Will be going on a trip in Mid June

June 15 - 17 -> Amsterdam
17-19 -> Madrid
19-21 -> Paris
21-23 -> Rome

We've looked into Hostels as well as renting places. Any suggestions on where I should stay with my friends.

Also, what are the good sights and sounds of each city besides the obvious ones?

depends on your budget but probably go with hostels as you can meet some interesting people there. also you wont be spending long in any one place so the obvious sights should be more than enought to keep you busy.

I think we are leaning towards hostels but some places we found through airbnb sound like good options.

What are some places to see in Madrid? I think we'll be occupied with Red Light in Amsterdam. Paris will take one day to see Champs Elysee and Eiffel Tower. So we have a spare day.

How many people? Hostels were fun when I went cause it was just me and 1 friend (or just me alone for a bit) so being able to be around other people was more exciting.

I stayed at Flying Pig in Ams, St. Christopher's in Paris, and Yellow in Rome. All are popular and had good reviews -- did lots of research. We went to Barcelona instead of Madrid, which seemed far superior (was in Madrid alone for a couple days more recently).

Come to Barcelona, is really nice here the night life is awesome.

There are 6 of us. We wanted to do Barca and may still do it, but Madrid was the less expensive of the two in regards to travelling in and out.

Oh thats cool good luck man

Wouldn't spend too much time in the red light district.
There are better things to spend your time on.

After 2 hours max. walking through 'de wallen' you've seen them all.

If you like electronic music dont miss tomorrowland july 27 in belgium

I suggest you spend more time in each place. Travelling to and from the airport takes so long that you will barely see much of any place. I suggest you skip either Rome or Madrid or maybe both and go to Barcelona. Madrid may be cheaper to get to but there is more to see in Barca.

If you keep to the current schedule you will end up visiting sites but not enjoying them. If you get hammered one night you will want a lie in.

I haven't been to Amsterdam for god knows how long but for Paris I recommend:

Picasso Museum and the Marais.

Luxemberg gardens

Place Madeline off the Place de le Concorde good for overpriced beautiful food shops.

The left Bank for cheap meals.

Napoleon's grave at Les Invalides.

Everythign is expensive.

If you go to Madrid the Reina Sofia art Gallery is good as it has Guernica and the palace was good. All the night life is in soem square south of the main square.

Travel slower.

Amsterdam- Highly recommend staying at the Flying Pig hostel (There are two, uptown and downtown) Downtown is close to the train station and RLD (Red Light District). Uptown is close to the casino, Hard Rock Cafe, Museumplein (lots of museums, ldo) You can't go wrong with either as Amsterdam has great public transportation. An alternative hostel would be the Bulldog, which is located in the RLD.

Renting a bike should be mandatory. Bike traffic may look intimidating but it the way to go as far as transportation. I decided to buy one when I was there. (Stayed for almost three months and wish I could have stayed forever.)

You will get lost in the city, trying to navigate the canals and streets especially while high is a challenge. Took me a few weeks to figure out where the hell I was going half the time. Pay attention to the bottom of the street signs. Amsterdam is divided into five sections and the bottom of the sign tell you which section you are in i.e., the RLD and area around it is "Centrum". So if you are lost and are staying near the RLD you are fairly close if the sign says "Centrum". English is widely spoken and you will have no trouble getting directions, although you will still most likely get lost again once you round a corner.

The RLD is a small area so it won't take a bunch of time to see, even if you hang out with the girls. Most have a fifteen or so minute time limit for 50 euros (2008 prices) although they will lower the price if you negotiate. There is also more than one RLD, although the one everyone knows is directly in the middle of the city. Spend a day there and use the other one to head up to Museumplein. Van Gough museum was worth going to and the big one (Reikjmuseum or something) is supposed to be impressive. (It was closed for renovations when I went so didn't get to see it. Amsterdam has one of the largest concentrations of museums of any major city on the planet per capita, if not the highest.

Coffee shops to visit- My favorite was the Bluebird, great selection of weed and hash and has a cool smoking section. Best weed can usually be found at the Grey Area, which is run by an American but has next to no room to hang out.

I could write a great big wall of text about Amsterdam, god I love that city. Not just the weed and the prostitutes, Dutch people are awesome to begin with. I have to get back there soon. Hope you enjoy your stay.

Anne Frank house would be another "Must see" attraction. Fairly close to the RLD but lines can be fairly long during peak times.

Paris- Pierre Lachaise Cemetary is a cool place. Jim Morrisons grave is there along with a few other notable names. Cemetary itself is a cool place to wander around in for a few hours and it is free.

Few people speak english and you will get a rude reception from many if you expect them to reply in your native language. I suggest learning the basic French phrases before you go. You will find people are way more receptive if you at least make an attempt to speak the language.

Rome- Should have been amazing, old building everwhere. I learned that I don't like Romans and find Italians to be worse than the French when it comes to being receptive to Americans. Rome has the same type of "**** off, I'm busy" mentality that people in Manhatten have. Forget about finding someone who speaks english when you get lost. (One of my most bizarre experiences was eating breakfast at a hotel in Rome. Over the music system Sonny and Cher were singing "I've got you babe" so I thought for sure some of the Italians in the room knew rudamentery english. Nope. Not a single soul could tell me how to get to the coloseum. Guess the music was for the tourists.)

Oh yeah, this is the best advice.

But if you are dead set on running around like crazy (Like most of us Americans tend to do, we really do suck.) consider taking night trains. Go to sleep in Madrid, wake up in Rome. Trains are far more convenient than flying through Europe. Train stations are centrally located in the cities while airports can be a hastle to go to and from, lots of time will be wasted seeing airports when you could be sleeping instead.

Seriously, believe me on this, you do not want to go so fast. If you really must go to more than one place, then your 8 days should be split between 2 cities max.

Amsterdam and Barcelona are my suggestions.

If you like to smoke weed and meet girls stay at the flying pig downtown in amsterdam

you can do amsterdam in 2 days no problem, maybe even one honestly, its hard to get around outside red light, maybe check out the henieken brouery and the rijksmuseum... other than that ur pretty much just gonna be getting high the whole time

I was just there for 3 days and it was too much/totally unneccessary to stay that long. Stayed at st christophers in red light, was ridic loud but a pretty legit hostel.

Rome/Barcelona might be better to stay for 3-4 days tho honestly. Amsterdam esp de wallen is just kinda tacky after a while, it doesnt need a long time.

Yeah I agree that 2-3 would be ideal and this is rushed even beyond what most rushed itineraries look like.

I think we are dead set on the fast paced running around type. I agree. 4 places is a tight schedule, but we'll get it through!

Barcelona would have been ideal vs Madrid, but cost wise didn't play out as planned.

We're booking our places through bnb, and most of them the apartment owner shows you around the city so it isn't too bad. Cost works out to 35-40 a night, which is cheaper than most hostels I believe.

There is a reason everybody is telling you to not travel so fast. It is impossible to see cities in this much time. Plus you are not even taking into account travel time.

You are not going to be able to see any spots around the city besides the "obvious" ones. In a place like Rome I doubt you are even able to do that

At the very least I would eliminate Madrid and you are still being extremely rushed. What you have now is not a good plan. Even 3 cities wouldn't be.

It seems that you're pretty set in your itinerary and accommodation. Why ask if you don't take any of the advice? Would you consider doing New York, Miami, Chicago and Los Angeles all in an 8 day trip if you were planning a trip in the States? If the answer is no, then you should take some of the advice you've been given.

And I have no idea how you're planning on getting around but Paris is on the way from Amsterdam to Madrid so it would make more sense to do it in that order.

FYI.. I've been travelling Europe for the last 2 months, and I've been to 5 countries total, and am currently spending my 12th day in Slovenia so it's pretty obvious that we're very different travellers. There's much more to a country than just it's capital city, which is usually far less interesting than other towns and cities.

You could literally spend a week looking around Paris; there is so much to see. There is a high speed train between Paris and Amsterdam called Thalys.

The good thing is if you don't travel around so much you will save loads of money that you can spend in all these really expensive cities. If you only visit Paris and Amsterdam with day trips to places outside the two then you will be flying in and out of the same airport which saves loads too.

Good places to visit in Paris:

Eiffel Tower.
Champs Elysee
Pere Lachaise Cemetary
Rue Hausmann department stores.
Boat trip
Musee Picasso/Louvre/ Musee D'Orsay
Les Invalides
The Left Bank
Notre Dame
Sacre Coeur

Outside Paris:

Versailles
EuroDisney
the Loire Valley


This is only the most famous touristy stuff. Assuming you want to go out in the evening and get drunk with the natives then you will not want to wake up the next day to see yet another national monument which you will rush around before takign yet another flight. There is no point rushing around trying to see everythign as you won't appreciate it; it will be too oevrwhelming.