Poll: your first trip to Europe

[Deleted]

Well, my first trip was a semester abroad in Italy. I was 20. We traveled all over Europe with our train pass and then stayed and extra 2 weeks in Greece with my BFF.

[hz80408]

Fun idea! We just had our first Europe trip in March.

Where did you go? Amsterdam, Paris, Barcelona and Reading/London

How long did you stay in each place? 3 nights in Amsterdam, 4 nights in Paris, 4 nights in Barcelona and 5 nights in Reading

How did you decide on your itinerary?
We each choose a "must-visit" city. H chose Amsterdam and I choose Paris. We went over Easter holiday and while my sister was living in Englad, so our 3rd city was chosen by the 3 of us and accommodating her Easter holiday. Our last city, we stayed with my sister for free lodging.

As far as what to do, we looked all over for ideas: family, friends, Travel boards, books, websites, etc. Then pieced in hours, amount of time to spend at place, location, etc.

How old were you (kid/teenager/college student/adult)? 25

Anything you would have done differently?
For our first trip, no. Now having gone, when we go back I'd prefer to focus on one or two cities and have 4 of 5 days in each; but overall we felt like 4 full days per city was fairly decent amount of time.

[sillygoosegirl]

Where did you go? Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Austria, Italy.

How long did you stay in each place? It was 30 days total. I think the longest we stayed in one hotel or with one family was 3 nights.

How did you decide on your itinerary? I didn't get a say on it.

How old were you (kid/teenager/college student/adult)? 11 years old.

Anything you would have done differently? Kept a journal.

[kcbmarek]

Just thought I would jump in on this conversation ...

Where did you go? Berlin, Germany; Dusseldorf, Germany; Rome; Sicily; Athens, Greece; Crete; Ephesus, Turkey

How long did you stay in each place? 1 day in each Berlin and Dusseldorf, 3 days in Rome, rest of locations were via a cruise through RCCL

How did you decide on your itinerary? DH chose the itinerary as a celebration of our 5th anniversary

How old were you (kid/teenager/college student/adult)? we are 45 and 49 (2nd marriage with 3 teenagers initially)

Anything you would have done differently? will tell you when we get back on Sept. 21, 2012

[ChiKate]

Where did you go? *Spain, a few different cities in the center and south

How long did you stay in each place? *I think it was 2-3 nights per town for 12 days

How did you decide on your itinerary? *It was planned for me as part of tour

How old were you (kid/teenager/college student/adult)? *15; it was a High School foreign language class trip; I was the youngest on the trip but my mom was the teacher/chaperone

Anything you would have done differently? *nothing

Read more: pandce.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=trav&action=display&thread=26498#ixzz1zU45Bluh

[katieh]

Where did you go?
Dublin

How long did you stay in each place?
3 nights

How did you decide on your itinerary?
Husband (boyfriend at the time) asked where I'd want to go in Europe and I picked Ireland. He surprised me with tickets.

How old were you (kid/teenager/college student/adult)?
22 - just a few months out of college

Anything you would have done differently?
I would have gone for longer! He got super cheap tickets (like $200 each r/t) so we just went for the long weekend and stayed in Dublin. Next time I'd go for a week and explore outside the city. BUT, that said, going for just a few days was fine at the time and Ireland was an easy first trip since we didn't have to worry about language issues.

[MissusTexas]

Where did you go? Amsterdam

How long did you stay in each place? 6 days

How did you decide on your itinerary? It was planned around a special event, so we had to stay in the city most of the time.

How old were you (kid/teenager/college student/adult)? 23

Anything you would have done differently? DH was sick on the days we wanted to get outside of the city (except we did make it to Keukenhof), so we really couldn't have done anything about that, but I would have liked to take day trips to Antwerp or Brussels.

[lauree1183]

Where did you go? London and Paris

How long did you stay in each place? 5 nights in each city

How did you decide on your itinerary? We had enough miles for free airfare to London- so that decided our 1st destination. Paris was a short train ride and high on our list so we added that too

How old were you (kid/teenager/college student/adult)? 27 and 28

Anything you would have done differently? Would have slowed down and not been so crazed about sight seeing. We flew through London, Paris we really slowed down and loved that so much more.

[travelingjen]

Where did you go? Italy (Cinque Terre/Pisa/Florence/Rome/Sorrento) and Greece (Athens/Santorini)

How long did you stay in each place? 2 weeks in Italy and 1 week in Greece

How did you decide on your itinerary? I didn't; I tagged along to the last half of my sister's 6 week backpacking trip through Europe. It was a last minute decision that was made after I was laid off from my position.

How old were you (kid/teenager/college student/adult)? Summer of 2006; I was 23

Anything you would have done differently? My sister had preplanned to stay 4 days in Athens and only 2 in Santorini. Again, because I just tagged along I wasn't able to have any input but in hindsight we should have had a least a day or two less in Athens and put that towards Santorini. Also, the trip occurred in August and it was HOT. Way too hot! I'll never travel to Greece again in August!

[Myrrhine]

Where did you go?
Paris, Blois, Florence, Rome, Venice, Schweinfurt, Germany (where bff's fiance was stationed), then down the the Romantische Strasse to a bunch of small German towns.

How long did you stay in each place?
1-3 days

How did you decide on your itinerary?
I was an art history major so a lot of it was around paintings, churches, altar pieces I wanted to see. And bff's fiance.

How old were you (kid/teenager/college student/adult)?
Just out of college.

Anything you would have done differently?
Not stayed in so many hostels. About half of them were FILTHY and/or bug-infested. (this was in the days before tripadvisor)

[jenni232323]

Where did you go? London, England - Paris, France, - Germany - Switzerland

How long did you stay in each place? around 3 days each

How did you decide on your itinerary? School trip

How old were you (kid/teenager/college student/adult)? teenager - just turned 18 - it was my graduation present

Anything you would have done differently? I would not not been a stupid teenager and listened to my parents who were in Italy at the time - they had a surprise that instead of coming home from Germany, I would fly to them in Italy for 2 weeks. Stupid stupid me - wanting to return home for a boy changed my flight when I found out. 12 years later, I'm still kicking myself for that one.

[magdala9]

Where did you go? London, Amsterdam, Munich, Adelboden (Switzerland), Geneva, Paris.

How long did you stay in each place? Two days

How did you decide on your itinerary? I didn't. It was an organized trip that I joined

How old were you (kid/teenager/college student/adult)? 16

Anything you would have done differently? Everything. We stayed at campgrounds and ate at bad restaurants. I went to London for business and stayed at a lovely hotel next to a fabulous restaurant. Even though I was only there for two nights with very little free time...it was so much better.

[klingklang77]

Where did you go? London

How long did you stay in each place? for 2 weeks

How did you decide on your itinerary? My friend was studying abroad in London, so I figured why not? I just read a guide book and marked off what I was interested in.

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

Anything you would have done differently? I would have done another day trip. I just did one day trip to Oxford. I probably would have added another city, too. 2 weeks was a lot of time for me to just be in one city. The next year I went back and did a 6 week backpacking trip throughout Europe.

[SJ]

Where did you go? London & Edinburgh

How long did you stay in each place? Mostly in London- I think a little more than a week, then we drove to Edinburgh for New Year's Eve and were there two nights

How did you decide on your itinerary? We had a connection/place to stay just outside London. We did tons of the typical tourist stuff, drank A LOT (because it was legal unlike at home!), and had an incredible time.

How old were you (kid/teenager/college student/adult)? I was a sophomore in college. I went with 6 of my best girlfriends from childhood/high school. One of the girls had parents who were living in London so we went and stayed with them. It was a blast!

Anything you would have done differently? No[/quote]

[anasara]

Where did you go?
Amsterdam
How long did you stay in each place?
I was only there for 2 days.
How did you decide on your itinerary?
I gave myself a layover on the way back from studying abroad in Africa since I got routed through there anyways & didn't know if I'd ever be back.
How old were you (kid/teenager/college student/adult)?
21
Anything you would have done differently?
Not that I can think of.

[runningmom]

My first trip I was 14 and was in high school as a school trip so I didn't do any planning:
Where did you go? London, Paris, Barcelona

How long did you stay in each place? about 3 days

How did you decide on your itinerary? N/A it was all planned through a group tour

How old were you (kid/teenager/college student/adult)? 14

I went backpacking in Europe a few years ago so I'll answer for that as well since I did plan it:
Where did you go? Dublin, Amsterdam, Paris, Vienna, Salzburg, Prague, Krakow

How long did you stay in each place? 2-4 days

How did you decide on your itinerary? I was backpacking with 3 friends. We each made a list of 5 places we wanted to visit. We went to everyone's top choice and then to the places that showed up the most often on our lists.

How old were you (kid/teenager/college student/adult)? 26

Anything you would have done differently? Not really, it was a great trip. Maybe traveled in warmer months (we went in March/April)