Hi there!
My wife and I are planning a trip for 7 nights in late March/early April to coincide with Holy Week. We are flying into Rome on Monday and leaving from Zurich the following Monday.
We are thinking of working our way north from Rome, and making a couple of stops along the way. We are currently thinking about, Pisa, Cinque Terra, Swiss Alps but we would also like to see Pompeii as well (out of the way South). We are open to other areas and would like to mix city with quaint towns.

We have been to Europe before and have both been to Florence and Venice so those have less pull at this point. We are going to be on a budget so would like to keep our hotel rooms between $50-100 if possible.

Can you recommend an itinerary for an active, young couple, possibly taking advantage of cool festivals or celebrations during Holy Week?

Thanks!

I can't help here with tips but this is peak season and countries most probably have school holidays. I think you might have to adjust your budget or get less value for money due to peak season rates.

Good luck and Happy travels.

SV

Thanks, for the feedback. Unfortunately we can't change our dates as it's my wife's spring break (she's a teacher) but we could adjust our budget some and realize we won't get top value. We've also already booked the flights.

We hope it's worth it to experience some of the festivities of Holy Week in Europe. A quick search on kayak found some hotels in Rome for around $60 although Lucerne and Zurich seem to be more expensive ($100+). Any other feedback would be appreciated.

If your budget is so tight you're better off not moving around so much - which can eat up both time and money. Ordinarily i would suggest checking out some of the convents for super budget lodging with shared bath - but I don;t think that would work this week. Have you looked at hostels (I don;t think you'll get 2 beds even in a shared dorm room for $50. You may have to stay outside the center and travel back and forth. And Switzerland will be even more expensive than Rome. Last time I was in Basel a VERY simple single room in a basic hotel by the station was almost $350 per night.

We are willing to spend more on some nights, than others. I'm assuming Switzerland will be more expensive. We are flexible with our budget but want to make sure spend on the lower end of what's possible. Would Lucerne be a good taste of Switzerland if we did that for 2 nights? There are cheap flights to CH from Rome but I hear the train ride through the Alps is great so I don't want to cut that.

I agree that we don't want to move a ton so for now our main destinations are Rome and somewhere in Switzerland. I figured one place on the way up so that the travel isn't so long.

Hey, I was just searching for something on this site and saw your post. Just as an advice, the distance between Rome and Zurich is around 900km which is around 600miles more or less. To cover it in 8 days is going to be rather hard if you also want to see so many places. I'd choose the itinerary according to what are the most important places that you'd like to see and also according to the train schedules. Not to forget that in Italy there are very often strikes of public transportation which are also sometimes connected together with holiday periods... Regarding hotels i'd suggest looking at www.accorhotels.com
You'd be surprised at what prices you might find for an online booking and the hotels are Novotel, Ibis and others. They are very clean, very well maintained and are really worth the money. Last summer when I was travelling from my home in Zurich to Spain, I booked in the morning a hotel in Southern France which was a Novotel and it was 56 Euros for a double bed room.
Train schedule in Italy can be found on: www.trenitalia.it with the option for English language
Trains in Switzerland are at www.sbb.ch
Trains in CH are very expensive if you don't have a local discount card but have a look (also available in English) for click&rail Europe or click&rail Schweiz
sometimes you can get a ticket from Lugano (southern city in CH) to Zurich for 9CHF (more or less 9$ one way pp)
Another option to stay in switzerland is in so to say holiday homes which in German are Ferienwohnung and they are usually much cheaper per night. The costs are usually around 40-60$ per night. Just look for ferienwohnung on google and you should see some info (some sites have English as well)
But as I stated at the beginning, i'd better choose less cities but see more of them instead of hopping from city to city for 3 hours and at the end not seeing much of it...
Please don't do like my friends from NYC did by coming for 7 days and planning to see Paris, Berlin, Zurich and Amsterdam + a visit to a festival in the french part. Its just not possible because the distances in Europe are larger than they seem
Another option about moving around might be to find a car rental company that would cost around the same price as all the trains etc... however to keep in mind, Switzerland is not in the EU and so the return of the car that was rented in Italy, in Switzerland will cost extra.
Anyways, hope that was helpful
Have a good travel anyways.

Thanks so much, I will look into those options.

I'm starting to realize that I need to focus a bit and am thinking that we can do Rome for 3 nights, then stay somewhere near Pompeii (easiest might be Naples) for 1-2 nights. I found EasyJet flights to Basel from Naples for about $40 which may be easier than doing the train. Then stay in Switzerland for 2-3 nights before we leave. I am thinking of Lucerne as we could potentially do a day trip into the mountains maybe and get a slight feel of the Alps that way. Would Lucerne be recommended over Basel or Zurich? I've been reading that Lucerne has many classical music concerts for Easter.

Does that sounds more feasible?

bbb

Hi aguila22,

For the Switzerland portion of your trip, yes, Luzern is an excellent choice for a first visit.

Luzern is often thought of having a bit of all of Switzerland because it has mountains, lakes, and lots of history. You really can't go wrong there.

Luzern is surrounded by mountains -- Rigi, Pilatus, and Titlis. And you can also get to the mountain village of Engelberg. You can also spend time cruising along on the system of lakes and hop off to visit lakeside villages.

For more information on all of this, see

www.luzern.org
www.lakelucerne.ch
www.rigi.ch
www.pilatus.ch
www.titlis.ch

Luzern is only an hour from the Zürich airport by direct train, so it's even ok for your last night.

Have fun!

s

Hi,
This plan sounds much better as then you'll really have the time be able to see and enjoy the cities.
In fact I am myself a classical musician a Pianist. Regarding concerts you might want to look on the net for KKL building in Luzern which is the main Arts "House" there. In Zurich there is the Tonhalle and Opernhaus. Basel has some exhibitions and is also a very nice city. I personally like Luzern very much. 2 Possibilities to really experience the Alps would be either to go to the highest point in Europe that is reachable by the Mountain Trains and Cabins. Its called the Jungfrau which is about 4000m above the sea level. I personally never went there because I wasn't sure how would I feel on such a height but there are lots of tourists always going there. Check out Jungfraujoch or Jungfrau on google and you should get links for further info .
Another way is to go to the top of Titlis mountain which is in the Engelberg region. It is somewhat closer to Luzern and the cable car will take you up to 3030m which (depending on the winter conditions) might still be used by skiiers or snowboarders however there is a restaurant on top which is very nice to be in. As long as its sunny above 3000m you'll be able to have a nice view even if its cloudy down below .
By the way, the Jungfrau is in the region of Bern which is still not too far from Luzern as well. Just to keep in mind that most of the last descents from the mountains are around 4-5pm as it gets dark pretty quick.
Thats about all
Greetz
Danny

And as I can see someone already wrote about Titlis and other mountains around Luzern . I just started writing earlier and had the time to finish it only now
Enjoy

Here is some food for thought ... Get a credit card that earns hotel points (quickly). Our favorite is spg - That's the Starwood chain which includes Westins, Sheratons, etc. For opening an account (which is free, no annual fee for the first year and you may close it before the second year) you get a 10,000 point bonus. For every dollar you charge, you earn 1 point.

We have 48,000 points to spend in Venice. That gets our family 2 adjoining rooms for 12,000 points per night for 2 nights at the Cat 5 Westin Europa. At about $600 per night, that's a $2,400 value. When you redeem free nights, they are truly free. No taxes, no nothing. Zero balance upon check-out.

Generally speaking, Category 4 properties cost 10,000 points per night. In American, that's a really nice Westin. In Europe, it's a Sheraton. Category 3 cost 7,000. If you could get 14,000 points, that's 2 nights at a Sheraton. To see the list of properties and the point cost, go to spg.com. On the main page, you can actually just enter a country and see every available spg property. However, if you do not log in as a member, I am not sure if it will display the points needed to redeem a night.

In Rome, there are 2 Sheratons: One is Cat 3 and one is a Cat 2 (3,000 - 4,000 points per night) - just for enrolling you could get 2 nights.

If you want to know more about the program, feel free to type me back and I can give you more details/suggestions.

P.S. We will also be in Rome Easter week! Maybe your wife can teach my kids a thing or two! Good luck, Jill

Thanks for all of the feedback. We have decided most things and here is our trip for now.

1) Rome (2 nights) - still haven't booked hotel (either SPG or B&B near the Vatican around 60 Euro a night)

2) Sorrento (2 nights) - 45 Euro a night at Hotel Diana Relis
(http://www.relaisdiana.com/english/index.htm)

Fly out of Naples to Basel (arrive at 6:35 and train to Lucerne)

3) Lucerne (3 nights) - $100 USD a night at Hotel Alpha (http://www.hotelalpha.ch/)

We should be able to stay under $100 for lodging each night. Can people recommend reasonably priced restaurants in and around these locations?