Hi all - My fiancé and I are planning our honeymoon trip and would appreciate your comments and suggestions about our itinerary idea. We have just under 3 weeks in September to travel and want to start in Paris (4 nights), then head to Nice (2 nights), thinking about 1-2 nights in Monte Carlo, then want to spend rest of our time in Italy (Venice and Rome). We are not sure what is the best way to get to Venice or Rome from Monte Carlo. My fiancé wants to see cinque terre, but not sure if that is too much already or if makes sense to go there and cancel Venice. Anyone have any different ideas or places to visit? Thanks!
First Time France & Italy - Honeymoon Trip
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I'm not a big fan of Monte Carlo - too much concrete, congestion glitz, etc. But I suppose that everyone should take a "peek" to see if it appeals to them. However, I would suggest that you not stay overnight in Monte Carlo - just take a train trip there from Nice to "look & see".
You have a lot of large cities on your itinerary. I think the Cinque Terre would be a nice "something different". It is much easier to get to than Venice. From Nice, the CT is 6 to 6 1/4 hrs away with 1 to 2 train changes, while Venice is 7 3/4 to 8 3/4 hrs away with 2-3 train changes. Rome is 4 3/4 hrs away from the CT with 1-2 train changes. From Venice, Rome is 3 3/4 hrs away with 0 train changes.
Stu Dudley
I completely agree about Monte Carlo. I would spend more time in Nice - maybe pop over to Monte Carlo for an afternoon or for dinner (and that will cost you dearly).
Look into cheap flights from Nice or Marseilles to Italy (www.whichbudget.com).
Thank you for your inputs. We will stay in Nice and just do a day trip to monte Carlo. We were thinking of crossing off Venice and just go to cinque terre then Rome. However, we're using European destinations site to book our trip but cinque terre is not recognized, wonder if you have any tips as to which city to stay after nice and before Rome that would allow us to visit cinque terre. Thanks.
>>However, we're using European destinations site to book our trip but cinque terre is not recognized<<
I have no idea as to what this means. What's European Destinations?
Stu Dudley
Venice and the Cinque Terre are amazing!!! since this is a honeymoon trip- DO NOT CANCEL VENICE. It is the most romantic place youll ever go in, and one of the most unique and beautiful cities in the world. Stay in a bed and breakfast IN venice, not Mestre, Lido, or anything else outside the city center. If you go to the cinque terre, my favorite of the towns is Vernazza, it is just picture perfect. So (if I were you ) I would do:
4 nights Paris,
4 nights Nice,
3 nights Cinque Terre, (La Spezia is the train station, from there theres trains to any of the 5 towns, 20min- $3?)dont stay IN la spezia- (I call it la shitzia)
4 nights Venice (venezia on trenitalia.com)- dont stay in mestre, lido, etc. stay as close to rialto or san marco as you can.
4-5 days Rome (stay as central as you can get)
where are u flying out of? Rome?
booking.com seems to have the best hotel prices, and I also really like airbnb.com- you can get great deals on private rentals and have a place to yourself for the same price as a hotel
thought of a couple more good websites- viator.com has good ideas on what to do/day trips to do in different places. Ricksteves has good travel advice and info. Thalys.com is the train site for france
good luck! have fun!
I agree that Monte Carlo is not a place to spend much time. If you decide to add Cinque Terre to your itinerary, reserve a hotel as soon as you have made your decision. Reservations can be hard to get.
I am not sure what you mean by "European Destinations" but you can easily plan your own trip and include whatever you want whether it is on their "list" or not. Once you have decided on your stops, the folks here can help you with transportation options.
European destinations is a website where I can book a package including flights, hotels, transportation. I only need to provide cities where I want to visit and how many nights at each city. I guess this website only recognizes big cities. I guess if I want to visit Cinque Terre then I have to book everything separately. We thought with a full package, it would allow us to fully enjoy instead of worrying about searching/booking while we're in Europe. We'll look into those websites and thank you so much for all the suggestions. We're noe leaning towards Paris, nice, monte Carlo (for a few hours), Venice, rome then home.
BoxingNun, you can do it all yourself without going for the package idea. People on here will give you good ideas for hotels etc if you tell us your budget and interests. I think you have to be careful with packages that you don't get stuck in hotels that are far from anything you want to see and that may not be the greatest of hotels either.
And yes, definitely book all the hotels before you leave so you can relax and enjoy.
Personally I have found the best deals by booking directly with hotels from their website rather than expedia, venere etc, but others may have had a different experience.
If yo are using a sight to book a package involving hotels I hope that you are doing all of the necessary research to determine that the hotels are what you want/need - in terms of locaion, amenities, room size etc. Frankly I woudl be very hesitant to trust a honeymoon wo any tour packager (unless you are going for one all-inclusive resort).
Hi again everyone. What do you think about this itinerary?
Paris (5 nights), Nice (2 nights), Venice (3 nights), Florence (2 nights) and Rome (4 nights).
We didn't want to spend too much time on trains so decided to skip Cinque Terre for now. Thanks in advance for all your tips and suggestions!
Your plan is really:
4 1/2 days in Paris (half of arrival day is lost)
1 1/4 days in Nice (7 hrs "consumed" by train trip)
2 days Venice (10 hrs travel time)
1 1/2 days Florence
3 1/2 days Rome.
That's not much time in each destination (Paris & Rome are OK). It is also a lot of time on trains and getting to/from hotels & train stations. I would try to skip Venice or Florence (especially Florence if your trip is planned for May through Oct when it is too crowded for many people). You also are only visiting large cities - that's why I liked the CT in your itinerary.
Stu Dudley