Hello Everyone! You are all so helpful.. I thought i would post my travel plans so you can give me any good advice for a European Virgin... I KNOW I AM SQUEEZING IN A LOT OF PLACES IN A SMALL AMOUNT OF TIME BUT I DID THIS INTENTIALLY SO I COULD DABBLE ALL AROUND EUROPE...

I am going with a friend for 12 days.
We Will Be Spending 2 Days and 2 Nights In The Following..(We Leave Jan 13 from LAX)

Paris to
Nice to
Florence (with a 1/2 day stop in venice)to
Rome to
Zurich..

Like i said i know im not going to have much time in each place, but hopefully enough time to see each places main highlights.. If anyone has any good travel advice, or MUST SEES when im in any of these places please respond! Thanks For All Your HELP!
ERIC

You already know you are sorta nuts.

To improve this, I would propose fly om volareweb from Paris to Venice. Eliminate Zurich. Fly home from nice if you want to leave it in. Otherwise fly home from Italy.

Best wishes,

Rex

I'm not sure how you will see more than the airports. Or did you mean you're spending 2 days and 2 nights in each place?

OH! OK I lost the first part about 12 days. Sorry. Nice in January isn't particularly grand -- I've not been there myself, but I think visions of the French Riveria usually involve beach scenes with topless cuties, and that you won't get in January. I'd do 3 days (you will arrive early on the first day and by 5PM you'll be very jet-lagged), drop Nice, 2 days/nights in Florence 1 day/night in Venice, 3 days 3 nights in Rome and forget Zurich. OR go from Florence to Rome to Venice to Zurich. (I think that works better geographically) How are you getting from place to place, flying? trains? are you including the time traveling will eat up? You will have a grand time, even if it is exhausting. Enjoy.

hi airo,

You are making the usual mistake of the first-time visitor, assuming that you will never return.

First off, you will be spending a lot of yor time packing and unpacking. That does not make for pleasant travel.

If you are only going to Florence for two days, there is no sense going to Venice for one of those days.

I suggest that you fly into Paris for a week. Then fly Volare to Venice (or Rome) (See www.volareweb.com) and return home from there.

I don't normally try to discourage people from whirlwind trips too much because sometimes that isn't so bad. However, I completely agree about dropping Nice because of the season and Zurich because it just isn't worth losing time at the much more interesting places. Even with the trip you are planning, I would suggest picking no more than three destinations. However, since you are leaving January 13, it may be too late to change some of your plans. Try to give at least three days to Paris and three to Rome, but either really deserves much more time. There is just so much to see and do in both. Personally on such a trip I would give Venice two days and Florence one day, or vice versa if you really love art. A half day is not going to allow you to enjoy Venice at all. Flying from France to Italy sounds like a great idea too; otherwise, you are in for a long train ride and perhaps lost sightseeing time.

Your itinerary looks like Clark Griswold's European vacation.

Assume each location change costs you one day(check out, travel, check in, snafus). You will consume half your time managing transportation. Plus you need one jet lag recovery day.

Venice is charming, and you will kick yourself for spending only 1/2 day.

You should drop some destinations to smell the roses. You will be lucky to fit in Paris, Florence, Venice and Rome.

I agree with everyone else's comments.

You probably have no clue, as a first-time visitor to Europe, how much time is going to end up being devoted to things like figuring out how to get out of the airport, reading the signs and navigating around (in train stations, on the street, etc.), what you want to eat because you can't read the menu, dealing with a foreign currency, communicating with people about normally simple things like buying a ticket or getting directions or making a purchase in a store. Everything will take twice as long as it does at home where you know your way around and can speak the language. You will get lost, you will be confused, you will make mistakes.

All this means is that your actual time BEING places and SEEING and DOING things will be curtailed. So don't start by cramming too much in because your disappointments will be that much greater.

That said, if you're young and energetic, you'll survive a trip like this relatively well.

Oh, and a good guidebook, read in advance and brought along on the trip, can make things go a lot more smoothly.

I'm not going to try to talk you out of your plans - you stated that you knew you were jamming in tons of stuff but you wanted to do it. So, what I would do is make sure you leave home with a very GOOD map of each city you are visiting. I would try to buy the "streetwise maps" as they are very complete. Also, Paris has a hop on, hop off bus tour, and I would think other cities would have something similar. You might think these are too touristy, but it is a great way to get an overview of the city, then you can go back to places that are of interest to you. I would also advise that you read and bring some very good guidebooks with you (like ?Eyewitness?), and have a loose itinerary for each day. Not that you want to plan every second, but it would be a shame if you just happened to decide to go the Louvre the day it is closed, and then wasted even more time figuring out what to do instead. Know what is open when, and maybe have a few dining suggestions for each city "in your back pocket" incase you don't just happen to find something while touring, this way you won't wander around shopping for a café, etc. Don't get me wrong, wandering and exploring is great, you just don't have a lot of time to do it! You have a packed itinerary, and you know it; so make the most of it.

My reaction is why go in the first place.
You will spend so little time in most of them that the majority of the real highlights will not be seen, or the visit will be so cursory as to be essentially useless.
I don't get the logic. You sound like my father. Ok everybody back in the car. We can look at the pictures after we get home. One problem, he had no camera.
The success of the trip was measured in miles per day, total miles, miles per gallon of gasoline, and the cheapness of the motels.

Paris-Florence-Rome. Sounds like a great 12 day trip in January. Why go to the French Riviera or Zurich in January, when the weather will be A) awful for the beach and B) cold as hell in Zurich. Not to mention that neither Nice nor Zurich are known as being all that interesting, especially in comparison to amazing stops like the other 3 you are planning.

Oh and if you only plan on staying 2 days in Paris (assuming you arrive there), well that first day and a lot of the second will be spent in a jetlag haze. You won't really see or do much, especially in that first day. You'll be totally exhausted, in a locale you don't know, and hearing a language you don't understand. Do yourself a favor, stay 4 nights in Paris.

Dabble will be replaced with babble after all that transit time.

I hope you see how bad this plan is and make changes instead of blindly pressing ahead.

And please don't tell anyone that people on the forum helped you come up with something like this.

Thank you all for your insight... Those of you who gave me honest opinions and were polite about them thanks! Those of you who tried to be rude and disrespectful get a life.
I am trying to change my plans and cut out nice and add those days to paris ... i want to see zurich, and i know it will be cold but i would really enjoy getting a taste of swiss. thanks everyone!

I agree that a bit of Switzerland is beautiful.

However, I'm not sure I would chose Zurich.

Bern, Interlaken and the mountains there might be more of what you want.

Looks like all the HELPFUL advice failed to sink in. I think you posted this to show people how smart you thought you were and it didn't turn out the way you expected.

First of all i was posting to have peoples insights about my travel plans... not to be told .. in so many words... that im stupid and that i dont know what im doing... i mean i know that im kinda going into this blindly, but i have never been to europe before and am unsure of the actual time it takes to sightsee, etc... i wasnt trying to show people "how smart I am" if i tried to do that i would mention that i have a 3.75 GPA and a 168 on the LSATS thanks..

Again, Thanks to everyone who helped me out with their insights they really came in handy !

Right, and lots of people who do know how long it takes to sightsee, etc., have given you their advice, which you appear to be ignoring, which begs the question of why you asked in the first place. Oh well.

Zurich, by the way, is my idea of a BAD taste of Swiss, but do feel free to ignore me.

Hi airo,

After you have revised your plans, let us help you tweak them, offer advice on accomodations, etc.