Honeymoon in Europe

I just want to share to you all about my trip to Europe on March 2008. Whole trip is 22 days, while actual days in Europe was 13 days. I’ll only mention those Europe trip plus Shanghai as my stop-over for 4 days. FYI, I live in Jakarta, Indonesia (SE Asia), and this is the first time I went to Europe. Cities I visited: London, Rome, Florence, Venice, Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, Mainz, Frankfurt, and Shanghai.

I didn’t take tour, so all arrangement had to be managed by myself. Traveling so many countries with many means of transportation requires some efforts and energy, may not be suitable for family taking kids or senior persons. Map reading skill is also required since you have to know where to go, right?

First thing to do before booking any flight, train, and hotels is to list down where to go, how long to stay in a city, and how to move from one city to others. Make some alternatives just in case flight/train ticket to a city in your selected day is expensive. See Europe map to make sure we take logical geographical route. Compare each option and make adjustment if train/flight cost is expensive.

Put in mind that it is usually faster, efficient, and cheaper by taking train instead of flight for adjacent countries. You need extra 3 hours before flight departure for going to airport, check-in and security clearance, and extra 1 hour after arrival to find your way to hotel. This means you’ll waste half-day by taking flight, not to mention if your flight is on around 11am-1pm, then practically you have waste whole day.

I had 3 option in Europe Traveling routes (my case: start from London, must end at Frankfurt)
1. London, Amsterdam, Paris, Rome, Florence, Venice, Frankfurt
2. London, Paris, Rome, Florence, Venice, Amsterdam, Frankfurt
3. London, Rome, Florence, Venice, Paris, Amsterdam, Frankfurt

Option #1 is to stay in London, then using night ferry service (from Harwich) to Amsterdam via Rotterdam, then take train to Paris, night train to Rome, train to Florence, train to Venice, and fly to Frankfurt Hahn.

Option #2 is to from London to Paris by train, night train to Rome, train to Florence and Venice, then fly to Amsterdam, and train to Frankfurt.

Option #3 is from London fly to Rome, train to Florence and Venice, train to Paris, Amsterdam, and Frankfurt.

Later I took option #3, night train from Paris to Venice/Rome or vice versa was not possible as Swiss Visa needed (of which I didn’t apply), taking day train would waste my time, and etc etc.

Read my complete guide and journal (still writing and keep updating) in my page at JavaMilk.com European Travel Guide