Europe Trip Suggestions

So, I'm planning a trip to Europe next October with my boyfriend. We're going to go in the car and stop at various camp sites. We hope to do this over 21/28 days (I want to do it in 28 but the boyfriend is adamant only 21 but with no reason).

We would travel:

Day One: Dover-Dunkerque-Bruges- Delft/Rotterdam

Day Two: Rotterdam-Dusseldorf

Day Three: Dusseldorf-Stuttgart

Day Four: Stuttgart-Zurich/the Pre-Alps

Day Five: Hiking in the Pre-Alps

Day Six: Zurich-Munich

Day Seven: Munich

Day Eight: Munich-Cesky Krumlov-Prague

Day Nine: Prague

Day Ten: Prague-Swidnica/Wroclaw

Day Eleven: Swidnica

Day Twelve: Swidnica-Brno

Day Thirteen: Brno-Bratislava

Day Fourteen: Bratislava-Vienna

Day Fifteen: Vienna- Ljubljana

Day Sixteen: Ljubljana- Venice

Day Seventeen: Venice-Milan

Day Eighteen: Milan-Antibes

Day Nineteen: Antibes/Cannes/Monaco/Nice

Day Twenty: Anitbes/Cannes/Monaco/Nice

Day Twenty One: Nice-Montpellier

Day Tenty Three: Montpellier-Andorra

Day Twenty Four: Andorra- Limoges

Day Twenty Five: Limoges-Versailles

Day Twenty Six: Versailles/Paris

Day Twenty Seven: Versailles/Paris

Day Twenty Eight: Versailles-Dunkerque-Dover-Home

We're hoping to do this for a maximum of £2000 and no more.

So I was looking for advice on the chosen route; your suggestions for how to improve it etc, and some suggestions for what to do at each of the locations- especially unique or "untouristy" things to do.

Thank you
Little Pea

Sorry, but I think you are biting off more that you can chew.

First you do not take travel time into account. Second you forget that to have a full day somewhere you have to spend 2 nights in this place. Third you totally underestime just how much there is to see. For example you could easily spend 2 weeks between Düsseldorf and Stuttgart alone.

There is very good reason why it is strongly recommended that you plan on 2-3 weeks per country and 4-7 days for big cities like Munich, Vienna, Prague, Paris, etc.

I live in Germany and have been to Austria and Czech Republic recently; so I'll use this as a base recommend a possible initiary:

Day 1: Dover-Dunkerque-Bruges
Day 2: Bruges
Day 3: drive to Aachen in the morning, see the city and stay in Aachen for the night
Day 4: drive to Cologne, see the Cathedral, drive down the Rhine to Koblenz
Day 5: see the Rhine Valley between Koblenz and Frankfurt, drive to Heidelberg
Day 6: see Heidelberg

Day 7: explore the Black Forest
Day 8: explore the Black Forest
Day 9: Munich
Day 10: Munich (watch out for Octoberfest, maybe limit your stay there during this time)
Day 11: hike around Berchtesgaden
Day 12: Salzburg
Day 13: area around Salzburg
Day 14-17: Vienna
Days 18-21: back home or north to Prague, then Cesky Krumlov or Dresden, and drive home

For starters I have no idea why I said we'd be travelling next October when I really meant August. Secondly thank you for the advice; I had a feeling I might be told I was being overzealous. I just want to see so much of everywhere, I think I got a little bit over excited.

However, I'm not entirely certain I want to do so much of Germany because I wanted to take the trip to see some of what Europe had to offer so that I was encouraged to travel there again, rather than take what, according to your itinerary, is essentially a tour of the Rhine Valley and the Black Forest areas. Although I am fully aware you don't expect me to follow your proposed itinerary.

The reason we planned to spend only a day in some of the bigger cities was because we wanted the trip to be a taster of Europe; enough to encourage us to come back and visit our favourite places for a little bit longer.

Please forgive my ignorance though, I appreciate that I'm new at this and have pretty much no idea of what constitutes a feesable three week tour.

Your advice has been duely noted and I shall go away and have a chat with the manfriend. We'll definately do some thinking with reference to revising the journey schedule. For now though, further criticisms and advice are more than welcome.

Little Pea

have pretty much no idea of what constitutes a feesable three week tour.

1) Focusing on a certain area. There is no way you can see all of Europe in 3 weeks, 2 neighboring countries with select spots are doable though.

2) Destinations should be fairly close so that you do not have to spend so much time driving. A 6+ hour drive essentially means that you are wasting one precious travel day on getting from A to B. Figure out what you want to see and then look up approx driving times with a route planner.

3) With a 21 day tour you'll spend 2-4 days getting south and back. (To either Southern Germany, Southern France, Czech R., Austria, Italy, ...) So essentially you have around 18 days that you can spend travelling. A good distance to cover in one day is approx. 2-4 hours of driving time - this way you can see things and won't feel like all of your holiday took place in a van.

Driving 4 hours each day means that you can cover around 400 kms per day. So theoretically you could cover about 7200 kms plus the distance needed to get back to the UK. But: it makes a lot of sense to spent 2 nights in one place. This way you get a full day to see a bigger city instead of just passing it by. (As you were planning with your visit to Vienna.) This means driving every second day, visiting 7-10 destinations, covering around 3500 kms plus the 1500 kms for getting back to the UK.

If I was you I would construct a roundtrip though Europe that from Calais to Calais covers approx. 3000-5000 kms.

[ Edit: Edited on 21-Aug-2009, at 06:01 by t_maia ]

Thank you ever so much for your advice it will prove extremely useful, I'm sure. I will look into what area we will think about travelling to and take into consideration all of the advice you have given. I hope I haven't proved to be an annoyance with my general ignorance and over-zealous nature.

Thank you once again,
Pea.

Hi,

I will travel to Vienna with my husband this Oct. We plan to spend 6 days in vienna city and 4 days for the rest of the places in Austria or neighbouring country. We plan to travel by train but have no idea where else we wanted to go. Would anybody give me a suggestion routes and what type of train ticket i should purchase ?

Thanks,
Vitamin88

Please, no thread highjacking. If you have a question, start a new thread yourself.