gac1yahoo

Hello Group...
I am a first time visitor to Europe and really excited about it. We are landing in Paris and visiting Paris for 3 days. From Paris, we (4 of us) are planning to cover Rome(2 days), Venice(2 days), Pisa and Florence (2 days) in 6 days. Wondering whether I need to make any changes to number of days spent in each location..!!

Also, I have a tentative itenary like below:
Paris->Venice->Rome->Pisa->Florence->Paris

I will be doing the travel in four days. So wondering EurailPass will work..??? I am confused about whether the pass will work in all the trains or not..?

Any help is greatly appreciated...

Also, buying the europass in US is cheaper than buying in Europe..?

MikeBuckley

You mention your plan to "cover" Rome, Florence and Venice in 6 days. If that was anything other than an idle choice of words, be aware that you won't be able to cover more than one of those cities in 6 days. Be prepared that a lot of people in the forum (including me) will advise you to pick fewer cities.

However, considering that this is your first trip to Europe, such a multi-city itinerary could be easily justified IF your idea is to get a flavor of each city for the purpose of determining which of them you will want to devote more time to in the future. Remember that by the time you transfer from your hotel in one city to the hotel in the next city that you will have used up 1/2 day of the 2-day itinerary for each of the Italian cities.

watchmaker

I don't have alot of experience but, I think the Euraillpass would be too much for your travels.

I bought my son a pass a few years back but he was traveling throughout Europe for the summer, so it was worthwhile,

Other's will be able to help you more, maybe tommorrow, with actual times and trains that you will need.

Good luck and have a great trip! I didn't like Florence all that much...but some people love it. i truly enjoyed all the other places you plan to visit.

Intrepid1

You can input your tentative itinerary at www.railpass.com to see if it is more economical to buy passes or point-to-point tickets.

The France-Italy Pass, esp the "saver" version requiring up to 6 to travel together, would be more economical than a regular Eurail Pass.

Unless you are planning to travel on overnight services such as the Paris-Venice and the Rome-Paris night trains you will lose a good deal of travel time getting from one place to another.

Have you considered using cheap airline flights?

Assume you are locked into Paris as a point of entry and departure, otherwise an open jaws itinerary might serve you better.

You can do all of what you plan but you won;t get the "depth" a lot of people on this board apparently feel is ideal.

Personally, I would use Paris as an entry point an go to Italy immediately, or forget Italy and concentrate on France.

Get ready for a LOT of responses to your post.

gac1yahoo

Thanks a lot for your advise. I just want to get a flavor of france and italy. It is more of a sigtseeing than relaxed vacation.

I am planning to take the overnight trains between paris->venice and florence->paris to save time.

The railpass.com is an awesome website, it recommended franceNitaly 4 day pass that I was thinking about.

Also, I am trying to get a flavor of the places to spend more time later.

ira

Hi gac,

>...Paris->Venice->Rome->Pisa->Florence->Paris...<

My suggestion is that you either visit Paris or do Italy. You will go back.

However:
Please look at a map.

Check www.whichbudget.com for flights between Paris and Venice or Rome. They are faster and cheaper.

Train between Venice, Florence and Rome. P-t-p tickets will be cheaper than a railpass.

How important is Pisa? I would prefer spending the time in any of the other cities.

bobthenavigator

You need 3 weeks for your trip. Ira is right. Do not mix Paris with Italy--too far and too little time.

travel04

When I went to Italy last year first time, I really wanted to go both to Amalfi/Naples area and do Northern part of Italy, I had 2 weeks and trust me I had just enough time for northern Italy , the places you want to vist, Rome, Venice, Fl, Pisa, Cinque Terre, Chianti, Sienna..If you really want to experience the place and get a flavor for it, you shld consider just Italy for your first time. I'm a great fan of visiting at least 2 countries at a time, but for Italy it would have been a shame if I had tagged on any other country because there's just too much walking and too many historical/cultural sights to visit. So it was just Italy for two weeks, if you had three weeks it would be puuurfect. My 2 cents.

StCirq

<<Wondering whether I need to make any changes to number of days spent in each location..!!>>

Looks like the main location you'll be spending time in is the train. I agree with ira - you should choose France or Italy for such a short trip. Keep in mind that a first time visitor is inevitably overwhelmed by the newness of the experience. Everything - getting to the train station, reading the signs, checking your maps/guidebooks, making a pit stop, browsing a menu, finding your hotel, trying to communicate with people - takes five times longer than it does in familiar territory. This itinerary will not even give you a "flavor" of each new place because you'll be too bogged down in the logistics. I'd spend five days in Paris and four somewhere in the countryside of France - the Loire, Provence, Normandy, Brittany, Champagne...there are loads of choices.