A round trip is a circle drawn on the map of Europe: the Amsterdam to the Berlin to the Prague to the Vienna and back to the Amsterdam, the loop of the 2,000 km that crosses four countries and four cultures, and the experience of the journey, the train, the car, the bicycle, and the sense of the circle that closes at the end of the trip, is the most satisfying form of European travel. The round trip is not the one-way flight to the destination and the return from the same airport. It is the loop: the departure from A, the travel to B, C, and D, and the return to A, the circle that means every day is a new destination, every night is a new hotel, and every kilometre travelled is the new rather than the retraced. Planning the round trip is the art of the logistics: the route, the transport, the accommodation, and the budget that increases with every stop. Here is your guide.

Round Trips in Europe, Things to Consider

• The route, the essential planning question: The round trip begins with the map, the finger tracing the circle, and the decision: the city round trip (the capitals, the London, the Paris, the Brussels, the Amsterdam, the 4-city loop that is the essential first European round trip, the Eurostar, the Thalys, and the trains that connect the capitals in the hours, not the days) or the regional round trip (the Tuscany, the Provence, the Catalonia, the 10-day loop that stays within the region, the car, the hill towns, the vineyards, and the pace that is the slow, the deep, and the satisfying). The essential rule: the 3-night minimum per stop (the 1-night stop is the travel day, the unpacking, and the packing, and the experience is the hotel rather than the destination. The 3-night stop is the 2 full days of the exploration, the meal, the walk, and the sense of having been to the place). The 10-day round trip = 3 stops of the 3 nights plus the arrival and the departure. The essential question: is the loop closing? The round trip that ends at the same airport is the cheapest (the return flight, the car rental, and the luggage that is stored. The open-jaw round trip, the arrival at A and the departure from D, is the more expensive but the more flexible, and the essential sacrifice: the cost for the time). More travel tips →
• The transport, the essential logistics: The car: the freedom of the round trip, the rural roads, the hill towns, and the car that is the essential tool of European road trip. The one-way rental fee (the €50–100 surcharge for the open-jaw route) is the price of the flexibility. The essential car rental strategy: the rental from the same country (the cross-border rental restrictions, the car rented in France cannot be dropped in Italy, and the essential check before the booking), and the full insurance (the excess buyout, the €0 excess, the peace of mind, and the €20/day that is the essential investment for the 10-day trip). The train: the Interrail/Eurail pass (the unlimited train travel across the 33 countries of Europe, the €400–900 for the 10-day pass, and the essential tool of the city round trip. The pass is the value for the multi-stop trip, and the essential check: the reservation fees for the high-speed trains, the €10–20 per train, and the essential booking in advance for the peak seasons), and the single tickets (the websites: the Trainline, the Rail Europe, and the Omio. The essential strategy: book the single tickets for the simple routes, and the pass for the complex). The essential mix: the car for the rural legs (the Tuscany, the Provence), and the train for the city legs (the Paris–Brussels–Amsterdam)
• The budget, the cost of the moving target: The round trip is more expensive than the fixed-base holiday, and the budget must account for the transport (the car rental, the fuel, the tolls, and the train tickets, the €30–80 per day of the travel days), the accommodation (the €80–150 per night for the 3-star hotel, the €150–300 for the 4-star, and the cost that rises in the summer), the food (the €30–60 per person per day, the breakfast at the hotel, the lunch at the café, and the dinner at the restaurant), and the attractions (the museums, the tours, and the unexpected, the €20–50 per day). The essential round trip budget for the 2 people, the 10 days, the car: €2,500–4,000