Before you even consider heading out into the countryside, European cities off the traveler so much – there are just so many choices.

Starting with the major centres of London, Paris, Rome and Berlin; these are the great cities of the world. If you want to stay in Germany then Munich, Frankfurt, Cologne and Dresden are a great start. If France is your destination the Versailles just south of Paris is amazing with Lyon, Marseilles, Nice, Antibes, and Cannes as a pretty decent itinerary. Italy has Milan, Florence, Venice and Naples as a starting point with other brilliant options available.

The United Kingdom has Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Oxford and Cambridge as starting points to explore further. Then there is Cardiff in Wales and the trip north to Scotland, there are major cities that are interesting to visit. There are so many interesting cities west of the UK from Copenhagen, Gothenburg, Oslo, Stockholm and Helsinki that I am yet to visit.

At this point we haven’t even considered heading further south to Barcelona, Madrid and Lisbon. Further to the north is the capitals of Brussels, Amsterdam and Luxembourg City with so many options for the smaller centres of Bruges, Ghent, Antwerp and Liège in Belgium, Rotterdam and The Hague in the Netherlands.

The rail network is extensive so Zurich is easy to reach along with Warsaw before heading further east. Everyone raves about Prague although after visiting Budapest, I know which city I prefer. There is Vienna and Bratislava on the route and I would love to visit Bucharest at some stage. After tours of the cities then there is the countryside to visit – great.