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Hey everyone I just wanted some input on what i should do for a 2 week trip in Europe. I was wanting to fly into Paris and somehow go to Rome and Greece. Any other options would be greatly appreciated. Its gonna be my and 3 friends. We dont mind where we stay really and we kinda wanna only do 3 or 4 places so we have a couple days in each spot. Thanks a lot

Hi kgammy, welcome to the forum.

You need at least 3 days for Paris and Rome respectively. Given the time restriction I'd say leave out Greece, you won't get time to explore it properly. With 2 weeks you could travel by train, spending about 1 week in France and 1 week Italy.

ya im really not big on staying a week in each place for my first time. I know it probably would be more interseting to stay a week and see a lot more things but my family is from Greece and one of my friends is from rome. so given that i was thinking
Fly into Paris
Stay for 3 days take train to rome
stay 3 days
go to greece by ryanair for 3 days then fly out of athens with open jaw ticket.
Just assuming we do 14 days how much would that cost?

quote:

Just assuming we do 14 days how much would that cost?

Depends on what you want to do and how much your flight will be. I dunno, $100/day? I'd figure $100/day. So you're at $1400, then add in your flight and transportation. I have no idea what an open-jaw ticket would cost, I suppose it would also depend on whether you're starting from the East or West coast of the U.S. Given your short time frame I'd advise against the train from Paris-Rome, and fly that instead. You can probably get a ticket for that for 100E on the more expensive side.

Also I'm not sure how you're going to get from Rome-Greece. I did some poking around on the Ryanair/EasyJet websites a while ago, and near as I could tell they didn't offer that route. They did offer Paris-Athens trips, so you might be better off either beginning or ending your trip in Rome. Unless there's another low-cost airline now, I haven't kept up.

quote:

ya im really not big on staying a week in each place for my first time.

You know what? Do whatever you want, it's your trip. Have a blast at it.

BUT

I very strongly second Crazy-boi's advice and leave out Greece. There's just sooo much to do between Paris and Rome. I was planning on only spending a couple of days in each place, and I read a guidebook that said something along the lines "You only get to go to Paris for the first time once, so spend a couple extra days there and really experience it. Otherwise your memories will be of how much you had to rush around." I budgeted a couple extra days in each place, and looking back I'm glad I did.

Like I said though, it's your trip. Have fun.

Just to add to what Jester said, Ryanair don't fly to Greece at all. Try searching on www.whichbudget.com and you may find something cheap.

Thanks for all of the replies. I know I sound new at all this...its because I am. Lets assume I just do Paris and Rome like yall said. What would be the best places to go in between?

Basically, when I'm looking at a trip, I figure on 2-3 weeks per country, and no more than 2 destinations per week. So on a two week trip, I'd look at 1 country with 3 or 4 stops. 2 countries won't kill you, but it is a very different trip, and I'd still stick with 3-4 stops. 3 countries, particularly large countries like the three you started with is definitely too much (could probably do three countries if two of them were the Netherlands and Belgium).

I don't really know the area between Paris and Rome well, as I haven't been there since I was a child (though I was in Paris a couple years ago). But my advice is to find somewhere out of the cities. France and Italy both feature beautiful countrysides and interesting villages, which are often missed by people on whirlwind tours, but I think they're some of the most interesting things to see on a trip. Rural europe is very different from rural North America. Grab a decent guidebook (for France or Italy, not a condensed "Europe" one), and you should be able to find something interesting.

I agree that traveling to Greece is probably better left for another trip with more time.
A train from Rome to Paris will be extremely long, but if you stop a few places on the way and take night trains you should be better off. You can head south of Paris and enjoy the wine country. Or head all the way down to Nice and enjoy the beautiful coastal towns of France. Cinque Terre is on the Italian coast and though it is full of tourists, it has a nice hostel in Manarola and the views and hikes are not to be missed. From there you could even stop in Pisa for a couple hours and watch the tower lean. There are so many little villages and large cities that you can visit between France and Rome. I would agree that getting specific guide books for Italy and France would be more beneficial as they will have much more useful info.