One Way This Could Go
Not a plan — a proposal, made concrete enough to argue with. This is what the split arc would actually look like, day by day.
Rome · Barcelona · Paris · London 15 days Four countries Nothing booked
This is an argument, not an itinerary
Nothing here is decided — see Which arc?, Pace, and Three countries or two? for the open questions this itinerary answers one particular way. The point of writing it out is that a concrete plan is easier to react to than an abstract option. Disagree with a day, a city, or the whole shape of it — that reaction is the useful part.
Why this shape
The split arc is the one route that covers both the Mediterranean light of the first week and the northern cities the kids will actually remember — at the cost of the most travel days of any option on the table, and of overriding this site's own defaults on pace (three bases, not four) and country count (two, not four). Both pages say that trade is worth making on purpose, not by accident. This is what making it looks like.
Four bases, each getting its own suggested nights from that city's own page: Rome (4), Barcelona (3), Paris (3), London (4) — fourteen nights, plus the day you fly home, which is fifteen days end to end. That runs a day or two past the "~2 weeks" target, and trimming a night somewhere to land closer to fourteen is a reasonable edit to make to this draft, not a flaw in the shape of it.
The calendar
| Days | City | What | Getting there |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rome | Arrive (transatlantic), settle in | — |
| 2–4 | Rome | Ancient Rome, Vatican, centro storico, Appian Way / open day — see Rome’s day sketch | — |
| 5 | Rome → Barcelona | Fly Rome → Barcelona, arrive evening | ~2h flight |
| 6–7 | Barcelona | Sagrada Família, Gothic Quarter, Montjuïc — see Barcelona’s day sketch | — |
| 8 | Paris | Barcelona → Paris, arrive evening | ~2h flight, or 6h45 direct train |
| 9–10 | Paris | Louvre, Orsay, Sainte-Chapelle, Le Marais — see Paris’s day sketch | — |
| 11 | London | Paris → London, arrive same afternoon | 2h20 Eurostar |
| 12–14 | London | Westminster, British Museum, Tower, museums — see London’s day sketch | — |
| 15 | — | Fly home | Transatlantic |
The two intra-European legs worth a second look: Rome→Barcelona is a flight because rail between Italy and Spain means routing up through France with several changes (see Trains or budget flights?). Barcelona→Paris is the one genuine judgment call on the whole route — 6h45 by direct train, or about 2 hours in the air. This draft assumes the flight to protect a full day in Barcelona; taking the train instead is a real option and would mean losing half a day somewhere to make room for it.
What this costs, plainly
Three intercity moves and two transatlantic flights against fifteen days is more transit than a three-base trip would ask for, and every city here gets fewer nights than Pace's three-base default of four-plus. Barcelona and Paris in particular get three nights each, which is enough for the headline sights and the neighborhood on each city's day sketch, not much slack beyond it.
What it buys back: Mediterranean daylight and mild weather for the first week, in Rome and Barcelona, and the northern cities — the ones a 17- and 18-year-old are more likely to remember — for the second. No other route on this site gets both. Whether that trade is worth the pace is exactly the question Pace and What do Bubu and Gaby want? are for.
Argue With It
This is one person’s answer to which arc, written out far enough to disagree with specifically. Say which day you’d cut, which city you’d trade, or whether the whole shape is wrong.
Say what you think →