Vicky_Gray

Want to do July 2012 trip with spouse and grandchild (14). Start in London, train to Paris, Switzerland train and on to Venice then home. 10 to 11 days. Don't know where to start of if I should use a tour agency. If so which one? First trip to Europe for all of us.

bilboburgler

Welcome to Fodors

Ok, the benefit of planning your trip is you do what you want while if you travel on a tour you will rush from un wanted site to unwanted site.

If you are doing this your self you need to think through the sort of accommodation you want to stay in (family rooms do exist in Europe just not very popular). You need to look at flights, open jaw London Venice makes sense. You need to look at railways. On this route the train journeys will be
1) Heathrow into London, look at http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/
2) Eurostar London to Paris
http://www.eurostar.com/dynamic/index.jsp
3) Paris to Venice www.sncf.com

also you may find www.seat61.co.uk

Hotels can be booked through a variety of agents, maybe www.booking.com but there are others

What to do in each city, well either get some tourist books or surf this site, city by city.

annhig

hi Vicki,

when you factor in arrival and departure days, the time it takes to travel between places [including transfers from airport to city and vv] and jetlag, your itinerary looks pretty tight. something like this:

Day 1 - arrive LHR about 9am. clear passport and customs by 11. underground into London, arrive hotel say at 12 noon. rest of day in London.

Day 2 - London

Day 3 - London.

Day 4 - eurostar to Paris. arrive for late lunch, afternoon in Paris.

Day 5 - Paris

Day 6 - Paris

Day 7 - all day train - 10 hours - to Venice [or could go overnight but that defeats the object of getting the train through the alps].

Day 8 - Venice

Day 9 - Venice

Day 10 - Venice

Day 11 - home.

you could of course move things round to give yourselves longer in London or Paris, but you can't get a quart out of a pint pot!

qwovadis

Wecome Congrats have done this journey a number of times.
Lots of fun hopping on and off neat places.
Most recently for me
londontown.com Dolphin House
seat61.com/france Paris ihg.com intercontinental.com Le Grand if budget is good Holiday Inn Notre Dame for more budget.
then Train to Geneva Interlaken Victoria Jungfrau
Stresa/Baveno(Hotel Grand Dino) Milan Venice
spg.com Westin or Danielli or bauervenezia.com
for me there. booking.com great deals on all of these
insuremytrip.com I always save with DIY booking quite easy.
ricksteves.com euroewbie info but very easy to book.
I always do day trains more to see cheaper lest train lag safer than sleepers.Lots of econonomic issues over there right now insuremytrip.com very wise these days.
I am doing this route plus eastern europe and Hungary
in April so best of luck to both of us PM if I may help.
eurcheapo.com good day trips budget info food for each city
if you are more budget.

Have fun!

janisj

W/ 10 days and a teenager in tow -I'd pick two of your cities. London + Paris, Venice + London, Venice + Paris. And if Venice is one of the destinations, I'd arrive in Venice, not fly home from there. Stateside flights from Venice leave VERY early in the AM and getting to the airport is a real pain.

W/ 11 days Day 1 will be and overnight flight, day 2 will be jet lagged and getting acclimated, day 11 will be flying home. And then you'll lose 1/2 a day London to Paris or nearly a full day Venice to London.

So 5 days in London/5 days in Paris (really 4.5/4.5), 4 days Venice/6 days London or Paris (really 3.5/5) or something like that would be good IMO

nytraveler

Trying to do way too much in too few days.

First of all - how many days do you really have?

You can;t count the day you leave for europe, the day you arrive in europe or the day that you return. So do you have 11 days plus the ones noted - or do you just have 11 total?

Second - you will spend a huge amount of time in transit versus the time you actually spend sightseeing. IMHO you should limit the trip to 2 destinations - with perhaps a day trip - or everything will just be a blur and you will feel you have wasted a whole lot of money.

Jean

I also think you're trying to cover too much in the days available.

Suggestions so far are to drop Switzerland, but I would drop London. The Olympics open on July 27th, and media, officials, etc., will be arriving in the weeks prior and likely before the official media centre opens on July 9th. I would guess that London lodging will be getting scarce and rates going sky high from early July. Security in the city will be extremely tight, and getting into the iconic tourist sights even before the Games will probably take a lot more time than usual.

So, I would recommend you spend all of your days in Paris, transit through Switzerland (with a 2-night stay somewhere) and Venice. Before you decide the order, look into your return flight options from Venice. Depending on where you live, there might be departures at reasonable hours.

janisj

"<i> I would guess that London lodging will be getting scarce and rates going sky high from early July. Security in the city will be extremely tight, and getting into the iconic tourist sights even before the Games will probably take a lot more time than usual.</i>"

Not at all the case from all the reports. None of the Olympic venues are in central London. So far hotel occupancy rates are way down for the dates of the Olympics. In fact tourism is supposed to be so depressed that some theatres are cutting back performances or going dark altogether.

charnees

BTW, Vicki, if you are booking plane tickets online, to fly into one city (Venice is preferable) and out of another, look for the "multi-city" option in the search box. it is usually right at the top, next to "round trip" and "one way".

mztery

re
I would guess that London lodging will be getting scarce and rates going sky high from early July. Security in the city will be extremely tight, and getting into the iconic tourist sights even before the Games will probably take a lot more time than usual."

Not at all the case from all the reports. None of the Olympic venues are in central London. So far hotel occupancy rates are way down for the dates of the Olympics. In fact tourism is supposed to be so depressed that some theatres are cutting back performances or going dark altogether.


However by all reports FLIGHTS to London during that time are sky high.

Jean

Interesting about the lodging availability, but I do think security will impact visiting tourist sights.

janisj

The Brits are pros at security . . . there is already security/screening at just about every tourist attraction.

Can't see a big difference because of the Olympics.

Jean

janisj, I think we follow different news sources.

"This is the biggest security challenge this country has faced for decades." - U.K. Defense Secy. Philip Hammond

http://www.businessweek.com/news/201...-olympics.html

janisj

That is at the Olympic games . . . Not at the British Museum.

(Understandable w/ the thousands of participants, dignitaries, ticket holders)

suze

London, Paris, Switzerland(?), Venice... all done by train and in only 10 days is not a practical plan. That's way too much ground to be trying to cover in such a short time. You'd spend virtually all your time on trains, checking in and out of hotels, etc. leaving little time to see anything.

Skipping London and doing Paris and Venice would be a great 10 day trip. You could train or take a plane between the two. Plan your main air tickets so you fly into one city and out of the other.

fbc34

We did exactly the trip you are planning when our son was about your son's age. Worked out very well for us.

Three nights London, then the Eurostar to Paris for another three nights, then three nights in Grindlewald and the last two nights in Milan. At the end of the trip we arrived late afternoon in Milan, just in time for a nice dinner. The next morning we took the train to Venice for the day, then back to the hotel to pack for the early flight the next morning. Would have liked to spend the night in Venice but it just wasn't practical for our air arrangements.

With a teenage boy, don't cut out Switzerland. It was the highlight of the trip for our son. We rented bides, took them up the mountain by gondola and postal bus, and biked down. One afternoon my husband took him for a rock climbing lesson. And of course we took the ice train to the top of Mount Eiger. He's 27 now, and just this Christmas was talking about how much he liked Switzerland!

Yes, it was a lot of moving around, and that's not how I travel now. But for the time, and an introduction to Europe for a young person, it was great fun and worked well. We all enjoyed the train rides through the mountains as well.

Happy trip planning!

fbc34

But I am afraid I didn't answer your question. I don't think you need a travel agent. All you will need are plane tickets, rail tickets, and hotels, plus research into what you would like to see in each area. Everyone on this board would probably agree that planning the trip is half the fun! There is good information here on hotels and trains, if you'll use the search function.

kelbo

Vicky,

I am planning a similiar trip for my neice and me in June. We decided on London, Venice and Paris. I have traveled quite extensively and the trip planning is part of the fun. I do agree that 3 cities is probably the best choice in order to enjoy yourselves and you should try to fly in and out of different cities: You could do the following:

Fly into Paris or London: Spend 3 nights
Take Eurostar train from London to Paris ( or vice versa) and spend 3/4 nights.
Take Easyjet airline from either London or Paris to Venice. I have flown them many times. They are like the Southwest airlines of Europe.
Stay in Venice for 3 nights and fly home.

Once you get your itinerary set you can start looking at hotels and activities.

Good Luck! Kelly