PoojaG

Hey all....2 couple travelling to Europe from Mid Dec'15 to beginning of Jan'16. We land in Paris and stay in France for 3 days, head to Prague for another 3 days, next 3 days in Austria and last 4 in Italy before we get back to Paris to catch our flight back beginning of Jan'16.

Need suggestions on the following -
What else to see in France apart from Paris?
Which is a better place to spend Christmas, Prague or Austria?
Which city/cities to visit in Austria?
In Italy, we plan to visit, Rome and Venice (will that be a good idea considering cold season?)
Travelling between Paris - Prague, Italy - Paris - Train is better or flight? Since we have time can book good fare on both. However my worry, weather can be a setback to flights!!

Any other tips will be welcome

Thanks - Pooja

janisj

>>What else to see in France apart from Paris?<<

I hope that is a joke. Have you been to Paris many times? Otherwise you are only planning 2.5 days in Paris -- which is VERY short and there is not enough time to get to other parts of France.

>>In Italy, we plan to visit, Rome and Venice (will that be a good idea considering cold season?)<<

You have budgeted only 4 days -- that is enough for . . . Rome.

May I ask why you are even considering Austria w/o some idea where you want to visit?

You are going at Christmas/New Years, and w/ likely wintry weather. You are not allowing for travel times (often delayed in the winter and over holidays)

mamcalice

You don't have enough time for Paris, let alone adding someplace else in France. Same is true of Italy - 4 days is barely enough for Rome. Skip Venice; you don't have the time. As for Prague and Austria, I would choose one or the other.

Between Paris and Prague and Italy and Paris, I would fly. You are very short on time and the train trips would be quite long.

southeuropetravel1

Hi There…

Only regarding Rome weather and how to travel…yes, it will be quite cold when you will be traveling so come prepared with heavy jackets.

You are traveling throughout the Chrismtas and New Years seasons, so be careful with trains OR flying…as there are likely to be delays, cancellations, etc during this time both for weather and for normal holiday delays. Given your tight schedule, you might want to revisit timelines.

Best of luck to you…

Jeff801

Poojag,

I think you are planning a trip with more travel than visiting and this is a mistake.

You can get single ticket travel on almost any airline alliance with non-stop flights to Paris, a flight to Rome, and a return from there. You will have ample to do and see in each city, and will spend a full day getting to CDG, checking in and flying to FCO, and getting from there to Rome.

If you post your departure city on this or the air travel forum, you will get expert advice about the connections.

traveller1959

How is flying in Europe?

1. You have to pack your luggage.
2. You have to check out of the hotel.
3. You have to get to the airport. This might take an hour or even more.
4. You have to check in at the airport and pass the security check. This will take at least 90 minutes.
5. There is flight time.
6. You have to unboard the plane, go through customs and grab your luggage. This can take easily another hour.
7. You have to get from the airport into the city and to your hotel. This will take another hour.
8. You have to check into your hotel.

So, if you have a flight-time of two hours, your total travelling time will be six or seven hours. If you have a morning or evening flight, it means you loose half a day. If your flight is between 10:00 and 16:00, a full day is lost, especially in winter when daylight time is very short (be aware that there is daylight between 9:00 and 16:00 only).

This all said, my advice is, as all others have said: Reduce the number of destinations. Cities like Paris or Rome deserve several full days.

BTW, Christmas time in Vienna is very beautiful.

isabel

Have you bought your flights yet? If not, you want to fly into one city and home from another to save an entire day plus several hundred dollars to backtrack to Paris (or which ever city you decide to start in). I would even consider changing the flights if already booked even if it costs money to do so. As pointed out above, you will loose an entire day (practically speaking) each time you fly.

Especially since it is a) winter and b) holiday time, I would seriously reduce the number of places you go, thus the number of flights.

If you have not done so, check out the various airline and train sites to see how your plan will work out logistically. I often end up changing plans once I see how difficult/expensive it is to get from one place to another. bahn.de is the german rail site but you can search connections between any place in Europe on that site. Check easyjet and ryanair to look at flights. For example, it takes about 12 hours to train from Austria to Rome. In winter there can be significant flight delays or even cancellations. You would need to have a plan B.

If you only have two weeks and you want to experience French, Italian and "Germanic" culture I would suggest you fly to Paris for 5 days, train to Strasbourg France (which looks and feels more German than French and is less than3 hour train from Paris) for 3-4 days, and then train or fly to Italy. Fly home from Italy.

You can have a wonderful holiday trip to Europe if you plan it well but your original plan, while sounds good at first, doesn't work out so good once you figure in the unfortunate but necessary actual travel logistics.

nytraveler

I don;t see how many days you actually have. Yo usay 3 days - but does that mean 3 full days (4 nights) or are you thinking 3 days is the same as 3 nights.

Also have you taken into account the fact that on holidays many places will be closed? There are limited activities on Dec 24/25 and Jan1.

And agree that for a first trip to Paris 3 days is very short shrift.

Have you looked at what you want to do in each city? Are you sure (given the days things are closed) you will have enough time to see what you really don't want to miss?

pariswat

Very good advice here.

My contribution is that low cost flights do exist in Europe (I paid something like 50 € for a Paris-Prague recently) via Easyjet or Ryanair etc BUT please do read the conditions (no cancellation, arrival time and ... LUGGAGE).
Low costs stay low cost if you travel light and can be expensive if not, especially if you don't preplan it.

As for how many cities to see, I'd cut to max 3 cities, but you could be Indian from your name and peopel from India usually want to see a lot of things in a very short time for a lot of reasons, all good to me - so this is your trip, get the most out of it but do take into consideration the advice about travel time given above.

Ah, last : I've had as many problem with trains as with flights due to weather... I wouldn't choose train vs flights based on that consideration.

Have fun !

PoojaG

Thanks everyone for the suggestions and yeah you all are right about weather, doing too many things and travel time. I would cut back either between Prague or Vienna, glad got the inputs with time in hands to work out a better trip.

Thanks much!!

Cheers
Pooja

Christina

Luggage isn't a problem on Easyjet, why do people keep saying that, it isn't true at all. You pay a little extra to check a bag (around 15 euro), just like you do on every domestic airline in the US but SWA, and you pay more if you don't pay for it when you book but wait until the airport. The luggage allowance in terms of size/weight is perfectly normal, and in fact, rather generous for carryon compared to some major airlines. I always check a bag on them, it's no problem and doesn't make the ticket expensive, it is still a very cheap airline.

I don't think 3 days is too short for any city if that's what you want to do. Everyone in the world doesn't think Paris is the only place to visit nor that it is anything any more special than many other capitals.

I just flew Prague to Paris, flights are much better as the distance is so far. Prague airport is fairly close to the city and fairly small, so on that end it isn't that difficult.