Poll: your first trip to Europe

Where did you go? Paris

How long did you stay in each place? I think we were there 4 days

How did you decide on your itinerary? We were just out of college so we didn't have much vacation time, but we found an amazing price on flights ($250 roundtrip on Air France -- ah 1999!).

How old were you (kid/teenager/college student/adult)? 22

Anything you would have done differently? I would have brought warmer clothes and drank more OJ. It was cooler than I thought it'd be and I got a cold. Obviously it would have been nice to stay longer, but that wasn't really an option at the time.

Where did you go?
London, Paris, Barcelona, Nice, Rome, Venice, Interlaken, Amsterdam, Brugges

How long did you stay in each place?
Don't remember exactly but around 3 days in each place.

How did you decide on your itinerary?
It was a good "loop", I had friends visiting in London, Barcelona, and both cities in Italy

How old were you (kid/teenager/college student/adult)? 22

Anything you would have done differently?
Can't really think of anything. I was pretty happy with the trip. Maybe would have gone to Florence instead of Rome.

No, it was a pretty thorough intro to the city given the time frame

Where did you go? Ireland

How long did you stay in each place? on average, 2 nights per city (x5 cities)

How did you decide on your itinerary? I was going with my mom after she finished cancer treatment. I pretty much let her decide! She spent her whole time in chemo reading every guide book she could get her hands on. It was her fun activity. She went with a lot of Rick Steves' recommendations.

How old were you (kid/teenager/college student/adult)? 29

Anything you would have done differently?[/quote] I'm going back to Ireland next year with Calvin, so I plan to see some different things - but no, I wouldn't really have changed the trip I had. I really loved Ireland. I found our trip to Italy a little more illuminating as far as trip planning. I realized that the things that I don't generally care to do in the US, I don't care to do abroad either, even if it's the best in the world. Namely, I loved eating and drinking my way through Italy, loved Tuscany, loved Cinque Terre and exploring Venice, but art museums (more than just a couple) will just never be my bag. Don't force it!

I just took H on his first European trip, so I'll answer how I thought through that since I didn't plan my first (was a choir tour when I was 18).

We did a western Med cruise out of Barcelona (going to Naples, Rome, Florence, Marseilles, and Cannes). Plus a few days in Paris.

Why did we choose that? Partly b/c the cruise was insanely cheap. I didn't want to rush through all those cities the way you do with a cruise, but it was a good overview. I've always wanted to go to Barcelona and hadn't been, so leaving from there and doing a few extra days made me happy. I chose Paris b/c I think it's a fabulous city for a first trip. So is Rome.

Different? Just to have more time. What we did worked really well with our constraints.

Honestly, don't overthink it. It's a 1st trip, but so will every other trip to Europe. I had a first to Paris, first to Rome, first to Tuscany. I'm looking forward to my first trips to Germany and Austria. I'm looking forward to my first trip to Prague with H, b/c it will be different than my first trip to the city which I made with my sister.

Where did you go?
~ Spent 4 days in Rome, then did a cruise of Italy, Greece and Turkey

How long did you stay in each place?
~ 4 days in Rome, 1 day in Santorini, 1 in Mykonos, 1 in Athens, 2 in Istanbul, 1 in Ephesus, and 1 in Napels

How did you decide on your itinerary?
~ The cruise was planned out for us, and since our port was Rome, we decided to spend extra days there before we left.

How old were you (kid/teenager/college student/adult)?
~ Adult. 32.

Anything you would have done differently?
~ No. I loved the trip. I thought it was perfect.

Where did you go? Italy (many cities but favorites were Rome, Florence, and Assisi) and Spain (only Barcelona)

How long did you stay in each place? We were in Europe a total of 14 days. We spent 4 days in Rome over Christmas and did a couple of days in each of the other cities, some with day trips to nearby towns.

How did you decide on your itinerary? DH (boyfriend at the time) and I went with a group of alumni from our university so most of the trip was planned for us. We extended our trip and stayed 4 extra days to go to Venice and Barcelona on our own after everyone else left because they were 2 cities we really wanted to see.

How old were you (kid/teenager/college student/adult)? I was 22 and had just graduated college.

Anything you would have done differently? DH and I both agreed that we'll never do another trip with a tour group again due to the limited flexibility and having to be around other people. However, at the time we hadn't traveled abroad much on our own and liked the ease of everything being planned and taken care of for us. It was a good intro, but now we're seasoned travelers and I'm a control freak who loves to plan trips, lol. The only other thing I would've changed if I'd had the chance is to stay longer in each city so we didn't feel so rushed.

I'm planning a first trip, and thought this would be a good way to gather ideas and liven up this board a little!

Where did you go? London and Paris on my own

How long did you stay in each place? 5 days each

How did you decide on your itinerary? Used a guidebook and went with the flow. This was before the Internet was really useful for such things

How old were you (kid/teenager/college student/adult)?
late 20s

Anything you would have done differently? No, cause just wandering around and doing what stuck me as fun was the awesome thing about doing it on my own.

My first trip was when I was 16 and was an organized tour with my Spanish class. I don't remember much and took it for granted, so here's my first I planned myself.

Where did you go? Reykjavik, Iceland; Amsterdam; Venice, Florence, Rome, Positano; Dublin

How long did you stay in each place? 4 days in Iceland, 3 days in Amsterdam, 2 days in Venice, 4 days in Florence, 4 days in Rome, 4 days in Positano, 3 days in Dublin

How did you decide on your itinerary? We wanted to go to Amsterdam and Italy for our HM, and it was much cheaper to route through Iceland and Dublin to get to/from there. I looked at how much vacation time we had saved up vs. what we wanted to do in each place and pieced it together from there.

How old were you (kid/teenager/college student/adult)? 28

Anything you would have done differently? I would have spent a few more days in Iceland. I really want to go back. Probably would have stayed in Chianti instead of Florence, too. We didn't really like Florence much.

London and Paris

5 days in each city

I went on a tour with my grandmother

13 years old

No, it was perfect for that age and my first trip to Europe. I travel differently now, but as a kid traveling with a grandparent a guided tour was probably the best thing. I thought London and Paris was a perfect first trip to Europe. I'd love to go back with my husband now, and spend more time just wandering the cities and eating good food, rather than just checking off all the main museums and palaces.

Where did you go? London, Paris, Rome, Florence, Venice, Lucerne, Hamburg, Innsbruck, Munich, Italian Lakes region, Verona.

How long did you stay in each place? Three weeks.

How did you decide on your itinerary? My dad and stepmom took all of us kids (six of us) on a bus tour of Europe.

How old were you (kid/teenager/college student/adult)?12

Anything you would have done differently? No,I was just ridiculously happy, I love travel and i really appreciated the intro to Europe.

Read more: pandce.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=trav&action=display&thread=26498#ixzz1zQB42793

Your response above answered my biggest question - that you did feel like you got a good overview. I don't really want to rush through the cities either, but H has some travel anxiety and I feel the cruise would be a way for us to get a taste of Europe while having a "safe"* place for him to come home to every night.

I am torn between a cruise similar to the one you described above, and a Greece/Italy itinerary. I will probably go with whatever is the best deal when the time comes.

*By safe I mean familiar language, food, etc - not literally safe from harm.

Where did you go?
Netherlands

How long did you stay in each place?
It was a bike & barge trip, so we toured the countryside and spent one night in each city along the way.

How did you decide on your itinerary?
It was my grandmother's idea. She invited my cousin and I to come along.

How old were you (kid/teenager/college student/adult)?
18 but still in high school

Anything you would have done differently?
In hindsight, I probably shouldn't have let Grandma talk me into buying a see-through black dress in Amsterdam.