London, Paris, Italy- Advice Please
 

Hi, I am new to this forum, but I've read through most of the relevant Europe messages here- the wealth of info here is just amazing.

This will be my 4th trip to Europe, but the first for my wife- we will be travelling for 2 weeks in mid July landing in London and returning from London. The plan is to take Eurostar from London to Paris and then the Eurail SelectPass to Italy (Venice, Rome, Florence) and back to Paris and Eurostar to London. Does this sound like a meaningful plan? Please advise us, and given our packed schedule, what would a good plan be as far aas how long in each city and how many Italian Cities. Thanks to all in advance.

Diwa

In such a short time, you are doubling back all the way from Italy to London again, which will be quite time consuming. Assuming you already have your tickets flying to and from London, I would suggest that you fly in one direction between London and Italy. You can check which budget airlines fly each route at www.whichbudget.com.

If you do not have your tickets already, you might want to fly "open jaw", in to London and back from Rome or Venice.

Don't mean to be rude - but if you force your wife to take this trek you may have a REALLY hard time getting her back to Europe.

I'll assume you already have your tickets to/from London. That is too bad because the only way I see this working is to go open jaw into London and out of Rome. But even that would be a very rough schedule.

If your 2 weeks includes your travel days to/from the US it is even harder, because then you only have a bit over 11 days to see five major cities in 3 countries spread over a very large part of Europe.

Do you plan on spending any time in London - or is it just a jumping off point for the continent? If you do want to see a bit of London you really need a MINIMUM of 4 days there (the first day may be pretty much lost to jet lag). Same for Paris. That only leaves you 3 - 4 days to travel to and see the 3 cities in Italy. Nearly impossible.

I think you need to sit down w/ some guide books and decide which TWO countries (one would be even better) and then we can help you work w/ the itinerary.

I'm with Janis on this one. We've gone to France for two weeks and visited only Paris and Provence. We've been to Italy for two weeks and visited only Rome, Amalfi Coast and Umbria (and that was a bit too much, actually). What you're planning on doing is exhausting. I'd choose a week in London/week in Paris and save the Italy trek for another trip. It's way too hot and crowded in July to attempt the whirlwind tour you want. You will have more than enough to do in Paris and London to fill your two weeks amply.

Nikki, Janis and Mermaid,
Thanks so much for your responses, I am so glad I asked- I did feel like we were trying to do too much. I tried to get an open jaw ticket, but could not and therefore settled for the roundtrip London tickets. The two weeks do not include travel time to and from from the US to Europe.

I will take the advice and research more. After reading your responses, my wife and I've decided to skip London and take Eurostar straight to Paris and spend a few days in Paris and perhaps go to one or two Italian cities. Unfortuanately, I already purchased the tickets to London, I'll see if the travel agent can exchange them to Paris. Hopefully, that way we'll perhaps have a more relaxed vacation. Thanks for your advice.

If you were one of my own siblings, I would urge you to omit Paris, unless you speak French well, or have some particularly strong ties to France.

With five weeks before your departure, you could (both) make a serious dent in learning some Italian, and really enjoy Italy a lot more. In <u>July</u>, I'd trade a few days up in the Italian Alps or around the lakes - - over Paris - - any day.

And I <i><b>love</b></i> France.

Best wishes,

Rex

OK - w/ just Paris and Italy and w/ a full 2 weeks it is a LITTLE better.

Which airport are you using in London? Whichever one it is - getting from there to Waterloo for the Eurostar is either time consuming or expensive or both.

Since you aren't going to visit London - I'd just fly directly from your arrival airport to either Paris or Rome. Then fly from either Rome or Paris back to London to fly home. It will be faster and most likely cheaper than using the trains.

W/ 2 weeks you could do 4 or 5 days in Paris, 4 in Florence w/ a couple of day trips, 2 or 3 in Venice, 3 in Rome.

Chintalad - I think you are on the right track. In two weeks, you need to narrow it down. Unless you can change your reservations without significant penalty, I would fly into London, spend a week in London and environs, train to Paris, spend a week in Paris with a couple of day trips and return to London for departure. It is July, Europe will be hot and crowded and Italy will be hottest of all. I love Italy but unless you can do something about the airline tickets, I would limit it to two countries.

I agree that it's best to fly open jaw -- my husband and I are going back this fall and we're flying out to London and back from Paris, just so we don't have to go all the way back.

However, I KNOW you can see a lot in two weeks given where you're going, because I did it myself in 2003. I had 3 weeks 3 days and in the first two weeks did what you're doing, then continued on to Athens, Izmir and Istanbul.

Here's what I would suggest -- If you have your Eurostar Tickets, you can just use the one to get you to Paris.

Spend 3 days in London, 4 days in Paris, take the night train to Venice (2nd class is about $100-$150 one way, more for a private cabin). Spend 2 days in Venice, take an early train to Florence (about 2 1/2 hour train ride), spend the night there, and leave late the next day for Rome. (The train to Rome is only about 1.5 hours)

Spend 4 days in Rome -- then fly back to London to catch your flight home.

That'll give you enough time to see a good deal in each of the major cities and still hit the smaller cities in between.

If you decide to take the train all the way back to London, you'll lose almost 2 days of travel.

I'd contact some of the inexpensive airline carriers and see what kind of flights you can get to re-connect to your flight in London. I know a lot of people recommend Easyjet. You can also check out Europebyair.com.

Good luck!

Jules

Also -- if you take the night train to Venice -- you will need a reservation. I'd consider buying your tickets online or at least checking out what you need to do on raileurope.com.

I've used meleterc.com, a travel agent out of Hawaii who always books my Eurostar tickets. You can e-mail her (her name is Mele) at [email protected] if you'd like some help with train tickets.

Finally, if you haven't already gotten some guidebooks, I'd get Rick Steves London and Paris 2005 books, and his Italy 2005 book and read up on what you want to see. He has great walking tours and can easily outline what you can see in 2, 3, 4, or 7 days, etc.

Happy travels.

Jules

Hi chint,

I also suggest a week in London (with a daytrip or 2) and a week in Paris (wih one daytrip).

If you do go to Italy, do not buy a railpass until you have entered your itinerary and clicked &quot;only if it saves money&quot;.

((I))

I do agree w/ the others - London/Paris makes most sense especially since you are flying to London.

My latest suggestions were in answer to your decision to drop London and visit just Paris and Italy. But if you are going to reconsider that - definitely London/Paris is the easiest, most efficient use of you time.

OR - just fly into London and then fly directly to Italy - forget London and Paris.