mitchfitz

Hubby and I going to Europe in May/June. I have been before (20 years ago) hubby never been. Mainly interested in seeing beautiful scenery, small towns, and the touristy stuff in Rome, Florence, Venice and Paris. This is what we have come up with so far...

April 16 to 30 staying with family in London
May 1 to 4 Barcelona with family
May 5 pickup hirecar in Barcelona and drive Carcassone
May 6 Carcassone (France)
May 7 to 11 Carcassone to Uzes (stay Uzes and travel around Provence area-too long???)
May 12 and 13 Annecy
May 14 arrive Lausanne (visit friends stay o'night)
May 15 arrive Brig (stay o'night)
May 16 and 17 Bellagio (Lake Como,Italy)
May 18 Edolo (just a stop on way to Bolzano - necessary??)
May 19 and 20 Bolzano (Dolomites)
May 21 to 23 Garmisch Partenkirchen (Germany)
May 24 to 26 Salzburg (Austria)
May 27 to 29 Venice (drop off hirecar in Venice)
May 30-31 Florence (get there by train)
June 1 to 4 Rome (get there by train)
June 5 to7 Paris (fly there from Rome)
June 8 train Paris to london
June 9 fly back to Australia

OK..a bit worried about our driving tour of Europe...not sure if its doable. Weather in May may be unsuitable for sight seeing in Alps??? Any suggestions?? Hubby loves driving so thats not a worry..and have tried to keep distances reasonable and around 3 hrs when driving between most places..

Michelle

bvlenci

Have you looked at the costs for cross-country car returns? They can be brutal. I would suggest getting to France by train from Barcelona and picking up the car there. Then drop it off before leaving France, and pick up a different car in Italy (in Bolzano, I suppose) for the Dolomites, German, and Austrian parts of your trip. This car would be dropped off in Venice.

I don't think four full days in Provence is too much by any means. The rest of your trip, for my tastes, has too few days in nearly every destination.

JulieVikmanis

This trip is a bit overwhelming so it's hard to comment meaningfully but the item that stuck out to me was your overnight in Brig. Wondering how you chose it--just distance between two other stops or some special reason? I had never heard of the place until we spent 4 days in Zermatt and looked around for day trips. We found it delightful. The Stockalper Castle is quite unique and the town itself is a fun walk around. It's not one very many itineraries but it is quite worthy IMO.

mamcalice

Nice itinerary but, IMO, too many short stops. Paris, Rome and Florence all need more time. I would try to find at least a day to add to each - maybe by eliminating the Germany/Austria portion of your trip. You will find that moving around so much eats up a lot of time and you don't leave yourselves time to actually see much.

nytraveler

I agree that you are shortchanging the major cities - and it's not clear where you are fitting the 1/2 or whole day that it will take to get from one city to another.

I think you need to lay this out one day at a time and inserting 1/2 day drive to? or 2/4 day trai trip to wherever.

Also - for someone who says they want to see a lot of scenery you haven;t given yourself much time to do so.

May/June is fine for the Alps - it will be spring and lovely flowers in the meadows of the foothills (some high pases may still be closed to snow but you won;t go there anyway - there are tunnels under the mountains that are much faster.

And a road trip is a good idea for some parts - we do them all the time in europe. But they make no sense for larger cities. (Yes, there will be a significant drop off charge to rent in one country and drop in another - but that is the cost of greater freedom to avoid being tied to train schedules and dealing with multiple tickets).

Overall I think you need to focus more on what you must see and drop a couple of outliers (Barcelona?) and allow for travel time in your itinerary.

dulciusexasperis

Yet another too much in too little time itinerary.

With 38 days I would suggest you plan on no more than 9 stops. Each time you move you lose most of a day doing so.

The usual phrase used is something like, 'we want to see/do as much as possible'. But the word 'much' is not synonymous with the word 'many'. The way to see/do as much as possible is to spend time IN places not in BETWEEN places. Your plan will see you spending nearly as much time moving as you will spend in places.

A 3 hour drive between places does not mean it only takes 3 hours. You get up, get dressed, have breakfast, check-out, drive, find the place you will stay, check-in, park the car, etc. and that day is mostly gone.

Count in nights as well as days. To stay 3 full days in a place you must stay 4 nights. That allows a day during which you are moving from A to B. You might squeeze a half day IN a place if distances are short but never a full day. Staying one night anywhere means you will not even spend a day IN that place. Staying 2 nights means you will only spend ONE FULL day there.

I suggest 9 stops, you list 16 not counting day trips and your return to London from Paris. Not best use of time.

StCirq

This is a forced march, not a vacation. You're going to pay an incredible amount extra to drop that car off in Italy, too. Someone has to drive it back to Spain. And no, 4 days in Provence isn't even a starter kit. You've got way too many too-short stops just about everywhere else.