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Some early research questions on Europe
H and I want to start saving for a trip to Europe in the next 2-3 years, but have basically no idea where to begin.
We do have an itinerary: London, Paris, Venice, Tuscany, Rome. Does that order make sense? We definitely want to end in Italy.
I guess my questions at this point are: What would be the cheapest/most logical mode of transportation between countries/cities? Does anyone have an idea of what we'd be looking at for mid-range hotel prices (it's hard to do on sites like Travelocity with all these different stops)? Would the easiest way to plan this basically be through a travel agent?
Like I said, VERY early planning stages, but we want to have a general idea of cost so we can have a saving goal in mind. Any books/websites that would be good for planning this trip would also be appreciated 
Re: Some early research questions on Europe
How many days is your trip? I agree with pp that it's a lot to hit, especially if you have a tight time frame.
If you have a AAA membership, you should stop by an office because they'll give you a lot of free tour books and information. I have so many books for Italy, that I can't decide on my favorite.
If you want a rough estimate on price, for a savings goal, I like using europeandestinations.com. It allows you to put in your itinerary and the number of days in each city, and let you pick your transportation options too. It'll also give you hotels with that price, and you can upgrade if you don't like the quality. I think it'll give you a rough estimate what to expect, even though you don't know what air, hotel, etc prices will be for sure.
I agree with pp's. That's a LOT of territory to cover in one trip. I would get tired of living out of a suitcase faster than I'd be able to [enjoyably] cover that kind of distance. That'd be sort of like saying you're going on vacation to the eastern half of the US, and are hitting Boston, New York, Washington DC, Miami, and maybe New Orleans. London + Paris and Italy would be two reasonable separate trips, I think.
We did Italy last fall; we visited Cinque Terre, Florence, Siena (both of which are in Tuscany), Venice, and Rome. We spent almost 2 weeks. Prices were pretty different: Venice was the most expensive, followed by Rome. Siena was far less expensive. We really enjoyed the trip. I also second pp's suggestion of Rick Steves' books.
In the early planning stages I like going to the library and borrowing a whole bunch of different travel writers' books on an area and using them for inspiration and to decide which books I like well enough to buy and heavily use.
i'd begin by figuring out how long you have for the trip and what your budget is. go from there. you list a ton of places. if you only have 2 weeks it's too many, imo, as too much time will be spent traveling between them.
i've done italy a few times. one trip was for a week (just this past january) split between rome and florence, in 2010 it was 19 nights split between florence, radda (a town in the chianti region of tuscany) and sicily. the other in 2008 was a 12 night med. cruise with 3 nights in rome first.
if you can get your hands on a TA who specializes in italy and knows all about it by all means-use them! i planned all of our trips but then contact our TA to book all. with the 19nighter there were a bunch of hotels, car rental, airport transfers, 6 flignts etc... so she did all of the dirty work after I planned it all out.
My very first trip to Europe was two weeks, London, Paris, Lucerne, Florence and Rome. I was gone for two weeks and It was very hectic to move from place to place. It was fun and exciting because it was my first trip, but I won't do it again. I think figure out how long you are going to go and pick 3 cities you really want to see and enjoy them.My last trip was a road trip through Spain. We took our time and I really explored each city we visited. It was more relaxing and more enjoyable than my first faced pace trip.
Also if you wanted to visit another city and end your trip in Rome flights are pretty cheap between large cities.
Agree with everyone else; unless you have a lot of time, I would narrow your itinerary a bit.
I think that a week in London and a week in Paris would make for a perfect first visit to Europe. Or, you could spend two weeks in Italy. Just depends on what is more important to you. On my most recent trip to Europe we spent two weeks in Italy visiting Rome, Florence (1 day side trip to Tuscany), Cinque Terre, Milan, and Venice. I had visited all of the places previously except for Venice so I didn't feel rushed as I had seen many of the sights.
Pricing totally varies. I've stayed at dozens of places in Europe ranging from a shared hostel to a chateau. On average, I try to spend about $150 per night, which is usually doable. I highly encourage you to look at private apartment rentals which tend to be much cheaper than hotels. HomeAway and VRBO are good places to look at. If you decide to go to Rome look at Rental in Rome. For another cost comparison, our two week trip to Italy last September cost $5K, not including airfare (we got that for free using my frequent flier miles). We had a very nice trip and had a few splurges including a cooking class and participated in a few tours.
Train between London and Paris, fly to Venice (avoiding Paris-Beauvais if possible), after you're done in Venice get a car and drive through Tuscany, return it as you arrive in Rome.
Look on skyscanner for airline routes.
I disagree with the others about seeing so many places. Because plane fares are so expensive it's much more economical to do it on one trip than break it into two. Five days each for London and Paris, a full day in Venice, five days in Rome and five days through Tuscany is a reasonable three week trip.
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OP- like others, that's a lot for one trip. We just got back from our first Europe trip. It was 18 days and we hit Amsterdam, Paris, Barcelona and London. We had about 4 full days in the city, which was nice, but having another day or two at each really would have been ideal. We did have to make sacrifices about what to see.
Our total trip cost about $7.5K including everything. We saved 5 nights of accommodations in London bc we stayed with my sister. In all other cities we rented apartments. Of that total, we spend $1800 on flights to Europe (which actually seems cheap compared to current prices) and $600 on flights from Paris to Barcelona and Barcelona to London (we took train from Amsterdam to Paris). We also went early April, which is out of major travel season.
We're now saving money and vacation time for a 2014 trip to just Italy. Like others, my advice would be to choose 2 or 3 cities in Western Europe OR Italy for your trip.
For planning I booked everything myself and utilized friends/family, TN travel, Lonely Planet website and travel board, Rick Steves, Rudy Maxa, etc. But, I like to plan, organize and be in control :O)
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I think the very first step would be to determine how long you have for your vacation. This will likely dictate what cities you can visit, and thus the budget!
The first time we went to Europe, I thought the best mode of transportation would be the train, but I quickly discovered that airfares sometimes within Europe can be MUCH cheaper, and much quicker than the rail. Also, don't forget about everyday little costs such as food and admissions to tourist sites. In England you can save on tax if you take your food to go, and eat at a park or something. Just a little tip
Not to sound repetitive, but that's too much unless you're planning a long trip.
London and Paris; Italy. Two separate trips. Take the train between destinations.
Thanks for all the tips! Yeah, I do agree it would probably be hectic. My thought is I don't know if/when we would get back to Europe. We have so many places in the world we want to visit and not necessarily the budget to take a huge trip every year. I have always really wanted to visit Italy, but Paris and London are two places I want to see also before I die. I thought doing it in one trip might make sense.
However, I agree that perhaps I need to do three cities--Paris, London, and Rome. Perhaps we would be able to take a separate trip back to Italy in the future and see more of it.
We were thinking of a 10-12 day trip tops, just due to budget concerns. I will definitely look into apartment rentals though to save money.
Paris and London are quite a trek from Rome. You would definitely have to fly in order to save time (a train would take far too long). If you use a budget airline like RyanAir though, you'd have to keep their luggage limits in mind (their requirements are more strict). Honestly, I think that even if you had 12 days, it would be very difficult to do all 3 of those cities in one trip. I understand the reasoning behind your idea, but it's not really practical IMO. I'd just do Paris and London; maybe with one or two side trips thrown in to the Cotswolds, Bruges, etc. Or just do Italy. I know it's a really tough choice, but you want to make sure you do them justice.
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It's totally your vacation, but if I was in control of your trip, I also agree that 12 days is not enough for London, Paris, and Rome - without feeling rushed and chaotic. I can't stress enough that you'll spend, at the very least, several hours - in logistics associated with traveling between a hotel in London/Paris and a hotel in Rome (I would think that the flight alone is at least 2 hours, if not longer). I personally would rather have that time to sight-see. It won't be a neat adventure like taking the train to Paris from London!
I'd split the 12 days between London and Paris, or go to Rome (etc.) and whichever other Italian cities interest you. I'd base the final choice on where I could get the best airfare and overall best deals. I think that you have to assume that you'd go back.
I also highly recommend Rick Steves' books. I always buy the current guide for where I'm considering going - even if I have to buy a new one next year - and read through to determine where I want to stay and what I want to do. I think that you can get a good idea of costs this way. I put all the information in a spreadsheet, including costs and calculate costs using the current exchange rate. I also include train fares, any 'city passes' etc., and figure out how to get into each attraction for the cheapest cost.
I generally find that I average between $100 and $150 USD per night - and we tend to stay in a mix of "moderate price" and "inexpensive" family-owned places. I've never been disappointed or felt unsafe with Rick Steve's recommendations. In fact, each of the places that I've stayed...I'd go back without hesistation (or recommend). We generally eat well on vacation (plus wine, beer, etc.), but try to save where we can - a couple of "picnic lunches" or "picnic" dinners that end up being amazing. I try to stay somewhere that has breakfast included.
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Here's where we stayed in London http://www.vancouverstudios.co.uk/ (In 2005, it was a Rick Steve's recommendation - don't know about today). Great location with a kitchenette. In Rome, we used hotel points and I've never been to Paris. In case you're considering other ideas, I've also been to the Copenhagen, Stockholm, Oslo, Bergen, various cities in Portugal, and Positano, Italy.