please help me plan first trip to europe

Old Jan 20th, 2017, 10:24 PM
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please help me plan first trip to europe

Hi everyone,
My husband and I are planning a trip to Europe for about twelve (12) days and we need advice and recommendations. Cities we are hoping to visit are Paris, Venice, and Rome.
Here is what we have so far:

Arrive in Paris on July 27th at around 10-11am. we are hoping the hotel has option for early check-in (we are willing to pay extra). then chill for a while to recover and later walk to the Eiffel tower.

July 28- check out but leave our luggage in storage and do a bit a sight-seeing. Since we only have this one day in Paris, we figure the best way to do this would be with the hop and stop bus. Leave Paris later that night on the sleeper train for Venice.

July 29- check in the hotel (again early check-in), relax and explore later that night with a gondola ride at around 7-8pm.

July 30- check out (luggage in storage at the hotel) and go exploring St. Mark Basilica and St. Mark Square. Maybe add on Rialto Bridge. Depart Venice around 6-7pm for Rome.

July 30- check in the hotel and crash for the night.

July 31-nothing plan. Just relaxation and familiarizing ourselves with our surrounding. Or husband is suggesting maybe a quick trip to the leaning tower.

August 1-7 Rome "tourisy" stuff
Colosseum
Pantheon
Trevi fountain
Spanish steps
St. Peters Basilica
Vatican museum
Roman forum
Sistine chapel
Piazza novona
? Galleria Borghese
August 8-return flight home.
Now the questions:
1) What are some good hotels within walking distance(10-20minutes) to the Eiffel Tower? Budget for this and subsequent hotels is at most $200.00 USD per night.
2) Which sleeper train is recommended from Paris to Venice?
3) Should we get a hotel closer to Venice train station or closer to the attractions we are visiting? Hotels recommendations?
4) Will it be advisable to get a rail pass?
5) What neighborhood is best to stay in while in Rome, and which accommodation would you recommend? We want to be able to walk to most of the attractions. Practically be in the middle of everything we haven't yet decided in what order to visit the attractions in rome. any suggestions would be appreciated!
Husband and I are both in our early 30s, we do not go to bars or things like that. We love people watching ; so at the end of each day we want to walk around the corner, sit at an outside café and just people watch while soaking it all in
thanks so much for you time.
pnice85 is offline  
Old Jan 20th, 2017, 10:42 PM
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It sounds like you really just want to visit Rome, but you tacked on quick stops in Paris and Venice as well? I'm not sure why you are bothering with Paris and Venice - you'll barely have enough time to get your orientation before you have to leave. Paris especially is huge, and there's quite a bit more to it than just the Eiffel Tower. Venice is time consuming to explore (but worth it) because you either have to take water buses (vaporetto) or just walk, because there are no motor vehicles on Venice.

But if you really insist on doing these incredibly brief stops in Paris and Venice, I would do your trip in the opposite order: start in Rome, take the week to get over your jet lag, then take the mad dash to Venice and Paris at the end. It will still be exhausting, but at least you won't be jet lagged on top of that!

(The "leaning tower" is presumably the one in Pisa, nowhere near Rome.)
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Old Jan 20th, 2017, 10:57 PM
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You won't be able to "pay extra" for an early check-in at a hotel, but the hotel would suggest that you pay for the night before you arrive.
Your hotel will be glad to store your luggage while you take a ride on the HopOn-HopOff bus, no need to store it elsewhere unless it will be an inconvenience.

Frankly, if you haven't already booked your flight to Paris, I'd fly directly into Rome, then go visit Venice for 2 days. Paris will be a colossal waste of your time and energy.
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Old Jan 20th, 2017, 11:03 PM
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Fly into Venice and fly home from Rome. Use the Paris day for Venice. That at least gives you a fighting chance to do Venice a minimum of justice. Paris will still be there for another trip, a trip when you can actually get so see something there.

Gondola rides are not for exploring, they are hugely expensive and only take you around a few canals - it’s a clichée, a romantic ritual for some, but for exploring Venice you use your feet and, occasionally, the vaporetti (public boat buses). http://actv.avmspa.it/en/content/wat...ce-timetable-0

There are masses of tourists walking the marked alley routes, at a crawling pace, stopping for every Rolex and Gucci shop front - but if you take the time and make the effort to walk away from those lockstep-deadly slow routes, you win; you can make lovely discoveries of little piazzas, tiny stores, attractive buildings, all with a good map and a little compass, since on overcast days you can’t tell where North and South are, and it’s kinda fun to get lost a little.

One morning, be tough on yourselves and set your alarm for an hour before official sunrise, walk to Rialto, check out the wholesale market (all boats, of course), have a coffee and brioche (early openers because of the market), and walk to San Marco to get there before the sun comes up across the lagoon. Priceless

The train station in Venice, Santa Lucia, has luggage storage - daily from 06:00 to 23:00.

Train timetables are at www.trenitalia.com
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Old Jan 20th, 2017, 11:03 PM
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Have you already booked flights?
Have you been to Europe before?
Where are you coming from?

The amount of travel time versus sightseeing time is not a good balance in Paris and Venice.

Drop either Paris or Venice, or take a couple of days from Rome and add them to Paris and/or Venice.

The time in Paris and Venice is very badly arranged. Arrange things somehow so you have at least a whole day in each place, not parts of days. Parts of days mean returning to your hotel to retrieve luggage - time wasted. Spend a minimum of 2 nights in Paris, even if you have been there before, or drop Paris. If you don't want to see anything in Paris, why go?

If you are arriving at the airport in Paris, allow an hour or so to get into Paris and to your hotel. Even if you can't check in, they will likely keep your luggage while you go out.

Hop on/hop off bus is, IMHO a huge waste of time in Paris. Better to pick two or three things you actually want to see and see them, so you have some memory of Paris, not just a drive by.

If you keep both Paris and Venice, fly in between. Usually cheap and easy to land in Venice.

Pisa is way, way too far for a day trip from Rome!

Consider Flying into Venice, train to Florence and do the day trip to Pisa if that is important to you, train to Rome.

Or, skip Venice, fly from Paris to Rome.
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Old Jan 20th, 2017, 11:22 PM
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Thanks for responding
You are right. Rome is our primary focus. honestly, the only thing I want to see in Paris is the Eiffel Tower. I could totally just fly into Paris that day, see the tower and take the sleeper train out the same night. but hubby says we might as well spend the night and "sightsee"; hence, the hop and stop idea.
Same for Venice, we are only interested in the gondola ride and St. Mark Basilica. there is no way we can appreciate everything that Venice has to offer in one day; so we figure, do the those two that we most want to do and then just meander around with no specific place in mind. if that makes sense?

"But if you really insist on doing these incredibly brief stops in Paris and Venice, I would do your trip in the opposite order: start in Rome, take the week to get over your jet lag, then take the mad dash to Venice and Paris at the end. It will still be exhausting, but at least you won't be jet lagged on top of that!"

We are thinking the same thing, but just in opposite order lol.
The exhaustive part of the brief trips is exactly the reason we want to do them first. We don't want to spend our last few days in Europe dashing around. we want to get them out of the way so we could kind of chill for the remainder of the trip.

yep, Pisa, thats about 3-4hrs train ride right? not sure we will do that.
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Old Jan 20th, 2017, 11:32 PM
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"i really want to see the Eifel tower"

"i want to get that out of the way first"

Waste of time and money in my opinion. Just fly to Rome.
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Old Jan 20th, 2017, 11:34 PM
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"Have you already booked flights?
Have you been to Europe before?
Where are you coming from'

We are still in the planning stage so no flights book yet. this will be our first time in europe and we are coming the USA.

"Gondola rides are not for exploring, they are hugely expensive and only take you around a few canals - it’s a clichée, a romantic ritual for some"
This is so me lol. I want the whole " singing in the gondola" experience. I know, cringe-worthy, but I can't help it.

you guys have given me a lot to think about. My husband already wants us to bypass Paris altogether, so if we leave out Paris that would leave about four(4) days to spend in Venice.
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Old Jan 21st, 2017, 12:47 AM
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Sounds like a better plan by far...first time to Europe? How do you know you only want to see the Eiffel Tower? That's kind of like saying, I only like French fries!
You've got to keep an open mind, and when you arrive in Venice, and take your first ride down the Grand Canal, then say, if you really feel it, I only want to do a gondola ride.
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Old Jan 21st, 2017, 01:15 AM
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Good plan to bypass Paris. I know it will sound weird, but actually the Eiffel Tower is not that neat, and a bit annoying to get to. I went to see it lit up, and that's about it. Lots of street vendors to annoy you and there's security so you can't just walk up to it. Paris is wonderful, it's just Eiffel Tower would not be high on my list to take friends to.

Keep in mind that wherever you visit on a weekend, there will be long lines at all popular attractions. So it really could take you longer to sightsee than you might expect.
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Old Jan 21st, 2017, 03:06 PM
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So, the husband and I discuss and we will cut out Paris. Updated iterniery is:
Fly into Venice, spend three(3) nights, then train to Florence and do the day trip to Pisa ( as suggested by sassafras) then train to Rome for the remainder of the trip.
Any suggestions to accommodations and areas to stay at in both Venice and Rome? Traditional hotels or airbnb? Again our budget is at most $200.00 USD per night.
In what order would you recommend we do the below activities the maximize our time?
Colosseum
Pantheon
Trevi fountain
Spanish steps
St. Peters Basilica
Vatican museum
Roman forum
Sistine chapel
Piazza novona
Galleria Borghese
Thanks so much once again for taking the time to help me out.
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Old Jan 21st, 2017, 05:31 PM
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Glad to read that you're saving Paris for another trip. My suggestion for Rome would be to 'skip the lines' wherever possible (t will be very crowded in late July) and purchase tickets to say, the Colosseum/Forum, Borghese Gallery and the Vatican museums/Sistine Chapel before your trip. Standing in line could be well over an hour+ in some places and why waste time doing that if you can avoid. Every place you've mentioned has their own website, so you can purchase directly from them. Hopefully you'll be using a credit card that doesn't charge a foreign transaction fee, otherwise that fee will also be added to your credit card. When purchasing these tickets, you will need to include a specific date and time for entry, so some pre-planning will be needed. The Pantheon/Trevi Fountain/Spanish Steps and Piazza Navona won't require tickets, but all will be jam packed (especially the Trevi Fountain) and all are within walking (or strolling and taking time for a gelato) distance of each other.

You have a nice trip ahead of you ... Enjoy!
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Old Jan 21st, 2017, 05:40 PM
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Seasoned travelers know to do this, but not so much first timers ... take a picture of the info page in your passports with your iphone so you have it in case something unforeseen happens. Having your passport number handy will help to expedite a replacement. Assuming you're US citizens, the US Embassy is on the Via Venato (across the street from the Hard Rock).
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Old Jan 21st, 2017, 06:02 PM
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Florence -
we stayed at a really nice Airbnb just a few minutes walk to Duomo:
https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/662667


2 must see's for us were:
Accademia & Michelangelo's David
Uffizi Gallery

We bought tickets in advance; [a must do, I think]:
www.accademia.org/buy-tickets/
www.uffizi.org/

We used Rick Steves audio guides when we were in Rome and for Florence as well:
http://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read...io-tours/italy

We booked an tour thru Viator for the Vatican and did the early access tourso we were first ones inside:

http://www.viator.com/Rome-attractio...1-a710?pref=02

The Vatican tour was actually run by Dark Rome. I think the prices are the same as Viator -

darkrome.com/vatican-tours

Go to Ostia Antica for part of one day. short train ride and well worth it if you aren't going to Pompeii.

We did almost all of the Rome audio tours of Rick Steves; for the most part they were very informative. Print out the accompanying maps.

For the Colosseum, we did a tour there with their guides, be sure to go to the underground part.

We also did a tour at Galleria Borghese; well done and got tickets in advance.

www.galleriaborghese.it/eng/museums.html
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Old Jan 21st, 2017, 06:18 PM
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Another thought is to consider purchasing the Roma Pass, which you can do when in Rome ... here's a brief explanation - The 72 hours Roma Pass currently costs €38.5 (Sept 2016). and gives you two free admissions to all national and city museums in Rome, discounts to other covered sites after you've used your two free entries, and includes bus, tram, metro, and urban trains, for stops within the city boundaries.

These can be purchased just about anywhere in Rome and we found that it was a good deal - you can also 'skip the line' with it. It's flexible, so that takes away any pre-planning you might do. Would suggest you use this on the 2 most expensive admissions for the best value.

If you go the organized tour route, Viator is good, however, their sister company, Travel Toe, offers the exact same tours and is a bit cheaper. Go figure that one!
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Old Jan 21st, 2017, 07:36 PM
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Stay in the historic area of Rome so that you can walk to many of the sites. You should also take a break from the antiquites and visit the Travestere neighborhood on the other side of the Tiber River, charming. The church of San Clemente is very interesting with excavations in the building going back to early Christianity.
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Old Jan 21st, 2017, 08:16 PM
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Thank you all for the great suggestions. Off to look them up! How far in advance can you purchase tickets to the attractions?
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Old Jan 21st, 2017, 08:43 PM
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I think 3 nights in Venice are good. If you are going to Pisa you might want to stop in Florence for 3 nights as well which would allow you to see Pisa and have some time in Florence. Move to Rome for 6 nights which would give you 5 + days in Rome. Depending on whether you move in the morning or evening would increase or decrease your times in all three cities.
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Old Jan 22nd, 2017, 02:17 AM
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Do you do a lot of walking normally. If not Rome will be a painful experience. While your list of places is fine it does cover the ones from the catalogue as it were. Just some ideas

Colosseum (probably best with the Forum plus, the rest of the ancient centre if you can fit it all in as they are all right next door to each other). If you are up to steps you should also walk up the National Monument known as the Type Writer which is just up the hill and has the best views of the area.
Pantheon
Trevi fountain (There is a fountain trail you could wander down, the Trevi is scrum, get there very early or very late)
Spanish steps (why do people go to the steps? They are just that.)
St. Peters Basilica
Vatican museum
Roman forum
Sistine chapel
Piazza novona (is a walk by)
Galleria Borghese (you can walk up the Spanish steps, enter the gardens and get to the Galleria easily. But you could also pop by Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea )
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Old Jan 22nd, 2017, 02:22 AM
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I stayed at hotel al codega in Venice. Really liked it. Well under budget but that may have been only because it was Christmas.

Most importantly, it's very close to what you are interested in. But be sure to wander in the "back street" areas away from the square- the basilica and gondolas are fun of course, but the best pet of Venice to to be far away from the crazy crowds around the basilica!
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