Need help with 3 1/2 week itinerary!
 

Hello all!

I will be traveling to Europe with my two teenagers and my son's girlfriend next summer for a combination of backpacking/hostel travel and timeshare travel. We fly into Zurich on July 11 (arrive on the 12th actually), and fly out of Rome on Aug 5th. We aRe totally flexible about our Switzerland travel and looking for suggestions there. Towards the end of our trip we will be flying to Greece with hopes of spending a few days in Athens and Santorini. Unfortunately (because we are using miles to purchase our tickets) we couldn't fly out of Greece but will return to fly home from Rome. My fear is that the 3 teenagers Im with are way too ambitious and so I'd like to create an itinerary that is exciting, but doesn't have us hopping around too much or spending all of our time in trains. I'm looking forward to learning from your experiences! Please share. How much time should we devote to Switzerland and what should we do there? Should we go directly to Italy and focus our time there or go by way of southern France (which is what my son would love to do). We aren't interested in Milan. We hope to include Venice, Florence, Rome, and the amalfi coast. But we are totally open to suggestions and quite flexible. Oh, and I'm hoping not to rent a car unless it seems crazy not to. Thank you in advance.

May be you will have a look at http://www.myswitzerland.com/en-ch/s...l?nodeid=80059
http://www.myswitzerland.com/en-ch/i...ts-summer.html

If you arrive on 12th July and has to backtrack to Rome on 4th Aug for a flight home the next day, plus the jet-lag on arrival, then you'll really have only a little bit more than 3 weeks on the ground. With that, I would limit it to 3 regions maximum. All the regions you listed are terrific (Switzerland, Athens and Santorini, southern France, Venice, Florence, Rome), but it's up to you to choose 3, or 2 of them.

It depends a lot on your budget and your preference. 3 regions would certainly cost much more than 2 regions, no matter if you take trains or flights. We could give more advises if we know about these informations of yours.

Some very vague suggestions:

Since you landed on Switzerland, you can spend 1 week to discover its glorious Alpine mountains. The valley of Lauterbrunnen - Grindelwald is great for hiking - sightseeing. (I say Lauterbrunnen each time a person mentions Switzerland, but I can't help it^^ )

Then go to southern France or Greece, up to you. Spend 1 week there. Choose 2 cities maximum to base upon. For example Athens and Santorini. You can always do day trips around a city. For southern France you can take train or flight, but for Greece you can fly into Athens and fly/ferry to Santorini.

Then, since you must finish in Rome, spend the last week in Italy. Also choose 2 cities maximum to base upon. But Rome and its surrounding can easily make for one week, and that's the most sound to me, if you have never been in Italy.

<i>Need help with 3 1/2 week itinerary!
Posted by: aligunter on Jan 7, 17 at 3:22am
I will be traveling to Europe with my two teenagers and my son's girlfriend next summer for a combination of backpacking/hostel travel and timeshare travel.</i>

Greece is sort of out of the way for your agenda and time frame. I suggest you stick to central Europe. Get a copy of Lonely Planet's guidebook "Europe on a Shoestring" for travel planning. For an illustrated introduction to train travel see http://www.enjoy-europe.com/hte/chap17/rail.htm.

I recommend that the parents of your son's girlfriend give you a power of attorney to authorize medical treatment if it should become necessary, and have her carry a travel insurance policy with medical evacuation. Stuff happens.

You mention timeshare travel, is that already booked? If so, you need to build your itinery around the booking.

Great sources for planning the rail part - www.seat61.com; www.budgeteuropetravel.com and www.ricksteves.com.

Great suggestions everyone. We love hiking so I especially love the sound of Grindewald! I think I can easily talk kids out of France, but it will be harder to convince them to eliminate Greece. Personally I'd like more time in Italy, particularly the Amalfi Coast. But santorini does look amazing. Is it foolish to skip Athens and just visit santorini in Greece?

Thanks for the tip about power of attorney. My son's girlfriend will be 19...is that necessary if she's not a minor?

I'd move quickly out of Switzerland before your wallet has a thrombie, move into the Italian Alps which are wonderful and cheaper. I'd also drop out of Greece, just too far, but you could do Slovenia etc as just next door.
www.seat61.com worth a read to understand the trains and trenitalia to get a view of the Italian trains.

If budget is an issue -- then Switzerland would be the place to eliminate if you start paring down. It is fabulous of course, but some things will cost twice what they do in Greece or some parts of Italy.

You say timeshare -- where is the timeshare and for how long are you there? If you don't yet have a place/booking -- then do that FIRST. Getting a specific property, or even a specific region for specific dates is sometimes VERY difficult. So find a timeshare you like and can get into . . . and THE build the rest of your itinerary from that.

Just Greece and Italy is PLENTY for your time frame. I'd fly directly on to Athens from Zurich - maybe 4 hours after your scheduled arrival. Then do Athens, a couple of islands, fly to Italy and finish up with maybe 3 places there . . . but again, where will depend on what timeshare you can nail down.

Great suggestions everyone. We love hiking so I especially love the sound of Grindewald!>

Switzerland is expensive but you can live as cheaply as in say Italy though not as high off the hog.

Grindelwald has things like the Nature Friends House that attracts all ages to a hostel-like place but with private rooms and common kitchen to use:

http://www.naturfreundehaeuser.ch/2/...lwald/welcome/

and any age can stay in hostels-your teens may love that -meet folks their ages from all over the world.

Buy food and essentials at supermarkets and prepare your own food -restaurant costs are as high as the Swiss Alps!

and with a Swiss Pass or Half-Fare Card, etc transportation costs can be contained.

Swiss cities however like Lucerne or Zurich are generally much more expensive on hotels.

Check www.swisstravelsystem.com for lots on Swiss trains and passes.

So Switzerland -to me the most awesomely gorgeous place in Europe (with the Jungfrau Region being amongst the most awesome Alpine places) can be affordable and I GUARANTEE the teens and you will be glad you went there=-easy to tough walking/hiking paths are so so scintillating to do.

I have not been here, look at these images posted by another Fodorite.
I have been to Croatia and it was gorgeous.
You could visit Venice on the way to Slovenia or Croatia.

Keep in mind that it will be super hot in much of Italy and Greece during that time. You might want to choose cooler places for so much hiking.

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...vice-lakes.cfm

Great advice. Thanks everyone. I never thought about going from Zurich to Greece. I'll explore that option. And hopefully nail down timeshare reservation this week.

Ok, biggest take away so far is that if we stay in Switzerland we should avoid the restaurants. To save money. Thank you for that link to the Natures Friend House...that looks perfect! These are all great tips!

I've stayed in Grindelwald's Nature Friends House and loved it - bunch of European hikers there -all ages. On a car-less road above the hubbub of the town center.

Im looking into Nature's Friend House right now! Thank you both for the recommendation and the endorsement. How long did you stay there? Is 3 nights enough?

If you are going to Santorini, you might find the Amalfi isn't really necessary to your trip, especially if you are trying to save money. It's expensive.

Good point about the Amalfi plus it's hideously crowded. Santorini can be bad, particularly Fira, but get away from there and you lose 90% of the cruise day crowd.

Is 3 nights enough?>

Grindelwald - yeh for the average traveler that's enough but not too much!

Thank you everyone. I'm making progress. Natures House is closed for renovations summer 2017 so we booked 3 nights at the youth hostel in Grindlewald. I think we will cut out the Amalfi Coast. I really wanted to see it, but it sounds like we'd need a car and I'd prefer to avoid the crowds and extra expense. So I am trying to decide if this is a good plan:
Grindlewald 3 nights
Greece 1 week
Florence 4 days
Venice 3 days
Rome 1 week

Am I missing something obvious that would easily fit in? Spending too long in Greece or Rome? Open to your suggestions!

Seems like a lot of time in each Italian city- can do day trips from them too - lots of nice easy ones.