FIRM Europe itinerary, suggestions welcome

H

HornFan10

25+ Posts
Background. My roommate and I are going to do a four week backpacking tour of Europe and have all flights/hostels booked. I was looking for any suggestions as to what to do, what to avoid, or any other general tips.

We are both single and just graduated college so are definitely into both the sightseeing and the nightlife.

Itinerary:

London (4 days)
Amsterdam (2 days)
Paris (3 days)
Rome (4 days)
Florence (2 days)
Cinque Terre (day trip)
Interlaken (day trip)
Nice (3 days)
Barcelona (5 days)
Madrid (3 days)

All replies appreciated
 
1. Not enough time in Amsterdam.

2. Interlaken as a day trip won't be worth the 10 hours you'll spend getting there and back. Either cut it off and add a night in Amsterdam, or spend the night there at Balmer's (party hostel) and head to Nice from there.
 
well we decided we did want to do the canyoning there, so we were willing to pretty much give up a whole travel day to check that out.

anybody else? places to eat, go out etc...?
 
More time in Interlaken and Cinque Terre...

Less time in Nice and can shave a day off of Barcelona.....

The key to this trip is to be flexible, you will meet a ton of other backpackers and may have an awesome time somewhere and want to stay another day....

Don't worry about having the hostel booked.....your main concern is in Amsterdam, Interlacken, Balmers and alwas forget what the one in Amsterdam is called are hard to get res at......maybe want to line up a few of the good ones in Paris, Rome, and Barcelona. My biggest regret was not going to Cinque Terre.....everyone has said it was amazing.

Nice is not so great......rock beaches.....ugh....

I would take your 8 days in Spain and venture to Valencia, Granada, Salamanca, etc.....huge study abroad college party cities.....

Be Flexible......i am jealous wish i could do it again.
 
1- You are spending plenty of time in Amsterdam. You can get stoned anywhere in the world. Yes it is a great city, but if you are trying to take in a lot of things, you don't need to spend tons of time there. (It depends on what your goal is there.)More later.ROME- If you are there mid-week, see the Pope give Wednesday morning Mass.

Colosseum, the Forum, Trajan's Column, the Pantheon, Vatican City, Trevi Fountain... Have a cappuccino.

Interlaken- Canyoning

Nice- is nice

When are you going? If you can catch a soccer game in London, Amsterdam, Paris, Rome, Florence, BARCELONA, or Madrid, I would recommend it.

Paris- Musee D'Orsay, Louvre, Arc de Triomphe, Tour Eiffel, Notre Dame (I like "La Grande Arche"), Versaille (this will take over half a day to a full day to get there, see the inside, and check out the gardens, before getting back to town). If you see all that and still want more- Sacre Coeur and then maybe L'Opera.

EAT A CREPE WITH NUTELLA!! (from a small shop window on the street)

Go to the Left Bank and eat a "Prix Fixed" meal from one of those restaurants in the Greek restaurant area. Try to eat some ESCARGOT. (Delicious)


Florence- See David and see the church (il Duomo). If you want to see the Ufizi (sp?), make a reservation a week or more in advance. You do NOT want to waste 1/2 - full day waiting in line to see two Botticcelli's (sp?) and a couple of other works.

Barcelona- Go out all night and try to get laid. See a couple of museums there. Dali? Picasso? Check out Gaudi's church.

Madrid- See "Barcelona". Go to the PRADO MUSEO y the MUSEO with Picasso's "GUERNICA". Check out the Palace. Plaza del Sol, Plaza Mayor...

Buy a Cuban cigar... because you can.
 
I know you said it's a firm itinerary but damn, I can't recommend Prague enough to people, especially a couple of young dudes. Cheap beer and gorgeous women, not to mention the remarkably preserved medieval architecture.
I would DEFINITELY go there if you can alter your schedule a bit.
 
I would add somewhere in Germany if at all possible, especially Munich. Great city, especially in the summertime when you can hang in the beer gardens.
 
Re: Roma

1. Avoid guide-book restaurants. You can get an incredible meal and good cheap house wine anywhere in Rome. Why eat among tourists when there is so much eye-candy at restaurants frequented by Romans?

I highly recommend Bruni on Germanico near the Ottaviano metro stop for steaks.

Pastarito is a good cheap place and they have 13 locations. Its not romantic or trattoria-ish but the portions are huge and well priced.

Il Peperoncino Dispettoso is a great place for Neopolitan (thick-crust) pizza.

Do not go to Alfredo's.

2. Campo de Fiori is okay. Actually its probably highly recommended, I just get tired of it. At least you can meet some girls that speak English. Roman women are not exactly forward or all that receptive to advances (they are ******* beautiful though.) Americans and Canadians on the other hand... You'll probably even meet some girls from Texas.

There are a ton of Irish pubs. Abbey Theatre is pretty popular, but there are no women. The steak sandwhich is highly recommended if you are tired of European food. The Irish breakfast is pretty money and available all day.

Do not go to Trinity College.

If you stay out late the Metro will stop running and only the night buses will be available. They suck and are IMO dangerous. Take a taxi if possible.

If you can, go to the beach in Ostia. Take the train all the way to Colombo and walk across the street to "Venezia." Or, follow the masses onto the bus to the free beach. Its a great cheap way to spend the day relaxing and recharging, and less than an hour from Rome. It gets packed on the wknds so get there early (like 11) and leave kind of early (like 3 or 4) because the trains are crowded coming back. Did I mention topless women?

3. Go to the Vatican and St. Peter's early or late. Everyday the line is getting longer and its getting hotter.

The Pantheon is awesome (try to go at noon) and is a pretty good piazza in the evening.

The Forum and Colosseum are going to be crowded, but not uncomfortably so. Latch on to a tour-guide for free. Take the Metro Linea B to Colosseo, and walk out. It is an incredible and overwhelming way to be introduced to Roman history.

Don't buy water or eat near the big tourist spots like Spagna or the Vatican. Walking 2 blocks will save you a ton of money. Also buy wine at pizzarias and beer at pastry shops. Seriously. 10-12% "service" is almost always included in the bill, as is a few Euro bread or seating charge. So, do not tip like you would in America. I usually leave a few Euro if the service was good. It usually isn't. At this point (and at this exchange rate) I can't even fathom tipping 20%. For taxis just round up. Especially in Florence.

Make RSVP for the Accademia (David) and Uffizi soon. Climbing to the top of the Duomo or St. Peter's is IMO overrated. The Duomo is the better of the two.

Finally, try not to stand out like a tourist. The other day at the Forum I had to wait for some douche in an OU hat to move so that he didn't ruin my pic. Wear sunglasses and lose the backpack. Have a great time and embrace the culture.

Your trip looks amazing, have fun and stay safe.

Let me know if you have further questions about Roma or Italia.
 
Interlaken is damn near impossible to do as a day trip - I would seriously re-think that. I really don't even see how it's feasible and trust me, once you get there and see the beautiful scenery, you aren't going to want to immediately hop back on a train after a day of canyoning.

Barcelona was a very average European city IMO. Maybe I just had too high of expectations. It was fun for a few days but 5 days is overkill and a total waste of time elsewhere. I liked Madrid much, much more (the nightlife is unreal). I would personally try to do 3 in each then get down to Sevilla or Granada for a couple of days. In Barcelona, I would reccomend taking a day trip to Sitges beach - 45 mins away and much nicer than the Barca beaches.

Amsterdam 2 days is not near long enough. So many people assume the only thing to do there is smoke - thats BS. I've spent 8 days there and still haven't seen everything I want to see. Of course, thats probably due somewhat to
smokin.gif


As for going out in general, I would try to buy a book called "Party Europe" - It's written by 4 different Americans with different likes/dislikes and was pretty much $$ as far as picking out the spots to go to. It's easy to find nightlife on the weekends but this book was solid for the random Monday and Tuesday nights.
 
thanks a lot for all of the suggestions. seriously.

by day trip to interlaken, i dont exactly mean just one day. we land in geneva late one night, get up early the next day to go to interlaken, have all day there including canyoning, and then leave the next day.

we included cinque terre so as to avoid all cities, and are thinking about taking a day trip somewhere in the spanish countryside during our time in barcelona.

thanks again yall
 
FLY!?!?!?!

Did i see those words? Seriously the one of the great parts of the trip is the Trains. It is a ton of fun and very very easy to navigate. You meet tons of people and it is usually a pretty big drunk fest when you spot the americans. Buy a Euro pass and you can start your trip with a "game plan" and then adjust accordingly. Yes it is cheap to fly in Europe and you may want to do so on some trips that might require the overnight train, but those were cool as well considering you basically board, drink, pass out, and poof you wake up at the new destination......

seriously take the train.....i knew quite a few people do some freaky stuff on there.
 
Do you have a job waiting for you when you get back? If not, my suggestion is to make your return flight open-ended. That or plan to go again. Your trip is going to be a whirlwind and you'll hardly remember anything. Bring a journal and make notes so you can remember where to spend more time next trip.

I pulled the same stunt. I guess it's hard to avoid when there's so much to see. Next time you'll know better.
 
i do not have a job waiting for me, but i do have a limited budget. i hope to maybe get back to europe after law school three years from now.

and with respect to the flying/train debate, it was actually cheaper to fly all around. our buddies who were abroad strongly recommended flying since we wanted to do so much in so little time. our itinerary would not be feasible if we were doing the eurorail.
 
Couple more things...

1. Flying vs. Trains -- Flying is *** cheap in Europe; unfortunately, it can take you out of the way, and the time spent getting from the city to the airport and airport to city can be a wash with train time. The airports are secondary, or thirdary, or fourthdary airports, e.g. I flew from "Frankfurt" to "London" on Ryan Air; the Frankfurt airport was closer to Cologne, and the London airport was closer to London. Something to take into account when planning. Also, a student ID can get you a discount on train tickets if you don't go the Eurail route.

2. Canyoning in Interlaken -- I went back in the day a couple weeks before Adventure World killed 20 people, but the setup was that AW came to Balmers (which doesn't take reservations) and signed everyone up the night before. I would assume the concession that operates canyoning now a) picks out the right length bungee cord, and b) does sign-ups about the same way.
 
Agreed on the flying. It's good for long trips across Europe but an absolute pain in the *** for short ones. For example, the airport in Milan was about an hour bus ride to the city of Milan.

The good thing about trains is you get on and off in the middle of the city center.

Good plan on going back after law school - I went 5 weeks after the bar and it was a blast!
 
5 days is WAAAAY too much for barcelona, and a day trip in cinqueterre is CRAZY. you need two days in cinqueterre. if you do the hike, you'll want to relax and eat some great pasta del mare and drink some of their local wine.

edit: more later
 
again, by day trip, i meant we have a full day there...we get there a thursday night have all day friday and leave saturday...

also, we are training around italy and from nice to barca...the flying is for the travel between countries
 
the one train trip that you should fly is actually the Nice-Barcelona that is a hella overnight train.

you are going for 28 days? I did the same and literally hit up

Amsterdam, Munich, Zurich, Interlacken, Venice, Florence, Milan, Rome, Nice, Barcelona, Granada, Madrid, Salamanca, Paris, Amsterdam. (zurich and milan i would not....cinque terre and prague i would of)

All by train....yeah...pretty worldwind....but every train station dropped you off in the middle of the action. Come to think of it there was not one city that i got off a train and had to take a bus or cab....

If you were going to travel around texas would you fly from Dallas to Austin to Houston etc....same difference.....a lot of these train rides are not long at all. Florence to Rome is like 1.5 hours by train.
 
Since you are only in Paris for 3 days, I doubt you'll want to invest an entire day at the L'ouvre.

Therefore, in order to fulfil your "culture" requirement, hit the Musee' d'Orsay on the Left Bank. You can get there when it opens, get through it in a couple of hours (of course, longer if you want), and you'll get a very excellent world-class museum experience without having to navigate the vastness of the L'ouvre.

With all due respect to the above poster, and to Marie Antoinette, I spent the better part of a day at Versailles, and wished I hadn't. After about 10 minutes, I got the picture.....I'm in a big *** guady house with a lot of rooms.
 
don't fly. its kind of dumb to fly. take the trains. they are awesome, and they are easy. you'll save money. your itinerary lends itself to train rides. you don't have to reserve a seat and you have a fuckload more flexibility.

please don't fly anywhere in europe. its so small and easy to travel on the train.
 
I disagree, the eurail pass was not cheap at all and if you plan in advance you can buy plane tickets between almost any 2 cities for $50 euro or less. However the train ride between Paris and Munich was an awesome party and one of my best memories of my trip.
My advice (I went to London, Paris, Munich, Rome, Florence, Barcalona last month):
Too many days in Barcalona, add an extra day to Interlaken and go skydiving. I had some friends who did it and the pictures are unbeliveable.
Munich was my favorite city by a large margin, I can't recommend it enough.
After 3 days in Rome I was ready to head out, the public transport their absolutely sucks.
 
Interlaken is the most beautiful place I have been to in my entire life. Spend as much time there as you can.
 
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