You will need to add a bit more info on your preferences.  For example, if you are 85 then a thumping night at a club in a basement in Berlin may not be for you.  Or, if you live somewhere mountainous then perhaps a week in the mountains might not be much use either.

Museums, mountains, art, capital cities, out of the way towns, beaches, industrial heritage, classic architecture, techno, etc . . .

Please note that dates are written the other way around in Europe. 07/09 is the 7th of September and not the 9th of July. To avoid any confusion, you better write the day and month like 30th of June and 20th of July.

Thank you for the quick reply zagmund/AnnaB. 

OK, let me provide a bit more info.

I am a 56 y/old  male. I will be traveling with wife of 32 years (same age), we live in the USA. we are NOT into the party scene so we have no plans of partying long into the night, we do drink a couple of beers and maybe up to a 12 pack but no more than that. We are both of Mexican decent so our music preferences in order of importance and strictly in Spanish are mariachi, romantic ballads, corridos nortenos, cumbia, salsa and we hate reggetton (we are old school). I guess I will retract a bit regarding the partying long into the night. We will party if it is a Mexican party with our music because we will dance all night.

We are interested in sight seeing European architecture, I love old castles but my wife not so much, we enjoy eating like everyone else, and my wife loves shopping (my wallet hates that). My wife can’t really walk long distances like I can hence I am restricted only to what she can handle. That kinda sucks BUT she is important to me therefore it is what it is.

We will be traveling from June 30, 2024 to July 20,2024 (sorry but I have a hard time formatting dates to European standards). What concerns me the most about traveling by train is getting lost, missing train connections, not understanding what is being announced over the intercom on the trains. I have 3 weeks to get all this hammered out. We already have our passes but I need to book the 7 different days of travel and make sure we have all the extra stuff (requirements / seat reservations and what not) squared away by then. I really want to get this done by the end of this week at the latest because it is stressing me out.

We want to spend a couple of days at each stop therefore the trip would go something like Amsterdam - June 30, 2024 to July 2, 2024, Brussels - July 2, 2024 to July 4, 2024, etc…

The places we visit will all be new to us therefore I am not hard set on anyone place except Paris and Rome (out last stop).

Once again, we are starting from Amsterdam and going to end up in Rome due to inbound and outbound flights. We need to be in Paris from July 9, 2024 to July 11, 2024 because we are going to go see Mon Laferte at the Olympia which will make my wife very happy and if she is happy then I am happy.

If she is NOT happy my life can be very difficult therefore I try to avoid that. Thanks again for your help.

-Lucio

Hi Lucio,

First of all, welcome.  Second, don’t worry, it will all be good.  Third, you are already off to a good start with your intention of spending a few days per location rather than a whistle stop tour of a city per day.  Fourth, congratulations on getting 20 days vacation if you are from North America .

Hopefully you have looked at a map of Europe and can see that your trip is on a broad arc from Amsterdam-Paris-Rome, so again this is good news as this will help with the flow.  Some folks come on saying they want to visit Rome, Lisbon and Oslo (and a day trip to London if possible) and asking what’s the best route.

Pro-tip - if walking will be problematic then rail is your perfect solution as many, many central railway stations are slap bang in the middle of their cities so you literally walk off the train, down the platform, through a hall and you are where you need to be.  Hotels around railway stations are not necessarily as ropey as they used to be.  Google street view is your friend.

Very broadly I would aim for Amsterdam (but Dutch cities are pretty well linked, so don’t limit yourself just because you land there), Brugges in Belgium, Paris and then either head across to Basel in Switzerland (beware of prices) or Munich, or down to Nice or Cannes.

You can get from each of these cities directly or relatively easily to a number of cities across the north of Italy - any or all of which are worth a visit.

I would suggest Turin, Milan, Aosta (slight detour), Turin, Verona (see the opera in a Roman amphitheatre), Bologna, Venice, or any of a number of classic cities.  You can get to Rome easily from all of these.

oedit - scratch Venice off that list.  Walking is pretty much essential there, so that won’t work for you]