3 weeks in Europe... is this manageable?

[sachia007]

2 nights in London
2 full days in Paris
7-9 nights in Italy - Rome, Venice, Tuscany/Pisa, Naples/Pompeii
7-9 nights in Spain - not sure where to go

I've only gone to Spain for 1 week and don't know if this is feasible?

My husband and I will be traveling w/ a 16 and 18 year old and mostly going to city centers.

 

[Passepartout]

It is do-able time wise, but you won't get much help from timeshares. In Europe, people live in cities and vacation in the countryside. That's mostly where the timeshares are.

 

[Bill4728]

2 nights in London
2 full days in Paris
7-9 nights in Italy - Rome, Venice, Tuscany/Pisa, Naples/Pompeii
7-9 nights in Spain - not sure where to go

My husband and I will be traveling w/ a 16 and 18 year old and mostly going to city centers.

RE Italy

I'd not do Naples But do three days in Rome, Florence/Tuscany/Pisa and Venice

In all these cities stay in the city center do not stay in a name brand hotel if it isn't in the city (like the Hilton outside of Florence) Being able to step outside your door and be in the city center makes the experience really special. Train between the three cities it only about 2 hour trips

One of the coolest things we did in Florence with our kids (all over 21) was a Vespa tour. the tour took a van about 1/2 hour outside of Florence then we took these small motorcycles for about 15 miles thur the tuscan countryside

 

[silentg]

A trip like this may be better to book thru an agency like Globus. Last June we did a 2 week trip flew from Orlando to Dublin on overnight flight,caught a non stop flight to Rome, spent 6 nights in Rome. flew back to Dublin, stayed a week at our timeshare. Then flew back to Orlando we were gone 2 weeks total. All non stop flights on Aer Lingus. There are flights thru Dublin to Paris and Spain too. You may want to check aer Lingus, they have flights and hotel packages too! BTW it was cheaper for us to fly thru Dublin than to book a flight to Rome from Orlando.
Silentg

 

[Blues]

Way too ambitious. Three weeks is enough to do a reasonable job of exploring one country; or to sample a bit of two countries. You're trying to do 4 countries. A stopover in London is fine (though you won't see too much in 2 days, minus travel time, minus jet lag time). But then limit yourself to at most 2 other countries.

Bob

 

[tashamen]

7-9 nights in Spain - not sure where to go

I've only gone to Spain for 1 week and don't know if this is feasible?

I could spend a month in Spain easily! I'd recommend Barcelona as a must if you haven't been there for several days. Second choice location for me would be Granada, Cordoba, Toledo or Seville. I'm not a big fan of Madrid, though that would also make a good base for day trips.

 

[Glynda]

Travels

We just got back Nov 7 from 20 days in the north of Italy (Milan, Lake Como, Portofino, Cinque Terra and Venice) and two place in England! Your's is an ambitious journey. We spent one night in Milan and moved every three days by train which was hard in itself. I would have liked to have had longer in several places we visited.

 

[elaine]

I have done 2 trips with teens to Europe for 2-3 weeks. I would suggest in both Spain and Italy, you stay just 1-2 places in each country and day trip. My 1st trip was really too much time on trains with luggage and in/out of hotels. DH and I liked it fine, but teens wanted to stay put more. You can have a rushed 4 days in London and Paris, but then you need 5 days in 1 place in Italy. Tuscany would work well for this, as you could day trip to Florence, Pisa, Lucca, hill towns, then move to Rome for a day or two, then to Sorrento, if you must. Naples has high crime--I would stay in Sorrento area and train to Pompeii from there--or just day trip from Rome to Pompeii and stay in Rome for 3-4 days. It's an easy train ride or you can do a van tour--either just transport and DIY or a full tour. I would either train or do the DIY van.
Then, after Rome/Pompeii, stay 4-5 nights in 1 place in Spain, and then move to another place--or just stay for the whole week in 1 place.
I might also suggest a week-long W. Med cruise with 10 days land, split London/Paris/Tuscany (still 5 days), then cruise. You can hit a different city each day and teens have lots to do on board in the pm, plus unlimited food. We usually combine 10 days land and a week-long cruise and that works really well and is fairly cost effective.

 

[beejaybee]

Season?

If you are travelling in the summer, keep in mind that Spain and Italy will be very hot.

Given your suggested itinerary I'd tweak it by forgoing London this trip, spending 3 days in Paris, 3 nights in Rome, 3 nights in Florence, 2 nights in Venice and the remaining 8 days traveling the countryside of Italy- Tuscany, Cinque Terre and even up to the Lake Como region.

Alternatively, Austria is not too far from Venice and you could extend your trip in that direction even up to Munich in Germany rather than Spain.
Switzerland also borders Italy so you might head in that direction.

If you go in spring or fall, Spain & Portugal would work for the time you have available.

Also, make the most of your time by flying from one major city to another. This summer we will be visiting 3 major European capitals that we've had on our bucket list- flying into Berlin, taking the train from there to Prague and flying EasyJet Prague to Amsterdam where we embark on a 14 night cruise around the British Isles and back to Amsterdam.

 

[Laurie]

Personally, if I had 3 weeks and wanted to cover a lot of ground and major city centers in addition to really major sites - I would probably skip Spain, and use all 3 weeks for the other destinations mentioned. Actually I would focus on France & Italy only, and skip London except as a 1-day 2-night stopover as you mentioned, but only if your flights work out that way.

I wouldn't skip Pompeii - it was a very major highlight of my many trips to Europe. Yes, as mentioned, Sorrento is a better place to stay than Naples when you are visiting Pompeii.

Then I'd go back to Spain at a later date. Not that I didn't like what I've seen of Spain, but IMO Italy and France both have so much to offer, and in so many regions, so when you subtract travel time between points, there's not that much time left.

I wouldn't overlook some of the amazing non-urban parts of either Italy or France, they are spectacular.