15 days honeymoon trip to Europe in February end and March
 

Hi,

We are planning to go for our honeymoon trip starting in the end of February till about 10th of March.
We have sketched a rough draft of itinerary:

Rome - 2 nights
Florence - 2 nights
Venice - 2 nights
??? - 2 nights
Barcelona - 3 nights
Paris - 4 nights (3.5 days)

Please suggest if we should go to Switzerland for 2 nights in between (Lucene).
Will it be more advisable to skip Barcelona all together and visit more places in Switzerland? Or we could skip Switzerland and spend more time in Italy.

P.S. We are history and nature lovers. Not much interested in visiting art galleries. We both love physical activities as well.

Thanks in advance!

You understand the climate you will be running into in Feb?

The nice things for me in these areas are spas, try include one indoors. Do you ski? Mountain climb?

ROME 2 nights= one day (or less) in the city
The same with the other locations you have 2 nights in.
What do you home to see in such a short time?
None of these locations has very much to offer in the way of nature lovers. The only bits of green will be local parks. All locations will have history and lots of art museums.
My advice is to think again.

Horrible plan -- truly dreadful. Sorry, but that is not a 'Honeymoon', it is a forced march.

You will (except for Paris) have ONE DAY free in each city and then will pack up and move the next morning to have one day in then next city.

And those are some very large and major cities with wonderful things to see/do. You have 15 nights, day one will be jet lagged (and if this is directly after the wedding you may also be extra tired do to the festivities).

Pick THREE of those cities (4 at the very most) - if you have already booked your flights in to Rome and out of Paris -- then one logical itinerary would be Rome - Venice - Paris, or Rome - Florence - Venice - Paris.

If Barcelone is a 'must' then Rome - Barcelona - Paris.

That is all you have time for.

AND ••• two of your criteria are nature and physical activities, yet you have only listed big cities.

The places you are planning on are heavy on art and light on physical activity, especially in March and February, opposite of your expressed interests.

Florence is a Mecca for Renaissance Art, almost a shrine to some of the artistic geniuses of the time. If Art is not your thing, then do not bother even going there.

Rome is one of the major cities of the world. Two nights gives you one day, short-changing Rome, big time! To see much of anything, you need 4 nights. However, with history being your interest, and no interest in Art Galleries, if you skip the art stuff, you could see a good bit of historical sites in 2 days (3 nights). You could walk the Appian way and visit Ostia Antica if you add another day.

You might want to go to Naples for the archeological museum and follow that with visits to Pompeii and Herculaneum. That provides both history and some walking.

If you keep Rome and Paris, skip Barcelona.

Actually, you might want to re-think Italy altogether for this trip, or just do Rome and Naples area.

Re-work your plan. Look at places that give you things that match your interests.
Germany for both history and Nature.
The Austrian Alps for dramatic landscape.
The Azores for dramatic landscape and physical activity.
Southern Spain for history, nature and physical activity.
If you want snow, skiing, etc. and do not mind the cost, Switzerland would give you dramatic landscape.

15 days - chose three maybe four cities close together. Rome, Florence, Venice and Paris might work though still rushed.

In winter stick to Italy and Paris or just Italy. Just Italy would make a more relaxied honeymoon.

Possible:

Land in Rome
Rome 4 nights
Florence 2 nights
Venice 2 nights
Overnight train or fly to Paris
Paris 4 nights

Book trains yourselves for discounted fares if book early enough - www.seat61.com has all the relevant info to do that - general train info - www.budgeteuropetravel.com and www.ricksteves.com.

Agree with all of the above. Drop ??? and Barcelona and add 2 nights to Rome, and one night each to Florence and Venice. Extra night left to either Rome, Florence or Paris. Alternatively skip Venice and Florence and do Rome, Barcelona and Paris.

Oh dear, oh dear. I'd be filing divorce papers after Day 3. 15 days, on a honeymoon, cries out for no more than 3 destinations. None of your proposed destinations matches up with your proclaimed interests. Toss this itinerary and start over, focusing on 3 venues that are within easy reach of each other and that cater to your stated interests.

Thanks everyone for your help, we have tweaked our plan to focus on three big cities, Rome-4 nights Zurich-3 nights and Paris -4 nights (with 2 nights in Venice in between). Can someone please reccomend days trips around Zurich other than Lucern and Mount Titlis, we are prepared for the cold weathee so dont mind if it gets a bit chilli.

Why Zurich?

If you insist on going to Switzerland, especially in winter, go to the mountains, not Zurich. Better to add two nights to Venice and one to Rome or Paris.

But in early March I'd want to go somewhere warmer, like the south of Spain or Portugal.

Zurich is just another nice large city - the lure of Switzerland for most lies in its Alpine areas- go to the Interlaken area IMO instead or Zermatt for 3 days or skip Switzerland all together. Weather kind of sucks north of Alps then too.

Of all the cities in that general region -- Zurich is almost the <i>last</i> place I'd choose.

Why Zurich? Just to say you've been to Switzerland? If so -- get a guidebook and read up about other options.

Zurich is THE last place I'd choose, no "almost" about it.

Another vote against Zurich

Einselden is a nice easy day trip from Zurich - celebrated pilgrim center:

https://www.google.com/search?q=eins...w=1920&bih=949

But really Interlaken and the awesome Alps near it are IMO the best for a few days in Switzerland. Swiss cities are nice and spic-and-span clean, etc but rather unexciting as you can see from comments above - Lucerne would make a better base -lovely smaller city on a sweet lake and closer to day trips to mountains.

Another vote against Zurich. Possible fog or snow would not make Switzerland my destination in late February.