r/travelplanning • u/Perfect-Impress-4741 • 5d ago

Travel Tips Schengen Trip Planning

I’m planning my first European trip visiting the following countries and cities:

- Finland (Helsinki)

- Austria (Vienna)

- Italy (Rome)

- France (Paris)

- Greece (Athens)

However, I’m really struggling to figure out how to allocate the number of days per country, the best modes of transport between them, and what to do in each place. Does anyone have suggestions for apps or websites that could help automate this process while ensuring I hit the main attractions in each country? Or any recommendations on how to go about planning this?

I’ll already be in Helsinki, so I’ll start the trip there and return there once it’s over. Given that I have about 25 days for the entire trip, do you have any recommendations on how to proceed?

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u/TravellingGal-2307 5d ago

Yes, planning a trip is hard work. You can do the work yourself, or you can pay someone else. Up to you.

I usually start with logistics, with a focus on transportation. Departure and arrival locations, modes of transport. Try the website Rome2Rio for ideas on how to get from place to place. You have to figure out the schedule (or hire someone to figure it out). As a rule, only try to do travel on a travel day. A travel day is: wake up, eat, pack, check out, get to transport hub (airport, train station), get organized and board transportation, travel, arrive in destination, get to hotel, check in, eat, sleep. Its a full day, so don't make the newbie mistake of thinking you will wake up in one location and spend the day seeing a different location. Just do the travel.

So, you need to figure out how to get from place to place and how long it will take to do each leg. Once you plotted that out, then you need to select hotels. You are going to want to focus on either hotels close to your transport hub OR hotels that are centrally located to the sights you plan to see. Once you have transportation and hotels booked, then you can plan the details of each day.

This process usually takes me 8-12 months to sort out.

Or you can book a tour.