Logistics
How the pieces actually connect
Directional, not gospel
Journey times are current typical durations and will hold roughly true, but schedules, operators, and border rules all change. Re-check everything once dates are set.
🚆 Getting between cities
The single most useful fact in planning this trip: some of these cities are 2–3 hours apart by train, and others are only reachable by air. That shapes the route more than anything else.
Fast and easy — take the train
| Route | Time | Operator |
|---|---|---|
| London → Paris | 2h20 | Eurostar |
| Paris → Amsterdam | 3h20 | Eurostar |
| London → Amsterdam | ~4h | Eurostar |
| Rome → Naples | ~1h10 | Trenitalia / Italo |
| Rome → Florence | ~1h30 | Trenitalia / Italo |
| Madrid → Barcelona | ~2h30 | Renfe AVE |
| Madrid → Seville | ~2h30 | Renfe AVE |
| Seville → Granada | ~2h30 | Renfe |
| Madrid → Granada | ~3h30 | Renfe |
All of these are city center to city center with no airport transfer and no security queue worth the name. A three-hour train usually beats a one-hour flight door to door — see Trains or budget flights? for why.
Fly — no practical rail
| Route | Time |
|---|---|
| Athens → Rome | ~2h |
| Athens → Barcelona | ~3h |
| Athens → London | ~3h30 |
| Rome → Barcelona | ~2h |
| Barcelona → Paris | ~2h (or ~6h30 by train) |
Greece has no useful rail link to the rest of Europe, and Italy to Spain is a sea crossing. Those legs are flights regardless of preference.
✈️ Getting there and home
All three arcs are linear, so an open-jaw booking — into one city, home from another — avoids backtracking. Airlines sell this as a multi-city itinerary. See Open-jaw or round-trip?
Winter transatlantic service is thinner than summer. London, Paris, Amsterdam, Madrid, and Rome all have direct US service year-round — London and Amsterdam especially heavily, which makes them good places to end a trip. Athens is mostly one-stop in winter, which is an argument for placing it at the start if it makes the cut at all.
🛂 Borders and paperwork
- Schengen area — Greece, Italy, Spain, France, and the Netherlands are all inside it. Once you are in, internal borders are effectively invisible.
- The UK is not. A London leg is a separate border crossing with its own entry requirements and its own authorization scheme.
- Passports — must be valid well beyond the trip; six months' validity is the safe margin. Check all four now.
- ETIAS — the EU's pre-travel authorization for visa-exempt visitors, expected to be in force before this trip.
Details and the one action worth taking today are on ETIAS, passports, and paperwork.
🌦️ Winter weather at a glance
January daytime highs and late-December sunset times. The daylight column is the one people underestimate.
| City | January high | Sunset in late December |
|---|---|---|
| Seville | ~16 °C / 61 °F | ~6:00 PM |
| Barcelona | ~15 °C / 59 °F | ~5:30 PM |
| Athens | ~13 °C / 55 °F | ~5:20 PM |
| Naples | ~13 °C / 55 °F | ~4:45 PM |
| Granada | ~12 °C / 54 °F | ~6:00 PM |
| Rome | ~12 °C / 54 °F | ~4:40 PM |
| Madrid | ~11 °C / 52 °F | ~5:55 PM |
| Florence | ~10 °C / 50 °F | ~4:45 PM |
| London | ~8 °C / 47 °F | ~3:53 PM |
| Paris | ~7 °C / 45 °F | ~4:55 PM |
| Amsterdam | ~6 °C / 43 °F | ~4:29 PM |
Seville gets more than two extra hours of usable afternoon than London does. Over fourteen days that is a materially different trip — and it is the crux of Which arc?