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Great. I appreciate all of the above.

I have decided to not do a tour and stick with Vencie and Rome in the 10 days that I have. However, just came accross this with Windstar :

Found a sailing on the Wind Surf for 05/11 which will go from Venice to Rome

05/11 Venice
05/12 Rovinj Croatia
05/13 Split Croatia
05/14 Dubrovnik Croatia
05/15 Kotor Montenegr
05/16 Sea Day
05/17 Messina Italy
05/18 Rome Italy

This will also include 2 nights post Hotel Stay in Rome as well.


Will the above give me above time to really see Italy? I know that Windstar has a good reputation but it ahs to be the right fit.

Thanks much everyone,
S

You will not see much of Italy---no cruise can do that--but it sure is a great trip. I have done all of those destinations and it is all good.

There are 2 kinds of people in the world of travel:

Those who take organized tours and cruises

and

Those who do not.

This message board is frequented by very, very few people who ever take cruises and pre-packaged tours. They have pre-decided it would be terrible, but they have actually never done it, so you will get very little in the way of informed responses here, based on 1st hand experience. You might get a few -- but given the costs of travel and the desire to make the right choice -- just a few responses might not be enough.

For a wider range of opinions based on real personal experience, try asking your questions on Cruise Critic and Tripadvisor as well.

Thank you

i had to check what 5/11 meant - i thought for a minute that you were thinking about doing this cruise in November!

by all means check it out, but it only gives you 1 day in Venice, unless you book yourself a few days before hand. in these days of huge cruise ships, the very best time to be in Venice is when the cruise ships have gone; if you are there with a cruise you are by definition unable to do that.

and one day for Dubrovnik isn't long either.

"... the very best time to be in Venice is when the cruise ships have gone..."

Ditto that for Dubrovnik. I really disliked the town during the day when it was inundated with cruise passengers, although my experience was in late September. I presume it would be the same in May.

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/just...b_5558230.html

:) great feedback. will most likely pla my ow trip fot Rome and Venice. Will just have to figre out transportation...

cheers

I just noticed that there are no none-stop flighst from Seattle to Italy. I was wondering how to make the flight shorter and more pleasant.

So far I have come up with some options:

1. none stop to Paris but I just visited there last year
2. fly from LAX, I do not have a reason to stay in La

In other suggestions apprecaited

S

I highly recommend a nonstop to Europe from Seattle
1) you have a better shot of sleeping
2) LA customs is horrible coming home. Actually it is horrible going through any US customs except for your own city.

I bet either Alitalia or Air France have a nonstop to Venice from Paris. Either get a connection the same day, or spend the night at the Novotel (our favorite airport chain) and take a train into Paris if you want to venture there. Otherwise you can veg out, sleep and read your Venice Rick Steve guidebook.

In May we got one flight SF-Paris round trip, another Paris-Genoa round trip. We got economy plus seats on the long flight, had exit row seats for only the two of us. It was great...and I don't even like United (though it is where I have my miles). It was only $100 more than the other alternative. We spent a week in Paris on the way, a night there on the way back. I have also flown SF-Paris-Genoa all in one day after my mother-in-law died. Also that was OK.

You could also consider Seattle-Frankfort if there is a nonstop or Seattle-Munich. Lufthansa has many flights into Italian cities. We often stay overnight in Munich before flying on to Genoa. If your stay is less than 24 hours it still counts as one flight and one cost.

In my book, it is never too soon to smile at Paris. :) What about trying to get to Venice ASAP and trying to arrange as close as you can to 23 hours when you go Rome-Paris-Seattle?

"LA customs is horrible coming home."

In late October this year, flying to LAX from Paris and arriving on a Friday afternoon, the elapsed time from us deplaning to getting into a taxi was 30 minutes. I don't think it can get much faster than that.

For those unaware, there are now self-service kiosks at LAX (lots of them) to deal with the first step. People traveling together check in at one machine.