Europe in 6 months

Hello!

We are planing a car Travel through Europe because one of us is very ill. Well that said. We would like to live our dream of travelling in Europe.

We have exactly 6 months and would love to travel in a circle from the Netherlands down south to France, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Balkans, Greece, Danube Delta, Hungary and then up through east Europe to Tallinn and then via Helsinki through Scandinavia with the northern lights and to the British Iles.

Our question is if that is doable in 6 months. Do you have ideas what to include?

Thank you in advance

Helena

[ Edit: Edited on 15 Mar 2025, 14:59 GMT by Helena88 ]

Practicalities first:

You don't give your citizenship but unless you're a citizen of one of the countries listed below you'll only be allowed 90 days in any 180 day period in the Schengen Zone, The Schengen countries are: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

When you have used up your 90 days (which includes the day you enter and the day you leave) you must stay out of the Schengen countries for a further 90 days.

Some of the Balkan countries aren't in the Schengen Zone: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia....but, depending on your citizenship, you may need a visa or electronic visa waiver.

You'll need to plan your trip to take account of the 90-in-180-day rule. There are fines and potential re-entry issues for those who overstay and there's a shared system so all Schengen countries know your date of entry to the Zone.

The 'British Isles' are primarily made up of the UK (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) and the Republic of Ireland The UK and the Republic of Ireland are not in the Schengen Zone. Depending on your citizenship you may or may not need a visa to enter the UK (which shares a 'Common Travel Area' with the Republic of Ireland) but you will probably need an ETA to enter the UK/CTA. Check on the official site here:

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/apply-for-an-electronic-travel-authorisation-eta

As to whether your suggested trip is 'doable' it depends on how much driving you're prepared to do in any one week, how the illness affects the person in terms of travelling and how much time you want to spend exploring & experiencing countries rather than just passing through them.

It might, perhaps, be best to plan an itinerary with fewer countries but includes those which you really want to visit?

[ Edit: Edited on 15 Mar 2025, 15:45 GMT by leics2 ]

I fergot to write that. We are from Germany.

Those are good points.

Well must sees are:
Groningen
Brugge
Mont Saint Michel
Lisbon
Cadiz
Granada and Alhambra
Malaga
Barcelona
Madrid
Vienne
Florence
Rom
Pompeij
Venice
Malta
Balkans
Greece
Danube Delta
Prague
Warsaw
Baltics
Finnland
Stockholm
Copenhagen
Oslo
Train Trip Oslo - Bergen
Trondheim
Northern Lights
London
Giants Causeway

[ Edit: Edited on 15 Mar 2025, 16:02 GMT by Helena88 ]

Some idea of your interests might help with suggestions for what to include. I'm assuming with the illness that e.g. hiking won't be on the program, but it still matters if you're interested in seeing nature sights, are particularly interested in history or culture, or anything like that.

If I try to plot your destinations on a mental map, and add weeks to it, doing this route in 26 weeks seems feasible, though at a faster pace than I personally enjoy. If you haven't done so yet, I'd recommend putting it on an actual map with actual weeks (for example using travellerspoint's map), so you can see how it all shakes out, paying particular attention to long distances between destinations (e.g. Normandy to Lisbon is very long, so one or two halfway destinations along that stretch would be worthwhile), as well as to places that are really out of the way of everything else and might be worth cutting.

Time of the year for specific places also matters. Malta and Greece in high summer doesn't sound like my idea of fun. (But might be that you do enjoy the heat?)

Anyway, some specific remarks and recommendations:
From Cadiz to Malaga, be sure to stop by in Ronda for a day or two; absolutely gorgeous town, with some really good restaurants. (Also, putting Malaga before Granada makes more sense from a geographic point of view, in case your list of must sees was in trip order). Sevilla is also quite worth it for a couple of days en route to Cadiz - imho more so than Malaga (the Alcazar is second only to the Alhambra in splendor).
Madrid before Barcelona, again from a geographic point of view.
Vienna should come between Greece and Prague rather than between Spain and Italy.
From Barcelona to Florence, follow the coast for some really gorgeous areas. I particular like the border region between Spain and France.
London and Northern Ireland by car from northern Norway doesn't seem to make much sense - that might need rethinking.

Quoting Sander

Some idea of your interests might help with suggestions for what to include. I'm assuming with the illness that e.g. hiking won't be on the program, but it still matters if you're interested in seeing nature sights, are particularly interested in history or culture, or anything like that.

London and Northern Ireland by car from northern Norway doesn't seem to make much sense - that might need rethinking.

How would you do Uk and Norway or would you do UK as a start?

We love Culture, Nature, Ruins, History, Museums.

Malaga is a must because my brother lives there.

We estimate that we will have 6 months as that is the time between treatments we will probably have.

After reading your posts I assume it might be better to split that trip. Maybe a West trip from UK to the south and later maybe one in the East? It might make more sense right?

Do you think a trip from UK to Italy will be doable in 5/6 months?

A lot of those cities don't lend themselves to cars. Maybe if you're splitting it you could look at one trip by public transport and one by car.

I wouldn't want to drive or be saddled with a car in Rome, Pompeii, Florence, Venice, or London.

If the UK bit is just London and the giant's causeway then I'd fly between them. But the giant's causeway is famously "worth seeing, not worth going to see". How about the Scottish Highlands instead? Fingal's Cave on the Isle of Staffa is far more impressive than the gc, in my opinion.

Your Norway trip should probably be in summer for daylight and weather, but that doesn't fit with seeing the northern lights. I'd suggest adding the Lofoten Islands to your plan.

I'd probably do the UK and Ireland as a separate trip. Maybe train to London, train+ferry to Belfast, rent a car there. Depends a bit on how much from the rest of the UK and Ireland you want to see. But just the driving on the wrong side of the road is so much more pleasant with a local car, while having a car at all in London is a major nuisance.

Quoting AndyF

A lot of those cities don't lend themselves to cars. Maybe if you're splitting it you could look at one trip by public transport and one by car.

I wouldn't want to drive or be saddled with a car in Rome, Pompeii, Florence, Venice, or London.

If the UK bit is just London and the giant's causeway then I'd fly between them. But the giant's causeway is famously "worth seeing, not worth going to see". How about the Scottish Highlands instead? Fingal's Cave on the Isle of Staffa is far more impressive than the gc, in my opinion.

Your Norway trip should probably be in summer for daylight and weather, but that doesn't fit with seeing the northern lights. I'd suggest adding the Lofoten Islands to your plan.

We know that with the car. But do to health problems we need a car and a wheelchair. Because my partner is very ill. Also most of the things are from his Bucketlist. He is very ill with cancer and we are doing it for him.

[ Edit: Edited on 15 Mar 2025, 19:08 GMT by Helena88 ]

Quoting Sander

I'd probably do the UK and Ireland as a separate trip. Maybe train to London, train+ferry to Belfast, rent a car there. Depends a bit on how much from the rest of the UK and Ireland you want to see. But just the driving on the wrong side of the road is so much more pleasant with a local car, while having a car at all in London is a major nuisance.

Hoping we can get around London with a wheelchair in the tube?

>Hoping we can get around London with a wheelchair in the tube?

Buses are ok but accessibility on the rest of London public transport isn't perfect (it is getting there). This page tells you everything you need to know:

https://tfl.gov.uk/transport-accessibility/wheelchair-access-and-avoiding-stairs