Your First Trip to Europe: Paris, Florence, Rome & Barcelona
A ~17-day, four-city trip across three countries — Paris, Florence, Rome, and Barcelona — fully planned and booked, with timed-entry reservations at every major attraction, high-speed trains between the French and Italian legs plus one short flight to Spain, a pace that won't burn you out, and all pre-trip logistics handled. Ready to go in about 6 evenings of work.
Not on sale yet
Included with every copy
- Your own copy — keep it forever
- Gets better over time — free updates included
- Run it on web and mobile
- Invite a partner to go through it with you — you share the same progress
- 3 knowledge checks to test what you've learned
- The playbook's community — ask questions, get additions, and see how other buyers improve it, right on the step
Who it's for
USA citizens with a valid passport who want to plan their first multi-city Europe trip independently, without a tour operator. You're comfortable booking online, you prefer mid-range hotels and one nice meal a day, and you'd rather do three cities well than five in a blur.
About this playbook
This playbook is for the US traveler who has a couple of weeks of vacation saved up and wants to see Europe for the first time — not on a bus tour, not jumping between 8 countries in 14 days, but doing four iconic cities across France, Italy, and Spain well, connected by high-speed train and one short flight. I've planned this exact route for half a dozen first-timers and watched where each one nearly derailed: overpacking, under-booking, wrong neighborhood hotels, and the classic mistake of trying to see everything. I lay out one specific itinerary — Paris (4 days), Florence (3 days), Rome (5 days), Barcelona (3 days) — and the exact order you book it, what you book ahead vs leave open, and how to fix the most common problems before they happen. The route works because you settle into the time zone over the first week, you train between the French and Italian cities and take one short flight to Spain at the end, and every phase ends on a high note — Louvre at golden hour, Duomo from the rooftop, Trevi Fountain at dawn, Sagrada Família up close.
What you'll do, step by step
Free preview — these steps are open to read in full before you buy.
Phase 1: Get the paperwork and reality check done
0/4A quick phase that prevents the two trip-killers: a passport that expires too soon and a budget that doesn't match your plans. Both take 20 minutes now and save you weeks of panic later.
- 10 min
- 25 min
- 45 min
Phase 2: Book the skeleton
0/4This is the core planning session. Book in this order — flights first, then trains, then timed-entry tickets. Hotels last, because your arrival and departure times affect where you stay and for how long. Don't skip or reorder this sequence.
- 40 min
Phase 3: Paris — master the first city in 4 days
0/4You arrive jet-lagged but excited. The trick is to use the jet lag to your advantage — wake up early (you will anyway), see the city before the crowds, and be in bed by 10pm local time. By day 3 your clock has reset and you're operating on Paris time.
- 2 hours
Phase 4: Florence — 3 days in the Renaissance
3 stepsPhase 5: Rome — 5 days in the eternal city
4 stepsPhase 6: Barcelona — Gaudí, the Gothic Quarter, and the Mediterranean
3 stepsDetails
What you need first
A US passport valid at least 3 months beyond your return date, a credit card with no foreign transaction fees, a smartphone, and 5 evenings of focused booking time in the 2–4 months before you leave.
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About the creator
Playbooks about itineraries and destinations, written to be ticked off: what to prepare, what to do, in what order.
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