3 Months in Europe - Suggestions?

[Ayreonaut]

Hey everyone, a buddy and I are going to Europe for 3 months from March-June, and I'm wondering where we should try to go that isn't already on our list.

So far here's where we know we'll be going:

London (I've got relatives living there temporarily)
Dublin (A girl we went to school with is living there)
Copenhagen (As a result of getting a daily dose courtesy of FREKI )
Amsterdam
Paris

And I'm hoping to get to Edinburgh, Cologne, and Sweden as well.

So is there any place that is a must-see that I could probably fit in. As you can see we'll mostly be in Northern and Western Europe. Though we will be getting Eurail passes too.


Thanks.

[Jimby]

Even if you just get to the cities you mentioned, that would still be ambitious but doable.
London is the coolest city on the planet so you have to go there, and Edinburgh is worth seeing, but there is a lot of England and Scotland in between the 2 cities to see too.
Amsterdam is definitely a must see. I also enjoyed Heidelberg, Rothenburg, Munich, and Frankfurt (skyscrapers!) in Germany.
If you have time, Vienna, Salzberg and Graz are worth seeing in Austria.
You'll have a blast where ever you go!
edit: oh you wanted Europeans to tell you, not someone from your own back yard!

[Ayreonaut]

Anybody can give their input, I just thought this would be the best place. Thanks for the suggestions though.

Maybe I should have this moved to Skybar? It'd get a lot more traffic. Meh, I'll wait a couple days.

[R@ptor]

Originally Posted by Ayreonaut

Hey everyone, a buddy and I are going to Europe for 3 months from March-June, and I'm wondering where we should try to go that isn't already on our list.

So far here's where we know we'll be going:

London (I've got relatives living there temporarily)
Dublin (A girl we went to school with is living there)
Copenhagen (As a result of getting a daily dose courtesy of FREKI )
Amsterdam
Paris

And I'm hoping to get to Edinburgh, Cologne, and Sweden as well.

So is there any place that is a must-see that I could probably fit in. As you can see we'll mostly be in Northern and Western Europe. Though we will be getting Eurail passes too.


Thanks.

3 months is a lot of time and thanks to fast train connection and low-fares airlines you should be able to cover quite a lot of Europe in that time.


Here's my suggestion, primarily focusing on Central and Northern Europe as you mentioned it.

From one of your postings somewhere else I remembered that your starting point will be London.

London (7 days) - Dublin (2 days) - Edinburgh (2 days) - Brussels (2 days) - Amsterdam (4 days) - Hamburg (3 days) - Copenhagen (4 days) - Stockholm (4 days) - Berlin (5 days) - Dresden (1 day) - Prague (3 days) - Munich (3 days) - Salzburg (1 day) - Vienna (4 days) - Bratislava (1 day) - Budapest (4 days) - Ljubljana (1 day) - Venice (3 days) - Rome (5 days) - Florence (2 days) - Milan (2 days) - Zurich (1 day) - Strasbourg (1 day) - Paris (7 days) - London

That's 72 days overall, so there's still plenty of time to add to the cities where you would like to spend more time or add other cities. In addition this route would limit the travel time between each of those cities to not more than 2-4 hours by HSR and you have the two largest cities London and Paris at the beginning and the end and not right after each other.

[FREKI]

With so much time you should deffinetly not miss out on Southern France ( Cote d'Azur ) and Monaco..

And Sweden is a nice place too...

If you swing by Copenhagen, neither Berlin nor Hamburg will be far away.. especially Berlin will probable be an interesting place to visit for a NA'er.. ( both a really nice cities )


My personal advice would be not to cram too much into it - give yourself some time to releax each place and leave something for next time you're going here.. with 3 months I'd personally probable pick a couple cities and stay about a week in each, so it's not just the turist districts you see while stressed about getting up early and catch a plane or something.. also with a city as a base you can explore the surroundings without the stress of constantly being on the move.. ( f.ex here in Copenhagen you could take a day trip to nearby Malmö or a 2 day cruise to Oslo - even a daytrip to Jutland is posible if you don't mind getting up early ( you can always sleep on the train )


So all in all go where you feel like, just don't pack too much in it as stress can easily take the fun out of a vacation..

[Ayreonaut]

Yeah, R@ptor's map looks pretty full, I'm not sure we'll do that much. I know my friend did want to see a fair bit of France, so maybe a trip to Southern France is in order. We have a month and a bit to think about it, so we'll figure something out before we leave, I don't want to just wing it or anything.

Thanks for the input.

[The Dirt]

I was able to stay in roughly 12 cities in 4 countries for a 2 month trip to Asia. That's 5 days per city on average. It was only slightly hectic, as I had plenty of time to relax. However, 24 cities in 3 months is less than 4 full days per city - not counting travel time. I would suggest that you cut it down to no more than 18 major stops at the highest end, or no less than 6 stops at the lowest end.

[Ayreonaut]

I think we'll be spending a week in London at the beginning, and a few days at the end. Paris for at least a week, Amsterdam for at least 5 days...

I don't think we'll hit much more than 10 cities.

[R@ptor]

Originally Posted by The Dirt

I was able to stay in roughly 12 cities in 4 countries for a 2 month trip to Asia. That's 5 days per city on average. It was only slightly hectic, as I had plenty of time to relax. However, 24 cities in 3 months is less than 4 full days per city - not counting travel time. I would suggest that you cut it down to no more than 18 major stops at the highest end, or no less than 6 stops at the lowest end.

It was just a suggestion. I would say it really depends on what cities you visit, if you only visit major capital cities a 5 day average might even be low, however from his first post it seems he wants to combine larger and smaller cities. And not many people would know what to do for 5 days in say Dublin or Edinburgh. You've seen pretty much all there is to see in 2 days max.

Originally Posted by Ayreonaut

so maybe a trip to Southern France is in order.

If you want to tour the south of France my advice would be to rent a car for a couple of days seeing as trains only connect the larger cities.

[Ayreonaut]

We're only 19 going on 20, we'd probably hit up some Scottish pub action if we get bored.

[BrianSac]

I would skip Germany (although Berlin is quite cheap) and spend most of my time in Southern France (Provence et Cote d'Azur), Spain, Portugal, London, Paris, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Rome, Florence and Venice. Don't forget the Greek Islands. Bon Voyage et Bonne Chance!

[Ayreonaut]

I dunno, Cologne seems so damn convenient, so close. Plus, both my friend and I have German heritage.

[BrianSac]

Originally Posted by Ayreonaut

I dunno, Cologne seems so damn convenient, so close. Plus, both my friend and I have German heritage.

Well, if you speak German, then I would definetly go to Germany. My partner is German and he has relatives in Munich and Stuttgart, so I've spent plenty of time in Germany. I've been to Berlin, Stuttgart, Munich, Heidelberg, Frankfurt, the Bodensee (a lake separating Germany and Switzerland), and several Bavarian very small towns. Honestly, If it were not for my partner's relatives I would never go back to Germany. It's not nearly as scenic. IMHO, Not one of the German cities I mentioned is as nice or interesting as the other places I mentioned in my other post. Germany is dark, cold, horrible weather, horrible food. But, Cologne does have an awesome gothic cathedral.

[Ayreonaut]

Neither of us speak any German. The great thing about a Eurail pass is that if we don't like a place, we can just get on a train and go somewhere else. So I at least want to check it out, and yes, I must see Cologne's cathedral.

[staff]

If you're gonna get around by train, then Germany is unavoidable (and awesome, mind you ). R@ptor's suggested itinerary is ambitious and thorough, but if you don't wanna stress around I'd say spend a little more - at least 5 nights - in every city you visit (and thus visit less cities)...

[The Dirt]

Originally Posted by R@ptor

It was just a suggestion.

I meant to say this earlier, but kudos on the map!

Also, the southern France idea sounds very good. One thing about long trips is sometimes the weather gets monotonous if you stick to one climate type. Doing some north/south travel helps depending on the time of year. However, it requires 2x the amount of clothes you pack.

[BrianSac]

Yep, that map is awesome.

You can skip Germany easily by traveling through France from the Iberian Penisula (Spain and Portugal) or Italy to make it to the United Kingdom and Holland. Also, many Europeans use cheap airlines (EasyJet, Ryan Air) to get around now. It's faster and many times cheaper than the train. Especially, for example, if you want to get from Barcelona to London or Paris. My German friends in Munich pushed the idea of using the cheap airlines over the long train rides. I travelled from Munich to Venice by train and honestly it would have been better to fly. I would be very selective in planning your train trips. You don't have to travel the whole of Europe by train to see some of the best countryside.

[Ayreonaut]

I think most of the train trips will be short trips between cities. And we're getting 2 month Eurail passes too, so we might as well use them.

[Ayreonaut]

I have a question about buying Eurail passes. Do I have to buy them before hand, like a plane ticket? Or can I buy them once we're already over there?

[FREKI]

Originally Posted by Ayreonaut

I have a question about buying Eurail passes. Do I have to buy them before hand, like a plane ticket? Or can I buy them once we're already over there?

Without knowing and without ever having tried it I'd think you can buy it in Europe - but since it's such an important part of your travels you want to be really sure before departing

A thing I know is needed is reservations to most of the trains - especially the inter city ones..

If you do make it by Denmark a resavation for IC trains ( intercity trains ) is a must - you might be lucky if going in off hours - but chances are you will forced to stand up in the back if without a one

These can be easily reserved online or at any manned trainstation - I'd advice you to do it atleast 1 to 2 weeks in advance and I'm pretty sure that goes for most of Europe, especially if travelling friday to sunday