Looking for input on a trip for my sister and me in July 2012. We have 10 days. Important are Paris, Tuscany, Lake Como, Cinque Terre, and Florence. I have been everywhere but Lake Como, it's my sister's first European trip. We will be using 1st class Eurail passes and couchsurfing.org for transportation and lodging.
Here's the itinerary I'm looking at and would love input.
Day 1,2 Paris
Day 3 Train to Lyon
Day 4 Lyon
Day 5 Train to Lake Como
Day 6 Lake Como & train to Cinque Terre
Day 7 , 8 Cinque Terre
Day 9 Train to Florence, sites of Florence
Day 10 Sites of Florence
Day 11 Fly to Paris, return to US
Thoughts?
We're not married to Lyon...actually, Tuscany is more important. Just don't want to go through Switzerland. We'll have a two country 1st class Eurail pass. Too ambitious?

Well you say you've been tomost of those places = and presumably you;ve looked up specific trains and know how long it till take to get from ne places to another. (If you haven;t got exact train times get them NOW).

To me you have time for 2 destinations - but everyone travels differently. And to me couchsurfing is simply not something I would evr have done - even when I was 19. (My boyfriend and I spent about a month - but stayed in gasthauses and modest
B&Bs.)

Do you have experience "couchsurfing" as part of a pair? Do you both sleep on one sofa? Do you stay only with people who have 2 sofas? Does someone just sleep on the floor?

I really think you shuold look st the Let's Go student guides and the thorn tree section of the Lonely Planet web site - since I think you will find very few couchsurfers here.

Well I think its WAY too ambitious. With that amount of time I would pick 2 places and enjoy them, but then I hate wasting time in transit not seeing anything. You give up 1/2 a day checking in and out of hotels, getting to and from train stations, travelling etc so you are losing so much time in transit that you arent getting time to actually enjoy the places you want to visit.

You may want to consider a tour...

I would never couchsurf, as a woman I would never feel safe doing something like that.

It looks like Lyon is included only to be able to train around Switzerland via Torino? If you fly Paris to Italy, then you would recoup two days out of your tight schedule and would also come ahead cost-wise by not having to buy rail passes. So you would ask how about the trains in Italy. The point to point fares are not expensive and it is very difficult to come ahead with rail passes.

Once you are in Italy, why is it necessary to go back to Paris to fly home? There are flights to US from Rome, Milan, and Venice.

IMnsHO that is way too much. Rome and Paris. Or Florence and Paris? You want your sister to see something besides the trains right?

And I agree about the couchsurfing (whats wrong with hostels?).

Flying to Italy and skipping the rail passes is a good idea.

Best of luck!

TF

Much too much time spent moving from one place to another- much too little actually experiencing your destinations. With 10 days, choose either France or Italy. Or, since Paris is really your only France destination, choose Paris, fly to Florence and then see Florence and Lake Como or Florence and Cinque Terre. Fly home from Florence or Pisa. It is still hectic but cuts out some of the moving about and the time on trains.

If you and your sister are doing a research project on European transportation systems, this is a fine idea. If not, it needs to be culled pretty drastically.