nandita

I am planning a trip to Europe next summer. The countries I want to visit are France, Italy, Spain n Switzzerland . Must see places in my itinerary are Paris, Geneva, Barcelona, Rome, Venice, Madrid, etc. The maximum time for my trip is 21 days. Can someone please help me with an itinerary. Any suggestion is welcome. By the way, I will be travelling from India.

330east

I asume by now you have purchased your guide books and have studied them and have narrowed down the places you would like to visit in your chosen cities.

michelhuebeli

That's not as cut and dried - the itinerary doesn't have to be in a logical order according to the geography since low-cost airlines criss-cross Europe in such a way that it's possible to hop around according to schedules and fares.

If you use only trains, a logical route would be Madrid - Barcelona - Paris - Geneva (although more about that later) -Venice - Rome or Rome - Venice. But you might prefer a mix of trains and planes, so begin doing your homework with the following websites:

For overall good info on European trains and especially night trains: www.seat61.com
For Spain: www.renfe.es
For France: www.voyages-sncf.com and www.tgv.com
For Switzerland: www.sbb.ch
For Italy: www.trenitalia.com and - for some routes - the competing company www.italotreno.it/en/Pages/default.aspx

You can buy tickets from all the above, usually for routes that start out in their country

Some people like this company for buying train tickets from all over, I have no personal experience with them: https://www.capitainetrain.com/

For flights on low-cost airlines look at www.whichbudget.com and www.skyscanner.com, also search www.itasoftware.com and www.kayak.com but realize that they don't get the flight information from absolutely every airline out there.

A good way to figure out what airline flies where is to google an airport, go to its website, and look at what flights leave and arrive.

Why Geneva? It's a rather dull city with not many attractions, mostly known for its Calvinist history (not necessarily a positive) and these days for large international organizations. But nearby are many Swiss gems to visit - Vevey-Montreux along the Lake Geneva, and on and on, too many to list.

So get your guidebooks and travel DVDs and start forming a plan - there is soooo much waiting for you, and every time you cross a border there is another history lesson and cultural experience and language waiting - it can be overwhelming unless you seriously prepare.

neckervd

There is nothing to add to the posts above.
For flights from BCN to all the towns you mentioned, check
http://www.vueling.com/en
http://www.easyjet.com/en/
For ferries from Barcelona to Rome (Civitavecchia), check
http://www.grimaldi-ferries.it/

traveller1959

Welcome to our continent, Nandita!

I will start with transportation. First of all, you should book your flight from India to Europe. Given your interest to see a large part of Europe, it does not matter at which city you will arrive. Take the one with the best or cheapest connection.

Within Europe, you should travel mostly with low-cost airlines. If you book early you will get very good rates.

There are a few sections of your trip where train travel will be advisable, e.g. from Madrid to Barcelona.

Secondly, the must-see places. The "etc." is irritating. You already mention six big cities and you have just 21 days including travelling days.

Each of the cities like Rome or Paris deserve at least three or for days just to see the major attractions only. And you will spend considerable time of your trip on the way to and from train stations and airports and on trains and planes. So, my suggestion is to restrict yourself on the number of destinations and explore the selected ones more deeply.

Now, let's go into detail.

Madrid and Barcelona are both attractive cities and easy to combine. The train between both cities takes 2:30. I would suggest that you spend 3 days in Madrid, one of them using for a day trip to El Escorial, which is an impressive attraction and which gives you the opportunity to get an impression of the countryside around Madrid. Then you spend 2 days in Barcelona.

From Barcelona, you might fly to Paris. Spend four days in Paris including a day trip to Versailles - the castle and the gardens are must-sees.

Then Switzerland. I assume you want to the Alps. Then, as others have said, Geneva would not be the first choice. One of Switzerlands most attractive places is Luzern, a cute historical town at a scenic lake with access to the mountains. You might fly into Bern or Zürich and take the train to Luzern. The most impressive mountain experience will be the Jungfrau with access from Interlaken. All these places in Switzerland are pretty close. You should spend three days in Switzerland.

Then Italy. For Rome, you need at least three days, better four. From Rome, I would go to the Amalfi coast in order to see a stretch of most impressive coastline and to see the excavations of Pompei. You will need two or three days for that.

From Rome, the train takes about 3:30 hours to Venice. In Venice, you should spend three days.

That sums up for 21 days. If you have to cut this time, cancel one of the destinations completely, but do not shorten the time at one destination.

Mimar

Good advice from everybody above. I agree with michel about Geneva. It seems the least Swiss of Swiss cities. You can take the train directly (no change) from Zurich airport to Bern or Lucerne. The latter makes a good Switzerland-in-a-nutshell base, with several excursion options.

Remember 3 days in a city is 4 nights. And you need to allow about a half day to get between stops. Also coming from India, there's a time difference; you might need a day or two to get over jet-lag.

Happy planning!

neckervd

"Geneva seems the least Swiss of Swiss cities."

I don't agree. Geneva corresponds in no way to the cliché of German speaking Heidiland Switzerland with a chalet for the cheese maker, a chalet for the watchmaker, a chalet for the chocolate maker, a chalet for the banker, surrounded by cows ruminating Edelweiss and Rhododendron (Alprose) in front of overseas tourist's trinity Eiger, Moench and Jungfrau.

Geneva with the Red Cross and Human Dignity Museum, the European UNO seat, the CERN, a lot of NGO's and Governmental Organisations, pharmaceutical, electronic an other precision industries, an old university and many famous scientific institutes is an integral part of Switzerland. It would be impossible to imagine Switzerland without Geneva. Poeple often forget that Switzerland is not a country with only ONE language and ONE culture (how boring!), but a Confederation of 26 cantons with their own governments, administration, laws, taxes, police...., a country with 4 languages and 4 cultures of equal value each one.

But I agree with Michel, Geneva is not a touristic must see place, unless you are interested in the stuff mentioned above or in the elegant historic paddle wheel steamers plying Lake Geneva.

May be therefore, some people don't realize that a journey from Geneva to Aiguille du Midi (12600 ft) in the middle of the glaciers of Mont Blanc, the highest mountain of Western Europe, takes less time (and costs much less) than a train ride from Interlaken to Jungfraujoch (11333 ft).

The whole Lake Geneva (Lac Leman in French) area, however, has a very good tourist infrastructure (including luxury hotels and top restaurants with gourmet meals for 200-300 USD/pax) since the end of the 19th century. It's one of the sunniest places of Switzerland (together with the Cantons of Valais and Ticino). The most scenic part is between Lausanne - Vevey - Montreux - Villeneuve). The whole area is never really crowded, despite many day trippers from all over Switzerland.

Geneva has only 200.000 inhabitants (500.000 with suburbs), but the amenities of a big capital. People from all over the world among them many Arab princes) fly to Geneva for shopping (and so).

Geneva airport is small but efficient. Local people use to arrive there from town (5 min by train, 20 min by bus) less than an hour prior to the plane's departure. Direct flights to almost all important places in Western Europe. Easyjet offers actually July flights to many European capitals for less than 50 USD (with 1 piece of checked in luggage).

PalenQ

Swiss cities are great but most folks from outside Europe would gravitate to the Alpine resort areas, to me the Interlaken/Jungfrau Region is the picture of Switzerland etched in many folks'mind eyes

so I would suggest heading to the Jungfrau Region and stay in a lovely Alpine village like Grindelwald, Lauterbrunnen, Wengen, etc.

Well if you are doing all those places in 21 days by train then investigate some kind of railpass -if over 25 they are only in first class and IME first class provides a much more relaxed ride - especially for folks carrying perhaps too much luggage around - check out these IMO superb sites for oodles of great info on European trains - www.seat61.com; www.ricksteves.com and www.budgeteuropetravel.com.

And again though Geneva is a very nice city the highlight os Switzerland lies in the dramatic Alps - pu yourself up in a cozy guesthouse in say Grindelwald and see the soaring glacier-girdled snow-capped peaks soaring majestically thousands of feet in the air - toylike mountain trains, easy hiking paths, thrilling aerial gondolas, etc - make this a wonderful unique place to spend a few days before moving on to say Italy or France, etc.

Mimar

I am suitably chastened by neckervd's defense of Geneva.

But I still think it's not quite what tourists look for when they have visions of Heidi-land in their heads. The Bernese Oberland, with little towns like Grindelwald, Wengen and Murren, is much closer to that image. That's a great area to visit, especially if you have several days. But if you only have a day or two -- as is implied by your lengthy itinerary -- Lucerne makes the best base -- IMHO.

neckervd

I hope you don't feel affected, Mimar. I just wanted to show what Geneva is in the eyes of people from Western Switzerland (and that a "typically Swiss town" cannot exist in a country with 4 languages and 4 cultures).

But I agree with everybody that Geneva is neither a holiday resort nor the first place to visit in Switzerland. But if people arrive there by plane or TGV anyway, why shouldn't they spend a few hours in town? It's not an ugly place.

I like the Jungfrau area too, although it's a bit too manicured (and often too crowded) for me. Therefore I prefer th Valais. But that's my personal choice.
But the prepared winter hiking trails around Wengen, Grindelwald and Hasliberg are fine.

PalenQ

I have spent several days off and on for years in Geneva and feel it is a really nice town - the Altstadt with cathedral is often overlooked and the villas along the lake, etc - a city with a unique look and feel but not the dreamy Switzerland many people are thinking of - that can only be found in villages in places backdropped by high glcier-girdled Alps - that's what folks expect and like the most.

michelhuebeli

To all those who came to the defense of Geneva - or not: The relative merits of the city are not the point here. Remember that OP said "...France, Italy, Spain n Switzerland..." in 21 days.

So whether Geneva is a bit more or a bit less interesting to one or the other - when compared to the cities OP lists - Paris, Barcelona, Rome, Venice, Madrid - surely Geneva is not in the same league, right? Not even close, so let's keep the Geneva-good-or-not-so-good discussion for another day and concentrate on what OP wishes to learn overall - and there's a lot still to say about his plan, isn't there?

neckervd

The initial question was how to link PAR, GVA, BCN, FCO, VCE and MAD. Michel gave the links to trains and planes and I added the ferry.
May be it's Nadita's turn, now.

Gretchen

I agree with Pal--most visitors from India want the mountain air and such==the picturesque views of Switzerland.

nandita

Thanks all for your kind suggestions.......will definitely keep these in mind when I do the bookings