First trip to Europe
 

Looking for help in planning a trip for 3 who <BR>each want to see a different country. Spain, Italy, and France. Is this feasible? Should we be concerned with any language problems? What is the time frame travel by train from one country to the other? Just looking to get a taste of each country and it's culture. Any suggestions are appreciated. Thanks.

We just got back from a whirlwind trip around Europe. Two weeks by train in Germany, Italy and France. It was the first trip overseas for three of the people in our group. I'd been overseas three other times and would have preferred a milder itinerary but, knowing this might be the only trip abroad for the others, developed an aggressive (and enjoyable) itinerary. <BR>That said, I would recommend sticking to Italy and France or just seeing Spain and Portugal (with a night in Gilbraltor and maybe an overnight trip to Moracco). Don't worry about language problems. Folks overseas speak English better than we do, in many cases. You might look into an open-jaw ticket that allows you to fly into, say, Paris and out of Rome. We traveled on overnight trains which maximized our sightseeing time. There are lots of great suggestions of places to see in all three countries on this board. If you wanna do the biggies I guarantee you won't be disappointed (Paris, Venice, Florence, Rome with side trips to Sienna, etc.) Late in our trip, we worked from a locker in Munich and did a series of day trips to smaller cities in the vicinity which allowed us to get by with small packs. My advice for getting a true taste of the culture: <BR>1.) Plan to eat several meals a day. Ask locals about the good restaurants. Let them know you are looking for places frequented by locals. (I can give you the names of a few places we enjoyed in Venice, Florence and Rome.) <BR>2.) Don't try to see it all. We did city tours by bus in Rome and Paris at the beginning of our stays. That gave us a sense of where things were at and provided us with some local history and the fun facts that help bring a place to life. Then we returned to places that interested us for longer visits (The Louvre, for instance). <BR>3.) Even with millions of tourists a year, people everywhere seemed to be anxious to share a glass of wine and practice their English. Take advantage of small pubs, etc. and strike up conversations. <BR>4.) As others have said: never pass up a clean toilet in Europe. <BR>Have a great trip.

Sandy, <BR> <BR>Since there are three people who each want to see a different country, why not have each person plan a part of the trip concentrating on their interest? Each could learn a bit of the language--enough to order in restaurants, ask directions to the station, make hotel reservations etc. Of course the trip is feasible, it just depends on what you want to do, how much money you want to spend and how much time you have (also how well you get along). By defining what each of you mean by "get a taste of each country and it's culture" you will certainly focus your plans. Good luck

Anything's feasible if you have the time, and given these countries border each other, it's a lot more feasible than some other itineraries. You could easily do this in a 10-14 days if you only spend a couple days in a few major cities, and move along the Mediterranean coast more or less, like from Barcelona to some city in Provence (Avignon, Aix, etc) or Nice in France, then to Florence or Siena or the Liguria area in NW Italy. It will be about a full day's train trip (7-8 hrs) between these major points (ie, from Barcelona to Marseille or Nice to Florence; Marseille to Nice to about 5 hrs I think, so maybe 6-7 hrs if you went to Avignon, Arles or Aix to stay, which would be preferable to Marseille). Nice is a beautiful city and fun for a few days but not what I think of as typically French in many ways so I don't think you'd get a real good sense of French culture that way, exactly--just about any smaller town in that area might be better for that, say Aix-en-Provence or Avignon or even Arles, although Arles isn't real typical, either. I guess to me more typically French would be a place not so dependent on tourism, like Lyon--not that I'd suggest you go there, I probably would suggest Aix in the coastal area as a good stopover and a nice French small city with a life of its own. It really depends on your interests. Nice is a major city in its own right but very different given its location and long history as a resort city. If you stick to main cities such as the ones I've mentioned, I wouldn't worry a lot about language problems as they are used to tourists around there in these larger cities so you'll get by okay.

I sort of have the same problem, but with a much bigger group. I have a group of 10 friends/family that will be traveling to Europe for 3 wks in July. <BR> <BR>I put together a "research sheet" for everyone of things to research that included things to see, places to eat, things to do, nightlife, etc. Everyone came back really excited and with better knowledge of Europe and their selected city. They also learned that a hectic city-to-city tour would be very draining. Rather than see several cities , we opted to spend 4-5 days in key cities to get a "feel" for the area. Our choices; London, Paris, Barcelona, Rome (one-night stops in Venice & Florence), and finally Greece. In Greece we've chartered a private yacht. - We seem pretty happy with this. <BR> <BR>I know this is long, but one last suggestion. Check out the www.europebyair.com website. They have "inter-continental" flights between certain pairings of cities for $99 one-way. For example: Barcelona-Rome, Rome-Venice, Venice-Paris, etc. which might be a cheaper/faster solution than the train. Well, we're continuing with our research, if I can be of assistance, drop me an email.