Traveling to Europe and need advice?

Trying to visit 8 places in 14 days doesn't make much sense - especially with two of them near Geneva to see the Tour de France. You'll be spending more time in transit than actually seeing things while you're in Europe. Instead of flying in and out of Frankfurt, you'd be better off flying into one end of the trip and back home from the other end. Frankfurt to Berlin is a 4 to 5 hour trip on the train. The actual flight to Vienna is a little over an hour, but by the time you factor in transit to/from the airports, getting through check in & security, you're looking at more like 4 hours, Vienna to Salzburg is 2.5 to 3 hours. Salzburg to Venice is 6 to 8 hours. Venice to Florence is 2 hours. Florence to Geneva is 6 to 8 hours and Geneva to Frankfurt is 5.5 to 6 hours. At the very best, you're spending 30 hours traveling and that doesn't include finding you way to the places you'll be staying and checking in/out or making your way to the Tour de France course. I would seriously consider cutting back on the places you're trying to visit and actually see the places you do go.

hee.. Did you like Amsterdam? :P

But I agree with it's not some competition you do.. how many european cities can I see in 2 days..

I have been to italy 12 times.. France 15 times.. spain 8 times.. germany more than can remember.. and also a lot of other european counties.. and still there are some things that suprise my in another country..

you probally stay for like 1 day in the capital and than say ow.. I have seen the country.. no you just have seen Paris ore Rome.. but that is something totally diffrent than France Ore Italy..

I have seen this more with americans they do like all western europe ( more were the famous cities are ) in about 1 week.. but you don't get the culture of the country ore the mentality of the people by doing that..

I would choose ore for italy ore for germany.. and than stay for about 4 till 5 days in a city.. both countries are really beautiful... In my study ( culture history europe ) I get a lot of italian history I love italy.. nice people good weather so a good choice to go.. but I like germany also very much I have put under a link

If you are interested in a culture, country.. You have to stay longer

No, you are NOT going to do all that lot comfortably in 14 days, so forget that. If the Tour de France is that important to you, just do Salzburg, Vienna and Venice. Anything else is just a load of hassle.

Hi reggit,

Unfortunately, your order is pretty darn complex from a travel standpoint. I'll break down what you have proposed so you can see the issue:

Frankfurt to Berlin - Once you get into Frankfurt from the airport (with a decent rail service), you can catch a direct high-speed ICE (Inter-City Express) train to Berlin. Unfortunately, it is over 4 hours on the train... but the good news is that it is a comfortable train. Alternatively, you could fly direct on a low-cost airline like Air Berlin (which is a good airline). The price is pretty low, and the total in-flight time is just 70 minutes. Either way, I am not concerned with your plan of going direct to Berlin.

Berlin to Vienna - Flying is a great idea. Alternatively, you could take a night train. There is a direct train, but it would take about 12 hours to travel (of course, you can sleep for most of it).

Vienna to Salzberg - Train is best at 2 hours, 22 minutes. You could take a 45-minute flight, but a train would be less hastle and probably about the same length of time once you factor in the early check-in and security wait times.

Salzburg to Venice - This is where it starts to fall apart. By train, you're looking at 6-7.5 hours with at least two trains, or a train and a bus. If you wanted to fly, you would pay quite a bit and have at least one stopover on the way - rather inefficient.

Venice to Florence - This is a no-brainer - take the 2-hour train trip

Florence to Nice - This is a very long and difficult train trip. The journey will take 7-8 hours on 2-3 trains. The flight options are worse as they will be very expensive, and all would involve at least one stopover with a long wait.

Nice to Geneva - Again, long on the train. The good news is that you can take a direct TGV (Train a Grande Vitesse - the high-speed trains of France), which is very comfortable. The bad news is that it would take 6 hours, 19 minutes as it makes a whole bunch of intermediary stops. The great news is that you can take a direct flight (on EasyJet or SwissAir) for a very low price. The flight would be one hour, non-stop.

Geneva to Frankfurt - Nearly 6 hours on at least two trains. There are direct flights, but they are *very* expensive... about $1000 from what I found.

Okay, so thus far I have been the bearer of bad news. I like your trip, but you are travelling largely between small-to-medium-sized cities, which are spaced a far enough apart to make for long train rides, but often too close to each other to be well-serviced by competitive flights. I am concerned by the length of time it will take you to travel between each destination. 2 weeks is not a whole lot of time, and you really do not want to spend the equivalent of 3-4 days in transit.

Let's see if we can come up with a less logical, but less expensive (and less time-consuming) way of doing your trip:

Frankfurt to Berlin - I think this route is logical... I think a flight would make the most sense, but the ICE is excellent in Germany.

Berlin to Salzburg - Flight - A little more expensive to fly, but Air Berlin offers direct flights.

Salzburg to Vienna - Train - Not too long, and a comfortable train

Vienna to Florence - Flight or Train - The flights are a little more pricey but may work, especially considering it is just a 95-minute flight time (though on an airline called "Niki", which I have never heard of). Alternatively, you could take a 10 hour, 48 minute night train (7:30 pm to 6:18 am), which would be direct and is kind of neat if you have never taken a night train before.

Florence to Venice - Train - It just makes sense. 2 hours 5 minutes.

Venice to Nice - Flight - Inexpensive with EasyJet, 75-minute flight.

Nice to Geneva - Flight - Inexpensive with SwissAir or EasyJet. 1 hour.

Geneva to Frankfurt - Train - Just due to the cost, take the train. It takes awhile at 5 hours 50 minutes, and you would need to switch trains in Basel... but the Swiss/German trains will be comfortable.

So, there you go. I think by rearranging your desinations, you can end up saving a huge amount of travel time (and possibly money as well).

In order for you to see all the travel times yourself, I used http://www.kayak.com/ to calculate all flights, and http://www.bahn.com/ (the Deutsche Bahn - or German Rail - website) for all trains. Even though it is a German website, they have excellent schedules for everywhere in Europe. The only downside is that they only have fares listed for trains originating in Germany. If you want to see how much a point-to-point ticket (ie. without a rail pass) would cost for any other train, you would need to go to the website of the national rail service from the country in which the train departs.

Happy travels!

You would be better served hiking in Scotland and England's Lake District.