Hi, guys! I need help planning an itinerary. My husband and I would like the itinerary to include France, Italy and Greece!
We would like to see Paris, Nice, Cannes. Monte Carlo, St. Tropez, Marseille;
Milan, Venice, Florence, Naples & Amalfi Coast, Rome;
Mykonos, Santorini, Cyprus and Athens.
.....What would be the best and cheapest way to get to the French Riviera from Paris? Should we use a Eurail Pass, a car or fly to get around?
Would it be worth it for us to buy a train pass to get around France and Italy or rent a car?
What would be the best way to get around France and Italy? What would be the best and cheapest way to get to the Italy from the French Riviera ?I would also like to do a few days in Greece - wondering what the best way to get there would be again from Italy. (Ferry( Corfu, Bari or Ancona ) ? / Plane?)
Basically I need help on how we should go about all this and planning an itinerary-
Should we purchase a Eurail Pass for 3 countries or just buy tickets when we are there as we go, rent a car or fly? Must see's in France, Italy and Greece? And how many days we should stay in each city? Trying to be budget friendly.
I just want to make the most out of the time we will be there!
Thank you for all your answers! Any advice would be appreciated greatly!
We are both excited about this trip.

I trust you are planning for 6 weeks--that is a very complicated itinerary. The logistics would be a challenge for any veteran traveler. Start with the basics:
When? How long? How much?
You will need all 3 mode of transport at various times. If you have less than 3 weeks I would drop Greece for sure.

Do you have one month or two for this adventure?

Actually, a better question would be, Do you have a map of Europe? If not, that would be the best way to start planning.

You need to do better than this. You're asking folks on this board to plan a trip for you across half of Europe when you have no discussion of how much time you have or what "budget friendly" means. You're asking about "must sees" in France, Italy and Greece -- three countries with vastly different "must sees" and we cannot discern what you like so that we can figure out what a must see actually is to you.

And how can you do "budget friendly" without an enormous budget for all of what you want to include: Paris to Marseille to the Cote d'Azur to Venice to Milan to Florence to Rome to Naples to Corfu to Athens to the Cyclades to Cyprus and some way back home? That's preposterous.

I'm uncertain that Monte Carlo or Cannes would have a budget friendly option if you want to STAY there instead of just visiting for a day that doesn't form part of the French word for DUMP.

A trip from Paris to Marseille to Nice and the other towns you listed will take 10 days to do more than just pop from city to city. A similar trip for Italy (Venice to Milan to Florence to Rome to Naples) would be two weeks.

There's no reason to get a Eurail pass that includes Greece unless Athens has become connected to the islands by rail. You cannot seriously think that going from Naples up the leg of Italy and through the Balkans to southern Greece is a realistic proposition, therefore a rail pass that includes Greece would be superfluous. And if you're American and have a job other than as a teacher, there's no way you can do this trip in your vacation.

The answer, ultimately, is do not "go about all this". Pick, choose, then repeat that process for next year.

Whew, I have a headache! I like your enthusiasm, but as the others have already said, let's get serious about this itinerary. Before anyone can help you, we definitely need to know how much time you have, when you are going ( summer is much more expensive and crowded generally) and your total budget.

Just to give you an idea, for a two week itinerary I would suggest no more than four stops, and even that's a bit ambitious. Traveling around Europe ( especially in Greece) is not as straightforward as you might think, and you will eat up a lot of your time just getting from destination to destination. To say nothing of $$$$!

Sit down and think about the places that you most want to see. Part of the European experience is savoring new destinations/sights, not rushing through so that you can say you've "done" them. Try to schedule at least a few days at each stop so that you're not packing up and traveling more than is absolutely necessary.

Then when you've done some preliminary research ( definitely check out a few maps since many of the locations you've picked are in totally opposite directions), come back with some solid questions.

Good luck!

Thanks, guys! We're planning to go in August and September. Actually, we can take off 1 to 2 months for this trip but I don't know how many days is enough to spend in each city to figure out exactly the length of the trip. And I'm gonna google the map of Europe. Thanks again for your help!!!

I went on http://wikitravel.org/en/Main_Page and I saw some of the "must sees" in France, Italy and Greece but I was asking what would you suggest from personal experience because everything looks nice but I don't know if it's worth spending time to check out everything.
About "budget friendly" I meant reasonable, not high- end type of trip. And do you think that 3-4 day is enough per place and maybe I should cut some of them out if they're too out of the way?
And I gues we're gonna need Eurail pass just for France and Italy. Is a train better option tnan a car? What would be the best way to get around France and Italy?
Thanks again!!!

And I guess we're gonna need Eurail pass just for France and Italy. Is a train better option tnan a car? What would be the best way to get around France and Italy from personal experience?
Thanks again!!!

I just saw this post -

Itinerary help for a first-timer to Europe
Posted by: linds07 on Apr 1, 2009 at 03:37 PM
Posted in: Europe
Tagged: Austria , France , Germany , Italy

Palenque : " For lots on train travel i always refer these sites: www.seat61.com; www.ricksteves.com and www.budgeteuropetravel.com - the last site lets you download their excellent European Planning & Rail Guide that has a chapter on each country with rail maps, etc. "

Thanks for the info Palenque!!!!