Travelling B/w Spain & Italy

Old Aug 9th, 2015, 09:25 PM
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Travelling B/w Spain & Italy

We are a family of 3 from Pakistan with a girl child aged 9 years and we are in our Mid 30's. We go for our vacations regularly and really enjoy it. We are not much into queuing up for Museums, but a couple of them are fine, but do love the big cities, even small scenic town or places, hang out, do shopping, explore the beauty, theme parks etc

We are now planning our next vacations around May 20, 2016 for about 18days and have selected SPAIN & ITALY (unfortunately, France had to miss out)

We will be starting from Madrid and plan as follows
*MADRID - 2 DAYS
Fly or Train to Barcelona - If the train ride is scenic and worth it then we may take it (i guess it will be expensive), otherwise the budget Ryan air is fine
*Barcelona - 3 days
*San Sebastain - 3 days (a beach location)
How to move from BC to San Sebastain ?
San Sebastain to Venice - If the train ride is scenic and worth it then we may take it (i guess it will be expensive), otherwise the budget Ryan air is fine
*Venice - 3 days
*Florence/Pisa/Lake Camo (still undecided)) for 3 days
Florence to Rome - If the train ride is scenic and worth it then we may take it (i guess it will be expensive), otherwise the budget Ryan air is fine
*Rome - 3 Days
Rome to Madrd
*Madrid - another 1/2 days
Fly back home

A few question that i need your suggestion
1. itinerary is suitable/do able or not & if you think about any changes/recommendations
2. How to move from One city to another (As asked above)
3. Should i take the same Routing or any changes
4. Would like to take one train ride, so is it worth and which is the most scenic ride (if any)
5. Florence or Pisa or lake camo. Please suggest
6. And the tricky question is Should we go to Paris for Eifel tower and Disneyland

Your suggestions will be very important to us, so do share

thanks
asimm is offline  
Old Aug 9th, 2015, 10:49 PM
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You may need more travel time between places than you think, so many places where you say 3 days, you will have only 2 & 1/2 days or less. I think you need to cut one place for a reasonably paced trip.

If you have not booked flights, do a multi-city itinerary and depart from Rome so you do not waste time and the cost of another flight getting back to Madrid.

If you could do that, spend another day in Madrid in the beginning and go to Toledo on a day trip.

If you must return to Madrid, when you land, I suggest just spending the night and heading on to Barcelona the next morning. Add the days to Madrid at the end.

Best way from Madrid to Barcelona is absolutely by a fast train. It takes under three hours and costs as little as 31 euro if you book ahead.

If you are gong for a beach trip to San Sebastian, were you planning on swimming? If so, it will probably still be too cold to do that.

Probably, it would be best to fly from Spain to Venice. A train would take many hours.

Trains in Italy are cheap and efficient. They go city center to city center, so a great choice most of the time.
Take the train between Venice and Como or Florence. Take the train to Pisa from Florence. It is close. Stay in Florence and go to Pisa as a day trip. You could also go to Luca that day.

The best way from Florence to Rome is by train. Much better than trying to fly. Flying would take much longer and cost much more.

You do not have time to go to Paris and/or Disney unless you give up something else.

If you could do the multi-city ticket and if you wanted to skip San Sebastian this trip, you could
add a day to Madrid at the beginning,
Train from Madrid to Barcelona
Fly from Barcelona to Paris
Fly from Paris to Venice
Train from Venice to Como or Florence
Train to Rome

Personally, I still think however you do it, six places in 18 days is very, very rushed, especially with a child, even if she is a good traveler. You like cities, but also charming small towns, etc. Your trip allows very little time for small charming places.
Sassafrass is online now  
Old Aug 9th, 2015, 11:06 PM
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Yes, there are beaches at San Sebastian, but that's of no importance in May.
Spain - Italy:
flights: vueling, easyjet, ryanair
ferries: grimaldi-ferries.it, GNV.it
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Old Aug 10th, 2015, 01:41 AM
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I can understand that you want to hit a few big drawers like Pisa and Florence, but for 18 days I think you may be mistaken to see those two countries as the logical ones for you.

If you just look at Spain and a bit of France you could do,

Madrid, Barcelona, Carcassone, Valencia, Granada, Cordoba, Seville, Malaga and back to Madrid.

Big cities, interesting stuff to do in all of them, plenty of different vistas but a bit less travel.

Yes Madrid and environs needs a bit more time as suggested.

Trains really are the way to do it, very relaxing, take a picnic and chat to people.
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Old Aug 10th, 2015, 04:33 AM
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Thank you all for ur suggestions

I agree that in excitement i have loaded too many destinations. Last year when we visited Turkey for 16days, we went to 3 major cities/towns and from there took day tours & trips

I need to start from Madrid and end at Madrid as i am getting a good bargain air ticket and a budget air from Italy to Madrid is good for me

Also, we are looking for Moderate/cool temperatures i.e 15-27 Centigrade and dont like it to be very hot, as we are coming from a hot country

We are not much into History & Art, so, maybe i need to change the destinations as follows
MADRID(4) - BARCELONA(3) - VENICE(3) - ROME(4) - AMALFI COAST(3)

Note : Leaving San Sebastain as i guess it will be cold there. I am taking Amalfi coast as a replacement for San Sebastain(is it ok)

My question is
1. Which route would be best

2. Is there any scenic route if i use the TRAIN (AVE OR Euro rail. I am thinking of using the train ONLY if there is a Scenic View, otherewise i think that the Budget airlines have quite good prices (Euro30/- on an average)

Thanks again
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Old Aug 10th, 2015, 07:25 AM
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If you buy your train tickets early, usually about 90 days out, they can be very inexpensive. See www.seat61.com for detailed info on European trains and where to buy tickets.

For some of your trips, like Venice to Florence and Florence to Rome, the train is faster than flying. Remember, with the train, you don't need to get yourselves from the city to the airport, wait for a couple hours, fly, then get yourselves from the airport into a new city. The train goes city center to city center. You have a lot of destinations and you don't want to waste time traveling in between.
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Old Aug 10th, 2015, 03:02 PM
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The Amalfi Coast is gorgeous, but sea temperature still may not be good for swimming if you are still looking for that. Also there are few even good beaches there if you are thinking in terms of lovely sand. Beaches there are mostly pebbles and rocks.

The weather probably be beautiful though and there is lots to do like tour Pompeii, take a boat down the AC, visit the beautiful towns like Positano, etc.

Do take this into careful consideration. Getting to the Amafil Coast is a bit of a trek. From Rome allow a half tiresome day. You must return to Madrid the night before your flight out. If you are going from Rome back to Madrid, you probably need to be in Rome the day before that.

You have two options.
Go from
Venice directly to the Amalfi Coast, fly Venice to Naples, train back up to Rome.
Or, Go to the AC after Rome and fly from Naples to Madrid if you can get a reasonably priced flight.

Otherwise, you may have to train to Rome, then on to the AC and back to Rome.

So, for the AC, you need to allow four or five days of your trip, one to get there, one to return and two or three to be there.

So, see where you can fly and figure it out from there.

Consider instead the lakes area. Train from Venice, then train to Rome.

Forget beaches for this trip.
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Old Aug 10th, 2015, 04:15 PM
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Flying does not make sense for your trip unless you decide to fly from Spain to Italy. Train is not an option for that - it could take as much as 20 hours.

But internally from city to city - either Spain or Italy - only train makes sense, since flying would take MUCH longer and be a much bigger hassle than just jumping on a train in city center.

Have a look at bahn.de, which has train schedules for all of europe. Just be sure to use the correct local names for cities and use the english version - it will show you all of the options, including number of changes if any. For using the high speed trains it's usually better to buy tickets as fas in advance as possible to get the best rates.
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Old Aug 10th, 2015, 10:42 PM
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I once again appreciate that time and information that all of you have take out for me, to make my vacation best

Regarding LAKES as pointed by Safsaffras, are you talking about LAKE CAMO? I intend to go to an area which has the BEST SCENIC views in Italy, not sure if it is Cinque terry or AC OR LAKE CAMO

Regarding Air & train travel, i was finding air travel to be cheaper as compared to train travel and it is therefore that i was thinking of using it

Keeping in mind your suggestion i would be doing as follows

MADRID - BARCELONA by Air as avg price is Eur 30/-

BARCELONA - VENICE by Air as avg price is Eur 30/-

VENICE - ROME by train

Note : My understanding is that Venice to Naples maybe quite expensive

ROME to Naples by train

NAPLES to Amalfi coast by bus or train ride to view the curving road

AC to ROME by train

ROME to MADRID by air as avg price is Eur 30/-

Is that a good enough travel with Air & Train?
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