My partner and I are travelling to Europe for the first time in 2 weeks and I am struggling to finalise an itinerary because there are so many options available (I know it's late, we spontaneously decided a couple of weeks ago that we were going). At this stage, the only details I have confirmed are: land in London (we have friends there), go to Munich for Oktoberfest for 3 days/2 nights and then I'm stuck.... My plans are from Munich, go to Italy for 6-7 days and then to France for 4-5 days.. and then we go back to London. In Italy we would like to go to Rome, Florence and Venice and we will be taking the trains within Italy. In France we definitely want to go to Paris, and any other place would not be necessary, but a bonus.
- What would be the best mode of transport (fly or train) between countries? I have been looking at flying from Munich to Rome, travel by train up to Venice, and then fly over directly to Paris or train over to Lyon or Nice (if we can add another destination in France).
- What other destinations in France is a 'must see'?
- Any chance we can fit Milan in this trip?
We are extremely flexible with days, can add on a couple more days to the plan if necessary. We're in our late 20's and pretty easy going with what we want to see - countryside, museums, beaches, mountains, landmarks etc. Obviously, the cheaper the better however we are willing to spend more if it means we have a better experience.
I know it's a lot planning before we go (we fly out on 25th September) and I'm probably trying to cram way too much in, so any help would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers
Tara

Eliminating either Munich or Paris would make this more workable.

You need to consider the time chewed up in getting from one place to the other vs. the time you actually have to enjoy each destination. Plot it out.

Train schedules and flight information:

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

http://www.skyscanner.com/

Hi RonZ, thanks for the reply. Munich has already been booked and confirmed and we really want to go to Paris. I just re-read my post and it probably wasn't too clear.

We are actually in Europe for 1 month and I've set aside 12-14 days for Italy and France alone. The rest of the time we will be in London and Munich. Do you think I need to allocate more time for Italy and France?

I didn't realize you had a whole month.

There is an overnight train from Venice to Paris that would save you a travel day and a hotel. You could spend four days or so there, then the Eurostar to London flying out the next day.

If perchance you ended up in Pisa [overnight at the Hotel Bologna], you could catch the Easyjet flight to Paris the next afternoon. Florence to Paris is a nice train trip, changing in Torino.

Adding more places in France, again you need to factor the percentage of travel time.

If you have, say, 13 nights for France and Italy and given the places you've said you're interested in, then I suggest:

Train Munich to Venice (7-8 hours)
Venice (3 nights)
Florence (2 nights)
Rome (3 nights)
Fly to Paris
Paris (5 nights)

From Paris you could do a day trip if you want.

Have fun!