PlanningLast reviewed
How to plan a multi-city trip
For a week, two cities is the version that still feels like a trip. Three works if one stop is a single night or a short hop, and four is a transit itinerary. Count a travel day as lost to sightseeing, book the arrival night in each city before you fill the middle, and put the longest travel leg at the start or the end rather than between two short stays.
Each extra city costs a day
A train from Florence to Rome is a morning; a flight from Amsterdam to Copenhagen is most of a day once you include airports. If you have eight nights, two bases of four is a trip. Four bases of two is packing.
Open-jaw flights — into the first city, out of the last — are worth it whenever the backtrack would cost a day. Florence then Rome is the classic, with the return from Rome instead of dragging the bags back to the first airport.
Don't split the short one
If one city only gets two nights, make them consecutive and park the bags. A night in the middle of a longer stay just to "see it" is how people remember train stations.
Check how many days each city wants before you add a third pin. Ten days in Europe is the worked version of two bases. Stitching two week-long templates together means dropping days from both.
A Florence and Rome week
Four nights Florence, train in the morning, three nights Rome, fly out of Rome. Open-jaw tickets save the backtrack. Day of the train is not a museum day in either city. Book the first night in each place ahead of the rest. Timed entries go on the calendar; trattorias wait.
Adding Venice for two nights between them is how the week becomes platforms. If you want a third city, make it a day trip from one of the two bases, not a suitcase night. Florence and Rome already fill the days you have.
When three cities still make sense
One of them is a single night on the way to the airport. The hop is a morning train, not a flight. You have ten or more nights. All three conditions, not one. Two cities plus a day trip is the usual better version of "three cities."
A flight hop (Amsterdam to Copenhagen) costs a full day. Budget it that way on the calendar. If the remaining nights then drop below three in each base, cut a city. Packing is not a multi-city trip.
Worked week: four nights Florence, morning train, three nights Rome, fly out of Rome. Open-jaw tickets. The train morning is not a museum day in either city. Adding Venice for two nights between them is how the week becomes platforms. A third city should be a day trip from one of the two bases, not a suitcase night.
Three cities still make sense when one is a single night on the way to the airport, the hop is a morning train, and you have ten or more nights — all three conditions. Two cities plus a day trip is the usual better version. Ten days in Europe is the longer worked pairing.
- A week: two cities. Count the hop as a lost morning.
- Open-jaw flights into the first, out of the last.
- Do not split a two-night stay across the middle of the trip.