Sample Itineraries

The Itineraries:

• Tuscany Cooking Holiday 9 days including Parma, Portovenere, Carrara, agriturismo, cooking classes, Volterra, Greve in Chianti, wineries, Florence
• A quick trip to Northern California including Sacramento, Yosemite, San Francisco, Napa Valley Wineries...
• Rome, Florence and Tuscany including wineries, agriturismos, etc.
• Tour of Belgium including the Trappist (and other) breweries
• Tour of the South of France including a river cruise, wine tasting in Burgundy, Roman ruins, Provence, Côte d'Azur, Riviera, Monte Carlo...

...more to come:

• Itinerary for a 6 month trip to Italy
• Beatles Tour: Hamburg, Liverpool and more
• Scottish Highlands
• Christmas Markets in Germany
• Venice to Milan
• Tour of England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland including several breweries

Check out the sample itineraries at Fodors Travel Guides.

Some notes on the Itineraries

The itineraries above are examples that you can use to plan and design your own trip. They are not specific down-to-the-minute step-by-step schedules, but rather are ideas and suggestions to help you in your planning.
If anyone would like to submit their input for these itineraries, please go to the contact page and send me an email with your ideas. I will credit the submitted ideas with the name or id of whoever submits them.
These itineraries are also based on leaving from the US. If you live somewhere else, you can adjust for that.

Most of these itineraries are based on a two-week holiday which actually consists of seventeen days. This can be adjusted to fit whatever schedule you are on.
If I were planning a two-week trip to Europe, I would try to get in as much time as possible. So the plan is to leave the US on an overnight flight on a Friday evening. This counts as day one. The return would be on a Sunday, two weeks later. If you count the days in that span, you come up with seventeen days total:

Flights

The best bet for airfare is to try to plan ahead. Last minute fares usually end up pretty high. If you do some research on the airline's web sites, travel web sites like expedia, for example, and at local travel agencies, you can usually come up with a fare that will reasonably fit into your budget. The time of year will also be a factor, so check fares for various times through the year to see what is best.
The itineraries presented here will not have any specific recommendations for airlines or airfares.

Hotels/WebSites

I will suggest some specific hotels, but these are not recommendations, merely hotels that I have heard good things about. Also, I will mention some specific web sites to search for lodging, but keep in mind that there are many more out there. If you have any suggestions about hotels or web sites, please go to the contact page and send me an email with your suggestions.

Luggage

My recommendation, even for a trip of seventeen days, is to bring one small bag to carry, and one relatviely small rolling suitcase. You can wash your clothes during the trip, or bring them to a laundromat where you can drop them off and have someone wash them for you. (Or have the hotel take care of it for you, but that would be a little more expensive.) You can check with the concierge or front desk to find laundromats.
This is one link that might help you pack, there are probably others: One Bag

Maps and Guide Books

A good map is an indispensible tool. Make sure you have one for each major city you will be visiting. I like the StreetWise laminiated folding maps, but any good map is helpful. And a country map will be very handy also.
A good guide book specific to the area you are traveling in will help you decide what you want to see, and help describe what you are seeing once you are there. It will also help with finding hotels and restaurants.
In addition, the Rick Steves guides "Europe Through the Back Door" are very helpful in finding things the typical tourist might not find.