bullrams

Hi,

We are a couple from San Francisco planning a 15-day 2010 summer trip to Europe.

Our main preference is non-stop flights. We have figured flying to Paris from SFO directly is the best option. We intend to spend 3 nights in Paris. We intend to take TGV to Marseilles or Nice, depending on suggestions here, and spend 3 nights there. We wanna rent a car and drive around the french riviera with the base in Nice or Marseilles. Is it the right way to see the riviera?

From Nice we intend to go to Venice and spend 3 nights there. What is the most convenient way to go from Nice to Venice? Flight? Train? Car?

We wanna decide how do we come back to SFO from Venice? Where do we spend the last leg of our trip considering we are looking for a non-stop flight to SFO?

Does this itinerary look good or can be further improved? We love wining and dining, the sun, water, and people watching.

Thanks in advance for your suggestions!

StuDudley

I could not find any non-stops back to SFO from anywhere in Italy. The only non-stop to CDG is AirFrance/Delta. Delta also flys from Italy - so Delta is your best bet

Stay in Nice - not Marseille. Probably the best way to get to Venice is by air. A train trip will be long, and there are many reasons not to drive.

I would not try to do anything more than Paris, Riveria, and Venice. In fact, Venice adds some complictions, and I would probably just stay in France (Provence, Burgundy, or Alps perhaps).

I would do:
6 Days Paris
5 days Riveria
4 Days Venice
Fly home from Venice.

Stu Dudley
San Mateo

LoveItaly

Hello bullrams, there are no nonstop flights from Venice to SFO. And the planes from Venice usually depart very early in the morning.

I would suggest you repost your thread on the Europe Forum as you will get a lot more responses as the US Forum is for travelling within the US.

Having said that Stu Dudley is quite an expert regarding Europe and has given you excellent advise.

Have fun planing your first European trip!

bullrams

Thank you Stu Dudley and LoveItaly for your responses!! Much appreciated.

ksucat

totally agree with Stu's advice!
You are going to love Europe and Paris is one of our favorite cities in the world!

easytraveler

Could you do the Europe portion of this trip in reverse?

You could fly from Paris to Venice, then go from Venice to the Riviera, then back to Paris via the TGV.

This way you could buy a round trip SFO-CDG.

pdx

.....I agree with all of the above. My only concern is flying out of Venice tends to be those dang-darn early flights (0630) so be sure to look into other options for the flight out. I like Stu's advice about sticking to France. You won't regret whatever you do, but 2 weeks in France is a beautiful vacation. Two weeks in Italy is another beautiful vacation...

november_moon

If you wanted to do a 2 country trip and still go with non-stop flights, Germany would be a good choice. There are non-stops between SFO anad both Frankfurt and Munich. I believe there are non-stops between SFO and Amsterdam as well, but I am not positive.

LoveItaly

Yes, KLM flies from SFO to Amsterdam nonstop..I think the flight still departs SFO around 4:00pm in the afternoon. You have to go to the Northwest website (www.nwa.com) to access the information for the KLM flights. KLM has their City Choppers that fly from Amsterdam to the Marco Polo Venice airport. Their City Choppers from Venice back to Amsterdam leave around 6:30 in the morning. Or at least that schedule was the same the last time I checked on it. You could than fly from Amsterdam to Paris. Buy a multi-city aka open jaw flight which usually doesn't cost much more than the traditional round trip flight (flying into and departing from the same airport).

PamSF

You can fly out of Venice to London and spend some nights there. You can easily take the tube from hotels at Heathrow or Heathrow itself into London proper.

PamSF

You can fly direct SFO-Paris on Air France only(things should be way better with the planes by then!). I so love the South of France and the TGV is so wonderfully comfortable that I might suggest you limit your travel to France. The Paris -Avignon-Marseille and back to Paris train loop will be grand in the summer. You can readily rent cars at Avignon TGV and drive around the South and then head back to Paris from Avignon. Venice in the Summer can be "over the top".

SAnParis2

I agree w/Stu & the others, you'll find plenty to do in France + you'll want/need more time in Paris than you have currently planned.

Exploringwhenican

Great thread....I will be a 1st time europe visitor this summer, 2012....I am in a wedding in Dublin on August 16th and I want to build a 19 day trip to see it all in Europe! Might any of those above have itinerary and direct flight (SFO) suggestions? I love the country, small town charm, waterfalls/hiking, great food and majestic cities....thank you in advance for sharing your wisdom!

DebitNM

This thread is 2 years old; best to start a new thread to ask about flights. And it would be wise to look on the Europe board for ideas about where to go and what to see and post there too.