I know you are hearing our voices in your sleep but let me add one more plea to include Venice in your trip. After countless trips to Europe, we have seen everything on your itinerary at least once. I would visit Venice before Strasbourg, Lucerne, Lugano, Parma, Bologna, Milano or Cinque Terre. Everyone has favorites but Venice is unique and you should try to include it for 2-3 nights.

ARGH!! My head hurts! You are def correct mamcalice, there are lots of little voices Ok I have spoken with hubby and we have taken Cinque Terre out of our itinerary(again) and added Venice.

Adjustments as below:

London - 5 nights
Paris - 4 nights
Paris to Strasbourg day train (poss Eurostar)
Strasbourg - 2 nights (hubby is keen on visiting Strasbourg)
Strasbourg to Lucerne day train
Lucerne - 3 nights (do we need 3 nights here?)

From Lucerne we would like to go to Lugano thru the Alps, if we go to Venice from here on the same day it will be at least a 7 hour train ride with 2 stops (and we would have to leave Lucerne at 7am). It sounds like what could be a very long day.

Not sure what to do here? Should we stay somewhere in between Lugano and Venice? Or should we do the big train 7 hour train ride and go all the way to Venice?

Next we were going to try and stay in Venice for 2 nights.

Next onto Florence for 3 nights (or is 2 nights enough here?)

Then onto Rome for 4 nights before we come home. It does feel as if we are doing too much, but I think it may be the only way we want to see as much as we can whilst we are there.

Please feel free to make comments, we are open to suggestions!
Thank you all

Melly

Its shaping up well. And sounds exciting.

I'm sure you will like Strasbourg, especially hubby, its important that everyone sees the things or places on "their" list. The TGV train trip from Paris to Strasbourg is only 2h 20m and Strasbourg is very easy to get around.

Lucerne is only another 2h 20m trip with a change in Basel.

I would do the train trip from Lucerne to Venice in one go, as breaking it up 1 night along the way will only be wasting the time getting on and off trains and checking into a hotel. Just use the travel day as a rest day and enjoy the scenery. I am not a fan of 1 night stopovers if possible.

You could perhaps do a late afternoon train from Venice to Florence to give you part of the next day in Venice.

Oh course it is always good to have more days in each place but we all need to be rich and have endless holidays.

I think your trip sounds great and you will have a very memorable time. Enjoy!

Thanks so much Aussie_10 and to everyone else for your help.

Looks like we are going to do the trip from Lucerne to Venice in one go.. its approx 7 hours by train.

Itinerary
London - 5 nights
Paris - 4 nights
Paris to Strasbourg day train (TGV)
Strasbourg - 2 nights (hubby is keen on visiting Strasbourg)
Strasbourg to Lucerne day train
Lucerne - 3 nights (do we need 3 nights here?)

From Lucerne we will go to Venice. We leave Lucerne around 8am and get to Venice around 3pm. (Stay in Venice for 3 nights)

Next stop Florence for 3 nights

Then onto Rome for 5 nights before we come home.

We arent too sure if a railpass or point to point tickets would be the way to go. That is the next thing we have to try and get our heads around! (It's really difficult trying to understand all of the passes available!)

melly I'm go glad you are going to stay in Venice for a few nights. I've known a few people who have treated Venice as a day trip and then reported that they hated Venice! Public transport, the vaporetto in Venice is expensive compared to other cities. We bought a 24 hour pass as soon as we arrived and then used it as much as possible, after that we walked. During the 1st 24 hours we caught the ferry to Burano (an outlying island) which we loved. It cut into our day a little, but we really enjoyed it and I would recommend it. You'll need to get moving with hotel bookings though as Venice is popular.

Thanks cathies
We are so excited about our trip.. I know we need to get a wriggle on with hotel bookings!

Thanks for the tip about the 24hour pass

What is ur opinion about rail passes vs point to point?

Melly

If you don't have your Eurostar reservations, get them immediately. No pass will help you there.

For the rest of your travel and if you act promptly, you may be able to get discounted tickets for France and Italy -- at www.voyages-sncf.com and www.trenitalia.it, respectively. The French e-tickets can be printed at home. Don't know about the Italian ones; they're new.

If you find cheap tickets, that will definitely contra-indicate a pass.

I think 3 nights in Lucerne is great. It's the best place to get a snapshot view of Switzerland with daytrips on the lake and into the mountains.