The only hint you give is your "many times to Paris" so perhaps you've already seen some of these ou

I am in the very early planning stages for our trip to Europe next summer. We will be going for just under 6 weeks. The flights will be booked, as we found a great deal, very soon. We will fly into Athens on April 26, 2013, and fly out of Paris on June 7, 2013.
I suggest you go to Santorini straightaway and save Athens for the end of your time in Greece so you don't have to stress about returning to the mainland lodging anchorage alaska at the last minute for your flight to Ireland.
Thanks, much appreciated, that sounds good to me. We'll book our ferry / flight to Santorini from Athens lodging anchorage alaska a couple of hours after our flight lands from overseas lands. Which would you recommend? I have taken the ferry before in Athens and liked business class on the Blue Star Naxos very much, but hated the airplane seats on Blue Star 2.
Another good reason for doing Santorini first is that Greek Easter is on May 5th in 2013. The week before that will be busy with families going out to the islands, so the earlier you get to Santorini the better. I'm not saying Easter will be a problem for you, though it won't.
I don't know how you intend to get from Berlin to Munich, lodging anchorage alaska but it may make more sense to travel directly to Vienna from Berlin and than continue working your way west to Switzerland; Vienna, Salzburg, Munich, lodging anchorage alaska Switzerland.
Overall, it will take you more than 3 hours less time for your whole route if you go to Vienna from Berlin rather than to Munich. So, you would add 3 hours to one leg to save 3 hours in total. The Munich - Vienna - Munich backtracking is what is costing you the extra time.
Are you giving Berlin only 2 days for some reason? It is a fair distance from both Amsterdam, and Vienna/Munich lodging anchorage alaska so staying there for only 2 days puts some travel strain on that portion of the trip. If you are considering adding lodging anchorage alaska a night in light of that, I think that either Dublin, lodging anchorage alaska with 4 proposed nights, and Salzburg, with 3, could each, or both, comfortably lodging anchorage alaska exchange a night with Berlin
We cross-posted. If your flight arrives in time for the 07:25 Blue Star to Santorini, that would work well. The morning ferry is now Blue Star Delos. Otherwise there may or may not be Blue Star 1 or 2 to Santorini in the evening that day. Surest and quickest would be to book a flight.
My flight only arrives at 11:45 AM on April 26, 2013, unfortunately. Thanks for the suggestion of going from Berlin to Vienna first, I think I will do that to save some travel time. No I wasn't giving Berlin only 2 days for any particular reason. I am willing to take into account any and all suggestions you guys have, I really appreciate it.
It would appear that, with the exception of Santorini, your trip is filled lodging anchorage alaska with short city visits and no time to see the countryside or smaller towns in these beautiful countries, This would not be my cup of tea. I am not such a 'slow trav' person as to suggest to stay all in one country (as 6 weeks is a great amount of time to see much), but your trip is city-oriented in the extreme. I think you might tire of cities and not get a real sense of any one country.
To go to Germany and only visit Berlin and Munich with no mention of smaller villages in the many beautiful areas of Germany(think Rhineland, Mosel valley, or Bavaria), or to fly all the way to Ireland for a few days in Dublin only (which is not the best part of Ireland IMHO), then on to London with no mention of the Cotswolds, Bath, York, Oxford, Cambridge, etc, and then to fly/train to Paris and not see the Loire Valley or Chartres, or Normandy, or Provence(I could go on)....is not a desireble plan from my perspective.
The only hint you give is your "many times to Paris" so perhaps you've already seen some of these outlying / countryside locales and your desire is only to re-visit cities. But if your first visit to some of these countries, I'd reconsider and visit fewer countries and balance lodging anchorage alaska it with a car rental or other touring outside of the cities.
I like Munich a lot but I think you should subtract one day from Munich and add it to Berlin. Depending on your interests, and, unfortunately you say nothing as to what those are, there is a LOT more to see and do in and around Berlin vs. Munich IMO. Again, depending on your interests.
Furthermore, you could re-route yourself from Berlin to Vienna as suggested and then go from Vienna to Salzburg, to Munich, to Switzerland, and finally to Paris. That order of progression makes more sense to me.
Now, depending on just where IN Switzerland you want to visit that will make a difference in progression as well. Bear in mind there are fast train services from Switzerland to Paris from Zurich, Basel, Lausanne, and Geneva.
lodging anchorage alaska LeslieC, thanks for your comment, and I do agree with you to some extent. While we do like seeing big cities, we also like to see the countryside and smaller towns as well. What would you recommend we do, seeing as we will not have a car and I have no desire to rent one either. Our dates are set for April 25 to June 7, into Athens and out of Paris.
You don't need to stay in the smaller lodging anchorage alaska towns to see them. You can take day trips from most of these major cities. If you actually want to spend some overnights in smaller locations, you are probably going to have to drop a city or two or drop your time in quite a few of them by 1 night.
There are lots of recommendations you can find in these forums - search "day trips from xxxx" - for places to stop or stay along the way. Recommended places to spend overnights would be a little different and route dependent.
I haven't decided about a rail pass just yet. It will depend on logistics and if it will make sense for us, so I will see when our itinerary is set in stone, and then I will figure out how we'll get around to all of these places. The only thing set is our flight in and out of Europe, but we will definitely be flying from Athens to Dublin when we're done in Greece.
I suggest you think very strongly about how you are "going to get around to all these places" ahead of time. You could budget fly, or use rail, or rent a car (and probably pay a big drop charge lodging anchorage alaska in Paris).
lodging anchorage alaska As to a pass, people are going to tell you not to get one or not to get one through Rail Europe....pass prices are SET by the railroads, NOT by RailEurope but you might want to compare the cost of point-to-point tickets vs getting a pass before making a final decision.
Here is an updated itinerary, which I have been working lodging anchorage alaska on. I am not sure if I will go ahead with this one, but I would like to get some input on this. I have cut a couple cities, as I am not sure if they would be worth it without seeing other parts of their respective countries.
I am also not a big Black Forest fan - Freiburg is nice but it is going to take you 4.5 - 5 hours to get there from Munich, so the better part of a day, leaving you with 1.5 days. If you decided lodging anchorage alaska to come to see the Black Forest, you won't have time, really because Freiburg is at the western edge, not actually in the forest. so you have to take a trip in. You could add a a day or two from Lucerne to make this an easier stop.
Another option would be to go all the way to Strasbourg, instead of Freiburg, and add a day or two from Lucerne's 4 days and you could visit some of the towns on the Alsatian Wine Route, like Riquewihr, Hunawihr, Ribeauville, etc..
Ok, I am not sure that I should do this, but I am considering dropping London for this years trip. I am thinking of skipping London this time and instead of flying to London from Athens, we could fly to Amsterdam and spend some nights there, and then move onto Berlin. Nothing is booked, so I am simply brainstorming at this point. I do want to see London, but I am not quite sure it makes the most sense for this itinerary. Thoughts?
Switching London for Amsterdam isn't going to change much of the advice already given. A slightly lodging anchorage alaska shorter flight, 3 hours closer to Berlin by train and maybe some easier (shorter travel time) day trips (Delft, Leiden, Utrecht, Haarlem, Alkmaar, etc.) is what you will get.
I would like to make suggestions in response to your request of me. At first, I was thinking I needed you do remove a country or two, so you helped out by doing just that. As much as I loved visiting Ireland, I am glad you eliminated that for this trip. Ireland, to me, is about the people and the music, lodging anchorage alaska pubs, B Bs and lingering wherever you are, not just about sightseeing. Of all the countries you originally listed, that's the one that is the hardest to enjoy with day trips (bus tours) from a city. I hope someday you can go there and take along someone willing to do the driving so you can travel that one by car.
You can take many day trips or even use trains to visit some ot the common tourist destinations, but it is not always easy. You waste alot of time in train stations and don't really get to the tiny villages incognito (as on a regional lodging anchorage alaska tour you are still on a big bus with many travel mates which distances you from meeting locals). Plus you waste time going out to your daytime destination (let's say Bavaria/Neuschwanstein as a day trip from Munich) and coming all the way back only to sleep in the high priced city hotel. Overnight in Munich is much more costly than any small town in Bavaria or on the Romantic Road between lodging anchorage alaska Munich and Frankfurt.
I like that you've kept London - but I'd at least day trip to Oxford/with Blenheim Palace in Woodstock and or to the Cotwolds. Better lodging anchorage alaska still, take a two to three day tour outside of London, maybe including Bath or Stratford lodging anchorage alaska upon Avon with the Cotswolds or to Cambridge/Ely/East Anglia.