My husband and I are trying to plan our Europe trip for late May. We will have 16 days total. I am thinking about flying into London for 3-4 days, then flying down to Munich and taking a train over to Zurich to Venice and to Rome. Is there a different route one would suggest? How many days are sufficient at each city? We are not into museums so will not spend any time at museums. We enjoy hiking and shopping. Will 3 days per city be ok or will we get burned out? Thanks for anyone's advice!!

If you enjoy shopping and hiking, you might consider destinations other than Venice and Rome, unless you have already scoped out some items, like Murano glass, that are only available in Venice. Probably anything you can get in Rome you can get in Milan.

Were you to stay near Milan, around Lago di Garda or Lago di Como, or most simply, Lago di Garda, you could have lovely hikes and shop. And the money you would save by not booking yourselves into Venitian and Roman hotels would increase your purchasing power dramatically!

Also, you might consider going to Firenze instead of Rome for the San Lorenzo market. Or you might put up a post here or on the Slow Travel website asking: "Best shopping towns in Italy where we can hike too?" You might come up with recommendations for a charming small town or a place with great bargains that you'd have all to yourself.

Sorry, but my above post should have said that the simplest place for you to stay near Milan would be Lago Maggiore in Stresa. You would have the opportunity for great hikes, and Milan is an hour away by train. I would bet you can also buy most Venetian items in Milan.

Hi t,

Each time you change accomodations you lose at least 1/2 day.

Is there a particular reason for going to Zurich? You can take the train directly from Munich to Venice.

Tripsoon
Since you're not too much into museums, why not drop either Munich or Zurich. These are both large cities and it's going to eat up your travel time.

Salzburg might be a good substitute for maybe Zurich. You can walk and look around Salzburg more easily than Zurich. You have lots of places to hike around that area. It would still work fine for your routing towards Venice.

Just a thought!

Blackduff

If you really are looking for a hiking and shopping experience, you should also consider Minnesota. The state has some great wilderness hiking areas, and there's THE Mall of America.

If you're from the USA or Canada, it's a shorter trip, and language problems are minimized.

I think 3 days is OK for what you describe wanting to see and do, but I would add 1 day in between each city, for doing your math, which will be your travel day. It might not take a full day but it will take a good portion of one each time you change cities. So I would drop at least 1 place from your initial itinerary mentioned.

I think that as hikers, you might get burned out no matter how many days you have in each city, if cities are all you plan to visit.

Although many spurn it as being overly popular now, the Cinque Terre west of Florence offers great hiking. I also second nessundorma in that there is also good hiking around Lake Como near Milan (I know because we ran into a German couple planning a week doing just that, in addition to the quick hike we did.)

So, one idea: if you stay near those two cities, you can get into 'town' to do shopping, and hike the rest of the time.

In any event, cut down on the number of cities, period.