As I plan a trip to Europe next month, I’m having the same dilemma I always have: do I plan a busy trip with lots of activities or a more relaxed version. I almost always go with the more relaxed version eschewing too-tight scheduling. Due to work demands, I’ve cut my trip down from 14 to 11 days, which is never as much as it sounds like and only makes my dilemma worse.

To give myself maximum flexibility, I can choose train travel over air and stay closer to my home base in Frankfurt (thanks, Jesse!). This means I will likely stay in Germany for most of the trip except for a side-trip to Prague for a few days.

If I’m traveling with others who are more intent on packing in as much as possible, I can adapt to that too. Probably the most active trip I’ve made was in 2001 when three of us took in five cites in Italy in 10 days. It sounds like a lot and is not something I would necessarily plan again, but it was great fun and didn’t seem at the time (or even in retrospect) rushed or stressful.

What do you think? How do you travel? Should I take a lesson from my trip to Italy and pack it all in?