RJ5929

No, I am not trying to ignore any advice. I value it, That's the reason I'm here seeking it. (My first plan had Italy and after your advice realized that Italy in itself deserves a trip, so skipped it, but added Amsterdam given the proximity to other places). In a way, I'm changing my plans based on your advice here.

My objective: visit Europe, visit famous landmarks, and mostly in big cities. I know there are there are many locations other than big cities and some may be country side, I'm not interested in them at the moment. I may regret my planning in future, but I don't know.

Yes, there will be lot of packing/unpacking and traveling. I see that. I will revisit the list.

Regarding ZRH, I have always wanted to see Switzerland being fascinated by it its scenery (in TV, of course). So we wanted to go there.
I haven't done any research yet for any of these places. All my plans depend on availability of tickets with miles. I'm flexible that way. I am going to decide on the places to see within each city once I finalize my tickets. I'm sure there are so many things to see for a first-timer.

Please understand that I want to spend little money out of pocket. so If there is no award ticket availability, I will skip that place and change my plan. So far, FCO and ZRH showed return availability, so I was considering those as my last place to visit before I fly back.

For many of you, my idea of choosing destination based on award ticket availability might be plain stupid. But I have always planned my trips (all in U.S) like that. I hope it will work for me this time as well.


Let me go back to the board and revisit the place and the time I have.

LondonElite

For two weeks there is way too much going on here for it to be relaxing. To keep it simple, I would choose one of London or Paris for three or four days. I would avoid the really touristy things can just wander through street and observe from a measured distance. For example, I think Stonehenge is one of the most underwhelming places ever. There is no point in queuing for hours to go up the Eiffel Tower. Versailles, ok, maybe, but I'd be happy with a walk around the place.

I would budget a full day for travel to the second place. That gives you a week or so in a rural setting to enjoy another aspect of Europe. Maybe Tuscany, maybe the Alps, maybe a Greek island, maybe some medieval towns in Germany, maybe a wine/food tour through Alsace. That sounds like a winner to me.

RJ5929

Thanks for the detailed advice and the plan. yes, ZRH is add one there. Thanks again for the detailed plan. Let me go back and check it out.

RJ5929

So i guess, it's a bad deal if not rip off. thanks.

dukerau

That's good context to have. Zurich is a big city, and not where to go to see Switzerland's scenery. You'll need to get more rural for that. If you want to see Switzerland, LondonElite's idea of several days in London or Paris followed by a week seeing Switzerland would be a nice itinerary.

I'm assuming you're traveling in March since you're straddling the AA off-peak date range (Spring break?). I see plenty of award availability with AA miles for AMS-LHR-DFW (make sure the LHR-DFW flight is on AA to avoid the massive fuel surcharges), lots of days with CDG-DFW non-stop, and even more on CDG-LHR-DFW. So I don't think you need to force yourself to end in FCO/ZRH.

wrp96

I just got back from Switzerland. I would recommend Luzerne over Zurich if you really want to do Switzerland. BUT, I will caution you that Switzerland is expensive, at least compared to elsewhere in Europe.

lwildernorva

I'm going to make a few assumptions after reading this thread. First, given the history you provided us, this is likely a "trip of a lifetime"--you'd love to do this more often, but raising a young family means you're looking at such a considerable expenditure of time and money that you can't guarantee that you'll ever make a return trip so you'd like to cover as much as possible. Second and related to the first, you'd like to do as much of Europe as possible within your time and money budgets. Third, you're going to rely on points/miles to offset the cost of the trip as much as possible with the associated limitation in the scope of places you can go.

Within these parameters, I'd look at what you can possibly afford to spend in dollars and replace where necessary with points/miles. For instance, with all the LCCs flying from the US to Europe, it might be possible, with your eyes out for a sale, to purchase a one-way ticket for less than $100 from one of the gateway cities, saving your miles/points for the return flights, intra-European flights, or even hotel rooms. If you can get on a carrier such as Norwegian and WOW, the LCCs frequently offer cheap fares, especially from the US to Europe, that can be purchased as one-way fares. Use miles/points for the return trip from Europe which is frequently more expensive than the trip there.

Here are a couple of resources you should check if you're not using them already. First, FT's own budget travel forum, https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/budget-travel-597/, might offer some possibilities, such as hostels for accommodations, that would allow you to scrimp a bit during your travels with perhaps a splurge or two on points at hotels in London or Paris. On a trip to Edinburgh several years ago, I booked both at university accommodations (at about $45 per night) on my first trip in and at the Sheraton Grand Hotel (for 12K SPG points) for a trip a couple of weeks later. I liked the university accommodations so much that I canceled the Sheraton and got a second reservation at the university accommodations, saving the SPG points for a later adventure.

Second, Google Flights: http://www.google.com/flights. You can explore prices for various city pairs, see a calendar of fares a month at a time, and set alerts for price drops on various routes. It seems you have plenty of points that would get on AA flights so use Google Flights as a backup to see if perhaps you could get one of those cheap fares to Europe so that you can save some points for a flight from the London-Paris area to some other part of Europe. I'm partial to Italy so I think a US-Paris-London (by train)-Rome (by plane)-and even Florence (by train and then back to Rome) trip with a return to the US from FCO would be very appealing. But if you can fly one leg of your intra-European travels, places like Prague, Dublin, Madrid, Barcelona, and Athens could be possibilities if you can find award availability from one of those places back to the US.

I'm going to go a bit contrary to the tone of this thread and say that given that you know it might not be in the cards to get back to Europe anytime soon and given that you have two young kids, you should consider fitting in as much as you can while accepting that your initial itinerary really would have left you traveling between cities more than enjoying the cities themselves and probably being so rushed that you and your family would be incredibly cranky. Even on the restricted itinerary I've suggested, three days is not enough time to see anywhere close to everything you'd want to see in Paris, London, Rome, and possibly Florence. But that's alright because you'll still have great pictures and memories of you and your family enjoying the sights--stuff that you'll talk about for years.

RJ5929

yes, realized for Switzerland I have to go rural. yes, through spring break so school break for kids and off-peak miles with AA too.

RJ5929

yes, all my reasons, exactly.

so far, I noticed all WOW and Norwegian sales have been from east coast cities, rarely from DFW. I will watch them too thanks. I believe I have couple of months time (fingers crossed) before I could make final to and fro tickets.

I like this idea too. May be DFW-LHR-Italy-Paris-DFW.

When I think of europe, these things come to my mind. london, big ben, london eye, stonehenge, buckingham palace, paris, Eiffel tower, walk through paris, rome, leaning tower, venice, colossuem. so let me look at this last plan you suggested, by skipping amsterdam, brussels, zurich.

If I could see all above in one trip, I will be happy, and I know my wife will be happy.

lwildernorva

For those of us who have made these trips many times, it's so easy to forget that "the beaten path" is there for a reason. If it's your first trip and might be the only for awhile, you want to hit the high spots. I was reminded of this recently when a friend of mine asked if he could join me for a golf trip I have planned to Ireland in September. I've been to Ireland at least once per year the last eight years. I love it, but I now know the country and its golf courses like the back of my hand.

If I'd done the trip alone, I would have avoided all of the "high points" and gone to some more unknown courses that are just as much fun, are played more by locals rather than Americans (there are courses in Ireland where there are so many Americans that walking into the clubhouse is like walking into a clubhouse in an American suburb), and cost about 1/3 of the famous courses. In addition, I would have traveled a fairly tight loop around one part of Ireland rather than trying to cover the entire island in one trip.

But, my friend has never been there before, and because of the nature of his job, he might not make it again for years. So, we'll go to every well-known Irish course and travel around almost the entire perimeter of Ireland. And I understand this because the route we'll take will look very much like the very first trip I took to Ireland in 2000. Substitute sightseeing for golf courses, and the same principle applies.

Two more quick points. Since you've indicated your trip will be in March, you may have more time to plan than you think. March is offseason in Europe still and while advance planning is always good, you may be able to book as late as November or December. Second, since it is offseason, check that the opening and closing hours on the various attractions you'll want to visit. Since you're focusing on major cities rather than rural areas, you shouldn't have a problem with attractions being closed--which can happen in rural areas as a low level of tourist demand will lead to seasonal closings--but you might find reduced operating hours at many places, even in London or Paris.

RJ5929

I was thinking about how late could I wait before I should book. I might wait till late September before booking anything. Pursuing another family to join us

didn't think about this, will check each attraction timings. thanks.