A week in Greece disappears into ferry terminals if you plan three islands. Athens plus one, chosen for its ferry time, is the version that works.
Barcelona's sights sit in three distinct zones that do not connect on foot. Getting the order right saves a day of backtracking across the Eixample.
Seven days is the exact point where the full Ring Road becomes possible and slightly rushed. The south coast alone is the better trip for most people.
Ten days is enough for Madrid and Andalusia properly, or Barcelona and the east — but not both, because the AVE between them costs a day.
Portugal is small enough that a week can cover both cities properly — provided you take the fast train and skip the Algarve entirely.
Two of Amsterdam's three headline sights sell out weeks ahead, and a plan made on arrival is a plan that misses them.
Most five-day London plans zigzag across zones and lose two hours a day underground. Grouping by area instead of by landmark fixes it.
Two weeks is the right length for a first Japan trip. The decisions that matter are the rail pass, and resisting the urge to add a fourth city.
Rome's centre is walkable and its two big-ticket sites are not. Book those, walk everything else, and the city stops feeling like a queue.
Three days is enough for Paris if you book two things in advance and walk between the rest. The queues, not the distances, are what waste a short trip.
Vietnam is 1,600km end to end and the mistake is treating that as a road trip. Two weeks works if you fly the long legs and travel slowly at each end.
A week down the Dalmatian coast, built around ferry timetables rather than against them — because the islands are the trip and the ferries decide what is possible.
Five cities in fourteen days only works if you stop moving every third day, and this Amsterdam-to-Budapest rail route is built around that rule.
Three cities in ten days beats five, and this Rome, Florence and Venice route is built around the four tickets that actually sell out.
Seven days is not enough for Bangkok and the islands, so swap the beach for Chiang Mai and the week stops feeling like one long airport transfer.