European Trip Info
 

I was just wondering if anyone could offer any suggestions or tips for the trip we are taking to Europe in 4 weeks? Any suggested places to visit, any suggested side trips, any places to soak up some local culture after the exhibits close, any great places to eat, or any local hangouts for a little nightlife.

Our trip is as follows.

5 Days - London
4 Days - Paris
1 Day - Venice
1/2 Day - Florence
1/2 Day - Pisa
4 Days - Rome

We appreciate any info you can supply, this trip has been pretty taxing so far as too all the planning involved.

3 Days - London
4 Days - Paris
2 Days - Venice
2 Days - Florence
Brief stop - Pisa
4 Days - Rome

But seriously, you don't have time for side-trips...you're basically making Venice, Florence and Pisa into 'side trips'. Concentrate on (1) the main highlights of each city and (2) some relaxation/ambiance in each city...like cafe-sitting, park-strolling, back-street wandering...You won't have time to go anywhere else and (a)enjoy it or (b)remember it.

I agree w/ travelnut.

..skip Pisa...relook at all of the places you plan to go. Figure out your priorities..on a travel day you will loose at least 1/2 day. (and the only way to make sure it is only 1/2 day is to leave early in the am or late in the afternoon. I always consider the first day a "write-off" if there has been a long transatlantic night flight. Given this info look carefully at your schedule...IMO anything less than 3 days in any of these big cities doesnt make a lot of sense.

I agaree with Travelnut. There is no sense going to Venice and Florence if you can spend only the amount of time you have planned there - and no sense going to Pisa if it means cutting other places short. Go with Travelnut's proposed itinerary and omit Pisa.

Travel eats up so much time - you would be MUCH better off following travelnut's suggestion -- OR if it were me I'd do London 5 days, Paris 4 days, Venice 2 days, Florence 2 days, and Rome 2 days.

If you aren't already locked into this Itinerary what I'd really do is cut back to 3 cities - London, Paris and Florence w/ a 2 day excursion to Venice.

If you have already booked everything - well - too bad. 1 day and 1/2 day visits are not worth the time/trouble . . . .

Take the last evening train (that arrives before midnight) every time you change cities. You won't even notice the travel time, and you can relax and have dinner en route.

I have heard numerous rationales for traveling first thing in the morning, none of them convincing.

One possible rationale, Robespierre. If you are staying at certain low-moderate-budget lodgings or apartments or B&Bs, many of these do not have reception after 6 PM or 8 PM or so. Thus, arriving late means you have to choose a different lodging option, or switch accommodation the next day. And if something goes wrong, it's much harder to find alternate accommodation late at night than it is during the day when the tourist office is open.

Of course I'd prefer a place with 24-hour reception in the first place, but arriving late does limit your choices.

As others are suggestion I hope you will consider modifying that itinerary:

4 Days - London
4 Days - Paris
3 Day - Venice
0 Day - Florence
0 Day - Pisa
4 Days - Rome

Truly, what is a 1/2 day? Especially when it involves (I assume) a train journey to get there and then depart. You surely don't need any side trips following that outline!

I agree with Suze, Rome is great and you will get a great impression of Italy. Save the other cities for another trip

Honestly it just doesn't make sense what you propose.

I believe you need to sit down and make a list of actual travel times... and don't forget: checking out of hotel, transpo to train station, wait for train, take train journey, transpo to next hotel, wait for room, check in. You really must subtract something from each 24 hours period you're calling a day, for a realistic picture of how this trip is going to go.

As far as all your responses, thank you for all the info. The reason we are only spending one day in Venice, and a half day in Pisa and Florence, is the fact that we don't have a lot we want to see in any of those cities, we have already calculated in the travel times and should allow us plenty of time. There are only 4 places we wanted to visit while in Venice, 2 in Florence, and 2 in Pisa.

Thank you for the advice.

Joe

stop, sit, have a espresso too....

don't run yourself ragged

<the fact that we don't have a lot we want to see in any of those cities>

OK then, but I'm not sure why you're asking for us to suggest places to visit when you have already decided you don't want to see them.

I agree w/ suze, and if you "don't have a lot we want to see in any of those cities" why are you spending the time/money going to them?

It seems you have your minds made up - so just go, enjoy tour trip, and take notes for the next trip when you may actually have time to see things.

Hi, Joe. From a practical standpoint, I also wonder if you might not be better off skipping places that don't have a lot that you want to see. You appear to want to soak up culture, so I would also suggest skipping Venice, Florence, and Pisa and spending more time in the places that you are more interested in. This will give you the opportunity to soak up the culture a bit more in the places where you have an interest.

More cost-effective than all that travel/starting/stopping for a couple of sights.

check out www.dk.com for small, handy Top 10 travel books. Thye've got lots of travel suggestions.

Hi jr,

>...any suggestions or tips for the trip we are taking to Europe in 4 weeks?

Fly into London or Paris and out the other.

8 days Paris with no more than 2 daytrips.

7 days London with no more than 2 daytrips.

((I))