My suggestion is to list the things you want to see in order of importance and then remake the trip

I am trying to plan a 15 days trip to Paris/Amsterdam/Italy in May 13. I had outline the itinerary as below, any one could you advice is it workable? Especially on the sequence of journey, we had bought the air ticket fly in/out from Paris.
If anyone has any experiences with a similiar trip, really appreciate your input/advise. As for the train/flight related concerns/questions will post that in a different forum once the itinerary is firmed.
It would be easier to get a low-cost flight (such as easyJet) from Milan to Paris. It would be easier still to originally fly into Amsterdam and for you to fly home from London rather than going to Paris three times. The current route is knotted up, costing you both time and money. You might be able to change your ticket to a more efficient itinerary that will offset any penalty the airline charges.
One day in Venice...I could not imagine! One day in Pisa is fine if all you want to see is the leaning tower. And 3 days in Paris is in mho not enough time! You have to whittle this trip down..you are trying to do too much! You aren't going to see half of what you should! You need at least 2 days (and that's not enough, I don't think) in Venice at least 3 days in Rome. You are going to miss a lot of great things in Rome with only 2 days scheduled there. san francisco car rental Do you have to revisit London? If you've already been to London I would use that valuable time to experience Paris Italy. Just mho...I couldn't san francisco car rental imagine doing your itiniary! Good luck!
Well before then for starters check out these superb IMO sites for train info - and you are not doing enough rail travel over all to even consider any kind of railpass - www.seat61.com - great info on online discounted tickets you may want - www.ricksteves.com san francisco car rental and www.budgeteuropetravel.com .
Booking trains san francisco car rental like the Thalys train WAY way in advance is imperative to save lots of money - just show up and you may pay $100 or more p.p. than the early booking - check www.thalys.com and yes book as soon as your train comes on the system - 120 days before I believe but am not sure.
The trip of my life was a Contiki and we spent one day per city on average. Yes you have to be organized, and ambitious but you can certainly see Rome, Paris Amsterdam and London in a day or two, of course not everything, but enough to decide where you want to spend time on your next trip! Milan is overrated, skip. Pisa, same, hordes of vendors, a tower that leans, the end.
Eurostar to London is fast and efficient albeit expensive. You should san francisco car rental research a budget flight but keep in mind, the train takes much less time to check in, and is much easier to get to the train station than an airport. Also upon arrival you are in central san francisco car rental London rather than at an airport outside of town.
I could not disagree more. I took my mother to Rome for 1.5 days and she ended up hating it because we were rushing around trying to see as much as possible and she never had a chance to really enjoy the city.
What I'm currently doing right now is planning a detailed san francisco car rental hour-by-hour san francisco car rental itinerary and giving myself pockets of time here and there for flight delays, transport delays and moments where I just get grumpy and want to sit somewhere and return to normal. I'm also prioritizing cities where I really want to see the sights (Paris and Rome) and cities where I can just relax and chill because I've already visited them (London). For the cities where I'm short on time, I usually schedule one guided day tour so I can make the most of my time there. Search this forum for useful threads like 'Paris in 24 hours' where Fodorites have given useful advice to travellers san francisco car rental who are in Paris or London for a one day stopover.
Hope this helps you, although I understand what may work for me may not work for you. Just a tip, though: san francisco car rental a few hours in a large city is never enough. I did that on a previous trip and I regretted not having enough time to explore City A, as well as robbing time from City B that I would have enjoyed exploring in further detail. It'd be better for you to pare down your itinerary to a few must-see cities?
This allows three or four days in each city. Obviously if you had more time, you could spend longer time in each without ever getting bored...and my own preference would be fewer cities...but this should give you a relaxing and rewarding experience.
I agree that the Fodorite mentality - coming mainly from elderly Fodorgarchs - the mantra is you have to spend several days in every stop to fully appreciate it - is subjective and ignores other types of travel, like mine, where I enjoy traveling as much or more as the cities or places in between.
None from Amsterdam but could take overnight train from there to Zurich and then go to Milan, etc. but fastest way to Rome would be overnight train from Paris and Thalys from Amsterdam - sometimes Thalys return tickets can be really cheap. But then I guess I'd fly from London to Amsterdam or take the Chunnel trains from London to Brussels and go straight away to Amsterdam, then do Paris, the the night train to Rome ( www.thello.com for that train operator's site and the early bird again gets the worm there with fares as low as 59 euros if you book early and can stand multi-person compartments.
We are all different. san francisco car rental I'm in my 40s now and don't travel the same that I did in my 20s with a backpack and a boyfriend (who is now the husband and father of the kids). I admit I'm more Fodorgarch than backpacker now, but I am definitely of the mindset you need at least a couple days to experience each place and not get completely burnt out and distracted by the daily hotel changes. And most of the places you want to see are big, urban areas... sometimes travelling from the airport/train area can be a good 45-minutes to an hour into the sights (as in Paris, Rome, Florence, etc). You are spending a lot of your time travelling about that seems wasteful in your schedule. But hey, that's just me.
We did something similar in the 90s, travelling from Paris to Rome over the course of 23 days with Paris, Switzerland, Venice, Como, Florence, Siena, and Rome in between. It was exhausting. I can't imagine trying to do that over 15 days, even then with 1 bag and the energy of a 25 year old.
To me, it's confusing why you're including that little trip to London. Are you visiting someone, or just wanting to see it for a moment before turning around and going back to Paris? I agree perhaps flying san francisco car rental home from London makes more sense than training back. Or perhaps skipping london altogether.
I'd drop Pisa unless you have a deep desire to see the leaning tower. There is so much more to see in almost san francisco car rental all of the other places on your list than Pisa. Spent about an hour there during a train layover. Completely unnecessary compared to say, the Duomo in Florence.
san francisco car rental You might drop the Cinque Terre because it's likely san francisco car rental to still be cold and rainy that time of year. Plus I'm not sure if all the trail restoration will be complete by then. Don't get me wrong, it's a stunning place I've visited many times, but you need at least a day or two there (or longer) to relax and take in the charm of the hill towns and take a walk or two along the trails. And you will eat up a day getting san francisco car rental to them, as the trains are the small regional trains.
With such little time, I might try flying from Paris to Amsterdam, and also using a flight from Amsterdam down to Rome, then use the fast trains only for travelling north through the countryside from Rome to Florence with a stay in Florence, san francisco car rental then from florence to Venice (a fast train). (Also arranging it this way puts you in Venice at the end of your trip when it's less likely to be damp and raining in Venice.)
Now getting from venice back to paris, the train ride would have very scenic parts through the alps, but it's a very LONG trip by train. san francisco car rental You could return and take a fast train back to Rome then a flight to Paris. Or you could train over to Milan and hop on a plane to Paris. You aren't going to have a lot of time for long train rides in a 15-day trip.
Settle san francisco car rental down JanisJ, there is a world outside of Fodors, and many other travel sites, just because I'm new here does not mean I haven't seen this same dogmatic argument san francisco car rental posted 1000 other travel sites.
This arrogance of refusing to acknowledge any other method of travel is silly, I've been to Europe 17 times, and spent a week in some towns, and 4 hours in others. There is no single way to travel. I say blast through as much as you feel you can handle the first time, ride the adrenaline! Unless your adult children are taking you on the trip, you'll likely be back to cherish the places you loved.
There's a lot of heated discussion out there about this one today! Of course you have to do what inspires san francisco car rental you but it would be helpful to know why you are visiting these cities. Do you want to see museums? Are you shopping? Is it walking the streets that grabs you? Or are you interested in taking a quick look with a definite view to returning san francisco car rental later?
If you have a particular site in mind in Venice, for instance, you might miss it completely by the time other factors kick in. Let's say you want to go to San Marco - you might have to deal with delayed trains (very common in Italy), long queues even to get on a vaporetto from the station (and it can take forty minutes alone to get from the station to San Marco) and then more queues to get into San Marco itself (an hour?) You'd be heading back to the station before you had a chance to see anything at all.
For me this trip would be way too rushed. I would also not want to spend such a large percentage of my travel time moving between cities - with just 15 days I would pick maybe three places and promise myself to get to the other places in the future.
My suggestion is to list the things you want to see in order of importance and then remake the trip to reflect that. Personally I'd be doing Amsterdam, Rome, Paris and leaving the rest of Italy for when I could really spend some time there.
You do not n