Six countries, and a meeting with the person who designs

On this route you walk into two working factories.

Fact sheet

Days

20

Countries

France, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, Finland

Cities

Paris, Milan, Bologna, Berlin and Wolfsburg, Amsterdam and Eindhoven, Copenhagen, Helsinki

Recommended season

January

Group

12 to 15 participants, with the group split in two for one guided visit

Language of the visits

English at the northern sites and in Paris on Wednesdays and Thursdays; German available in Germany; in Italy it is confirmed on booking

Schengen days used

20 out of 90, counting the day of entry and the day of exit

Price

Quotation on request

→ Request a quotation · Download the itinerary in PDF

In the quotation we write which sites are confirmed and which are being confirmed, one by one, and the option with the designer appears as a separate line with its price next to it.

The map, described

You start in the west and finish in the northeast. Paris, then Milan, an hour by train to Bologna, and from there the same climbing line as the other variants: Berlin, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Helsinki. Five flights inside Europe, one Italian train and three one-day trips that do not leave the country: Wolfsburg from Germany, Eindhoven from the Netherlands and, as an option, Billund from Denmark.

Paris comes at the start and not in the middle for a practical reason: it is the stop with the most rigid day-of-the-week restriction on the whole route, and putting it first fixes all the rest of the calendar from there.

The route, country by country

The day count, written out so that it adds up. Twenty days are: two in Paris, three in Milan, two in Bologna, four in Germany of which one in Wolfsburg, three in the Netherlands of which one in Eindhoven, three in Denmark and three in Finland. The Billund option does not add a day: it takes one of the three Danish ones, because the site is some 260 kilometers from Copenhagen and the round trip is a whole day. Whoever chooses the option gives up a Danish day, and we write it here because it is the only point on the route where you pay twice, in money and in time.

The option with the person who designs, and why it is an option

In Billund there is a visit format with a private guide that includes a meeting with a member of the team that designs the product. It is the only point in the whole catalog, thirty-eight experiences included, where you talk to the person who designs, and for a group of young entrepreneurs it is worth exactly that.

It is not inside the price of this route, and that is our decision. The format has a significant cost per group, which split across fifteen people becomes a cost per person not everyone would choose to pay, and on top of that it uses up a whole day of the trip. Putting it in the base package would mean raising everyone's ticket for an experience not everyone wants.

So it goes into the quotation as a separate line, with its price written next to it and its cost in days stated, and the decision belongs to whoever buys. It is the same logic by which we do not put into the price the tickets not everyone is going to use.

Schengen days used: 20

This route uses up 20 of the 90 days a Mexican national may spend in the Schengen area within a 180-day period without a visa. Every day of stay counts, including arrival and departure, and the count is cumulative across the whole area: the six countries on the route are all inside Schengen, so the twenty days add up to each other and add to any earlier trip by the same participant in the last six months.

Since 10 April 2026 the European entry-exit registration system has been fully operating at all external crossings of the 29 countries that use it: the count no longer depends on passport stamps. The European Commission provides an official calculator of available days, public and also in Spanish, which however does not count stays begun before 10 April 2026.

Twenty days are more than a fifth of the total available in six months, and it is the route in the catalog that uses up the most. If even one single participant traveled to Europe recently, they may not have twenty days available: this check is made participant by participant before the group is enrolled, not on the group as a block and not at the desk. On this route the individual check is a condition of enrollment. → Visa and residence permit

What changes with 15 and what changes with 30 participants

The fallback plan for the transfers

Five flights, one train and two compulsory one-day trips across twenty days. This is the most fragile variant in the catalog, and we say so ourselves rather than waiting for the group to find out.

1. The calendar is built backwards from the constraints, and here there are six. The English-language tour in Paris runs on Wednesdays and Thursdays only; the factory visit in Wolfsburg Monday to Friday only; the Eindhoven campus closes at weekends; the Berlin campus has the lowest capacity; the Milan design museum closes on Fridays; the Milan water plant closes on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Six constraints across twenty days and six countries mean there is in practice one single possible sequence of dates. The six are fixed first, then the flights are bought, and if one of the six does not fit, the whole departure moves by a week.
2. No visit on the day of a flight, and never in the morning.
3. One reserve day in three countries out of six. In France, in Germany and in the Netherlands that reserve does not exist: the days are tied to the day of the week. If one of those falls through, the site is lost.
4. The overland alternative is checked when quoting, for each of the five flights, with the warning that the last leg towards Finland is the one with the fewest alternatives.

And one rule that falls on us: the person from the Istituto traveling with the group has the mandate to rewrite the day on the spot, informing the institution's office the same day. Across twenty days that person is also the only continuity the program has, which is why on this route we never take them out of the quotation.

What is included and what is not

Included: admissions and visits to the confirmed sites, including the multiple slots in Wolfsburg and the individual registration of each participant in Paris, the booking and coordination with all the sites, the guided working sessions in each country, the materials, one person from the Istituto with the group for all twenty days, the final report handed to the institution that brings the group and the certificate of participation.

Not included: the intercontinental flight, the five internal flights, the Italian train and the overland transfers, lodging, meals, urban transport, travel insurance, nor the option with the designer in Billund, which is a separate line in the quotation with its price written out.

The season, and why January

Like the other variants, this one is meant for January: all the sites are urban or industrial and indoors. In January the cities of northern Europe work at full pace while tourism is at a standstill, and the two factory days work better in a month of full production.

Two warnings we give first: the Berlin campus walk takes place largely outdoors; in Copenhagen and Helsinki the hours of daylight in January are few, and in those two cities the itinerary is built around the hours of daylight and not around waking hours. The Italian part runs from 8 January and not before. The reason, month by month, is on the Seasons page.

Cover

The program includes an accident and public liability policy for the whole stay. The sums insured, the insurer and the policy number are published once it is taken out and are attached to the contract; until then they can be requested in writing, with an answer within two working days.

Do you want it to count as training, with a certificate? This route can be built as an Istituto program, with classroom hours in each country, a piece of work delivered at the end and a certificate of attendance. → For groups

→ Request a quotation

What changes compared with the other three

This page exists for the question none of the other three answers: «what will they remember five years from now?»

You choose this one if the group has the time and the budget, if the association wants the thing the participants will talk about when they get back, and if whoever organizes accepts that the calendar cannot move by a single day once it is fixed.

You choose D, which we recommend, in every other case: fifteen days, three constraints instead of six, and a document that in the office reads as a program.

You choose A if the institution wants to fit in days of its own, or if this is the first time it organizes a trip like this and it prefers the variant with the least that can go wrong.

You choose B if the factories are needed but Paris is not, and five fewer days count.

One thing we say against our own interest. This is the variant that costs the most and it is not the one we recommend. Across twenty days and with six calendar constraints, the chance of having to rewrite something along the way is high, and the added value compared with D is concentrated in two days: the German factory and the option with the designer. If those two days are the reason for the trip, this is the right page. If they are not, D costs less and holds up better.

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