How to Plan a Trip to Europe: Planning Details

                                  Detailed Plans

For applying all the tips below to your trip, like choosing time of visit etc, internet is your friend. Google your question and you’ll get several opinions on whether your chosen month is suitable for your trip.

Always plan at least a few months in advance -- you can buy flight/train tickets at a reasonable rate. Great discounts are available if you can buy your train tickets online 90 days in advance. I'll give specifics in a later post.

                                       Step 1

Decide on the number of days and the time of your visit.

                                              Time of visit

General weather is a crucial aspect. For example if you are expecting green rolling hills and flowers in Switzerland, your best time is from June to mid October.

Switzerland: Gruyeres Chateau in September... greenery all round.

Paris can be cold and grey and rainy in November. You need to time your visit right if you love gardens with flowers.

Paris: Luxembourg Gardens

Each year is different but look for averages and have realistic expectations regarding weather.

Daylight Hours

www.timeanddate.com/

can give you sunrise/sunset times for the month and place you are visiting. Sunrise is as late as 8am and sunset around 4 in winter in Spain for instance. See if you have enough daylight hours for sight seeing.

Summer and local holidays are heavy crowd season in most countries… and expensive also. Research if you can travel in less crowded months.  

Many attractions are closed in lean season for maintenance. Research and ensure your priorities are available for visit during your time of visit.

                                                       No of days

Many first time travelers feel they should cover several places on their first visit to Europe and come out with plans that can't be executed.

A common mistake of first timers is to have too many cities on a single trip with 2 days in each city

For instance, while planning a 10 day vacation in Europe, people say:

We are spending 2 days in Paris.

Next 3 days in Switzerland.

Italy for 2 days, 

Then Austria for 2 days.

Before drawing such a plan, open a map and see where these countries are and how you propose to travel between your destinations. Please  analyse travel options/ timings before including several cities. Also consider the time taken to reach the airport/ train station and the effort and time finding your new hotel and checking in/out. These take up half a day of your vacation time and tire you out. 

Remember you may not have slept on the plane and you are entering a different time zone, Your body clock is all messed up when you land in your first destination. Your body is still keeping the time of your hometown. Though it may be daybreak in the country you land, your body will still stick to the routine that it's night. You won't feel as alert and fit as you would like to be, after a long flight.

Look at train time tables and what the travel times are between your destinations.

Factor in how much time it'll take to actually reach your hotel, keep your bags and then start your sight seeing.

You'll realize travel days are not to be counted as sight seeing days as more than half a day will be wasted. If you insist on including many places, instead of experiencing lovely places, you'll end up only experiencing train travel.

Never count arrival day and departure day as part of your trip. This includes even travelling between 2 different bases. For a 10 day vacation, have 2 bases. say 4 nights in Paris and 4 in a Swiss village.

.Minimum 3 nights in one place will give you just 2 full days. Try and plan more nights in one place to really enjoy your trip. You can do day trips where convenient from the same base.

  

                      Tour groups vs individual trip

If you are considering joining a tour group, google and read reviews by previous participants.

People look at the ads given by tour companies in the newspapers/television ads covering 9 European countries in 14 days and think that’s the ideal and value for money.

In reality, there is a wake-up call at 6am, breakfast at 7am and you are in the coach at 8am. Your hotels are way outside the main city center and lots of time is spent sitting in the coach commuting between cities and from hotel to city center.

The tour operators include what they find convenient… for example, one Indian tour company includes Swami Narayan temple in London which will not impress Indians who have visited magnificent temples all over their home country.

In countries like Switzerland, you have to visit Titlis or Jungfraujoch on the day your group is there… if there are low clouds, you get to see nothing… no views of towering snow covered peaks all round but just a mist…

Switzerland: Clouds rolling in obscuring view

Switzerland: Snow covered peaks on a sunny day

Also, tour groups mostly drive by important sites, you don’t get to enter the Louvre in Paris or enjoy St Peter’s square in Rome.

Paris: Louvre Museum Napoleon III Apartments 

St Peter's square

I’ve read that Indian film music is blared in the coach through out and there are film based entertainment/quizzes on the TV on Indian group tours. Some people enjoy this and some feel it detracts from enjoying the beauty of the place they are visiting…

But the advantage is that all the logistics are taken care of and you just need to get into your coach. Also, since they have their own coach, they can drive you into different countries and you have bragging rights about the number of countries you have visited.

Of course it comes at a price and if you add up costs, You’ll find you can do an individual tour on much lower budget and tailor it to suit your taste. In group tours, you have just passed through each site fleetingly without really enjoying anything in detail.

                                  Self drive plans

Some people think that they’ll replicate the tour group plan by driving their own rental car for their trip.

This has certain issues:

If you plan to hire a car in one country and return in another, there are huge drop off charges… the car has to be brought back to the original place you hired it from, so they charge you for that!

Also, add up fuel costs along with rental charges and full insurance. (Important to stress that one needs full insurance or will be charged heavily for even barely visible scratch;  heaven forbid, instances of accidents). Add Parking fees for each day in the places you visit as well as night parking charges and the costs mount up.

You can not drive in historic city centers-- most are pedestrian only zones; you are better off walking or taking public transport to see attractions.

There is no parking near the attractions ... remember these cities are renowned for their medieval monuments and the streets are narrow. 

Driving on the right side of the road in Europe, if you are used to driving on the left in India/Australia/UK is difficult, Road signs and road rules like handling round-abouts need care.

Even small transgressions like being a little over the speed limit are caught by speed cameras and punished with huge fines; the rental company records details from your passport while handing you the car; it provides address and credit card details to transport authorities when approached and adds on charges for their tracking also while sending the intimation of fine. Local debt collectors will badger the culprit in their own country if the fine is not paid in time and it keeps mounting up with time delays also. Read up on all rules and observe them strictly if planning to drive abroad.

You have to figure out all the routes and logistics ahead and it can become stressful in execution. You'll never be able to replicate a tour group itinerary... the coach driver is a local professional who has driven the route many times!

Think through all aspects before planning a road trip in Europe. It may be easier to use the lovely public transport system, sit back and enjoy the scenery. Main cities in Europe are very well connected by train network and most have great public transport system for the city. Hire cars only when touring the country side and cover the major cities by public transport

View from Jungfraubahn cog railway

http://adventuretrav.blogspot.com/2016/03/how-to-plan-trip-to-europe-air-tickets.html shows you how to book air/train tickets, and hotels