You have always said that one day you will take that dream vacation to Europe with your honey and some of your closest friends. Now, finally, you can all afford it…..Now what? Where do you start? Making major, and costly, decisions with your friends can be daunting, unfamiliar territory. It's easy to become overwhelmed and wind up with a trip that may seem like the heart of darkness rather than your dream vacation.

In the best of situations, there are a million things to consider on a trip to Europe and even the best of friends will run in to some difficulties in the planning stage. And it might seem that the magic of being in Europe will overtake just about any kind of disagreement. You will compromise. After all, it’s the trip of a lifetime.

Well, unless you are willing to take some risks up front with your friends and get some advice, you may find yourself having a European Vacation experience, Griswold family style. After a 17-day trip to seven cities in two European countries with some of my best friends (luckily we still are), I have compiled some hindsight wisdoms to help other compadres venturing on their first trip to Europe:

Listen to the Advice of Travel Agents

In the planning stages, be sure to be reasonable about the amount of traveling within Europe that you want to do. If a travel agent recommends that you cut down the number of places you travel in the time you have allotted, take his or her advice. You will be glad you did.

Europe has a wonderful rail system, and it is easy to get from one country to another. But remember that you will be carrying your bags and using a system of travel that you are unfamiliar with. If you are not careful, you will spend your entire time in Europe staring at train station terminals hoping they will begin to make sense to you at some point. We all agreed that we would spend more time in Paris and Rome on our next trip and cut down drastically the number of cities we traveled to in two-weeks’ time.