dmac7273

Hey FTers,

The wife and I have a 10 day trip scheduled for early September to Europe, flying into and out of Madrid. We're trying to hit up a few countries and were thinking visiting Barcelona, Paris, and maybe a city in Germany or Switzerland as well. The trick is though that we have to make it back on the 10th day early for an 10am flight out of Madrid and back to ATL.

Anyone have any good ideas or suggested itineraries for a trip like this - spending 2 days or so in each city?

Open to any and all ideas!

Thanks!

McFlying

If looking for city trips (which makes most sense for this short amount of time):

Germany: Berlin or Munich
Switzerland: Zurich or Lucerne

2 Days should be enough to experience the major sights / things to do in each city. The cities I mentioned (except for Luzern maybe) should all be well connected to Barcelona / Paris.

chgoeditor

Are you dead set on visiting cities for two days apiece? And is this is a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Europe, or do you get there fairly frequently?

I ask because IMHO it's hard to really get a sense of a city at that pace, and you spend a lot of time pack, unpacking and traveling from place to place. If you're sure you want to hit a few cities, I'd suggest three nights at minimum in any particular place.

dmac7273

Thanks for asking. We are frequent travelers so we'll be back in Europe before long. Our main goals would be to have some good local food and drink and see the highlights of each city - not trying to dive too deep. We're willing to fly between cities or take trains - whatever is more efficient for time. Not dead set on 2 nights, we are open to being flexible.

erik123

Doesn't make much sense to me. You'd spend half your time traveling. I'd combine Spain with Portugal - Really great and very good value.

WorldLux

Do 3 cities max. More comfy and less time lost at airports.

manneca

People are different. Some like to spend a little more time in each place; some like to skim the highlights. Me, I like to drive from place to place. I'd spend some time in Madrid (which I really don't like), see Toledo, Cordoba, Granada, Barcelona. Depending on how long you spend in each place, you could also get over to Portugal.

FlyingUnderTheRadar

I agree with the above. Having 10 days and flying into Madrid I would just see Spain. There is plenty to see. On our visit we ran out of time and ended up flying from Sevilla to Barcelona. Otherwise as said you will spend a lot of time just getting to the other places.

Duke787

This is good advice. Madrid + Lisbon could be a good combination.

Morocco would be a good option too - it's easy to forget how close it is to Spain and it's a little more off the "typical path" if you will.

A routing like this can be had for $350:

MAD - CMN
CMN - LIS
LIS - MAD

And get to Casablanca and Lisbon + Madrid or swap in Tangiers / Marrakesh for Casablanca

jrl767

last fall my wife and I spent 10 days in Spain:

• two nights in Barcelona (fabulous!)
• Vueling (~$160pp, purchased maybe 10 days ahead) to Sevilla for two nights (equally fabulous!)
• rented a car, drove (via Jerez & Arcos de la Frontera, both well worth more than a couple hours) to a timeshare in Marbella (the entire Costa del Sol was nothing to write home about)
• day trips to Gibraltar (interesting), Tangier (tourist trap), and Almeria (very interesting)
• drove the Ruta Don Quijote (fascinating) back to Madrid

TravelingNomads

Hello neighbor! I wouldn't do more than 3-4 cities. First on my list would be Edinburgh if possible. Also invest in a good travel pillow if you're flying from ATL overnight. The overnight in economy was absolutely brutal on my kids and the immigration lines in Dublin were long. We used Ryanair to country hop for around $20 a couple of times, but we were gone for 3 weeks and didn't feel like it was anywhere near enough time to see all the locations we had planned. Also, just like in the US, each city has a very different feel, so you don't have to leave a country to feel like you're in a different place.

We actually cancelled some places mid-trip because being in a car or airport does not make for a fun vacation. Anyway, if you haven't seen Edinburgh yet, I'd highly recommend it. We've got a 15 day trip to Europe coming up and are going to see less places, but feel that we'll get a better quality vacation this way and won't feel so rushed and overtired. If you are going to do several flights, consider a CC that offers lounge access. We just got one and it helped tremendously, especially when one of our flights was delayed by almost 3 hours.

lhrsfo

The ask for 10 days in Europe is a bit like wanting to do North America in 10 days, flying into Mexico City. Perhaps add New York and Toronto and Montreal. Except the cultural diversity is far greater in Europe than it is in North America so you would need far longer.

The OP indicated that good food is a priority which would suggest sticking in Spain.

erik123

And Portugal which is slowly becoming a new food/wine mecca and at very reasonable prices.

jrl767

one additional point: if you're driving from your last tourist destination, I would STRONGLY recommend staying at an airport-area hotel the night before you leave MAD -- getting to the rental car return at Barajas is far from intuitive, and I was extremely glad that I didn't have to deal with that when trying to make our 1015 departure

PAX_fips

Don't do the japanese thing.. stay localized. Maybe Monaco/Nice?
If going to GIB, the Gauchos is one awesome Steak restaurant.