Itinerary Help - ?Prague, Austria, Italy
 

Hello there,

I've always found so much help here, so any feedback is much appreciated!

We (myself, my husband, aged early 30s, and his brother and sister-in-law aged mid-20s) are in the midst of planning a trip to Europe for September 2017. We will have two full weeks off of work and will be flying from the U.S. Our budget is approx $5000 per couple, including flights. We prefer to stay in AirBnBs or smaller hotels. My husband and I truly enjoy visiting places a little off the beaten track...when we stay in cities we tend to find rentals or hotels in the less "touristy" areas and explore the neighborhoods. The brother and sister-in-law are the opposite but willing to try our way.

Right now, the plan is to do Prague, Austria, and Italy (specifically Venice, Lake Garda, Cinque Terre, and Florence, making Florence the homebase). My thought is that this is too much for two weeks, but seem to be the only one feeling that way. My question to those of you more experienced in this: Is this doable? If so, what does it look like? How much travel time between places? Where would you narrow it down if needed?

I hope I've given enough info to start. Thank you!!

You're starting with maybe 12 full days, subtracting one for each hotel change. No way it is it feasible do do all this, nor is Florence a "home base" for the places you mention due to travel times.

How are you traveling -car or train- there are overnight trains between Austria and Venice - daytime it will take most of a day as well Prague to Vienna. You could get a private compartment on that night train for 2 or for 4 and bring any food or drink you want aboard.

Well rather hurried but possible especially if going by train -cars are useless in Italian cities like Florence where they are banned from wide swaths of city centers and obviously not a good idea in Venice.

Trains are great - for lots of info on planning a train trip check www.seat61.com - www.ricksteves.com and www.budgeteuropetravel.com. You may want to take train to Italy and rent a car to be able to get to smaller towns and countryside better.

dropping Prague would be a big start towards being manageable.

No, it's not feasible. Dump Prague to start with, and none of the places you mention is even remotely off the beaten path. And Florence does not work as a "home base" for most of those places.

Not tickets, but quick train schedules here:

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

Add an hour or so on either end of a train journey when changing hotels. Flights on skyscanner.com.

(specifically Venice, Lake Garda, Cinque Terre, and Florence, making Florence the homebase).>

Yes if you're thinking of day tripping from Florence to any of these places think again

a logical plan would go from Venice to Lake Garda to CT to Florence. Even then a lot of travel between each stop but they are too far from Florence for day trips (Cinque Terre could be I guess).

Many of you mention that Florence is not ideal as a "home base" for the locations mentioned in Italy. Where would you suggest? Or, are there other little day trips that would be recommended from Florence?

StCirq: To be more clear, we visit well-known cities but tend to stay in and explore neighborhoods that are less "touristy" and a bit out of the way. However, I would love to know of any suggestions you might have for locations that may be less known to others.


Thank you all for your input!! You are echoing my thoughts exactly.

PalenQ: Thank you for your train tips! That was another disagreement we were having; renting a car versus train travel.

Cars are nice for slow trips thru rural areas like Tuscany and its hill towns but not good in cities and if you just want to go between place A and B trains are best if A and B and C, etc are cities where cars are not even allowed in much of Italy.

However, I would love to know of any suggestions you might have for locations that may be less known to others.>

Parma and Mantua I found especially nicer than I was expecting - no one seems to ever mention going to them. Mantua and its lake(s) are especially neat.

I agree with Pal about Parma and Mantua...and then there's all the wonderful places in Umbria, which to me is far more interesting than overrun Tuscany: Chiusi, Orvieto, Panicale, Todi, Norcia, Montefalco, Perugia, Città delle Pieve........

Those places are not "little day trips" from Florence. You seem not to have a grip on distances or train times. Have you even looked at bahn.de to see how far things are from one another?

If places are 4 hours apart a day trip means 8 to 9 hours on a train with perhaps 5 or 6 hours in the place you are going to see. A complete waste of your very limited vacation time.

You need a map, to lay out this trip day by day, listing where you will start, what you will see/do, what travel you will do (using actual train times) and where you will sleep. If you do this I think you will see how VERY rushed you plan will be.

And what about austria? What city there did you plan on seeing - or like Italy do you want to go several places?

You really need to do more work on the logistics - and remember than the more you move around the more of your budget will go to train costs.

Umbria, which to me is far more interesting than overrun Tuscany: Chiusi, Orvieto, Panicale, Todi, Norcia, Montefalco, Perugia, Città delle Pieve.

+ Gubbio and Urbino two of the finest old Umbrian towns.

nytraveler: Thank you, really, for your comment. I was getting the sense that this was not at all feasible; the rest of my group were the ones wanting and thinking we could do these "day trips". My vote would be to pick 1, maybe two cities, within one country, a few hours away from each other at most, and stay several nights at each...no day trips. Too stressful for my taste! With these comments to support my opinion, I've convinced the rest of the group to cut the trip down considerably! So again, thank you.

PalenQ: Thank you for your suggestions!

I can't help with Italy, but if you decide to spend some time in Austria I can recommend some places that are a bit off the path.

day trips can be left in flux - decide one there -no ore-booking needed for trains or buses -all regional ones that is.

I agree with others that Prague and (presumably) Vienna would mean too much time lost traveling from point to point. And I agree with nytraveler that you need to decide what you want to see/do everywhere, how much time that might take, and how much time it will take to travel around.

Changing hotels takes time, so day trips can be an efficient way to see more places. Just don't short-change your time in Venice or Florence which are packed with interesting things to do/see.

Here are some day trip options from Venice using public transportation.

Padova
Vicenza
Verona
Southern area of Lake Garda
(You can see Lake Garda without a car, but you'll see a lot more with a car.)

There are many day trip options from Florence using only public transportation. Just not places you've mentioned.

Fiesole
Ferrara
Bologna
Modena (but barely a day trip IMO)
Montecatini Terme
Lucca
Pisa
Siena
San Gimignano
Arezzo

If you want to see Umbria, I very highly recommend you rent a car for several days.

If all of the above sounds tempting, then drop the Cinque Terre. It's another time eater. 3+ hours each way from Florence, and it will be very, very crowded.

Try to book your flights into and out of different airports to eliminate back-tracking. Maybe into Venice and out of Pisa or Florence or possibly Rome or even Milan, although for Rome/Milan you'd need to spend the last night closer to the airport.