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Planning a trip to Europe!

fireshot91

fireshot91

macrumors 601
Original poster
Jul 31, 2008
4,721
1
Northern VA
My parents said that somebody (Most likely my dad) will take 7-10 days off work and we'll go to Europe!!!! How exciting since I haven't actually visited Europe in like 10 years (I'm 15). We will leave sometime in June, and come back in June. I get off school on the 12th, so it will most likely be from like 18-28 or something like that.


We want to visit London (Our main boarding[rooming]), Paris, Zurich, and Venice.
I'm wondering if we can do all 4 of those cities in 10 days?
Plus, we're going to need to have a budget.
- About $1000 round trip to London for one person. Edit: Just looked at the tickets, they're not $1000, they're more like $700 round trip for one person.
- Boarding: (Need hotels to stay at in Paris, Zurich, and Venice)
- Tourism- $700 (Good enough?)
- Souvenirs- $500 (Good enough?)


And also, is 10 days good enough to visit? Or will we need more.
 
I personally think you'll need more time than that. I went to Europe for 3 weeks on a trip. I'll tell you where we went: London, France, Florence, Rome, Venice, Zurich, Salzburg, Munich. That is 8 cities in 21 days, thats 2.6 days in each city, and that seemed pretty quick. Don't expect to get there and only be in each city for two days, that's unrealistic. You should do two weeks, you will enjoy it much more. :)
 
In 10 days I'd probably just do London and Paris and maybe Zurich. I think four cities is a stretch. You should be fine with $1200 for souvenirs and tourism (I never spend close to $500 on souvenirs; usually spend my money on local food, drinks, and visiting museums/sites/etc). I say budget 3 days in London, 4 days in Paris, and 3 days in Zurich (be sure to include travel time, it won't work out to quite as much time in each city). The only reason I say four in Paris is because the Louvre will consume at least 1 day, and if you go to Versailles you'll use up another day and there is still a good deal to see and do (and eat!) besides those two.
 
As previous posters have said, you would get more out of your holiday if you limited your trip to 3 cities if you only have ten days. Personally if you have never been there before (you said you were 5 last time you went so effectively that is you), then I would scrub Zurich and do Venice, Paris and London. 3 days flies when you are on holiday! :D

Have fun...
 
I would avoid Zurich entirely, to be totally honest. It's a banking city, not a tourist city. if you're looking for a Swiss city to visit, try going to

-Zermatt (Matterhorn/Alps)
-Bern (scenic, capital of Switzerland)
-Basel (quaint)

Otherwise since you're on a limited schedule I'd just avoid Switzerland all together on this trip.

Alternatives:

Since you're doing London and Paris, that's at least (at least!) a good 4-5 days plus another day of travel. Venice is going to take another full day for you to get there; why not take the TGV down to Marseilles or Monaco? Florence isn't that far either, 1.5 hours from Milan on the AVI. Or how about Barcelona? I believe the TGV connects Paris and Barcelona directly.
 
I personally recommend doing London, Paris and Venice, especially Venice, its such a beautiful city and completely different from any other city I have ever been to.
 
Salzburg in Austria can be a good alternative to those Swiss places already mentioned. Very touristy, very beautiful. Definitely agree on Venice, and a second vote for Barcelona which is a must. It was named the best city in Europe to live in.
 
Barcelona is a great city, been twice and had a brilliant time, allot to see.
 
CarlisleUnited said:
I personally recommend doing London, Paris and Venice, especially Venice, its such a beautiful city and completely different from any other city I have ever been to.
Click to expand...

Yeah, Venice is great. I haven't been to Switzerland, but from what previous posters have said I might avoid Zurich. Florence is also a great city, probably has more to see when compared to Venice (though Venice in and of itself is amazing). Alternatively, Berlin is very cool with a good bit to see, but less than Paris and London, so it could be a good 2-3 day city. You can also take an overnight train from Paris to Berlin and be there at about 7-8 in the next morning and not miss any sightseeing time.

opeter said:
Come to Eastern Europe :)
Click to expand...

I couldn't agree more. Though I haven't been to much of Eastern Europe, I loved both Budapest and Prague, beautiful cities! But, unfortunately, if he wants to do London and Paris it might be a little far to go to either of those cities additionally in a 10 day trip.
 
Yeah, my dad doesn't really want to do Eastern Europe this time around.
I definitely want to see Venice, my dad really wants to see London, so those two are a must.

Also, we plan on remaining in London for 2-3 days, and then in the morning, drive to Paris, get there around 11-12, tour the rest of the day, sleep in that night, and tour another day for Paris, then leave in the morning, and start it all over for Zurich/Venice
 
I would slow your trip down. Too many cities. Drop Zurich and maybe one other. There are still many trips left in your future!
 
I think that you have to forget that 10 days and move it to 14 days. Leave Zurich out. Visit London (4 days), Venice (5 days) and Paris (5 days). That would turn out a really nice trip. :)
 
Yes, but what do I actually do for 2 weeks?
I mean, the most we can do is visit museums and Big Ben/Eiffel Tower.
 
Queso said:
Salzburg in Austria can be a good alternative to those Swiss places already mentioned.
Click to expand...
As would many cities in Bavaria. I imagine both would be easier on the wallet in comparison to Switzerland.

If you have your heart set on visiting Switzerland (and I wouldn't blame you), you could even stay in Southern Germany or Austria and take a day trip to get your Swiss fix. :)

Also, if your time is limited (and by that I mean 2 to 3 weeks), you might want to consider less destinations. I spent two weeks in Bavaria alone and it was still a whirlwind.
 
fireshot91 said:
Also, we plan on remaining in London for 2-3 days, and then in the morning, drive to Paris, get there around 11-12,
Click to expand...
You're going to need to set off early then! It'll take you about 2 hours to get to the Eurotunnel terminal from central London (if the traffic's good) and then about 3 hours from there to Paris. Make sure you have Euros on you when you leave London to pay the road tolls in France as well
 
I would suggest that you avoid Zürich. The city itself has a lot of religious history from the 1500s, but very little beyond that. As mentioned before, it's really just a commerce center. In addition to that, Swiss traffic on the north/south and around Zürich in general is just awful; one can often spend a good 5-6 hours going 30 km. Geneva may be of more interest to you, or maybe just avoiding Switzerland all together and just entering Italy from southern France (that's a neat area, though not really a city. Certainly something different, though).

Also, of note with your flight bookings: don't book a roundtrip to London as you'll have to drive back up there. Get a voided segment between London and your last city and then book your trip home from there.
 
People actually find 5 days worth of stuff to do in Venice. I felt like I exhausted that city in 1 day at the most.

As for Switzerland, have you considered going to Luzern? I had a blast when I visited it, beautiful country side.
 
iJon said:
People actually find 5 days worth of stuff to do in Venice. I felt like I exhausted that city in 1 day at the most.
Click to expand...

I would have liked 2 or 3 days there, 1 day wasn't enough. I probably would have gone into Venice 2 of the 3 days and spent one of the other days at one of the beaches near Venice relaxing. I don't really think there is 5 days worth of stuff to do there. Florence (Paris as well), however, I definitely could have spent 5 days in.
 
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