Thanks everyone for the great advice.
To be more clear, we will get to our hotel in Crete late Monday night. 2 weeks later on Sunday morning we will fly out of Paris back to the US, so we have 12 full days (13 nights) before internal travel days.
For these 12 days, here is one option.
-4 full days in Crete (5 nights)
-1 travel day to France
-2 full days in France country (3 nights)
-0.5 travel day to Paris
-4.5 full days in Paris (5 nights)
I'm coming around that I should just pick one part of France to see before Paris, and not try to do wine country and the alps before going to Paris.
If we were to add another day and night to Crete, where do you suggest we take a day/night away from later on in the trip?
Originally Posted by
dulciusexasperis
I suggest you consider counting actual days spent IN places. As described, you appear to be doing what many people do and counting days that in fact will not exist as counted.
For example, if you leave Crete on day 5, you will not in fact spend the day in Crete. Nor will you spend it in France! It is a lost travel day. The same occurs each time you move. Even a move that entails only a couple of hours of actual travel time will cost you most of a day making the move.
People also tend to count their arrival and departure days as if they were days 'on the ground.'
So on a typical 2 week itinerary such as you describe, I count arrival, departure and moves as days not spent IN a place, they are days spent in BETWEEN places. If you lose your arrival day and departure day as well as making 3 moves, that is FIVE of your total of 14 days lost. That leaves you only 9 actual full days spent IN places.
The issue is a typical desire to 'see and do as much as possible' with the word 'much' being confused with the word 'many'. They are not synonymous. The way to see and do as much as possible, is to spend your time IN places. In travel as in many things, less is more. The less you move, the more you can see and do.
I find even the initial 5 days for Crete to be what I would consider a mistake. In fact, you will only have 3 days on Crete. The first and last are arrival/departure and basically lost days. You may get a few hours to use out of each but that isn't the same as a full day IN a place.
Crete alone could easily take up your entire 2 weeks. It could take up 2 months if you had the time. If you confined yourself to that, you would only lose 2 days, arrival/departure and have 12 full days IN places.
Quantity does not equal quality. You can see a little of a lot or a lot of a little. Most people mistakenly think a little of a lot is equal to a lot of a little. It isn't. You could go home knowing something about Crete or you can go home knowing very little about several places other than what the airports and hotels look like.