My First Eurotrip
 

My 14yo daughter and I will be embarking on our first eurotrip in less than a week. We will be covering London, Naples, Pompei, Rome, Florence, Sienna/Pisa, Venice, Lourdes, Paris then back to London.
All air flights have been booked, but we have not booked trains to travel between Pompei to Rome, Rome to Florence, Florence to Pisa/Sienna, Florence to Venice - period covering 8 days.
As we will be leaving in 5 days (1/4/13), do we need to purchase rail tickets in advance to save on costs /time and ensure seating between major trips like Rome-Florence and Florence-Venice?
Do we need to pre-book tours to see Rome, Venice and Florence?
Any tips on where we could enjoy decent meals, souvenir shopping?
We're planning to bring 2 luggages to check in (total 40kgs) and leave 1 luggage with my daughter in London and carry only 1x 20k + 2 hand-carries as we travel around Italy/France. Would this be a sensible idea?
Any tips on transport, safety, food, shopping (on a budget) would be much appreciated!

You have left all this planning to 5 days before your trip????

How much time do you have planned for this trip? I hope at least a month. Otherwise, it's a mad dash.

And yes, you do need to plan ahead for tours...anywhere, not just Europe.

No one can help you with prices for "decent meals" without knowing what you consider "decent" and what your budget is.

If you don't have your transportation nailed down by now (should have been done 2-3 months ago), you're going to pay through the nose. You say you're on a budget, but you didn't do anything to cut down on costs - and you could have done that months ago!

Really..crazy.

<< do we need to purchase rail tickets in advance to save on costs /time and ensure seating between major trips like Rome-Florence and Florence-Venice? >>

Yes you do but your window of opportunity for inexpensive tickets closed several months ago. You should purchase tickets right now.

Rome to Florence is not a major trip - it's 1.5 hours.

The train from Pompeii to Naples is a commuter train and there are no reservations. You simply buy a ticket and sit anywhere. You can reserve in advance for the Naples to Rome leg.

You should book tours in advance to ensure there is a place for you.

<< carry only 1x 20k + 2 hand-carries >>

I don't know what 1x 20k means so I can't tell if it's a sensible plan. Generally, the less luggage you carry and the smaller the suitcases the easier it will be for you.

My best tip for you is to get some guide books and start reading them. There is a wealth of information in these books from travel tips to where to eat and shop.

You're visiting 10 locations, I hope you've planned for at least a month as four of these are large cities.

Thanks for your reply.

I only had 2 months to plan this trip, as my daughter in London will be coming home to Melbourne for good and getting married. Only knew this early this year!

Having said that, all accommodation, flights were beautifully planned and purchased - at great value!

She started my itinerary because she's been aruond the world herself. Her advice was not to pre-purchase train tickets within Italy as they can be purchased at the time of travel, so we're not time-pressured.

I bought several train tickets with seast reservation via Rail Europe and EuroStar to travel From Lourdes to Paris and Paris to London so the costs are all nailed down, thank you.

Pompei tours and Mt Vesuvius is booked, my itinerary is jammed with information. Movies and music all ready in for the long flights and journeys. So all good.

One simple question that I hoped to hear advice of, was trains within Italy.

Thanks all the same.

<< Her advice was not to pre-purchase train tickets within Italy as they can be purchased at the time of travel, so we're not time-pressured.

I bought several train tickets with seast reservation via Rail Europe and EuroStar to travel From Lourdes to Paris and Paris to London so the costs are all nailed down>>

Well, your daughter is no expert on train travel. Rail Europe is a highly overpriced service that doesn't even show all the trains on its website, and there are some great discounts on train travel in Italy to be had if you book 90-120 days in advance that are only visible on the Italian train site.

But it's too late for that now.

<< One simple question that I hoped to hear advice of, was trains within Italy.

Thanks all the same. >>

It seems as though you think your question was not answered when it was. Book the Italy train tickets ahead as I stated above.

I think searching out discount fares and booking them far in advance is not necessarily the best way to travel, as you are generally committed to a specific train at a certain time, and if you miss it, your ticket is worthless and you have to buy one at the full fare.

Our practice in Italy is to buy the ticket for your next leg when you arrive at each destination (since you are at the station anyway). We have never been unable to get tickets buying this way. If I think we may stay longer in our current site, I just buy tickets when we arrive at the station shortly before departure. By contrast, we lost a lot of money when we prepurchased a discount ticket in Amsterdam to leave a few hours after our flight was to arrive, because the airline missed their arrival time by a large margin.