shazaka

We want to travel from Carcassonne to Pompeii taking a couple of weeks. Any ideas on how to do this, what to see on the way, where to stay, what to avoid would be appreciated.

tuscanlifeedit

Do you want to drive, fly, train or combination? Two weeks? 14 nights? More or less?

Can you be more specific?

greg

Too many ideas!!! You are talking about a vast area encompassing the Southern France, the Northern Italy, and into the Southern Italy.

Trains. Rental car. Flying, etc.

jan47ete

How many people, when are you going, kids??? You probably need to do a lot more research first and then come back with more specific questions.

shazaka

Two people as a couple probably by train but could be car. Prefer not to fly as want to see the countryside.

Rubicund

Let's assume that you are doing this trip one way after flying into Carcassonne airport with Ryanair? My preference would be to drive as you have 14 days, but you don't say when this would be. Time of year affects recommendations due to hotels etc being busy in major tourist places. Also, as you arrive in France and may only be going one way, you'd incur a heavy drop-off charge for a rental car to leave a French hired car in Italy, especially Southern Italy.

However, my first stop would be to head to Avignon for a couple of nights. Then Nice, Genoa, Pisa, Rome, Naples. If you see anywhere on the way to stop and spend a night or two, you can by renting a car once you're in Italy in Genoa.

bilboburgler

I like the drive to Barcelona, the Ferry to Roma and then drive down the coast.

Have a great day

PalenQ

Carcassonne to Pompeii (or Naples) by train in 2 weeks - one possible itinerary:

Carcassonne to Nice - 3 days on French Riviera - do day trips to hill towns like St-Paul-de-Vence or take the coastal commuter train to places like Antibes, Monaco (for the novelty), etc.

Train Nice to Genoa - lovely old city - 2 nights

Train to the Cinque Terre - 2 nights - one day for hopping between the 5 villages by boat, train or 7-mile all told hiking path.

7 days so far

8- Train to Pisa, see Leaning Tower and go onto Florence.

8,9 Florence

10, 11 12, 13, Rome

14 - Train to Pompeii via Naples.

For lots of great info on French and Italian trains check these IMO superb sites: www.budgeteuropetravel.com; www.ricksteves.com and www.seat61.com. If wanting not to buy tickets far in advance to get a discount check out the France-Italy Eurailpass, valid on trains on that route and all over each country.

RonZ

Quick train schedules:

http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query2.exe/en?ld

Trains in and out of France:

https://www.capitainetrain.com/en

Trains in Italy, schedules and tickets up to 120 days in advance, using italian city names, except for some regional trains:

http://www.trenitalia.com/cms/v/inde...005817f90aRCRD

PalenQ

ItaloRail competes with Trenitalia now on a few main routes like Florence to Rome and Naples with their own trains - at times serving seconday stations - but with a fairly flat low fare structure where to get the same cheap fares as on Trenitalia.com you may not have to book weeks in advance or even walk up - not sure I've have to look at as this is a fairly new service allowed to compete with Tren Italia, Italian State Railways, by some EU mandates I believe.

shazaka

Thank you so much for all the ideas. Really appreciate them and will definitely follow them up and post when I have finalised.

PalenQ

http://www.italotreno.it/EN/Pages/default.aspx

check Italo Rail fares for Florence to Rome and Naples - don't think they aree on your other lines.

RonZ

Fares Italo Rail vs. Trenitalia are very close. The advantage of Italo Rail is that the online ticket purchases are simpler and faster. Both accept Paypal. Test both with some bogus entries and you will see what I mean.