Any advice for traveling to Europe for only 2 weeks? (esp. which countries and which method of transportation)

Question

My family is planning our first trip to Europe, and due to all our various schedules we can only fit in 2 weeks for the trip. The countries we all want to visit the most are Spain, France, S. Germany, Switzerland, and Italy. We plan on spending the bulk of our time in Italy and mostly just want to pass through the other countries to see some major sites and natural beauty; like 1 or 2 nights per country and then visit several Italian cities. Is it at all possible to visit all those places in only 2 weeks? If so, what is the best mode of transportation? I know most say the train, but I've also heard about bus transportation... anyone know anything about that?
I'm thinking we should fly into Madrid, then travel to Paris, then down to Munich, then through Switzerland to Venice, then Rome, Florence, Positano, and Pompeii, then travel up through S. France to Barcelona, up to Madrid and fly back... that sounds like a lot... is it possible?
If not, any suggestions on how to narrow it down?

Answer 1

You can do the "if its Tuesday this must be Belgium" routine but my advidce is don't.

When you only have a limited time its a terrible idea to waste a big chunk of it checking in and out of hotels, waiting for trains or planes, and physically traveling from one place to another.

Pick one or two places and leave it at that.

Answer 2

I agree with Rillifane and Mareeclara, do not try to get more than one country in that two weeks.

If you fly to Frankfurt, you can see a little of Germany and Switzerland en-route to Italy. You might go for an open jaw ticket. Flying into Frankfurt and home from Rome.

Flying within Europe is not very good, time economically.
You will loose half a day at least per flight. If the flight is early afternoon you will loose the whole day.

To get an idea on what amount of time you would spend in the train, check with a travel planner:
http://www.raileurope.com/us/rail/fares_schedules/index.htm
Madrid-Paris will take about 14 hours, Paris-Munich 6 hours, Munich-Bern 6, Bern-Venice an other 6, and now you have just arrived in Italy.
A six hour travel means that you need that day to travel and see the town you leave or arrive in, you can not do both and see both towns.
Paris takes more than a day to see, anything less than 3 is crazy, 6 days is not enough but will do.
Almost the same for Madrid, Munich, at least 2 days to get a feel for the town, and this way you would not have a lot of time left for Italy.

You will surely come back to Europe one day, so why not save Paris and Madrid for that next time, take Italy, (and maybe a little of Germany and Switzerland) for this travel.

Answer 3

Having lived in Germany for 3 years and visited most of those countries it is possiable to visit them all 2 weeks. Train is best when it comes to travel though, there are ways to travel other than train, but not as reliable. Train is fastest and it always runs. They also have these things for the train called family tickets, and it is about 40 euro and 5 people can ride on the ticket ALL day long, no need to buy any other tickets. Spain is beautiful, but you need at least 3-4 days to see everything, same with france. There is way too much to do in these places to rush through them. As for switzerland, and Italy, these you could do in a day or 2, they are so small and you can get from one side to the other in 6 hours driving time. Germany is beactiful, but you should really go to Berlin, and Koln, and Munich if you cant get anywhere else. Good luck and safe travels. and dont forget to have a good time.

Answer 4

I also agree that forcing too many places in such a short time is not the best......You will spend more time travelling than enjoying the place. I spent 12 days in Italy and only went to Verona, Venice, Montepulciano ( near-ish Sienna), Rome, Florence and Bologna.....I had 2 nights in Venice and 3 each in Rome and Florence with 1 night in the other places.
This was enough time to enjoy most places without too mcuh of a rush. I did some day trips from Rome to Pompeii and to Pisa and Lucca from Florence.

Train is definately the way to travel, much more effiecient that bus, unless its an out of way place then bus is probably the only way......buses tend to stop more so take longer ( as well as having food and confort stops.
If you like Italy the most then stay based there and do it well and forget the other places.....France is big place and has sooooo much to offer, only having a day or so is not going to cut them mustard.....I was based in the UK and travelled in my holidays ( as a teacher I had them every 6 weeks) for 18 months and I had the inteniton of going to more places ...includuding Germany ( I had taken German at school) and Switzerland where some of my relatives came from...I never got there, but I'm not overly upset...its going to be a while before I get back, but I have personally never heard many people ranking Germany and Switzerland in their top places or places not to miss....

Focus on 1 area...even then you will be still travelling a bit ( eg in my Italian adventure I spent 9 hrs getting from Venice to Sienna via Florence ( with a layover of an hour or so) and then onto Montepulciano...that was a whole day wasted with me seeing very little of anywhere!!!
Trains are also more reasonably priced than Germany etc in italy......
Try to figure out what you like seeing....eg mountains, coast, cities and what kinds of architechure like renaissance, medieval, other ( eg Venice), Roman.....do you like castles and churches?? ( ok you will see them regardless of where you go in Europe so count them in anyway)......then try to find an area that covers as many things...
Rome and Frankfurt seem to be good places to fly into ( lots of connnections) if you want to start somewhere....
Do some research into the places too.....this will shjow you how much to offer these places you get and experience them rather than "taste"them in a few hours ( which is what you will get with your option...or even less)......there is so much to offer.

Answer 5

Europe is well connected by budget airlines and in many cases you'll find their air fares cheaper than those of trains. Search at http://www.whichbudget.com and build your itinerary according to the fare structures available. http://www.vueling.com will give you an idea of budget airline fares on Vueling Airlines from Spain to Italy, Portugal etc.

Also train companies in the EU offer special family fares for certain journeys and you will be eligible to buy those tickets since you are from outside Europe. Check at http://www.thalys.com

http://www.bahn.de

http://trenitalia.it

From Madrid, I would suggest you visit Barcelona and then take a coach up to Andorra, one of the world's smallest countries. http://www.andorra.ad

From Italy, you can travel to two small countries- San Marino and Vatican City (in Rome).

Also, if you do make it to France, dont miss on Monaco and Monte Carlo.

Answer 6

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