Teacher Travel: Planning a two-week European itinerary

If you’re new to my travel series, it would be helpful to read my post on planning and budgeting for your trip prior to reading today’s post. The information I am sharing today is based on the tips I shared in that post. 

Okay, so you’ve got a budget and you’re working on planning your ultimate European getaway, but how do you know where to go? I know for me, planning a trip is always difficult because there is just SO MUCH I want to see and do. The most important thing to remember when planning a trip like this is that you will not get to see everything in this time span. It would be impossible to see an entire country in a day or two, so prioritizing a city or even a section of a city is something that can really help. 

The last trip my husband and I took was to Spain, France, and Italy. Now, there is obviously so much to see and do in these three countries that we had to choose. Neither of us had ever been to Spain or France, so I figured that major cities would be a good fit. We choose Barcelona because it made the most sense geographically, was cheaper to fly into, and had the most recommendations from friends. Paris was, to me, a no brainer. I had been dreaming of visiting Paris my whole life. 

Italy was a little more of interesting country to plan. Prior to this trip, I had been to Italy twice, but my husband had never been. I’d been to Rome twice and several places in southern Italy, including Naples, Sorrento, Capri, and Pompeii. I knew that northern Italy would probably be best for us so that we could both see new things, and so that we could finish the trip in Rome; both so that he could see it and because it was my favorite city (now tied with Paris, but that is a post of another day). 

For our two-week trip, we settled on the following itinerary:

• June 2: Flight to Barcelona at 11:45PM (layover in Copenhagen for 6 hours)
• June 3: Dinner in Copenhagen, fly to Barcelona
• June 3: Arrive in Barcelona at 11:30PM
• June 4 & 5: Explore Barcelona 
• June 6: Train to Paris (6 hours) arrive at 8:00PM
• June 7-9: Explore Paris
• June 9: Overnight train to Venice 9 (approx 13 hours)
• June 10: Arrive in Venice at 8AM 
• June 10-11: Explore Venice
• June 12: Train to Florence (2 hours)
• June 12-13: Explore Florence 
• June 14: Day trip to Cinque Terre
• June 15: Train to Rome (1.5 hours)
• June 15 and 16: Explore Rome
• June 17: Flight home at 8:00AM

As you can see, we packed a lot in, but our trip never felt rushed. I decided up front that we would spend at least three nights in every city except for Venice. This is because many people had told me that the things to do in Venice were limited. I also knew we should spend the most amount of time in Paris and Florence as those were the cities I was most excited to see, and they had the most amount of things to do. I truly feel like we made the most of our time in a great way. We got to feel like we spent time in each city, but we still got to move around the continent a bit.

The process of traveling between countries in Europe is relatively easy and cheap, but you do have to account for travel time when planning your itinerary. In my opinion, flying is faster, but trains are more convenient.

We wanted to avoid flying within Europe because dealing with airports and security is a hassle we would rather not deal with. Trains are great because you can basically take anything you want with you. Since we stayed in Airbnbs, this meant we could travel with some of our groceries that didn’t need to stay cold, which was helpful to save time and money. It also meant we didn’t have to deal with certain size liquids or any of the other issues that come with air travel. Neither of us had ever really traveled by train before either, so it was cool to experience that together and get to see more of the countryside in between cities.

Although we didn’t take advantage of this, the nice thing about trains is that you do not have to book them far in advance. You can literally buy tickets at the station a couple of days before, or even the day of if you want to chance it. As long as there is room on the train, you are good. Since we already had our Airbnbs booked and knew where we would be at each specific time, booking our train tickets way in advance was a better option for us, especially on the overnight train from Paris to Venice where we wanted a private cabin for just the two of us to sleep.

The most important thing to consider when planning your itinerary is how you’ll move in-between cities and whether or not that route makes sense/ is possible. By starting in Barcelona and ending in Rome, we were never double backing or going along any routes that were not easy to navigate by train. Also, by purchasing one way tickets, we didn’t have to worry about flying back to our original destination just to fly home, which was easier and cheaper for us.

I think the next area I want to visit is the United Kingdom and Ireland, so I am excited to save up for and plan that trip. I already know that is an area that will require driving, so I am gearing up for a different type of travel all together. Always research how to get around where ever you want to visit as that will determine much of what you can and can’t do. When I was planning our honeymoon to the Greek Islands, for example, I quickly realized that it was not going to be as easy as I had imagined to just hop from island to island, so we settled on visiting just two islands and getting the most out of them.

If you need any help with planning your own travel itinerary, just let me know! I love trip planning and I am happy to help!