europeanhm

Hello everyone!

This is my very first post on any travel forum. Have been reading other travel forums. Found this one to have the best and most helpful responses. So, here goes:

Me and my fiance will be in paris, venice and rome for 10 days in mid august for our hm. Would greatly appreciate any advice on the following:

1. We reach Roissy CDG airport at 10.30pm on a Thursday. We intend to take RER B to Gare Du Nord, then change to Line 4, get off at St Denis, then change to Line 9 and get off at Chausee D'Antin La Fayette. This is around midnight. Is this something to worry about? We are pretty fit and will be traveling lightly. We'll probably miss the Roissybus and I've read that Chatelet-Les Halles station is pretty dangerous at night.

2. It costs EUR5 for every trip (any pari of stops) on a vaporetto up or down the Grand Canal in Venice. It costs EUR3.5 to go from Venice to Murano and another EUR3.5 to come back from Murano to Venice. Is this true? If yes, then I may be better of buying a day pass perhaps.

3. Best place for nightlife in venice is near Campo San Margherita. Correct?

4. Best place for nightlife in Rome is near Trastevere. Correct?

5. We intend the cover the following in 1 day in Rome: Start at Palatine Hill (buy ticket for Colossuem here, see Circus Maximus from here), Colossuem, Roman Forum (sights include Arch of Titus, Arch of Constantine, Fori Imperiali), Campidoglio (Capitoline Hill), Vittorio Emanuelle monument. Take lunch break. After lunch, start with Piazza Navona, Pantheon, Trevi Fountain. Be at Spanish Steps for sunset. Go to Trastevere for night life and dinner. Would this be too much for a day?

Thanks much in advance!

rex

Hi, and welcome to the Europe forum.

I frequently offer constructive criticism to newcomers like yourself, who use a message header with <i><u>no</u></i> reference to the <i><u>content</u></i> of your questions... however, your questions themselves are well-worded and well thought out... so, you will get answers, and I'll come off as a curmudgeon for suggesting that you should re-post.

(I still would recommend that you re-post, with thre separate questions, and mention Paris, Venice and Rome in their respective message headers - - see http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34820174 for further elaboration).

Personally, I would have a car and driver meet the two of you in Paris. After all, it <i><u>is</u></i> your honeymoon!

Whatever you do (posting on this forum, and planning these final details of your trip), congratulations on your new life in marriage...

and...

Best wishes,

Rex

p.s. your long day in Rome is grueling, but do-able. Are you comfortable in big bustling cities? Do you speak any Italian?

tuscanlifeedit

About your arrival in Paris: can you get a taxi from Gare du Nord? If you are late arriving in Paris, or it takes a long time to get through customs and immigration, you could actually be too late for the Metro. Plus that sounds like an awful lot of shlepping around. Why not go as far as Gare du Nord by RER, then jump in a taxi?

janisj

Welcome

Yes - do re-post. You are a first time traveler and you do have questions -- but you have specific questions and that title could be asking anything about anywhere in Europe.

I will answer the one question about Parus -- If you land at 10:30 p.m. it will be WELL after midnight before you at to your hotel. Heck - it could be nearly 11:30-midnight before even boarded the RER.That would be a crazy/exhausting trip into town after a long flight.

I'd either just take a cab from the taxi rank ate CDG, or book a shuttle.

janisj

stupid typos - PARIS . . . .

europeanhm

Rex and others,

I appreciate the honest responses. I apologise for not being specific in the header. I will re-post with Destination specific questions.

brando

My only advice is not to overplan. In my travels to europe, im in my late 20's, my best moments have been unexpected. Don't fall into the trap of go go go , europe is about relaxation, sex in the afternoon, and hidden treasures. The notable sights are there, but the moments are what you'll remember- don't look past them.

GSteed

Polite suggestion; limit your travel. Maybe only Paris! Travel will eat up 3 or 4 days of your time.

europeanhm

I realised that travel might be a too much esp. in mid-August. However, we intend to fly by RyanAir to avoid 10-12 hours of train travel. Seems like there is so much to see/do in Europe, 10 days ain't enough!

pavfec

Brando wrote: &lt;&lt;My only advice is not to overplan...Don't fall into the trap of go go go , europe is about relaxation, sex in the afternoon, and hidden treasures. &gt;&gt;

Here here! Especially on your honeymoon. I got married last year and find that we ended up overplanning our honeymoon. We did a 3-week tour of Spain and Portugal. After the wedding, we were exhausted, and after we arrived in Spain, we were on the road every other day. Not relaxing for a honeymoon!

pavfec

Posted too quickly...I don't know if it's too late (I assume so), but I would drop a city in there if possible. You only have 10 days and you are going to be tired when you arrive. Trust me! My advice to newlyweds is to take the first bit of their honeymoon easy, be it 4 days or 2 weeks. Stay in one place, relax, sleep, wander and just soak everything in.

ellenem

Yes, you're correct, 10 days isn't enough to see all there is to see in Europe. If you're taking your honemooon right after a wedding extraganza, you might want to limit your travels a bit more for recovery time.

For question 5 about Rome: yes, you can do that all in one day if you'd like to. Your morning plan includes sights close to one another, and if you don't plan to linger or take lengthy tours, all this can be accomplished.

Your afternoon plan is quite leisurely. (One could walk from Piazza Navona via your other desitinations to the Spanish Steps in about 30 minutes.) This will be a good way to have a more leisurely afternoon, stopping in churches and shops, enjoying a gelato, sitting at a cafe for a while, relaxing and absorbing a bit more of the Italian rhythm of life.

europeanhm

pavfec,

Unfortunately, you assumed correctly. Everything's planned/booked. I sure hope I don't regret trying to visit 3 cities in 10 days. Keeping my fingers crossed...

pavfec

I think that as long as you try not to jam-pack your days with sightseeing and you rest and relax, you'll be OK. Don't get me wrong, it's going to be a lot of fun! When I look back at my own honeymoon, we had a fantastic time, but I felt like I needed a vacation when we got back!

europeanhm

pavfec, ellenem,

We intend to soak in the beauty of just being in Paris, Venice and Rome more than anything else. Of course, we must and will see the major attractions but thinking like hanging out at Piazza San Marco (perhaps having a cafe each at Cafe Florian listening to the dueling orchestras at night), watching the sunset atop Spanish Steps,etc. would, I think, leave more memorable memories ...

Robespierre

You can get on the RER B at CDG Terminal 2 up until 23h56 and ride to Gare du Nord. Change to RER E for Gare St-Lazare (a block from Chaus&eacute;e d'Antin La Fayette). If you arrive too late for the last E train, you can always get a cab.

missypie

I hope the Spanish Steps are prettier when you were there than when I was. Last month, the church at the top was covered in scaffolding and there wasn't a flower in sight. Just hundreds of people and rain and umbrellas and steps and concrete. My son asked why they were so famous and I had to reply that they were famous for being famous. (Of course, in the Italy calendar we have at home, it showed a beautiful twilight picture where about 2/3 of the stairs were covered in potted flowers.)

txeagle

Since you are young go ahead and do Rome in a day. Most posters will tell you otherwise, but it certainly doable. We did Rome in a day and I don't regret it. We did St. Peter's all the way to the very top, the Roman Forum, Colosseum, Spanish Steps, Pantheon and Trevi fountain all in a day from 10AM to 10PM walking everywhere. Now if you plan on going out for nightlife after all that you might be a little tired.

Most posters on this board tend to be well-off 50 somethings Americans who see the world thru those eyes. No problem with that, I hope to be there in 20 years. When you are younger, you can do a lot more than you think, and alot more than others will advise. You also like me, probably don't have tons of money floating around for taxis or private shuttles. Another things is that when you see Rome in a day, you can spend more time in less stressful places like Venice and follow the advice of Brando.

europeanhm

We are in our late 20s and reasonably fit, so walking should not be a problem. Not sure about the heat though. I am hearing a lot of negative stuff about the heat in Europe in mid-Aug. I checked the weather and it seems like the average high is around 75-80F which is not too bad. For me, 90+ is too hot.

I tried to plan our itinerary for the 1.5 days we have in Rome such that we see ancient Rome in the morning of the 1st day and then Piazza Navona, Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps and Trastevere in the afternoon/evening. The next day until 3pm is exclusively for Vatican (walking up to the Dome of St Peters, Sistine Chapel, Museum). I was all set to go to Vatican on our first day in Rome but then I stumbled upon the fact that Vatican is closed on 15/16 Aug.

TexasAggie

Hi europeanhm,

We honeymooned in Italy for 11 days in 2004 and hit 4 cities (granted, I had traveled in Italy before for a couple of weeks). We had a wonderful time though we did feel we rushed about a lot. We went back 11 months later for a 2-week trip to celebrate our anniversary and we slowed way down on that trip, taking time to really see every city we visited (and do some &quot;re-seeing&quot; in Rome ;-)).

Best tip: Tell yourself &quot;We will return&quot; so you don't needlessly miss out on R&amp;R and ambience whilst racing from sight to sight. If you feel like spending a morning sitting in a cafe, do so! You'll be back someday to see what you missed.

Congrats!