GlobeTrotter87

Hello everyone!

Firstly, I am new to this site, but I am so happy to have found such a wonderful community. My fiancee and I are getting married end of August and will be traveling from September 1st until September 19th on our Honeymoon. We live and work in NY so that would be our city of departure.

We are thinking about doing Santorini, Rome, Florence and Paris. We have been told that we might be spreading our days too thin. We definitely want to got o Santorini for at least 5 days so we can relax on a beautiful beach after such a hectic year of planning the wedding!

I'd LOVE it if you guys could give me your opinions on these locations and the amount of days they deserve and if I am better of restructuring my itinerary. We are willing to nix Paris if we need to dedicate more days to other locations. We have also heard there might be places in Italy that we are missing out on.

Any suggestions and info would help!

Thank you!

Jean

"We have also heard there might be places in Italy that we are missing out on." Understatement of the day!

Obviously, it all depends on what interests you, but there is a whole country to explore beyond Rome and Florence.

It also depends on how you want to travel on this special trip. Run around trying to see the major sights in limited time (amid crowds everywhere and in possibly hot temps), or go slower under less time pressure, see some smaller, quieter places in addition to big cities.

BTW, there are beautiful beaches in southern Italy too.

travelerjan

Santorini is a wonderful island for the views of the caldera, and that's where all the most attractive places for honeymooners are situated, atop the cliff. However, most swimming on that "sunset" side of the island is in hotel pools (because the cliffside plunges into the sea). The beaches are on the other side of the island, and are not what your mental picture may be -- since it is a volcanic island, beaches are black, small pebbles. You should look at some online albums of Santorini to get the best idea of what you'll see and experience. You may wish to combine a visit to Santorini with another nearby island with the golden-sand beaches you have in mind.

yorkshire

I admit I have a bias for regional travel, meaning that there is some kind of geographic sense to the itinerary, so to speak. Unless it's a backpacking trip, going from city to city, it just does not make sense to me to skip around this way. I am certainly not saying it cannot be done successfully, especially with 19 days, and you have to do what you want, but you are asking for opinions, so that's mine.
I do have one practical reason for this, and that is the time and expense it adds to a trip. (Consider having to pack up and go to a train station or airport multiple times, for example.)
My advice is to scope out the travel required for your initial dream trip, starting with open jaw flights, and then work from there. In your research you are likely to learn about other places you want to visit, and then your trip will start to take shape. One thing I can advise is to make sure you do include a good stretch of relaxation, it can be vital in a long trip like this to recharge.
You are quite lucky to have so much time, and it would be a true luxury to spend in in Italy, Greece, France--or all three if that is what you decide!
Congrats and good luck!

GlobeTrotter87

Thank you so much for all your quick replies!

I think the main thing I am seeing is how we want to do our trip. We really don't want to spend our days running back and forth from one museum to another. We actually want to be very relaxed. With that said, maybe it will be a good idea to not do Paris at all.

We are considering not doing Santorini either and opt for a beautiful beach in Italy. But Santorini is a place my fiancee has always wanted to see. She has barely travelled the world (only Canada, Caribbean and Argentina.) I have travelled all over the world so it's so important for me that she truly get a great experience of wherever we go as it will be a major first for her.

Jean

An article on Italy's beautiful beaches:

http://travel.cnn.com/italys-best-be...islands-091051

GlobeTrotter87

Jean, if you had 18 days in Greece and Italy, how would you plan your trip? I loved your comment about going slower under less time pressure and seeing other places these countries have to offer.

greg

I think whether one runs back and forth is a personality trait and not the characteristics of destinations.
If your key objective is a beautiful beach, you might have to validate your assumptions. Most beautiful beaches in Italy are nowhere near where you are heading. Many are in the South especially in Sicily. As another mentioned, Santorini has pretty Caldera view, but the beaches and the where you can see the Caldera, such as Oia, are far away and a visit to a beach means a full day affair. Even so, the Santorini beaches are so so. The beautiful beaches are on other islands such as Naxos.
Before you drop Greece in favor or Italy, do some fact checking such as weather.
Here is what happened in Florence in September this year:
http://www.accuweather.com/en/it/flo...013&view=table
and here is for Fira, Santorini
http://www.accuweather.com/en/gr/fir...013&view=table
What do you see? It rained more in the area of interest in Italy in September.
In Santorini, an interesting alternative is to do a sailing. I have just done a sunset cruise from Amoudi port below Oia. The boat left around 14:30, visited three beaches for swimming, on board BBQ, and a cruise for to see the sunset. Once on the boat, you could just sit for next five hours. Is this a relaxing thing to do?

Heimdall

Hi Globetrotter,

If your fiancé has always wanted to see Santorini it would be a shame to disappoint her on your honeymoon. While Santorini doesn't have great beaches it has views to die for, and there are nearby islands that do have great beaches. You could go to Santorini for 2-3 days, then move on to a nearby island (e.g. Naxos or Paros) for your relaxing beach holiday.

Naxos, for example, is only about 2 hrs by ferry from Santorini and has many beautiful golden sandy beaches. Paros is 3 hrs by the same ferry, or only 1hr 45min by a large highspeed catamaran, Highspeed 5.

My idea of heaven is the little island of Antiparos, which is 30 minutes from the port on Paros. Antiparos is the perfect place for someone who just wants to relax instead of running around looking in museums and ancient sites. The northern part of the island has many fine shops, restaurants, and tavernas. The southern part of the island, which most people don't see, is mostly luxurious villas, but there is one very special hotel: http://www.dolphinantiparos.gr.

Because Antiparos has the privacy they seek, it is popular with celebrities, including Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson, who own a villa there. Another repeat visitor is http://greece.greekreporter.com/2011...-in-antiparos/. Apologies for the name-dropping. ;-)

bilboburgler

Congrats and welcome to Fodors, I'd focus on one country for this trip to ensure you use the time carefully and maybe only 3 bases with some day trips. Using the train to get around means you get to meet the locals more than driving around in a steel box getting lost in little towns and shouting at maniac drivers.

Santorini, Rome, Florence sounds like a great plan and in Sept the weather will tend to be pleasant rather than blazing.

Adding Greece just seems to me to be a little too much but if you want to keep the pressure off keep more to the south of Italy and drop a Northern Italy city.

bilboburgler

Just a final thought, I like the idea of relaxing and chilling out after the pressue of the wedding but why not try to include something active and romantic that you will remember forever, maybe a cooking course or a jewelry course (make rings for each other) glass blowing course. Just something special that you would not normally do but has a "hook" . I just combined a wedding with a honeymoon and that concept was very important for us.

Heimdall

Bilboburgler, the OP wrote: "We definitely want to go to Santorini for at least 5 days..." And then: "But Santorini is a place my fiancee has always wanted to see." That wouldn't be "adding Greece", would it? ;-)

September is a wonderful time to visit Greece, and there are many things to see on the mainland as well: mountains, beautiful beaches, charming seaside villages, and yes, some ancient sites. GlobeTrotter, if you really want to visit Greece don't let anyone talk you out of it, but perhaps you could consider adding Italy.

Jean

GlobeTrotter87, every time we visit a new place we wish we had more time there. When we were younger (closer to your age), we used to have a 3-day minimum rule. Four nights in a place gave us three days and that should/would be "enough." Then, the more we traveled, it became a 4-day minimum rule. I think we've now graduated to a 5-day minimum rule...

Some place have loads of day trip options and/or an enormous amount of historical/artistic/gastronomic/scenic sightseeing, and you really need many days to enjoy where you are and the surrounding area. (IMO, most of Italy falls into one or the other or both of these categories.) Other places are chosen for a specific purpose, like fulfilling a dream, skiing, or relaxing on a beach or at a country villa.

No one can make the tough choices but you and your wife-to-be. IMO, the only mistake you can make is to stuff too much into the time you have.

Lastly, just so you know, September is still very much high season in many places in Europe. We just returned from France, and although the small towns we visited were lovely, Paris in the last week of October(!) was packed. Thank goodness we had seen all of the main sights on previous trips, or I think I would have gone crazy.

Mimar

No mention of Venice, to my mind the world's most romantic city. It's still crowded during the days in September but wonderful in the evenings and mornings--if you stay in Venice proper (not Mestre or the Lido). Though if you really want a beach, you could go over to the Lido for a day.

Whereas Florence is more of a town for people interested in Renaissance art and architecture, museum-goers and church sightseers.

If your fiancee wants to go to Santorini, go to Santorini and stay in Oia. Relax beside a pool overlooking the caldera.

There's a conflict between wanting to lay on a beach and having a romantic European honeymoon/tour. Other places in the world have better beaches: the Caribbean, Hawaii, the South Pacific and Southeast Asia. If you want to take it easy but also go to Europe -- as your fiancee prefers -- don't rush from one spot to another. Make fewer stops and take your time.

Sounds like you expect to be tired after the wedding. Add in jet-lag and sleepiness after an overnight flight and you'll really be tired for the first few days. Allow time for this. Personally I prefer to be in a city when getting over jet-lag. There's lots of options day and night, and you can always drop back to the hotel for a nap.

dulciusexasperis

I would agree with the general consensus that your intitial plan has a lot of moving around over relatively large distances and is not what most would consider best use of your time.

You really are going to have to make some firm decisions. If the objective is to relax than don't move so much. If Santorini is a must for your fiancee then include it and plan around that.

Most N. Americans tend to think of 'Europe' as if it were one country. But of course it is not, it is many countries and any one of them has as much of interest as your home country.

The desire to 'see Europe' while understandable, simply isn't practical in anything less than a few years. To expect to see much of anything in a few weeks simply isn't going to happen.

So I suggest changing your thinking. Decide which country you wish to visit. One country. While it is possible to visit several countries in a couple of weeks, that only really works if you visit adjacent countries and stay within a small area distance wise. So for example, France, Switzerland and Italy are easily combined without ever having to move more than a relatively short distance. But Greece is just a 'bridge too far'.

You have from the 1st to the 19th you say. If you leave on the 1st that means you arrive on the 2nd. you will be jet-lagged which means the 2nd is basically a write off. If your return flight is on the 19th then you have the 3rd through the 18th available to you. That's only 16 days.

I agree with Jean, you should consider a minimum rule. Many people use the rule Jean first mentions. Spend 3 full days in a place and count the travel day between places separately which means you must stay 4 nights in any given place. By that count you can visit a maximum of 4 places in the time you have available.

The closer together they are the better. Moving costs time and money. It also defeats the purpose if you say you will spend 5 nights in one place and only 3 in another. You are then breaking the rule of at least 3 full days.

To me the crux of the issue is whether you include Santorini or not. If you do I would probably opt to visit GREECE, not Europe (see the difference in thinking?).

If you leave out Santorini then I would only combine France and Italy perhaps with your 16 days being divided between, Paris, Rome and Florence if those are the places that interest you most. I'd forget trying to add a beach personally.

Adding a beach is another crux of the issue. Is it a city holiday or a beach holiday? Trying to combine the two again makes it more difficult for you.

Do Santorini and some other Greek islands if you want a beach holiday. Do a few cities if that is of more interest.

PetrosB3

First of all, Europe is not like USA. Countries are not states, a trip in France Italy and Greece is not like a trip in New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia. The Language the Religion and the Culture may be totally different in 2 neighboring countries. So a good advice is to concentrate in just 2 countries, for example Italy and Greece or Greece and Turkey.