My Western Europe Tour Itinerary 1st draft
It’s coming! Another 2 months and I’ll be in London! A big round of applause to our budget airline AirAsia, which had encouraged me to travel to Europe again after 12 years. I’ve booked my air tickets 3 months ago and I finally have my first Western Europe tour itinerary drafted recently. The whole idea of the trip is to visit some of the top cities in Western Europe in a short period of only 14 days. Reasons why being such a short period off course includes budget, my work and also my children. So 14 days is all we (initially I’m going with my wife only but eventually we are going in a group of 5 including Jean, her siste, my brother in law and a friend of mine) have in Europe. And my role has also changed from a husband and lover to a tour leader and organiser of this small tour group! Ha ha!
If you know where I’m coming from, I’m the advocate for budget travel. It would be my biggest pleasure to have saved more in my travel! 🙂 Since budget is our next biggest constraint other than time, how and which cities to cover in Europe is a challenge to me. Since none of them have been to Europe before, I thought we better concentrate on those my Top 5 Cities in Europe. To be less ambitious, I’ve opted out Prague. Since we have only 14 days, I decided we travel only the Western European coutries, start from and end in London (the only European destination Air Asia X covers).
In order to plan out our preliminary itinerary of the Western Europe trip, I needed to consider these following factors in advance:
- Transportation cost. I would say transportation cost is the biggest expense of our trip, contribute no less than 50% of the total cost. Though we have bought low fare air tickets to London, we still need to move domestically from London to other cities and countries. We have 2 options here: by plane of train. Different route has different pricing at different timing. In other words, it affects my itinerary planning with tight budget!
- Number of places of interest. Firstly, transportation cost would increase if we travel more. Secondly, less time we are going to have at each destination if we travel more. Thirdly, which travel destinations we would die for visiting it once? These are the factors to consider.
- Season or Festival? Since we have confirmed our return flight tickets, we couldn’t change the season when we will be there. I prefer travelling Europe in May because it’s end of Spring. I love vibrancy of Spring and Jean scared of coldness, that’s it. It’s already my perfect traveling period to Europe. Festival? Ok, I’m searching for the period of any festival going on there during May, so we could pop by if possible (or we could avoid for extremely high crowd). Also the day of weekly open flea market might be our consideration as well;
- Accommodation cost. Budget hotel in Paris would not cost the same with either Venice or London. So planning our itinerary would also depends on the cost of living and number of days to stay there. For me, any place or city in Europe has its own attractions that worth hundreds Euro to stay and needs months to explore. So, which travel destination to stay longer would only depends on the accommodation cost of that place. that’s the only factor, and
- Strictly for ladies. They haven’t got enough money to try the German knuckles or beer but they always have plenty to spend on fashion! Insertion of certain shopping paradise into our itinerary would please our ladies in group. Planning to spend a day in London shopping at the final days would be a good idea.
In view of the above factors, I have drafted a preliminary Western Europe tour itinerary for 14 days. Check this out:
- 1st day – From KL to London. Stay in central London;
- 2nd day – From London to Paris via EuroStar. Stay 2 nights;
- 4th day – from Paris to Munich via rail. Stay 1 night;
- 5th day – From Munich to Venice. Stay 2 nights;
- 7th day – From Venice to Florence. Stay 2 night;
- 9th day – From Florence to Rome. Stay 2 nights;
- 11th day – From Rome back to London. Stay 2 nights, and
- 13th day (midnight) – From London back to KL on the 14th day.
This is just my preliminary planning. I need your feedback to tell me whether I’m too ambitious or we should stay more days in either city. What do you think about this itinerary for short trip to Western Europe? 🙂 – Travel Feeder, the ultimate travel photo blog.
About The Author
Cecil Lee
The author is an avid traveler and photography hobbyist who loves to share with others his travel and photo-taking experience in many popular tourist destinations around Europe, Asia and Australasia. Read the exciting stories with many photos captured on his journeys.
Sounds for me like a stressy trip. How you can see all the beautiful places for good in such a short time???? You can’t, because you will be running from one touristy place to the other. I don’t think I would do it. I am from Europe and traveled all over almost, but never ever in such a short time period.
- February 20, 2010.-= Susanne Van Hulst´s last blog ..What is he looking for? =-.
wow…so nice to be travelling! 🙂
- February 20, 2010.-= MeiTeng´s last blog ..Shoot The Food =-.
It is a pretty ambitious trip and you’ll probably be pretty pooped before it is over, but it really depends on what your goal is. If you want to see the highlights of several cities and countries, then your itinerary allows that. If you’d like to have a somewhat relaxing trip and get to experience more of the places you visit, then you’ll end up disappointed.
- February 22, 2010.-= Cherrye at My Bella Vita´s last blog ..Guest Blogger Monica: Our Escape to Calabria =-.
as cherrye said it’s going to be surely an ambitious trip but in the short time you have probably this route will give you an overview of Europe’s most beautiful cities. it’s not going to be an easy stroll but it’s a classic route for your time frame. just make sure you stay in an hotel in the city center, they are not coming cheap but at least you don’t have to waste precious time commuting. I have been in London, Rome, Paris and Venice and always enjoyed walking around while discovering the city’s treasures.
- February 23, 2010@Susanne,
- February 24, 2010Thanks for your advice. I’ll look into my itinerary draft to revise whatever I can to make the trip less stressy. Perhaps you could also advice which city should I drop out from this short Europe tour?
@Cherrye,
- February 24, 2010Thanks for your advice Cherrye. Exactly as what you mentioned, I’m now at the junction struggling to decide either to cover more cities with highlights only OR, less places but more relax and get more local experience. I’m striving to get a balance…
Perhaps you could suggest something Cherrye?
@Marta,
- February 24, 2010Thanks for your advice Marta. If I’m sticking to this itinerary at the end, I will surely book somewhere nearer to town center in expense of cost but save more time as you suggest.
Perhaps you could suggest anywhere to stay? 🙂
From my opinion, you can drop Munich and spend more time in London, or another night in Paris. I stayed in Paris for 4 days 3 nights, and still think it is not enough. About London… Mmm… how to put this… I lost count on how many times I have visited this lovely city and still, I haven’t finished visiting it. Hehe…
- February 24, 2010hey cecil, wow how exciting…. personally i would drop one destination too, to spend more time in other cities. i see from ur previous posts that u’ve visited some of the cities before – so perhaps u could choose to revisit ur fav places only?? actually florence, rome, venice are on my to-visit list… so i wouldn’t be able to comment which to city to skip!
- February 25, 2010.-= lechua´s last blog ..Gong Xi Gong Xi! =-.
@lechua,
- February 27, 2010Yes. I’ve been to all cities in my itinerary draft but it was like 13 years ago, and all these cities are my favorites. So, it’s still hard to choose any among them to skip. 🙁 I’m still striving…
Cecil, too many cities for such a short time – drop London (one day is too little for such a distance away), fly in to the continent itself and drop Munich (consider an overnight train from Paris to Italy). Take an extra day in Florence for time to see a bit more of Tuscany (day trip to Siena maybe) and an extra day in Paris or Rome (again a potential day trip to Versailles or Pompeii or somewhere you reaslly want to see).
- March 9, 2010.-= Mark H´s last blog ..Walking the Andean Wilds (Cajas National Park , Ecuador) =-.
wow I’m excited for u! and ur itinerary is really packed! And u need to return to London for your return flight, n the ur transportation must have cost u quite alot yeah? How about a flight from Paris to Munich instead of rail? It saves lot of time if there is flight for that.
- March 18, 2010.-= eunice´s last blog ..Universal Studios Singapore [1/2] =-.
I also planning going to london-brussel-paris for 10days.I also thinking myb it there some other place I can go too for this 10days vacation.my famaly n me book ticket from KL to london on november.any suggestion because this our 1st time travel to europe
- July 13, 2010@Amy,
Sorry for late response to this 🙁
- July 22, 2010If this is your 1st time to Europe, I think 10 days are just enough to cover 3 major cities in Europe. Basically you need at least 3 days to cover major attractions in London and Paris. Brussel may need another 2 days at least. Then you can go day tour to either Oxford or Cambridge from London, and vineyards at outskirt of Paris, to make up your 10 days. If not, be a bit more relax and spend 4 days in London and Paris and 2 days in Brussel.
Hope this helps.. 🙂
Pleasure trips always leave me dissatisfied with time factor, I am amazed you made it in this short span with one of the most celebrated places for its wonderful scenic beauty around, I have never been to Europe but always wanted to, If this is so simple as you mentioned I would try it in a short span.
- November 8, 2010A wonderful trip but i guess a little tiresome, as you covered many places in a short span. For me personally I would not do that I essentially want my perfect rest period.
- November 11, 2010I liked your time management.
Sounds like a really good trip, I definitely want to do some travelling too, so this is a great insight!
- April 7, 2011Thanks
If I have 12 days in Europe (14 minus 2 days return trip), I would go to 2 countries only, to able to spend more time in each destination, and most likely I would add another country which is near to one of the 2 countries. I would give Paris 3 days, and some lovely cities nearby that can be done as daytrip like Versailles & Giverny (1 day), Gerberoy (1 day). Visit Brugges or Ghent in Belgium (1 day). All of them can be reached easily from Paris by train and I could set Paris as a base. Moving to various hotels is tiring and expensive as one would spend more for the transportation, not to mention the hassle of dragging our luggages in and out hotels and train stations. Then from Paris, continue the trip to Venice by plane, spend the remaining days of the journey in Venice & Florence & Rome. You may have to fly back from Rome. But if you have to fly to London and cannot change the airlines, then visit Cotswolds then Paris & Brussels. Good luck
- June 29, 2012