leah_x_li

Hi Everyone,
My partner and I are planning our honeymoon for next year 2015 Sep. We booked our Europe tickets today and would like to get some advice with our itinerary. We arrive in Paris on the 12th of Sep and departing from Rome on the 3rd of Oct.

Our must see cities are Paris ( 3-4 days), Switzerland ( 3-4 days), Prague (2-3 days), Rome ( 3-4 days. We would also like to have some day trips to see some cool castles in Germany and perhaps Salzburg or Hallstatt.

What is your opinion everyone? Is this a reasonable itinerary? Any other suggestions?

Thank you very much!

nytraveler

In 3 weeks you can rush through all of these places. (You can;t count the day you arrive - at mid-day and jet lagged, or the day you depart) and you need to allow 1/2 to a full day for travel each time you move between cities.

I would encourage you to determine what you want to see in each place to ensure that 1) the places will be open on the days you are there and 2) you have enough time to see the most important places yuo want. Since this is a honeymoon I would assume you want some down time/relaxation and what you have is a quite fast-paced and very active trip.

IMHO a first trip to Paris needs 5 nights (4 days on top of the arrival day) and similar for Rome. Prague is fascinating and needs a full 3 days (4 nights) to see much. If you want day trips you need to add those to the basic city trips.

Not sure of the need to see castles in germany (esp if you mean Neuschwanstein, which is modern) esp since you will be seeing actually old historic palaces and ancient castles in Paris, Rome and Prague. Switzerland is a great idea - but if you want traditional you should head for the Berner Oberland - which besides beautiful Alps also has some small towns with castles if you head to Thun and Gruyeres as day trips.

I guess my overall advice is to do some more reading and planning so you don;t spread yourselves too thin and constantly find yourself rushing for the next train.

Dukey1

You can be in Switzerland in four hours or so (depending on what part of Switzerland you are talking about) by RAIL from Paris.

From Switzerland to Prague is going to take longer and even if you fly you may have to change somewhere. You might want to drop that idea but keep Rome in the mix.

PalenQ

are you going by train, which for your itinerary IMO would be best - if doing the train check out these IMO superb sites for planning a European rail trip: www.budgeteuropetravel.com; www.ricksteves.com and www.seat61.com - if going to all those places that means several longish train trips - thus look into some kind of railpass.

PalenQ

Our must see cities are Paris ( 3-4 days), Switzerland ( 3-4 days), Prague (2-3 days), Rome ( 3-4 days. We would also like to have some day trips to see some cool castles in Germany and perhaps Salzburg or Hallstatt.>

day trips from where? Munich would be a good base for any of several great famous neat castles such as Mad Ludwig's Neuschwanstein Castle (the most famous castle in the world no doubt) and Salzburg is only an hour and a half or so by train from Munich. Hallsatt is too far from Munich or even Salzburg for an enjoyable worthwhile day trip and if going to the Swiss Alps just about the same (well different but in a general sense).

Mimar

We did Hallstatt as a day trip from Salzburg and also saw something of the Salzkammergut scenery along the way. But we did this by car. Train is a minimum of 2 hours one way. Don't know about buses.

Mimar

To comment on your itinerary as a whole, your plan is certainly doable, not even very rushed. Will you be doing this trip directly after your wedding? If so, you need to account for wedding fatigue as well as jet lag and overnight-flight sleepiness. So put more days in Paris to recover.

Also you don't mention how you plan to get to these disparate locations. You need to put some time in on that. Train? Cheap European flights?

But you've got plenty of time for all the planning you need to do for both the wedding and the honeymoon.

Mimar

Forgot to ask, where are you coming from? Maybe you won't need to worry about jet lag, sleepiness, etc.

PalenQ

Train is a minimum of 2 hours one way. Don't know about buses.>

bus would take longer but a lot more scenic route - via the fantastic lake District to Bad Ischl then go by train - but as a day trip that would be too long so if day tripping go by train as Mimar says.

leah_x_li

Thank you so much everyone for your reply so far!
We are coming from Australia and we will be jet legged for sure!!
Paris is our first base and we want to go see Arc de triomphe, Eiffel Tower, Musee du Louvre,Notre Dame and a day trip to Chateau de Versailles. ( Any other suggestions for Paris must do?)

We will then be travelling to Switzerland via train. In Switzerland, it will be our down time to relax. We want to stay away from all the major cities and perhaps base ourselves around Lake Thun. Some of the places we would like to go are :

Brienz- cruise and ballensberg,maybe steam train ride

Lake Thun- Castillo Oberhofen

Lauterbrunnenn valley - hiking, hrummelbach fallslau

(Any other suggestions for beautiful scenery?)

From Switzerland, We are yet to decide where to go ---to Salzburg or Munich . Spend a day or 2 and then train to Prague.

Have not looked into what to do in Prague yet. (2-3days depends)

From Prague we will be flying to Rome and stay there for the rest of the trip ( 4days)

In Rome , we would like to do
Colosseum
Pantheon
Trevi Fountain
But open for suggestions as we are still in the early stage of planning!

Thank you again everyone!

PalenQ

(Any other suggestions for beautiful scenery?)>

My favorite jaunt in the Jungfrau Region goes from Lauterbrunnen up the cliff in a gondola to Grutschalp then take a train along the cliff's edge to Murren and then take one of the longest gondola rides in the Alps to The Schithorn/Piz Gloria (much of James Bond movie OnHer Majesty's Service was shot here when the revoling restaurant here was still under construction)

The Schilthorn is an icy outpost out in the middle of nowhere - then take the gondola down to Murren and onto Gimmelwald - be sure to look around this really isolated farming hamlet - the take a cable way that plunges back down to the Lauterbrunnen Valley at Stechelberg and get a postal bus back to Lauterbrunnen - if you have a Swiss Pass it covers everything in full except the Murren to Piz Gloria cableway which it give syou 50% off on.

Don't miss this excursion from Lauterbrunnen!

https://www.google.com/search?q=Schi...w=1455&bih=977

nytraveler

I really think you need to sit down and make a list of your trip day by day - including where you will start, the travel time for that day (if any) and where you will sleep that night.

I fear you have not really allowed for the travel time between all of these places.

If you go to bahn.de you can find train schedules for all of europe (specific times may vary slightly by next summer, but the total time of the journey will not change. And if a train trip is 3 hours you need to allow 5 hours for the trip - including getting to and fro the train stations and finding/checking in and out of your hotels.

PalenQ

www.bahn.de/en brings you to the English timetable for all trains practically in Europe - helpful like nytraveler says.

PalenQ

In Rome , we would like to do
Colosseum
Pantheon
Trevi Fountain>

In central Rome you also may want to hit the Roman Forum, oppsoite the Colosseum and the Piazza Navona, one of the world's finest town squares (really a rectangle with Bernini's famous fountain, nicely restored, as its piece de resistance!

And the Spanish Steps area - though this is currently under rehab I believe. and if into the latest fashions and upscale shopping the Via Cavour - all in central Rome which is not that large and imminently walkable.