Post august crowds start thinning out in europe till a christmas/new year spike in december.

If you do not want crowds, do not go to italy or spain. Everywhere is extremely crowded throughput the year. Locals also have a lot of tourism fatigue so if you go offbeat there is a chance you run into some annoyed locals

Switzerland is amazing, france is pretty good, greece is also heaven round the year.

If this is your first europe trip i suggest sticking to poular countries rather than some obscure east europe country.

Spring, from late April to early June, or early September is truly a great time to visit. You’ll avoid the summer tourist crowds, enjoy pleasant weather, and the cities feel more alive overall, especially in Spain and Italy.

With 10 to 11 days, I suggest focusing on just two or three regions. You might start in Rome, then head to Florence or a Tuscan. From there, you can fly to Barcelona (amazing architecture there), or go south to Seville or Granada.

It might be tempting to add more places like the Alps or a trip to the French Riviera. However, with your time frame, that could lead to more stress than enjoyment unless you’re comfortable with a fast pace.

If you’re unsure about how to plan the trip or want to balance logistics, experiences, and downtime, feel free to reach out.

I did Switzerland and Austria in early spring for about 10 days. It was rainy and cloudy for the most part, but we had a good experience nonetheless. Switzerland was absolutely heavenly, everything about the country is great, but do note that it is a VERY expensive country, a normal restaurant meal for example,could easily cost you 10k INR. Zurich was surprisingly a very interesting city to visit, I really enjoyed my time there, really cool place.

Do note though that there's a lot more to do, activity wise in Switzerland in the European summer time though. In the winter/early spring you can only go skiing or snowshoeing pretty much which most of the other activities closed.

Austria was nice, but felt that perhaps only Innsbruck was really worth visiting (or maybe there was some travel fatigue which set in given that we did Austria in the latter half. Austria is a bit cheaper than Switzerland, but only by about 15% or so.

Okay been there sooo many times and across countries... My best time is March to May and october to November.

Yes, recently have been to Europe. And i think summers are the best time to visit Europe

Some places are busier during summer. Some - during winter. For example if you like mountains & hiking - famous skiing resorts in Austria, Germany or Switzerland are not as busy as in winter times. To compare - some Austrian air-lifts serves 8-10x more travellers per hour during winter time. And I'd really recommend visiting those regions during summer.

If you want to explore big cities - many people who lives there just moves away from there during summer. They also go on vacation... This especially affects cities with universities since students goes to their hometowns, travel, etc. Of course this works vice versa to touristic places as Legoland, Disneyland ir cities as Venice, etc..

P.S. I'd recommend make bookings in advance. At least 3 months or earlier.

Honestly I lived in Italy for 3 years and spent a lot of time traveling while stationed there. 100% recommend traveling during the winter.

Unless you have a specific thing you want to do like The Fringe in Edinburgh or something like that.

Christmas Markets in Europe are amazing and festive. Had been to ones in Switzerland and in Austria. Highly recommend!

I just visited Dublin / London / Paris and it was insanely crowded. The crowds in London were so bad many places that visiting them was not even worth it to me.

ETA: I did a little poking around your post history (sorry I don’t know the etiquette on that but I promise, no creepy intent) and realized you’re Australian… which explains so much! It also makes my suggestion below much less feasible- guess I shouldn’t take my East Coast of US flights for granted. The last paragraph is still true though; June can be lovely in Europe.

———-

I’m also a HS teacher and I cannot imagine taking an additional 2 weeks off in the winter- I don’t think I’ve ever had a principal that would go for that! Guessing you’re not from the US. So my suggestion is to do both, if you can get reasonable flights. Make a list of where you want to go and decide whether you’d rather go in winter or summer. Maybe do 3 weeks each time?

Because I feel your pain re: scheduling around school breaks, I will say that my Europe trips are frequently in the part of summer you mentioned. It’s not so bad- but I live in a hot & humid climate and have an average tolerance for crowds. The earlier in June, the better! But I love European cities in the summer.

If you go south, I recomend autumn. The good summer weather can seep well into october and november and you miss all the tourist season frenzy...

Go by rail, but also, go off trail. The more you go off the "beaten path" the more goodnes of the local life you experience.

Best time: September/October. It won’t be too hot or cold, less crowds and it will be less expensive. I went to Italy during this time and the weather was absolutely perfect.

Avoid July - August. Europe is super busy and many on vacation themselves.

Avoid the DB(Deutsche Bahn) at all cost. Other than that, there is no good or bad season for rail.

Anytime you can go?

Big cities: places in Poland such as Gdansk and Warsaw. I had great fun visiting Poland in my 20’s (and now in my 30’s) and it’s SUPER budget friendly. Especially if you like museums, and walking around absorbing in the surroundings. It’s always felt safe as a woman alone too. And good to go in any season.

Hiking trails: Sofia, Bulgaria. Again, very budget friendly. You can hike to the top of Mt. Vitosha and back in a day, and the start of the hiking trail is very accessible by bus from the city. The hike itself is decent, well signposted, and there are plenty of people on the same trail so it feels safe to do it alone. There’s a small cafe at the top of the mountain, I enjoyed drinking herbal tea up there with a great view. And, there’s phone signal throughout, which is important if you’re alone. I went in the autumn and it was great weather. Also Bulgarian food is amazing! If you go, try the shopska salad, and any bakery in the morning for breakfast (they’re called zakuski and banitsa is the best one. and the older and more unassuming the bakery looks, the better!). Plovdiv is a great city to visit too for the history, and easily accessible from Sofia.

If it’s your first solo trip, I think Budapest is a great option. The city itself if very easy to navigate and, while it’s not as cheap as it used to be, there are still a ton of cheap-er social hostels. Plus there’s so much stuff to see and do there that you won’t get bored by yourself.

The Rhein river valley is excellent if you’re looking for more of a nature focused vacation. You can pretty much pick any small village alone the river between Cologne and Frankfurt and work your way down with the train. Or pick one village (Rüdesheim am Rhein for example) and go hiking a bunch. There are also a ton of cool castles, though some of the nicer ones are tricky to get to without a car. “Rhein is Flammen” is a really cool if you can make it but the whole area is gorgeous from like May to November. 

Slovakia at the end of summer - end of August/September has great weather (usually) and what you called local festivities - these special events that celebrate the end of the summer with local drink, food, music, shows, rides etc. It's not fancy, but it's very authentic, very local and also cheap.

I went to Sicily solo. I started in Palermo where I stayed in this cute guesthouse and did 2 days of city exploration. Wandered the streets, tried all the food, shopped, had nice apertivos at little bars :)

Then I took the train (cheap and easy) to Cefalù. It's a beautiful town right on the sea. You can find places to stay at many price points. I stayed for like 5 days and did lots of relaxing, swimming in the sea, you can hike up to the castle ruins. It was all safe and easy to figure out alone.

I loved Amsterdam and Vienna for a quick city break, Bruges in autumn is gorgeous and so peaceful

Barcelona!

Budapest is beautiful, Prague is amazing. Berlin - not a pretty city, but the vibes are amazing and I always felt super-safe there for some reason. Dresden if you want something pretty and slightly less touristy.

Copenhagen, pricey, but walkable. Good food. You can also take the train to Roskilde to see the vikingsships or go to Elsingnor (Helsingør) to see Kronborg. This may be usd to inspire your pupils to travel and see the things that they learn about in the lessons.

Berlin or Cologne! Or Malta ☺️ All packed with history and beautiful sights!

Porto is gorgeous. Louisana Museum of Modern Art, just outside of Copenhagen is well worth visiting. Berlin offers so much in terms of history and galleries, it’s an amazing city to visit

Stockholm! Stay at beautiful Hotel Kung Carl, visit the Julotta pre-dawn service and the moose in Skansen open-air museum.

Prague. It’s incredible.
Sigh..I’ll take the downvotes, avoid Germany.

The UK is pretty much 98% closed on Christmas Day. There are some restaurants and eateries open, but they charge way above normal, and you have to book months in advance

I’ve very spent Christmas w my family in: Paris, Rome, Montpellier, Bruges, Lille, Modica (Sicily), Valencia. The highlights were Valencia and Montpellier. The lights! People were all out in the squares and it was so fun.

I’ve only ever spent Christmas in the UK so can only speak to that experience. But I think you could have a great trip to London.

It’s a very Christmassy city - go see the lights, ice skating at Somerset House, Christmas at Kew. Most things stay open on Christmas Eve, but book in advance.

Christmas Day is quiet but book lunch at a nice pub in a nice part of the city people actually live in, and combine that with a walk in a nearby park - Hampstead, Highgate, Wimbledon, Richmond could all be options, just be aware you’ll need to take a cab or walk as there’s no public transport.

Boxing Day things are a bit more open, including public transport.

May is fantastic. It's not that cold anymore but usually no heat waves yet. Days are long enough. Everything is less busy but not empty, it's the sweet spot that allows you to have a lot of flexibility for trains/accommodations while still meeting tons of people

But I mean, ofc it depends on what you want to do. If you're looking for snow, for example, then it's obviously not the right month. And it also depends on the year... like this year I went the first 10 days of August (Netherlands and Germany) and it felt like May for prices and how not crowded it was!

The summer months are the best for seasonal trains and the worst for busyness

Personally I don't think there is any meaningful best month to go interrailing in. They all have their own pros and cons. And even those will change significantly depending on the sorts of places you want to visit.

like always, it depends

i like the summer ofc so i would agree

peak summer (July/August) is bad in regards of flexibility. Everything is busy: hotels, attractions, night trains, other trains which require reservations, etc. 

A big benefit during that time are seasonal trains though. 

I personally prefer shoulder season (so May or September), because the weather is usually warm, not too hot, and it’s less busy. 

In a way I like the shorter days in September, as it’s still warm enough to also stay outside after dark.  

Here is another one - don't stick to Western Europe only. Even you, trying to help, made that mistake.

I would try and avoid renting a car, if you are mainly staying in big cities, because parking is often difficult, expensive or non-existent. Public transport is far better.

The recommended routes in 5. are actually wild for two weeks. In the first one, take the narrow-gauge trains in northern Spain as much as possible to make sure you spend your entire time traveling without actually visiting any place.

I'd like to add another three:

6. Check out local public transport options for your destination(s). No need to uber all the time, and 1-day or multi-day tickets might be not too expensive (e.g. 5-day ticket for Tallinn is 11 € +3 € for the travelcard it is loaded on to.)

7. Find the tourism website for the places you want to go to. Read through a bit and make note of the places and activities YOU FIND INTERESTING. Then you can build your own itinerary instead doing stuff just because ChatGPT told you so.

8. Before you travel, check with your bank and credit card issuers, if and how much they charge you for using their cards abroad.

Honestly, if it’s your first trip, don’t try to hit every country. Two or three places will feel way better than rushing through eight cities.

A lot of first-timers do London to Paris to Rome since they’re iconic and easy to connect. Another option is to stick to one region, like an Italy-only trip with Rome, Florence and Venice, or Amsterdam with Belgium and Paris if you want something a bit more relaxed.

Biggest tip is to slow down. Half the magic is just sitting at a café, wandering without a plan and finding those random spots you’ll remember forever.