[getbak]

3-4 weeks is plenty of time to see a lot of things. The thing you need to decide is: do you want to see a little bit of a lot of places, or a lot of sights in a few places? Obviously, even though Europe isn't very big, there is a lot to see. No matter what you do and how long you stay, you'll never be able to see it all in one trip, so don't kill yourself trying.

I went last spring (2007) and took a bus tour through Europe. It was all pre-scheduled and well-structured, and we did 10 cities in 20 days. With about a half day of traveling between each city, that gave us about a day and half in each city. Obviously, that is a very whirlwind tour, and one I wouldn't want to do without the benefit of it mostly being pre-arranged. That said, I got to visit a lot of amazing cities and saw some amazing sights. At the same time, I didn't really get to experience the cultures of each city since there was pretty much only enough time to hit the major tourist sites and tourist sites will never give you the real flavour of a place. The good thing is that in the touristy places everyone speaks English and is generally friendly (except for the pickpockets and guys selling designer knock offs).

If I were to go back and planning on my own, I'd accept that trying to see everything in one trip is way too hectic and ultimately not a relaxing vacation. For three weeks, I'd come up with a rough plan of the top 3 or 4 places I'd like to see and try to come up with a schedule that works for it.

You could pick a few of the big major cities: London, Paris, Rome for example, and just focus on them. You could do an "art" tour, with stops in Paris, Florence, Rome. You could do a beer tour through Germany, Belgium, and the Czech Republic.

If money is tight, the former Eastern Bloc is a budget traveler's dream. Prague is the "expensive" city in the Czech Republic and you can get a pint of beer for the equivalent of 75 cents Canadian. Outside of Prague, the CR is even cheaper. Croatia is directly across the water from the calf of Italy's "boot" and from what I've heard, the beaches are better, cheaper and less crowded than the ones across the water in Italy.

If you're interested in sights of a different type, there are stunningly beautiful women throughout Europe, but I found Paris had, hands-down the best looking women, followed closely by Germany (where the women all seemed to look like either Claudia Schiffer or Katarina Witt - at least, the ones without mustaches). Half the women in Prague looked like super-models, but the Eastern Bloc women seem more dour than Western European women.

One great thing is that with the European Union being in full-effect, traveling around Europe is super-easy. Once you're in the EU, traveling from one nation to another is as difficult as driving from Alberta to BC (i.e. no trouble at all). Also, high-speed rail travel in Europe is great, and there are a couple of discount airlines that can get you from one side of Europe to the other quickly and cheaply. This means that you could, if you wanted, do Madrid, Paris, and Berlin in one trip and not spend a lot of time (or money) going from place to place. Also, most EU member nations use the Euro as their currency, so you don't even have to worry about exchanging money. The only nations I visited on my trip that didn't use the Euro were the UK, the Czech Republic (nothing like paying for something that costs less than 20 Crowns with a 100 Crown note and getting a handful of change back), and Switzerland (by far, the most expensive place I went to - 8 Francs for a beer and 16 for a Big Mac combo at McDonald's, when 1 Franc is roughly equal to $1 Canadian).


I am a thorough planner when I travel, so I could never travel somewhere I've never been without a solid plan of where I was going to be at any one time. On the other hand, if you're traveling on your own, you're on nobody's time table but your own. If you make reservations, make sure they're changeable. You might meet some hot Australian who's traveling to Munich the day you were planning on going to Venice, and well, Munich is a great city (reminded me very much of Calgary).


I went in April 2007 and the weather was phenomenal the entire time. Every time it rained (four times total), I was either in transit or inside. Of the 26 days I was in Europe, I got rained on for more than 5 minutes exactly one time, and it was the day before I flew home. The climate over there seemed to be about a month to month and a half ahead of ours. In early April, the fields were already lush and green and the canola fields were already yellow (I didn't even know they grew canola over there), which doesn't happen here until summer.

Obviously, you can never know what the weather will be like, which is another reason to have a flexible schedule. If you're in Rome and it's raining, go to the Vatican. If it's sunny, go to the Colosseum and the Forum.

A lot of places in Europe have some sort of Carnival celebration prior to Lent (which is a floating date relative to the date of Easter), very much like Mardi Gras in New Orleans. One of the guys I work with went to the one in Lucerne, Switzerland this year, and he said it was one of the craziest times he's ever had (and he doesn't exactly lead a librarian's lifestyle). Venice has the ultimate Carnival, but I think it's more formal than a lot of other places.