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Why You Don't Need to See Everything

Tue, 06 Oct 2026 18:24:51 GMT

Seeing less can sometimes mean experiencing more

Europe is full of famous sights and must-see destinations.

When starting to plan a European vacation, a lot of people have a huge list of things they want to see. And honestly, I totally understand. If you're already making the long journey, it's hard to cut out important sights. I've been in the same boat more than once.

On one of our last trips back to Europe, we decided to take our girls to Paris for a few days before spending Christmas with my parents. Both my husband and I had been to Paris before - I was a child myself the last time I was there—but the girls had never been. So naturally, we wanted to see as much as possible while also visiting at least one museum. But three full days are nowhere near enough to see it all. So we had to make some decisions.

Versailles and Disneyland were the first things off the list, simply because they would each take too much time on their own. The Arc de Triomphe, Eiffel Tower, and Sacré-Cœur stayed on the list, while we had to skip going inside Notre Dame, which had reopened to the public just the weekend we were in Paris. There were simply too many people who wanted to go inside. And of the many amazing museums in Paris, we had to settle on one because time simply didn't allow for more.

It was still an amazing trip, and we left with the intention to come back and see the rest.

When Travel Becomes a Checklist

Especially short stays, such as my family's visit to Paris, are in danger of becoming a checklist to tick off, which can quickly make a trip stressful.

Have you ever picked up a travel guide or Googled a city you were planning to visit and wondered how to fit everything into one trip? It doesn't even have to be Europe. It could just as easily be a city here in the United States. You start making a list of the places you would like to see, the things you want to experience, and maybe even the restaurants you want to eat at. Before you know it, you're creating a schedule. Every minute of the days you have there is planned down to the minute so everything somehow fits in.

And what should have been a fun trip to get away has unintentionally become busier and more stressful than an ordinary day at home.

I remember, as a child growing up in a tourist hotspot, watching groups of tourists rushing from one attraction to the next. Most of them had photo or video cameras in front of their faces, trying to capture everything to relive at home or share with their loved ones. I also remember wondering how much of the city they truly saw. How much would they remember without relying on their photos and videos?

What You Gain by Slowing Down

Now, years later, as a travel agent, I sometimes find myself wondering the same thing when a client brings me a long list of all the things they want to do - especially when that list, combined with the amount of time they have to travel, would turn the trip into a checklist.

But slowing down and allowing for a little bit of unplanned time can do so much for a trip.

It allows you to linger just a little longer at a sight that absolutely fascinates you. It allows you to leave the expensive main streets and find a quaint restaurant frequented more by locals than by other tourists. It means you don't have to stress if something takes a little longer than you thought it would.

And it allows you to rest in between, because traveling is tiring, both physically and mentally.

You Don't Have to Skip the Famous Sights

Slowing down your trip and allowing for intentional little breaks doesn't mean you have to leave out the famous sights or have an entire afternoon unplanned. It means taking the time to look at that list of things to see and experience you made when you first started dreaming about this trip.

Is everything on this list really equally important to you?

Are there things on the list that would take a lot of time to get to?

Are there activities or sights that would not be interesting or appropriate for everyone in your travel group?

Are there sights that would be nice to see, but if it doesn't happen, wouldn't take away from the overall success of the trip?

Going back to the Paris trip I took with my own family, those very questions determined our schedule. They are the reason Disneyland and Versailles didn't make it into our itinerary - they were simply too time-consuming for the limited amount of time we had in Paris.

The same was true for Notre Dame. We would have loved to go inside, but because it had just reopened after the devastating fire in 2019, it was incredibly busy, and you couldn't really linger to take a closer look.

So while it would have been nice to see the inside, not seeing it didn't take away from our experience.

Make the Trip Yours

I have already hinted at this point with some of the questions I suggested you ask yourself when making your list of things to see and do on your trip. Make the trip yours. Tailor it to your interests and the interests of those traveling with you. Take into account what everyone needs. How long can everyone comfortably walk before needing to sit down and rest? Does everyone enjoy the same kinds of activities? Are there things that one person in your group is especially excited about while others might happily skip them? Your trip doesn't have to look like someone else's. There isn't one single right itinerary. Your trip has to work for you and your travel group. It needs to match your interests and your situation.

So hit all those famous sights if they are important to you. But don't be afraid to only see them from the outside or from a distance, or to leave one completely off the itinerary if it doesn't fit your group.

Leave Room for the Experience

Remember, a trip isn't measured by how many checkboxes you tick off from some “must-see while in XYZ” list. A trip isn't measured by what others think about it.

A trip is measured by the memories you make while traveling and by how you felt about the experience.

So when planning your next adventure, take the time to think about what is really important to you.

What would be a deal breaker if you had to skip it? What are you genuinely interested in? What do you want to remember about this trip when you're back home?

You don't have to see everything.

A thoughtfully planned itinerary built around your needs and wants is worth more than checking off every single sight in a destination. And the itinerary that worked perfectly for your friends doesn't have to be a great fit for you. Give yourself permission to leave something for next time - and leave room for the experiences you might not have planned at all.

How Many Days Do You Really Need in Europe?

Wed, 30 Sep 2026 17:34:44 GMT

There is no magic number - only the right amount of time for the trip you want to take.

How many days do I need for a trip to Europe? The question sounds simple enough, but the answer isn't that straightforward. The honest, generalized answer has to be: It depends.

But what does it depend on? Let's take a look.

What do you mean when you say Europe?

Europe, while smaller than the United States, is still a continent. It is big, diverse and there is no way to see it all in a single trip. So when we try to determine how much time you need for your trip, we need to establish what you mean when you say you want to travel to Europe. Are you talking about one region, one country, or multiple countries? Europe is mountains, beaches, forests, and lots of history. According to the United Nations, Europe consists of 44 sovereign countries, divided into four general regions: Northern Europe, Eastern Europe, Southern Europe, and Western Europe. And that's just one way of looking at this incredibly diverse continent—44 countries, each unique in culture, landscape, and history.

How do you want to travel?

This is probably the most important question when determining how much time you need for your perfect European vacation. Do you want a highlights trip? Do you want to see the main attractions, maybe even in a group where you don't have to worry about anything? Would you rather spend time exploring neighborhoods and people-watching in a small local café? Spend time getting lost in a museum or browsing local stores? Would you rather relax, spend time on the beach, and simply enjoy the change of scenery?

A slow, immersive trip will not have the same time requirements as a highlights trip that covers multiple destinations. A city trip with younger kids will require a different amount of time to see everything than the same trip taken by two seasoned travelers.

Don't forget the travel days!

A common mistake when planning a trip to Europe is neglecting the travel days. Europe is not a small hop away. It takes a long-haul flight, often with at least one connection. You will have to account for the time difference. In most cases, you will not arrive at your European destination until the next day, and you will find that jet lag is real. You will most likely not be up for big explorations on the day of arrival.

Likewise, any destination change during your trip needs to be considered. It takes time to get from one place to the next even if both places seem to be really close on the map. You still need to check out, make the trip, check in to the next hotel, and just like that, a significant portion of your day is spent traveling.

And the same is true for the return home. Most flights departing Europe for the United States leave in the morning, and you won't have time for a little bit more sightseeing that day.

So, a 10-day trip to Europe with two different cities to visit, could mean that you have about three to four days devoted to travel, leaving you with roughly three full days per city for exploring.

A realistic look at trip length

So what does that mean for your trip? What would I, as a travel agent, recommend? Again, the answer really still depends, on the trip you want to take, the river cruise you might be considering, the number of cities you want to see, your travel style, and the travelers in your group. So while I can't give you a magic number of days, I can provide you with a framework - a starting point:

5–7 days: one city or a small region
8–10 days: one country/region with a little more depth
10–14 days: two complementary areas, depending on logistics
2–3+ weeks: opportunity for a broader, slower journey

More destinations don't always mean more Europe

Squeezing a lot of different cities and countries into one single Europe trip may sound appealing. Traveling to Europe is a significant expense that many travelers have to plan and save for well in advance. It's a big trip. It might even be a once-in-a-lifetime kind of trip. Wanting to make the most of it is natural. It's understandable. But it might mean you spend more time traveling than exploring.

So... what is my recommendation for my clients?

The only recommendation I really have for my clients may be surprising. I don't recommend a specific number of days. I recommend that you reach out with all your dreams and bucket-list items, tell me how much time you can realistically spend away from home and work, and come prepared with a budget that you can afford and justify for the trip. The perfect length for your European trip isn't a fixed number of days. It's the amount of time that makes sense for the trip you want to take and your personal circumstances.

What Does a Custom European Trip Actually Mean?

Thu, 10 Sep 2026 21:45:06 GMT

The Best Itinerary Isn’t One-Size-Fits-All

What is custom travel?
That is a valid and important question. It's a question I hear from time to time when telling people I specialize in custom travel to Europe.

We live in a world where it is easy to go online and book your own flights. There are countless of websites and apps you can use to book your hotel or rental car. Even train tickets and city tours are not hard to find and reserve online.

But custom doesn't just mean you book everything individually. It doesn't mean you simply travel without a tour group. Custom travel means itineraries aren't one-size-fits-all. Custom travel means you and your personal needs and preferences are at the center of every trip planning decision made. And that looks different for every traveler and every trip.

One of the seemingly easiest ways to plan a trip to Europe is to think of it as individual pieces:

Book flights
Book accommodation
Then think about things to do
Then think about how to get around

Each is important and makes sense on its own, but if you're not careful the trip you end up with looks great on paper, but ends up being exhausting and just isn't all you hoped it would be.

Custom travel planning starts with you - not with the destination

To me planning a trip doesn't start with the destination or the sights. It starts with the travelers - all of them.

The questions I try to answer before ever looking at a single flight or a hotel include:

Who is traveling? A solo traveler? A newly married couple? A family with children?
What are everyone's interests? Art and culture? Food? Nature? Relaxation?
Are there any special needs and restrictions?
What are you hoping to see and experience?
How experienced are you when it comes to Europe and international travel?

It's not until I have those answers and have gotten to know you a little better that I actually start working on a proposal. There are lots of other questions and factors that play into travel planning but knowing the travelers and their needs is fundamental to the process.

Sometimes, travel is deeply personal

We travel for a number of reasons. Sometimes we are curious and want to discover another place on this earth. Sometimes we want to see where our favorite book or movie takes place. Sometimes we simply want to relax somewhere beautiful other than home. And sometimes we travel for a deeply personal reason - checking off a long held bucket list item or retracing our own or our family's history.

Like one of my clients. For decades, he had wanted to travel to Europe and visit the places where his father had been stationed as a U.S. soldier toward the end of World War II. He also wanted to see a few bucket-list items connected to the same war. When he was finally able to take the trip, it was clear that it needed to be everything he had hoped for—and more. So we started by making a list of all the places and sights, and ranked them according to their importance to him. Then we started to plan, change and update until the trip met his budget, priorities and available time.

It started in Belgium with a visit to Bastogne and continued to Normandy, France for a few days of exploring the locations of D-Day. Here we very purposefully didn't arrange any guided tours or prearranged visits to give him time to soak it all in at his pace. Then the trip continued to Munich, Germany, which was also the last stop on the trip. The stay there included a visit to the concentration camp in Dachau and a day trip to Eagle's Nest.

Multiple flights, trains, rental cars and hotels were needed to make this trip happen and a preorganized small-group trip wouldn't have given him the flexibility he needed. In the end he checked off all his must-see items, only had to leave of one "would like to see" item and got to do all he set out to do - see the locations of his father's World War II tour, and visit the locations on old photographs to see what they look like today.

While not every trip has a deep personal meaning like the one above, every trip has its own reason for being special and its own beauty when planned with love and care.

Sometimes a "cookie-cutter" itinerary just doesn't cut it

There is absolutely nothing wrong with traveling with a preplanned group, large or small. Sometimes that is absolutely the way to go. There is a great variety of wonderfully arranged trips with very knowledgeable tour guides, transportation and most meals included, and for some travelers those are the perfect fit for their needs and interests.

But, as the example above shows, not all trips fit into that cookie-cutter shape, and sometimes even a preplanned tour needs a personalized start or end.

But what makes a trip uniquely yours? A lot of things could be named here. For example:

special accommodations needed
how much structure you want or need in your trip
finding the right balance to meet the interests of everyone in your travel party
your budget
the destinations you want to visit

The destinations especially can be a reason your trip wouldn't fit a cookie-cutter itinerary. Your dream destinations don't have to be the first combination someone thinks of when thinking about traveling Europe to be worth combining.

A great example of this is a client who wanted to visit both Portugal and Sweden.

They had traveled to Europe before and couldn't decide which destination they wanted to visit next. They also didn't know a lot about either destination but that didn't matter. We started by looking at both countries and how best to get from one to the other, while also considering the available flights to and from home. I gave some recommendations on what to see and do, they did some research and we started piecing it together and revising it a few times. In the end, we had a trip planned that included three countries—Denmark made its way into the itinerary because of flight connections—along with flights, hotels, vacation rentals, train tickets and a cooking class. The clients visited Lisbon, Coimbra and Porto in Portugal, Copenhagen in Denmark and Stockholm in Sweden.

It was a trip that combined two very different regions in Europe—a destination mix that isn't the first combination that comes to mind when thinking about exploring Europe. Nonetheless, it was a trip that was uniquely theirs - and a trip they loved.

So what does custom travel mean?

When I talk about custom travel, I mean looking at every part of travel planning through the lens of the client's needs and wants. It means not simply booking an airline or a hotel because they worked for other clients or for me, but making sure they work for this particular client.

Custom travel means there isn't one right way to experience Europe—but there is a right way for each client. And sometimes, that right way may be a less customized option, such as a preorganized group trip or a river cruise.