katieb2europe

Hi,

My husband & I are going on a month long trip to Europe and we are going to be flying into Sicily, Italy. We have a few countries we would like to visit but don't have any concrete plans. We do know we would like to visit if possible in Italy: Sicily, Venice, Florence, Tassarolo and then into Switzerland (not sure where we would like to go here but i have heard Grindewald is beautiful), then to Croatia: Dalmatia and any other places that are recommended and then we want to end in Greece (not sure where either) then we will be taking the Ferry back to Italy for our flight back home.

I was hoping someone would have some insight on places to go, ways to travel and if 1 month of travel will be a realistic time plan for this trip! We are thinking of taking the train/bus most of the time but I am not sure if it would be best to purchase a Global Eurail or just pay as we go since we don't have a great plan..

Any advice would be more than appreciated! I have never been to Europe so we are trying to make the most of it! Also, we are big hikers/outdoors people so we will be backpacking a lot of the time!

Please help!!

Katie

katieb2europe

Also, I was thinking of leaving Sicily to go to Florence, then to Switzerland, back to Venice and over to Croatia then South to Greece.. Any itinerary tips would be helpful!!

annhig

hi Katie, and welcome!

with 30 days [and nights?] you probably think that you've got oodles of time but unless you want to spend all your time on the road or in the insides of trains, you'll need to think carefully about where you really want to go and how long to stay in each place.

first question - have you already bought your air tickets? if not, have a look at "open jaw" [aka multi-city] options. it shouldn't be very much more than a return ticket into and out of the same place - it's not the same as 2 single tickets which can be very expensive.

if you are locked into flying into and out of Sicily [Palermo?] then you can either work your way away from there and then fly/ferry back, or alternatively, fly to Greece and work your way back to Sicily.

PalenQ is our train expert here but if you have a look at the man in seat 61 website [ seat61.com ] that may help you to work out whether a train pass is for you.

if your plan is Sicily, Florence, Venice, Switzerland, Croatia, Greece, you need to decide where in Switzerland, Croatia and Greece you want to stay and whether you can work them easily into your schedule. The first half is relatively easy - fly from Sicily [? Palermo or Catania?] to Florence, train to Venice, train to Grindelwald, but then how to get to Croatia? that would demand a bit more thought.

and with so many destinations, you're soon going to run out of time!

katieb2europe

Thank you for your help! My husband is Military so we will be flying via a Military flight into Sicily.. I am not exactly sure where they fly into and we don't find out until 2 weeks or less before we leave so its hard to plan around that! But we will have to fly into/out of Sicily..

I have been looking at the EuRail & the Swiss Travel websites and it is quite overwhelming! So many trains and options & quite spendy. Is traveling to/from Croatia quite complicated? It looks like there is a EuRail that goes from Bern and connects into Split, Croatia (but it's about a 5 hour train ride to/from). Would you recommend skipping Croatia and just making our way from Switzerland to Greece? We are pretty flexible but Switzerland is a must on our list of places to go!

greg

Why ferry back from Greece to Sicily? I don't think there is any ferry that goes to Sicily from Greece. They usually go to one of the large ports on the Adriatic in Italy, and you need to trek from there to Sicily. If this is during the summer season, the Olympic Airline has a daily direct flight from Athens to Catania.

isabel

I would say almost certainly that the best way to get from Greece to Sicily would be to fly. Check easyjet and Ryan Air. Trying to go by ferry would require two, possibly three different boats, plus getting across Italy via train (the ferries from Greece go to Bari or Brindisi on the east coast of Italy, then you need to get to the west coast (Naples,etc.) to get another ferry to Sicily.

But more problematic is that you really do have too many places for a month. Sicily "takes" 1-2 weeks depending on how fast you like to travel. Of course you could just go to one place for a few days, but most people want to at least sample what Sicily has to offer, and that will take longer, especially if you want to try to do it by public transportation (rather than renting a car). Florence and Venice 'deserve' at least 3 or 4 days each.

So as hard as it may be, I think you need to eliminate at least one country, and logistically, that would be Greece. I think what you originally plan would need at least 6 weeks (and could actually fill up a couple of months). Especially if you need to backtrack to Sicily at the end. While a taste of several countries is tempting, maybe you could look at adding a few places in Italy and Switzerland and just doing those two. Or, pick one place in each of the four countries and look into flying between them. But each time you change destinations (except for something 'simple' like Florence to Venice) it will really eat up most of a day.

kja

I wholeheartedly agree that you need to trim your wish list!

As examples, I think 2 weeks the minimum for Sicily and 2 weeks the minimum for Croatia. I spent a month just in Switzerland, and had to skip a LOT that I would have loved to see. Etc.

I urge you to get some good guidebooks (or consult some at your local library) and think through what you MOST want to see and experience, and how much of your time you are willing to spend in transit between locations rather than actually visiting anything.

Good luck!

katieb2europe

Ok! Thank you for the advice! If you both are saying a minimum of 2 weeks in Sicily where about do you recommend that we visit? Also any advice for traveling via train? Would it be best to purchase the Eurail prior to leaving for our trip or to buy place to place?

I think we will definitely want to spend more time in Switzerland than Italy! Hard decision because they are both so amazing! I have 2 books & 2 maps on the way and should be here soon! I am planning on going over these over the next few weeks but I wanted to get some "real" advice from people with different opinions rather than just taking the info from a Guide Book!

Thank you all soo much!

kja

IMO, we can't give you "real" advice -- other than to cut back! -- until you have a clearer idea of what you want to do, and which point I believe you will find that Fodorites are very generous with their help.

In the meantime, if your goal is to obtain insights from people with different opinions and experiences, then read the trip reports and planning threads that catch your interest -- there is a wealth of information on this board that is already available to you.

annhig

thinking about ferries, there are many ferries you can get from Sicily but not sadly to Croatia. Here's the link to the website where you can look at the routes taken by ferries all over Europe:

https://www.google.co.uk/search?clie...GorS8AfdzKHICg

you could do a nice trip taking a ferry from Messina to the toe of Italy and driving up through Italy to the north-east coast and getting a ferry to Croatia, or flying from Palermo or Catania to Zurich or somewhere else in Switzerland to see the Berner Overland, and working your way back to Sicily by car/train.

What I don't think you can do in the time you've got is both!

Heimdall

Are you planning to travel Space A from the US to Europe? If so, you may find it easier to get a flight to Germany, and that of course would affect your itinerary. Once in Europe it's a lot easier to travel around by Space A or otherwise. If you have guaranteed seats on a flight to Sicily, then that's great, but I don't see how unless you are travelling on orders.

neckervd

"if 1 month of travel will be a realistic time plan for this trip!"
of course not!
In which month will you travel? There are tons of direct flights between Italy and Switzerland on the one hand and Croatia and Greece on the other hand during the season. Almost nobody will visit these areas in winter and the flight choice is much smaller then.
It's not a problem to begin and to end your trip in Sicily; the problem is that you cannot visit som many places in 1 month unless you like to spend most of your time by packing and unpacking your bags, checking in and out of hotels, waiting for planes and trains resp sitting in these vehicles.

wazzumama

I agree with all advice given so far if you plan to do everything that each place has to offer. It is possible to spend only one day in Florence and one day in Venice but there will be things that you will miss out on. It simply is a matter of what you enjoy doing and seeing. The question more is will you get bored staying too long in one place. It is so subjective! We spent a day and a half in Venice and that was perfect for us but if we wanted to go to the glass factory then we would have needed more time. So... You have to literally write down each thing you want to do and the hours that the train or flight will take to determine how long you need for each place. If you don't love museums that will cut out a lot of time. Also you need to allow for time to just hike if that's what you love. Make a spreadsheet and map it all out. My son just did a sample of Europe tour by train and loved it. His advice was to buy your train tickets in advance though because the last minute long train trips cost maybe triple the price. We don't like traveling every other day so we spent 23 days just in Italy, 5 days in one place exploring nearby places using local trains and buses. Then another place for 7 days. Each person has their own way to travel . You have to decide which is yours. Plan early to get good Ryanair prices if you want to country hop.

bvlenci

There are no ferries from Greece to Sicily, and even if you take a ferry to Brindisi, the southern-most Adriatic port on mainland Italy, it would take about 12 hours, and several changes of train, to get from there to anywhere in Sicily. Your best option would be to fly from Athens to Rome, and from there to almost any airport in Sicily.

I don't think there are any good land connections between Croazia and Greece. Again, you'd probably have to fly.

I would suggest eliminating either Switzerland or Greece. If you don't want to eliminate either, you'll have six long and/or tedious travel days: Sicily to Florence, Florence to Switzerland, Switzerland to Venice, Venice to Croazia, Croazia to Greece, and Greece to Sicily. (Of course you can fly between major cities in these countries, but if you don't want to visit the major cities, you'll have to travel between the little towns you want to visit and the airports.) That would leave you with about 25 days to see each place, or 23 if you really mean four weeks. Four of the six places you want to see are not cities, but countries. (Sicily is as large as many countries.)

Let's say that you spend 3 days in Florence and 3 days in Venice, the only two cities on your list. Then you'd have 19 (or 16) days to see four countries. It really doesn't sound like a relaxing vacation.

travelerjan

wazzumama, you give such sound advice about how to travel in Italy, because you have learned from experience ... we need to take the same thinking to your planning for your Greece trip. Do not over-reach. Actually write down the LOGISTICS of a trip... how long will it take to get into/out of Athens... check in/out of a hotel, wait for a ferry, take ferry, get off & find hotel etc etc. Typically it takes more than half a day to change islands even if you can see the other island from y our balcony! And use a GOOD guidebook to learn more about what attracts you, not just "eye candy" (like "shipwreck beach" calendar pix). Thankfully, you have many months to plan ... it's a great way to while away time in the Snow season!