

Answer 3

first off, you didn't say how long you had for this vacation. a few weeks i hope. i just moved back to the US from 5 yrs in italy so i can tell you that even though europe is small, it is not always super easy to get so many places visited in a short time. your budget will also dictate how you are getting around, but here's some ideas to get going...

1) you can start by choosing how you want to start and end your visit - as in, are you flying round trip out the same european airport or entering europe in one city & leaving from another?

2) after you choose your entry & exit strategy, cross check your must-see items/itinerary with a map of europe while you are researching ways to get around. you may end up changing the places you want to see as you decide between trains planes and automobiles, or you may find that timetables of transportation force you to do the route another way. i suggest this as the first part of your itinerary looks geographically smart but then jumping from prague to greece could be troublesome. mabe save greece for a separate trip?

or perhaps going from barcelona to prague, then vienna and heading south to venice, pisa, rome, greece; would work out better.

3) look into budget airlines for some faster hops: RyanAir, Easy Jet, Sky Europe, etc.  Keep in mind that they are very strict on luggage weight, but it will behoove you to travel LIGHT anyways.

4) trains: those nifty passes come in handy but sometimes only if you're doing a lot of back-to-back days of travel & not spending much time in the destination city. i really hope you aren't going all the way there to spend only 1-2 days in such great cities! caveat: taking the "chunnel" train from england to france would be a fun way to start the trip, and you could  back-track north to amsterdam via paris, then brussels. from brussels you could head south. or skip amsterdam and head from paris to marseille. BTW, train travel within france can be pricey. you may be able to get a cheap air france ticket from paris to marseille & save some time.

5) do your research. read guidebooks & find websites for the national railways, airlines, buses, tourist boards, or www.viamichelin.com (maps, driving directions & travel times by road)

--anyways, it all depends on how flexible your plans are & again, how much time you have. don't cheat yourself by trying to see too much and end up not seeing much of anything, but make sure you plan to see the stuff that matters to you.

HAPPY TRAVELS!!

Answer 4

I would add in a stop in Munich.  

I don't know exact travel times, or how you are getting from place to place (train?), but that's easy to find.  It seems to me you have things nicely spaced though.