I'm looking for some help. My husband and I are planning a trip to Europe in June to celebrate my 50th birthday and our 5 year wedding anniversary. I am overwhelmed with information. We are NOT "group" tour type people. My first thought was a cruise but that leaves limited time to explore new places. Our second thought was a few days in London, train to Paris, drive to Rome and then possibly relax on a cruise for a few days. Although everything I read about driving from Paris to Rome looks extremely expensive and difficult. Could someone suggest a reputable travel agent with experience in European travel planning? We also have lots of frequent flier miles and hotel rewards points so I am looking for someone who can help us get the "biggest bang for our buck". I should also mention that we like warm weather, beaches, etc. Any help would be appreciated.

Hi lauralee - first of all, welcome to Fodors! you've come to the right place as most of us are not "group" people either and I hope that you find lots of help with your trip planning.

secondly, thanks for giving us so much information about yourselves and what you hope to get out of your trip - it makes coming up with ideas so much easier.

my main comment would be - why do you need a travel agent? you've got lots of FF miles so your flights should be relatively easy to book, and hotel points too. with websites such as TA and booking.com, not to mention the suggestions you will find here, there is little that an agent can do that you can't do yourself, and do better. BTW do you know about open jaw [multi-city] flights? into one place, out of another. Shouldn't cost [much] more than a round trip ticket.

as for travel from Paris to Rome, why are you thinking of driving? the train [or plane] would be much better options.

Still a few questions - how long have you got for the trip, where are you coming from, and apart from London, Paris and Rome, where else do you have in mind? and does the trip HAVE to include a beach?

You really don;t want a travel agent.

First - they won;t deal with hotels on points - since they won;t get a commission on them.

Second they typically only deal with full price and/or more upscale places that do give commissions - they usually don;t handle more modest hotels.

Finally, many travel agents haven't traveled enough in europe to be able to give you useful advice. You would have to search to find one that had done substantial travel in the places you want to go. (I once tried to use a travel agent to book flight including St Pet and she insisted the only one was in FL - had never heard of the one in Russia. She was just focused on selling Disney and carib packages.)

You really need to organize any hotels on points yourselves.

As for the rest of your trip it is very basic - driving (or training or flying) from Paris to Rome is very easy. (Even though we have done MANY road trips in europe we do so only when spending substantial time in the countryside/small towns - going from one large city to another train or plane is a much better choice).

If you have the time to spend a week or more to drive from Paris to Rome we can help you decide the best route and sights along the way - and it's really easy, not difficult.

Thank you everyone for the help so far. In reply to annhig, we are planning about 2-2 1/2 weeks. We don't necessarily need a beach we just thought after 7-10 days of running through cities and taking in the sights, it might be nice to relax for a few days before we head back to the reality of life.
I also just found a website http://europeandestinations.com/which seems helpful in plotting a course. Any experience with them anyone?

Do you have enough FF miles for your tickets? June is the high season so expect to pay on the high end of redemption chart.

I looked at the site you mentioned. I wouldn't advise using it. You are better off grabbing some guide books then asking here for lodging recommendations.

What everyone else has said--you can definitely do it yourself.
Beaches in Europe are just not as inviting as ours here so I'd just stick Stateside for that.
2.5 weeks will fly by, and you will have enough time to relax IN your destination cities to enjoy the real ambience of those places. And in actuality, you don't really have time for the cruise at the end!! ;o)
Rome is not my favorite place--it is spread out and while historic (an understatement) I don't find it relaxing.
You should also see if you can arrange an open jaw flight--and as others have said, points and miles this close may be difficult to redeem in high season.
London, Paris, fly to Rome, if that is your decision. You could also take the TGV from paris to the south of France, enjoy a rural/rustic trip through Provence and leave from Nice or Marseilles--or a train back to CDG to leave from Paris.
5 days in London (you'll have jet lag the first day so it is a settling in time), 5-6 days in paris (you'll just be mesmerized by it beauty and flow), and 3 hours to Avignon for provence for the remainder of your time. You can see how the time gets eaten up. Of course, you may choose differently, but just wanted to start you off.

I think the Michelin Green Guides give you the most complete information on cities and areas (provence, for example).
And in Provence you'll want to rent a car, which is easily done. the other cities you don't want a car, of course.

The biggest pitfall you need to avoid is having the time it takes to relocate from one place to another overwhelm the time remaining to see things and enjoy yourself. That's the standard to employ when considering how many destinations and how much time in each.

If the travel route is spread out, consider flying open jaw.

Quick train schedules here:

http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en?

Laura - in 2 1/2 weeks you have a little more flexibility I believe, and could definitely get to see some coastline even if not a beach as such.

in 18 days or so, you probably have time to see 5 places at a reasonable pace, taking account on the time that it can take to get from one place to another, as RonZ says. [reckon on 1/2 a day minimum every time you move]. another consideration is whether you want to mix up your trip with different experiences - moving from city to city can make it very difficult to remember what you have seen where, believe me.

just a thought, but using the 3 major cities you talked about in your first post, you could think about this sort of trip:

London - Paris - Nice - Rome - Venice.

OR

London - Paris - Rome - Amalfi coast.

OR

London - Paris - Swiss alps - Venice - Rome.

Perhaps the naxt step would be look at some guide books and TV/online programmes to get a better idea of where you really want to go.

Isn't trip planning fun, Lauralee?

I suggest heading to your local public library and browsing through/checking out a stack of colorful travel books. From there you can decide what really appeals to the both of you.

My husband and I use points for both air and hotels. For best results, we typically book our air 8 or 10 months in advance -- so don't wait too long to book!

We've used Holiday Inn points to stay in hotels that we'd never be able to afford in Rome (Intercontinental de la Ville) and Paris (IC Opera). But "free" hotel rooms are worthless if they are outside of the city center. Don't make our rookie mistake and book free nights too far from your desired location. Sometimes free is just a waste of time and money.

Here's my two-cents: I loved Rome! I found it to be very walkable and to me, that's what makes a city vacation relaxing. (I'm a country girl and find using anything other than my feet to navigate a city somewhat stressful.)

I've tried to build in "beach time" to our European vacations three times -- and the weather failed us two out of three times! (One of those times was in the south of France in June. It was way too chilly and windy!)

Enjoy!

June is a great time to go as it is before the main holidays in Europe and yet warm enough if not hot in most places. You have enough time for say 4 to 5 stops. With two of you the train or the plane will be the best way to get around city to city though that does not stop you hiring a car locally for the odd drive into the country. London and Paris are especially worth some time. Beach time is good in Italy and you might be interested in both Venice itself for a few days and hang out on the sea-side of Venice (very different holidays) but can be done close too each other.

Good advice above

There are a zillion possible itineraries here. Here's an idea for 18 days, fly open jaw Rome/Paris.

I put Paris last, because in my opinion you could have a more leisurely time there than in Rome.

See my train link above.

Four nights in Rome.

Train to Orvieto and rent a car for three days [Autoeurope, the toll free number]. Store your luggage in the car, take the funicular up to town, maybe have lunch. Then explore Tuscany
[maybe one town as a base that is easy to drive in and out of, or a hotel out in the countryside] and drop the car at the Florence airport. Cab to town €24.

Four in Florence, train to Venice, three there.

Easyjet to Paris for four nights and fly out.

Trains in Italy you can pre book up to four months in advance on Trenitalia, using the italian names for the cities.

I think your assumption is:
city = running around = not relaxing
beach = relaxing
cruise = relaxing
Have you perhaps thought if how you spend time that determines if it is relaxing?
If you just sit a cafe in Rome watching the life goes by, is it not relaxing? Is it different from sitting at a beach watching waves come and go?
Also while the cruise ads might want to show cruising as relaxing, the shore activities can be anything but that. I see people with so-and-so Cruise name tag huffing and puffing to the Riomaggiore boat dock. I have seen families going frantic trying to find a taxi at Pisa to get back to the cruise boat at Livorno. I have seen cruise people having to hurry up finishing lunch at Orvieto to get back to the boat.
I have used travel agents -- 20 years ago. Now they are only interested in selling prepackaged off-the-self trips. If I dare ask for a custom trip, they would put in minimum effort after taking care of all important prepackaged trip customers. For a trip to Europe, you can easily do better than the average travel agents.

Count me in on the advice that you do not need a travel agent; we have been to Europe 12 times with only two tours -- one a Baltic cruise and another just because it was a great deal for 17-day-Italy. We have rented cars a few times, but by far, train travel on the Continent is the way to go, so relaxing. I would not combine top Europe destinations with beach vacations, there are other times/places for them. I would suggest to do perhaps 3-4 nts in London, 5 nights in Paris, 3-4 Rome, 3 in Venice and 3 in Como, returning from Milan. With 5 nights in Paris you can do a 'day in the country'-- perhaps Barbizon, Versailles, Seaux, Giverny, Auvers-sur-Oise, etc., all via train from Paris. While the Amalfi Coast is awesome, it is not as accessible to/fro other cities (unless you Fodorites can find me wrong). Transport from Paris-Rome-Venice is abundant; then a train thru Milan to Varenna to Bellagio (gets my vote for Como) is easy; you return to Milan and fly home from there. ISwiss Alps might well still be 'muddy' in June, last year they surely were, I'd stick to 3 countries max. Decide your dates and your cities of arrival/departure first, you have some months to tweak. Lots of sources right here. There is also the option to fly from London-Paris-Rome, our last Paris & Rome were only those two cities and we flew on RyanAir. You would lose a full day via train in these segments, but hey, great time for napping! To save money, look into American chains that are owned/operated independently in Europe, prices are good. That's how we afforded 10 days in Switzerland in September! Have fun planning, but do your research to see where your interests lie to allocate proper timing. (Paris needs the most time, but I'm prejudiced.....)