Help planning trip to England, France n Italy.
 

Can user frequent flyer points on Air Canada to get to Europe with my parents. Have never been there and am looking at London, Paris, Rome and Venice.<BR>Any suggestions on the best way to go about planning this - places to see, stay at (fairly cheap) and do. i can get tickets from toronto to london to rome to paris and back. Much appreciated. I was thinking of seeing a travel agent at Thomas Cook but not sure if that's the best approach. Also my parents have Indian passports - any idea on what kind of visas are required.<BR><BR>thanks,

A travel agent may be a good source of information, but I would first have a look at the prices of accommodation available on the internet, so that you have some background information. Try, for instance, expedia.ca and search on your cities and dates. Also, get or borrow guidebooks of the cities, so that you can find the locations of the hotels (and ask or search here about specific hotels when you get that far).<BR><BR>Visas: I would look at the immigration websites of the individual countries, or contact their embassies or consulates in Canada. I think that your parents will need a visa for the UK, but there's more information on www.gov.uk and http://www.ukvisas.gov.uk<BR><BR>Sounds like a great trip! Searching for your planned cities on this site will bring up a wealth of information, and posting specific questions which describe your interests may get more responses.

Since you are going on such a big trip, you might want to first go to a travel agency and get some guides from different tour companies like Trafalgar or AST. Look at their books and get an idea of their sample iteneraries for each city. <BR><BR>Then from there get tour books (like Fodors) and start researching and comparing hotels/activities. <BR><BR>Finally go to the internet and search for these hotels and activities and see about booking online.

Thanks Ruth and Christina for your help. Will look into this.<BR>cheers, sherylann

Hi Sherylann,<BR> How long are you planning to be in Europe.<BR> I think that you would want to spend at least a week in London, Paris and Rome. Venice is worth no fewer than 3 days.

Hi, Went to London and Paris last year. In paris make sure to get the museum pass it will save you time and money. the three day pass is the best. also take those inexpensive double decker tour buses around the city. thay are great for getting you oriented and to the main tourist attractioms. don't miss the palace of versailles in france ( about 30 minutes outside paris) admission is free with your museum pass and you can get there by train. A taxi will cost you about 25 euros($25.00 us dollars) We stayed at a very nice , small hotel in paris called the Splendid Etoile right near the arc de triomphe. it was clean and had wonderful views, the people that worked there couldn't have been nicer. Have fun.

LONDON - the tourist bus was a great way to see all the famous tourist sights and to move around. <BR><BR>PARIS - We stayed at a nice hotel (claude bernard) across the street from the Sorbonne, in the Latin Quarter...it was really nice. We had the 3 day carte de musee et monument...very useful. <BR><BR>If you need a day trip outside Paris, I highly recommend the Chateaux Coiuntry in the Loire Valley..:o)<BR><BR>Good luck!! :o))