What would be the best itinerary for your first two-week trip to Europe?

Jan-Erik Bulkema

The best trip of, say, 15 days? I would visit a mixture of countries, with the largest share located in Southern Europe.

A varied itinerary would include the two powerhouses London and Paris, a beautiful medieval town (Avignon), both an organised and a disorganised Mediterranean city (Barcelona and Naples), a Roman archaeology site (Pompei) and a laid-back coastal stay (Amalfi) to end your trip.

You'd tick off 4 European countries and 8 places, not bad:

• 3 days in London (UK)
• 3 days in Paris (France)
• 1 day in Avignon (France)
• 3 days in Barcelona (Spain)
• 2 days in Naples (Italy)
• 1 day in Pompei; and continuing to Sorrento (Italy)
• 2 days on Amalfi Coast (Italy)

Maybe it's a bit packed, but I think it's quite workable, because all the sites very accesible.

You'd do all the travelling neatly by train except from Barcelona to Naples (by air). The last two days you would move around by a pleasant ferry along the Amalfi Coast, hopping to villages like Amalfi and Positano, with Sorrento as central point. The return to Naples Airport would be done again by train.

If needed to limit the itinerary, I would miss out Barcelona. From Avignon (South of France), it's easy to enter Italy by train, so you wouldn't have to do any internal flying.

If you want to reduce the number of hotels, you could skip Naples, and take a hotel directly in Sorrento. Both Naples and Pompei can be visited from there by train (and Naples is even incuded in the beforementioned ferry-line).