I have always stayed up quite late when in Italy, even later then I do at home. I usually wake up around 7:30am and have coffee either in my room or at a cafe as I don't care for hotel breakfast rooms. I usually take a late afternoon rest or nap for an hour. It is rather how I live at home actually.

Well, our life at home is way too busy - so on vacation we never get u p early unless there's a speciifc plane or train to catch. 8am is about OK - with breakfast in bed and out/about at 9:30 or 10. (Just one of the minor reasons we won't do tours.)

Yk and Ekscrunchy,

I agree with both of you.

I am up early and out the door to see all the sites. I like to be there to see shops open up.

In cities like Venice, Paris or Rome I am up at early to watch the fish mongers and produce vendors set up at the markets.

If we eat in the room first I always can find room for a coffee and pastry once we start walking around

My husband is flexible and will go early if I want to.

I'm in the "early to rise", yk. escrunchy, St. Cirq camp.

Me too, but In Spain for instance there is nothing open until 9 or 10 or so. What would you recommend to do for an early bird in Spain?

<i>In cities like Venice, Paris or Rome I am up at early to watch the fish mongers and produce vendors set up at the markets.</i>

Now THIS might be a reason to get up early -- since it can't be experienced at any other time of day.

lol! Take a looooong walk! Go have a coffee and hang out with the workers at the local bar, which is what I do. And sit on a park bench watch the village wake up!

One of the true pleasures of traveling (IMHO) is getting up very early and having a coffee with the locals (stop in the same place two days in a row and on the third day, I promise, they'll smile and ask if you want your regular!), then taking a walk to watch the stores open for the day. Flowers being put out, markets setting up, kiosks opening... I'm always amazed that more visitors aren't wandering around when I am but, in fact, I usually have the streets and alleys and shopkeepers offering morning greetings to myself. It's also a great time to take pictures.

This is especially wonderful in Venice, by the way.

A confession Even though we are not early risers, and generally don't get &quot;going&quot; before 10 (other than the aforesaid local cafe), one of my fondest memories of Paris, from my first trip there (when I was 21, and pretty much hated Paris -- why? Because we couldn't afford it LOL!) to this day is walking along the Seine before 7 a.m. Me and the river.....

Amsdon, that is one of the reasons I like a hotel that includes or offers breakfast. We've run into that before, headed out and couldn't find breakfast or anything else really open. So, we almost always have breakfast in the hotel, even if it isn't a big breakfast. Just enough to get us moving, especially the coffee!
Many of you comment about being up or out late when traveling, but we rarely do that, either. We're not night owls at home or when we travel, though when we have something special we want to do we are fine with it. We're not into the bar scene, so sitting around drinking, especially if the bars are filled with smoke, does not appeal to us at all. Things are getting better regarding that, though.
Maybe if we were much younger or particularly liked nightlife we'd do things differently, but neither of us likes to eat a big meal and go to bed shortly after. We're content to eat fairly light meals and walk around for a while, explore some, shop, whatever, and then call it a night.
I know, we're getting OLD, but it works for us.

Yes I agree about ther breakfast for sure.

Depends - If I am solo I often sleep late the first day, then up and at 'em earlier (but not crack o' dawn) each day after.
If with SO and others, the first day we sleep later than usual. After that, only up very early if there is something specific we plan to do that requires it. Otherwise, sleep in a bit later than usually do at home, manage to get rolling by late morning after a nice breakfast. I am usually the first one up, and if we are in an apartment make the run for breakfast food.

We planned to be up early to see the cities come to life, and catch the best light(being budding photographers)
but jetlag caught us up.

First stop London we were up at 7am after having been awake for nearly 48 hours, then each successive city we would get up an hour later, so that by the time we made it to Paris 3 weeks later, we were waking up around 11am-12noon and were missing half the day. We missed so much, but could not wake up any earlier even though we wanted to.

Next trip we'll take really loud alarm clocks, or maybe just the kids.

We usually like to be up and ready to start the day by 8:30 but found that in some places it is worth waiting until the daily commuters have made their way to their jobs before trying to use public transportation.

I've spent decades getting up early &amp; working all day. Now I still get up early (4:00 to 5:00 AM) but the joy of vacation is not having to dash out the door. I can't sleep late there or here.

I dislike having to be somewhere early on vacation. Bully for those who do but I'm not one of them &amp; still manage to see what I want to see at my own pace &amp; at my own time.

No earlybirds in our house, unless we have to be somewhere at a certain time.

Absolutely we get going early. I want to be &quot;out there&quot;, I don't travel to Europe to spend my time in a hotel room. Was it Maitaitom who said &quot;you can rest when you're dead?&quot;

Hi yk; escrunchy;St. CIRQ; Maribel and Travelfan; We love your style. We start early and get back late to see as much as possible. It's a personal thing. We do 12 to 14 hour days. Do we get tired? Of course. But,If we wanted to relax, we would go to the 'beach', like many of our friends. That's fine, because that's their style. Consider,[Super Bowl Sunday], he got up at 4am to play basketball at 6am with young people. Then went to bed after the game at 10:30pm. He's only 74. That's our style. This April we go to Spain and Portugal with our daughter and husband. [Our 29th trip to Europe. We cancelled our trip to Croatia in June as our friend from NY was laid off. But we will visit France in September as our granddaughter will be spending a semester in Rennes.Then there is California in August.] Our rest is when we get home. Within our long days, we too love to stroll, sit, people watch, meet people and of course have wine, with a bit to eat. Always have four of five things lined up to do every day. Usually don't get to everything. But there is always another day. Iris

Count me in as one of the early risers. I am in a foreign country and don't want to miss a thing.
I get up for work at 5 am every day so getting up between 6 and 7 is like sleeping in for me.
I have great pictures of Venice at around 7 am before the tourists arrive and the shopkeepers are getting ready for their day. And me standing on the grand canal in total silence except for the lapping of water up against the wall. Priceless!!

I'm in Europe, not in Arizona. If I'm in Arizona, it is a rest holiday, I'll read paper and decide when to go to the pool. Europe costs me money and is an &quot;event&quot;. I want to feel I took maximum advantage of my time there. So I have little in common with people who want to spend much time in their hotel room.

Not to say that I am at the sites by 8AM..but I am out of my room by 8:30 and, with last trip to Paris as an example, having breakfast at a local cafe, reading paper, watching locals, and planning day.

I want to be &quot;in&quot; the city I am visiting, not &quot;in&quot; the hotel that is storage for my stuff and 10 hours a day of my body.

As a caveat, last trip to Turkey was with 4 kids. Scheduling no longer was under my control