April 2019, looking for suggestions
 

Hello fodor's,

Planning to do a Trip in April 2019, with my mother to europe.

Have some dilemma choosing between the places i should do. Can anyone suggest

1: Prague, Vienna, Milan, Rome
2. Just Italy

Exactly how many nights will you have on the ground once landing?
Ages?
Interests? Hiking, nature, history, food (cafes or Michelin stared?), churches, art, opera, etc.?
Fast paced or relaxed? Highlights or wandering?
Have you been to Europe before?
What sights have you or your Mom dreamed of seeing?

Hello, thanks for the response.
The plan is for 17 days on ground. keeping 2 days to fly in and out. We would love it to be a mixture of nature, history, hiking.
I had been to spain(solo) this summer. But with my mom, it would be her first international travel. So want to show her the best of europe

Best is very subjective. What you find best may not be what your Mom would find best. Plus, there is so much to see, narrowing down is difficult unless you can arrive at what would be of most interest to your Mom. Surely, she has read and has an opinion. For me it is cathedrals, museums, eating outside and lovely vistas. I love places like Toledo, Spain, and can wander all day, but you won't find me hiking more than an hour, even in an interesting place. All the the places you named are major cities, not that much hiking and nature. You would want day trips. Your option of four major cities, including transportation to each is too much for 17 days if you want to see any of the nearby towns or villages.

Had I never been to Europe,
I would spend
5 nights in England (4 nights London and 1 night in Bath)
5 nights in Paris,
And the rest in either
1. The Netherlands (Tulips in April) and Belgium, (cultivated nature) world class art, canals, etc.
2. Provence, (exquisite towns and villages and plenty of nature for hiking)
3. Rome or Florence with day trips or a place in the country and rent a car.

Or, I would spend the whole time in Italy, combining Lakes or a coastal area and countryside with Rome and Florence.

Do your Vienna, Prague, Milan, and Rome thing but also add Paris! In which case I'd probably drop Prague or Vienna. My ideal:

Paris - 5 nights
Travel day between Paris Rome
Rome/Milan (although I would swap out Milan for Venice or Florence, but up to you) - 6 nights split
Travel day to Prague
Prague - 3 days

But that's forcing my "first trip to Europe" ideas on you. If you strictly want to stick to the cities in your poll, you could do something like this:

Rome - 5 days
Train to Milan - 1 day (train won't take all day, but count it as a travel day)
Milan - 2 or 3 days? (never been)
Plane to Vienna - 1 travel day
Vienna - 4 days
Train to Prague - 1 travel day
Prague - 3 days

This is still prettyyyyy rushed though. If you cut Milan and re-allocated those days elsewhere, would make for a more leisurely trip.

Which one does your Mom want?

1: Prague, Vienna, Milan, Rome

Fleur de Lis gives a great scenario for that.

I'd cut Milan out of that and take an overnight train from Rome to Vienna - can be real comfy with private compartment and bring and food and drink you wish.

But for great nature and awesome panoramas of the high Alps I suggest heading from Rome and Milan to Switzerland and the lovely Jungfrau area near Interlaken - ensconce yourselves in a remote mountain village like Wengen and take mountain trains, thrilling aerial gondolas and hiking paths for all degrees of energy - some more like a nice flat walk. Wengen:

https://www.google.com/search?q=weng...ih=625&dpr=1.5

The awesome Jungfrau Region:

https://www.google.com/search?q=jung...w=1280&bih=625

Again a myriad of mountain trains and aerial gondolas go off in all directions - very easy to get to by train and get around by train and cableways.

And to me Paris would be one place any Mom or anybody would have at the top of their wish list for Europe - easy train ride of about 5.5 hours Jungfrau region to Paris.

Thus could do a:

Rome
Milan
Interlaken-Wengen Jungfrau area
Paris

do an easy day trip from Paris to Versailles, one of the world's most famous palaces.

Vienna and Prague are neat but they require more travel time to include and IMO anyone not having been to Europe would prefer Swiss Alps and Paris to them.

What suze said!

Seriously :-)

She and you know better what you would enjoy than any of us here can take a guess at.

She and you know better what you would enjoy than any of us here can take a guess at.>

But often folks are clueless and helps to get recommendations of what others enjoyed. Mom presumably will be consulted.

@ PalenQ: Thank you for again sharing your assumptions.

@ sudovim: Has your mother expressed particular reasons for one or the other, or particular concerns about one or the other? is there anything you can tell us about her or her interests that would help us advise you?

Well it is also an assumption that Mum will not be consulted!

@kja Till date she has been watching travelfox and in kind of likes european cities and the history of it. When i mentioned of the cities above. She was happy to explore. And she is also a vegan

Vegan is no problem according to many past posters who found no problem in Europe - same as here.

I'm glad to hear it! But maybe she has some interests that you know that you could share to help us provide better advice? For example, does she have a strong interest in ancient cultures and their ruins? In Renaissance art or in Art Nouveau? Will she enjoy herself more if coping with a single country (and so dealing with largely similar laws and norms and hearing the same language throughout, even if she can't speak it)? Does she have any mobility issues or other limitations that might be relevant?

If I were taking my mom, I would go with option 1. My mom is always free to make suggestions but never does. She just wants to go, go, go. Option 1 I think would expose her to more facets of Europe as much as I love Italy. I'm sure once you pick the destinations, your mom will then focus on things she would like to see in those places.

Hello all,
Thanks for all your suggestions, but stuck on work side.

So finally i decided to do option 2, Just italy for a period of 20 days which include travel days also.
Done with tickets. My concern right now, where i am not able to find rigid solutions is for reaching St Moritz Switzerland from milan.
I will be travelling from florence to milan, and would want to go straight to St Moritz taking the bernina express. Can anyone help me with doing this journey on how to reach?

You say 'Option 2' but then throw in Switzerland.

>>Just italy for a period of 20 days which include travel days also. <<

If you mean travel from North America, 20 days will net you 17.5 days 'on the ground'. With 2.5 usable weeks - stick to Italy. Or seriously limit the destinations in Italy. Just my 2¢

You don't need to take the named "Bernina Express"-- you can take the regional trains, which use the same tracks. Either way, you would need to get to Tirano. You can use rome2rio.com to check your transportation options.

If I were to do that, I would not go to St. Moritz, which I found to be a tired and over-hyped once-glitzy and now tawdry resort town. There are, IMO, many more interesting locations in that part of Switzerland.

Yeah, i said option 2, but heard that St Moritz is a day trip from milan. So planned to pay a visit there